Burgess Road Baptist Church

March 2013  

Thank You for Your Prayers

Dear Friends,

After spending some time in the Amazon jungle I’m back in the concrete jungle of Rio. The trip was joyful and heartbreaking. It’s evident that the Lord is working in some amazing ways in the hearts of many Brazilian Indians. Their love for the gospel was humbling. But it’s evident, too, that Satan isn’t content to watch gospel seeds being sown without trying to snatch them up. As we traveled, we saw villages that don’t have any gospel preaching churches. One village had a church building and willing people, but no pastor. We saw other villages where cults, selfish attitudes, and false doctrine are running rampant and destroying lives. Pray for the lives of these precious souls! And pray for our friend Pastor Rober (the first missionary our church in Rio voted to support financially) as he strives, together with his family, to reach his own people with the gospel.

Missionary Nathan Patefield and I had the privilege of preaching at a three day conference for church leaders and members of six or seven local Ticuna Indian villages situated by the great rivers that flow through Brazil’s Amazon Region. Many people traveled by canoe or boat to come and hear the Word. Later, we visited several villages and were often invited to teach. After the messages, Pastor Rober would often open up a time for questions and answers. The questions were penetrating and we spent hours in discussion and mutual sharing of experiences. We also spent hours listening to the local church leadership express their burden for the future generation and their desire to have a seminary for further training in their language. They also asked for the collaboration of Brazilian pastors to hold annual conferences there for the purpose of treating major doctrinal questions that are arising. We are pondering their requests and preparing to present their needs to pastors and churches in Brazil and in the US. Please pray for wisdom as we consider these things. We desire to help in a way that doesn’t harm in the long term. In other words, we desire solutions that will be indigenous.

Thank you for your prayers for safety. One day we were visiting villages when the boat motor stopped working and we were stranded. Thankfully we had just arrived at a village and a kind pastor’s wife took us in and fed us, though she had three children sick at home with malaria. The next day the boat was repaired and we were able to catch our flight back to Rio. While I was gone, Melissa had a scare with our daughter Myla. Myla got very sick and the doctors suspected Dengue Fever. Thankfully blood tests came back negative and she is well now.

Since my arrival in Rio I’ve had the opportunity to give reports of the Amazon trip in two different churches and preach two other times on the death and resurrection of Christ. There is definitely no lack of places of service here in Brazil. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers! God has given us the opportunity to make an 8 week trip to the US for me to try to complete my final course assignment in the ministry program I’m enrolled in. Please pray for a profitable time of study. Thank you for your constant encouragement and prayer.

Love in Christ,
Brendan Holmquist
Melissa, Myla, Ellie, Daniel, Flavia

P.S. On a personal note, Shannon, BJ’s youngest sister has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She is undergoing chemotherapy and needs our prayers.

©2013 Brendan Holmquist – BMM | P.O. Box 308011 Cleveland, OH 44130-8011

March 2013

Dear Friends in Christ,

I will sing of my REDEEMER, and His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered, from the curse to set me free. Sing, oh sing of my REDEEMER, with His Blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon. Paid the debt and set me free.

The work in Nicaragua has been blessed of God. The Ladies Conference had souls saved and many hearts changed.

The Men’s Conference at Skylark Camp was great with a number of young men surrendering to full time Christian work.

The Bible Institute has opened with 43 new students. We pray with them that God will give a burden for the place of service while they study.

Thank you for your faithfulness with God’s work in Nicaragua through each month as we are laboring together with Him.

Here a very personal note: The end of November 2012 I returned from Nicaragua to have knee replacement surgery on December 3. All of it resulted very well, therapy and all. The doctor cleared me for the trip of February 3, 2013, to go back to Nicaragua. The second day there, I felt some swelling in the knee and thought that I had tried to be on it too much. By five days later I knew something was not right and went to a doctor there. He told me that I was in serious trouble and to get back to the USA to my doctor.

The Lord opened the only seat available for me, and I got back to my doctor that day in the emergency room. They took me straight to the operating room. I now have a temporary spacer until the infection clears from my knee. The staph that was present was that which showed up in my pre-op tests. I took the treatment procedures in prep for surgery, but all of it did not clear from my body. What a shock after having such fantastic healing!

As of now, the projected new knee replacement should be in April, the Lord willing. As you can see, I need your prayers as never before. Please pray with me for God’s mercy in this. I am keeping my eyes upon Him, my Redeemer.

 March 2013

To the Amazon

Dear Friends,

Lord willing, early tomorrow I will board a plane with fellow missionary Nathan Patefield and we will fly to the Amazon region of Brazil for a ten day trip to visit our friend Rober Guerreiro, a Native Brazilian pastor. Pastor Rober has invited his tribe and other tribes along the river to attend a three day conference which his church is hosting. Between Nathan and me, we will have the opportunity to preach about 8-10 times and hold question-and-answer workshops with pastors and leaders of several tribes. Pastor Rober has also set up opportunities to visit other villages along the river’s edge.

Our goals for the trip are the following:

1. We hope to use this trip as an opportunity to encourage Pastor Rober and his family as they have just completed their first year of ministry and have faced many difficulties (malaria, rejection, delays, etc.).

2. We want to give a series of biblical messages in areas that will be helpful to the growth and edification of the churches there.

3. We want to learn from the people and discover practical ways that we as the body of Christ can help them with theological training, construction projects, etc.

Please pray for wisdom and strength and that God would be glorified there among the people of the Amazon Rainforest. Please pray for the safety of our families while we are away,  too. More when we return……………

Love in Christ,
Brendan Holmquist