May 2017
Alone
The days are filled with many ministry opportunities,
many of which end in the evening, yet it is lonely with
out Ellen. She is missed as I work the garden God has
given us. Our friends here ask on a regular basis when
Ellen is coming back. There are others who come and
stay with me for a few days at at time, so the house is
not empty.
Working and living in a different culture is not the
same as living in your own culture. You are always the
misunderstood person. As I try to express to our friends
about Ellen staying in the states for medical reasons
they just do not understand. If it were them they would
have pull up stakes and moved to where their loved
one was living and not endure the months separation.
No job in their mind is worth it because relationships
are important here. Yet this is what God has called us
too.
The ministry is blossoming, we have a number of
doors that are open and to take a break would shut
these open doors. The ministry here is very depended
upon my presence at the moment. I have plans in the
future to develop an organization that can operate with
out me but at this point in development I am the key
player.
The situation is looking like I will be on my own
through the summer. Ellen’s medical issues are taking
time to resolve, these things can’t be rushed. Pray for
Wayne as he works the ministry by himself with his
Brazilian partners.
Our Little Group
The Wednesday night gathering is still
growing a little each month. We have lost a few
and gained a few new people. Several of our
people are starting to take leadership roles in
our gathering. We have had a number of men
telling the story in our story based service. It
starts with some singing of songs that we are
encouraging people to memorize. Then we
have a game of some type, an ice breaking
game. It uses to be just my team leading the
games but now we have a number of the
women leading the games, which is exciting to
me because they are taking ownership of the
group. Then the men will tell the Bible Story.
We have a rotation at the moment, Jeu, Valdair
and Wayne are telling the stories over the next
few months. We would like you to pray that
starting in August we can include a few more
men in this rotation. It is important that we
develop leadership in this church plant.
Last week he had a moving night on Friday
night at Popcorn’s house. Yes he served
popcorn as the snack. He likes the play on
words with his name. The chairs we had there
were packed out, standing room only. It was a
great success as people invited neighbors and
friends to join us in a Christian Movie. Not sure
what fruit will come if it but we will try it again in
June. Pray for our group and June movie night
that it will draw the lost to hear the Gospel.
Wayne Is Not Driving?
No the girls are not driving, Wayne is still driving from behind.
This is getting old. The parts came in from the States last month
that will adapt the motor to remote driving. I thought I could get
the correct controls from a local vendor. Not so, apparently. Not a
single vendor wanted to sell us the correct parts, even though
they are a distributor for our outboard motor. We are now working
with a distributor down in San Paulo who is shipping us parts.
Pray that this time the parts are correct and the same brand as
the motor so all the pieces will fit without having to re-engender
the controls for the boat.
Please pray that this will end soon, so I can get behind the
steering wheel where I can see out the front of the boat. Driving
from behind with six people in front of you makes it difficult to see
what river debri we are about to hit. Yes I have hit a few trees and praise God, He keep us safe. Pray!
The Hammock
You decide to take a trip and visit all your relatives. The
big question is do they have the space to put you up. Here
in the Amazon, you only need your hammock. This is a
picture of the under side of our house where we have slept
twenty people. The hammock is an important part of the
culture, everyone has one or more at home. This way you
can always put up guest.
Now for those of us who did not grow up using
hammocks, falling out of a hammock is a culture disaster.
Yes we have tied our hammocks incorrectly and the knots
sliped resulting with us landing on the ground. Just part the
culture we have had to learn, hanging hammocks.
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Look who hangs around our house.
Wayne & Ellen Patton, PO Box 620067, Atlanta, GA 30362-2067
http://www.pattons.org [email protected] Phone 937-660-8030