ALPHA E OMEGA CENTER FOR FAMILY DEVELOPMENT

2012-01-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

Hopeall have been enjoying the blessings of our Lord. We are all doing great.

Withall the holidays and with lots of rain we are trying to get back into ourschedules. We have had lots of rain herein Brasil. Thankfully where we live is sohigh up that we do not run the danger of flooding. But in other places they have not been sofortunate. Many places have had someserious damage.

Godhas given us the opportunity to preach to 5 states with out going out of ourhouse! Maybe you’re asking how couldthat be possible? Down the road from ourhouse a construction company is building over 700 houses. The company needed a place to sleep theirconstruction workers and came to talk to us. We let them use one of the halls where we used to have the school. They pay for the utilities they use. They are from at least 5 different states.Most of them are from state in northeast Brasil. A mission field right in our yard! At the end of each day they play soccer withthe guys that lives here at Alpha and Omega. We have made it a project to gain these men by our testimony. They have been here for 2 weeks. We have had the privileged of several of themcome to church. Pray for them as theyhear the gospel that they may understand and receive Him as Savior. Can you imagine these men getting saved andthen going back to their families?! We praiseGod for this opportunity!

2012-01-16T04:51:00.000-08:00

New Year

Timedoes not stop or wait, it keeps on moving, we must not loss time in sharingGod’s love to those around us. The realpurpose of why God put us on earth!! Thefinal goal is eternity. Unfortunatelymost of the time we spend planning our earthly gains and forget the bestinvestment of all times. SOULS! I pray each one of us well remember that thecoming of our Savior is closer each day. That we will use each opportunity we have to tell some one aboutJesus. We need to live a life that othersmay see Jesus in us.

Last Sunday we had a wonderful Sunday school. But, there was a specific thing that happenedthat touched my heart. One of the ladieswho live with us, who has used drugs most of her life, asked me to go get afriend to come to church. I went withher to get her friend. The location isthe worst place for drugs in this town. As I drove up the streets was full of people just standing around,drugged, drunk or both. People juststanding around, with know meaning to life. The ladies husband at first hesitated in letting her go, but the friendfinally convened him to let her come. When we got to church the bus route that Odali drives arrived. All of a sudden the lady I brought washugging a little girl. It was the ladiesdaughter that she had not seen for 4 months. Because of the kind of life she was living the courts gave the childrento her sister that does not let her see them. What a place to meet, at God’s house. This is only one story, but like this one there are many others. Pray for these children and these familiesthat we can above all things place in their hearts that God loves them and thatHe died on the cross for our sins. Thatis worth living for!!!! God’s plan forus is simple let us not complicate it.

Our sons Titos, the 2 on the left, and Jonas

My brother Paul, me and son Gadriel

I took our 3 boys to camp last week. What a time ofrefreshing. It is fun to watch them growand enjoy camp in a different way. Theymade many new friends form other churches. They just had lots of fun and fellowship with other Christianteenagers. I also had a great time withmy brother Paul and his wife Wanda and my parents. It is not often that we get together.

Children's Day Special Celabration. October 12th

2011-10-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

Hope all of you have had a great Sunday. We had a great day. Here in Brasil we celebrate a day for thechildren. This day is celebrated onOctober 12. Since it was in the middleof the week we had something special for them today. We are running the van and a bus on Sundaymorning. Today we had a great serviceand had several new visitors. Odali usethe colored bracelet to tell the about God. Then each child got a bracelet to take home.

That way the children can tell their parents what they learnedat church. Most of the children comefrom homes were no one goes to church. The truth is that most of themcome form home with single moms. We alsohad other activities since it was a special days. We don’t do egg hunt but we did a suckerhunt. Boys X girls. We hid 100 white ones forthe boys and 100 pink ones for the girls. They had to see how could find more the fasted.

To finish the service we served the hot dogs. We always serve lunch. But hot dogs are special. Believe it or not it cost more to serve hotdogs than a full meal.

