The Doolittles in Acre

More VBS pictures

2012-01-30T10:57:00.000-08:00

Here are some more VBS pictures. I suppose that most missionaries that have older children will tell you what a help their children are. Both Philip and Hannah helped so much. Even though Joshua and Benjamin participated in the VBS they helped by inviting their friends.

Hannah and Jessica signed all the children in and gave them name tags. This helped us in points for the games and to be able to keep the children straight.

This is Adilson. He is always good for a laugh. The children really like him.

2 little girls that showed up so dressed up and pretty. I had to take their pictures.

This was one of our crafts. Something to hang on your door.

Steve gave the Bible lesson everyday

Vacation Bible School

2012-01-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

We recently had our VBS. We have it in January or the first of February when the children here have their big break from school. This year we had rain 2 of the 3 days. The first day it just poured rain and we were wondering if we would have any children at all. We wound up with 40. Then second day we had around 70. The last day it rained again and we had children coming in the rain. We had over 60 children show up. We had about 20 from the church that helped with VBS. Even with the rain, the Lord blessed!

Games

Pledges

Taken from the front of the church during pledges.

Josefa telling the missionary story

Edmara did the crafts. It was a big job because we do not have a lot of space. We divided the children into 2 groups. One group did crafts while the other group did games. So we had over 30 children to explain what do.

More Christmas happenings

2011-12-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

If you read the previous post, you will know that Christmas evening we had a cantata. We had a great number show up and even though I participated myself, I think we did great. First because none of us are great singers. It was so much fun hearing everyone learn their parts. It was a first of me and I enjoyed it. I actually am going to miss the practices.

Our fearless leader

I must say that I have a great looking bunch of children. Since they were all dressed in alike I thought the perfect time to get a picture of them.

Christmas happenings

2011-12-26T10:46:00.001-08:00

We left the house at 6am on Christmas morning to go to the rural work. Steve had hurt his back again and so we were praying that the Lord just give him the strength to make it through the day. We arrived there around 9:30 for the service to start at 10 am. We also had a cookout planned for after the service. Thankfully we made it there and back with no problems. Steve did great with his back. On the way home it poured rain with a lot of wind. We were in a bit of a hurry to get back for the cantata which started at 7 pm. It was a great day with the people at the colony and I just wanted to share a few pictures with you.

Getting the fire ready for the meat.

Here is Luciano singing and Ely playing the guitar. They are the 2 men repsonsible on the Sundays that we do not go.

Waiting for the food to get ready. Everything is nice and green as we are in rainy season. This land used to be all rain forest but is actually pasture land now.

Putting the meat on to cook

The guys worked together out there and surprised us by building an outhouse.

Baby Shower

2011-12-21T09:14:00.001-08:00

We have 2 ladies from the church expecting so we were able to give a baby shower to the both of them. Since they are expecting around the same time, we did one big shower. They are both having girls. As a church, we are so excited for them. It was really a lot of fun for me to plan this shower. Hannah was a big help as she planned the games.

This is Eliene. She is married to our former caretaker. They already have 2 girls so this will be the 3rd.

This is Michelle. She is married to Walber and they are our neighbors. They have 2 boys and 1 girl so this will be their 4th child. Their 3 children spend a good amount of time at my house as my children enjoy playing with them.

My younger brother

2011-12-20T08:39:00.000-08:00

My younger brother, David, was born when I was 18 years old, and he graduated from college on Saturday with a degree in music. I am very proud of him as he is going on to get his masters in music. He is actually going to be able to work at the college (I think some how teaching) and then they will pay for his masters. This is David with my mom and my stepdad. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate both my mom and stepdad. My only regret that I was not there with them. Congratulations David!

Recent Family Pictures/ Mission's conference

2011-12-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

We just recently had our annual mission's conference. We saw our faith promise increase. That is such a blessing. We have a small group here, but the people are so good about giving. It amazes me. We currently support 9 missionaries for $100 Reais (about 55 US dollars) There was enough promised to take on several more missionaries. We have been able to help out in various mission's projects through out the year by our faith promise giving.

I took advantage of the conference to take some pictures.

This is Hannah with Islania from the church. This little girl is a barrel of laughs. She has had a rough go but is being raised by her aunt now. Her aunt has been saved for about a year along with a son of hers. They are all such a blessing to us.

This is a recent family picture. I really like to take these pictures because you can see how much the children are growing. Before long I will be the short one of the family. This picture was taken on the outside of the church. I need to take some pictures of the church. We have done a lot of work on the church and it looks great inside and out.

French Toast

2011-11-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

Joshua and Benjamin wanted to learn how to make french toast. I got them up early to teach them how to make it. Joshua lasted longer than Benjamin.

Here is Joshua making it.

Voila! Here is the result. It was really good.

Day of the Dead

2011-11-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Seems as if my posts are getting fewer and fewer. It also seems as if we never lack for something to do around my house. Life keeps us busy. Philip says that I must think that idle hands are a devil's workshop. Maybe that is true. I do like to keep us busy enough. I for the most part enjoy staying busy, so I maybe that is why I keep everyone so busy.

Tuesday (November 2nd) was Day of the Dead. It is a time when people go to the graves of their loved ones and light candles in the hope of lighting their path into heaven. How sad this is because we know as Christians that the only way to heaven is through Jesus (John 14:6). Once we have died there is nothing that we can do. We have made our decision. We took this time as a church to go to 2 different cemetaries to pass out tracts. We had a total of 16 people come and in less than an hour had passed out of 2,000 tracts. Afterward we went to the training center and had a cookout and played some volleyball. I am so thankful for the people of the church. For the most part, our people are wonderful to hand out tracts. We have a small group that goes to the hospital every Saturday to hand out tracts and then every other Sunday we have a larger group that goes into neighborhoods and hands out tracts.

UPDATES
*We have had 3 children with birthdays this month. Benjamin turned 9 on October 8th. Hannah turned 14 on October 30th. Joshua turned 11 on October 31st. I am so thankful for each one of the children. They are a blessing to their dad and me. They are big helps in the ministry and around the house.
*We finally sold our house. As you know we moved to the training center and we had a house here. We decided not to rent it and are thankful we didn't. We had a big wind and rain come through and knock some of the roof inside the house. If someone had been in the house, they would have been hurt and their furniture ruined. We fixed the roof and then about a month later the house sold. The car we had (and still have) had been giving us alot of problems over the last year and 4 months and so we were able to buy a new one. We are so thankful. It also has air-conditioning and that is a blessing. The older we get the more we enjoy things like that.
*Court case - We still are waiting. It has been over 9 weeks since I gave my testimony and still no news. We are looking on the positive side. No news must be good news. We know the justice system works slow but we were told if they had something against us that we would have already known. They said they were going to call Steve and have him finger printed (this has been over 9 weeks ago also) and they still have not called.
*Church news - We have been having more visitors of late. Please continue to pray with us about a national pastor. We are praying that this man would come from within the church. The church is to the point where they really do need a national pastor.
*Training center - Our caretaker has left us. He found a better job that paid more. We are so excited for him. He is from the church and his wife is expecting and so this is wonderful news. We have decided that our family will now handle much of this work. The Bible institute continues to go well. They are almost finished for the year. We are thankful for the ones that have studied.

Stress Relief

2011-09-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

We have been fishing 2 times in the last month. These are first 2 times we have been fishing since here in Acre. I guess I did not realize how much fun fishing could be. You can be having a awful day and go fishing. You watch the little bobber go up and down. You suddenly forget all your worries. Your biggest stress is when that little bobber goes way under to get that fish out of the pond. Well here are the big catches of the day. Benjamin was the only one that did not catch anything and Steve and I are just too old to really care if our pictures are taken with the fish we caught.

Joshua caught 2 fish on this day.

Philip caught 2 fish also and he had the big catch of the day.

Hannah caught 2 fish also.

Benjamin caught no fish but got caught with the cutest smile of the day!

Of the criminal type

2011-09-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Stephen, two people from the church, and I were accused of falsying documents. Basically the man is trying to take the church away. We have done nothing illegal, but here in Brazil you are guilty until proven innocent. Nice thought! I went to give my side on Monday morning. I was already really irritated about the whole thing. Well, when I get irritated/stressed etc. I tend to cry. Which is exactly what I did once I started talking. Then he proceeded to tell me that since Stephen and I are foreigners we have to be finger printed. At that point, I start in on how dirty this all makes me feel and that I had to show before I was allowed to have permanent residency in Brazil that I had no criminal record in the U.S. Thankfully this man was very nice and I am no longer an accused, he just put me down as a witness. So, I do not have to be finger printed. I wasn't real happy about that. He said that Stephen will have to be. Where you are finger printed you cannot drive yourself. You have to schedule a time for the police to take you where you need to be fingerprinted. They told Stephen they would call him (this was on Monday) but still have not called him as of today (Friday). Maybe they won't. That is what I am praying about. This case can still be thrown out and never make it to the judge. The man that questioned me acted like this guy really doesn't have a case but it goes to someone else and they decide. Continue to pray. We have already talked to a lawyer and he also feels like this is nothing.

Trip to the US/stop in Brasilia

2011-09-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I went to the U.S. because my dad passed away. I was able to take Philip with me at the last minute. I can tell you for a fact that it was such a blessing to have him with me. He saw me at my very worst and was so sweet to me. Anyway, we had a very long layover in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. 17 hours. We had such a long layover because it had to be that way for us to travel together. While at the airport, we started talking to another lady, a Brazilian, headed to Germany. She also had a long layover. While we were talking another lady that worked at the airport heard us and said she knew a taxi driver that would give us a 2 hour tour of the city for 120 Reias. That is about $75 US dollars. Well seeing as I had never seen the city, I thought it was great deal. Each would pay only $25. So, we arranged the whole thing. I started thinking, after arrangements were make, what if this isn't on the up and up. What if we get robbed? Once I saw the taxi driver (he was really small) I figured that we could probably take him if he was in fact of the criminal type. I guess figuring that I was once consider a suspect I should know the criminal type when I see them. Anyway, we took off to see Brasilia with a lady we didn't know. Here a few of the sites that we saw.

President Dilma's house

Philip with the guard outside of the president's house

The ramp the president walks up

Statues of some president of Brazil (I think and not sure which one) along with his wife.

Philip, me, and our traveling companion. I cannot remember her name. How awful!

Other interesting facts about our trip. The taxi driver took us to some huge outside market. (He charged us extra for this trip but did not tell us until the end of the trip) At this market they have all kinds of booths and you can buy fake name brand items. I bought a swatch watch for $13. I was so pleased with my purchase until the lens broke even before I made it back to Brazil. Anyway, it was very interesting. Our traveling companion was after some kind of purse and found several she bought.

Libras

2011-07-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

Ms. Ruth has been giving the people from our church plus a few others LIBRAS. This is the sign language they use here in Brazil. It has made it some easier have already known the alphabet in ASL but it is hard to remember. It has been neat watching the people of the church learn plus our family. Steve has to translate sometimes things into Portuguese or if she needs to know how to spell a word in Portuguese Steve has to sign the letters to Ms. Ruth.

