Happy Thanksgiving from our family!

“Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 
2 Kings 6:16–17

Open our Eyes to See

When Carol and I were invited to serve in a leadership role at our organization’s international office, we gained a unique privilege: seeing what God is doing around the world. And yes, there is no shortage of trials. Many of the countries we work in face war, persecution, genocide, natural disasters, and displacement. Our task is to help our organization and beyond reach the hardest-to-reach places, places where there is still no access to the gospel.

These places are unreached for a reason; the challenges are immense. Sending a team to live there, share the gospel in a way people understand, and walk with them in discipleship is nothing short of a miracle. And every miracle begins with prayer: asking what the Lord is doing and how we can join Him. From there, it takes partnership, because the Church is a body and every part matters.

Over the past months, we’ve been seeking God’s direction, collaborating across our organization and beyond, so that peoples and places that have never heard will finally receive the light of Christ. This means from mobilizing churches and individuals to support pioneering long-term teams willing to live in these places.

Progress can feel slow—months of meetings, obstacles, and rising challenges—but God has been moving. In August, at our international conference, we gathered with leaders from across our organization to listen to His voice and identify the peoples and places we will focus on in the coming years (Pioneering List). We also celebrated incredible stories of doors opening—doors that had been closed for decades. Reaching a shared understanding and ownership of these peoples and places is a significant milestone, but it’s only the beginning. For every region and every place, we must develop multiple projects to create pathways for teams to enter.

The first regional project we began developing last year focuses on the Subcontinent—Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. This region represents one of our greatest challenges: complex, vast, and deeply unreached. Yet, in less than a year, we’re already seeing signs of fruit. Several workers have already been mobilized to serve there, and more than six prayer and vision trips are scheduled for the first half of 2026. Early next year, we will launch a new training program designed to equip teams who have been faithfully serving for years—helping them expand their vision and raise up the next generation of leaders. We’re also partnering with the Indian church to send workers into these regions, multiplying the impact and strengthening local engagement. Praise God!

In October, I also attended a meeting in Korea with leaders from the ten largest non-denominational mission organizations. Our goal was to work together to reach the least-access places. It doesn’t matter which organization, nationality, or background—what matters is that the gospel reaches every country, city, language, and tribe. It was deeply encouraging to see leaders from many nations united with the same heart to collaborate. God is calling new workers for the harvest from every corner of the world—truly, from everywhere to everywhere!

As we look ahead, we know the challenges remain great—but so is our God. Thank you for standing with us in prayer and partnership. Together, we believe the day will come when every corner of the earth will hear the good news of Jesus. Until then, we press on with faith, knowing that the mountains are full of chariots of fire.

More personal updates

Since April, Carol has faced increasing health challenges. After an intense first year in our new roles and a busy summer, she was diagnosed with clinical burnout. She’s been on medical leave and undergoing treatment—a slow but steady process toward recovery.

Thomas has also been struggling with health issues, including growth concerns, fatigue, and recurring allergies. He’s had multiple exams, and we’re now starting a new treatment. It’s been a season of many adjustments for him and for us.

In addition, I have been unwell. I’ll be doing lab tests soon to check my health as well. Your prayers for strength and healing for all of us would mean a lot.

Praises

• After five years, we were able to visit our partners in the U.S.! We are deeply grateful to everyone who hosted us and made this time so special.
• Praise God for all those being mobilized to serve in the Subcontinent and for the incredible team working alongside us. We are excited about upcoming prayer trips and the teams that will be trained in the coming months.
• We thank the Lord for the progress on the Pioneering List, which will be launched across the organization early next year.
• We are thankful that our parents were able to visit us in August—it was a precious time together.
• We’re grateful that Thomas is thriving at school and finally happy!

Prayer Requests

• Health: Please pray for our health. All of us have been undergoing treatments in recent months and are improving, but there’s still a long road ahead.
• Wisdom in Leadership: Pray for wisdom as we lead teams within our department and across the organization. We’re also recruiting more people to help develop regional projects.
• Open Doors: Ask the Lord to continue opening doors in the Subcontinent so more teams can enter and serve in this region.
• Financial Stability: Please pray for our financial health. Currency fluctuations, healthcare costs, and increased school expenses for Thomas have made this season challenging. Pray for wisdom as we navigate these needs.
• Insurance: Pray that our insurance will reimburse us quickly.

Rafael & Carol

Seminary Winter Break:  
During the month of July our 230 resident seminary students are out doing ministry in different locations. They will serve and minister in local churches, orphanages, senior homes, youth camps, schools and other organizations. Our students will be spread in 9 states and 36 cities in Brazil. Some will travel to Canada, Portugal, Paraguay and Uruguay. Would you please pray for them? Pray for opportunities to share the Gospel, encourage brothers and sisters and mobilize the church towards missions.  

Winter Camps:  
It’s so exciting to see that many participants in our July camps here in Atibaia, Sao Paulo. One of the largest in number of attendance in the winter. Praise the Lord for the 1,100 who joined our children, youth and family camps. Hundreds consecrated their lives to the Lord and almost 100 made a first time decision for Christ. What an eternal impact!! Thank you for partnering with us. Your prayers and support makes it possible for us to continue to serve and impact lives in Brazil.  

US Mission Trip Group:  
We are so thankful for Idlewild Baptist Church (Lutz, FL) for sending a wonderful group of brothers and sisters to serve with us. Idlewild has been a blessing not only partnering financially but also by sending multiple groups throughout the years to minister in different capacities to our people. The most recent group came in June and helped with our “Vinde Meninos”, which is our ministry to “vulnerable children”. We feed, tutor, do sports, arts and teach the Bible every week to 120 children who live in our surroundings here in Atibaia. The Gospel in action brings hope to the people. Thank you Idlewild!!
 
New Chapel Project:  
We are completing a few preparations in order to soon start this exciting project. The current chapel which will be completely renovated is an old construction built by Harry Bollback and Harold Reimer in the 60’s. At that time no plans were needed, basically you just put walls up, a roof on top and let people in. Years later we now find that the main water pipes and electric cables run under the chapel and before starting renovations we need to change that. Same thing we had to find a place to store the many Estancia camp costumes, not to mention tons of boxes of our many years accounting documents stored in the old chapel. For that reason we had to build a little place where we can move everything in, to be ready to finally start tearing down the old building. Please continue to pray as we start this great endeavor.
 
Camp Road Paving Project:  
As we were excited to star construction of the new chapel, an urgent need came up at the youth camp, 10 miles away. There is where WOL Brazil actually started in 1957. The old main entrance which was abandoned years back needs to be definitely fixed now because of extreme rain and weather conditions lately bringing lots of dirt and other sediments into the camp property. We came to realize that by fixing this problem we could finally allow buses and delivery trucks to be able to access the property again - right now only cars and small vans can drive down to camp. Campers coming by bus have to walk the last part of the road, hill down to get to camp - not very nice specially when it rains! Anyways... we had to hire a paving company which is working right now preparing the site. We hope to finish it by September. Some funds were raised in Brazil already, but we are still laking an equivalent of US$70,000. Please pray for this need and let us know if you have any questions ok. Thank you so much.  
 
