Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [March 2016]
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.
March 4, 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We pray that all of you have had a great start to this year of 2016. We are all doing well and rejoicing in what God is doing in the ministry here. We had camp for the first time. We had a good group that came and stayed three days. Others who had to work came different times during the camp. We made it a family camp this time to help everyone get acquainted and just have fellowship. Every one enjoyed it so much we are already planning another one.
There are several small communities close to the church where I pastor. Since they are so close we have started a bus route to bring them to church. We started this month. We thank God and Paul Hatcher for giving us the buses to use. There are many people around the area that do not have transportation. We have a group that does visitation on Saturday afternoon. Pray that those who come will trust the Lord as Savior and for safety as they are brought to church.
We are also training some of our youth to help in the Sunday School and the different kids clubs we have in the different communities. Also I am sending different men that have shown an interest in preaching and helping with the mission points. A very interesting thing has happened here in our ministry that Kathy and I have not experience anywhere else. Most of the time and in most churches the women complain that the men don’t want to help. We have the opposite here. The young men as well as the married men all help. Wow!
We thank each one of you who faithfully pray and support our ministry. May God bless each of you. Your love, prayers, and support are important to us. We are thankful. Please continue to pray for those that work with us here and for those being saved—and that God would keep guiding us as we reach out to those around us.
Love,
Odali & Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [December 2015]
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.
December 4, 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Time goes by so fast that it is hard to believe that it has been 2 years since we moved to Manaus, Amazonas. This past year has gone so fast. The Lord has blessed our ministry here in so many ways. We had visited different villages and communities near us. We wanted to start works in some of them and were praying for God to open the doors. Well, God provided 4 different places, all of them in very exciting ways. We praise God for His blessings! Many people have been saved and baptized. It has also been great to see members from the mother church getting involved and excited about the ministries in the church.
Children at the Mission in the city of Iranduba
We appreciate your prayers for each of these ministries. We have services every day except Tuesday and Friday. Last Sunday we had a baptism. Our baptism may be different for some of you. The last three times we had a baptism, it was down by the river. So we just took advantage and had a cookout for fellowship. Everyone has enjoyed the time of fellowship.
Tonight while we were waiting for church to start a teenager that comes to our house a lot called me to the corner and asked if he could ask a question. I said, “Sure.” He asked, “Pastor, what does it mean to receive Jesus as Savior?” Well what a blessing! At the end of the service when I asked if anyone wanted to accept Christ as Savior, the teenager promptly responded and came forward. Praise God!
Clemersom, the teenager who was saved.
Please pray for all the new converts as they grow in the Lord. We appreciate all your prayers and your support. May God bless each of you!
Love,
Odali & Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [October 2015]
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.
October 20, 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Time goes by so fast that it is hard to believe that December is just about here. We are so excited about what God is doing here in our ministry. We have been praying for the members of the church I pastor to get more involved. Most of them were just church attenders. No one really ever got involved in any of the activities. But praise God in the last months more and more of them have made great changes. It has been great to see them change, and even ask to help and do things!
We are now working in 6 different locations! One is the mother church and 5 missions. Doors have opened faster than we could imagine. God has worked in marvelous ways. This month we had a special program in the village of Ariau (pictured here). We were given permission to use the city’s gymnasium. We had music, devotion, games and hot dogs. We had 350 people there! It was fantastic. As a result of that, we had 5 youth that came to the youth meeting at our church the next Saturday. That same week, a man from the village a Limao (lemon) who has a mission asked for help. He said they have 30 that come but have no support from any church. So we will be checking that out this week.
The missions in UBIM, MULTIRAO and IRANDUBA are doing well. Please continue to pray for each of these places, that souls will be saved, and people from these places will grow and reach others.
Kathy is still in the States getting our son Tito settled in and documents done. But they are doing well and Kathy has been able to see our other children.
We want to thank all of you that give and pray for our ministry so faithfully. May God richly bless each one of you.
In Christ,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [September 2015]
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.
