Dear faithful ministry partners,
In our last prayer letter, we told you about the monthly Bible studies in the home of one of our deaf couples that live over an hour away in the city of Arujá. On April 15, we had a wonderful day at the evangelistic Bible study at the home of Ademir and Rita. After Dan had preached for two hours, Luiz and Rafaella (a deaf couple) wanted to talk more with us about salvation. After another hour, they both repented of their sin, asked for God’s forgiveness, and accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. It was a “GLORY, HALLELUJAH” kind of day!
On March 19, Becky began a Bible study with Graciete, a sweet deaf lady who is low verbal. She loved learning, but she had such a hard time understanding as she really had no language. Becky began using the Wordless Book Visualized that we brought from the States, beginning slowly with Heaven, then moving on to sin, what it is, where it started, who sins, etc. Becky then moved on to the One who could take the punishment for Graciete’s sin.
Just as they were getting to the Cross, José Joaquim and Cláudia, a new deaf couple, joined in on the Bible study. When these two began coming, Becky started over again with Heaven and sin, the Cross and then the Resurrection. This was spread out over about ten weeks of continual, repetitious Bible study. On May 28, all three deaf had come to the point where they were understanding and needed to be confronted in a personal way about Heaven and Hell. They each knew that they wanted to be saved, that they wanted Heaven, and not Hell, but they still were not sure how to be saved. Becky showed them the video that Deaf Evangelist Ronnie Rice made for Silent Word Ministries, and they watched with interest. After watching the video and asking more questions, each of these three deaf people, one by one, asked Jesus to forgive their sins and to be their Savior! It was a glorious day!
On August 5, we went to a birthday party of a little boy that just had his first birthday. There were a lot of people there, many whom we did not know. Shortly after we started eating, Angelo (one of our deaf men) came over to me with a hearing boy and told me that the boy wanted to know about Jesus. Diogo told me that they attended an Assembly of God church, and he thought that he was on his way to Heaven. As I began to explain the Gospel to this boy, tears began running down his face when I told him that Jesus paid the penalty for his sin. After several interruptions, Diogo bowed his head and trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. While we went to a birthday party to celebrate the birthday of a one-year-old, we also celebrated the new birth of an eight-year-old. Praise the Lord!
A few weeks back I sent out an email because our home church pastor, Dr. Kenneth Walters, recommended that we write a letter to our supporting churches to inform you of our need for a newer, more reliable vehicle. Since our last prayer letter, I have had to call a tow truck three times to take our van to the mechanic. We really are in need of a reliable vehicle that has a minimum seating capacity for seven people. Would you please pray about what God would have you to do to help us with this need? If you would like to help us with a monetary gift, you may send a check to BIMI. You may also give online by going to bimi.org, and pay via PayPal under the “Giving” tab. Please include, “DAN BENNETT #814 – VEHICLE FUND” when giving. To those of you that have already given toward our vehicle fund, THANK YOU!
We have so much for which to praise the Lord, and a big part of what we are able to do is because friends like YOU are investing in the ministry of which we are co-laborers here in Brazil. Thank you for partnering with us!
That all may “hear,”
Dan & Becky Bennett