Family Gathering:  
Just recently Agnes and I were able to travel to the US to attend the WOL world leadership conference in Tampa. What a blessing to join so many top WOL leaders around the world and be challenge in the Word. Thank you Don, thank you Kris for allowing us to come - we had the most encouraging time! The week after, God gave us the chance to gather with the family and enjoy a few days in Florida. We could see Michael & Melissa, Camila, Mark and his girlfriend Emily. You can imagine how much we enjoyed our time together. Thank you Jesus.  

Thanks for reading this, thanks for praying and giving. God bless you.  

Thomas & Agnes Schneider, 2 Co. 5:15
Field director WOL Sao Paulo
Vice president WOL Brazil

Encouraging Conversations

Josh,
Over the past few weeks God has been doing something in the hearts of students. Below are two examples. Your partnership helps make conversations like this possible.  Thank you!

"I'm terrified to think about following Jesus because of what it will mean for my life and my family in Iran."  A student from Iran recently said this to me while we were eating lunch together.  He grew up practicing Islam but would now say that he likes Christianity better.  God is moving in his life! He is now considering what it would cost him to follow Jesus. He told me it is illegal for him to convert to Christianity and he wouldn't be able to return home.  At the end of our lunch I offered to give him a copy of John's gospel which he gladly received.  Please pray that he would read the Bible while back in Iran for the summer.  

Ross, a student from Switzerland, bought a Bible the same day he met one of our staff guys. Coincidence? I don't think so! When asked what compelled him to buy a Bible he said that he grew up celebrating Christmas and Easter but he didn't know why.  He seems to have a hunger for spiritual truth.  It is so encouraging to see God at work in the lives of students before we even meet them.  Pray that Ross would read the Bible this summer.  He will be studying abroad at University of Texas for the next academic year.  

Team Retreat

A healthy team is crucial to ministry longevity.  We were able to pull away for three nights to invest in our relationships with each other.  We traveled north to Scarborough and had time to evaluate the past school year.  We used Patrick Lencioni's "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" to spark some good conversations about healthy team dynamics.  It was great to be together for the weekend! Please continue to pray for team unity.
Evangelistic Dinner

Loneliness - Is it just me? This was the topic for our guest dinner.  Two times a year our church hosts a three course evangelistic dinner. London is a city of almost 9 million people yet 1 in 4 report feeling "frequently lonely."  During the evening there were three short talks that built upon one another and clearly shared the gospel. Praise God for the 100 that attended!  We had great conversations with the students that came. Our staff team helped with the dinner prep and Chad gave one of the talks.
Investing in Friendships

Footy Fridays! This is a fun group of guys.  Each Friday we continue to play football (soccer) as a way to further relationships with students.  Pray for God to create a spiritual hunger in these men and that we would faithfully share the good news of Jesus with them.  
Building Laborers

Pictured above are a group of Campus Outreach students from the US that joined us in London for two weeks.  These short-term teams are called Cross Cultural Projects (CCPs).  Praise God that during their time here they all commented on how their view of God and the world was expanded. They were a blessing to us as they eagerly shared their lives with the students we are ministering to.  These two weeks are just a small investment in their discipleship but we are excited to see where God leads them after college!
 

Josh, thank you for continuing to pray for us.  If you have any prayer requests we would love to hear them and pray for you. Just reply to this email!

Much love,

Chad & Mandy

House Flood

“Hey Y’all, I just noticed that your driveway has been wet since I left for work this morning. Give me a call if you need me to check on anything.”

Seeing that text at 4:45pm in the middle of Selah’s birthday party stopped my heart. I called my neighbor and asked her to walk inside our home and heard her gasp and I could hear water spraying and splashing through the phone. It was the thing you never think will happen: a pipe bursting while you are away for vacation. 2 inches of water covered every inch of our home and had been sitting there for who knows how long. We are 12 days out from the loss and our home still isn’t dry. We have had a horrible experience with our insurance adjuster. After the water mitigation experts found mold under our floors, they had to stop removal until proper mold procedures were taken. Our insurance adjuster just told them, "That's just dirt on the bottom of the floors.” As of writing this letter we are deadlocked until a mold expert comes and proves it is mold, and not “dirt”.  So our home sits wet, vacant, and hot.

Yet amidst the sadness, loss, and injustice we have been able to see very tangible manifestations of the Lord's provision and care for us. Our community at Cru and church have been incredible. The body of Christ has been the grace we have received amidst this toil and pain.

Within 2 hours of discovering the water 15 of our friends and neighbors swarmed our house and began to bail water, move furniture and remove valuables.
 
Cru has a vacant apartment they have offered to us for free until the lease ends June 14th!
 
We moved into the apartment this past Saturday and it feels like such a breath of fresh air to be as settled as possible right now.
 
Liz’s boss came and stocked our fridge with groceries and all our meals have been taken care of this past week.
 
We have hired a public adjuster who works with situations like ours all the time and they see the injustice and are ready to advocate for us.

There is still so much that is unknown as we move forward. We’ve had to pay for assessments and services out of pocket because we do not trust that we are going to get straight answers from our insurance. Our mold report alone will cost about $2,000.

We are anticipating likely $10,000 of expenses that won't be covered by insurance. Would you prayerfully consider a matched special gift to help us with upcoming expenses?

“As part of our commitment to giving back to ALL Rob and Liz have given to FamilyLife, we're privileged to launch a Matching Gift Program to help with recovery efforts. For every dollar given, staff within FamilyLife will match your contribution up to $5,000 effectively doubling the impact of your generosity. Thank you for your continued commitment to Team Hudson. They are making an incredible impact both inside and outside of the ministry!”
- Paul C., Manager of Mobilization

We praise God for you and your partnership in this ministry! Knowing that you are praying each month is a huge encouragement to us.  The stories below are a testimony of answered prayer. Be encouraged that God hears and answers YOUR prayers.  Thank you for the important role you are playing!

God continues to add to our team! Matt (far left) arrived three weeks ago.  We are so thankful to have him join us in reaching students with the Gospel in London.  Please pray for him as he transitions into a new job and culture.  

Bible studies with our non-Christian friends! Praise God that  last week two of our staff were able to open the Bible with three students.  One of the students is a Muslim and the two others have some sort of Catholic background. Please pray for God to draw them to Himself! You can pray specifically for Taha, JB, and Hieu.  

"All of my closest friends are Christians."  Would you ever expect to hear this from a Muslim?  This is what three Muslim students have communicated to our staff team. Praise God for what He is doing in these friendships! Pray that as we share the good news of Jesus with them, they would place their faith in Christ.  You can pray specifically for Nina, Noor and Sabrina.  
 
