Sharing God’s Word & Love with Others
February 25, 2022
Dear Friends,
When we read God’s word, the Bible, and see how He has acted in the past, it helps us to know more about Him, about what pleases and displeases Him. His word also helps us to know how we should behave in our own lives, in the circumstances and opportunities that we face daily. I have learned from God’s word that He is intricately interested in every little detail of our lives, of my life. Yes, He wants me to revere Him (fear Him) and obey Him because of that, but He also wants all my actions to be done from a heart that adores and loves Him. I am grateful that He is also very gracious and merciful toward me because I fail so miserably at that.
Early in February we had the privilege of working together with a group of 8 adults who seem to understand what it means to serve God out of love. There were four men and four women from Virginia who wanted to be used of the Lord to share the gospel to those folks who wouldn’t ordinarily be found in a church service. We first took them with our Projeto Vida ministry team to speak to a men’s and women’s drug rehabilitation center. Oh, how the Lord blessed! Several of the interns gladly received the gospel and surrendered their lives to Christ. Then we set up stands in a public square to offer free haircuts, blood pressure readings, health advice (one of our volunteers is a medical doctor) and family counseling. Through those means of contact we also had the privilege of sharing the gospel and several more people came to know the Lord personally. In the same week, we were invited by the city council to minister to the homeless population who come seeking aid. Our volunteers shared their testimonies of their salvation and walk with Christ and a few more individuals surrendered their lives the Lord as well.
After our American brothers and sisters returned to the States, our outreach team traveled upstate to minister in some public schools. In just a few days we had the privilege of sharing the gospel message with over 3,000 students and staff members. In the schools we are allowed to speak freely of Christ and share our testimonies, but we can’t extend a public invitation to accept Christ as Lord right there. But after the presentations in front of the crowds, we are allowed to carry on personal one-on-one conversations with the students and staff and many of them gave evidence that the Holy Spirit had spoken to their hearts, and they sought further information on how to have a relationship with the Lord. We had not even arrived back from our trip before we started receiving emails and messages from the school administration telling us how much of a transformation they were seeing in some of their most difficult students. We are so blessed of the Lord to have this open door of opportunity. Please pray that it will remain open and that we will be able to use it to the best of our ability for God’s glory.
Thank you so much for your prayers for us and your faithful financial support. May the Lord richly bless you.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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
The Lord Used it for Good
December 16, 2021
Dear Friends,
The apostle, Paul, wrote from prison telling his readers to “rejoice always”. If he could say that honestly from a Roman prison cell, then we should certainly be able to rejoice in every situation in which we find ourselves today. We can and do.
We rejoice mainly because we are certain of our eternal salvation through the grace of God and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We also rejoice because He not only saved us, but also sustains us every single day. These are facts that we can reflect on in any circumstance and find peace and comfort. I don’t want to lessen in any way the value of the knowledge of these truths because, to be honest, I often need to feed my heart and mind on them.
An amazing thing is that the Lord doesn’t stop there! Beyond His saving and sustaining grace, He has been pouring out large and small blessings on us and our ministries. Charlene is celebrating her 60th birthday tomorrow and I’m a little bit older than she, yet we both enjoy wonderful health due to God’s love and care. Our ministries are steadily increasing in the number of people involved and impacted. Certainly, the enemy attempted to hamper or destroy our evangelistic outreach with this horrible COVID pandemic, but the Lord used it for good, just as He promised. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ were called home to heaven, yes, but that was to their benefit. The Lord even used the quarantines and lockdowns to teach us new ways to minister and touch people’s lives for good.
Our traveling evangelistic team, Projeto Vida, has just returned from their last trip of the 2021 year, and it was very fruitful. The team traveled to the nation’s capital, Brasilia, and was able to evangelize in the public schools in one of the most ungodly regions of the country. Many youth and several teachers/administrators surrendered their lives to Christ because of these efforts. The president himself asked our team to pray for him at one of his public appearances while they met with him and some other evangelical political leaders.