September 1, 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We pray that all of you are doing well and rejoicing in the Lord. We are all doing great. The Lord has been good to us and cared for us each day. The works here are doing well and growing. We had a very interesting experience last month. Here where we live, we raise our own fish and other animals. One of the kinds of fish we have is a fish that eats fish. So from time to time, we go to the fish plant where they package fish and get the leftovers. We had not been getting any because the water got so high that the plant was closed for some time. Kathy was going into town for some groceries so I asked her if she didn’t mind going by the fish plant to see if they were already open. The water was still high but Kathy stopped and asked the guard if he had any idea of when they might start back to work. Here is the interesting part. The guard asked Kathy where she was from. He noticed that she had a different accent. She said. “Well, I sound like the south but I was actually born in Manaus. My parents were missionaries here for many years.” The guard quickly replied, “Missionaries?! With what church?” Kathy said, “Baptist!” The man became very excited and said, “We have a mission but we don’t have a pastor. Our pastor left and said we could do whatever we wanted: join another church or shut down.” He had been saved through the ministry of missionaries I know. So the next day I went back with Kathy to the fish plant and met the man. So we got together and talked and they joined our church. So now we have a mission point in the city of Iranduba. This is the city that I was praying about starting a church. It is a city of around 50,000 and growing. Please pray for this work.
Kathy is working with a group of young teens that she is training to work with the kids clubs on Saturday is the community of Mutirão. This has been great—it is so good to see the young men growing and enjoying the work with the kids. Two of the guys like it so much they asked Kathy if they could go with us to Ubim on Monday also. So we have extra help that day also.
We are working on getting people from the church more involved in the ministries. For so long they just went to church and that was it. It is a slow process but things are starting to change. Pray that the members will see and feel a need to reach out to others.
Please continue to pray for us and the ministry: that God will direct each step and keep us safe as we are on the road a lot. We thank all of you for your prayers and your support. You are an important part of this ministry. God bless you!
In Christ,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [August 2015]
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.
July 26, 2015
Dear Brothers & Sisters,
We rejoice in the Lord that all is well here and we pray that all is well with each of you. Kathy got back from her trip to the US to see her parents and our children. She had a great time. She really enjoyed the BFM conference in Lexington.
We are really excited with what God is doing here. I have been pastoring the church for a little over a month. God is really working and the people are responding. Before, when services were over the members of the church would leave immediately. It has been wonderful to see them change and just enjoy hanging around and having fellowship. We praise God for this. There were some children that were coming to church with some members of the church. After a while the mother started coming. Then this month the father came. The father got saved after the second time he came. Kathy and I went to visit them. I asked him why he started coming to church. He said that we started to notice a difference in his children, so he wanted to see what made the difference. Last Sunday night I did not have an appeal for salvation at the end of service, but as soon as service was over the children’s mother came to me and said she wanted to be saved. Praise God! At the next midweek service I asked if anyone wanted to be saved and the lady made a public decision. Also another man got saved this month. This last month we have averaged 66 in church. Last Sunday we had 10 people baptized. What a blessing!
The youth group is doing great! We have had to drive two cars to take them to church. Last Sunday night we had to drive 3 cars. We are praying that God will give us a van.
Last letter we mentioned about a group that was going to come and build a church building in one of the communities where we were blessed with a lot given for a mission. Two weeks before the group arrived we had a group of men putting in the foundation. The group that came arrived here on the 9th of July. They stayed here at our place. They started putting up the building on Monday and had walls up, windows in and lights and fans ready to use in four days. They worked hard and did a great job. On Sunday we had an inauguration service. The building was full and 3 people were saved. Kathy and a group of young people are having a children’s program Saturday afternoon. The first day they had 63 kids. Then on Saturday night and Wednesday night we have services. The response has been great. Pray that God will continue to open doors in this city, MUTIRÃO. We want to thank Tabernacle Baptist Church for the lot where the building was built. Also thanks to Judson Hatcher who gave our name to the group that wanted to build a church.
We have talked to the people in Garça these days. They are really excited with their new pastor. They are doing some remodeling in the area where the church meets. It is really great to see how happy they are.
Please continue to pray about the court hearings about the closing of Alpha and Omega because of the accusations that the kids were mistreated. Pray that God will give the Lawyers wisdom as they gather information they need. We thank those that have already been praying for us.
In Christ,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [May 2015]
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.
May 8, 2015
Greetings, to all our friends that are great prayer partners and supporters. We pray that all of you are well and enjoying the blessings from our Lord. We are all doing great. Things have been a little different this last month while Kathy is in the US visiting her parents and also seeing our children.