We pray you and your family have a joyful Easter Sunday, celebrating Jesus' resurrection and what this means for us today!  Hallelujah!

Much Love,

Chad & Mandy

Summer Camps in Sao Paulo
This years summer camp season has already come to an end. We are so thankful for the more than 3,000 people reached in January/February. The Gospel message was preached and hundreds made a decision for Christ. Eternity will tell the impact of families and young people making a serious committed to the Lord. Thank you so much for your prayers.

60 years Bible Seminary
Our Bible Seminary in Sao Paulo is celebrating its 60th anniversary. David and Mary Ann Cox founded the school in 1965. It’s one of the largest Bible institutions in the country and has trained thousand of leaders for Brazilian churches (and for the world). Praise God 2025 marks a new record in numbers of students: 226 are living on campus as part of our one year Bible program and undergrad theology courses as well. It gives us a little bitter sweet taste because we have no more rooms available... But we are excited for the additional close to 300 students attending our extension courses and intensive church leaders classes. Thank you for supporting our seminary scholarship program. https://give.wol.org/03937C  

WOL Brazil 70th anniversary 2027!
We are thankful for your support towards so many projects God is allowing us to develop. Some are still in the planning phase, others already completed. The gym was completely renovated and we are just finishing restrooms now. The new soccer field is a wild success - thank you for giving. The new chapel is an exciting new project that is in its final planning process. We are currently talking to engineers as we still have some important structural decision to make before ground breaking. God is good. Thanks for praying.
 
Important prayer request
Due to recent severe summer storms, the road giving buses access into our youth camp in Sao Paulo was seriously damaged and needs immediate attention. It’s an old secondary dirt road opened by Harry & Harold 70 years back :))... it goes all the way down the hill into the valley where camp is located. Our prayer is that we can finally pave this important access, specially installing new drains to divert major rain waters… Oh you have no ideia how much dirt and sediments have recently funnel into the camp property affecting specially our sports areas… it happened just before campers arrived - I’m talking caos for parents to access camp to drop their kids off. This road which is around 300 meters long is the only access for buses getting into our property. We feel it’s kind of an urgent (and expensive) endeavor we should solve asap. In fact, under God’s blessing we would like to extend the paving road a little longer to an additional 200 meters so we can definitely fix access problems to cabins. Cost: approx. us$200 per linear meter of asphalt… it’s a challenging project we trust only God can provide. Would you please pray and maybe consider giving? You can write Bob Brown (many years WOL US board member) for details:  bobb@wol.org Bob & Sue came with a group of friends to visit our camp here in Sao Paulo!
 
We have moved to our new home
God is good and after 2 years of construction, we were able to celebrate Agnes birthday in our new home. Our daughter Camila came visit for this special occasion. Since we arrived in Atibaia/Sao Paulo years back, WOL graciously allowed us to live in what we call “missionary home” for a while. But it was a temporary place to give us the time to purchase a lot and build our definitive place in the same community. And it looks fantastic - we are so thankful. It’s not completely done yet but Agnes keeps busy making everything the way she likes. Thank you friends for praying and for supporting our family for so many years.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. God bless you!

Thomas & Agnes Schneider
Word of Life Sao Paulo, Brazil

My friends and I were proud of ourselves for making it over this steep mountainous hike during March Break. The sign says, "YOUR HEALTH IS STILL STRONG." I love it.

The CMCIS (Chiang Mai Circle of International Schools) Art Show went really well! It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot through the process. Here, Kate, the new Middle School Art Teacher, and I are posing in front of our students' work. Kate is so much fun and such a blessing to me.

March Break was wonderful. I got to take a single ladies trip to the beach with some of my lovely coworkers (one from Elementary and the other three from Middle School). The scenery was gorgeous. And we even got to see some monkeys!

Praise God for...
Helping the CMCIS Art Show to go really well!
Blessing me with a wonderful March break with my friends!
Making the planning and preparations for Art Chapel go well so far!
Giving me peace with Art Chapel being only two days away!
Giving us a way to have a relationship with Him and to be with Him forever!
Giving us life and love and hope that we will see Jonjon and other loved ones again one day!
 
Pray that God will...
Give me peace and wisdom as I prepare for events like Art Chapel (Mar 27 - in two days) and our annual school-wide Art Show (May 10).
Help Art Chapel to be a time that really blesses the students and helps them to connect to and worship Him through art.
Move in the hearts of the students who are resisting Him.
Give courage and confidence to the students who are going to be speaking in Art Chapel.
Continue to comfort Jonjon's parents, Joe and Jana, and his brother, Joseph, and his closest friends, soccer teammates, jazz band members, teachers, and others
Help all of us to seek Him and walk with Him.

Kelsey McCall
TeachBeyond - Thailand 

Liz's Return from Cuba
For those of you who might not know, earlier this month I went on a 9 day trip with Unto (the humanitarian branch of Cru) to do women’s health workshops. It was an amazing trip. We partnered with the 3 Cuban Cru staff for the 9 days we were there. They took such good care of us and it was truly a delight to get to know them and their stories, and inspiring to see their hearts for the Lord and their country.

It was eye-opening getting to see what life is like in Cuba. Power blackouts almost every day at random times for anywhere from 2-8 hours, extreme inflation, and basic resources like food and water can be very hard to come by. At the same time I saw beautiful, creative, generous people that could do more than I could even imagine with the little that had been given to them. Such resiliance. The country itself was gorgeous…everywhere you look I saw both beauty and decay in tandem. Even down to the bars that cover the windows to keep thieves away were ornate and beautifully crafted.

We led 2 different 3-day workshops and had a total of 43 women. A beautiful assortment of different denominations, non-believers, young, and old all learning together.  We met in an open air space at a restaurant and somehow it became this safe insulated haven for women to learn openly about their bodies: physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Our topics cover everything from birth, caring for your body as a woman, caring for your families when they are sick, to a woman's innate value as an image bearer of God. In a country where not even hospitals have the supplies to help people, empowering these women to care for themselves and their families is priceless.



 

 
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Liz's Return from Cuba
For those of you who might not know, earlier this month I went on a 9 day trip with Unto (the humanitarian branch of Cru) to do women’s health workshops. It was an amazing trip. We partnered with the 3 Cuban Cru staff for the 9 days we were there. They took such good care of us and it was truly a delight to get to know them and their stories, and inspiring to see their hearts for the Lord and their country.

It was eye-opening getting to see what life is like in Cuba. Power blackouts almost every day at random times for anywhere from 2-8 hours, extreme inflation, and basic resources like food and water can be very hard to come by. At the same time I saw beautiful, creative, generous people that could do more than I could even imagine with the little that had been given to them. Such resiliance. The country itself was gorgeous…everywhere you look I saw both beauty and decay in tandem. Even down to the bars that cover the windows to keep thieves away were ornate and beautifully crafted.