We want to thank all of those who pray for this ministry andus. God bless each of you.

Please pray for us as the court hearings about the closingof the home will be starting. We knowthat God is in control, but it puts a lot of wear and tear on us. Pray that God give us the strength that weneed for each day.

Pictures of the Changes being made.

2011-09-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Varnishing

We are working hard to get the new auditorium ready to use. We are also getting classes ready from the nursery to the adolescents. Things are starting to look good. Here are some pictures so that you can pray for us and be thankful for what God is going to do and for what He has done. We greatly appreciate your prayers and your support. God Bless each of you.

Chairs look beautiful!

Testing the Sound

Toddles class room

Nursery being worked on.

Adolecents classroom. They have started sanding so they can paint. The theme they have chosen is, " ALIEN in this world".

Fixing the Garden in the Front of where the entrance to the auditorium is.

Library changed rooms and is just about ready to be used!

Our goal is to have it ready the same day as the new auditorium.

New plans for Church and Chruch Ministry

2011-08-29T17:57:00.001-07:00

Greetings Dear folk!

It is hard when you get used to using a computer for everything. Not having one to use without being broken more than working. We finally decided we better get a new one before we lost all that we had on the old one. We should be set for a good while.

We are doing great. We took some time off and went on vacation. We had not had a vacation for some four years. Since our boys like the beach we went down to Caraguatatuba where my brother Epitacio is pastor. Even though I was on vacation I preached 3 times at the church that he pastors.

We are making new plans for our church here in Garça. We will be working with Pastor Gilberto who is pastor is Marilia. There are several mission points that are going through some difficult situations, mostly a need for pastors.

Also pastor Gilberto and I have visited several cites in a one hour radius that still do not have Baptist churches.

We have bought a lot in Marilia and have already built a house for a pastor to live in. We will be starting a building there next. Also one of the plans there is to open a bible institute.

This lot is only 1.5 miles from the 4 universities in Marilia. We are praying that God will prepare some one that would love to work with the college students. There are over 30.000 students that attend these colleges. This is a tremendous opportunity.

We have been working on getting the library ready to open. But we will have to make a change and move it to a smaller room and leave the bigger room for the auditorium for the services. We hope that we can have all this ready in the next 2 weeks.

Pray for us, and all our new plans. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Odali and Kathy

odali_kathy@hotmail.com

God's Beautiful Creation

2011-08-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

Things here at our home, Alpha and Omega are just doing great. Everything out side is getting absolutely beautiful. It is getting close to the beginning of spring. We have a weeping willow tree that is beautiful. This kind of tree has a red flower that looks like a brush.

The green from the other trees are so bright. Each day God surprises me with all that He has created. Things are never the same. Every day I try to see God in all that He has made. So many times we just remember and think of God by the BIG blessing that he sends our way and/or if our health is good. You know dear friends there is more to it than just that. Ask God each day to help you see him through the things he has created. You will probably be surprised when you see the things that you have missed. The other day I was sweeping my porch, and thinking about God. As I was thinking I said to God, Let me know you are hearing me. when I looked down to continue sweeping, there was a black and red bug crossing the porch. I had never seen the bug before, it was perfect.

Today several of us have been carrying and cleaning things where we are going to set up the church auditorium. We are moving the library to a smaller room. We still have lots to do, but we are excited about the new plans. I will take some pictures of what we are doing so those of you who have been here can see what we are doing. Thanks for your prayers for us and the work here.
God's blessing to all of you.

Sorry for not having new updates.

2011-08-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings Dear folk!

We are doing great. We took to me time off and went on vacation. We had not had a vacation for some four years. Since our boys like the beach we went down to Caraguatatuba where my brother Epitacio is pastor. Even though I was on vacation I preached 3 times at the church that he pastors.

Also pastor Gilberto and I have visited several cites in a one hour radius that still do not have Baptist churches.

We have bought a lot in Marilia and have already built a house for a pastor to live in. We will be starting a building there next. Also one of the plans there is to open a bible institute.

