Personal Address Fassagem Pav ¢c0, 18 67113-190, Ananindeva, PA brandon carmichae @ teambrazi org vow teambezilorg {acebok.com/CarmichalDeputation Sending Church Victory Baptist Church Pastor Daniel Milroy valbianny @ juno.com ‘ww shalbion org Sending Agency Baptist Hid Misions PO Box 308011 Ceyeland, OH 44130-8011 info@ borg wo. bm org Autumn, 2017 Dear Praying Friends and Family ‘As many of you are beginning to enjoy the colors of fall and reap the fruits of your gardens (and bracing yourselves for the arrival of winter), we are experiencing our first “fall” in the Amazon. It doesn't mean much, because when you live on the equator, it's essentially summer-time year-round. Consequently, we enjoy growth year-round, Our four banana trees are taking root, our pineapple tree is showing growth, our sugar cane is green and tall, and our avocado tree is getting new leaves. But our small “garden* is not the only thing growing. Growth has been the characteristic of most aspects of our new life here in Bolém. Not huge growth, necessarily, but small steps forward. We completed our first semester at the end of June and a month later began our second. This semes- ter we have two new part-time students. One of the classes offered this semester is hermeneutics (the study of interpreting the Bible), and we are excited to see several members of local churches taking this class. tis 20 important forthe people inthe pews tobe eaming how to better under- stand the Bible! We have been personally very encouraged to see the deacon of “our” church in Belém growing in desire to learn God's Word. His job takes up a lot of his time, but both last semester and this se- ester he has taker a class to facilitate his spiritual growth and better prepare himself for ministry in the church and with his family. He has also been a faithful part of our evangelistic outreach at the church, One project we are working on is an audio-visual classroom, It will allow 1s to continue teaching when we are in the States on furlough, to have professors teach from other parts of Brazil, and to include students who live too far away to take classes on-campus. One of our students owns a computer store and gave us a great deal on all the equipment needed: $1500! Many people have asked recently if there are any ministry needs. If you would like to help with this project, any gifts can be sent directly to Baptist Mid-Missions ear-marked “Brandon Carmichael - audio visual room" and of course, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. The last several weeks we have had several visitors at church. Some of them come from difficult or complicated situations. Pray for us as we are getting to know these individuals, that we would be able to share the Gospel with those who may not know Christ and minister to those who are going through difficulties. We were able to share the Gospel clearly with one of the visitors, and he admit- ted to understanding his need for Christ, though he made no confession of the Gospel yet. Please pray for him and others in our neighborhood that we are reaching through our evangelistic out. reach on Saturdays. (One area of growth in the church is the process of “incorporation.” Though the church was found- ed years ago, it has never established its own constitution or doctrinal statement, so we are begin- hing to guide the church through the process of writing those documents. Consequently we are taking the church through several specific doctrinal studies of God's Word. We recently concluded a study on “Biblical Worship.” We are also studying the doctrine of the church, and examining some of Paul's illustrations for the church. Finally, in Sunday School we are doing a study on "Who Is Our God?" and learning the attributes and personality of the God of the Bible. On a side note, many of you know how excited | was at the prospect of preaching through the book of Hebrews in our first church plant. Well, in the Lara's savereign cantral af things, our teammate chase the book of He- brews to preach through on Sunday nights. The irony. But he is a good preacher and the study has been a blessing both to us and our church family Please don't forget to check out our blog: www.teambrazil.org. We keep it regularly updated, so you can keep up with what's going on arid how you can be praying, nom gs bn Z.