Praying for a Young Teen to Stay Faithful to His Savior
September 22, 2021
Dear Friends,
I just came home from a visit with a 19-year-old young man who is reaping some results of bad choices. In case he or a friend reads this report, I will refrain from printing his name. In my conversations with his mother, his grandmother and with the young man himself, I can understand a lot of the factors that contributed to his getting onto the wrong path in life. His father has been a drug addict most of the son’s life and his parents eventually divorced and he has been without a father present in the home for several years. I had this young man as a student in my English classes a few years ago and I discovered that he is very intelligent and has a captivating personality. What I see in him is a lot of potential, but a lack of self-discipline and a lot of pent-up anger. Instead of applying his intelligence and natural charm to a constructive lifestyle, he has made a series of terrible choices. To assuage his anger about his absent father and lack of the nicer things in life, he chose to use marijuana and other drugs. His habit increased but his income didn’t, so he resorted to another horrible choice, to sell drugs to afford more. He got caught by the police and went to prison. His sentence was 5 years.
I had shared the gospel with him when he was my English student and, while he was in prison, he began to read the Bible vigorously. The Lord had mercy on him, and he came to a saving relationship with Christ. His behavior and his attitudes changed, and he was released from prison for good behavior after five months of serving his five-year sentence. He is on probation and must use an ankle monitor, but at least he is not still behind bars. My visit this morning was occasioned by a plea from his grandmother, who is a member of my church. She had started to see her grandson begin to make some bad choices again and she’s afraid that he’ll end up back on the same terrible path he was on before. I had a great conversation with him, and I believe that the Lord used me to help him work out some practical steps for him to avoid the pitfalls that led to his earlier situation. The great difference now is that he is a true child of God through faith in the Lord and he has the presence of the Holy Spirit to empower him to make right choices and to hold to them. On a very practical level, I am going to go and pick him up and take him to church this weekend to meet some dedicated youth that will be glad to befriend him and help him leave behind those bad habits and develop healthy new ones. As you think of him, please pray that he stays faithful to his Savior.
All praise to God, the COVID cases have nearly disappeared from our area and this has led our schools to have regular in-person classes again. Our evangelistic teams are getting invitations from several schools to come and minister to their students and staff. I know this sounds odd for public schools, and it is. The main reason this is happening is the work of the Lord, of course. On the human level, our strategy is helped by having “insiders” in some of the schools. Last week was one such case. A member of my church is one of the assistant principals and she presented to the head principal proof of our team’s track record of working with students who were unruly and problematic before, but who became well-behaved and cooperative after our evangelistic program in their school. We are excited that our team is getting more and more of these opportunities. Our volunteers are thrilled that they are again able to share the gospel nearly every week with hundreds of students and their school staff.
Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to honor the Lord with the opportunities afforded us. Thank you for your concern and faithful prayers on our behalf.
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
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God’s Hand in the Amazon Jungle
August 28, 2021
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings from the Amazon jungle! We hope and pray that each of you are doing well and being blessed. Thank God we are doing well and blessed! We know that so many families have been affected through this virus that is in the world. We pray that God will comfort and strengthen each one.
Things here around where we live and work have been pretty calm. Thank God the ministries we do are almost all back to normal. The services we have in homes are back and going to the homes that want us to come. We had service last week in a home of a brother of one of our church members. He had a motorcycle wreck over a year ago and was having problems with his broken leg, but through all these problems he accepted Christ as Savior. He can’t wait to be able to come to church to be baptized.
We also are still working with some men from the “Project Life” which have had problems with addictions. Pray that we can help them continue to be encouraged to not go back to their addiction and keep God as their focus.
On Sunday morning we have been having Christian growth studies and music classes. Now we are going to have a class to train those who want to serve in the ministry, preaching, visiting and reaching out to the communities. Pray that God will touch the hearts of those in the church who can help in these areas.
This young man grew up at Alpha & Omega Home in Garca.
He now helps in Ubim’s ministry.
Teens helping with the kids in Ubim
The work in Ubim continues doing well. Pray with us that God prepare someone who could take that ministry full time. There is so much that can be done there. There are lots of young people there and there is nothing for teens to do there. Like everywhere else, there are drugs.
We are involving some of the teenagers that have been coming since they were kids. It is so great to see them helping!
The difficulty in these areas is that people don’t all live close and many don’t have transportation, so there is a need to go where the people are. Pray that God will touch the hearts of more people so we can reach more people.
We have been working with 2 teenagers in our home. One was through the church and the other one is from a place where I went to catch fish. The teen would help me catch them and I brought him to our house a couple of times. Later he asked if he could come and stay a few days. Where he lives is the street of the drugs. Well, he came for a few days! And he is still here! Now he calls Kathy and I mom and dad. He says he doesn’t want to go back home because he doesn’t want to go into drugs. Praise the Lord. But the interesting thing is that after the 2 teens met each other, they found out they were cousins!! Pray for them that they can grow and reach their families!
Love in Christ,
Odali and Kathy
Father’s Day. The tallest is their son Jonas. The others have adopted Odali & Kathy as parents…and they have taken them in as their children! 
Service at the home of David, the man with a broken leg.
Contact Info:
Odali & Kathy Barros
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