This lot only 1.5 miles from the 4 universities in Marilia. We are praying that God will prepare some that would love to work with the college students. There are over 30.000 students that attend these colleges. This is a tremendous opportunity.

We will be moving our services to the building where we used to have the school. Since we have so many kids on Sunday morning and we will be working with Sunday school classes where we can move the kids into the classrooms more easily. We will be fixing some things like painting, changing some doors and things like that. We have been working on getting the library ready to open. But we will have to make a change and move it to a smaller room and leave the bigger room for the auditorium for the services. We hope that we can have all this ready in the next 2 weeks.

Pray for us, and all our new plans. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Odali and Kathy

April News

2011-04-20T05:05:00.000-07:00

WOW! Easter is here already. We have had several things going on here. Since the beginning of this year many wonderful things have happened. Sorry we have been slow on getting things on the blog. Today I will try to get you all caught up on the news and what is going on here.

As many of you know, we no longer work with children at the home. We have been helping adults that come from the same situation that the children we worked with did. From time to time the city´s social workers ask if we can help with some families. We talk to each person that comes and see if we can help.

Some people ask us if it is easier to work with adults or with the children. Well…… Let´s put it this way; adults are set in their ways and must want to change. But then if they don´t want to change you can ask them to leave. They are old enough to take care of the business. It is definitely a different experience.

We are still having the music classes here at the church. The students are coming along very well.

We had a group of people from Caraguatatuba were Odali´s brother has been a pastor for over 14 years. We had a great time of fellowship with them.

Also, while they were here the church from Marilia and Vera Cruz come over and spent the day. We had activities during the day and services at night. Every one enjoyed the good eating and the fellowship.

We are having a great number on Sunday morning. The attendance is growing continuously. We had so much rain that for almost 2 months it was hard to pick people up on the bus route. The rain was great, but we are also thankful that it has stopped and now we are having great numbers on the routes. We have started visiting again. We are working on bringing out the children’s parents. There have been several parents that have been coming. Another thing that has been different is the parents are bringing the kids and putting them on the bus to come to Sunday school. We are planning on having a special day first week in June, FAMILY DAY. Pray for us for this day.

Pray for the lady that is helping us with our Library. Her name is Suely.

She comes to church every Sunday, but has not made a profession of faith. She has crippling arthritis and has some difficulty in getting around. We pick her up to work in the library. To help these people financially we find different kinds of jobs that they can do so they can make money. Teaching them responsibility and the importance of maintaining themselves is one of the main things. Pray for each one of these people that they may especially come to know the Lord and Savior. As human beings we would give up on most people, but Graciously God does not. He loves taking people like Moses, who murdered a man and transformed him in to a great leader even with all his fears and disabilities. That is what It´s all about. God´s power of transformation. Praise God for His love and mercy.

One of the places where we have done some work has given us a good amount of paint. We will be able to paint lots of our rooms. We are thankful to God for the gift.

Garça is a small city and there are not too many things to do here. I don´t even think the movie theater is working. But we do have a bowling lane now. Can you believe that!!!! The teens had a competition of memorization and other things and the winner got to pick pizza or the bowling.

Titus our son won, and since he does not like pizza they went bowling. It was his first time and he really enjoyed it.

The youth are going to camp this week. They are excited about going. Pray for those that are taking them and for their safety.

Music class

2011-01-30T02:24:00.000-08:00

We have a group from church that is taking music lessons. Here in Brasil students do not study music in school. If one wants to learn music or how to play and instrument he must take private lessons. After 2 months of classes they played and sang for Christmas. They were so nervous. But we are very proud of them. Our oldest student is the lady playing bass. We were surprised when she said that was the instrument she wanted to learn to play.

We have had so much rain here. We are thankful that we do not live in an area that has floods. If we did we would certainly be wiped out. The rain has done lot of damage in town but it has not taken any lives.
Our school year starts this week. The kids of course have mixed emotions. They want to see their friends but studying part ..... oh well.
We want to thank those of you who sent special gifts for Christmas. We deeply appreciate your kindness. May God bless each of you.

