In the Height of Ministry 30 Years Later
Odali and Kathy Barros served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil together from 1987-2013. In late 2013, they transitioned to Manaus in Northern Brazil to start sharing the Gospel and planting churches in villages along the river.
February 21, 2017
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We pray and hope that all have been blessed and are rejoicing in God’s care over each one of us. We have been doing great. It is hard to believe February is just about over. Kathy and I have been in the ministry for over 36 years and missionaries for 30 years. It is hard to believe that much time has gone by. Nearing the age of 60, I believe we are in the height of our ministry. We completed 3 years living back in the Amazon. We have been blessed and truly enjoy our ministry here. At this moment, we have one night free during the week. All the other days, we have some kind of ministry going on and on Sundays we have 3 services. We are really excited and thankful for what God is doing.
Our newest community where we are working, is Açutuba. What has been so wonderful is that God has placed people in our ministry that have opened the doors of their home to be used for reaching people. We started 4 weeks ago in this place. This week we had 22 that attended. What a wonderful blessing.
Not long ago a young man came to our services at the Living Rocks Baptist Church (Igreja Batista Pedras Vivas) and has been coming every week since. This week he told me that he had invited some young people from his community to come. He had 8 visitors and asked if someone could pick them up. Here it’s like living in farm country—people live far away and not everyone has cars. So, we help with transportation for those who need it.
The youth groups are doing great and growing. Kathy and I work with the youth in the city of Iranduba, where we have a mission. It is doing well and growing. This is the only mission that’s really in a small city. Inside the city limits there are probably a population of 20,000 people. This city is about 30 minutes away from our home. We have services there 3 times a week.
At the community of Ubim we are really needing a bigger place. We are meeting on the patio of a house that a family has opened for us to use. We are running an average of 45 kids from ages 1½ years old to 15 years old. We would like to be able to work with this group the best we can. Please pray that God will give us a larger place to work.
We still have 2 children at home with us. They both help in the ministry. Jonas has been great in helping with the children on Sunday mornings and with the youth, and Gabriel with the church band. They have been a great help to me while Kathy is in the US visiting her parents and our other children. We’re thankful that God has used all our children in many different ministries.
THE GREATEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR A PERSON IS THE INVEST IN THEIR LIFE. FROM KNOWING THE LORD AS SAVIOR AND GROWING IS WISDOM FROM GOD! We thank God for calling us to invest in people’s lives day by day—an investment like no other. It will last for eternity. This has been our life and our ministry. May God Continue to guide and bless us each day. We thank each one of you for your love, prayers and support. God bless y’all.
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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