Michael and Ruth Douglas

Ruth giving us class.

Update on Dad

2011-07-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

I appreciate so much everyone that has prayed for my dad. Here is what is happening with him. He has been from the hospital to a rehab center which is also a nursing home. He had to be moved back to the hospital for a few days. They were able to do surgery to put some kind of balloon in his back because he has a compressions fracture. This fracture was causing him a great deal of pain and his breathing was more difficult. My dad is pretty much on oxygen 24 hours a day and was having trouble with breathing while on oxygen. He is currently back at the rehab center/nursing home until he is better. I talked to my dad yesterday and he said he thinks he will be at least 13 more days there. I realize that he will go from one crisis to the next so he needs your prayers.

Tracts

2011-07-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy busy summer. We currently have Michael and Ruth Douglas with us. We took sign language with Ruth when in the states. It has been neat watching them communicate with the deaf here in Brazil. Even though ASL and LIBRAS (what the deaf use here) is different they are still able to communicate. I wasn't able really able to communicate with Portuguese for months and they have been able to communicate from the beginning. These pictures below are of Michael and Ruth along with our children working on tracts.

Michael

Hannah and Benjamin taking labels and putting them on tracts.

Ruth making the labels

Philip and Benjamin

I am now noticing that there are no pictures of Joshua. I think he must have escaped the work some how.

We have many in our church that are good to hand out tracts plus every Saturday at the hospital and every other week on Sunday afternoons. We go through a lot of tracts.

Prayer Request

2011-06-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

I would like for you to please pray for my dad. He has emphysema and has know it for at least 10 years. He has stopped smoking but if anyone knows this diease knows how bad it is. There are so many complications from this. He has heart problems and is on oxygen almost 24 hours a day. He now has a compression fracture from coughing so much. He is back in the hospital again (he was out less than a week only to go back). It has been difficult on me being here but I know this is where God wants me now. But please pray for him. Pray that God give him comfort and little pain during all of this.

Recent family picture

2011-05-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

Everyone is slowly starting to pass me in height. Thankfully I still have Joshua and Benjamin beat but for how much longer I do not know. I tell the children that I am shrinking and they just laugh at me. This picture was taken yesterday and we had a beautiful sunny day. One of those great days here in Brazil when it is not too hot.

Karen

2011-05-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a 15 year old girl by the name of Karen give her heart to the Lord. I had the privilege of giving her the plan of salvation. I usually try to get to know the person I am dealing with a little better. She was a first time visitor so I knew nothing about her. When dealing with her, her story was so familiar as many others I have heard. Poor choices by the parents, result in a harder life for the children. Her mother made some very unwise choices (involving a man which is so often the case) and now the consequences are affecting everyone in the family. I do not even know how much longer Karen will be in the city as her mother is thinking of returning to this man to whom she is not even married. Pray for Karen, also pray for the salvation of her mother.

Giving Blood

2011-05-12T05:08:00.000-07:00

The other day Steve and I went to give blood. As some of you know, we have government health care here in Brazil, but the people that can afford it have private insurance. Health insurance here is just about as expensive as it is in the states and continues to go up. Anyway, a man from the church was have surgery through the government program. If you use the government and are having surgery, you have to find so many people to give blood. This man has several children, not sure why they didn't give blood but he had no one to give blood. He spoke to Steve about it and he asked for volunteers at the church. I was surprised to see that people did not want to give blood. Steve and I both volunteered and had 2 more from the church that gave blood. It was really a very good experience. I had given blood once in the states and it was not a pleasant experience. Here everything was very very clean. They gave us a snack before and after giving blood. An interesting fact, of all the blood given here in our state only about 30% is actually used. Supposedly many give but once they get back the results of the bloodwork they cannot use the blood.

Easter/Mother's Day

2011-05-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

We recently had 2 special programs at the church. One for Easter and the other for Mother's Day. For Easter we did a special program and all the young people plus some of the children participated. Then for Mother's Day the young people with some help from the men cooked lunch for the mothers and then the young people that night had another program. I do not have any pictures of that program as I took a video of it. We are so excited with the attitudes of the young people. They seem so willing to do whatever to help. It was somewhat funny about the Mother's Day lunch. I had 2 of the teenage boys come up to me that very day and ask if we were serious about them helping and I said yes. Well, they all got right in there and pitched in. They mostly got the job of cutting the vegetables. Well, the girls had to go back and fix their messes but it turned out great just the same.

We had the lunch at the training center. We are so thankful for these facilities.

More pictures of the Mother's Day lunch.

These are the ones that were involved in the Easter program. I tried to download a video of the girls singing "Porque Ele Vive" ("Because He Lives") but I could not. I was able to do it before but now I cannot. It seems the older I get the more confusing the computer gets!

Bible Institute

2011-04-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the students that Steve has for the Bible institute. You can see they vary in age and for now he has an equal number of males and females. They almost all passed their first test and have so far been faithful to study. We are so excited with about this.

Much happening

2011-03-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

I feel just awful for letting so much time go between posts. Honestly, I do not know where my day goes to. Right now, I am in the getting finished with home school for the year mode. Thankfully we have only 2 more months left.

Some updates, we had after VBS a missionary, Josh Daniel, together with his brother-in-law and his 2 children visit us. Josh is planning on moving this way with his wife, Melissa, and their 3 boys when they get their permanent residency cards (they are currently in Sao Paulo, Brazil). They are going to be working with the deaf. We are super excited about this, as there is such a need for a deaf ministry.

After this, we started planning for a youth retreat during carnaval. We planned a 2 day retreat with our young people. I can say that this was such a blessing for me and I believe for our young people also. Steve taught on biblical dating and we had one young lady say afterward that she felt blessed to be able to hear the studies. She went on to say that no one is teaching this. It is so hard for our young people here to really live a life dedicated to the Lord and we are thankful for each young person we have. Not only that, we had so much fun with different sports activities. It made us feel young for a while, until we had to get out of bed the next morning.

Steve has started the Bible institute. Right now he has 8 studying. Kanon is coming from the states on April 15th and we might have a young man from the rural work coming to study. We are prayinig if it is the Lord's will he will be able to study. We have been praying for years for someone to continue the rural work. It is a 6 hour round trip and so we can only go every other week. We really need someone from there to pastor then they could have regular services. This young man expressed to us, that he would come and study if he thought he could find work here. We have checked around and there is plenty of work to be had. We are praying the Lord's will be done.

We had another young person saved Sunday night, Cinthia. Her mother has been praying for her for 6years and she finally gave her life to the Lord. Pray as I am discipling her that she will grow in the Lord.

So, I guess this catches you up on where we are. I am so thankful that God is good all of the time and that He can even use someone like me.

Vacation Bible School

2011-02-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

The children here in Brazil have been on their long break from school since before Christmas. The school year here starts in February and ends in December. So, we did our vacation Bible school this past week. It was a 3 day VBS. We had a good number and at least 20 people from the church helping. We needed each and every one that helped. On the first day we had 47 children, the second day 58, and the last day 78. We had many children that made professions. On Sunday night we gave certificates to the children and they were asked to bring their parents. We did have a few children bring their parents and about 20 children that actually showed up for the service Sunday night. We did a power point presentation with all the pictures that were taken over the 3 days. Here are just a few of the pictures. I did not post any pictures with Philip and Hannah, but they both worked so very hard. Our VBS was to be only for ages 4 through 12 so seeing as both Philip and Hannah are older, they were put to work. Philip was in charge of the games and Hannah and 2 other teenagers from the church were in charge of name tags, certificates, and registering in all the children each day. We could not have done what we did without their help.

Pledge to the Christian flag

Adrielle with her craft. She also won a t-shirt for being well behaved. Every day 2 children were chosen for their behavior and given a t-shirt.

Edmara explaining to the children the craft they were going to be doing.

Stephen telling the Bible story. He did the stories everyday and the children really paid attention.

A picture from the boy's side of the church. We had more boys than girls everyday.

Philip's blog

2011-01-27T12:58:00.001-08:00

Our son Philip has his own blog. You can find it at www.doindoolittle.blogspot.com. You can probably find out more about what is going on here by following his blog rather than mine. You see he has a lot more time to blog than I do and he is probably way more interesting than I am. Plus you get it all from another point of view.

Food

2011-01-12T11:23:00.000-08:00

So much of our time was spent eating. I guess that is what you do when you get together with your family. I always enjoyed when we actually went out which meant less time in the kitchen. One of our favorite stops was ice cream.

Here is Mitchel enjoying his ice cream.

Steve is the offical pie maker for holiday celebrations. I have not a clue on how to make good pie crust so he does the pumpkin pies and does a really good job.

This was a special dessert that we had at the watchnight service. We always have a big meal after midnight.

Walber's family had us over for fish one day. Walber is always good for some entertainment. He was eating the fish head. YUM! You should have seen Ruth's face when he sucked out the fish brains. She was sitting right beside him.

This is a big tub of Noni. It is supposedly the miracle fruit. It does not taste the best but it is good for you. Steve made noni juice for the ones brave enough to drink it.

Family

2011-01-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

Steve's dad and mom came to visit us along with Steve's sister Rachel with her family. Rachel is married to a Brazilian and lives in the state of Roraima. We had never even met either one of Rachel's children. It was neat for our children to get know some of their cousins. Steve's family is spread out so there are cousins that they do not know very well.

Rachel, Edilson, Emily, and Mitchell

Pawpaw and Grandma Ruth (I might be in trouble for this one. He does not want his picture on facebook but this is a blog. Right?)

A recent picture of our family. Our children are growing so quickly. YIKES! Hannah is offically taller than me and it seems that Philip is not far behind. Pretty soon I will be on the front line instead of my children.

Grandma Ruth, me, and Hannah

End of the Year Activities

2011-01-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

I have gotten so far behind with my blogging. We have had company for the last month and so many things going on at the church. It has been a little crazy around here. I guess a good kind of crazy. When I am busy I do not have time to be homesick for the cooler weather stateside or to be missing my folks. I am going to try to do several posts with pictures just to kind of catch up on what is been going on here.

This is Pablo with Adilson. Pablo is special to us for the fact he has been faithful for the past almost 4 years. His dad is a bit of a mess and so he has no encouragement at home. Pablo also did a devotional on New Year's Eve along with the other young men from the church.

This is Steve together with his dad and sister, Rachel singing a special at the Watch night service.

These are the young people that participated in the Christmas play. They did an excellent job and all of them memorized their parts. We only had to be hard on them a few times.

I just had to put this picture up of Renato. Renato is 10 and small for his age. He had a long part to memorize and actually came to my house everyday (he is my neighbor) for 2 weeks. I really think everyone was amazed that he had memorized such a long part. Oh, he was Joseph in the play. (Joseph the son of Jacob) Way to go Renato!

Rio Branco library

2010-11-24T06:33:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post a few pictures of our beautiful library. Usually we are not out and about with our camera when going downtown but because we took Bro. Tyler downtown we had our camera. We have a wonderful library and is fairly new. You can even check out books and Philip was so excited to find some Sherlock Holmes books and so we went back this week and he checked them out.

