Dear faithful co-laborers in the ministry,
And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them. (Acts 14:27a) We returned to the USA for our third furlough on January 29, and we hit the ground running. We are thankful for our home church for the work they did in getting a place ready for us to stay in while we are on furlough. We were able to spend a little time in Ohio with our adult children for Joseph’s birthday in February. We then traveled down to Georgia to celebrate the 85th birthday of Dan’s dad.
We have been busy visiting supporting churches so far, and have even been able to get into some new churches and schedule some upcoming meetings. We will be traveling to Virginia the end of April, then out to California next month for Anna’s graduation from West Coast Baptist College on May 4. We will travel back to Ohio, then on to upstate New York and Connecticut before heading back to South Carolina on May 24. And this is just within the next five weeks!
Our schedule is pretty full up until close to Thanksgiving. We will not only be in South Carolina in June, but also in Georgia and Pennsylvania as we head into July. We will be back in Ohio, Georgia, and then Tennessee as July ends. In August, our daughter, Anna, will be married to a fine young man out in California by the name of Ryan Rodgers. In September, we return to Ohio for my nephew’s wedding, and then finish the month in Iowa. October will take us to Georgia (again), then to two mission conferences in Louisiana and Rhode Island. We will be back in South Carolina for November and December. With great excitement we will plan to return to Brazil, either the end of December, or the first part of January. We still have many churches to visit, and many miles to travel before our furlough is over, so we covet your prayers.
Our colleagues back in Brazil, Jon and Hannah Speights, are doing well in our absence. Jon told me that one of our deaf men lead another deaf man to the Lord and brought him to church. Jon is continuing the discipleship of Wellington, and has also begun other Bible studies with some more deaf that have a desire to study the Bible. We also just heard that Hannah and another one of our deaf ladies were able to lead another deaf lady to the Lord several days ago. We praise the Lord that, although we are not there, the work continues, people are being saved, and the deaf are growing in the Lord.
While it is not possible to visit all of our supporting churches during this furlough, we would be glad to send you a DVD of our ministry report if you would let us know that you would like to have one. We appreciate each one of you that has a part in our ministry.
Your representatives to Brazil,
Dan & Becky Bennett