Happy New Year! Alyssia celebrated her first Christmas! What a joyful season it was for Alessandra and me to have such a precious gift J We also had the joy of receiving my parents for two weeks over Thanksgiving as they came to love on Alyssia. We are very thankful as we reflect upon this past year!
We would like to share a few highlights of 2014 with you. Some ups and some downs. 
We will start with some low points:
Brazil's "Time" Magazine (Veja) ended the year with this headline: 2014- O Ano em que Pagamos Mico- (The year which we paid the Monkey) The translation is something like Paying the Piper or Paying for our Indiscretions.
Brazil's current Government will go down in history as the most corrupt and her corruption is what has sent her into a financial recession.
Brazil's soccer crises revealed in her 7 to 1 loss to the German team here in Brazil at the World Cup.
Brazil's Water Crises.
Brazil's Shameful Presidential Electoral Campaign fraught with Lies.
One bright moment came for Brazil late in December when Brazilian Surfer, Gabriel Medina, was crowned World Champion of the Professional Surfing Circuit. It might sound like a small detail, but in Brazil surfing is close behind soccer as a national sport and pass time!
Praise the Lord the for the Gospel goes forth! We know that God is in control and not only has He ultimately defeated His enemies....Satan, Sin and Death, but that He is very active fulfilling His promises and purposes in His name, through the Holy Spirit and including us as his ambassadors announcing the Good News and administering Grace in its various forms!
Here are a few ways that we have seen God at work in our midst here in Brazil in 2014.
We celebrate with our Ministry Partner, Pastor Fabio and the Life Church at Caju, as they sent their first two full time missionaries out. Pastor Marcelo and his wife Bia and family are moving to the Rio neighborhood of Novo Iguaçu where he has planted a church. Christ follower Maiara was sent to the Northeast of Brazil to start a Disciple Making movement among Brazilians who have migrated to Rio many from that region many years ago and now have migrated back. This is one way God is using Urban Missions and the Urban church to take the Gospel to remote regions of the world.
We celebrate with the Pathways team the accomplishment of studying God's Word with our Partners. We practiced and taught careful Bible study tools as we studied the books of Jonah, 2 Timothy, Genesis and Mark. Then I had the privilege to help the leaders of the Caju Life church pass the same studies on to 20 more leaders. We witnessed this teaching repeated over and over again with the plans for continuous Bible study to continue. Next Jonah will be taught at the new church plant in Novo Iguaçu. Below: First and Second Generation teaching Third Generation Disciples the book of 2Timothy.
I enjoyed starting a Discipleship Relationship with Mateus leader of Mission Surfers for Christ in Rio de Janeiro. This is a mission with a world-wide focus of making disciples of Jesus Christ, partners with the local church and is very well organized.
What a great mission it is for a country with nearly 6000 miles of shoreline and the World's best surfer!!
We celebrate with Mission Base and MissionNext for the development of the mobilizing software and website that will be used to connect willing workers to the Harvest! Below is a team of young Brazilians working together to see that the Gospel goes forth from Brazil to the Nations.
I need to mention the contentment that I feel in seeing the joy in Grant, Susan and the Brazilian team from the Mission Network, Salt and Light. This group of Americans and Brazilians meet on-line twice a week as they sit in their living rooms from two different continents practicing English, developing friendships and sharpening their evangelistic tools and skills!
We celebrate that Alessandra is on the home stretch of her 5 year project. It has been an amazing adventure. After much prayer, patience and persistence the Brazilian Fish Industry is in the position to adapt basic norms for a number of indigenous fish species that highlight Transparency, Responsibility and Leadership Initiative. 2015 will reveal if Brazil stops pagando Mico! (above) and decides to move forward toward justice and righteousness.
So May we all go forth in Jesus name toward new adventures fulfilling, each one, our calling as God reveals His glory in and through us transforming lives through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
From the Weyandts, Craig, Alessandra and Alyssia… Delighting in Him
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