 
Here I am looking over the city of Holguin where we led our 2 clinics with my team and the Cuban Cru staff.

 
We led 2 different 3-day workshops and had a total of 43 women. A beautiful assortment of different denominations, non-believers, young, and old all learning together.  We met in an open air space at a restaurant and somehow it became this safe insulated haven for women to learn openly about their bodies: physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Our topics cover everything from birth, caring for your body as a woman, caring for your families when they are sick, to a woman's innate value as an image bearer of God. In a country where not even hospitals have the supplies to help people, empowering these women to care for themselves and their families is priceless.

One of my favorite workshops is one where we introduce a resource that we bring with us called the LUO Packs. These are handmade reusable pads that women can use for their menstrual cycles. In many parts of the world feminine products are inaccessible or very expensive. Luo is a Greek word meaning “freedom”. After we share what the Luo packs are and how to use them, we share the Bible story about the bleeding woman. A story where a woman bled chronically for 12 years. She was an outcast, unclean and unseen. She gets wind of Jesus and thinks, “If I can just touch the edge of his clothes, then I might be healed.” She does. And Jesus stops and calls out whoever touched him. She’s terrified, for all she knows this could be her ruin…But what does he do?

He sees her and speaks life over her.“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

I sat there with 20 other Cuban women, tears in our eyes. Seen. El Roi.

I saw that we serve the God of the universe. He sees every struggle, every story, and He is in the details.

Would you take 2 minutes to pray?
Praise - Rob and the kids did great while I was gone! In Rob's words, "We didn't just survive, we thrived!" HUGE answer to prayer! He thanks you for the gifts for eating out!
FamilyLife is close to choosing a new president. Please pray for our board and leaders for wisdom and discernment.
For the Cuban Cru team as God uses them to minister to their country and continue to meet with women who came to our clinic.

God is doing some incredible things here in London. I wanted to encourage you that your prayers and giving are having an impact in the lives of many students! Thank you for the role you are playing. Below is one story that shows how God is at work.  

Recently, Garrett and I had a great conversation with a student from Iran. I won't share his name to protect his identity.  He is Muslim but non practicing.  He is frustrated that his country forces people to practice Islam and makes it illegal to change religions.  God seems to be at work because he is beginning to see what Christianity offers. In his own words he told us that a Muslim believes God is their creator and therefore we are His slaves.  Now he understands that in Christianity, God loves us and we obey him in response to His love.  He said he wants to read the Bible! Last Tuesday Garrett sat down with him on campus and they were going to read the Bible. But, a security guard walked over and asked to see their student IDs.  Garrett was asked to leave because he is not a student, so he and the student walked outside, and didn't get to read the Bible that day. This has never happened before. It could be spiritual warfare trying to prevent a student from a closed country hearing more about Jesus. Please pray that we will be able to read the Bible with him soon. We are excited to be a part of what God is doing in his life.

Please Pray with us
Matt has finished raising his support and is now waiting on his visa to join us in London. Please pray that his visa gets approved quickly so that he can join our team.
That Rylee, our newest staff arrival, would continue to trust the Lord during her time of transition.
For new Bible studies to begin this month.  We have many great relationships and we want to ask many of them in the coming weeks to read the Bible with us.

Starting a new term!

Grace United,

Thank you for the role you are playing in our ministry! We are grateful for your partnership and excited to begin a new term ministering to all the students we met last semester.  

Please pray that God would provide many opportunities for conversations about the Gospel and that we would be bold and winsome in sharing with students. Most of our time will be spent in the following areas:
 
American football team - God has given us favor with the head coach and the players.  Most of the guys that we know on campus are connected to the football team in some way. Garrett, one of our staff, is the running back coach and Chad helps out at some of the practices.  

Volleyball team - Two of our staff, Hannah and Anna will be spending time following up with the friendships they have on the team.  The coach has invited them to help out at practices as well.  

Romano Court  (private student housing near campus) - This is an area that we see a lot of potential for growth in our ministry.  The building manager has been very favorable to our staff team and he has allowed us to host two events onsite this past Fall. We had a pizza party and a hot chocolate night.  We hope to have two more events this spring as a way to connect with more students.

Campus cafeteria - Each day we meet for lunch in the cafeteria.  The food gets a little old but it provides a natural time to be in the lives of students.
We are praying that in February and March we would be able to start multiple Bible studies with interested students!

Christmas in London

Over the Christmas break we were able to spend time with some of our dear friends the Jacksons.  One evening we went out to look at the lights and enjoy some hot chocolate! (Above)

Aymeric was one of many students who came to our Christmas services at church.  Following the service we were able to talk about the significance of Jesus coming to earth to forgive us for our sins.  He is warm to spiritual things but not yet ready to follow Jesus.  We have developed a good friendship over the past three years and now he is moving to Spain for a six month internship.  Please pray that God would continue to work in his life and open his eyes to believe.  (Blog Picture)

Collaboration and Planning

Pictured below are Ryan and Andrew.  Ryan is located in Edinburgh and Andrew in Birmingham.  The three of us represent the three Campus Outreach locations in the UK thus far.  We meet in person every other month to plan and collaborate on the things we are learning as well as encourage one another.  This picture was taken at our last meeting in December in Durham.

Next week, Wed-Sun, we will meet again but this time we will be joined by colleagues from Greece and the US.  Please pray that our time would be encouraging and fruitful as we make ministry plans for the next year.

So Much To Be Thankful For!

Two giant turkeys, eleven chickens, three hams plus all the sides and pies, satisfied the hunger of the 120 that attended our Thanksgiving dinner this year. Praise God for such a great turnout! These weren’t random students either, they are friends of ours that we have met in the cafeteria, on the American Football team, girls volleyball team and in the dorms. An event like this helps us build trust and shows students that we love them. Please pray for our team as we follow up and continue to pour our lives into these relationships for the sake of the Gospel.

Thank you for praying and giving to make this event possible!

SEMINARY GRADUATION
Last Saturday almost 1,500 people visited our campus for graduation. Was a wonderful celebration. So many testimonies of the 175 graduates now going to serve in local churches and missions around the world. Please pray for the new challenges and new reality they will face in ministry from now on. Next school year starts in March and a number of students are requesting financial help. If you would like to participate in our Seminary Scholarship Fund, here is the link: https://link.edgepilot.com/s/6961347d/7CkQeS_iyEeeQvoGCU9GMA?u=https://give.wol.org/giveto(03937C)

GYM RENOVATION
A couple months back we started removing the old roof and replacing it with new metal tiles. The operation became bigger than we initially thought and there was this little concern we couldn’t finish it till graduation... but our team did a great job the last weeks installing new electric cables, new lighting and painting. The result looks fantastic. Thank you for so many of you who have given towards this renovation project. What a blessing!

