Exciting News
It is with great joy and gratitude to God that we want to share this great blessing with you.
God has blessed us with our first child, due in February 2023. The first trimester was challenging for Noemi with the nausea and weight loss, but things are starting to be more stable.
She is having medical follow-up and doing routine exams and thank God everything is fine. The local team is also very happy and is supporting us as best they can. We count on your prayers that God will continue to bless us in the next steps. Soli Deo gloria.
Zoominar
From March until November (20 sessions) we have journeyed with Max Chismon and an average of 30 mobilizers from over 20 different countries in what we called a Zoominar. It was a mix of a Seminar and Zoom based meetings introducing the trial of a new course to be called “The Story of the Bible”.
Noemi was involved in all the admin of the meetings and helping the participants and Max with whatever they needed. Caleb developed Additional Resources sent to all participants after every session, recommending books, videos, podcasts, articles and more to complement the topic being studied.
The new course is expected to be launched by 2024.
Local Churches
In this first year, we are taking advantage of the opportunities to get to know the churches in the city, some of which are SMI partners. In general, denominations follow the same standards as Western churches. Some more historic, others more contemporary.
Due to the stricter rules implemented during the pandemic period, many churches fully returned to in person services in mid-2022. The use of a mask remained mandatory and many things still happened online. However, the opportunities we had were enriching. In the photo on the side are some of these churches: Free Methodist; Alliance Church; Victory, with a more contemporary style, and CCF, a historic church with a missional style.
Global Development Consultation
Since 2017, SMI has held the Global Development Consultations, which is basically a week of meetings in which SM leaders come together to discuss important topics for the advance of the movement globally.
We represented Brazil and Latin America in 2018 and 2019 in person, but because of the pandemic this was the second online edition. This year we actively participated in the organization of the event, both in the creation and presentation of content and behind the scenes together with the staff.
Some sessions were repeated to accommodate different time zones as we had participants from all continents. Despite the tiredness, it was an incredible experience! Being part of the international team has put us in direct contact with Christians from different cultures and backgrounds.
(the event had representatives from 76 countries and more than 200 participants).
Social Media
Since April, Caleb has accepted the invitation to help boost and maintain SMI’s Social Media pages (mainly Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) as well as the Kairos Facebook Page.
We hope to have a more constant presence online, and make it more video based following the latest trends to reach a more significant number of people worldwide.
We are also working towards posting more of what is happening in the global regions and the different leaders to showcase the amazing diversity the movement has.
Other exciting happenings
As the days go by, a lot happens that we would love to share, recognizing that this prayer letter would just grow and grow, here are some highlights:
We celebrated Caleb’s birthday with the team, Caleb also attended a pastors meeting and a music program in one of the local churches giving him the opportunity to play the guitar and speak to the young learners, we also welcomed Max Chismon for a short stay in his way to Europe.
Christmas
On December 16th, we had a Christmas party for the staff in the Center. The local team bid farewell to the year's work, after many challenges, changes in the team and many enjoyable moments together.
It was a very special moment of celebration and gratitude to God for all that He accomplished in us and through us in 2022.
Community
One of our biggest highlights of the year has been the community we fostered in the center, especially while Geof and Marion Gunton (Australia) and Ting (Philippines) were here with us. In late September Geof and Marion headed back to Australia to visit partners and spend the end of the year with their family. Ting has also gone home to Cebu in late October and is expected to be back by January 2023.
We praise God for bringing this team together and value how important they were for us as we adapted to the new life in a new country. We also experienced great work related interactions running franchise and translations trainings together.
Prayer Focus
Pray for our new season expecting our daughter, for Noemi’s health and a safe delivery.
Pray for the SMI team, for many projects we have in development. Especially as we prepare to start organizing the International Conference in 2023.
Pray for the development of the course “The Unfinished Story for Youth”, for all the young leaders involved.
Pray for the development of our roles in the team, the Youth Mobilization Coordination and Caleb’s Social Media management.
