Wow!  August is here.  For those of you that live in the US you are in the middle of summer.  Well, for those of us who live in Garça, we are enjoying a wonderful winter, with the average temperature of 70 degrees.  The sun rises and sunsets this time of the year are absolutely gorgeous!
    One of the new things around here is milking cows. About a month or two ago Odali bought some cows.  The boys have enjoyed going each morning to milk them.

 One of the cows loves cookies, well she love just about anything that is eatable.  This has been a great time for the boys and their dad.  They usually have other kids that go with them. Nice Falls!!!! They are at the same place where they milk the cows.
 We have several new people living here with us now.  They are adults or mother with children. There is a lady that is living here that is waiting for her house that is being built by the city.  The city subsidies homes for those with low income and with no conditions of having a job that would guaranty them a good salary. These people lived in an area of danger.  Marcia is here name.  She has been coming to church along with her 13 year old son. 
 His name is Alex.  Alex has made friends with our boys and is like one of the family.  Actually he has started calling Odali and I mom and dad.  He has not seen or heard of his dad for many years.  The last time he saw him, his dad was trying to kill his mom.  Nice memories right!  Pray for them especially that they will accept Christ as Savior.  Marcia does not read or right.  We are trying to work out a time to help her.  We don´t know for sure if she has a difficulty or if she just quit her studies early. Also we have another lady here who has some learning disabilities. Since this area used to be coffee farms many people did not finish the studies.  But she also does not read or right and does not know money.
    Our church is doing well.  We work on Sunday morning especially to reach out to the children and teens.  Our city, like so many others have been taken over by drugs and prostitution. A junior age girl told her Sunday school teacher a few days ago that she didn't what would happened to them if our church ever closed.   On Sunday they spend about 3 hours here with us.  We have Sunday school and service them they play and eat then we take them home.  Last Sunday we had several mothers.  Most all the kids come from single mom homes. Our Sunday night services are especially for adults. Last Sunday we had several visitors. 
    We are planning on taking a furlough late November of this year.  Our youngest daughter is having her baby then. It’s been 7 years since Amelia saw her dad. Also we have 2 granddaughters that we haven’t seen.  So we thought that that would be a good time for us to take a break.  We started on our boys documents and we hope that all goes well. We are not sure where we will be living yet.  We are looking into finding a house to rent.  Pray for us as we get things ready for us to take our furlough.
Thanks for your financial support and your prayers. Please continue to pray for us. May God bless each of you.
Our e-mail.  odali_kathy@hotmail.com
Love in Chirst,
Odali and Kathy Barros
           

Helping the ones in need.

Winter is here, the weather is beautiful.  Our winter is not so cold.  Actually winter here in Garca is just about as perfect as you can get.  The average temperature is of 70 degrees.  It rarely get down to freezing.  
We have had several request from the city and from a pastor to help with some adults. We have 2 ladies that are waiting for their homes to be built.  The city is helping build homes for those who have some mental difficulties and are not able to work enough to buy themselves homes.  They will probably be here till the end of the year.  The other one is a young man that came to our church over 20 years ago.  His life became a mess.  Actually a total disaster. His name is Pablo.  Please pray for him that he will find his strength is Jesus Christ. That each day the journey may became closer to victory.
The kids from church are doing great.  We have a group that is faithful.  Sunday one of the junior girls that comes, asked Odali if it was true that the world was going to end in December of 2012.  Odali told here that the bible didn't give a date, but that what was important was to be ready, to accept Jesus as our savior.  She then asked how can I do that?  How exciting it is to see these kids grow each day.