Brazil Update: Thank You, Pray, and Stay Connected

Discipleship, News, Service | by Pastor David Parker

This Saturday 11 of us will leave for Brazil for 9 days of ministry (Aug 9th-18th) alongside Restore Brazil and church planting efforts in the flavelas (slums) of Rio. Personally, I couldn’t be more excited for this trip and for the team Jesus has brought together. We’re looking forward to serving and ministering alongside our fellow brothers and sisters in Rio!

(Top Left) Pastor David Parker, Tyler Johnson, Linnell Pitt, Edward Sumner, (Middle Left) Catie Rizzo, Peter Isaza, Katie Collins, (Bottom Left) Anne Johnson, Shelley Pierson, Chelsey Scheffe, Peter Duong.

As we get ready to go, I wanted to send out a brief update so you know how you can be thanking Jesus with us, and praying for us over the next few weeks.

Thank You!

First, Thank You! This past Sunday evening, we packed over 17 suitcases (with a few more to go!), filled with hundreds of toiletry kits, mercy outreach supplies, kids activities, toys, games, shoes, a/v equipment, and more! Not only has Jesus provided for our whole team to go, but I’m so thankful to see God’s provision above and beyond our goal, and that we’re able to bring so many needed things down to Brazil to bless the churches we’ll be partnering with. Thank you to those who gave above and beyond to see the Gospel take a deeper root in Rio!

Will you commit to praying for us these next two weeks?

Second, As we’ve been preparing for this trip, I was reminded of Ps 127:1 the other day which says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” We could spend tons of time preparing and taking lots of stuff down, and yet if Jesus doesn’t go before us in every way, scripture says that our labors are in vain. With that in mind, we’ve been praying boldly, and would covet your prayers that Jesus would go before us in the following ways:

• Pray for safety in travel, and that all our suitcases would make it there safety and get through customs.
• Pray for continued unity on our team and that we would be rooted and grounded in all that God is for us in Christ, regardless of what might happen on the trip.
• Pray that we would be a blessing to the churches in Rio, and that through our outreach and partnerships, some would trust in Jesus for the first time.
• Pray for me as I preach in one of the churches we’ll be partnering with, that Jesus would break down any social and language barriers, so that others would get to taste and see how good our Savior is.
• Pray for energy for all of us. We have a full week of ministry with kids, the homeless, the addicted, and the orphaned as well as lots of other ministry and details (music, video, training, repairing equipment, etc.).
• Pray that above all else, through this trip Jesus and His glory would be made known to everyone; from those we’ll share a seat with on the plane, to the most needy and broken in Rio.

Join us to pray this Friday at 6:30pm

This Friday, August 8th, at 6:30 we’re going to meet as a team in the ImPark parking lot at 5th and Bell Street to handoff suitcases, do some last minute shuffling of gear, and pray together. We’d love to have anyone that can and wants to join us in praying for this trip to come out!

Stay Connected

Lastly, many of you have asked how you can stay up to date with us while we’re in Brazil? Great question! We created a public FaceBook page, that we’ll be posting trip updates to as we’re able.  It’s a public page, so you can still view it, even if you don’t have a FaceBook account. As well, we’ll be using the hashtag #DCCbrazil2014 on Twitter and Instagram if you want to follow updates there as well.

Thank you for partnering with us!

For the entire Brazil team,

Pastor David