This is outside the library. Joshua and Benjamin really liked climbing on Santa.

These pictures are of the children's section in the upstairs portion of the library. They have story time and toys. We especially like it because it has air conditioning.

Missions Conference

2010-11-24T06:24:00.000-08:00

We recently had our annual faith promise missions conference. It was a blessing to our family and to the church family. The church has promised to give more for missions this year than last and Lord willing we will either be able to take on 2 more missionaries or increase the ones we already support.

Jeremy Tyler who preached the mission's conference

A picture of the church on Saturday night of the conference. The new benches for the church were ready Friday afternoon. The church looks completely different with these new benches. We are thankful for the people here faithfully giving so these benches could be bought.

Youth Service

2010-11-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful youth service with the young people handling everything. They did such a good job. I wanted to put this picture up of Steve translating for Kanon. He did a really good job. Kanon is visiting us from the US. He has been working so hard since he has been here and has such a good attitude.

Cutting down some trees

2010-11-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

We had some açai trees in our yard along with some others that had to come down. The açai trees had gotten so tall that Steve had to tie them together because when the wind blew hard we were afraid they would fall down on top of the house. Kanon along with Zé cut down these trees. They said they were not scared but Steve nor Oziel stayed up there very long. Anyway, the trees are all down. So that is a blessing. These guys have worked so hard.

Happy Birthday Hannah and Joshua

2010-11-02T13:04:00.001-07:00

As I stated from my previous blog entry, I am not very good at baking cakes. This cake was a recipe that was given to me by a lady at church. The cake is delicious. I just could not get it out of the pan, once again. Hannah turned 13 on the 30th and Joshua turned 10 on the 31st. We decided to do a cake together since all the men/boys of the house were gone to the colony on Hannah's birthday. We had a great day and it must be because I have some great children!

Children's Day

2010-10-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

Children's Day is October 12th in Brazil. The children will usually receive presents, candy, etc. We had a program for the children this Saturday (16th) for the children in town and had a program for the children that in Guajara (rurally) on the 9th. We had 52 children present for the children's program here in town. That is the biggest number of children that we have ever had show up at this church. We were all so excited to say the least. Each child received a toy, bag of candy, cake, and soda. But most importantly they received the Word of God. This was such a big boost to all the adults that were there. Thank you to every one that has been praying for our family. We came home so excited. Continue to pray.

Happy 8th Birthday

2010-10-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

Benjamin turned 8 on the 8th. We have a little party with a cake made by me. I am not known for my baking abilities and I was going to make a layer cake. When I went to turn it over, the cakes (both of them) were stuck in the pans. So we had one cake one day and one cake the other. They really tasted fine, they were just stuck. Benjamin is our youngest and it is hard to believe how quick they grow. He is in the 2nd grade and loves more than any of the other boys to work with his dad. And on top of all that, he is smiling most of the time.

Visitation

2010-10-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

Stephen and Oziel went on visitation Thursday to visit Oziel's brother-in-law. His brother-in-law is a practicing homosexual. He had visited the church during the conferences. When they arrived Oziel's sister-in-laws were there too. They had also visited the church and all of them are not saved. Pr. William was the one that preached and he did not know that this man was a homosexual. He was actually dressed as a woman and arrived after service had started. At the beginning of his message Pr. William started talking about how in Brazil they are trying to pass these hate crime bills and also legalize marriages between man and man and woman and woman. He was going on and on not realizing who was there. After the service we were sure that this man would want nothing to do with us, but he did want a visit. During the visit his 81 year old father was paying close attention as Stephen gave the plan of salvation. Praise the Lord, he was gloriously saved. This other man along with his sisters also heard and were paying attetion but did not get saved. Pray for their salvation. The father-in-law does not know how to read but Stephen is giving him a Bible and told him to ask someone that lives there (these other people do) to read it to him. Pray that the Word will penetrate their hearts.

Tomorrow is elections here in Brazil. Pray for this country. The economy is booming and the people have more than ever before, but now they are wanting to legalize abortions and legalize gay marriages.

Conferences

2010-09-22T12:40:00.001-07:00

We had some great conferences and it was a blessing to our family to be able to have Pastor William and his family stay with us. We spent 2 years working with them in Brasileia, and our children have very good memories of their family.

We had so many lost people at the conferences. One person in particular that had never even stepped in any kind of church. Our people invited and were encouraged with the good numbers. Pray that God would continue to deal with hearts as follow up visits will be made.

Hannah singing with Pastor William's girls, Harrielle and Harianne. They are twins and I tend to get them confused. I have to pay attention.

Pastor William. I did not get a picture of their family all together. His wife, Silvia, was here too.

Joshua and his home

2010-09-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

Joshua has been studying about indians. We cut down some palm trees in the yard and Joshua took the palm leaves and made himself a house. He said it was an indian home. He was all excited and decided that he really thought it would be neat to be an indian until Hannah told him that many indians did not use many clothes. Then he changed his mind. The kids had more fun with these palm leaves than you can imagine. Oh to be a child again!

Father's Day Video

2010-08-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

This is a song the kids sang on Father's Day in honor of their day. Beka, do you recognize the guitar?

Smoke in the air

2010-08-19T11:32:00.001-07:00

We have heard on the national news here in Brazil that our state is in a state of emergency. This is dry season, thus burning season. This picture shows it so well. There is so much smoke or smog in the air. These poor cows. I don't even like to look at them. They are skinny and since they are pasture fed, they are not getting enough to eat. They say our hospitals are full especially with children and the elderly. They have had to close the airport a couple of times. Thankfully our family is doing well, but we have several in the church family really suffering because of all this smoke. Pray for RAIN!

Puppies

2010-08-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

I had been meaing to post some pictures of our cute little puppies. We had six and have already sold 3 and have 3 more to go. The kids just love the puppies and so I have taken their pictures with the puppies.

Joshua

Benjamin

Hannah

Happy Birthday Philip

2010-08-04T06:03:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that we have a 14 year old already. Don't know where the time goes. Philip starts his first year of high school this year (if we ever get our books). He is a blessing as a son and we are very proud of him. He is also a big help to his dad and to me too. We love you Philip!

Over protected

2010-08-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Can a child be over protected? I have heard that a good bit since I have been back. Many people we know here in Brazil feel like our children are over protected because the do not go to a public school. After what happened in City Lar the other day and our lives felt threatened, my thoughts were I wanted to protect my children, but I could not. We were at the mercy of the guy with the gun. Can I possibly prepare my children for every bad situation that might come their way in their lives? And do I prepare my children for this by placing them in a public school? Would this better prepare them for this world? My answer is certainly not. Our desire is to train our children in such a way that when situations come their way that they will trust and depend on the Lord in such a way, that they will turn to HIM for guidance. It is impossible for a public school or any school for that matter to prepare our children for difficulties that they might face as they are older. But as Christian parents, we have the privilege to train our children in the way they should go so that when they face difficult situations in their lives, they will know that God is in control and that they will trust in HIM.

Arrival in Brazil

2010-07-13T04:43:00.000-07:00

We are finally back home and almost settled in. The church had a wonderful meal planned for us when we arrived with a cake for Stephen as his birthday was the day before. They were all at our house singing when we arrived.

The biggest pain since our arrival has been the internet. It comes and goes and goes more than it comes. Other than that, things are unpacked and all in their places and we are back to being busy in the ministry rather than busy with traveling.

Philip has gotten his first "job". A lady from the church wanted some help with her English. She had bought a program but it did not have anyone actually speaking English, so she asked him to help. It isn't very much money but the good thing is that it requires a commitment from him. He is very excited about it all. Says he is saving for college. We like that.

Another addition to our family in the way of 6 new puppies. We have 2 German Shepherd dogs (obviously male and female). Our female (Lucy) was expecting when we arrived. Two days ago she gave birth to 6 puppies (four male and 2 female). The children were excited because they said it was like our family. 4 boys and 2 girls.

We had one saved at the colony on Saturday. He is 42 and is the school teacher there. Pray that he would grow in the Lord and that he could be a testimony there, especially to his students.

I am going to try to be better about blogging. I just do not know where my times goes. Seems as if there is always something to do. Oh, please pray that our school books would arrive. I do not have the books for Hannah and Philip. I sent them a cheaper way and it seems as if they are in customs and have not been released yet. I guess they have had a lot of illegal things coming into this country, so that ties everything else up in customs. Guess I have learned my lesson about sending them a cheaper route!

20th Wedding Anniversary

2010-06-26T06:53:00.000-07:00

I am so far behind in actually posting and letting everyone keep up with what we are doing while in the states. The last several months has literally been from one state to the next and from one meeting to the next. The Lord has been so good and given us safety and allowed us to meet so many wonderful people along the way.

Stephen and I recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. We had the opportunity to stay at Whitestone Inn in Kingston, TN. We are so thankful for them and the fact that they allow missionaries to stay for almost nothing. This place is absolutely beautiful and so very relaxing.

This view was taken looking toward the river from Whitestone.

They do many weddings here. This is a view looking toward the river.

They have canoes available. We actually had a picnic lunch on the river and then canoed a bit. It was so much fun and we got some great pictures. Actually Steve did most of the work and I just took the pictures.

Sign Language

2010-04-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

Our entire family is taking sign language classes with Mrs. Ruth Douglas. She is a wonderful teacher and is very patient with us. She is actually deaf and her husband Michael is hard of hearing. He is our translator. After learning ASL (American Sign Language) our goal is to then learn Libras (Brazilian sign language). They are praying about working in Brazil with the deaf.

72 Years

2010-04-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

Mr. and Mrs. Booth are personal friends of ours. We count it a priviledge to have them as friends. They have so much wisdom to offer us. They recently celebrated 72 years of marriage. They both still live in their own home. He is in much better health than she is and a couple of years ago in his upper 80's, he actually got on his roof trying to fix it. The ladder fell and he was stuck up on his roof. He called across the street to get help as his wife was inside the house and did not know he was on the roof because he did not tell her. Many churches today focus so much on youth that they forget the wisdom of the older people. We need the older men and women to teach the young men and women. We love you Mr. and Mrs. Booth!

I Stand Amazed

2010-04-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

When I really stop and think about God's goodness to me and to my family, I am always amazed. He has given us so much. Just the health that we have is a blessing. Our children are a blessing. I know they are by no means perfect or even close, but they are a blessing. God has given us safety as we traveled. We have been in some wonderful churches. Sunday we were at Currytown Baptist Church with Pastor McDaniel. What a blessing that church was to our family. This past month we have had 4 new churches take our family on for monthly support. Mostly I am amazed that God loved me so much that He sent His Son to die for my sins. To think that I have a home in heaven. WOW!

Our children have certainly provided us with some laughs along the way. Joshua and Benjamin, well, you just never know what to expect from them. We have gotten to know all the children better just by spending so much time together. I am thankful for this time. It has given us time to reflect on where we are headed as a family and develop a vision for our family. When in Brazil, we get so busy that you are just thinking about day to day. When the kids were young, it was easier in a way. Yes, there were those discipline problems and just getting through the day but now we are dealing with heart issues. The children have drawn closer together as siblings through all of this. I am so thankful for this time. Even though I have complained about so much traveling, it has been very good for us as a family. I would not trade that for anything.

