November Newsletter from Calvary Chapel Rio

Hi Friends,

We, here at Calvary Chapel Rio, consider it pure joy to share with you the work that God is doing in our church! If we shared with you every time that the Lord has blessed us or answered our prayers, this newsletter would never end. So, in the interest of being concise, we have resolved in merely highlighting the praiseworthy events of September and we bring your attention to the most immediate needs and prayer requests of our church body. We hope you are encouraged by this newsletter as it is a testimony to our living God who is rich in mercies. Therefore, we do not doubt that the Lord God Almighty hears us when we call upon Him.  Furthermore, we invite you dear friend to partner with us in continuous prayer for the Bible tells us:

Newsletter from Calvary Chapel Rio

Hey everybody!

Here’s what’s new here in Rio:

Xerem Ministry

If you read our prayer requests often, you’ve probably noticed that we always ask that you pray for our ministry in Xerem. The city is about an hour from town, and it’s kind of a hassle to get there.

Update from Calvary Chapel Rio de Janeiro

We are going through a very special time here at CC Rio, where we are able to see the Lord’s hand upon our ministry and upon our lives. The body is slowly growing in number and our prayers are being answered. In this special time our church is very connected, united, and exited as we learn the Word of God together.

Pastors Alexandre and Celso

Update from Calvary Chapel Rio

Hello friends,

How are you doing? We are doing good praise God for that, last Sunday during service God really spoke to my heart, as I looked to the body worshiping, I saw that the Lord is doing his work and that He is building up his church here in Rio, this first year here in Rio has been a year of growth for me both spiritually and as a man, and of good and bad moments, but praise God for his joy that is our strength.
       
I would like to ask you to keep our church body in your prayers, when I look to the work here in Rio I feel like we are a little baby that is growing health and full of joy, but that needs the protection of the mom 24/7.
       
We are also very happy for the new couple that joined us here in the fellowship, with their little daughter, we were praying for a child to the children ministry for a long time. Slowly the Lord is adding to our body.
       
The African guys are doing good and growing day by day, and is beautiful to see the fellowship and communion in the body.
        
Pray for Cleber a worship leader who is moving from São Vicente to help us here in Rio, we have been for over one year without a worship leader just singing alongside the piano, what has been simple but very powerful. Pray for the Lord to provide for his provision as he serves the Lord here.
        
Lilian is enjoying her time at college, and she fells called to teach little children how to read and right, pray for her for wisdom and for protection in this city.

Thank you all for remembering us…

Alexandre and Lilian Vaz
Calvary Chapel Rio

News from Calvary Chapel Rio de Janeiro

Hello friends of Calvary Chapel Rio!

Here’s the news for this month:

Hudson’s Wedding

A few weeks ago two members of our church, Hudson and Alessandra, got married! Both have been part of the church here since the beginning, and have always helped out with worship. This was the first wedding of our church, and the first wedding performed by pastor Alexandre. It was a beautiful wedding, held in a old Anglican church nearby. Please keep their marriage in your prayers.

      

Arabian Party 

This month we also had an “Arabian party” in the church. A friend of ours, Renata, has been involved in missions to the muslims (living in Egypt & Niger) for a time, and set up this party to raise awareness about missions in that part of the world. All the food, games, clothes, and worship were centered around that culture. It was weird singing worship songs to Allah – but apparently that just means ‘God’ in Arabic. We finished the night by hearing Renata give a word about the incredible need for the gospel in the Muslim world.

Same old Stuff

Pastor Alexandre is working his way though the book of Acts on Sundays, while Russell is going through Galatians on Thursdays. Keep praying for both studies please – that God would bless Alexandre and Russell’s times of studying and give them the words to say each week. Pray that the body would be edified each week, always walking away more in love with Jesus.

