Inês is in her mid-fifties and has been a Christian for many years. She has three children, of whom Raquel is the youngest. Inês works as a secretary in a doctor's office near our street. She hopes to retire within the next year or two so she can dedicate more time to one of her great talents: singing. Inês sings in a traveling choir that is run by one of the local commerce organizations. She is an excellent soprano! She is a lady who is very in touch with Christ and knows her Bible very well. She is not very outgoing, but when you get her talking, she will talk your ear off, in an edifying and encouraging way.
Raquel is in her mid-20's and was baptized back in January. She recently graduated from the Lutheran University with a degree in physical education. Raquel is currently working for several different schools in the south zone of Porto Alegre as an aquatic aerobics teacher, and is also doing a post-graduate course at the LU. I hate to admit it, but her greatest talent might be her ability to do dead-on impersonations of people, especially the missionaries with their thick Portuguese accents :) When she gets going, she can leave us in stitches1 Both Raquel and Inês are true servants who will jump in and do anything they are asked to do for the good of the church.
I want to ask your prayers especially for Raquel at this time, as she is suffering with major depression. She recently confided this struggle with us in hopes that she could find comfort in God's word for her depression. Pray for Raquel, that her medical treatments and her searching of Scripture will bring her the healing she desires, and that God will use this difficult experience to strengthen her faith and utilize her to help others.
We are very glad to have Inês and Raquel in our house!
2 comments:
Another great profile. We miss Inês. Please send our love.
I came upon your blog and was glad to read that you were encouraging in Raquel's medical treatments. I have suffered from depression for 17 years. When I was in my early 20's I went to a fundamentalist church and the people there insisted that I "just needed to pray harder" or that I "must need to repent from a sin" and all sorts of other nonsense. It made me feel even worse and plagued me for years. Depression is a hideous, hidden disease, no different than having heart disease or being in a wheelchair. The only difference is the wheelchair is invisible, and there is no difinitive medical test result on paper that we can wave at people to prove we really have a problem. The earlier people get treatment, the better chance they have at staying in remission, because the longer it goes untreated, they have done studies and found it damages your brain.
Thank you for encouraging Raquel.
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