It's time for me to tell you about another one of the families in our house church. This is Regis, Conceição, and Vinicius Signoretti. Regis & Conceição are in their mid 40s and Vinicius is 15. Regis is Renato's brother - I introducted you to Renato and his family last month. Regis works in hospital administration in Novo Hamburgo, a suburb about 45 minutes by car from Porto Alegre. Conceição works as an administrative assistant for a state legislator near the capital building. Vincius is in his first year of high school and is on the basketball team. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'm going to take him on the courts and give him some training...(hah!) Actually he is pretty good.

Regis and Ceiça (her nickname) have been Christians ever since their late teenage years. They are very committed to the church and care very much about seeing the church become the best it can be. They are experiencing some joys and some challenges in their life right now. One of the joys is that they are finally beginning to build their own house! This has come after many years of saving enough money and getting enough time to engage the process. One of the challenges is Conceição's health. She has several problems related to deficiencies in her spinal column such as lower back pain and insomnia. Recently she has also been struggling with depression - overload of work and interpersonal stress. I think we can identify with that...

We thank God for this family and ask that you pray for them - that their building project will be successful, that Conceição will be healed of her illnesses, and that they will continue to mature in Christ as His servants .

2nd Couples Meeting

On Saturday night, we had our second couples meeting involving various couples in our extended church family (our first couples meeting was back in May). Waleska and Branda, another woman in our house church, are in charge of organizing this ministry. The goal is to get couples together for an evening of experiencing biblical principles that will strengthen our marriages and families. Our guest facilitators were Rui & Nadia Diogo, missionaries at the Church of Christ in Viamão, a suburb of Porto Alegre. The meeting took place at the home of Regis and Conceição, one of the families in our house church. We watched a movie called "A Vow to Cherish" that portrayed the theme of fidelity in marriage through difficult times. After the film was over, we discussed its message and application points for our lives, then stayed till around midnight munching on finger foods and enjoying good 'ol Christian fellowship. We had nine couples in attendance. All in all, it was a very encouraging night for everyone - simple, thought-provoking, low-cost, and fun!

Waleska is doing a great job in helping to organize this ministry. Her goal is to get to the point where we have these meetings once a month, so our members can anticipate them and invite their friends who are not yet Christians to get involved. Keep this ministry in your prayers as we seek to invest in strengthening our marriages and families!