Prayer letter from Lloyd and Athena Peace

We are finally back home in Brazil! Thank you for praying for us as we have gotten settled back into our house, ministries and life here in the Amazon over the past weeks. Please take note of our current contact information below. Internet access is very limited, so we have been unable to get any updates out.

Here’s a glimpse of the past 10 weeks since we left the USA (they’ve passed in a whirlwind!)
-met with a few of our teens who are now studying in Manaus
-had a time of fellowship with a good sized group of our teens who are now studying in Tabatinga
-joyful at having been met at the airport in Tabatinga and the port in Santo Antônio by friends
-battled mold, rats and cockroaches in our home; deep cleaned house, painted and unpacked
-yard, termites, and ants back under control
-thanking God for the blessing of having Ashley with us; she has been a tremendous help with the kids’ schoolwork, house and ministry
-back working with the Adolescentes (ages 13-18) for Sunday School, Tuesday night study, Thursday afternoon group, activities, counseling and hanging out
-started working with the Jovens (ages 18 until married) – we are studying Colossians on Thursday nights at our house as well as having a fellowship time after our studies
-hosted our coworkers for a Field Council meeting
-nearly finished with the kids’ schoolwork for this school year
-visiting with/catching up with numerous neighbors and friends
-endless hours at the internet café trying to get essential emails out; we have been unable to get any updates out due to painfully slow internet speeds and frequent outages
-plans are underway for an October start date on the hangar construction
-countless hours spent on essential maintenance/repairs at the mission hospital, mission houses and church: cleaning several inches of algae/mud out of the bottom of the water tanks that support the mission houses; unclogging algae clogged water pipes; repairing a caved in septic wall at the hospital; fixing an overflowing septic tank at a mission house; getting the hospital VW Combi van back up and running; lawn mower repairs; patching screens; removing trees growing in the gutters; unsuccessfully trying to get the church’s boat engine running and so on

Boat
Lloyd was able to have an acquaintance traveling to Tabatinga renew the required boat insurance. The Navy, who oversees boat licensing and regulations, will only allow a boat driver’s license to be renewed in person. So, at some point, Lloyd will need to make a trip to Tabatinga to get his license renewed. In the meantime, he will need to get the boat running again after two years of being “pickled”.

Airplane
For over two years, Lloyd has been in contact, in person, by phone and by email, with the president of ABUL for our region. ABUL is the organization which oversees small airplanes. Lloyd was told several times, even after this man checked with his superiors, that he would be able to obtain a pilot’s license for this smaller plane since he has both American pilot’s and mechanic’s licenses. We just found that this information was not correct and that Lloyd will not be able to validate his American pilot’s license here in Brazil as anticipated. This means that Lloyd will need to do ground school (a pilot’s course down here in Brazil for this type of airplane) as well twenty flight hours. The cost for the ground school and flight hours will be approximately $3,500.

The airplane is finished and awaiting final documentation. Once the documentation is in hand, Lloyd will need to complete the required training to obtain his Brazilian pilot’s license and then he will fly the plane back to Manaus where it will be hangared until the hangar in our town is constructed. He will be able to complete ground school and flight hours at the factory where the airplane was built. He will be gone three to four weeks. Please pray for Athena and the kids during this time as our coworkers are all gone on furlough.

Leadership
Godly, responsible male leaders are lacking in our area. We were deeply saddened when several young men recently fell into sin and had to be removed from leadership positions. Sometimes, it seems Satan works overtime here in the Amazon. Please pray for these young men.

A couple of weeks ago, the eight to twelve year old girls in our neighborhood started a club. They had some unsaved friends attending and wanted to have a Bible story as part of their time together. They asked a teen neighbor who has taught “The Story of Hope” to give the first lesson. They met on our patio and Athena was able to listen in. The lesson was about the eternality of God. What a wonderful blessing to hear this teen respond correctly to the girls’ questions and observations, always taking them back to the Word of God. Some of the girls’ questions/observations: “My grandma says Mary got pregnant by the soldiers.”, “Who created God?”, “My grandma says the fishermen say we came from monkeys. Is that true?” and “Did Noah really send a vulture away from the ark to find dry land?” We are excited to see these girls burdened to reach their unsaved friends.

A few weeks ago Pastor Cristiano from Benjamin Constant spoke at our church. He and Lloyd grew up together. Pastor Jacó is the pastor of our church. He and Lloyd have been good friends going back to their teenage years. What a blessing to spend time with both of these godly men who are burdened with the lack of strong male leaders in the Amazon.

Thank you for praying for us and the ministry here. You are an important part of the ministry and we appreciate you.

Your partners in reaching the world for Christ,
Lloyd, Athena, Julia, Jessica, Jacob, and Lucas Peace