BEFORE SUMMER CAMPS BEGINS
We expect around 3,000 attending our summer camps this January. Youth, children and families will have the opportunity to hear the Gospel in 4 locations around the Sao Paulo area. A lot needs to be done as we prepare volunteer staff and finish a number of construction and maintenance projects, including: repairing roads - it’s rainy season (photo), install a larger water reservoir, new hot water system, replace old bunk beds and so on. One of the exciting projects we are working on right now is the new soccer field. As you can see in the picture it looks very nice. Looking to the near future, pretty soon we will be starting construction of the new chapel, which we consider an enormous landmark in the ministry we believe will help us better reach young Brazilians and families to Christ. Thank you for praying.

THANKFUL FOR OUR FAMILY
Agnes and I celebrated 35 year of marriage this year… thankful for being able to serve in missions together for so many years. Melissa and Michael celebrated their 1st anniversary and live in Charleston, SC. Camila is in Orlando for over 5 years now. This year Disney pointed her as one of the coordinators for the Christmas Show at MK - huge! We are so proud of her. Both Melissa and Camila became US citizens this year, now they have dual citizenship. Mark is a junior at Liberty. He just got a job position as “Student Assistant”… it gives him the chance to interact with lots of students and will help him pay for phone bill, hamburgers and specially going out with Emily… (but this is another story I will tell you some other time ;)).

Agnes and I wanted to wish you a wonderful Christmas with family. Your friendship has been an encouragement to us. Thank you for praying and supporting our ministry and family in Brazil. God bless you.

“till the nets are full…”

Thomas & Agnes Schneider
WOL Sao Paulo, Brazil
2 Co. 5:15

Salvation!!!

In our last letter we shared that our friends, Palm and May, were interested in becoming Christians. On Monday, October 14th, they shared they were ready to “รับเชื่อพระเจ้า” (believe in God) and wanted to pray with us!!!!!!!!!!!! We all met up at the Kaebs and prayed with them to receive Christ. It’s incredible to see their desire to know God even more since their decision. We are now doing a weekly study through the Bible with them and the Kaebs to help them build more of a foundation. As we studied that God is from "Everlasting to Everlasting" May exclaimed that she felt a sense come over her that could only be translated as "more than wow!" Please pray for them in their young faith.

Massive Floods

On Saturday October 5th, Chiang Mai was hit extremely hard by flooding caused by the Mae Ping River overflowing its banks. Chiang Mai has not experienced flooding like this in nearly 50 years. While our home was safe, many of the most vulnerable people in the city were deeply affected by the floods. Expat Homes, along with our friend, Pastor Pai, went to volunteer to do clean up work and distribute food in the city. We also paused Expat Homes normal work schedule to go and clean customer/friend’s houses who were affected by the floods. While it has been so hard to watch the devastation hit our city, it has created tremendous opportunities to share God’s love with others. Please pray for our city that it would be renewed physically but much more so spiritually.

Jonathan Crain

Just two days after the floods we got a heartbreaking message that Jonathan Crain, a high schooler at Grace International School, passed away in a motorcycle accident. Evan played basketball with JonJon weekly at Grace, and they were good friends. Evan had been with him just two days before the accident working in the floods to try and rescue some friends who were trapped. They never reached the people they were trying to rescue. After the failed rescue attempt, they all laughed at God’s sense of humor and how sometimes we just have to make ourselves available to God but we know He’s the one who does the work. Losing JonJon has left a hole in our community and yet we have hope as we saw his life of following Jesus.

Emily's Counseling

Emily still hasn't renewed her counseling license since moving to Thailand, having more babies, and supporting our current commitments. But slowly over the years, the Lord has been calling her back into that world, creating a deep desire to do counseling again. So she's been praying for opportunities to use that training and gifting to serve others using counseling fundamentals (in a season where she's not able to be licensed). For the most part, the Lord highlights individuals for her to come alongside. When JonJon Crain passed away, she was able to be on campus at Grace International School, and was available to any students or staff who needed to process. She helped the school counselors do some group psychoeducation, normalizing the grief process for many students who haven't walked through a loss like this before. It was heartbreaking, as she was grieving herself, yet humbling and sweet for her to serve our community in this capacity. She also was just asked to help co-lead a debrief for a short-term team who has been doing anti-human-trafficking work here in Chiang Mai. It's been encouraging and validating to see how the Lord continues to present small opportunities.

Thanksgiving Event Tomorrow!

Grace United,

God has been working and answering prayers. Thank you for praying for the beginning of the new school year! We have met so many new students and have had many spiritual conversations.  By God's grace we are beginning to form a small community on campus made up of students from all over the world. University students are hungry to belong to a community that loves them. Your prayers and giving are making a significant impact in the lives of many!


Tomorrow is our biggest outreach event of the Fall semester! Will you join us in praying for the students that attend?  We have found that one of the best ways to love college students is to feed them.  Pray for the deepening of friendships at this event and for spiritual conversations.  Last year we had around 90 in attendance so you can imagine that a lot of cooking/baking is going on today and tomorrow. Please pray that all the logistics come together for this event.

The Marys
London, England

Trust in the Lord

Two weeks ago I was on the way to the airport to pick up my mother-in-law thinking how unlikely that situation was 4 months ago, when she was in the ICU and I was calling Carol’s brother to come to say goodbye. God has really done a miracle! From the uncertainty of surviving the severe acute pancreatitis, to the certainty that she needed to remove part of her pancreas, to "maybe" and then to "she won’t need the surgery". We walked each day on His Grace, thanking Him for His mercies.

We spent three weeks where she lives in Italy and then came back to Spain. Carol’s aunt came from Brazil to take care of my mother-in-law as she recovered back from  hospitalization. It was hard on all of us and certainly it wasn’t what we expected as transitioning to our new life. Once we got back here it was time to set up our home and getting to work.

In the last years our work has been focused on understanding a specific region of a country, working to reach a specific people group. We got to learn the language, culture, history and nuances of that specific place. Now we are looking into the needs of the whole Muslim world, especially looking to the remaining task where there are still no witness, which is overwhelming when you start. Leading a team of specialists in each region and guiding them to create plans for each need has been a great challenge. It’s been very humbling and the verse God has shared with us about this season is Proverbs 3:5-6. We are trusting the Lord with all our heart, asking Him for His ways in everything we do. God has been working and changing people all over the world but unfortunately there is still so much to be done.

One of the projects we have been involved is in the South Asia Subcontinent (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh), a region of over 500 million Muslims and very few laborers. But how to recruit more laborers for the harvest? How to find pioneers eager to do what must be done in these challenging environments? How to get in and get visas to stay? Where will they learn language? How to raise intercession for this work? We have been planning for this specific project together with a team of experience workers and mobilizers, creating a plan with the end in mind. We know the challenge is great, as a example, there is one people group of 28 million people with only 40 believers (local and foreign workers sharing with them). People like you and me who are in desperate need of Christ.

