Feliz Ano Novo

Greetings from the Linda Esperanca,

Today we went to Sao Jose and had a great time with the people there. Corey, Skylar, Lydia, Taylor and I had the opportunity to talk to the teenage girls about life, boys, school and God this afternoon. It was really neat to see how the girls opened up to us and were really receptive to what we had to say about having pure relationships. Zach Woods shared his testimony with the adults after the daily afternoon soccer game and it was incredible. The people there invited us to a service tonight at the local church and we went, sang some songs and Skylar and Brennan shared their testimonies. The pastor of the church was so sweet and thanked us multiple times and once again we were blessed with hearing how the Linda Esperanca has passed by his village multiple times and he told us that he had been praying that the boat would stop there one day. It continues to rock my world how God is using this boat and this ministry without us even realizing it. After going on so many trips the past 10 years it has been an incredible encouragement to me that this boat has such an impact on the lives of the Brazilian people.

Sam Turtletaub had a neat experience tonight getting to talk one on one with a 13 year old boy named Leandro. He had become friends with the boy during the day and sat by him at the church service this evening. During their discussion Sam learned that this young Brazilian boy was addicted to maurajiuna and his friends told him if he stopped doing drugs he would have no friends. Sam and Thiago were able to share the gospel with him and he prayed to receive Christ as his Savior but he is going to have a long struggle with overcoming addiction ahead of him so please be in prayer for him.

We had a minor soccer injury today so please keep Chandler in your prayers that she would have a quick recovery. Nothing major but of course we want her to be back to 100% as soon as possible! Everyone is doing great but exhaustion is starting to take its toll so strength, energy and endurance is our greatest prayer need right now. God is good and we witnessed that in a marvelous sunset this evening! Happy New Years!

In Christ,

Landen Ellis