Services Back to Normal; Opportunities in Cacau
July 21, 2020
Dear brothers and sisters,
We hope and pray that each one of you are doing well. So many times we think that we are in control of our lives and we discover that a little invisible bacteria can change how the world moves! Thank God, who is invisible and the most powerful and loving, who gives us strength and wisdom to move forward and not give up! We are doing well and getting back into the swing of things. God has been wonderful to us and kept us safe. We do our part in keeping safe and encouraging others to stay safe and protect each other.
Our services are all back to normal. People come as they feel safe. Through all this we have had a number of visitors to come to church. Pray that God will lead us as we minister to these newcomers.
The work we have in the community of Cacau is gradually growing. Many of the people from that church had left when the pastor who was there stopped and quit having services. Since we took over the ministry, the ones who had quit are gradually coming back. The church building is not in a real good location. We had been thinking about buying somewhere else and building a new church. But this week a man came and offered a building, and a businessman is interested in the old church building. Pray that God will lead and give us wisdom in this decision.
The work in Ubim is coming back almost to normal. The kids from the Indian tribe have not been coming because they have to cross a lake. But this week some of the older ones came! I had fun playing with the kids before the classes started. Since there is nothing for the kids to do in the village, we always take things for them to play with.
We are having some get togethers, but in small groups. It’s been hard for some people who can’t get around to have fellowship. In this area, so many people live far away from each other. This next Saturday we are going to have pizza night just to have fellowship. The way we are going to do it is this: Kathy and I have a small pizza oven which we are taking and making the pizza dough ready to use. Each family has to take what they want on their pizza. It is going to be interesting to see what their tastes are! We already decided that our pizza is going to taste like fish!
Pray for us as we get back into safe situations, that we can go back to visiting people in the communities around the churches.
Love in our Lord and Savior,
Odali and Kathy
Odali teaching in Ubim 
Cacau 
Cacau 
Cacau 
Cacau 
Cacau
Contact Info:
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, SA
odali_kathy@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Getting Back to Normal
June 22, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope that all is well with each one of you dear friends and supporters. Praise God we are all well here. Things have been so different with what you can do and what you can’t do. But slowly, things are going back to normal. Almost all the services are back to normal. This week, two of the missions will start back. While we could not have services, we maintained contact with as many as we could through internet, and for those who don’t have internet, we made quick visits. We tried to help as many as we could by giving food and taking fish to various families. Also, some food was donated by a family in the church to help other families in need. We are doing some remodeling at the church at Iranduba to solve some problems. There is a big problem with water there, so we need to build a tank to reserve water. The water only comes once a day and is very weak. At the church at the community of Cacau, we are still working fixing the church building. It was in poor condition when we took over the church.
Ubim 
Cleaning Ubim 
Pedras Vivas 
Sunday School & Snack Area
Kathy went to Ubim today and washed the church building and cut the grass. Everything is ready for next week. Kathy visited around the community and talked to the people from the Indian tribe. She loved seeing all of them and they had fun seeing Kathy. Kathy talked to the leaders there and everything is ok to start next Monday.
For us that have so much freedom, it was kind of hard not to go to church and other places. Hopefully through this we can remember those in others places of the world that can’t do what they want when they want to—especially when it comes to the gospel. Our prayer is that all of us come out of this situation stronger in the Lord!
Since there was not much we could do outside our home, we took advantage and are working on our house doing some remodeling. Things are looking good!
We thank you for your prayers and your support. May God richly bless each one of you. Pray that as the ministries get back into the swing that we can reach more people and that they may see their need for the Lord in their lives.
In Christ,
Odali & Kathy
Contact Info:
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, SA
odali_kathy@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Helping Those in Need
Dear brothers and sisters,
I pray that all of you are well. The world is going through hard times but we know that our Lord and Savior is in control.
We are all doing well and adapting our life to the times in which we are living. Through this situation, we have been able to help different people with some of their needs. We stay in contact with our people by internet and send messages and Scripture to the people.
We went and gave fish to many people. And also we went and delivered some basic foods that were given to a member of the church to donate to whoever needed the food.
I really miss going to Ubim and having my time with the kids and having our studies. The other day when we went to take some food to the Indian tribe, I saw the kids from a distance. The chief was the one who came to receive the food. The chief asked, “Who is Kathy?” I said, “It’s me.” He said, “The kids are over there calling you. They said to say ‘Hi’.” The Lord willing, we will be back to normal soon.