Busy, busy, busy

2010-03-09T18:48:00.000-08:00

We have been busy. I think a little too busy. Last week we were in St. Petersburg, FL and today we find ourselves in Moline, IL. To those of you that are tractor fans, that is John Deere land. We had a wonderful time in St. Petersburg, FL at Community Bible Baptist Church. Thank you Pastor Stancil and all the staff there. Then we were back in Summerville, GA on Sunday morning at Emmanuel Baptist Church with Pastor Bobby Walston and then Sunday night at Rest Haven Baptist Church with Pastor Landy McDaniel. Monday night we were at a mission's conference in Chickamauga, GA with Pastor Rick Ball and now we are in Moline,IL. We have been in some wonderful meetings and have been blessed to meet so many wonderful people that give toward missions.

Lately we have found ourselves doing more school in the car instead of the house. The kids are doing great (for the most part). Sometimes we have ones that say they are car sick but we are not really sure if they are in fact car sick or just do not want to do school in the car. I can't say that I blame them. I really don't like it either.

On good thing is that we have gotten to see so many great sights. Hopefully we will get to take in the John Deere Musuem while we are here. Oh, and thankfully it is NOT snowing. Love that Global Warming.

6th month

2010-03-02T05:58:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe that we have already spent 6 months in the states. Where did the time go? We have had some wonderful meetings this past month. One that comes to mind is at a supporting church Nellie Head Memorial Baptist Church. The pastor is Herschel Hicks. He is a wonderful man of God and we had a great meeting. Presently we are starting out the month in St. Petersburg, FL at Community Bible Baptist Church. It is so nice to feel the warmer weather even though it is supposed to be in the 50's today. It is much better than below freezing. The kids were so excited to drive over the bridge from Tampa to St. Petersburg. It has been 6 years since some saw the ocean and Joshua and Benjamin were too young to even remember. Hopefully I will get some pictures of this trip as we actually remember our camera.

Prayer request

2010-02-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

Would you please pray for Adilson (the man with the tie) and his father. Adilson's father is dying with cancer and lives in the southern part of Brazil. Adilson is leaving on Sunday to be with his father for at least a month. Would you please pray for the salvation of his father? Also remember to pray for Jerri. He is going to be responsible for the 2 works by himself plus he works 2 jobs. This is a lot to fall on his shoulders. These 2 men are precious to us and they both desire your prayers.

5th Month (January)

2010-02-04T12:16:00.000-08:00

I hope you don't mind the way I title these blogs. I just find it keeps me better on tract. I have kind of based everything monthly. We are half way through our furlough. 5 months left to go. It seems that we just arrived yesterday. We have seen so much and met so many wonderful people.

The month of January started us out in Wisconsin. Actually we started the month in Pigeon Forge, TN. My mom had taken all of us there so we could pass the new year together. We were supposed to go to Dollywood but it was too cold. They closed all the rides and I was thankful they did. I was wondering how we were going to survive the weather in the 20's. After that we headed for Wisconsin. Certainly not a good time to go in January. The day we left we got snow here on Lookout Mountain. I have had my fill of snow. We have gotten good snow falls even here in the south and the snow up north is amazing. We had some very good meeting in Wisconsin and a friend of ours even took the kids snowmobling.

We also were in a wonderful mission's conference in Maryville, TN. The church is Ridgeview Baptist Church. We were there with 11 other missionary families and Bro. Stinnett Ballew was the main speaker. The Lord blessed in every service. We made many new friends with other missionaries and the people of the church. Pastor Wayne Sexton is one of the most down to earth pastors you will ever meet and has such a heart for missions. My kids had a blast and will definitely remember this church.

We have lots of new churches booked over the next several months and are excited at the doors the Lord has opened. Steve is in contact weekly with people from the church in Brazil. We are excited about how the Lord is working there too. We have already bought our tickets are headed out of here on June 30th back to Brazil.

4th month (December)

2010-01-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

As you can imagine, the month of December was spent with family and friends. We were able to visit several of our supporting churches this month, and thankfully they were all local. That enabled us to be able to have time with family and friends. We had a wonderful Christmas, but a very cold one. When we came to the U.S. we were hoping to see a lot of snow. Well, we have seen some snow but we have had a lot of cold weather. Even the pond in my mom's back yard is frozen over solid. That is unusal for Georgia. My mom and stepdad took our family along with my sister's to Gatlinburg for the new year. That was our present for Christmas. The kids were able to ice skate. They wanted to ski, but that required a parent and neither Steve nor I wanted to torture ourselves. Though I did get out and ice skate. The kids were telling me if I just fell down once then I wouldn't be scared to fall down. My goal was not to fall at all, because the older you are, the harder the fall. Thankfully I did not fall. YEAH! We were supposed to go to Dollywood but they closed all the rides beause it was too cold. I can say that I was thankful for that. We had all bundled up ready to go and when we got to Dollywood they told us that only the shows were open. The kids, of course, wanted to ride the rides. So, we got a refund. We were so bundled up that I could hardly move. Then we decided to ride the go carts. Benjamin's fingers were so cold that he had to pull off. Wish I could show you some pictures but I forgot my camera. Steve and I are about the worst to remember to take pictures.

This is a picture of the cousins on my mom's side of the family. We had a big family get together. Looks like dozens of cousins.

This is Steve pictured with his brothers Roger and Timothy. The other man is Wayne Wilson, a family friend. He has been sick and would really appreciate your prayers. Steve's dad and stepmom, Ruth, have been taking care of him for almost 2 months. Wayne is like anothe brother to Steve.

LET IT SNOW!!!!

2009-12-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

I know that this isn't much snow for those people up north, but for our family it was great. We awoke one Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago to a winter wonderland. The kids were able to go out and play in the snow along with Steve and I. Philip and Hannah played quite a while but Joshua and Benjamin just made it about an hour. It was just too cold for them. We are going up north again (Wisconsin) in January and I am sure this while seem like nothing when we are there. But we really did enjoy this snow.

These pictures are views from the back side of my mom and stepdad's house.

November/December Prayer Letter

2009-12-14T15:54:00.000-08:00

November - December 2009

Greetings in the Name our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Mark 16:15
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

As we approach Christmas Day, I cannot help but think of the greatest gift that mankind was ever offered. Over 2,000 years ago a Child was born to be the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. What a privilege we have today to proclaim this Good News to every creature.

Once again we stand in awe of God’s goodness to us as we travel and visit churches. Everywhere we have gone we have been treated like royalty. We were talking the other day of how we are being spoiled by the way we have been treated. We are so thankful for God putting you in our lives and for you partnering with us in the endeavour to reach the world for HIM.

We still have a very busy schedule ahead of us as we continue our furlough. We still have scheduled meetings in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, as well as being in churches in our area such as South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. We still are working on other open dates that we have to schedule new churches and supporting churches as well. We are currently at 78% of our support level. We are so thankful for the new churches that have taken our family on for monthly support. Once again, if you would like for us to come to your church and give an update please contact us at 423-402-5127 or email us at stephendoolittle@mwbm.org.

In the month of November we were able to spend some time with Stephens’s dad and mom in Greenville, SC. We all had a good time with Pawpaw and Grandmother Ruth while we visited churches in the area as well. The children enjoyed getting reacquainted with their grandparents.

And speaking of children, they are so excited about Christmas. They already saw a snow fall which they had fun playing in and eating. Seeing all the lights as we drive around has also been a special treat. It has been six years since spending Christmas with our family here in the states, so everything is “new” to them.

Stephen keeps regular contact with the church in Rio Branco and Guajara. The church in Rio Branco continues to do very well. We are so excited for the work that God is doing through Jerri and Adilson. Both works continue to go forward in every aspect. This is such a blessing for us to have these works in the nationals’ hands and seeing them trusting in God every step of the way. The church in Rio Branco had a one day retreat just the other day, which was a blessing, and the church in Guajara had a churrasco (Brazilian barbeque) this past Saturday for their Christmas dinner.

Once again we want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and monthly financial support. Thank you also for the extra offerings for Christmas. May the Lord continue to bless you as you serve Him.

From our home to yours, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a New Year that is filled with God’s goodness.

The Third Month (November)

2009-12-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

I wish I knew where the time went. Seems as if the time is going by so quickly here in the states. We spent a good part of the month of November in the Greenville, SC area. We were able to be in a couple of new churches in the area plus Stephen's father and step mom, Ruth, live in Greenville, so we were able to spend a week with them. We had such a good time with them. The second week we spent at a beautiful home in the mountains. This home is provided free of charge to missionaries or pastors for one week. Mrs. Janet Albury lost her husband and daughter in a commerical plane accident several years ago. She wanted to do something in their memory. We were so very thankful for the week that we had there. It was so beautiful and it was a wonderful time for our family just to relax. Thank you Mrs. Janet! We had 2 new churches take our family on for support. We are so thankful for all our supporting churches. We have enjoyed every church we have been too. We were able to visit Calvary Baptist Church in Columbia, TN and be with the Ward family. This family is incredibly talented, and they were a blessing to our family. Wish I was just better about taking pictures. I get a few in here and there and they are never that great, but I did post some below of the home in the mountains. My pictures do not do the place justice.

September October Prayer Letter

2009-11-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

September-October 2009

Greetings in the Name our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Mark 16:15
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

As you know, we are state side now until June of 2010 for furlough. God has been so good to us since we have been back here, and He continues to work with the nationals that were left in charge of the work in Rio Branco.

While back in the USA, we are staying with Kelly’s folks on Lookout Mountain, GA. They have graciously rearranged their house for us. If you need to reach us please make note of our new address until June 2010: 109 Wild Acres Ln, Rising Fawn, GA 30738. Our phone number is 423-402-5127 and our email is stephendoolittle@mwbm.org.

These past two months have gone by very fast, and we have been very busy visiting churches. Since we have been back we have already traveled over 8,000 miles and have visited many churches. We have been blessed to be in several new churches and have seen some already take us on for financial support. This has been somewhat of an adventure for the children as well since we have already been in 12 states and Canada. Along the way, when possible, we have enjoyed some of our country’s history, which adds to the children’s home schooling.

While here, we are working on raising needed support. We are presently at 75%. Praise the Lord for the increase in support. The dollar vs. real has not been helping much, but God has never failed. It still amazes me how God can do so much with so little. If you would like for us to come by your church and share with you what God is doing and the doors God is opening up for us, please contact us via phone, mail, or email. We would love to come and be with you.

Stephen is constantly checking in with the people of the church in Rio Branco, and God continues to work in the church there as well. Both Adilson and Jerri have been doing a wonderful job keeping things going at the colony and in the city. They have also been working with other men to help out with the singing and bringing the devotionals on Sunday morning. Please continue to pray for these works.

