Matt. 9:35-38 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

June is the traditional corn harvest month in this part of Brazil. This has gotten us thinking about the "harvest" from our first three years of ministry here in Brazil as we prepare to leave for six months of US/Puerto Rico Assignment starting in August. In the middle of ongoing ministry activities and the zillion things one has to do to move to another part of the world, we have also seen God at work in all the fruit of these last three years.

A good example is our recent experience at Igreja Batista do Tirol (Tirol Baptist Church). We preached at the two evening services of this dynamic church of 2,000+ members. The church has amazing ministries in church planting (their goal is one new church per year), education and community development, and drug and alcohol recovery. During worship, people spend almost as much time standing and praising as they do sitting and listening.

We emphasized that mission is not a program or an optional activity for a church, rather mission is the church. When we finished the message and invited those who felt a call to cross-cultural missionary service to come forward, the response was incredible. In the first service 15 people came forward, and in the second service 38 came forward. The church is now working with our partners and hosts JAMI to develop an extension program to begin training these candidates for missionary service. Praise the Lord!
This is a good illustration of what God is doing in evangelical churches in the "majority world" nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In the last three years we have had the privilege of helping to train 22 candidates for missionary service. So far 11 of them have been sent by their home churches to places as diverse as East Timor, Senegal, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, two "closed" countries, and an indigenous people group in the Brazilian Amazon. An additional 10 missionaries are preparing to leave in the next 4-6 months. As our language skills have improved, we have been able to make personal contact with and provide pastoral care to almost 30 other JAMI missionaries serving around the world.

In addition, here at JAMI's missionary training center we have developed a number of modules and presentations to support candidates and challenge local churches. Each year our four-week intensive English for Mission program has gotten better, and the intensive modules we do on "The Missionary Life" and "Holistic Mission" improve along with our abilities in Portuguese. We often lead seminars for JAMI mission conferences and local churches on topics such as "Caring for Your Missionary Candidate," "Missionary Training: Myth and Reality," "Your Local Church: Source of Missionaries," "Holistic Mission," and "Mission Today."

We plan to live in Bremerton, WA from August until the end of January 2008. During this time we will be speaking at churches and mission conferences (and we hope meeting many of you!) and seeing friends and family. Asa will start 9th grade at the high school where we graduated way back in 19-forgotten. Some of the major trips and dates we already have scheduled are:
Global Mission Gathering, Green Lake Conf. Ctr, Green Lake, WI -- 8/4-9 (Ann and Asa)
PA and NJ -- 8/9-20 (Ann and Asa)
Oregon -- 9/14-16 (whole family)
New Jersey -- 9/20-10/1 (Ann)
Indiana -- 10/6-10 (Bruce)
New York World Mission Conference -- 10/11-16 (Bruce)
PA and NJ -- 10/17-22 (Bruce)
Oregon -- 11/6-8 (Ann)
West Virginia -- 11/10-13 (Ann)
Kansas World Mission Conference -- 11/14-19 (Ann)
OR or WA -- 11/30-12/2 (whole family)
OR or WA -- 12/7-9 (whole family)

Please join us in praying for:
Patience and strength for us as we move out of our apartment and wind up our ministry
Our 5 missionary candidate students plus 2 more couples who are preparing to leave in the next few months
Good connections and safety for us as we travel to the US
Praise for the Kudo family who will stay in our apartment, and for our friend Kathy and our family in Bremerton, WA who are helping us with a place to rent there
Asa as he starts 9th grade in the US this September
All our traveling and speaking this fall and winter!

Praise the Lord of the Harvest!

Ann, Bruce, and Asa