EASTLICK UPDATE April/ May 2007

How is everyone? We have pretty much just been following our routine of Church services Sunday, Tuesday and youth meetings every Friday. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday we also have cell groups. Tuesday through Friday we have afternoon seminars to attend called “The School of Growth”. We continue to work counseling cell members and discipling them. We have been doing at least 1 outreach per month with the youth and are excited about the new urban evangelism ministry called M.M.U. One of our co-workers Marcello Calvalcante is doing a great job working with about 40 of our youth forming dance, service and drama teams. We went out in the middle of the night last week serving soup to the people living on the street. It was cool to see what God did in the hearts of the kids. It really reminded me of our trips to St. Louis with the dream center. We will be doing an open air meeting next week in a plaza near the church. Please keep Marcello and this ministry in your prayers. Besides providing Pastoral covering and assisting them where we can in training and mobilizing them, we hope to get them a sound system and continue to build the youth ministry and short term missions ministry around this team. We hope some of you will come or send us youth to join us in the mission here!

THE FAMILY

Lulu is finishing 5th grade and doing very well. She has also begun a ballet class at church which she really enjoys. She is so organized, always making her little lists and reminding Mom and Dad of her events and things we need to sign. She is quite the Lucinda, reminds us of her Gramma Cynda Lu
Talita is finishing high school in Belmont Wi. She will graduate May 25th. She will be having a joint graduation party in Belmont with her cousins, Emily and Levi who will graduate with her. The party will be on the 27th at her Aunt Dani’s and Jeff Crase’s. We will also have a party in Freeport the following weekend.
Izzy as most of you know broke his elbow in 5 places back in February. He had surgery and fortunately he has caught back up in school. (He brought home A’s and B’s this time.) The operation cost us some money but thanks to many of you it was all covered. Our biggest concern has been infection and the fact that he couldn’t bend the arm. The infection is gone praise God and this week he started physical therapy at one of the best clinics in Manaus. The clinic is within walking distance of our house and he can go there after school so he doesn’t have to miss school and get this: THEY WANT TO TREAT HIM FOR FREE!!! HEY, WHO AM I TO DISAGREE WITH THAT! God is so good!

Dulce and I also celebrated 19 years of marriage in March and got to participate in a renewing of our vows with several other couples in our church... Hopefully I'll get some time to publish the pics later...

MINISTRY NEWS…
We really had to spend a lot of time taking care of Israel and the red tape involved this past 2 months, as a result our cell groups have kind of leveled off. Three of them are strong but just haven’t grown in numbers. Filho the ex-addict I mentioned in March is doing well. He still struggles some but he is progressing. His business as a lawyer is progressing as well. His friend Jairo the ex-dealer is still going strong although his brother decided that he doesn’t want to follow through with a commitment to Christ right now.
I also had to step away from the Jiu Jitsu academy in March. I am still involved as a council member of “Warriors for God” (a Baptist ministry of a friend of mine). I also still train when I can and try to keep tabs on some of the guys. Unfortunately since they closed the academy I have lost contact with many of them. I got invited to train with 3 other guys for the world championships in the USA later this year. I really have to pray about that as it is doubtful I would have time to train even though it represents and awesome international ministry opportunity and one of the guys I would train with is from our church and very on fire for the Lord. I believe he is called as an athlete missionary. I actually would probably do pretty well in my category but there is also the chance of injury so Mama’s not too in favor.

BACK IN THE USA…
Yeah that’s right we will be going for Talita’s graduation in the end of May. We will arrive May 22nd. Dulce and the kids will stay until June 9th. I have a youth camp in the end of June so I will be staying until July 2. We will be preaching some Wednesday nights and one weekend at Crossroads. We will be doing a service at New Covenant in Galena on the 27th of May and we are trying to hook up with several other churches which we just haven’t nailed down yet. We sure hope we see you all when we are there! We are looking forward to it.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE CELL GROUPS TO GROW AND MULTIPLY AND FOR GOD TO RAISE UP NEW LEADERS:
- The cell group at “Nego’s”
- The Saturday ladies cell group at Shell’s
- SATURDAY men’s CELL at church.
-the Sunday cell group at Francisco’s house that seems to be faltering
-the new cell group that Fabio is leading on Wednesday night

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE YOUTH MINISTRY AS WE TRANSITION INTO A “MISSION SERVICE BASED MODEL” AND AWAY FROM A “CHURCH SERVICE based MODEL”

– We hope to be more in background positions supporting Brazilian leaders who will lead the youth in ministry here.

- Pray as we try to integrate the different ministry teams and leaders that involve youth and change the format of our services.

PLEASE PRAY FOR IZZY’S ARM, FOR COMPLETE HEALING AND FOR THE HEALTH OF OUR FAMILY IN GENERAL.
Please continue to pray for God’s direction, protection, provision and holiness in our lives. Pray for our times with HIM to be sweet. Pray for our knowledge of Him and our effectiveness in communicating that knowledge to others to continually increase. Pray for an increase in the fear of and love of God in our lives, for passion for God and a wisdom to match the passion. PRAY AS GOD LEADS AND THANKS SO MUCH FOR PRAYING AND SUPPORTING US!!! God bless you guys so much!!!!

LOVE,

Jon, Dulce, Izzy, Lulu

THE EASTLICK’S