The Salgado Family

I thought that I would invest some time writing about some of the folks that are a part of the house church that we host in our home on Sundays. Including me and Jennifer we average about 13 people.

First, I would like to introduce you to the Salgado family:

Claudio and Rute (Claude and Ruth) were introduced to our church family about 4 years ago by our teammates, Kevin and Benay Blume. Claudio is the building maintenance man of the apartment building that the Blume family lived in for their first year and a half in Porto Alegre. Claudio and Rute had been together for quite some time and were considered to have a common law marriage. Almost 2 years ago they decided to give themselves to Christ and to be married. We got all of our church family together on a Friday night and had 2 baptisms and then a wedding. It was a wonderful evening.

Now, Claudio and Rute are an active part of our house church. They are learning that anyone can have a group of people in their home to study the Bible. We are trying to prepare them to have a church in their own home. They are maturing along side the rest of us and are eager to serve the Lord.

Over the last few years they have worked really hard at paying off all of their debts and have saved enough money to buy their first home. Debt is a real problem in Brazil and it is rare to find someone who has paid it off. In Brazil it is possible to have your debt forgiven if you don't pay it off after a certain amount of time. Responsibility and accountability are real struggles to teach when the government/society doesn't expect it from you! However, Claudio and Rute are wonderful examples to many Brazilians in how to handle finances, especially with a tight budget. We hope and pray that they will be rewarded and will be able to move into their new home sometime in the next couple of months. Unfortunately, with all the Brazilian bureaucracy and red tape you never really know when things will get done.

Their new home will be in a neighboring town about 20-25 minutes away from Porto Alegre. They will be wonderful hosts/leaders to a house church family when the opportunity presents itself. In the meantime we will continue to teach and mentor them with the help of the Holy Spirit. Please join us in praying that they will get their house soon and that the Lord would be preparing them to have a house church if it is His will. A house church in their new home would be a wonderful opportunity to reach out to people in an area where we haven't yet ministered.

Claudio and Rute Salgado with their daughters Keity (15), Jenifer (12) and Lhamar (7).

Last night I took the entire Salgado family to see Spider-Man 3 (in Portuguese). They had a blast! They don't have the money to get out and do things like that, so it was a real treat for them. What really made the evening special was finding out that last night was Lhamar's first movie theatre experience. About half way through the movie, after a fight between Spidey and the Sandman, she leaned over to tell me that she liked the movie. I smiled and said "you still have about an hour more to go!" She giggled and went back to watching the movie. I think she really enjoyed herself.