We know these projects take time to mature and to get the momentum it needs to have fruits. So we work diligently that once we have people ready to go, we can support them the best way possible. We pray that soon we will be able to tell testimonies of those who are going! Pray with us that the Lord will raise up a new generation from different nations to share His good news to the people in the Subcontinent.

We hope to share more about other projects that we are involved in following newsletters. It has been a great challenge to get this newsletter into your hands, there is always a barrier to get this done and to raise up more prayer. We see that we are in a huge spiritual battle, we were not expecting to be like that here to be honest, but we trust the Lord is battling and raising prayers even when we can communicate.

The Great City
All workers in the Great City had to leave after what happened, only a few Chinese were able to stay. Also new people who were coming to the city were able to enter after a few months. In the past we were already very few working in a 8 million people city, but now is even more challenging. The NGO we were connected to is not working in the city anymore. But the Lord didn’t stop working. On the day we received the news about the danger and that we couldn’t return. One of our teammates was at the airport to come definitely to the Great City. I called her so she wouldn’t take the flight. That week the NGO she was connected (another one) cancelled her visa stating they didn’t want her as a foreigner living there. She was heart broken and everybody started praying for God to open the doors. Fast forward to one year later, He opened the door, in a miraculous way. After fights with bureaucracy, documents been stolen, this teammate has established a new NGO in the Great City to start the work there. She has join a new team there and she is now ready to work. Also another couple we were supposed to receive in our team is preparing to arrive there possibly next year. All of them have been working in language in nearby locations. But they all need to switch dialect as it’s very distinct.

One of our goals in to keep recruiting and supporting people in the Great City. So the language material we created, we are now passing to them and putting people in contact to continue developing them. Our objective is that this material will bless the workers in the Great City and maybe in a future a new center can be established there so many more workers can come. Its been pretty exciting supporting these new workers from afar and knowing that the work continues. So many will worship Jesus in that great day!

• Thanksgiving
  For Carol’s mom miraculous healing. It is amazing that she is doing so much better. Praise the Lord. She came to help care for Thomas as we were to attend our organization's face to face annual meeting. It’s been great to have her here. We realize that she still needs care, specially with her diet and recovering her strength. Please pray as she understand her new normal.
• For the house and getting established here. It was a miracle to be able to rent without having all the requirements they ask here. We are finally settled and we were even able to host already. We received my parents, my bother and his family, another worker and Carol’s mom. We love to have space so we can serve other workers coming to this city.
• Praise God for the planning meeting we had in the beginning of the month with the senior leadership in our organization. The meeting took place in Malaga, not too far from our place. We were able to participate in the meetings and still spend the evenings with Thomas and my mother-in-law. It was a very important time as we planned for the next year.
• That we didn’t suffer any flooding in our house from DANA (heavy rains) this past 3 weeks.

Prayer Requests

• We didn’t expect to have visa issues here, but we have. I was able to get residency but Carol's has become a problem. Since the process has taken too long our documents all expired (all documents need to be officially notarized, translated into Spanish and expire in 3 months). They are asking for the last 12 months of notarized and officially translated to Spanish banking statements, which I need to be in person to do it. We are waiting for some certificates to arrive from Brazil this week but the banking statement in the US we have to do it in person. Please be praying for wisdom in how we can make this work, also for funds to cover for the travel and the documents/translations.
• Thomas has been having a hard time in school. It is a small public school and they are not used to multicultural kids. He has no friends and is suffering bullying. Please pray as we engage with the teachers and Thomas in how to help him cope and adapt. Also please pray if a change of school is needed.
• For our work, developing different projects (specially Subcontinent), supervising a new team leader couple in North Africa and supporting the work in the Great City.
• For our overall being, family and marriage. We have experienced a lot of stressful situations and we had no time to pause and process in the past 6 months. Please pray that Christmas break will be restful and a time of renewal

Grace United,

We thank God for you and your partnership in this ministry! Over the past few weeks it is clear that God is working here in London.  Here are a few things to thank Him for.

• Our team has been able to meet around 100 new students on campus.  
• We were granted permission to help students move into their dorms.  
• Each Thursday we pack our homes with students and have dinner together.  
• Some students are now attending church with us.
• And last but not least, our support goal has been reached and we are fully funded.  
• Please join us in praising God for all that He is doing!

Chad and Mandy Mary
London, England

Jonathan (Jonjon) Crain, one of our senior boys, passed away on Monday night in a motorbike accident. He was one of the kindest, most humble, goofiest, sweetest, godliest students I've ever known. I didn't know Jonjon well but he made an impact on me and on so many other students in our school.

While we do not grieve as those without hope, the pain and loss right now is very present and real.

Jonjon gave this talk in Chapel last year. It is well worth the 22 minutes to watch it. God clearly gave him this message and it is bearing even more fruit now than when he gave it.

Praise God for...

• The wonderful hope of the Gospel and the resurrection from the dead!
• Giving us a way to have a relationship with Him and to be with Him forever!
• Working in Jonjon's life to mature him and prepare him for eternity!
• Giving us life and love and hope that we will see Jonjon again one day.

Pray that God will...

• Bring many more students to know Him through this time.
• Help the students to respond to God's invitation for life and not grow hard and bitter through this loss.
• Bring peace and comfort to his parents, Joe and Jana, and his brother, Joseph, who just started his freshman year at college. Joseph flew back to Chiang Mai on Wednesday with his uncle.
• Help our school leadership in this time especially because Joe Crain, Jonjon's dad, is our Deputy Superintendent of Academics.
• Help us to grieve the loss of Jonjon's presence at our school and to remember and honor him well.
• Help his closest friends, soccer teammates, jazz band members, teachers, and others to process this with God and to draw near to God in this.

Give the teachers and staff wisdom in how to disciple the students in grief and hope.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. You are a blessing to myself and the missionary kids I serve and a catalyst to the growth of the Kingdom of God in Southeast Asia! All glory to God forever and ever.
 
Love,
Kelsey

Dear friends,
Just wanted to give you a short update on our projects: thank you so much for your generous heart. Through your giving we were able to start working on the renovation of our gym - before beginning to build the new chapel!

Let me explain, our first major construction project will be to renovate - in fact build a new - chapel. But because it is our only viable auditorium, we had to find another venue to serve as temporary meeting room while we do construction on the chapel. The gym was the best natural option, but for a number of reasons we will have to fix a few things before using it to meet. Most urgent will be to tear down the old roof and sit a new one to help us better reduce the high temperatures and acoustic problems as well. This is what we are working on right now! Thanks to your giving will be able to renovate the roof by our graduation in December. We are looking forward to better accommodate the over 1,000 people coming from the Sao Paulo area to attend graduation that day. Thank you.

