McKinney Report

I want to thank all of you for your encouraging words to Nicholas and our family. I read to Nicholas what you said to him and he sat there with a big grin on his face. He enjoyed hearing about your experiences and I sure he felt motivated to continue "fighting the good fight". Thank you all and please continue to pray for the work here in Paraíba - Brazil. God bless you all! Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Jeremy, Monica, Nicholas & Dylan Newlin

      I remember the day my oldest son, Nicholas was born. It was a very exciting day and also a very scary time. It is a great responsibility, I should also add privilege too, to raise a child. How was I going to raise him? My life changed quite a bit after he was born. Everyone who has children probably know what I'm talking about.       December 14, 2011, I had the enormous privilege to see Nicholas choose Jesus as his Lord. He was baptized for the forgiveness of his sins and now has God's Spirit living in him. I have baptized people before and it is always a miracle to witness. This time was different. It all happened so fast, I thought after I baptized him that I had forgotten to do or say something.       Nicholas is only 11 so let me share with you how he came to his decision. When he was 8 he told me he wanted to be baptized. I said o.k., so let's study. We had one little Bible study and then I waited for him to ask me to study with him again

      I traveled to Cajazeiras to teach classes on "The Role of Women in the Church". Café, the evangelist working in the city wants the women to be more involved in evangelizing the community. Women really do have a lot of potential to evangelize other women. Their relationships and conversations are usually deeper than those of men. Women, in general, are accepted into homes more easily than men and the list goes on and on.       We talked about the purpose for God creating woman. She is the perfect help mate for man. We also talked about the fall; when the roles that God had established for both came into conflict with a new reality. We talked about how both man and woman will now have to struggle to reach the level of harmony that existed between them before the fall. We discussed that the man is the head of woman and she is to be submissive to him. I asked the women if they would have a problem being submissive to a man who gave his life for his wife everyday

            I received a call from Antônio Germano, a Christian who lives in Alagoinha.   He told me that there were three women who wanted to be baptized and that they were waiting for me to come and baptize them.   What great news!!!   I had met all of them before but I did not study the Bible with any of them.                   I traveled the two hours to get to the city of 13,000 residents.   I sat down with the ladies and asked them some questions to see if they understood what they were doing, why they were being baptized and if they realized what it would mean for the rest of their lives.   After a couple of hours of conversing,   I received the privilege of watching God work a miracle of re-birth in three lives.                   If you would like to say something to your new sisters in Christ, you can e-mail me your message and I will translate it for them.             Please pray that Maria, Antônia da Paz and Graça, as well as the church in Alagoinha may: ·       

      Areial, a city 2 ½ hours away from João Pessoa with three Christians is the city I visited Sunday. Two adult women and one teenager are the only Christians in this city of 10,000 inhabitants. I began visiting this city about 10 years ago with Joseph and David.           A woman named Sônia, born and raised in Areial, had gone to work in São Paulo. She also began her life in Christ in the third largest city in the World when Ricardo Sobral baptized her into Christ. Sônia moved back to her home town of Areial and our team heard about her new life in Christ from Ricardo so we began visiting her. She was the only Christian in town at the time.           Sônia is a faithful follower of Christ to this day. Her two sons, Jalmir and Elmir, were baptized. One is faithful; the other does not like to even talk about God, right now. The son who is faithful to Christ is now living in another state while the son who left the Church still lives with her. Sônia evangelized her sister

  Lena McKinney - we call her Granny - has completed her mission on this earth. The Lord took her yesterday after she had a heart attack.     She was 95 years old, and that may sound like a lot, but it is too short! For people like Granny TOO SHORT! In the forty years with her as my grandmother, including the four years I lived with her while going to college, all my memories are good, wholesome, life-giving, God-glorifying, fun experiences. This rotten world needs more people like Granny. Two hundred years wouldn't have been enough.     And that is why Heaven is so right. Thank God this is NOT the end. I am so thankful for the privilege of being her grandson, of learning the meaning of God's grace from her, for the years of her loving service to generation after generation, and the glory, wondrous glory, she is experiencing right now.     Edda told our youngest son Lucas. He was sad, but he brightened up when he thought of

            I traveled to Patos, on Thursday and arrived back in João Pessoa the following Wednesday night.  Here is a summary of what happened: I went to teach a 15 hour class to the members on "Letters To Asia Minor" (Galatians, Ephisians and Colossians).  The class went well and was encouraging.  We visited several members of the church in Patos.  We also visited family members of Michel's co-workers who live in Patos and Santa Terezinha, a small town about 30 minutes outside of Patos.  Michel is a Christian who works at a Chinese restaurant in João Pessoa and he was on vacation.  We visited three families in Pombal, about an hour from Patos and held a worship service in the home of the two Christians (father and daughter) that live in this city of 60,000.  We drove another hour to Cajazeiras to visit the church and the evangelist that works with the Right Step Program (soccer school for young tee

by Diego (Extracted from Diego dos Anjos' newsletter. If you would like to receive his newsletter, please email him at: diego_dosanjos@hotmail.com )     We went to a youth camp last month in the city of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe. We took about 15 young people from Joao Pessoa and drove 4 hours to get there and met others youth groups from different cities. The theme for this camp was “Seeking the Kingdom of God”. The speakers really encouraged us to aim as a priority in our lives to seek God and His Kingdom. Raniere, one of the speakers, did an amazing job helping us think about this phrase: We are just able to seek God and His kingdom if we decide to have a daily relationship with God. What have you done about that? How is your relationship with our Father? Share your stories and let’s seek His kingdom together!      I have enjoyed the past weeks of our youth Sunday Bible class. We have studied about

