Greatly Encouraged by Youth Outreach
Missionaries John Mark and Judy Hatcher have been serving the Lord in Tournefeuille, France since 1999. They define their ministry as “disciple-making.”
February 11, 2019
Dear Co-Laborers,
We continue to be greatly encouraged by the youth outreach of the church here in Tournefeuille. It is truly the church youth reaching out to bring their friends. Each month we have a meeting that includes games, eating and most importantly, Bible study. This year we are going through the Bible looking at the major miraculous events. So far, we have read and discussed the Biblical narrative of Creation, the worldwide Flood, and Israel’s Exodus from Egypt.
I am including pictures of the most recent youth meeting the night before last. We had 16 young people here on Saturday night. The meeting is for Junior High and High School ages. Thomas, a H.S. Senior from our church brought two of his High School friends. One of them had never been to a religious or church event before. Yesterday, in church, Thomas testified that this friend who was here for the first time felt well received and quite interested. He wants to return and is interested in discussing spiritual matters. We are thrilled by initiative of the young members of our church to bring their friends.
We and others in our church pray for acquaintances and family members and in the last couple of weeks we have seen God answer a number of these requests. We continue to be encouraged by the spiritual growth of our members, adult and youth.
The yellow vest street protests have continued for several months now. These have gone on much longer than we expected. It is to a great degree a headless show of discontentment about many different things. It is certainly a manifestation of the reality that in all of our countries people are looking for answers and fulfillment in the wrong places. As believers we need to keep our eyes on Christ and remember that first and foremost we are members of His family and Kingdom.
The regular Bible studies and prayer meetings in homes are going well. Thank you for your continued participation in the ministry here. Please, continue to pray for God to stir up a hunger for spiritual things in those who live around us and give us the wisdom to display and communicate Christ.
From France,
John and Judy
John Mark & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher[at]aol.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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Fellowship and Retreat for 15 Youth 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 25, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We want to thank each of our supporters for all your prayers and support. We appreciate all you have done for us and our ministries. God has been faithful in keeping us safe and encouraged. We started the year with a wonderful get together at our church, asking God’s blessing for our country and our church.
We are making many changes in the different ministries to reach out to more people and be more effective. As we have mentioned before, one of the difficulties here is the distance that people live and that lots of people don’t have transportation. Our church has two buses, but even then it would be impossible to go everywhere to pick people up. So, what we are doing is visiting the different places and finding places to have meetings for the youth and the adults.
We are doing visits of different kinds. Some, Kathy and I go, some we take other youth to visit the youth, and Kathy goes visiting with the ladies. This has been great. Pray for us that God will open the doors to more and more homes.
We have rented a building in Iranduba in a better area with more people and it is almost ready to get started. The rent was cheaper, but we have had to do some work on it before we use it.
Last week we brought the youth from the community of Ubim. There were 15. They spent the week with us. Most of them have been coming since we started the work there. We try to do several things with them because there is not much in their communities for them to do. We went fishing, swimming, and played games. Lots of fun!
The mission in Multirão is doing really great. The people are working hard and God has blessed the work.
We are also finishing the back part of the main church, Pedras Vivas, where we have the Sunday school classes.
We want to thank all those who sent special offerings last month. The gift allowed us to have a van fixed that we have been wanting to fix. Along with the gift, God sent a mechanic who knew what the problem was. We are glad because it is an eight-passenger and it is diesel, which will be very useful for us.
Thanks again to all our supporters. God bless each of you.
Love in Christ,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
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
