“You all have won me over! What a night!” This was the parting comment from Maria Socorro the first night that she visited our church for our special Christmas service. Since that night, she has attended faithfully and brought five family members with her as well. This is just one example of what God has been doing over the past month here in Salvador, Brazil, and it is my privilege to share a few brief sentences of encouragement.
In December, we held two special services the Sunday and Wednesday before Christmas. Both services were well attended, with Wednesday night being our high attendance of 72! We had church members out inviting folks all week, and we all pitched in to get our live nativity ready. One of our men donated almost all of the wood and all of the hay. Plus, he let us use his farm animals. The event was a big hit in the community, and there were many visitors like Maria who met us that night and have begun to attend.
We have continued to see souls saved every week, and our attendance keeps creeping up. We are still under pandemic restrictions here, and our auditorium is still under construction. This has made it harder and harder to make room for everyone who shows up for the services. This past Sunday night, our PA system wasn’t transmitting sound to our auxiliary room, our video camera plug conked out, and we had over 60 people in the service, without any kids’ services/classes or outreach of that kind. These are good problems to have, but we have got to work out a better solution. Our prayer is that construction will ramp up the rate at which it is going, so that before the end of February, we can be using our new auditorium.
God is doing something big here, and our prayer is that He will continue to bring the people in to hear the Word of God while moving our construction forward. Please pray with us for our new converts to attend faithfully and to grow in the faith. Pray for our financial needs with the ongoing construction. Also pray with us for two upcoming events on our church calendar: Vacation Bible School and our church’s first Missions Conference. Our prayer is that both of these will be well attended, souls will be saved, and people will surrender to serve God full-time.
We appreciate your faithful prayers and support, and we are praying for you as you all navigate some turbulent times there in the States. We love you.
Declaring His glory,
Wesley Palla
Psalm 96:3