The church is doing great. Last week we had 5 people saved. Pray for these babes in Christ as they grow in the Lord each day.
We have a new mother here with 3 children. She came for help with a social worker from the city asking for a place to live. She was a drug addict. She has been using cocaine most of her life. When we had the HOME two of her brothers lived with us. They had the same problem. They came from a family (well if you can call it a family) that had no structure what so ever. Unfortunately that is becoming more common around the world. The Devil is not too fond of structured families that serve God. Actually the devil started working with Adam and Eve. The first misunderstanding they had was accusing each other. Pray for this young lady. She just turned 30 and has 3 kids ages, 11, 6 and 2.

End of year..... Had a great time

2011-01-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas!!!!!

Hey friends,

Hope all of you had a great end of year. That you holidays with your family and friends was great. We had a great time and mostly enjoyed just having fellowship with friends and church members.

We have finished most of the painting of the front part of the building. The building is so big that it take time and lots of paint.

We took the church to the farm again for a day. Everyone had a great time. Every one enjoyed the water and the water falls. Those who were young enough or better strong enough went to the bigger falls. The place is just beautiful.

We had a great Christmas Eve dinner. On New Year’s Eve we had our dinner outside. We had grilled skibobs and salads. We played card games, volley ball and the kids had fun playing together. It was just a wonderful time of relaxation.

We are trying hard to get the library ready to be opened by the end of January. Getting all the books registered of computer takes some time. Especially went those who are typing are not professional typist. We had some nice desk donated to us from a school in town. So we went and took out the ones that we had that we old and not in good shape. All the desk that we had, were given to us by others schools that were going to through the away.

We thank all of you that stay in contact with us and that keep us in your prayers and support this ministry. May God bless all of you and your loved ones and may the year of 2011 be a year full of God blessing in your lives.

NEW BOOKS AND LIBRARY COMING ALONG

2010-11-30T04:34:00.001-08:00

Alpha and Omega gets a new look!

We are starting new projects and along with that giving this place a completely new look. We hope that we can get the front painted by Christmas. The painting is slow because getting the walls ready to be painted is taking a long time. There is lots of scraping to be done. But things are coming along.

We are really getting excited about the library. It takes so much time to type the information on the computer for each book. But things are coming along really well. We went to the book store this week and started buying the new books that so many people donated for. I just wish books were a little cheaper. Oh well, thank God we can buy more Christian books. We still are going to buy more. We are looking and checking the different publishing houses to get a variety of books that are good for all ages. The girls at the store had fun taking pictures of us while we were shopping. I took our 3 boys to the book store too. We had written to several publishing companies and asked if they would give a copy of some books or magazines for the library. We sent them a copy of our project so they could see what our plans are. We have already had some replies. One company has already sent 12 months of magazines. Another Christian book store wrote us and said they were interested also. Please continue to pray for us as we work hard to get things ready. I would really like to open the library before the end of the year.

A GREAT DAY AND SPECIAL THANKS!

2010-11-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

Things are coming along with our new plans for the family development center. Last week Lizene and I (Kathy) went to the Education department to check on some information about the school. Since we want to help adults to learn to read and write we needed to know what our options were with government regulations. We came back really excited with what we found out. The supervisor told us that we could teach them along with the library project. Then if any of our students wanted to have a diploma that they could do the GRD test. The supervisor said she would get one of the schools in town to do the test. Then if we decide that we want to reopen our school we can do that next year. We have been talking to some adults that we have come in contact with and they have really like the idea of being able to study in the day time. There are several schools in town that offer adult education but only at night. For mothers that have small children, studying at night is almost impossible. We also want to have seminars that will teach these adults practical things, like manicure, nutrition, hand painting, personal care, imitation jewelry, masonry, basic electrical tips, and carpentry, cooking tips and other things that are useful for everyday living.