The Indian chief in a canoe 
The Indian tribe from a distance
I have been working with some of the young girls from the church and training them to work with the kids at church. It has been great to be with them. Pray that God will help them to grow more and more each day. They are new converts and were not brought up in church, so I work with them with their spiritual growth and with developing their abilities with working in Sunday school.
One of the difficulties in this area is the distance that people live. So everything takes time to make things work. Not everyone in the church has transportation, which makes things a little harder at times.
I thank each of you for your prayers and support. Pray that God will continue to allow me to serve Him and open new doors in new communities. We are still planning to do mission trips on the river. When I was a child I went on many trips with my parents. It was fun! I can’t wait for us to be able to go on our first trip. Pray for this also.
God bless each of you!
Kathy Barros
Contact Info:
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, SA
odali_kathy@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Special Weekend with Teens; Upcoming River Mission Trip
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 18, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope all is well with each of you and your loved ones. We are all well here. I’m sure that you all are going through the same problems we are with the virus. We are doing what we can and living one day at a time. We are still having services, but staying aware of the situation.
The work that we now have is the city of Cacau is coming along well. We are waiting to get the building back to have services in a larger space. The lady’s home we are using has been a blessing, but is small.
We had a special weekend with the teens during carnaval. We spent 3 days on a friend’s island. There were 10 that came from the village of Ubim. It was a great time with these teens. I went to Ubim with Kathy and had a great time with the kids and teens at the village. They have an area where they go to play. I went there and played marbles with them.
This coming month we are planning a mission trip on the river to visit several villages and see if they have churches and what the needs are. The first trip we will visit 6 villages. We have a friend who does tourism and this time of the year his boats are stopped till July. He said we can use his boat for the trips. Pray for us as we plan the trips for evangelism and for God’s protection.
We have a new group of teachers for Sunday School at the Pedras Vivas Church. The young ladies are doing well. We pray that God will raise up others to help in this work.
With all this virus problem, things are a little slow, like it probably is there also. May God bless each one!
Love in Christ,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
Read more
Open Doors in New Community
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 14, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This beginning of the year has been really great! God has been working and opening doors for us to do new work for His kingdom.
We were offered a church that is in a small community not too far from us. Actually, it is the first community once you cross the bridge from Manaus going to where we live. Pray that God will give wisdom and strength to not give up. Like so many other communities around us, there are not many good things going on, but drugs and prostitutions are predominating in these places. There are so many kids and teens in these places. The enemy knows where to work and do his job and so many times those who call themselves Christians don’t have time to do God’s work. Actually when we mentioned to some people about the work there they said, “You’re crazy, that’s a waste of time.” Well, our Lord went where the people who needed to hear were. May God direct our path each day. There is lots of work to be done on the building and part of the building the pastor that left there had rented it to a man who owned a construction store. We won’t have that part for another 2 months. The people who are still going that stayed together from what was left from the church seem to be getting excited. Pray for them!
Kathy had a wonderful experience this week. She had to go to a health department to get a document for the boy who lives with us to have for school. This village is on the way to where she goes every Monday for the kids’ work in Ubim. She got to talking to the nurse and they got on the subject of church. Kathy mentioned she did a kids program in Ubim. The lady then mentioned that she had to 2 kids and she was worried because there was nothing for the kids in that village, there was lots of drugs and prostitution. Kathy told her, “Maybe we can do something here also.” She smiled. Then she asked me,
“Can I visit the work you do in Ubim?” Kathy said, “Sure. It starts at 5 every Monday.”
Last Sunday we had Baptism day! We make this day a special time to be together. Since everyone lives so far away, we always make the effort of making this a very special day. We have lunch and baptism and then fellowship. This baptism was very special for the mission in the community of Mutirão. They had the first adult man to be baptized. We had two men From Pedras Vivas to be baptized and 3 teens. What a blessing!
We appreciate your prayers and your support! Thanks for being a part of this ministry! God bless each of you!
Love in Christ our Savior,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
Read more
Fellowship with Teens from Ubim
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 18, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope and pray that all had a wonderful Christmas and a blessed beginning of a new year. We had a great beginning of this new year.
This past week we had a group of teens from the community of Ubim. There were 17 that came. We just had a great time of fellowship and fun doing several activities with them. If we had let them choose, they would stay another week. Well, if any of you have a freezer or a fridge full of food you want to get rid of, just bring in a group of teens and they will take care of that for you.
