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: Sheridan & Anita Stanton in Peru [February 2012]
Sheridan and Anita Stanton have served the Lord in Peru for 28 years. Their main ministry is church planting and they have helped establish churches all over the country. Sheridan also works to train pastors and Anita works with the ladies' ministry and developing children's material.
Dear friends and family,
December was a fairly quiet month for us; Christmas was just the two of us, but we were able to get a lot of work done. We did have two more professions of faith in the Calvary mission work. We are excited about the new year and all that the Lord will be doing.
January was spent trying to get everything ready for construction to begin at the new property for the Calvary work. Paper work moves slow here but this time of the year is the rainy season in the mountains so construction would probably have been delayed anyway. I had the joy of baptizing eight young believers for the Faith Baptist mission work, also here in Huánuco. Brother Hugo Cotrina is the young worker at this mission.
I have baptized in a lot of mountain streams before, but never with water rushing as fast as this time. One brother had to brace the feet of each one baptized in order to keep them from washing down stream! Hundreds baptized in almost forty years of ministry and I haven’t lost one yet! (Or drowned anyone either!), so I guess I’m still doing pretty well. Pray for brother Hugo, his home church wanted to ordain him five years ago but he just did not respond well to his interrogation and the council recommended against his ordination. He continues to be a very faithful servant of the Lord, and the Lord continues to use him, but he still “grimaces” when ordination is mentioned to him.
Bro. Sheridan's second name-sake (who is a remarkable singer).
In my last letter I showed a picture of my first name-sake in Lima. To the left is number two! Yeah, this poor little guy got stuck with my name also. He is a remarkably good singer; he wins most of the church singing competitions. There are three more Sheridans, I think, in other parts of Peru.
Gil and Ronda Gilpin of Lexington, Kentucky, recently spent a couple of weeks with the Stantons.
Anita and I recently had the great joy of having our dear friends from Lexington, Kentucky, Gil and Ronda Gilpin, spend two weeks with us. We had a great time showing them the work in Huánuco and some of the major attractions of Peru – Machu Picchu, Cusco and Lima, man-made Uro Islands, and the Ballesta Islands. We hope they will return someday for a trip to the jungle! 
For the past several months, the directors of Baptist Faith Missions have had to make substantial cuts in our monthly deposits (BFM missionaries); about 25%. For years BFM has had to rely on the Thanksgiving Offering to make it through to the end of each year. But for a long time now, that yearly offering has been less and less. We know times are rough in the States right now and the “trickle-down” effect has arrived at your missionaries also. But maybe some of you that have not been affected much would consider an increase in your monthly giving to the General Fund of Baptist Faith Mission. Anita and I will be coming to the States this year for our scheduled furlough visits to the supporting churches. We hope to be with each of you. Contact me at the e-mail address below if you would like to have us visit your church.
In HIM by HIS grace,
Sheridan and Anita Stanton
Apartado Postal 140
Huanuco, Perú
South América
sestantonperu[at]hotmail.com – Sheridan
Phone: 614-500-8823
arstantonperu[at]gmail.com – Anita
Phone: 615-562-0529
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