Dear Praying and Supporting Friends,
Ministry Update:
God has given us safety as we travelled and reported in many supporting churches. It was a great blessing to see old friends and make new ones. It is encouraging to see people of God who are still standing strong for right in this dark world.
During our travel, God set up a meeting. We were in Murfreesboro, TN. and we met Luiz. Luiz was working at the church on a construction project. It was the last day the crew would be there. Pastor Dusty Ray had already shared the plan of salvation to the boss. When we arrived the boss found out we spoke Portuguese. He called Luiz over to us. For the next 45 minutes we were able to share the gospel with Luiz, who is originally from Portugal, in Portuguese. He had immigrated to Venezuela 24 years ago. When Venezuela fell apart he came to America. I was blessed to be able to lead Luiz in the sinner’s prayer that day. God has amazing timing. There is so much more behind the timing of this event, but it was clear God was sending us for that special moment. Pray for his family who are still stuck in Venezuela.
The church in Brazil is doing well despite our absence. Pastor Agnaldo is doing a great job. We have had a family join the church in September. A lady got saved while Pastor Agnaldo and his son were out soul winning. We have had another interesting experience with a neighbor. When we moved into the building we realized very quickly there was a drainage problem. We have been trying to figure it out for the last year and a half. What we did not know was every time we flooded our neighbor’s house was flooding as well. This month he came to the church to complain. Pastor Agnaldo called us and we paid $800 for a man to come and fix it. Pastor Agnaldo went to the man, Edson, with a box of chocolates to apologize. Edson decided to come to church after that meeting. Two weeks later David Whitmore was preaching for us and led Edson to the Lord. We literally watered that seed! Praise the Lord for Edson’s salvation. Pray for his wife who has cancer and is an atheist. Pastor Agnaldo has tried to witness to her but she refuses to discuss God.
We would particularly like you to pray for my passport situation. My Brazilian passport has expired during COVID but the consulate in Chicago is not taking appointments for this. We need to have that worked out before our flight on January 8. We are checking around the country for other consulates that may be open. We are willing to travel if we have to to accomplish this. Paperwork is a very complicated thing when foreign governments are involved. We really would like to get home to our people.
MBIB:
Our missionaries have stayed very busy during the lockdown. Irene is a widow of one of our missionaries. She has decided to continue to serve God despite the death of her husband. She personally purchased food baskets and delivered them to families in need. She used that opportunity to witness, or disciple the people she had led to the Lord. She did this till she fell and broke her foot. We were able to send her some extra money from our support to help her with this project. Pray for complete healing of the foot.
Family News:
David finally got to walk in his graduation in September. The ceremony had been delayed due to COVID. Our entire family, including all the new daughters-in-love, came down with COVID right before. Elizabeth, Lee’s wife, was not able to walk because she was still in quarantine from the COVID. Praise the Lord, no one had the dramatic symptoms the news is spewing out. We were all a bit tired and had weird sinus headaches but that was about it.
We will continue to try and book meetings to visit churches and friends till we leave in January. Thank you for the prayers and support through the years. We could not do what we do without faithful churches here in America.
In His Service,
Bryan and Rebekah Johnson
São Caetano do Sul, Brazil Since 2005.