We want to think all those that helped Loran Brown from Georgetown College with the fundraiser she did for Alpha and Omega Family Development Center. We are going to the book store this week to buy the books for the library. Thank you so much and God bless each of you.

We had another holiday this week. We had another special day here at Alpha and Omega. We invited folks to come and eat with us and spend the day. We had around 50 new people that had not been at other dinners. We just had a great day and the day was absolutely beautiful. We praise God for all He has done and is doing. Thanks to all of you who stay in touch and that pray for us and that give to the ministry. God bless you.

Memorial Day – November 2nd

2010-11-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

Here in Brasil memorial day is in November. Our church planned a big luncheon. The only prerequisite to come was you had to invite some one, starting with members of your family that were not saved. People got on the ball. It was really exciting to see every one going after the visitors. Many members invited whole families to come. The day was fantastic, and the weather was just perfect. We could not have asked for a better day. After lunch folks just set out in front and talked and those that we not to tired or full played volleyball and soccer. The children enjoyed the park and the trampling. It was a time of refreshing and fellowship. The last ones to leave, left at 8:00 pm.

One of our main goals is to reach out to families in our community. Unfortunately many homes are one parent homes. Thorough our church we want to bring these families close to our church family. With this we also want to introduce the family development center. We are working on our library and also putting together projects to help these families through encouragement and also with their needs. We will have studies done by our social worker, of each family to see where they need help. We also plan on teaching adults to read that have never had a chance to go to school. Since Garça was an area where coffee was cultivated many families grow up picking coffee therefore lived on farms and had no access to school. Now in days school buses pick the children up and bring them to school. That was not possible 20 to 40 years ago. So there are many people in there 40s and 50s that do not read or write. Please continue to pray for or new plans. We thanks all those who keep in touch and also thanks you for your prayers and support. God bless each of you. Enjoy the pictures.

Special Sunday

2010-10-13T04:57:00.000-07:00

Well I guess there is 2 clowns!!!!

Here in Brasil there is a day dedicated for the children like there is for father and mother’s Day. It is on October the 12^th. We had a special day for the kids Sunday afternoon from noon to 6 pm. We had 150 kids under 13 yrs old. There were about 60 more people 14 yrs. and older. We put ribbons with their names on all the kids 13 and under. Also we wrote their names on labels that were later put on bags with treats for the scavenger hunt. At the end of the day the kids had to hunt for the bag with their own name on it and not take any one else’s. What a challenge!!!! Well actually that went pretty well. I believe there were only 3 or 4 that we did not find. We had many parents that came with their children. Had 2 mothers that came and asked me if the could come to church with there kids. I told them that not only could they come but that they actually should come with their children. That coming to church as a family was very important. We had all kinds of activities. Our church has lots of young adults. The games that we used were made by the youth. Every one put effort in their work and the results were great.

We had hot dogs, pop corn, cotton candy and fresh juice for every one. Of course that always goes over well. Eating is every ones favorite hobby. Before the hunt we gathered every one to give the instructions on how the hunt was going to be. But before we did that we sang some songs and them the youth did a drama of the prodigal son and then Odali shared the gospel with all those there.

After the all was finished those from church and those who live here with us at Alpha and omega play some ball and just had a great time of fellowship. It was a great day and God gave us an absolutely gorgeous day. The weather could have not been better. Enjoy the pictures. We even dress Odali and a clown.

One more Blessing From God!!!!!

2010-10-13T04:41:00.000-07:00

Last week we were blessed with the birth of one more granddaughter. Josue Odali (Joshua or ZINHO) and Carrie were blessed with the birth of Maiara Esther Barros. Maiara was born on Oct 7. she weighed 7lbs 7oz and she was 21in long. She has dark hair, well; I'll just let you see for yourselves :)

I think Maiara will survive!

God has blessed us with six children and and eight grandchildren. We are thankful for his faithfulness.

Finally some News!!!!!

2010-10-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

Good fishing!!!!!

Amazon and Negro river come together.

