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!   

New Year 

Time does not stop or wait, it keeps on moving, we must not loss time in sharing God’s love to those around us.  The real purpose of why God put us on earth!!  The final goal is eternity.  Unfortunately most of the time we spend planning our earthly gains and forget the best investment of all times.  SOULS!  I pray each one of us well remember that the coming of our Savior is closer each day.  That we will use each opportunity we have to tell some one about Jesus.  We need to live a life that others may see Jesus in us.

         Last Sunday we had a wonderful Sunday school.  But, there was a specific thing that happened that touched my heart.  One of the ladies who live with us, who has used drugs most of her life, asked me to go get a friend to come to church.  I went with her to get her friend.  The location is the 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 just standing around, with know meaning to life.  The ladies husband at first hesitated in letting her go, but the friend finally 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 was hugging a little girl.  It was the ladies daughter that she had not seen for 4 months.  Because of the kind of life she was living the courts gave the children to 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 families that we can above all things place in their hearts that God loves them and that He died on the cross for our sins.  That is worth living for!!!!  God’s plan for us 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 of refreshing.  It is fun to watch them grow and enjoy camp in a different way.  They made many new friends form other churches.  They just had lots of fun and fellowship with other Christian teenagers.  I also had a great time with my brother Paul and his wife Wanda and my parents.  It is not often that we get together. 

Children's Day Special Celabration. October 12th

Hope all of you have had a great Sunday.  We had a great day.  Here in Brasil we celebrate a day for the children.  This day is celebrated on October 12.  Since it was in the middle of the week we had something special for them today.  We are running the van and a bus on Sunday morning.  Today we had a great service and had several new visitors.  Odali use the 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 learned at church.  Most of the children come from homes were no one goes to church.  The truth is  that most of them come form home with single moms.  We also had other activities since it was a special days.  We don’t do egg hunt but we did a sucker hunt.  Boys  X  girls.  We hid 100 white ones for the 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 hot dogs than a full meal. 

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

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