Does it make sense? Please apologize my broken English, sometimes takes me too many words to explain the simplest things… :))

God bless you.
We appreciate each one of you.

Thomas and Agnes Schneider
Sao Paulo, Brazil

PORTO ALEGRE after the FLOODS:
Thank you for all your prayers and giving. The Word of Life team in Porto Alegre was able to serve a large number of people during this time of need. The waters are finally down in the city and the mountains of debris are now slowly being collected. Life is still far from normal but thank God this major emergency situation we believe is behind us. Thank you for standing with us.  Here some numbers we would like to share with you:
- volunteers trained & mobilized: 225
- cities reached in area: 16
- local churches helped: 32
- houses cleaned and recuperated: 22
- total of goods donated: 30 ton
- children reached through evangelistic day-camps: 490
- first time decisions for Christ: 137
THANK YOU for being part of it!
 
JULY ministry in CURITIBA and SAO PAULO:
During winter break our teams reached a significant number of young people and families in Lapa/Curitiba and Atibaia/Sao Paulo. Some of them hearing the clear presentation of the Gospel for the first time. A total of 2,850 attended Word of Life camps during the month of July in the two locations and we praise God for the 245 who expressed a decision for Christ. Praise the Lord! Only in heaven we will learn the impact this young generation will have in Brazil. Please pray as they return home, to their mission field.
 
World of Life VISION TRIP:
We had the honor of receiving the exciting visit of an US group of friends this July. They came for a 9 days Vision Trip to learn first hand about the Word of Life Ministry in Brazil. We so much appreciate each one of you dear friends who came. Thank you for your support and for encouraging our team.
A little bit of context: WOL Brazil will celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2027 and we wanted to bring friends to visit the field and maybe help us better prepare for this important celebration. We do have a number of key projects to work on in the next 3-4 years and we pray to be able to carry out each one of them by then. Our goal is to build a new chapel & apartment building for our family camp, renovate our gym to better host large events, build a new classroom and renovate students dorms at the Bible Institute and at the youth camp. We realize it’s way beyond our capacity… As you can imagine, these projects all together will demand a lot of work, time and money. We trust God will provide as we start promoting and collecting funds right away. So please PRAY for this enormous task and HELP us share among friends and supporters. God is good and will do it in His time.

Thank you for all your help and prayers. The mission goes on and we appreciate you being part of it. God bless you.

“Till the nets are full…”
 
Thomas & Agnes Schneider (Camila, Mark, Melissa & Michael)
Word of Life Sao Paulo, Brazil
2 Co. 5:15

Type your new text here.

A New Year Begins

Josh, in one week thousands of freshman in London will start the next chapter of their lives as they begin college.  Although these students will be studying a wide variety of subjects, they all share more in common than they could imagine.  Each of these 18 year olds were created in the image of God and therefore have the same internal longings of the heart. They are searching for purpose and meaning in life.  They all want to be happy. They all want to be a part of a community where they are known and loved.  Ultimately, all of these desires can be met in a relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ.  As Christians we have the solution, the cure if you will, for their biggest problem, separation from God.  Would you join with me in praying for the students we will meet this year? Would you pray that their eyes would be opened by the Spirit to see Jesus as Lord? We are trusting God to do the impossible this year, to bring spiritual life to the dead (Ephesians 2:1-9).  These freshman think they are going to college to get an education so that they can get a good job and be successful in life. What if they found something better? What if they found the very thing they were created for? A relationship with God welling up to eternal life (John 4:14).

Key Dates to Pray for
September 21 - Move-in day at the nearby student accommodations
September 23-27 - Welcome Week at City University
 
CO Europe Network Conference

The last week of August all of the Campus Outreach teams in the UK gathered for staff training! In the last six years God has sent out four different teams to locations in Europe.  Birmingham in 2018, London in 2020, Edinburgh in 2023, and Athens in 2023.  It is such an encouragement to see all that God has done in a relatively short amount of time.  At the conference we were able to share meals together, sing praise songs, hear teaching from God's word, plan for the upcoming year, and have a lot of fun together!

Highlights From Our Time In The US

We were able to spend time in Arkansas and Indiana during the months of July and August.  Here are a few highlights from our time.

• Reconnecting with so many of our dear friends and family this summer. You all are an encouragement to us!
• Celebrating my parent's 50th wedding anniversary.  Both of my sisters and their families met in Arkansas for a weekend to be together and celebrate.
• Going fishing with Mandy's dad and mom at the White River in Arkansas.  The kids loved it and caught a lot of fish!
• Seeing God provide needed financial support. He provided $1600 in new monthly support.  Praise God for his provision! We are still raising $400 in new monthly support to be fully funded.  

 
Our New Address

We moved! Praise God that He provided a four bedroom flat for our family that is closer to the church and campus. Our new address is:

Flat 1
169 Central Street
London EC1V 8BS
England

Grace United, thank you for the role that you are playing in our lives and ministry! We thank God for you.  

Chad & Mandy

Unexpected Travel

Thanks for your prayer over the past weeks as we moved to Spain. Our travels were uneventful and we arrived safely! Praise the Lord! In 48 hours God provided a place for us to rent starting in mid August, a true miracle (more on that later)! We also found a good charter school for Thomas, that is now just pending enrollment confirmation. We also joined our org's mid year planning last week as part of our new roles. Everything was moving real fast and well then suddenly on Friday (12) we received a call from a work colleague of my mom (Carol) saying that she went to the emergency room at the hospital in an ambulance. My mom lives in Italy (over 1000 miles from were we live now). She had been living in the Torino region for the past 4 years but two months ago she started a new job in another region.

I was able to talk to her by message and got to know that she was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis and she might need to go through surgery. We were able to rent a car and on the next day we traveled to Italy to meet her. Twenty-six hours later we arrived in the hospital and I was able to be with her. Few hours later they transferred her to another hospital 40 minutes away (in Savona). There we were able to have more information on her case. She has severe acute pancreatitis, with complications in her lungs and necrosis. She was in the ICU since Sunday until yesterday when they transferred her to the surgical ward saying she would go through surgery. This new ward doesn't give us much information on her treatment or progress as only the doctor can say anything and he hasn't been there during visitation hours. Until now no surgery were performed, so trusting the Lord is healing her.

We have been staying in an Airbnb only available until Saturday, after that we need to move two hours from the hospital where my mom has an apartment. This is very challenging as we will be very far from her. Unfortunately right now is very difficult to find a place in Savona or region because it's high season.  

Could you please join us in prayer?

• For my mom's healing, she is in a lot of pain. We have been reading the Bible and praying with her everyday believing God can make a miracle.
• For information on her case so we can plan better the next days.
• For all the paperwork that needs to be done in the hospital.
• For moving her things from here to her apartment up north.
• For Thomas as he is very confused about everything that is happening.
• For our work as we had to put a pause this week but we have people depending on us.
• That Jesus may be glorified in our lives and hers as we navigate this new challenges.