We have planned for this month a baptism service. We get all the people that have been saved from the different missions and have a day together of fellowship. This is always fun and a great time of fellowship since everyone lives a good distance from each other.
We have some plans to work on the camp facilities making some changes and adding some new things. We need to repair some roofs and need some new utensils for the kitchen. Please pray that God will provide the means for us to do these things. We thank God for the two churches that gave offerings for the new freezer. What a blessing. We really want to use it more and more as a form of reaching out to the people in these distant communities. In the world we live in today, all the bad influences on our teens move faster than what is good and from God. The drugs are a very big deal in all these areas. Pray with us that God will raise up more people that are interested in reaching out to these teens and the families in all these places.
We are still in the process of taking over the church that was offered to us to take care of in the little town of Cacau. We are making plans with a group of 3 young couples to help us there. Pray with us that God directs us each step of the way. There are many drug dealers in this tiny town.
The work in Iranduba is coming along. So many of the kids that come, their parents use drugs. Pray for these kids that are coming that they can learn about God and accept Him and Savior while they are young.
We thank God for each one of you that support us through your prayers and financial support. May God bless each one as we work together in His work for His kingdom!
Odali & Kathy Barros
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
Read more
A Joyous Reunion!
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 28, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are coming to the end of one more year that God has given us to serve Him. With God’s leading in our lives, in the year of 2020 we can reach out to more people and tell them about God’s love and salvation.
The year has been a great year and God has done wonderful things. One of these wonderful things was the end of the court case against us because of the children’s home. So many times in the last nine years there were hard moments in the hearings. We had to trust the Lord that He would take care of us. Last June the case was closed and we were found not GUILTY! Praise the Lord. Several of those who lived at the home were so happy when the case was closed that they wanted to celebrate. So, they chose to have a day to celebrate at Christmas.
So, we bought our tickets and went to Garça to have the thanksgiving for what God had done. Several of those who were raised there came and helped put everything together. What a wonderful time we had and to see the adults doing well. Others that could not come to the Christmas dinner came by to see us. What a blessing and encouragement it was to see them grown and married and with their families. One of the kids, whose name is Marcia, invited us to go eat supper at her home. She and her husband work hard and have their home and their car—doing so great. They have two children and she and her family go to church. The kids these couples have had call Kathy and I “Grandpa” and “Grandma”. We had fun with them at the home and also taking them fishing. That is one of the things their parents remember: Kathy and I taking them fishing! The parents wanted to go fishing like they did when they lived with us. So we went with them also. What wonderful memories!
We also went to the church I pastored there. It was great to see the people there. Thanks to the Lord for allowing us to go there and just have a wonderful time of fellowship and healing.
Our prayer for 2020 is that God give us wisdom and strength to reach out to more people in the many communities around us. That souls may be saved!
A special thanks to all of you who pray and give faithfully to our ministry. God bless each one of you.
Love in Christ’s Name,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
Read more
God has Blessed in the Village of Ubim
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.
November 22, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope all is well with each of you partners in our ministry. We are thankful for your prayer and support. We are doing great and are excited with what God is doing in the ministry here.
We want to thank those who have given for the work in the village of Ubim. God has blessed us with donations for the glass for the windows, tile for the floor, and money for the well we want too. The glass has been bought and we need to pick it up in Manaus. We are working hard to get things bought and get a group to go do the work. God bless all those who gave. As things get done, we will send pictures for you to see.
This month Kathy had a special day for the kids to bring their parents. We had around 100 people. It was great! Kathy was sad because she took a bunch of pictures to use for the mission sheet and when she got home the pictures had disappeared. This village is not very big but there are lots of kids and teens. Please continue to pray for this work as we continue to reach out to them.
The last day of this month we are having one of our reach-out festivals! Our goal is always to reach out to the people that have not come to our church.
The work in the city of Iranduba is doing great. We have started the Sunday night service. Things are coming along well there, and more adults are being reached. They still have the Monday Bible Study which has been a great way to bring people in to the Sunday Service. Continue to pray for the pastor and his wife who are working there. Their names are Pastor Amauri and his wife is Mirian. We have had several saved and soon we will set a date for baptism.
In the other village where we had a special service last month, we have had some people interested in having service in their home. Pray that God will work in the hearts of these families for them to be saved.
Thank God for each for you. God bless you and your families and churches.
Love in Christ our Savior,
Odali and Kathy Barros
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
Read more