Early in January we will be hosting our first missions volunteer training seminar. We expect to have college-aged kids from several different states participating in this two-week training program. We will spend the first week teaching the biblical basis for missions/evangelism and then the next week we’ll be taking them to a city in the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. That region of Brazil has the reputation for being the most Satan-worshipping part of the country and we know that that is where the greatest need for the glorious, good news of Christ is. Please pray for our workers and the volunteers as they seek to win the lost for God’s glory.
Charlene and I are so grateful for your faithful prayers, concern, and support of our ministries. Thank you.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Enjoying blessed health! Worship Service in Curitiba Worship Service in Curitiba
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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
Souls Saved, Lives Changed
November 20, 2021
Dear Friends,
The expression, ‘very eventful,’ that some of us use to describe a busy period can be a little misleading. All periods of time are filled with events, be they noteworthy or not. I mention this because I was going to start this letter by saying that this past month has been ‘very eventful’, when in fact, every month is, for every person. So, what I will say is that this past month has been filled with some events that were quite noteworthy to us, and we hope to you as well.
The newly ordained pastor, Cledson, and his wife and volunteer leaders took about 40 of our teens to camp this past weekend and the Lord blessed in a tremendous way. Many of the youth were deeply impacted through the daily study of God’s word and the teaching they received. There were six teens who were baptized as followers of Christ at the end of this youth camp.
This last month we also had the privilege of working with one of the Projeto Vida (Project Life) teams in street evangelism. Our Agape team has been called upon to head up a citywide ministry to the homeless. There are many people, including entire families, that are homeless in our capital city. The weather here is generally cool almost year-round and when it gets cold these folks suffer for lack of shelter and warm food. I took three American pastors who came to visit our work out to the minister among those folks who came looking for help. The Lord worked powerfully to convict and save many of these dear people. While some of our team were feeding them, giving them haircuts, a bath and supplying some with shoes, clothing and blankets, we shared the gospel with them and the Lord brought repentance and faith to several. The Agape team leader, Mateus, is doing a fantastic job of following up with those who surrender their life to Christ. Some of them were addicted to cocaine and crack and several have, by God’s grace, gotten their lives cleaned up and have begun new lives living responsibly and drug free. I was so thrilled to see the Lord using me as a translator for these American brothers and know that His grace is never limited by language or bad choices in the past.
One of our friends and Brazilian brothers has been instrumental in a new church plant in a small town not far from the capital. He asked us and the visiting pastors to bring the message to the congregation while they were here. Their services are in a public-school auditorium on Saturday evenings. Since they don’t have a building yet, this allows the pastor to continue to minister at his sending church for the time being and there is no cost to rent the location. This setup also puts the new church in the middle of the community where they want to make an impact for Christ.
