God is good!
We had 6 deaf in church this past Sunday (05/17/09) – two from the deaf church in SP that came to help and four others!
We had Renata back again, but this time her (common law) “husband” brought her who is also deaf whose name is André. Becky scheduled a visit with Renata for this Saturday at 3pm. André and Renata have a hearing boy named Luis Eduardo who is nine years old.
Giovana (ten years old) came again also, but arrived late.
Becky and I made a visit with Cristiane on Friday, the deaf lady that was saved a few weeks ago. She showed us her Bible where she had copied Renata’s spiritual birth certificate that David made for Renata. We found out that Cristiane’s mother became pregnant with her when she was only 17 years old, and tried to abort Cristiane, but instead of coming out dead, she came out deaf. Now, 30 years later, a girl that should have died by abortion was born again on April 26, 2009. Becky will start a Bible study (discipleship) with her beginning this coming Friday. Cristiane is married to a hearing man named William, and they have an 11-year-old daughter named Amanda.
Edson and Sonia came also from the Igreja Batista da Bíblia in São Paulo (IBB-SP). We actually had more in the morning (40) than we did tonight (36).
(Becky speaking here)
Our deaf class on Sunday went very well. I still am amazed (and reminded) of all the things they don’t know being deaf. You forget these things when you work with only hearing. With André being there, we started (again) on the Wordless Book. I have already taught this twice now, but since André came we started over. We talked about the first 2 colors. André is really, deaf deaf! If we were in the USA, I would say he was ASL deaf! His signs were so P(ortuguese)SL! He was a lot slower to understand the things we talked about, but the ladies went right along. We sang and Sonia and Edson helped with prayer and leading the singing. The second hour we began a study on the Christian’s armor. We began on the first piece, the belt of truth. We talked about the truth, where the truth came from (God and His Word), that our authority for life is the Bible because it is His Word, and the fact that the Devil is a liar and the Father of Lies. They all paid attention very well. It is very enjoyable to talk with people who have never “heard” these things. I look forward to Sunday mornings like never before!
Giovanna was also excited to see everyone again and she really warmed up to André. He really took to her, teased her a little and she respects him. She was better behaved than ever before in our class! Praise the Lord! In fact, after church was over, she only left church after the other deaf had driven off!
(Dan)
Thanks for your prayers. Becky and I have been talking recently about what would have happened – or what would NOT have happened – had we left for furlough in December of 2008. Would Giovana have returned for VBS after the first day? Would she be coming to church now? If not, Sonia would not have come to our church, nor would Sonia have invited her friends to the church in Osasco, and possibly Cristiane would still be unsaved. There are a lot of “What ifs” that will only be answered in Heaven. We can honestly say that we praise God that we did NOT return for furlough back in December. I’m glad that God is in control, and not us. His way is perfect!