Prayer Requests

► Husdson and Alessandra – as a newly married couple, they can use our prayers. Pray that they would grow closer together as they grow closer to Christ, and that their marriage would glorify God.
► Luciene and Josh have been engaged. Josh is an American who attends Calvary Chapel Buffalo, New York. He met Luciene here on a business trip some time ago, and now they are engaged. Luciene has been part of our fellowship for the past four or five months. We as a church celebrated their engagement party a couple weeks ago. Soon they will be moving to New York where they will get married and live. Keep their marriage and lives in your prayers.
► Missions Trip – in July we will have a team coming from Calvary Chapel Corpus Christi, Texas. They will be here for a little over a week. It’s never too early to start praying for stuff like that!
► New Building – we are still praying that God would open up a door for us to be able to move.
► Protection over our body – pray that God would protect us from the enemy, and that He remove anything from among us that isn’t glorifying to Him
► New Believers – continue to keep Dino & Juliana in your prayers (see last newsletter)

News From CC Rio de Janeiro

We just received news from Calvary Chapel in Rio de Janeiro.

Hello everyone! Here is what’s going on with our fellowship…

Carnaval Retreat

We all had an awesome time this year at the retreat. (If you didn’t know, Carnanval is the Brazilian 4-days-before-Lent festival like Mardis Gras, so all the churches usually skip town and go on retreats). We had the retreat at the CC Bible College / Conference Center which is in a city called Campo Mourao – about 20 hours southwest of Rio by bus.

There were over 300 people there, all from Calvary Chapels in Brazil: CC Rio de Janeiro, Sao Vicente, Curitiba, Campo Mourao & Florianopolis. We were privileged to have pastors Brian Broderson (CC Costa Mesa), Jim Gallagher (CC Vero Beach, Florida), and John Randall (CC Brandon, Florida) join us and teach throughout our time there.

I can’t tell you how blessed we all were from the teachings. We were also blessed by the worship, the fellowship, the devotions – everything was amazing. We are very grateful to all the Bible College students and staff who worked to make it possible for us to be there.

We want to say thank you also, to those of you who prayed for this event. Your prayers were answered. Many lives were committed to Christ, others were restored, and the rest of us were just blessed to have a time of spiritual refreshment.

New Believers

There are two special people we want to tell you about. Both have been very cautiously checking things out over the last month or so, and have been slowly coming around to Christ. Both came to the retreat and ended up going forward to be baptized on the last day. The first one’s name in Juliana. She is from California, and is here studying abroad for a while.

Deborah (another Californian here studying, who is part of our fellowship) had befriended her at school and brought her to church. The other’s name is Dino – Dino is from Angola, and is a friend of Miguel (our other Angolan friend in the body).

Both new believers are very open and honest and excited. They also have lots of questions, so please pray for our wisdom in discipling these two precious new believers.

New Building

We are praying that God would open a door for us to be able to move the church. Right now, we are meeting on the fourth floor of an old building above a youth hostel. We aren’t asking for the Vatican, but it would be nice to have a place on the ground. The handicapped and elderly have a lot of trouble getting in.

We are almost invisible to the world. We have a bright yellow-lit sign, but because the street we’re on is so narrow, you would never notice it unless you looked straight up. Unfortunately, there are not many people walking around on our street with their heads cocked back like that.

Prayer Requests

► New building / Financial provision.

► New believers – Juliana & Dino – that they would grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

► Direction with the ministry in Xerem (kids).

► Our ministry to the Angolans – Russell and Alexandre are praying about going to Angola with an Angolan friend (Miguel) in July for 2 weeks.

► English Courses – we will be starting the English classes again soon. This is a huge evangelistic opportunity. Please pray for Russell and Deborah as teachers.

► Bruce and Renata – pray for them as they prepare to move to Sao Paulo where they will visit their family before wrapping up their time here in Brazil and moving to Oregon.

► Worship leader – we have a friend (Cleber) who is a very gifted worship leader in Sao Vicente who is planning on moving up here to help in July. Pray for him as he prepares to move, and pray for us as we wait.

► Please pray for Graciela – she is in the U.S. studying English.

► Also pray for Aline who is studying at the CC Bible College in Hungary.

If you would like to be a part of the financial support for Calvary Chapel Rio de Janeiro, your check can be sent to:

Calvary Chapel Corvallis
P.O. Box 965 Corvallis, OR 97339
(make the check out to Calvary Chapel of Corvallis and note: Calvary Chapel Rio de Janeiro)