The larger building that we thought that we would be moving our church into last month didn’t work out. It was a little bit of an emotional letdown, but we know that the Lord is in control of all things and that this was not something that slipped by Him. We will continue to look, but we are also actively working on how to hold two services and two Bible study hours each Sunday to deal with the overflowing attendance. We pray for the Lord to give us wisdom and guidance through this process of growth plans. We are also thankful that this is the kind of problem that we are dealing with.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. Have a great holiday season.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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
Healing Grace and Souls Saved
August 27, 2021
Dear Friends,
Charlene and I got a message from our daughter, Jessie, early in August telling us that she had COVID. She had been working at camp with a group of youth from her church the week before. Several members of her team had contracted COVID about the same time as she. Charlene and I have both had the virus, so we know it is a serious illness, but we both recovered quite well and were expecting that Jessie would do the same. After a week of Jessie getting sicker and being admitted into the hospital, Charlene and I decide that we should travel to Tampa, Florida to give our daughter some moral support. We wouldn’t be able to visit her in the hospital, but she would know that we were near. The day we arrived in Tampa, Jessie’s doctor called me and told me not to lose hope, that there were still a couple of things that they could do to try to help her. We didn’t even know that she was so sick that we should lose hope in the first place! The doctor made it very clear that Jessie was struggling for life. After getting off the phone with the doctor, Charlene and I nearly lost it. We cried like we have never cried before. Our baby girl was hanging in the balance of life and death and we weren’t even aware of it. In my prayer immediately after this call, I confessed to the Lord that I trusted completely in Him and that I knew that, before Jessie was my girl, she was His girl. I did also share with the Lord that I didn’t feel like I was ready for Him to take her home yet. I asked Him for mercy and healing grace. After our personal prayers, I contacted our sending church’s pastor, Darrell Messer, and the executive secretary of Baptist Faith Missions, Dave Parks, and asked them to spread the news of Jessie’s condition with everyone they could. I also contacted my church in Brazil and our ministry volunteers from Projeto Vida and asked them all to pray earnestly for Jessie’s healing. Folks, let me say to the Glory of God, He began immediately to bring healing into Jessie’s body. The very next morning, Jessie’s doctor called me again and told me that she was improving quickly. The next day she messaged me to say that if she continued to improve at the rate that she was improving that she would be released from the hospital in two to three days. It wasn’t two to three days, the next day she was released to go home. She was given some medicine to continue taking at home, but she never went backward after those prayers began to be offered on her behalf. Six days after the doctor first told me how sick Jessie was, she was already home from the hospital and back to work! Our God is an amazing God. He hears and He answers prayer. We know that He would still be God and He would still be good if He saw fit to take Jessie on to heaven, but we are extremely grateful that He had mercy on us, her parents, to heal her and give her more opportunities to serve Him here in this world. We praise His Name! We know that some of you heard of Jessie’s condition and prayed for her healing, and we want to take this opportunity to thank you for your earnest and effective prayers.
We are also happy to share that our evangelistic outreach teams are being able to get back into the public schools and parks here in Brazil. This past week they ministered in a small town about halfway across our state toward Paraguay. The Lord blessed and there were over 20 professions of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Many of those who surrendered to Christ had never heard a clear presentation of the gospel. The team’s volunteers were amazed at how the Lord used them to minister to people who felt hopeless. We pray that the doors of opportunity will remain open and that no more lockdowns will interfere with being able to get into the public schools and town squares with the message of God’s love.
We serve a mighty and good God, and we are grateful. Thank you to those who pray for us and give so that we may continue to serve Him here in southern Brazil.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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
Benefits of Reading God’s Word
February 2, 2021
Dear Friends,
There is one good habit that I stumbled upon shortly after my surrender to Christ 43 years ago and that was to read the Bible through from cover to cover. I don’t remember that I set out to read it through even the first time back then, but a thirst to know more about the God who loved me enough to give His Son to save me motivated me to read on. After that first time, I felt that I knew Him better and that led me to establish the goal of reading it through yearly. There have been a few years that I fell short of that, but nonetheless, I learned more about my God and Savior and I find more to praise and worship Him for each time.
One of the greatest benefits to me of reading the Bible through often is that the reader (in this case, I) discovers just how much God is in control of everything that is going on in the affairs of this world. This is true even when the events and circumstances for believers are drastic and horrible. I share this to say that I am greatly encouraged and excited about what is going on all around us, though a casual observer who doesn’t read God’s word, and isn’t aware of His sovereign power, might tend to despair and lose hope.
