Pray with Karis Church for our Missionaries in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jessica Fleshman outside Casa da Esperança (House of Hope) in Cidade de Deus (City of God) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In 2010, Karis sent our first short-term team to serve in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with Jay Bauman and Restore Brazil. Karis currently supports two full-time missionaries, Jessica Fleshman and Eric Papp, who serve with Restore Brazil. As a body, we strive to actively support and pray for the missionaries we have sent out. Would you read these updates and consider how you could be involved in God's work in Brazil?
From Jessica Fleshman:
Thank you so much for checking in on us and thank you soooo much for the prayers!! Right now Igreja do Redentor (the Portuguese-speaking church I work with) has been growing and it has been great getting to see God move! We are all changing our schedules to be in the office more to get more done and I think it will really help us be able to continue to grow! My biggest prayer request right now is City of God because there has been a lot of violence there recently. Please pray that God will move there and we can go there more often!! Thank you again for the prayers, they are very much needed right now!
From Eric Papp:
Things are going well. Thank you for asking! Suzana and Ana are doing well, by God's grace. Ana turned one in June and my parents and sister were here and we had a big party for that as my daughter and sister have the same birthday.
Ministry is going well. There are many different ministry roles that I am in, but overall it's all going well. Our work in Cidade de Deus has been on hold for a few weeks because of the danger of going there at the moment. The city is in a very violent season with many factors coming to a head alongside a devastating financial crisis. The army is here in the city with daily operations happening in the communities. I recently shared a video on Facebook from last week in City of God of one of the conflicts. There is another couple who just moved here from another part of Brazil, who should be able to join our small volunteer team when we are able to resume our work. Hopefully in two weeks. We are receiving our last mission team for the year next week, so this week has looked like many, many pre-trip details getting taken care of. They get here Saturday and will be serving with a partner church in a community we have yet to work in, so that will be a new experience.
Other than the mercy ministry, I have been leading the Union Church bible study each Sunday morning in English. They have recently experienced a lot of leadership transitions as many leaders have moved back to their home countries. It's been a nice change of pace to be able to teach in English. I'm co-leading our missional community with Igreja do Redentor and also co-leading our young adult/young professional group which is all in Portuguese. Even though I'm able to teach in Portuguese, the language is still pretty difficult. I am overseeing the monthly Restore Brazil Pastor's meetings as basically the "gathering director" and serving as a deacon and on the leadership team in our church.
Parenting has been an incredible gift and we are so thankful to have Ana in our lives. It's so much harder than we ever imagined, but immensly rewarding. It's made us better people and revealed weaknesses and idols. We'd love to have your prayers for wisdom as we want to pursue raising additional support that would allow for Suzana to spend some more time at home with Ana. That will require that we raise some additional support, which is scary to think about.
Trying not to grow weary of doing good, that in due season we may reap if we do not give up (gal. 6:9). Some days are harder than others, especially related to safety in our city, but we know God has us here serving for this season.
We love you guys and thank you for asking to see into our lives. Thank you for praying for us.
Eric serving at a school in Rio alongside members of the Karis Brazil trip in March of 2017.
Would you join us in support of our brother and sister we have sent to serve by praying for them? We are currently accepting applications for our yearly short-term trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Would you consider joining us as we go to encourage them and serve in Brazil in March?