News from Porto Alegre!

This week our house church went to the park, we worshipped there.

We shared popcorn! We with our brothers and sisters!

It was a different experience to take the Bible to the park! After all, God does not want to be locked in a building, he is part of our life and we want to testify his word!

Remember Flavia? Our former secretary has just graduated and she is selling real estate now! We want to bring her back to the church, but it is difficult, because her job requires her to work on the weekends! :(

We also like to meet our church members for a meal. Here we are at Joao and Clarisse's house. They have a new house church at their home, we try to meet as often as we can to support each other spiritually. In the picture, you can also see Luzia and Daniel with their son Mateus! It was a happy celebration because they were divorced, and now they are back together! Luzia has prayed for this for almost five years and she has never given up! :)

April Update - Easter Retreat

On April 10, 11,12 we had an Easter Retreat with all the house-churches, we had a great time, we had classes for women ministered by Nadia Diogo from the church of Viamao. Here are some pictures of this class! I can also introduce you my sisters in Christ!

And in the next picture, there is Raquel, Ines' daughter! We are great friends!

In the picture below, you can see Ines, she knows a lot about the word, and I always learn something from her!

On the left you can see Priscila, Rui Diogo's sister. She is the most ingenuous and innocent person I have ever met. I love her sweetness! :)

And this is my good friend Lorena. She is always calm. we have good conversations about family, children, etc!

And here you can see the entire group of women who attended the class. We talked about how to be light to others! I can already see a lot of light in their eyes! May God give us wisdom do pass it on!

April Update!

Hi, after a long time without writing anything due to our long two-month fourlough through the USA I took a while to get back to my normal life, and get back to my work that I love. The Salgado family is one of the first families we visited after furlough. Alex and Jennifer were doing house church there before they left to the US. So we visited them because we miss them and also to check on how they are doing. They decided to go to a church building near their house because they can have more activities for their teenager girls. We understand that house churches are not applicable for every family, and there is also the fact that they moved away from Porto Alegre and it is difficult for the other members of our house-church to visit them more often. We will continue to support them with our visits and prayes. They will always be our dear brothers and sisters in Christ!

This is our house church. This one was on April 4th, three days after my birthday. I had a great surprise, Marzo and Lu (our best man and woman in our wedding) came to see us. I served cake and tea, and we praised the Lord and had the Lord`s supper together.

We also visited Luzia along with our friends Joao and Clarice, and they got me a surprise for my birthday. After dinner we had a delicious cake and happy birthday. I'm not used to being surprised like that. I'm always the one who prepares the surprises! So that was good!
By the way, Joao and Clarice started a house church in the military base where they live. They are starting with a another couple. Isn't it wonderful?

Luzia is congregating with a new Church of Christ building with another team of missionaries. She also prefers a building because she wants her son, Mateus, to have Sunday School with other kids. We keep in contact and pray for each other! In fact she is getting back together with her ex-husband Daniel. That's an answer to our prayers!

This is my oldest friend Blanka. She used to be my Portuguese student. Last year we celebrated our birthday together drinking champagne and eating cake. My birthday is on April 1st and hers on April 4th. Her family says she is becoming senile, she is not speaking anything but "yah". But when she saw me again, she started speaking. She said my name, and when I gave her flowers for her birthday she said: "very nice" . That was a very touching moment for me, she did not say anything else, but she held my hand strong and wouldn't let me go. I talked with her a lot, I know she could understand me, I could see it in her eyes. She is now 96 years old. It's strange to say that I don't see her as my granmother but as my friend, when we celebrated our birthday together last year I didn't feel any age difference between us!

Well, this is a little about my short life of 32 years old!

Interesting Students!

As you know, I'm an English teacher, I have about 25 students, most of them come to my home to learn English. I get to know many interesting people as my job is to talk to them in English and make them speak as much as they can to practice their English. Above you can see Antonio and Lísia Machado, they are a very nice couple, he is a law student and she is a civil servant. Antônio was born in Portugal but grew up in Brasil. We have many good conversations about life in English. In this picture we are playing scrable with Matt!

This is Loreta Freitas, she is a Biology professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She needs English because she is working in a project with the Unicersity of Bern in Switzerland. As we were talking in English about our lives, I found out that she belonged to the church of Christ when she was a child, her belated father, Joffre Freitas used to work at the American Consulate in Porto Alegre and befriended with Allen Dutton, she used to play with Allen Jr. and the Signoretts brothers that come to our house church. She said that she wants to bring her mother to our house church on a Sunday in the sake of the old times. She also said that she still remembers her Sunday classes with Maria Dutton when she was 3 or 4 years old!

I am glad that God has been using my work as an instrument to bring people back!

Please, pray for my students!

God Bless you!

Refreshment!

I would like to thank the Continent of Great Cities for the wonderful conference for the missionary women which was held on the first week of november in Maresias, São Paulo. It was good to have a time to reflect about my role in the church, although I am not a "professional" missionary, I found out that I am one by heart. Georgia Freitas did a very good job by organizing this conference for us! Becky Holton was my counsoler, we had really meaninful conversations in our small group. It is wonderful to feel accepted and expected to go! I also thank Juaneyla and Nádia from Viamão for insisting me to go!
I didn't take my camera so when I receive more picture I will put some in my blog to share with you. Unfurtunately on the second day I was bitten by a moskito on the sole of my foot, I had to go to an emergency room and get some medication and couldn't walk for the rest of the week. :(
But anyway, it was fun! At least I walked by the entire sea shore on the first day!
I am glad I had a talk with Dorris Schulz , now I am back with lots of plans for our house church !
Gotta go now! Please keep praying for our challenges down here!
Love,

Waleska

This is my niece Mariah, she only 2 years and half. We love to make cookies together!

She's a great assistant! She loves to help me in the kitchen!

Look, she even break the eggs and add them to the dough! Isn't it cute?

We love to spend time together! I am already practicing to be a mother in the future! :)

Women's retreat

In the end of October we had our yearly women's retreat. It was a blessing to spend time with our sisters in Christ. The topic of the retreat was "women praying".

This is Lorena and I studying the bible together, she's been in the church for more than 20 years, I suppose. I always learn a lot from her.

The retreat was on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Many women could only attend it on Saturday, so on this day we had around fifty women. It was a time for sharing, learning, and renewal! It was also special because it was the first retreat prepared by the Brazilians with a little help from the missionaries! It was a victory. And now they feel more confident, as they can't always depend on missionary work!

This is Nádia, my sister and friend in Christ, she was invited to give a class! She is always there for us, even though we belong to different congragations!

This is my sister and friend Clarice, her class was very good! As she is a doctor at the emergency room in the hospital she could testify how her prayers are answered in such an enviroment of death.

Everybody came home from this retreat spiritually renewed and ready to pass this message on!

News!
Next Year the congration of Viamão and I are preparing a special women's retreat. It will be on May 1st, 2nd and 3rd next year. The difference is that it will be national. We are inviting the women of all the congrations in Brazil. It is supposed to be a big event to reunite the sister in Christ. I would like to invite you to be part of that by donating small gifts to be given as a treat for each day. It can be note pads, pens, lipsticks, etc. Matt and I will be in our Furlough during the months of January and February. If you are interested in contributing somehow, please contact us at 4th avenue church! We really appreciate it!

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.(1 Peter 4:10)