We are very thankful for your continuous prayer and support to our family.
Much love,
Carol, Rafael and Thomas

The World Is At Our Doorstep

We praise God that we can partner with you in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ! Josh, thank you for the role you are playing in this ministry that God has called us to.  Without your help we wouldn't be able to live in one of the most diverse cities in the world with the sole purpose of strengthening the Church by reaching the next generation of leaders through the college campus.  Below is a list of students we have been meeting with regularly over the past year.  I urge you to join us in praying for their salvation.  Each name is followed by the country that student is from.  Every day I'm blown away by the breadth of reach we have in the world through the city of London.  The world is literally at our doorstep.

We have found that the Gospel is better received in the context of friendships.  We are grateful to God that these relationships are deepening and the Gospel is being shared! Our staff team are always finding creative ways to connect with students.  Playing sports is a great way to do this. Pictured here are a mix of students, staff, and members of the CCP team after playing basketball.

It's moving time!

Tuesday is our moving day! As you know we will be serving in a new role in Frontiers, leading the area of Strategy Coordination. We will be located in the south of Spain. These last few months have been a bit of haptic with giving trainings, preaching, meetings, getting acquainted with our new role and getting things ready to move.  We are so grateful for how the Lord has been taking care of us during this transition and how He is leading us. Even though this is not our first transcontinental move, every move brings its own set of challenges and open doors that only the Lord can open.

Some of the challenges and prayer points we have for this season:

• For an uneventful flight, pray that all luggages will arrive safely and we won't have any issues transporting our dog. And even though we have all our documentation in order, we did live in a complex country that may cause trouble on our entry. So pray for grace and understanding from the boarder patrol agents.
• Renting an apartment/house there. Due to questionable legislation, locals are avoiding to rent their places especially for those with unusual sources.
• We need to find a well maintained used car, that will run well for a good few years.
• A new school for Thomas. The next day we arrive we will be visiting a few schools and are praying which is the one He wants us to enroll him in.

We are planning to send a more complete newsletter explaining what we done in the last months and update of the new things we will be doing in the next weeks once we are a bit more settled.

We are very thankful for your continuous prayer and support during our transition to a new season.

Rafael, Carol and Thomas

Dear Friends, thank you for your prayers.

Here is a short update on the flood situation in southern Brazil.

It has been over a month now and some parts of the Porto Alegre metropolitan area are still under water. People are just unable to return home... over 600,000 are still displaced or living in shelters, 172 died and 42 are missing. The International airport is closed and will remain so through December. A large number of roads, bridges, hospitals and public buildings were destroyed and need now to be rebuilt. It’s a disaster of unimaginable proportions. Thank you for praying for the people of southern Brazil.

The Word of Life team in Porto Alegre continues to bring relief and eternal hope to people affected by this crisis. Every day a number of volunteers go to different locations to clean houses, distribute food/medications, pray and share the Gospel with those in need. Tons of donations coming from different parts of Brazil have been distributed so far. It first arrives at the camp property, our team sorts it out, packs it in smaller kits and its taken wherever it's most needed.

Thank you for your financial support! We are so grateful we have reached our goal. All funds needed for this first urgent phase has been reached - Praise the Lord. This gives us the capacity of supporting staff and volunteer's work for 8 weeks total. THANK YOU so much for giving! We are so thankful for that!

Some of you I know wanted to be part but didn’t have the chance yet. Here is an additional project we have for you: during the month of July we normally run camps for local Bible Club partner churches. Due to the floods many churches have canceled and are not able to come - we totally understand. Our new plan now is to run DAY CAMPS specially designed for children living in shelters or affected by the floods. The goal is to reach a total of 640 kids during the month of July. They will come to our property for one day of camp. We will provide transportation to camp and back, have trained staff ready, feed 3 meals/lunch, run fun activities the whole day and share the clear Gospel through creative ways targeting the different ages. By doing so we believe we can bring hope and relief to many kids affected by the floods. Would you pray for that?

Maybe you want to participate - here is the link for you to give: https://link.edgepilot.com/s/ebb32266/fPjKosqc3kqnUZcuynt1UQ?u=https://give.wol.org/03513C - Every US$30.00 will provide a full day-camp experience (including transportation) for one child.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU again for your generous heart. The mission is on and we definitely need your prayers! Thank you.

God bless you dear friends and thank you for your constant encouragement.
Thomas & Agnes Schneider
Word of Life Sao Paulo, Brazil

Grace United,

Praise God that He is actively moving in the hearts of people all around the world.  We thank God for you and want you to know that your partnership is making a significant impact in the lives of many students here in London. As you read below, I hope you are encouraged by all that He is doing!

For His Glory,

Chad & Mandy


Encouraging Conversations

Aymeric is a student from Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) and has become a good friend over the past two years.  He came with our family to church on Easter! Praise God that he heard the story of the resurrection and was challenged to consider the possibility of eternal life through Christ. After the service I asked where he stood in regards to all that he just heard. He doesn't believe it actually happened but said he would be willing to look into it more.  Please pray that God would open his eyes to see Jesus as Lord.

Alex (Left) became a Christian earlier this year and is hungry to grow in his relationship with God! Garrett (right) has been meeting regularly with him. Last week we all got together to study the first few verses of John chapter 1.  It is so encouraging to hear the questions Alex is asking and see his eagerness to learn more about following Jesus.  

Dodgeball!!

We are always looking for ways to have fun and build deeper friendships with students.  A dodgeball tournament was a great way to do just that.  The team I was on won the tournament and I can't tell you how sore I was the next day! Praise God that these students have become friends. Please pray that as we share our lives with them they would come to know Jesus.    

The Art Of Marriage

We recently started taking a few young married couples from our church through a curriculum called The Art of Marriage.  Mandy and I have benefited personally from the content and we also enjoy helping younger couples grow in their marriages. Please pray that these times together would help us better understand and live out God's design for marriage.  

Serving in our Church

We love our local church! It is a joy and privilege to partner with Inspire St James. Our aim on the campus is to reach students and then bring into the life of the church.  Our Campus Outreach Staff team serves regularly seeking to be a blessing.  Chad has regular opportunities to preach and Mandy helps lead worship and serves in the nursery.  

Our pastor’s wife Jo was recently diagnosed with stage four cancer. They are dear friends of ours. Please join us in praying for healing and for their six young children as they walk through this together.
 
Recap of Prayer Request
 

• Pray for continued Gospel conversations with Aymeric and that God would open his eyes.
• Pray for Alex as he continues to grow in his relationship with God
• Pray for us to continue to build trust with students and boldly/winsomely share the good news of Jesus.
• Pray the we would be a blessing to our local church.
• Pray for healing for Jo’s stage four cancer.