Ready for the trip! Tito, Jonas, Gabriel and Katia

The church in Manaus, Nova Chapada Baptist.

Yes we are alive and well. Just some computer problems. Here is an update on what is going on. Love you all and thank you for your prayers and support.

Dear Brother and Sisters,

This month has been very unusual and very full of many activities. We have done more travelling in on month than we have done in the whole year. I went to Caraguatatuba were my brother Epitacio has been a Pastor for over 15 years. I went with my 2 older sons and Pastor Gilberto. Pastor Gilberto is from Marilia. We went to visit a pastor near there that was going through some hard times. We had a great trip. My wife Kathy was invited to speak at the ladies retreat that their church has every year. They, both Kathy and the ladies seemed to have enjoyed every minute of the retreat. Kathy was able to take 2 ladies from our church with her. They drove there and back. It is an eight hour trip one way. But they had a great and safe trip there and back.
Our whole family had the opportunity to go to Manaus to a ministry and missions conference at the Chapada church. Also from our church we had the opportunity to take 2 from our church, Katia Soares and Luiz Brito. They had never been to a church with so many things going on. They were totally in awe of the servants heart that each member had there. This is the church were my wife Kathy was saved. David Hatcher has been pastor there for several years Pastor. There were people from all over Brasil there. There were seminars of all kinds. Even our son Titus, of age 12 did the Sunday school seminar. We got to see many of our family members there. Also we had to blessing to see many old friends from the beginning of our ministry when we lived in Manaus. Well, there is one highlight for all of them. I went to where the Home is in Manaus and caught one of those fish that every fisherman would love to catch. The famous PIRARUCU. They can weigh the average of 100 to 200 pounds. It was good eating too!!!!!!
Here in Garca we are working with reaching children on Sunday morning. Very different from the U.S, adults are not big on getting out in the morning. So we work to bring the Sunday night. We have had get friendship time in different homes and suppers for couples. The idea is to bring couples that are not from church. This has work really well. This last Friday Kathy fixed a special supper with a fish that we brought from Manaus. We had 3 couple that we invited that came that are not church goers.
We are planning on having classes to pass on what we heard. So those who could not go to the conference can learn the new ideas and also to have a time of encouragement for every one. We have many that are new Christians and that need to learn more about the church and what and why we believe. There are so many Pentecost churches here. Actually in Garca there is a church that is called Baptist and is far as they can get from being Baptist.
Also we will be teaching classes on how to teach lessons for children up to adults. The people from our church are not people who grow up in church. So they have know idea of how Sunday school and church work.

In Christ,
Odali and Kathy Barros

Our Family

2010-07-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

Just a little note about our family. We are doing great. God has done some fantastic things in our life. Here are a few pictures for you to see what we all look like now. Well odali and I have just matured of course. Boys are really growing.

Jonas almost 12 yrs old

Gabriel 10 yrs old.

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Tito is 12 yrs old.

Time does not wait !

2010-07-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Time is so precious and so many times we get to busy to even notice that time is really going by very fast. We live in days when time only means money or big investments. Forgetting the greatest investment of all times: SOULS!!!!! There are SOULS everywhere. Not hard to find at all. Our families, our friends, fellow workers even our enemies. The truth is that God told us to love our enemies. The best investment that has full guaranty! Can’t be destroyed, stolen, burnt or transferred. Do you know of any investment that equals this one. No there is no other. Take time with those around you and tell them how much God loves them. Be it to lead them to the Savior or to encourage those who are down. It is worth every minute.
We have done several things the last couple months. Hope that you enjoy reading and seeing the pictures of what has been going on.
We had a group from Georgetown College here with us. They are a fun group to have here. This year we did something a little different. We took them to a public school here in our community to work with kids that had special needs. They went there every day morning and afternoon. The kids really enjoyed them. They did sock puppets with the kids.

The kids had fun and enjoyed seeing their finished projects.

Are these people or are the the puppets!!!!

