Brazil

Coach Tom Latham drtom@terra.com.br

Andressa, our 14 year old girl´s coach gave a testimony

Dear Friends,

I know I already sent an update today but our activity this afternoon was such a blessing, I have to share it with you.   We had 30 kids here, half were unsaved, wrestlers. Andressa, our 14 year old girl´s coach gave a testimony. It was a surprise for me. I will quote her: "Before I came to know Pastor Thomas, the church and accepted Christ, I was a sad kid, hollow inside. I am so thankful to know Christ, to have my sins forgiven. At school I am now known as 'Smiley' because I can´t stop smiling, I am so happy to know Christ. You can know him too, you can have your sins forgiven too. If you want to know Christ, talk to us about it." Wow, I was really impressed and moved.   Andressa is like a daughter to me, she helps me in all my wrestling practices. I believe God has great plans for her and I have the privilege of seeing these plans worked out, what an honor God has given me.

Your friend forever, Tom

Dear Friends, I am having problems with my server so I will not be able to communicate like before. 

Sunday night I gave a salvation story and Paulo jumped up to be saved at the invitation as well as his wife and two teenagers. All total, we had 8 saved, including four wrestlers. It was a good service. I sang a solo of "Almost Persuaded" which is a new song to them. We appreciate your prayers for our ministry here, including the wresrtling work. We had a fine tournament on Saturday. I had 66 wrestlers and Shane brought 4. No one was hurt and we had lots of parents watching. We had one of our members going from adult to adult welcoming them and explaining our church to them. The wrestling ministry is the most effective evangelistic tool I have ever used. 

As you know via our prayer letter, we have been wanting to get a minibus. But, there is a 20-passenger van, runs on bottled gas and gasoline, and with a/c. It has advantages over the minibus as follows:

1. The van has only one tire on the back, the bus has two

2. The van can be parked in my garage, the bus cannot pass under my gate. We would need to park it somewhere else and build an overhang

3. I can get insurance for the van, not the bus. I cannot drive a vehicle on these dangerous roads without insurance

4. Rude can do all the maintaince on the van, but not on the minibus

5. Tires, windows and other parts would be very expensive for the bus, not for the van

6. I don´t have to update my license for the van, need to for the bus

The 20-passenger van will cost $30,000 (a good price for a new van). I have $18,000, so I just need $12,000 more.

Your friend forever, Tom

  (Normal) Iowa State Daily Sports Desk 11:05 AM -0600 2 misread your question

One has to kiss a lot of frogs to find the Prince. Yesterday I had 150 kids here from a public close to our church. Everything went well except Gabriel, a junior, jumped the fence I told them all not to jump and he cut his leg in two places, needing 10 stitches total. This afternoon I visited the school and they agreed to let me start a wrestling team there in March. They have 1,700 students. It is one of the largest schools in our city. As I walked through the halls, many students waved at me and called out, "Oi, Pastor Thomas".
Tomorrow I will visit Gabriel in his home, giving him a personal invitation to wrestle with us. Pray for this visit, please.

Today I had 120 kids from a school close to my house. Things went without a hitch today. On Monday I will have another 100 students here. On the 18th another school and on the 21st, the teachers from a school will be here.

There are a lot of improvements and repairs I would like to make on the playground area but since the devaluation of the dollar, my salary has been cut in half, leaving nothing to work with at the end of the month.

December 14-16 is our Christmas Walkthrough. We are at the gates of many public schools giving the kids invitations to the walkthrough to take home. Pray for this too, please.
Your friend forever, Tom