April 28, 2022
Greetings from São Paulo, Brazil.
It’s an honor to serve the Lord Jesus Christ! Next month will mark our 23rd year of being in Brazil. God has been so good to us, and we praise Him for His faithfulness to us.
The last week of March was our annual BIMI Field Conference. Since our Brazil Field Director, Sean Lunday, took over being the Director over all South America, our Field Conference was attended by nearly eighty people from five different countries (six, if you include the USA). As always, it was a blessed time of fellowship, wonderful preaching, fun activities, good Brazilian food, lots of laughter, and spiritual refreshing. We met some new friends and got reacquainted with old friends. It was great to get our spiritual “batteries” recharged to continue the work of the ministry.
Samuel, a deaf man that visited our church back in October of 2021, has been coming off and on for the past few months. He told Dan that he didn’t own a Bible, so Dan was able to give him a Bible that was paid for by a church in the USA through the ministry of BEAMS. Dan encouraged Samuel to read the Gospel of John three times, and he said that he would. On April 17th, Samuel was back in church, and after a visual, Easter/Gospel message, Samuel placed his faith in Jesus as his Savior. Hallelujah!
A few weeks back, Becky was contacted by Danielle, a lady in Pompéia, a city about six hours northwest of São Paulo. We had met this family several years ago through some mutual friends, so they knew that we worked with the Deaf. A couple weeks ago, they contacted a man to do some work, and when he came to their house, he brought his deaf cousin to help. The deaf man, Gabriel, doesn’t know sign language, and Danielle’s family became burdened for Gabriel. Danielle then got in touch with Becky, and after several conversations Becky agreed to teach this family Brazilian sign language (LIBRAS). They had their first class on April 19th via Zoom, so please pray that Gabriel could be reached with the Gospel by this family as they learn sign language, and then teach him.
The Deaflympics (Deaf Olympics) will be held in Brazil on May 1st through May 15th. We just found out about this a short time ago but dismissed the idea of making the trip since we didn’t know of anyone else going among our missionaries. However, we felt the Lord leading us to go and be a part of reaching Deaf from around the world with the Gospel.
Dan sent a voice message to his brother, David Bennett, to ask him for advice about going to the Deaflympics. David has organized a couple of groups that went to two previous Deaflympics in other parts of the world, so we knew that he would be able to help. To make a long story short, David was able to get a big, plastic tote on a plane the following day, full of tracts, DVDs, and Gospel literature in several languages. David’s daughter and son-in-law, Brian and Christa Pate, are missionaries in Brazil, and they were leaving the very next day to return to Brazil after their furlough. Dan picked them up at the airport the next day, and also sixty-five pounds of Gospel “Seed” to be scattered around the Deaf world.
Please pray for us as we meet deaf people from around the world, and as we put the Good News of Salvation into their hands. The Gospel could go to Communist, Socialist, and Islamic countries. Only God knows how far the outreach will go. Pray that we would be Spirit filled, and that God would give us wisdom as we share the Gospel with those to whom we can minister. We can communicate in English and ASL (American Sign Language), as well as in Portuguese and LIBRAS (Brazilian Sign Language). Pray for us as we take the Seed of the Word to the Deaf of the world, that Jesus Christ would be magnified, and that souls would be saved. He promised that His Word will not return void (Isaiah 55:11), so let us pray for a bountiful harvest of souls for the glory of God.
Thank you for having such an important part in the ministry among the Deaf here in Brazil!
May the Lord continue to bless you there in your community as you faithfully serve Him.
That all may “hear,”
Dan & Becky Bennett