Missionary Update: The Wacasers in Brazil [April 2013]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
Dear Friends,
I want to start with some really great news! Next Sunday we will be baptizing 4 new converts. The Lord is blessing our efforts as we seek to share the gospel in our new community. We have seen a steady increase in attendance in our services and we hear great testimonies to what God is doing in the lives of those who are applying the messages from God’s Word in their lives. We have nearly completed the construction on the building, needing only to place the final one third of the ceiling tiles by the end of this week.
The group of teens from Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida came last month and worked diligently sharing the gospel through skits and personal testimony. There were 55 of them, including their adult sponsors and we were privileged to have our daughter, Jessie, come with them as our translator coordinator. Our translators here in Brazil also did a wonderful job of voluntary service for nearly a week. The Lord used all the effort and dedication to bring many people to Christ in the public schools and parks. During the week, the group as a whole was able to share the gospel with over 4000 individuals. Projeto Vida, our outreach partners, served as an essential element in transporting the teams, providing the public address system and also prepared the meals for over 100 people twice daily. The service of hosting this group of young people each year has yielded marvelous results. Several of the teens who have come in the past years have since accepted the missionary call for overseas service. Also, many of those who have received Christ as Lord of their lives through their gospel presentations are now faithfully involved in local church ministries. We have another group of youth coming in August of this year from the Houston, Texas area. We are looking forward to seeing how God will use this group also for the glory of His name and for the salvation of many lost ones.
We had a mountaintop experience around the middle of the March, literally. As often as possible we schedule a mountain climb with those who’ll accept the challenge. Our purposes for these excursions are: 1) to provide an opportunity to establish a deeper friendship with folks who aren’t yet attending church, 2) seek to display our relationship with Christ in an “outside the church building” environment, 3) motivate both our church members and prospective converts to take care of their bodies through strenuous exercise, 4) teach all the participants to appreciate and praise the Lord for the beauty of His creation; the lovely mountains, rivers and forest around us. We have discovered that these mountain excursions serve as a good way to invite non-church goers to a church event that doesn’t seem threatening or “churchy.” Once they have participated with us on one of these climbs, they almost always follow up by coming to our church services.
Our American Football training camp is coming up in early June. We are still hammering out the details so that we might make the best use of the personnel who’ll be involved. We have the participation of at least one former NFL player (Johnny Mitchell – former Dallas Cowboys, and New York Jets), his brother, Gregg Booth – former Arena Football. We still have opportunities available for high school and college coaches and players to teach and execute the skills of the sport. Please pray that the Lord would give me wisdom on how to best administer this training camp for the spread of the gospel among the Brazilian athletes and their families and staff.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
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Missionary Update: The Wacasers [December 2012]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
Dear Friends,
Our outreach trip to Argentina was a tremendous success in terms of evangelism. Our Projeto Vida (Project Life) team called “Doulos”, had a full week of opportunities sharing the gospel in the public schools and parks just across the Brazil/Argentina border. When their activities had come to a conclusion and the bus began to return home the motor blew up and over 35 workers were stranded on a deserted stretch of highway. The broken down bus is our newest, so it was the least likely expected to have major mechanical problems.
The newest Projeto Vida bus broke down on their Argentina trip.
But, now it is nearly a thousand miles away in a shop waiting on expensive repairs to be done. We had to find alternative travel arrangements for the team and volunteers to get back to our base and that too brought on an unexpected expense. We realize that trials like these are a part of serving the Lord in this fallen world and that this kind of difficulty (and much worse) faces every generation of God’s children. We are not discouraged. We are thankful that we had the opportunity to take the love of Christ beyond our borders and for the privilege of seeing many turn to Christ. We also realize that this breakdown in equipment didn’t catch the Lord by surprise, so we’ll look to Him to meet our needs to keep this effective ministry going.
American Football is becoming popular in Brazil, which has presented unique evangelistic opportunities.
As I’m writing this, there are a couple of football coaches in the US meeting to discuss the details of a plan to come down to Brazil next June to hold an evangelistic football camp/workshop. One of these men came last year to work in a different town in Brazil and he and his group had great results, both in evangelism and sports. The football team they ministered to just won the Brazilian national championship last week. I am in a unique situation in Brazil because of the rapidly growing interest in American football here and some of the head coaches are my friends and are asking me to introduce the gospel to their teams. We still have openings for other volunteers who either play or coach football and who would like to use this opportunity to share their faith with many who do not know Christ. We are also in great need of inexpensive or donated football equipment, so you can also be greatly helpful through that means. Please contact me at the attached addresses and/or phone number.
My leg and foot are nearly mended after breaking them a few weeks ago. The injury did slow me down more than I wanted to admit. I discovered that I am not as patient as I need to be with things that are beyond my control, but I also learned that I just have to be.
Bro. Bobby has had to learn to be patient after breaking his leg and foot.
There are things “beyond my control”, and making broken bones heal faster is one of them. I was grateful to learn that there were no ligaments or tendons torn and thus, no need for surgery. I probably won’t be able to take a group to hike in the nearby mountains until next year, though.
Each week we go out to a new community called “Corbellia” to share the gospel and seek an open door among the people there. We are very well received by the people, but we have yet to locate a strategic meeting place to hold Bible studies for groups. The Lord has placed a desire in our hearts to plant a church in this community, so we will continue to minister to them as we keep our eyes open for the opportunities to expand the ministry there.
We are very grateful to you who have prayed faithfully for us throughout the year of 2012. We are also thankful to God for you who have contributed financially so that we might be able to carry on the various ministries here in southern Brazil. We trust that the Lord will bless you and that you will rejoice to know that you have been a true blessing to us in this partnership. We hope you have a wonderful 2013!
In Christ’s love,
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
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