Things here are doing well. This month I will become the pastor of the Living Rocks Baptist Church, where have been attending. It is 20 miles after you cross the river from Manaus. The bridge that we cross to go to Manaus is almost 2 miles long. The view is beautiful. Since the bridge was built, it has made life much easier for those who live on the other side. Before I was married and worked with Paul Hatcher at Tabernacle Baptist Church, I went across the river almost every day. It sure took a lot longer to get across besides all the waiting time for the barges. So praise God for this wonderful bridge! Also they have more roads that take us places that you could only go by boat a few years ago. On these roads there are many small dirt roads that end up in small communities. There are many of them. These are the places that we are visiting to see which ones might have a Baptist work. Pray for us as we reach out to these places and that God will open homes where we can start.
The bridge leading to Manaus.
Kathy told me about the conference and how great it was. She was really excited and rejoicing in how every one was enthused about missions and just having wonderful fellowship. We praise God for that and pray that our love will grow more and more each day. Sounds like Kathy is having a great time with family and friends.
We have had several friends that came to see us here at our place. Friends that we have known since we were single and then worked with some of them when we were all young married couples. Some have just found out that we are back in the Manaus area. It has been great to see them again and have fellowship with them.
Pray for us as we take on the leadership of this church. Many of the members have not been involved in any kind of ministry before. We want to teach them the importance of serving in the church and help them find an area that they can serve.
Thanks for you love and support! God bless each of you.
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [April 2015]
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.
March 27, 2015
Greetings dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope all is well with each of you and your loved ones. We are all doing well, praise the Lord! Kathy and our son Tito are in the US for Kathy to see her parents.
Things here are coming along really well. Next month I will become the pastor of the church here that we have been attending and working with. My brother is going to pastor the church I was a pastor of in GARÇA, São Paulo. Also, we have a great blessing from a group that builds churches in Brasil. This group wanted to help a missionary son. Judson Hatcher told them he knew some that had land for a church and needed a building. We met with the people involved and, the Lord willing, in July we should have a building. All we will need to do is put down the floor and feed them. What a blessing! It is in the community called Multirao.
The work in Ubim is doing great! A few weeks ago it was pouring down rain so I called the people that we use the home to have services in and asked if it was raining. The lady said it was really raining so I told her we were not going. The next week when we went, we were surprised to find out that 7 kids had come any way. We told the kids we were sorry that we had not come and that we were never miss even if it was pouring down rain. It has been so fantastic to see the kids change. The adults are very slow. There are so many kinds of churches. So pray with us that we can be able to teach these people about salvation by grace. The churches they go to are works.
We had a Sister church from MANAUS to come out and do some evangelism in the church and several communities near us. It was great and several people got saved. Now the churches doing follow up visitation. The group also did some social work, like cutting hair, doctor, dental hygiene and mesotherapy.
There is one thing here that makes it difficult for some people to come to church. Many people do not have transportation. Kathy and I drive 2 cars to church every service to help take people to church. We are praying for God to helps us buy a van to be able to do more.
We want to thank all of you for your constant prayers and support. May God bless each of you.
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [February 2015]
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.
January 29, 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope all is well with each of you and that you are enjoying the blessing from our Lord and Savior. We are all doing great and are in good health–praise the Lord. This last year of 2014 was a time of getting settled in and adjusted to our home in the Amazon. It is a little different than living in town. Just requires making plans when needing to go into town. But the weather in the middle of the jungle is for sure much cooler than in town.
The work in the community of Ubim is going well. We have a faithful group. We have been working with some adults that have come to us for help, some with health problems and some with family problems. This has opened doors to talk to them about the Lord.
We have been working with the church near us that is a daughter of Tabernacle Baptist Church where Paul Hatcher was pastor. They have just finished their new church building. The church has stared several different ministries: Couples, Youth, and Sunday School. It has been great to see these ministries growing. The members that are there have had very little training. We want to help them in this area also by taking them to seminars and doing training in the church activities. Pray for them and for us as we put this in action.
In Garça, things are doing great. The church I pastored that meets at the Alpha and Omega building is doing well they have just called a pastor. There are several people that live there. Most of them were teens form the home that have married and live there with their wives. The young man who takes care of things there is one of the first boys we helped before we ever had the home. He was addicted to crack and a thief. Today he is married and a father, minister of music and a lawyer. God works miracles!!!!!!! Thanks to all of you that have always supported our ministry. May God bless each of you.
We want to thank those who gave for the special offering for Thanksgiving. It came at a good time. Got new tires and fixed Kathy’s car. Thanks to all.
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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