We are still praying about the radio station and the many other opportunities that the training center facilities can be used for. We need help. We have already had some contact us who are interested in coming to Brazil. If you are interested in serving the Lord on a short term, long term, or life term, please contact us. We would love to have you come.

Please pray for us as we travel, and for Kelly as she home schools the children. Many days this home schooling has taken place in the car. This is challenging for Kelly and the children.

We cannot express enough the kindness and love that has been shown to our family since we have been back. We have been spoiled. The churches and individual families that we have visited have treated us so well. Thank you so much.

Once again thank you all. You have been so faithful in prayer and financial support.

The Second Month

2009-10-31T05:44:00.000-07:00

We have now finished our 2nd month in the U.S. We plan on staying another 8 more months. We have been busy traveling again this month. We started out the month in a mission's conference in Stockbridge, Georgia and ended up the month in Madison, Wisconsin. The churches have treated us so well and we are getting fat and spoiled. We have met many new people and many people that have been praying for us over the last 4 years. That is such a blessing when you go into a church and someone comes up and says that they have been praying for you everyday. We also met a young lady that had picked up our prayer card at one church but had never personlly met. We were able to met her. In Madison, a litle girl named Rachel came up and gave me a penny. She wanted to give something to the missionary. She gave all she had and I have that penny taped in my Bible. At times it is tiring going from state to state but these people are so precious to us.

I think the thing that has been the most challenging is the home schooling. We have had to school in many different houses and even in the car. The flip side is that when are passing a place in our travels that would be a good "field trip" we are trying to stop. We were even able to visit Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We took the cheapest tour and had a great tour guide Mr. Joe. Now when the kids study about Mammoth Cave in history they will remember that they have been there and what saw.

A Great Family Deal!

2009-10-31T05:35:00.000-07:00

We spent most of the month of October in Wisconsin. We visited several churches there. Not only that we saw snow flurries. The kids were so excited. It was really cold! But while there in Oshkosh we took the kids to the EAA museum. It was a great deal. You pay one price per family. Only $22. If you have 10 kids or 4 like us it is $22 per family. We spent about 5 hours in this museum and learned a lot about the history of aviation.

Happy Birthday

2009-10-31T04:45:00.000-07:00

Joshua and Sophie. Joshua turned 9 and Sophie turned 6.

Hannah with Benjamin. Hannah turned 12 and Benjamin turned 7.

Each child had their own cake.

We have three children that have birthdays in October. Benjamin's is on the 8th, Hannah on the 30th, and Joshua on the 31st. The children also have a cousin, Sophie, who has a birthday in October. Sophie is my twin sister's youngest child.

We decided to have one big party for everyone on the 8th. Actually that was the only date that worked for everyone. We had such a good time complete with a hay ride, hot dogs, and a marshmellow roast. The children actually seemed to enjoy the party more sharing it with each other. My sisters other 2 girls wanted another cousin party because they said that was what made the party so good.

The first month

2009-10-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

This first month back has been busy busy busy. I thought that I would have all this great free time now that I did not have to worry about Bible club, Sunday school, ladies meetings, and the children at the colony. Boy was I wrong. We have travel already over 5,000 miles (7 states, I think, and Canada). We are learning the joys of home schooling in the car, hotel, and any house we are visiting for the night. Well, it has been interesting to say the least and we are meeting so many wonderful people. We have been able to visit churches that already support us and also new churches. We have been amazed at how well we have been treated. They have made our entire family feel special. We are getting spoiled and a little fat! YIKES!

We went into Canada on a whim. We were at a supporting church near Detroit so we decided to cross over into Canada just so the kids could say they had been to Canada. Once we crossed over the lady at the tourist info building told us it was only 4 hours to Niagara Falls. I had been there before but Steve and the kids never had. So we decided to drive the 4 hours through Canada to Niagara Falls. Well, it was well worth it. We could not have picked a more beautiful day. We stayed there only about 2 hours. Long enough to go on the Maid of the Midst which takes you almost right under the falls or though it seems. We then drove back through New York, into Pennsylvania, and back down to Georgia.

Here we are at Niagara Falls

Of course you gotta love the Hershey's kiss.

The house where we stayed in Michigan. Bro. Paschall is a hunter and had killed this bear in Canada.

Hotel Tropical

2009-10-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

Because the airline changed our flights, we had an over night layover in Manaus. They put us up at Hotel Tropical at their expense. We could have never afforded to stay there. It would have cost about $500 (at least) for a one night stay. They put us in 2 big rooms and then gave us breakfast and lunch at the hotel. We would have loved it if they had given us one more night.

This guy was cooking up your order at breakfast and lunch. The food was amazing. Breakfast would have been enough for lunch but because they gave us both meals free we ate both meals.

They have a zoo at this hotel and this is Joshua wrestling a snake. (not a real one)

This is Benjamin with Ethan. His mom and dad are missionaries in Manaus and friends of ours (they used to live in Rio Branco). We were able to meet up with them and another missionary family while in Manaus.

This is the reception area of the hotel. I tried to take this to get a picture of how much it cost, but I did not want to get up too close. So, I did not get a good picture.

Leaving Brazil

2009-10-06T14:22:00.001-07:00

It was hard to say goodbye to the people in Rio Branco. We had several families from the church come to the airport to say goodbye. We are already missing these people so much. Steve has called several times to check on the church and the people. It is going great. The people are excited and they have had several visitors coming. Others are stepping up offering to help and being faithful. I think Steve said this Sunday they are having a church cookout after Sunday morning service. We are so thrilled to hear the great reports and the people coming together.

Oziel with the kids.

Walber and his family.

Jerri and his family

Great Service

2009-08-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great final Sunday morning service here in Brazil. Steve baptized 3 people and afterward we celebrated the Lord's Supper. Then after church was over a lady from the church brought over some ice cream for everyone. Last night the church had a going away party for us. We are really going to miss these people. They are such a big part of our lives and we love them dearly.

Jesus being baptized.

Eliene

Jessica

July - August Prayer letter

2009-08-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings in the Name our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

As I sit here and write this letter it is with a lot of mixed feelings. A week from today we will be on a plane headed back to the USA for a 10 month furlough. You may ask why mixed feelings. In the past 6 years we have only taken a 3 month furlough. These people are our brothers and sisters in the Lord whom we have shared our life with over the years, and it is hard to say goodbye even for a short time. There is so much work to be done and the labourers are few.

COLONY – This past Saturday we had our last service at the colony before our furlough. We had a good service and are excited to see that these people are growing in the Lord. Bro. Ely will be helping out with the music and 2 of the young ladies will be taking over the children’s class. Bro. Adilson and Bro. Jerri will continue to go out there and have services in our absence. Please remember to pray for this work.

RIO BRANCO – The 30th of this month (August) will be our last service at Macedonia Independent Baptist Church. The people have really come together and this work is going forward under the care of the national people. God has raised up men and women to take over all the Sunday School classes, and Bro. Jerri and Bro. Adilson will do the preaching in our absence. We have seen several saved over the last 2 months. God is good! Please remember to pray for this work and the people here as well.

Also in Rio Branco, God has been opening the doors for us to have our own radio station. This is something new to us since we have never been involved in radio before. There is a church in the USA that brings down the equipment, installs it, and trains us to broadcast. This is truly a great opportunity to get the Gospel out to the surrounding communities. Stephen has already met with ANATEL (the Brazilian FCC) to see what the procedures are to obtain a license to broadcast. There is going to be a lot of paperwork, but we believe God has opened the doors and He will make it happen. Please pray for us as we need HIS guidance. There is a great cost in maintaining a radio station, and we need partners for this ministry.

Our family has moved to the training center, and once we return to the field, we plan to have it up and running. We already have 6 people from our church that are ready to start training to be better prepared to serve the Lord. Pray for this as well.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS – This past month our family was able to go into a public school and hand out the gospel of John to 5th – 8th graders. The doors are open and there is a great need. We have been invited to work in this school upon our return to Brazil. There are so many opportunities for short term and long term help for young and older people who want to serve the Lord in missions. Would you consider coming?

FURLOUGH – Once again for those that might have overlooked the last letter, we are leaving the field on August 31st for a 10 month furlough. If you would like for us to come by your church and share with you the great things that HE has done and is doing please contact us at this email doolittle@brazilianmissions.org or stephendoolittle@mwbm.org. If you have skype we can be reached at steverdoolittle. As soon as we have a phone in the USA we will let you know.

FAMILY – As mentioned before there is a bit of mixed feelings. The children are excited about seeing family and friends but sad about leaving Brazil. Pray that our children will adjust well to being back in the states.

We would like to thank each church and individual that makes sacrifices for the ministry here. We appreciate each one of you so very much.

Happenings

2009-08-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

We have had a lot going on lately. But what has been happening has all been great! It seems as if we are finally getting "caught up" and getting some projects finished at the same time.

This is the rural church at Guajará. We were finally able to get it painted. The man that has painted it is Sr. José. He is a lost man and we are praying for his salvation. He has worked with Steve on and off for about 2 months with many odd jobs we have had. Sometimes he has shown up on Monday morning with his face all beat up from where he has gotten in a fight after drinking too much over the weekend. Pray for his salvation. He has been to church several times and has been witnessed to many times. He is a hard worker and honest, but he needs to Lord.

We were able to go into a middle school (5th - 8th grade) and pass out a small booklet that has the gospel of John and another small booklet that talks about the dangers of the internet. The lady that heads this ministry is a Brazilian missionary. She is wanting us to work in this school when we come back from furlough. We would be able to go into the school once a week and give a Bible lesson to all the studens. Amazing isn't it! The problem is our time is limited. At times I look around and see all there is to be done and feel overwhelmed. One note about this school. The kids were horrible. I was really shocked. There was absolutely no order and several of the teachers hadn't even shown up even though classes had already started. There are so many schools that are wanting this ministry and the Brazilian missionary has more than she can handle.

This is something we saw at our "new" house. We have several açai trees in our yard. There was a parrot (don't know if you can see it in the picture) up in the tree eating the açai. I just love waking up here in the mornings and hearing all the birds.

We had our 3rd mission's conference this past week. We have a missionary that the church supports here with us. We had 2 precious souls saved and this family was such a blessing. They are Brazilians but are missionaries in Venzeula. They are doing an excellent work there. Our people get so excited after we have a mission's conference. We had some talking about taking a trip to Venzeula to visit this family.

A Wedding

2009-08-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

In the area where we are in Brazil, a lot of people just live together and do not get married. Walber (the man in the picture) has done that many times. He and his wife, Michelle, got saved about a year ago and then last week he said he was getting married. He had told us that he did not want to get married because he was afraid that then he would die. On Saturday night the city had a big project called Projecto Cidadão. It is to encourage couples to marry. On Saturday night with about 700 other couples Walber and Michelle got married. I was not able to go because Benjamin was sick but Steve was able to. Walber was so proud to have his pastor there. Oh, Walber told us that we had to buy his coffin if he died. But he is still living! We are so thankful for this family. Michelle cleans the church now for us. She did not want to be paid but wanted to do something for the Lord. And I was able to lead Renato (the oldest boy) to the Lord a couple of weeks ago.