Rivaldo Café in Cajazeiras has baptized two more people. Francisco, 40 years old, lives on a farm with his wife and eight kids, four of which participate in the Right Step Soccer Project. Café has been studying with this family for five months, and after one of the studies Francisco asked to be baptized. William, a 15 year old boy in the project, was there and also decided to follow Jesus. They went down to the creek and were born again in Christ.

   This last month and a half I have spent in João Pessoa.  I have not traveled to the interior but there is plenty to do here.  I taught a three week class to the members of the church on "Letters to Asia Minor" (Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians).  I am teaching Sunday School on "Contentment", looking at how Jesus, the apostles and the first Christians thought, taught and dealt with the material wealth that God entrusted to them.  We moved into a more personal and practical aspect this past Sunday and began working on our own personal budgets, living below our income to be able to serve more and not live in debt as so many do here.  I preached the Sunday after Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16) on how God told Moses what to do on this day, what the Jews do today and how Jesus fulfilled this day for all Christians and that the forgiveness we have in Christ is complete and forever as long as we remain faithful to Him.      Now that my class is over

by David McKinney      Beliza is a wonderful teenager who was invited to a youth camp last year by Iago, a Christian who, has left the flock. She immediately made a lot of friends began attending some Church meetings and our Monday basketball games.   Iago's sister, Leylane, who is the wife of my brother-in-law, began studying the Bible with her.  After many months she decided to give her life to Christ.  Her mom, who I do not know very well, came to her baptism and cried saying that she had prayed for years for this day to come. To me, it is interesting that it took years of prayer, an invitation from lost sheep, a Christian camp, basketball, friendship, Bible study, and who knows what else to bring Beliza into the arms of Christ. I know that all these people and things were important, even the basketball, because it allowed us to spend quality time with her. You can learn a lot about a person while sitting on a bench. Truly it is hard to know all that God does to win us over a

         Continent of Great Cities has a great service for missionaries called Continent Care Connection, in which they invite ministers from South America for a week of spiritual renewal in São Paulo. It is amazing how we, sharing the Gospel with others, end up pushing aside our own spiritual needs and become depleted.           I confess that I was needing this reconnection with God more than I realized, and it took stopping everything for a week and a lot of reflection and encouragement from a special group of men who volunteered to serve us and take care of us. I feel like I have tools to proceed in the work in a healthier way for myself and for my family.           Hundreds of people made this encounter possible and I pray that God will bless each one of them as much as He has blessed me through their effort.

Jeremy put a video on You Tube of the Bible Bowl winners being announced. Here is a link to the Bible Bowl video. The Bible Bowl was September 24. The kids from João Pessoa did great. Check out the video on youtube. The link is below. Samuel McKinney 88 out of 100 (1st place overall, including some up to 25 years old) Nicholas Newlin 83 out of 100 (3rd place in 1st Division, 4th place overall) Nicholas' team won 1st place in the 1st Division (6 to 12 years old) You can see the video announcing the prize winners. Link to video:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DByb2fj9e78

by David McKinney         Juliana is 35 years old. She is the girlfriend of a member of the church and that is how we met her. She had attended a Presbyterian congregation for some years, before moving to João Pessoa, but she fell away.   She said she was baptized in 1998, but she said she felt weird about being sprinkled and wondered about it for several years.   Studying the Bible with her is very refreshing. She is eagerly open to the Word, and she is not one to conceal her emotions (see the photos). You can literally tell when she is touched by the Word of God and her relationship with Him. We are very grateful to welcome her to the family.

        Bible Bowl 2012 was a mess: miscommunication with my volunteer question makers so I received two sets of questions for Luke 19, Luke 21, none for Luke 18 nor 22 and one person sent questions for Matthew 9 - wrong book; the nightmare of finding rides to Recife for 4 teams of 4 kids since most people traveled this past weekend; and a couple of kids dropping out at last minute leaving teams incomplete. All this left me feeling drained and disorganized.          But it was all worth it: to learn how to do things better next year, but especially to benefit the kids spiritually this year. Our fifteen competitors came away excited about studying and knowing God's word. Yury's last minute cramming Two teams won first and third place in the 1st Division (6-12 year olds) Nicholas Newlin won third place individual score (83/100 questions) in 1st Division. Samuel McKinney won first place individual score (88/100 questions) in 2nd Division (competing against 13-25 year olds -