The students also scraped a wall that really needed some work on it. The hall is around 90 feet long. Is sure was easier having 17 people working on it than just a couple of people. With that many people a large area could be covered. Hope that we can paint it soon.

The greagetown students also did a mural with the ones that live here at alpha and omega. The kids had fun! As you can see in the pictures several kids became part of the mural, from little one to some bigger ones. They really had lots of work to do on the wall. As you can see.

Well after lots of hard work there was some fun too. All kinds of fun things, from picking Açai berry to going to the beach!!!! This is about as fresh of açai berry that you can get. Right off the tree!!!! Well that is not as easy as it sounds. It takes a little exercise to get to the berry. Take a look!!!!

Ok now it’s your turn!!! Are you ready?

This is our son Jonas.

Well some times it take some help!!!

But its worth the effort!

Fresh açai berry!!!!!!

About as fresh as you can get it!!!!!!!!

After the beach, a nice look at the wonders of God's creation.

April.... Busy Month

2010-04-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

We are really excited. The remodeling is going pretty well. The floor on the school patio is finished and working on the covered walk way. When this is finished we will start painting. While we wait for the school patio to be finished we are painting the front of Alpha and Omega. Everyone is helping sand the old paint. We plan on painting the entire home on the outside. Most of the building is brick so it doesn't need to be painted, but the borders and around the windows and doors need painting. We pray that God will continue to supply what we need to finish the painting

All the toddles from church and their fathers went fishing with their dads. Well you know by now that the fathers didn’t do any fishing. Ha ha ha! They stayed busy trying to keep the kids out of the water. Well actually from falling into the water.!!!

Big changes underway!

2010-03-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

We've been cleaning and remodeling the part of the building that housed the school. A combination of hard work and the pressure washer have really made a world of difference! Once we've painted, the patio will be used as an outdoor reading area; it's located right next to the library. Soon we will begin, and parents will be able to bring their kids here for story time. Our social worker will be able to hear from the families in our community so that we can know how to better serve them. Currently, these are the services we will be offering: Public Library (To promote reading among kids) Adult education Sports Leagues Jewelry making class Health and Wellness Class – basic hygiene, sex education, “God’s Way”, and other topics like disease prevention. Painting class Sewing class In the future, we'd like to offer dancing, culinary, and crafts classes We aim to use our recreational potential (the improved patio, basketball court, pool, soccer field) to serve more and more people. The playground also attracts many parents that with young children. We'd like to improve our playground and complete the putt putt golf we began to build.

Remodling has started !!!!!!

2010-02-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

We have started the remodeling for the area that we are going to use for our new projects. We are putting the entire list of library books on computer. The outside area as you can see in the pictures below is going through some major transformation. We can’t wait to get the floor finished so we can paint and put the lounging are together. We are creating a multipurpose are that can be used for reading to meetings and just plain relaxing. Soon we will share with you the new projects that we have planed. As soon as the remodeling is done we will get to work. Pray for us as we work hard to get things on the way.

SERVICES IN HOMES OF FRIENDS AND MEMBERS!

2010-01-19T07:41:00.000-08:00

We have had a wonderful time having services in homes. The person's home where we go, invite their neighbors or those that they want to hear about God. We have a time of fellowship and eating, then we have a time of worshipping God through singing and then telling those there about the Lord. We usually have over hafl of the grouo that are with God. This has been a great opportunity to reach out really close to those around us.

YOUTH MEETING AND SERVICES IN PEOPLES HOME

2010-01-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

We are doing several things do reach out to more people in our community. We are making plans with the youth about new ideas and ways that each one can be more effective. The adults are reaching out in the community by havung services in peoples home. We go to people home that do not come to church. We take supper and eat with them and their neighbors and then we sing an
d tell them about God's love. This has really been great. We have just started
and we already have over 5 homes to go to. Please pray for each of these ministreis that we can be more effective in taking God's good news to them.