We have a teenager!

2009-08-05T11:24:00.001-07:00

Philip turned 13 on the 3rd of August. It is hard to believe that we are now parents of a teenager (who is still very much a kid!). He said this was his best birthday yet. Hannah pointed out to him that he says that every year. We love you Philip!

Move to the Training Center

2009-08-04T16:37:00.001-07:00

We finally have moved to the training center. What a blessing to finally be moved and also for the fact that Steve was able to do all he needed to do to get us moved. I thought you might like some pictures of some of our move. I need to get some pictures of our house posted some day. It is much smaller than our other house but it is so cute. We have already gotten every thing put away and the kids (who were sad about moving) are doing great and loving the new place.

This is just some boxes in our "dining" room

Steve and his dad built this trailer the first year we were in Brazil. It has helped us make several moves. Here we are loaded down. It was about a 30 minute drive.

Another view

If you think to pray for our family, please pray. Last month was non stop and this month is shaping up to be much of the same. We are preparing everything for our furlough plus we have a lot going on at the church. We are much busier than I enjoy being so pray for daily strength for all of us.

A VIRTUOUS WOMAN

2009-07-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well I know it is about time for me to put something on the blog. So here it goes. As some of you know I have had a bout with my back. I am getting much better, thank you. But I needed to say something about Kelly. Kelly is truly am amazing person and wife. When all of this happened to me, she just kicked right in without missing a beat to keep everythinggoing. Just so you get an idea of what all this consisted of, Construction at the church, construction at the Training Center, taking me back and forth to the hospital and doctors visits, (since I can not drive, she is my persanol chauffer), keeping the house in order and her regular church obligations. The other day I was reading in Proverbs and ran across verse 4 of chapter 12. I looked up that verse in the Mathew Henry's Comentary and liked what I read. Here it is:

"He that is blessed with a good wife is as happy as if he were upon the throne, for she is no less than a crown to him. A virtuous woman, that is pious and prudent, ingenious and industrious, that is active for the good of her family and looks well to the ways of her household, that makes conscience of her duty in every relation, a woman of spirit, that can bear crosses without disturbance, such a one owns her husband for her head, and therefore she is a crown to him, not only a credit and honour to him, as a crown is an ornament, but supports and keeps up his authority in his family, as a crown is an ensign of power. She is submissive and faithful to him and by her example teaches his children and servants to be so too."

God has truly blessed me with a wonderful wife. I will probably get in trouble for doing this, but she really is awesome!

Don't Play Chicken with a Cow

2009-07-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

We have a neighbor and he has a lot of cows. I find his cows very annoying as he lets them run free. Some of his cows are mad cows. Mad in the sense as you would not want to be walking down the road and meet some of his cows. His cows have their cow meetings in the field behind my house. The other day I was driving down the peaceful dirt road where we live. His cows were in the road and I slowed down some and they appeared to be moving but much slower than I liked. So, I decided to speed up in hopes that they would move a little quicker. Well, I hit one of the cows. To make a long story short, if you hit a cow with you car you will do damage to your car and the cow will walk away without a scratch. The moral, don't play chicken with a cow.

Update on Steve. He drove today. YEAH! Not much but just back from town. He still has not been able to do the MRI but he is daily getting better. He celebrated his birthday on Wednesday and the church surprised him by bringing out breakfast for the family.

Current prayer letter

2009-07-02T10:30:00.001-07:00

Greetings in the Name our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

As we near the date for our return to the USA for furlough we see the mighty hand of God at work at every turn and in the straight-ways as well.

RIO BRANCO – Please pray for this city and the work here. In the past years there has been a growing movement in our state that has made it in style to be an “evangélico” evangelical. You do not have to be saved and have a changed attitude towards sin and the world. Unfortunately this new fad has trespassed almost all denominations. Our state according to statistics has the most evangelicals in Brazil. Naturally this makes our task even that much more difficult due to the fact that when out soul winning and handing out tracts, everyone is an evangelical. To the most part this movement is based on prosperity and healing. We have in our city big healing crusades that leave the people that much more confused about the truth. They promote a lot of Benny Hinn’s materials and use his methods. The people here are a very emotional people. It is old fashion to be called a pastor. These guys come in calling themselves Prophets, Bishops and Apostles.

We know what the Bible teaches about the last days and we are certain that it is near. Please pray with us that we, through the mighty hand of God, will be able to reach these people that are blinded to the truth.

We have also been busy doing some remodeling work at the church. We have had to add another classroom to start a nursery and also added an above ground baptistery. Over at the training center we have been doing some work as well, getting some things ready looking ahead for our return from furlough.

COLONY – Pray for this work as well. It is always a blessing to be able to go out there for services. The people are so different from the city people. But we do have a need for a full time worker out there. We are asking God to raise up someone even from within our church that God would call and use for His honour and glory out there.

FURLOUGH – As we have mentioned in the previous letters, we are taking our furlough leaving the field September the 1st for 9 months. If you would like to have us come by your church and share with you what God has been doing these past four years, please let us know. You can email us at doolittle@brazilianmissions.org or stephendoolittle@mwbm.org. If you have skype we can be reached at steverdoolittle. By the time you get this letter we will no longer have a phone line to the house. Please let me know as soon as possible so that we can make the necessary arrangements. Once again, we would love to come and share with you what God is doing.

FAMILY – Stephen has had some issues with his back that has laid him out for over two weeks. Test results show that he has a herniated disc which is pinching a nerve in his left leg. He is doing much better now being able to sit and stand up for short periods of time. Kelly and the children have kicked in to keep things going as normal as possible.

I (Stephen) want to express a big thanks for the hard work that Kelly has had to do in keeping everything running from construction, chauffer, and already moving much of our personal items into storage, plus her stuff as well. I have truly been blessed with a wonderful wife.

As always we would like to thank you for your continued support of the ministry here. Thank you for your faithfulness.

BE POSITIVE

2009-06-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

Someone recently sent me an e-mail and told me to be positive. I have thought about that a good deal the last couple of days. I am in general not a positive person. That is Steve. He is the positive and I am the negative. I personally think that makes a great match. But I have realized these last couple of days my attitude is important. Now, I am not preaching positive thinking but I do not think if I have a pity party that it will help my situation. Believe me when I tell you that I have had some good pity parties and the best ones are when I have snacks to go with the party. I have realized over the last week and a half how good God has been to our family. Yes, Steve has been down but at least it is something that can be fixed. He never complains. (If it were me everyone in the house would know my pain!) We have had the poorest people of our church offer us money. Funny huh? They said they thought we might need it with the exams and medicine. We told them thank you but we were fine. That is a blessing just to know that someone cares about you. Our kids have been great. I have been more irritable lately, but they have been wonderful. We even cleaned out Steve's shop. And we have this past week moved more of our stuff into storage. Not only that we have had so many wonderful e-mails of people saying they are praying for us. Because I am now driving myself everywhere I need to go, I have stopped more frequently for ice cream. Now, those of you that really know me and really know my mom, know that the love of ice cream is inherited. My mom passed her love of it right on down to me. With all my running, I have not even gained weight from the added intake of ice cream.

Now about Steve, he is doing much much better. He is still is not driving, but as you gathered from the paragraph above I am ok with that as long as I get my frozen treat. He has been back to picking some so I know that he is better. He started his physical therapy and we are praying that soon he will be able to get his MRI done. He is still not able to lay flat on his back or on his side for long periods of time, so he is still sleeping half laying, half sitting. But the pain has been much less especially the last 2 days. Thanks so much for your prayers! Continue praying.

Santo Diame

2009-06-05T15:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had a slight mishap with our car (it broke down) and we were waiting for the tow truck. Up the road from where we broke down there was a Santo Diame church. This religion which is legal here in Brazil orginated in our state of Acre. What is consists of to my understanding is that they take the bark of certain trees and brew them into a tea. This tea is actually a drug which makes the person hallucinate. They have special services where there is a lot of singing and a lot of tea drinking and thus a lot of "visions". These services can last up to 12 hours long and even children are allowed to participate in the drinking. Sadly enough, this country looks at this religion as unique to their culture.

Why Me?

2009-06-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Steve asked this question, "Why me?" Steve was asked to speak to the graduating class of Portuguese students on Monday night. Actually they asked to use our church (a daughter of one of our members who was graduating) for a thanksgiving service, thanking the Lord for their graduation. They wanted Steve to speak at this graduation. He got a kick out of it because here he is an American speaking to students that graduated from the federal university in Portuguese. He was able to leave them all with a clear plan of salvation and so he was thankful for the opportunity. By the way, for those of you that do not know, Steve grew up in Brazil and his Portuguese is actually very good. Now mine, that is another story.

19 Years

2009-05-26T17:47:00.001-07:00

Stephen and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary on May the 19th. We had a rare night out with a sweet lady from the church watching the children. I feel so blessed these past 19 years. Steve has kept life exciting. For those of you that know him you can imagine that. Never a dull moment. The kids call him law and call me grace, but they all admit that he is a lot more fun than I am. Thank you Steve! I love you so much! (This picture is almost a year old. One of our children took it. I cannot remember which one.)

Precious Ladies

2009-05-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at the rural work on Saturday before Mother's Day. We honored these ladies that day. These ladies that live there are some of the hardest working women I know. It amazes me. They work like men in the fields and take care of their homes. Recently electricity was brought into the area but still Maria (the lady with the flowered shirt) does not have electricity. So that means no fans when it is hot, no fridge, no washing machine, and the list goes on. They work but never complain because that is just the way life is there. Not only do they work hard they are so giving. We almost always come back with something - rice, beans, pineapples, bananas and once a live chicken. I guess it amazes me so much because I have never had to do without.

The Yard Sale

2009-05-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

Joshua and Benjamin decided the other day that they were going to have a yard sale. Yard sales are not done here in Brazil and I have never had one with my kids so I guess they just came up with this plan themselves. So, Joshua and Benjamin got together all of their toys that they did not want anymore and set up a nice display outside with prices on the toys. Then they invited the 3 neighbor boys to come and look at what they had to sell. Well, the little boys across the street had just a little money so they could not buy much. They spent all of their money but there were still things the little boys wanted. Joshua and Benjamin, not being very smart business boys, gave them their own money to buy more of their own things. After the boys had finished their buying one of the boys, Jocicley, went to his house got out his old toys and had his own yard sale. My boys felt guilty not to buy something so they did. I really do not know if they wound up with more or less money than they started with. I think they broke even.

March/April Prayer letter

2009-05-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Greetings in the Name our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

As we have been bombarded by heavy rains in these past months, we have also been bombarded with so many blessings from such a great and wonderful Savior.

