New Plans on the way!!!!

Soon and very soon we will share with you the new plans that God has put in our hearts!!!!!

September 2, 2012
Hope all of you friends and supporters are doing great and enjoying the Lords blessings. We are doing great.  We want to give a special thanks to all of you who have faithfully supported our ministry and BFM.  We are very grateful for your faithfulness.  Our ministries would be impossible or very difficult without your help.  We also are very thankful for those who pray for our ministries.  Knowing that someone is lifting us up to the Lord is so comforting.
We have had a great month here with those we work with and the adults that we have been helping and especially in the church.  We have helped several families for short period of time.  We are especially excited about our Sunday school.  God has given us a special group of kids to work with.  It is very hard to get teens to come to church just about anywhere.  Even those kids that have been coming to church since they were little, when they become teens, they usually quite. Well, our biggest number is exactly teens that range from 12 to 16 yrs old.  We are not even doing visitation. They are bringing their friends. It’s like having alpha and omega back for a day.  They arrive here at about 9:15 PM and leave here about 1:00 PM.  How would you like a Sunday school that last 4 hours?!!!  If they could they would stay longer.  These kids live in a poor part of town but worst of all right in the middle of drugs and prostitution and everything else that goes along with that.  Not too many options right!  That is why we try to spend as much time and we can with them. Last week we had 56 that came not counting the adults
            .

SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE

  


We have two people that are coming almost every Sunday. Please pray for them.  I will tell you just a little about each one.  The lady is probably in her 40’s. She looks like she is anorexic, but is actually an alcoholic. She became that way after she killed her husband.  Our prayer is that She will accept the Lord and Savior and receive forgiveness. So that she can live a new life.  The other one is a teen ager about 16yrs old.  A few Sundays ago I was driven the bus and got stuck at the bottom of the street where there is a big dip.  I go down that street every Sunday and that had never happened.  I believe that God had a purpose that day.  When I got out to see what I could do and if I was going to need help, the teen came my way.  He was drugged. He asked what I was doing, where those people were going and if you had to pay to go, and last if he could go.  I answered all his questions and invited him to come.  He said He would go but was going to get a friend.  Well then I thought he want be back. There probably is no friend. I was wrong!!!  He actually got the friend and came. Watching him in Sunday school is so gratifying. I don’t think that he ever went to Sunday school.  He is like a little kid.  He wants to get involved in all the activities. Please pray that he will understand Gods love for him and accept Jesus and savior also.
We had a meeting with all our members and made plans for the church and made groups for the different activities that each one could and wanted to help in.  Our son Tito age 14, who already helps in the toddler’s class offered to help is visitation and to make and invitation pamphlet to hand out.  Yesterday none of the group had done anything, so he started making and pamphlet and asked Loran who is here form the US to help him.  They got the pamphlet done and he went to hand them out.  Loran offered to go with him and they went.  We praise God for Tito. And that he will continue to let God use him. 
 
Tito (14yrs)     Odali and Kathy           Gabriel (12yrs)         Jonas (13yrs)
Thanks again for your love prayers and support.
God bless each of you.
Odali and Kathy
. http://alphaomegafamilydevelopment.blogspot.com.br/
odali_kathy@hotmail.com

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.

Feeding the little ones!!!

We have lots of fun on Sunday.  We feed the children twice.  Once Spiritually and then their bodies.  So many of them come from poor home.  Probably don't eat and king of meat more that 3 to 4 time a week.  We try to make the meal something they will enjoy.  Look and these pictures and see what you think!!!!

LOOKS GOOD?!!!!

 COME AND EAT WITH US!

FEEDING THE NEEDY 

 ADULTS AND CHILDREN

 HELP FROM THE MEMBERS

 THE COOKS!!!!

PRAY FOR THEM

Fun at Church and Couple from Alpha get Married

Hope all of you are doing great.We are doing well here.  Our attendance is growing and the kids that come on Sunday morning are bringing others.  We have a full house.  It has been lots of fun because most of them are kids that have not attended church before.  So in our lessons we have started to go through the Bible.  We have competitions with verse memorization and questions form the stories. 

This week we had to of the young adults that live here to get married,  Natalia and Tiago.  Natalia lived here when we still had the children's home. She left and ended up living in many places.  she has no parents.  One of them she never met and the other died.  after she turned 18 she asked if she could come and live here.  Tiago is a young man that was save years ago as a little boy in one of the churches John Hatcher started and that we also worked at.  He can to live here because he needed some help getting back into church.  He and Natalia met each other here and feel in love.  The had a very simple wedding and we rejoice with them.  Pray for them that they can grow together and grow closer to the Lord each day.  For now they are living here at Alpha and omega.

 Continue to pray for our ministry and for all those envolved.  We thank you for your love and support. God bless each of you.

Greetings!

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

With all the holidays and with lots of rain we are trying to get back into our schedules.  We have had lots of rain here in Brasil.  Thankfully where we live is so high up that we do not run the danger of flooding.  But in other places they have not been so fortunate.  Many places have had some serious damage. 

God has given us the opportunity to preach to 5 states with out going out of our house!  Maybe you’re asking how could that be possible?  Down the road from our house a construction company is building over 700 houses.  The company needed a place to sleep their construction 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 with the 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 them come to church.  Pray for them as they hear the gospel that they may understand and receive Him as Savior.  Can you imagine these men getting saved and then going back to their families?!  We praise God for this opportunity!