Certainly not all the events and circumstances are pleasant, in and of themselves. We have lost some wonderful people to COVID-19. My wife and I both suffered the discomfort of it ourselves. The political and spiritual climate of both Brazil and the United States is appalling. The apparent lack of justice and goodness in the highest places and the increase of violence and hatred on the streets of our cities pain me. But, because I have seen in God’s word how He governs all the affairs of mankind, using even evil to accomplish His good purposes, I rejoice in the midst of it all, because I am loved and cared for by Him. His word also gives me the message of hope and salvation to take to those people that He has put in the scope of my influence. I, and those I train, can offer true peace to them when all around they see despair. I thank God for the Bible, which is His means of communicating what He’s up to, both now and in, what seems to be, the daunting future. I am excited about what’s coming next because “I know Who holds the future, and I know He holds my hand.”
A young couple just recently joined our outreach traveling team, Projeto Vida. Vitor just finished law school and his friends expected him to go into practice and make a bundle of money, but the Lord put it in his heart to go into fulltime evangelism. His wife, Loren, is nearly finished with college, but she is equally convicted that the Lord wants them to serve Him in this ministry. This weekend will be their first trip to minister with our team. They come to us from one of our sister churches where they served for several years in evangelism as parttime volunteers. We are so thrilled that they love and trust the Lord so much that they would walk away from a possibly lucrative profession to make God’s love known to many who have never heard. Please pray for them as we seek to support and encourage them in this vocation.
I hope that you are finding God’s word to be your delight and source of encouragement in this new year. It certainly is to us.
Yours in Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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
Good News about the Good News!
Dear Friends,
Good news about the Good News! I truly love when someone under my leadership calls or writes to share with me that the Lord used them to win a lost friend or relative to Christ. I got that privilege again this week from Priscilla, one of the young ladies from my church. She told me that for several weeks she had been seeking to demonstrate the love of Christ to a coworker of hers who did not know the Lord. She wanted me to know that she had listened to the teaching from the pulpit about letting our light shine to those around us in order to open a door for sharing the message of the gospel. She had been seeking to do that with her friend from work and that friend finally asked what she must do to be saved. Priscilla showed her from the Bible how to surrender her life to Christ as Lord and Savior and her friend did just that. She brought her friend to the very next appointed church meeting and they both were overjoyed by God’s mercy and grace. God’s good news is still good news and He is still transforming lives through it.
Because of the COVID restrictions since early in the year, we had not attempted any of our special yearly church events that involve close proximity one to another. Finally, in September, those restrictions were somewhat lifted and we were able to put on our first married couples’ meetings of the year. It was a wonderful success. Many of our church members were so excited about being able to get involved in planning and executing a special event that they went over and above in the quality of the preparations. As a result, some of our couples were motivated to work on improving their marriage relationships. Some wives shared with Charlene that their husbands took the teachings to heart and made some clear efforts to be more romantic and considerate. I am grateful that we are getting the privilege of being able to meet and fellowship more freely, as well.
Our outreach team, Projeto Vida, has used the pause in public school classes to find other ways of getting the gospel out to people who don’t go to church, even by invitation. We discovered that many people who lost their jobs during the pandemic have also lost their homes. Our homeless population has increased exponentially this year. The majority of them struggle to find enough to eat, so our team prepares hot meals and takes them to strategic locations where many homeless people gather. While serving their food, and afterward, we offer to pray for their needs and to sit down and talk about the issues that they want to share. We know that we can’t “fix” all their problems, but we do share the message of the grace and mercy of Christ and the power of God to change even the direst of situations. Almost all of them accept the food graciously. My hope is that our efforts have a double (or more) impact: 1) That those who receive our gift of a hot meal can see the love of Christ in us and behind our efforts and, 2) That our own members will be touched by the plight of those whose situations are worse than their own and will be grateful for God’s blessings and share them for the increase of His glory.
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support of our ministry here in southern Brazil.