RIO BRANCO - It has been such a blessing working with Bro. Jerri and Bro. Adilson in their training for leadership. Both of them have really stepped up to the bat in a real and genuine way. This past month both of them preached at different Sunday night services. What a tremendous job they both did. Last Sunday was Bro. Jerri’s turn and he was a bit nervous. He did a wonderful job in presenting the gospel. Then to top it all off a young man accepted Jesus Christ as his personal saviour. You talk about lighting someone’s fire, it sure lit his. This young man that got saved is a man that Stephen had known and witnessed to for a long time when we lived in Brasiléia. Due to his job he was transferred to Rio Branco, and Stephen ran into him the other day and invited him to church. This was on a Thursday and that following Sunday he came and got saved. PRAISE THE LORD!! Please pray for Bro. Jerri and Bro. Adilson as they take over in our absence and also for the church. The church is doing well. We had a couple’s retreat and a ladies’ retreat since our last letter, and God has really been working in the hearts of the people.

COLONY - The colony work is always a special time and a challenging one as well. When we leave the house and drive the 230 kilometres one way, 220 kilometres of holey paved roadway and 10 kilometres of dirt-mud, you never know what to expect. This last time there was a small washout of the road right before you get to the church. Someone ahead of us had already thrown some small logs in the washout so we could get by, even though we hit front and rear bumpers. The church there is doing well. A lady by the name of Antonia accepted Jesus as her personal Saviour, AMEN! God is good! Bro. Jerri and Bro. Adilson will be responsible for this work as well in our absence. Bro. Ely, who lives there, will be helping with the music.

VISITORS - This past month we had the privilege of having some friends from the USA come and also work. Mr. Courter and 5 of his children came and were a tremendous blessing to us and the people here. The Bible teachings given by Bro. Courter were very much needed and very well received. They were not afraid of work either and work they did. For our family it was a great time of fellowship and encouragement.

FURLOUGH – We have our tickets bought and are coming back to the USA on September 1, 2009. We are very excited about being able to take a furlough. The children are so excited. It will be four years since we have been back to the USA. We are in the process of getting everything together and meetings booked so we can hit the road running when we arrive. If you would like to have us come by your church and share with you what God has been doing these past four years, please let us know. You can email us at doolittle@brazilianmissions.org or stephendoolittle@mwbm.org. Our phone number, when calling from the States, is 011-55-68-3221-0614 or if you have skype we can be reached at steverdoolittle. Please let me know as soon as possible so that we can make the necessary arrangements. Once again, we would love to come and share with you what God is doing.

We would like to close this letter by thanking all of you for your faithfulness, first of all to the Lord and then toward the ministry here. Thank you so very much.

The day Jesus met Jesus

2009-04-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday night we had a young man (25) named Jesus accept Jesus as his Savior. We were so excited seeing as that Stephen had witnessed to him when we lived in Brasiléia. He lived there too. He had came to church a couple of times but nothing more than that. Steve met him a couple of weeks ago in a store here called Ronsy. He had been transfered to Rio Branco. Stephen started witnessing to him and invited him to church. Friday night we showed the movie Fire Proof and he came. Then he showed up again on Sunday night. Sunday night he accepted Jesus. Pray for this young man. His wife left him with 2 girls. For now, his mom is taking care of the girls in Brasiléia. He is working here and living in a room with some other guys he works with. Pray for him to be a witness to these other men and pray for his family.

Couples Retreat/ Easter Sunday

2009-04-17T12:04:00.001-07:00

We recently had a couples retreat. I am like the worst at getting pictures though I am trying to do better. Seems like a never get a good one. We had a good time. Missionary Mark Trimble was our speaker and his wife Beth had a time just with the women to answer questions. He is a 2nd generation missionary and was born in Brazil. They have been married 40 years and most of their married life has been here in Brazil.

Mark Trimble and his wife Beth

This pictures are of our Easter program. If you look at this first picture the girl with the blue dress on is making a funny face. The program was at night and she had spent all day trying to memorize her lines. She had even said that she was not sure if she would be there at night for the program which I reminded her of her That night she was up in front mouthing "Tia, eu não sei" translated, "Aunt, I don't know." I am not her aunt but that is just what the kids here call you. She was worried for nothing and remembered everything.

More flooding pictures

2009-04-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

Thankfully the water is going down and the rains seemed to have stopped other than an occasional shower. The are predicting rain for the next 15 days so we will see. But below are some pictures that we took I believe on Wednesday.

Part of a road flooded

I just thought this was a neat picture. The guy looks really loaded down.

I wish you could have seen the fire department trying to get the wood out of the river. There is always a lot of wood in the river after we get heavy rains. Then the fire department has to get it out from around the supporting beams of the bridge. They were trying to get it out on this day and were using a thick rope and a cord with a tractor. Steve kept saying if that cord breaks someone is going to get hurt and he advised us to move further away. The rope did break while we were there, but not the cord. The rope hit a man on the arm and took off the skin where it hit. Later that evening we drove back across the bridge and they had successfully gotten the wood out. (Sorry I do not have a good picture of that!)

Rain Rain Go AWAY!

2009-04-14T16:55:00.000-07:00

We have gotten so much rain this month of April and it is supposed to be the beginning of dry season. They are predicting rain for next week too. Rio Acre, our big river in town, is over flowing. There have been already 560 families that have been forced to leave their homes. Because we live rurally (we have not moved to the training center and will not until after furlough) one of our roads was washed away. Thankfully our other entrance is still accessible. We had thought for a couple of days that we might lose that entrance too. I am thankful that that is the least of my problems and that our house sits on high ground.

This is where the one road completely washed away due to poor planning by the city.

Another view

And if you see the road you know that we live on a dirt road. We have always enjoyed living in a more rural area so the kids can have a nice yard to play in. So, we have to deal with mud in the rainy season. Well, at least it adds for a little excitement and a car that stays dirty.

The Courter Family

2009-04-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

We were recently blessed with a visit from part of the Courter Family. For those of you that do not know this family, they are a large family of 11 children. Mr. Anthony Courter spoke at several services and the people here enjoyed it so much. They were also able to do some work at the training center when it was not raining. (We have have so much rain this month and we are supposed to be entering dry season) You can learn more about this family at their blog anthonycourter.blogspot.com.

Here are my boys with 2 of their sons, Aaron and Josiah

Here is Hannah with their daughter, Esther.

Stephen translating for Mr. Courter. Stephen has a puzzled look on his face. He does not exactly like to translate but does a great job at it.

Jessica, Aaron, and Rebekah singing. Jessica also plays the harp and Rebekah the violin. I wish you could of heard them sing. They all have beautiful voices.

5 of their 11 children singing at the rural work, Guajará.

Josiah and Esther also had chicken pox while here. Thankfully it was all cleared up before they had to travel.

Marlete

2009-04-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

Seems like I can't get my act together on posting more. This was a really neat story so I wanted to post it. Marlete has such a good heart. Steve had been challenging our people do more witnessing and even gave them a study they can do with an unsaved person. At the end of the study the person either rejects or accepts Jesus. Marlete did the study with her neighbor who is 81. She had been praying for her for years. The study is 6 weeks and praise the Lord her neighbor was saved. All it took was her going next door.

Ladies Retreat

2009-03-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

We had a ladies retreat on the 7th of March. We have wonderful ladies at our church and we had a great time of fellowship with the men cooking. We were able to have this retreat at the training center. It was the first time we had used it and the first time many of our people had an opportunity to look around. Our people here were amazed! The people who were not at the retreat were able to go Sunday morning after church and see the facilities.

This is Oziel. He is the caretaker of the training center. He professes to be a Christian but does not attend any church. Pray that we can have an impact on his life.

This was our guest speaker, Josenisia Viana. Her husband pastors a regular Baptist church here in our city. For those of you that are here in Brazil, she has a CD and has a beautiful singing voice. We got to know her through a teacher in our church that works with her. She was a blessing and an encouragement to us.

These are the ladies that attended.

This is Adilson and Jerri. I do not know if they are goofing are working. They actually had a really good time. I did not get a picture of Walber and he made the rice.

This is Stephen. I do not know why he had this on his head because he has such little hair.

10 Years

2009-03-03T15:05:00.000-08:00

We received and e-mail from missionary friends of ours. They have been in Brazil one year and she was talking about how God has been with her and some of the struggles but also joys that they have experienced on the mission field. I started thinking and realized that this month (March) makes 10 years that we have been on the field. We left the states for Brazil in March of 1999. At that time we only had Philip and Hannah and they were little. Philip was only 2 1/2 and Hannah was a little over 1 year old. I was so full of big dreams, little did I realize how hard it would really be. Studying the language. I thought to myself, "I am fairly intelligent how hard can this be?" It was much harder than I thought and my pride got bruised more than once. I also remember when we first came to Brazil we did not even have internet access. Now I cannot imagine living without it. The small city where we started our first work had much more mud than pavement. Now it is the opposite. We had for a while a 1974 jeep and it could get us anywhere we wanted to go. I remember when our 3rd child Joshua was born in a small public hospital. What an experience. There are so many memories. I guess the thing that I have the most memories of are the people. The Brazilian people have become our family. We have seen God work through these people time and time again. 10 years seems like a long time but at the same time a short time. It has certainly never been dull!

Current Prayer letter

2009-02-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

God has been so good to us. As we started this New Year with all the activities of the church and also the excitement of going back to the United States for furlough, we stand amazed at how good God really is to us and how he takes care of us.

The church here in Rio Branco is doing well. We have had a few set backs that has made our numbers fall a little but on the other hand we have seen spiritual growth in those that remain faithful to HIM. The church had her second year anniversary on December 31st. We had a watch night service that included a baptism. We had five people baptized. We have had the privilege of seeing three more come to know Christ as Savior. We also just finished our first family camp which was very challenging but a whole lot of fun. We had a three day retreat in which the theme was “Christ Satisfies”. We had a good number and a wonderful time together. There was even a time of American football in the rain. Please continue to pray for us and the work here. We are in the process right now of working (training) Adilson and Jerri which together will be taking over the work here in town and at the colony while we go home for furlough.

At the colony we also had a special service around Christmas time at which time we baptized two people. Please remember to pray for these people at the colony. There is so much work to do but yet the time is so short. We are asking God to raise up men (as HE is already doing) within the church that are willing to go, but are also praying that God will raise up men around the world that are willing to count the cost to reach the lost.

As we have already mentioned we are coming home for furlough this September-2009. We already have started scheduling churches so that we can hit the road as soon as we get there. If you would like for us to come by and share with you what God has been doing these past four years and please let us know. You can email us at doolittle@brazilianmissions.org or stephendoolittle@mwbm.org. Our phone number, when calling from the States, is 011-55-68-3221-0614 or if you have skype we can be reached at steverdoolittle. Please let me know as soon as possible so that we can make the necessary arrangements. Once again, we would love to come and share with you what God is doing here.

We know that everyone is feeling the crunch of the economic situation at home and around the world. Now more than ever, we would like to thank each church and individual who is sacrificially giving to make it possible for us to be here and to do the work that God has entrusted in us.

VBS

2009-02-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

We had our first ever VBS at Igreja Batista Independente Macedonia. We had such a good time and on the average had around 38 children. This church has always had difficulties reaching children because the church is in the downtown area even though we are in a neighborhood. We had several of the church show back up on Sunday morning and we were excited with that. We are praying that this will be a yearly event probably in January of every year because that is when the children have their longest breaks from school.

Before we started.

