Pr.  Renato Santos

Boa Vista, May 24, 2024

Beloved brothers and sisters,

We bring you the latest news from the Ministry of Bringing the Good News to the Guyanese People.

It is a joy for us to share with each of you what the Lord has done in us and through us by His wonderful grace and through the many prayers and financial support of His people. Praise the Lord!

When we arrived here in Boa Vista, Roraima, in September 2023, we did not yet have all the details of how the Lord wanted to use us in this new phase of the missionary ministry He entrusted to us.

Like Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:5-9, we had many plans and hopes, but we came by faith in the One who works all things for the good of those who love Him. And, also like Paul, we can say that a wide and promising door has been opened, but there are challenges to be overcome.

Certain that He reigns and directs all things for His perfect purpose, we follow the direction He has given us, trusting that, in the end, everything is from Him, through Him, and to Him. Amen.

We began the month of May with the campaign to acquire our missionary van. By the grace of the Lord, we are doing well and have nearly 80% of the amount needed to purchase the vehicle. We thank each brother and sister who has contributed to making this dream a reality.

We have already been researching to find a suitable van for our needs. I ask for your prayers for this, as we have not found good options in Boa Vista. We have brothers helping us in the search in Manaus, which would be the closest place for us. We know that when we reach the amount needed, the Lord will guide us to the right vehicle for this ministry.

We continue to advance in our partnership with the Lethem Baptist Church. During our travels, we have been assisting missionaries Raphael and Jéssica with the music for Sunday worship, and at Pastor Nigel's invitation, we preached at the thanksgiving service for the lives of mothers. It was a time of great joy, and we meditated on Acts 16 about the conversion of Lydia, the first believer in Paul's ministry in Europe. We challenged the mothers and the entire church to be like Lydia, a person of prayer who used her resources for the advancement of the Gospel.

Now, we are moving into a new phase,

the establishment of a Portuguese-language ministry among the Guyanese people.

This step is very important because, in addition to reaching Brazilians, Guyanese, and Hispanics, we also want to bring the Gospel to the Chinese people who are very interested in learning our language.

Pray that we can start soon. We have some meetings scheduled with our missionaries and the leadership of the Lethem Baptist Church, and after these, we will kick off this great challenge of reaching people in our language as well.

The plan is to continue helping the English-speaking church on Sunday mornings and in the afternoon, we will have a service in Portuguese.

We also have our missionary Pilot, Júnior, to help us with preaching and evangelism through the flight simulator, while we will be teaching music to teenagers and young people from Lethem. We count on your prayers for these plans.

On May 10th, we celebrated the birthday of our firstborn, Judá Nascimento dos Santos. He turned 15, which means we are getting old!! Jokes aside, we want to praise the Lord for the life of our son who has grown in stature more than his parents.

But we ask that you remember him in your prayers, so that the Lord may also make him grow more and more in wisdom and grace before God and men, like our Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 2:52).

We thank everyone who sent him congratulations. It was a very joyful day where he read and responded to each message.

Thank you very much for being so present in our lives, even though you are thousands of kilometers away, as is the case for some. Your love and care have been a testimony of God's love for us, and our children have experienced this. Glory to the Lord!!

Our prayer requests:

1. For the campaign to acquire our MISSIONARY VAN. We thank the Lord for the good progress of the campaign and for the life of each one who has contributed. Let us pray that the Lord shows us the vehicle we should acquire in Boa Vista or Manaus;

2. We thank the Lord for the progress in our partnership with the Lethem Baptist Church, for training musicians, helping with worship, preaching in services, and starting a Portuguese-language ministry. Pray for the upcoming meetings we have to detail and plan this partnership;

3. Continue praying for the Brazilian families residing there so that the Lord blesses them through this ministry and for the Guyanese, Hispanics, and Chinese people that the Lord allows us to reach there;

4. For the life of Pastor Nigel and the other pastors of the Lethem Baptist Church and for our missionaries Raphael and Jéssica who have been serving there daily;

5. We thank the Lord for the 15 years of our firstborn, Judá. May the Lord continue to work in his life and confirm his faith in Jesus Christ.

Very grateful for your prayers and financial support of our ministry,

Your fellow servants,

The Santos Family