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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’s Providence in an Unexpected Delay
August 3, 2020
Dear Friends,
Charlene and I got to experience a strange, but not-too-bad situation last month. We traveled to Florida to visit with our children and grandson for an eight-day stay. Well, that was the plan anyway. The COVID-19 surge caused our return flight to be delayed by over three weeks! We didn’t receive any messages from the airline about the cancelled flight, either, until we drove four hours to the departure gate at the airport. We had to return to our son’s house and wait the next 23 days with his family until an airline provided another flight. At first, we were concerned that we would cause ministry problems back in Brazil by our unexpected extended absence, but the Lord knew about this in advance, of course. It so happened that the city’s mayor decreed that churches couldn’t hold in-person services for several weeks and I was able to preach to my church via live Facebook programming.
We have returned to our work and we are thankful to the Lord that we have also been able to return to in-person services. Our members are thrilled to be back together again for fellowship and worship of the Lord as an assembled body of believers.
There was also a surge in COVID cases in our city here in Brazil when we got back. In fact, we still have about 10 people who are sick with the virus. Most of those are from our traveling evangelistic team, Projeto Vida. A couple of them had to go to the ICU at the local hospital, but are showing signs of recuperation. We are extremely thankful to God for this.
We aren’t sure how much longer the public schools will be suspended, so we can’t plan to use that venue for our outreach, but we have been able to minister to some families in need who have suffered financial setbacks due to losing their jobs from the shutdown. We will continue to use the social media outlets that are available to us also, and we see a constant increase in our viewership.
Charlene and I have both been well physically. The Lord is gracious and kind and has blessed us with protection. We hope we don’t contract the virus at all, of course, but we also know that God is greater than any sickness and is able to heal us even if we were to get it.
We are so grateful to you who pray for us and make the sacrifice to contribute toward our ministries. We ask that the Lord would also bless you for your faithfulness and generosity.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@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
Obstacles Turned to Advantages
June 6, 2020
Dear Friends,
We are so happy to report that we aren’t just “hanging in there” or “staying safe”. The Lord has blessed through and in spite of this COVID-19 pandemic. Many of you have heard news reports on the severity of the virus here in Brazil, but I can declare joyfully that God is greater!
At the outset of this chaotic event I only expected that we would have a few weeks of disrupted ministries. Here we are nearly three months out and literally every aspect of our lives and ministries have been altered. The wonderful news is that God has turned what looked like obstacles into advantages to the way we were doing things. Pre-COVID, we were growing and reaching out, but because of the need do our worship services through live broadcasts, we now are reaching 300 % more people with the gospel weekly. Another benefit is that, pre-COVID, I was very uncomfortable speaking into a camera without a live audience present. Now, due to the providence of God, I have been able to develop an awareness of the invisible audience that is watching virtually. We have been granted legal permission to return to physical presence worship services, but we will continue to do live broadcasts of our services to a greater audience than we had before. God is amazing in how He sovereignly uses what appears to be negative circumstances in our lives to our good and His glory.
A very few times in my life I needed to illustrate an idea or scene but I couldn’t find or couldn’t afford existing artwork that fulfilled my purpose, so I did some simple sketches or drawings. I remembered that I enjoyed doing that, but I never took it beyond those simple attempts. Because of the lockdown of COVID, I found some extra time available to research how to improve and use the art of sketching with pencils. I discovered that I absolutely love doing it and I believe the Lord wants me to use it more fully for kingdom purposes. This may only be a temporary window that has opened or it may be the beginning of a brand-new way to glorify Him. Whichever, I will seek His leadership in how I can best serve Him with the gift that He has revealed to me. If you would, pray for God to guide me in how to use these drawings.
Our Projeto Vida travel team has had to put a hold on their schedule for the time being. Our main venue for going out to interior towns is to minister in the public schools, but with the pandemic, the government has halted all virtual attendance at the schools. Even assemblies in parks and squares have been prohibited, so we are having to focus on ministering to individual families in our local area. We are still seeing God use our volunteers in various ways, but we just aren’t able to reach as many as we do when we work in schools. God knows, so we’ll trust His timing and providential opening of doors.
We are extremely grateful for your prayers and support as we seek to honor the Lord with the opportunities He provides us here in southern Brazil.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1[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