Aurenice telling the story.

Stephen with Chico

A Father's Prayer

2009-02-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Philip was mowing the grass. That morning during family devotions Steve had prayed for God's protection on him while he mowed. About an hour after he stared mowing he came running in the house and said, "Mom I think I killed a snake." So I went out and sure enough he had. We were not sure if the snake was poisonous because we have so many different kinds of snakes here in Brazil. He went to music class later that day and was describing to his teacher the snake. The teacher said yes it was a poisonous one. We are not sure still if it was but the thing that struck me about all of this, was that Steve had prayed that morning for God's protection over Philip. And that was one of the first things that Philip remembered after he had ran over the snake. What an impact that had on our 12 year old.

This is Philip beside the lawn mower.

You can see the snake in the grass divided into 2 different parts.

The Biblical Attitude

2009-02-03T05:44:00.000-08:00

I have found in my personal life that it is so easy for me to criticize others. This is a continual struggle for me. I realize that I am having a wordly attitude rather than a Biblical attitude. I came across this after I recently read a book by Sam Doherty which dealt with this issue. Thought I would share this with you all.

The Biblical attitude to others is love; the wordly attiude is indifference.

The Biblical attitude to leadership is submission; the wordly attitude is rebellion, criticism and independence.

The Biblical attitude to others is unselfishenss; the wordly attitude is selfishenss.

The Biblical attitude to opposition is quietness; the wordly attitude is to fight back.

The Biblical attitude to circumstances is contentment; the worldy attitude is complaining.
Philippians 4:11b "for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

We are daily making these choices. I can either choose to be like Christ in my attitude and actions/reactions, or I can choose to be like the world. Pray for our family, that we will show Christ in our lives. At times it is not easy, but we know that "I can do all things through Christ which strentheneth me." Philippians 4:13

Baptismal/ /End of the Year Services

2009-01-08T04:07:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in the last post, this year has been extremely extremely busy. As I look back and see all that has happened and how the Lord has blessed our family I stand amazed. At times, it has been very hard but through it all we have seen His Hand moving time and time again. We had a baptismal both at the colony and the church here in town. The one at the colony was on December 27th and the one here in town on the 31st.

This is Walber. He was baptized along with his wife. We had a wonderful service this night with various men preaching. We prayed in the New Year and then afterward had a present exchange and then a big meal. We did not even get home until almost 3 in the morning.

Both Ana Paula and Poliana were baptized at the colony. People wondered how Steve did this. He put a small seat in the water tank and she sat on it, then he just tipped her back to baptize her. We had a church full this day. So many lost people. These people have been so cold to the gospel. Pray pray pray for this work. Afterward we had a big cookout.

Christmas Play

2009-01-08T03:33:00.000-08:00

I am certainly late putting these pictures on our blog. 2008 was such a busy year for us and the end of the year started as the beginning BUSY! Busy but full of blessing. This year, I think, we had one of the best programs that we have ever had. No, it was not because it was professional, but because the program presented a very clear plan of salvation. We even had one teenager accept Jesus as her Savior the night of the program. That was well worth all of the practices.

Philip with Marcelo decorating the tree.

Mary and Joseph (Aurenice and Jerri)

Hannah and Sara. In this part it showed how we all sin. They represented 2 girls making fun of another girl.

The children did an entirely different program. Neysa Keller was responsible for this program. They did a great job!

The Rat Room

2008-12-30T03:49:00.000-08:00

I just have to tell this story. I was certainly not a prize winning mom this night.

We went to the colony and stayed lastFriday night for the service on Saturday. We stayed in Bro. Eli's house. We went a day early because we had a lot of work to do. We did a baptismal on Saturday. We got ready for bed that night. Steve and Philip were in their hammocks and Hannah and I in one room and then Joshua, Benjamin, and Thales (another boy whose family went with us) were in another room. Thales's mom, dad, and 2 small brothers were in another room. As Hannah and I laid down in the bed, I took a quick look at my surroundings. They had a lot of food stored in this room. Then I remembered that they had told me there were rats in this room. Like any wise mom, I traded rooms with Joshua (age 8), Benjamin (age 6), and Thales (age 9). But I did not tell them the situation with the rats. All night long we heard them running back and forth and I could only imagine what was in that room. But the boys slept all night long and seeing as they do not have energy, there were no lights on, thankfully. The next morning feeling a bit guilty I told the boys that they had slept in the rat room. They were really funny. All the boys wanted to stay another night and Joshua and Thales wanted to stay in the same room to see if they could shine their flashlights and see the rats. I guess they are much braver than me.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

We would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas. It can at times be hard to be away from family on Christmas but it is wonderful to be serving the One who Christmas is all about.

Mission's Conference

2008-12-15T09:53:00.000-08:00

We had a mission's conference 2 weeks ago and I am just getting around to posting this. Missionary Ricardo Leite was our special speaker. The church has supported him for over a year, but this was the first time that we had met him. We take on missionaries that we have never met due to the fact it is so expensive to come up our way. So, the church was able to pay for his trip. He did a great job and we have seen a 20% increase in our faith promise. We are so excited about that. This picture is of Pastor Ricardo with Walber. Walber has been saved for a short time, but he loves to sing. As Steve said, "Everyone needs a Walber at their church."

Bible Club

2008-12-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

After several of the neighborhood children were saved, I knew that I needed to do more. They are sometimes able to go to church with us on Sunday morning but not always. For quite a while, I have felt the Lord leading me to start a Bible Club at our house. I guess I needed some pushing, but I finally did. Last night was our first club. We started at the beginning - creation. I am planning on having a Bible Club every Tuesday night when Steve has a class at the church. I told the children they could invite other children and their moms to come to the club. We have maybe 2 months until we move. Once we move we will be about 20 minutes away (by car). I am just really excited and am praying that others can be reached.

Bobby Anderson

2008-12-02T09:29:00.001-08:00

I do not have a picture to go along with this post. I like to have pictures to go along with the things I write because I think people in general like to see pictures. Sunday night was the last night of our mission's conference. We had Pastor Richardo Leite, a Brazilian missionary, preach for the conference. Our church supports him but had never personally met him. We support several missionaries we have never met because it is just so expensive to get where we are because of the distance. On Sunday night a boy named Bobby Anderson came to church. Bobby is 17 years old and is in the same piano class as our daughter Hannah who is 11. Hannah had invited Bobby to church along with her teacher and others in her class. Bobby had been coming for several months. Well on Sunday night Bobby came forward and gave his heart and life to Jesus. I just wish you could have seen Hannah. She had tears streaming down her face. She is so very excited. Ana Jessica was saved on Tuesday and then Bobby on Sunday. She told me just today, "Mom, I really think that God is going to save my piano teacher." She had been telling her piano teacher the effects of smoking as he smokes. She was continually giving him a little lecture. Then one day she wrote him a note telling him she was just concerned for his health. He has since stopped smoking. Pray for our children. Pray that they would always have a desire to serve Him with their lives. This is probably a bit of a brag moment for me as I am just really proud of my daughter. I am certainly not saying she is perfect as we do have our moments here at the house, but I am slowly watching her change. I happen to think that I have the most beautiful daughter in the world, but I desire for her inward beauty to be much greater than her outward and that she always reflects Jesus with her life.

Family Day

2008-11-28T09:54:00.001-08:00

On Sunday night we had Family Day at church. The person that brought the most visitors from their family won a Bible. We had 2 families with the same number of visitors.

Aurenice brought 7 visitors from her family. Aurenice is holding the Bible and her husband Jerri is in the back with the black shirt. You might remember Jerri and Aurenice from previous blogs. Their son Enzo has been battling cancer. He has one more chemotherapy treatment. This family has been a blessing and have been so faithful inspite of everything they have gone through. George Mueller said, "When sight ceases it is time for faith. The greater the difficulties, the easier it is for faith. As long as human possiblities remain, faith does not accomplish things as easily as when all natural prosepcts fail." We have seen their faith and complete trust in God time and time again and it has been an example to many others in the church.

Josefa also had 7 visitors from her family. She is holding the Bible and Adilson, her husband is on the other end of the pew. Steve says that Adilson is his right had man. Adilson and Josefa are always ready to work. Josefa's aunt, Francisca in on the front row in the blue flowered dress. She has been to church many times but has not accpeted Christ as her Savior. She says she was born a Christian. Pray for her salvation.

I'm so thankful

2008-11-26T09:09:00.000-08:00

We had a special blessing yesterday. We took the day off from school because we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday with the Keller family. Yesterday morning Hannah wanted to know if she could go play with Ana Jessica. She is 12 and is a neighbor. I said yes and so Hannah went to her house. Ana Jessica has also been to church with us several times. Hannah and Ana Jessica were cooking and they starting talking about the times they have been burned while cooking. This led Hannah to say, "Can you imagine what hell is like?" Hannah opened up the door and started witnessing to her friend. Hannah has been earnestly praying for the salvation of her friend. Ana Jessica told Hannah she had been having doubts as if she would go to heaven or not. Hannah then asked her if she wanted to get saved. Ana Jessica did and then Hannah came right over to our house (across the road) and Steve led her to the Lord. What a blessing!

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday with the Keller family. We celebrated yesterday because we have a mission's conference starting on Friday and we have a Brazilian missionary arriving on Thanksgiving Day. It was a blessing to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with another American family. Not only that Neysa Keller did most of the work. I really enjoyed that!!!!

We have had so many blessing of late and we have been reminded time and time again how God takes care of all of our needs and so many times our wants. As you know the money came through for the training center. Well, along with this property and building we are getting some of our wants. There are things like a pressure washer, and industrial juicer, an industrial blender, and many more things included. What a blessing! Steve and I were talking the other day about it and are just amazed at how blessed we are. Many of these items we had talked about buying but never seemed to have the extra money to do so.

We have decided to move to the property as there is a house on the property. This was a hard decision to make as the kids have friends across the street. (like Ana Jessica) But we looked at the bigger house on the property and even though it is smaller than our house it is finished. It is big enough to suit our family's needs. Another blessing is that we will only be 1 mile away from the church.

There are many many more blessings. Not only was Ana Jessica saved so were her brother that is 9, another cousin that is 12, and another cousin that is 9.

Birthdays back to back

2008-11-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

October is a busy month for us birthday wise. Benjamin has one on the 8th, Hannah the 30th and Joshua the 31st. This year was an extra special for Hannah and Joshua. We had the Keller family with us. They moved to Rio Branco from Manaus to work with us. They stayed in our house for almost 3 weeks so Hannah and Joshua were able to have special guests for their birthdays. The cakes I made as you can tell they are certainly nothing special. I do not like to bake and thought of buying cakes, but the children for some strange reason like it better when I personally bake them a cake.

Joshua wanted a hot dog cookout for his birthday. We even had the marshmellows, but then it rained and rained. So, we still had hot dogs only cooked in the oven. He was so excited even with the rain. Joshua usually has a good attitude. He turned 8 years old.

Hannah wanted grilled hamburgers for her birthday. Thankfully it did not rain on her birthday. She turned 11 and is such a big help.