Christmas at Alpha and Omega and New years at church

2010-01-12T08:29:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Cristmas and a great new years. We hope that all of you had a great time also. Time flys by so fast it is hard to believe that January is almost half gone. It has been a tradition here at Alpha and Omega that we spend Christmas Eve together, and New years eve we spend together with the church family. this year was no different. We thanks God for the year and we sing and spend time together and of course do some good eating. We thanks God for all of you that have supported us all these years and especially for your prayers. May God
bless each of you.

Getting ready for New Years Eve service

CHRISTMAS!!!!

2009-12-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

Hope all of you had a great Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas here. We wanted to emphases the true meaning of Christmas. The world has totally turned this DAY into a money making business. It’s so easy to forget the true meaning. God gave us the greatest gift of all! What have we given?

The Adolescents had their Christmas banquet and they had a great time and enjoyed their time together. Especially the food! You will never believe what they wanted to eat!?? Lasagna!!! Doesn’t sound to Christmassy does it? Well, they enjoy every bit of it.

End of the school year and two graduate from high school!

2009-12-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

Around here things are doing great. Kids are out of school until the beginning of February. The school year here actually follows the calendar year. That is because our summer months are from November to March. We for sure do not have a white Christmas. This year we almost had a WET Christmas. We have had lots and lots of rain. If we lived in low land we would be flooded out. But we live 3000 ft above sea level. Wonderful fresh air! Actually I think it is the most perfect weather on earth!!!! The kids are enjoying being out of school. They have had lots of fun between the kites and the swimming pool.

Ademar has lived with us for a long time.
His father died many years ago and mother is mentally disturbed.

Gisleide, never knew her father or her biological mother.
She lived with a family until she was 12 and then they gave her
back to the court that sent her to a home.

Mission trip to Alvorada do Sul

2009-11-21T04:58:00.000-08:00

Beautiful river!

On memorial day we got together and took a mission trio to Alvorada do Sul. There is a mission in this city that we have been helping for a while. The couple that started the mission used to work here at Alpha and Omega. Memorial Day here is Brasil is November 2. A little different from the U.S. We have a full bus. the bus had 57 in it and kathy and I took our car with 5 in it. The trip was great and we had a save trip there and back. We had 2 services and a special activity for the children Sartuday afternoon. The work there is growing gradually. It is a very small town near a large river and right in the middle of fram land. the building htere is almost done. Here are some pictures of our trip. Hope you enjoy. Pray for this work.

Victory and New Things to come!

2009-10-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

We are really excited about what is going on around here. The services here in Garça and in Marilia have been great. The numbers are constant but most important is that we are always having new people coming. In both places we have had many teens and some parents to come.
Here at the home things are moving on. We have had many victories. One big victory is about Gestal. Gestal used to live here at the home. We now have his mom and siblings here living with us. Their house had fallen in. When the prosecutor found out that Gestal was here he had him taken to another home here in Garça. The prosecutor was very determined not to let him come and live here. Actually he told Gestal’s mom that if she wanted her son that she would have to leave alpha and omega. Her answer to him was that she would not leave. Because when she didn’t have any where to live and had no food to feed her kids no one cared. She only found help at Alpha and omega. Well to cut the story short, the judge singed for Gestal to came and live with his family here with us!!!! We praise God for this victory!!!!!!
We are working on some projects to work with kids some in the morning and some in the afternoon. Kids here only go to school half day. We want to have more time with those who are coming to church. We are planning on helping them with school work, painting, Jewelry, hygiene, sports, manners and so on. This past week we have been completely redoing our library. We are taking out books that we don’t need and making a list of new ones we need. We are also working on the classrooms to get the ready for the projects that will be done in each class. Most of the classrooms are in good shape and do not need much work done. For classes like beauty and hair care we will need to make some adaptations. If we have a good number of teen boys around 15years old or more we will also have classes in electronics. This is really important to have for the older boys because this city is known for its factories that make electronic components. We are really excited. We also plan on having the same kind o projects in Marilia. We will also have a time for teaching bible lessons and principals for daily living.

Eating Sunday lunch together with the church

Services in Marilia on Saturday