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Joel and Darcy Molina
Seminário Teológico da Graça
CP 175 Quatro Barras, PR
84320-000 Brazil
email: joeldarcym@juno.com

 

January 14, 2004

Dear Fellow Soldiers,

Greetings in the love of our Lord Jesus!

"Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, etc". This is an absolute affirmation from the heart of the apostle declaring that we are in a spiritual warfare. Notice that the battle is not with our brothers and sisters in Christ but with the devil and his demons. In this context, it behooves us to constantly ponder upon the fact that we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Rom.8:37, Gal.2:20). Also, we are convinced more than ever how the glory of God is displayed through his body, the church, caring and loving one another as the Lord commanded. With thankfulness for your fellowship with us in the gospel since we started we share with you what the Lord is doing in and through us.

Ministry Highlights

A.      Bible Institute:

1. We are currently on our summer break. Last semester we taught four modular classes (Introduction to Grace Theology, Theology of Christian Life, Evangelism and Church Growth, and Bible Introduction). It is very encouraging to see the students growing not only academically but also in their personal relationship with God and the desire to serve Him.

2. Classes will resume again on February 9th. I invited Pastor Luis Brizola (one of the graduates of the seminary) to speak at the opening ceremony. We will invite all the leaders of the churches in the area to come and participate. We will have two modular classes in February. Regular classes will start on March 1st and go until June 30th. We will be offering the following courses for next semester; Synthesis of the OT, Intro to Dispensational Theology, Systematic Theology I, Christian Ed I, Principles and Methods of Bible Study, Music I, English I, and Portuguese I. Our day starts with a chapel service at 7:00 a.m. followed by classes until 11:00; lunch break…and then they all work in the afternoon. In the evening, they have vesper services and study period.

3. We have received four applications for the new semester and have already conducted the initial interview to see if these young people are fit to be seminary students. The exciting thing is that they are all coming from the seacoast churches. They are also going to pay their own expenses while studying at the seminary. I am projecting that by next year we will have more students coming from the churches. We will need to build a dormitory and a chapel this year in order to accommodate this growth.

4. Here are the names of the students; Manoel, Dino, Junior, Geison, Geilton, Gerivaldo, Fabricio, Claudio. Cleiton, Fernanda, Anna, Lucia, Celine, Neidi, Damaris, Marcela, Brito, and Eunice. I would like to encourage you to pick one of them and be his or her regular prayer warrior. If possible send them a note telling them that you are praying for them. If you or your family wants to be a regular prayer warrior to one of these students please let us know and we will send you information concerning the student.

  1. Relationship with the churches:

1. I am delighted to report that we now seem to have a very good relationship with area churches. We have had three meetings with them since we arrived here in September. All of the meetings were difficult as we were putting all the cards on the table and asking hard questions. I told them that if one of my sons would want to work as a missionary in Brazil someday I would want to leave a legacy of love and unity rather than dealing with the same problems we are dealing with right now. There was just one opposing pastor, however afterwards he gave me a hug and asked for an apology. Pray for me as I try to formulate a master plan that will guide MCP and TCM-Brazil in working together to accomplish a common objective.

1.       Last December 19-21 we held the first youth congress here at the seminary grounds. It was quite a difficult undertaking since we didn’t really have space to accommodate everyone. However, everyone sacrificially gave up some of his or her living quarters for three days and the conference was a great success. Three youth accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Twelve made a commitment to serve God and possibly study at the seminary. As a

 

 

 

result, four young people are going to be in the seminary this year. Praise The Lord. The

next conference will be on April 8-10 2004. We are projecting that the number of participants will increase 300%. We might have to find a different place to have the conference unless we are able to think of something in terms of accommodations. I am praying because I really want to have it here in the school. It would be good in terms of our relationship with the churches and also recruitment of new students.

    1. Church planting endeavor:

a.       We started the church in the seminary over two months ago. Currently, we have an average of 50-60 every Sunday. I am projecting that by April we probably will double our number and therefore will have a problem of where to meet. There is no room big enough at the seminary.

      1. My vision right now is to start a church in Jardim Paulista and move the church at the seminary to that location. That is where the people are and if we want to plant a dynamic church that is going to continue and be a witness of the grace message to this community we would have to have it where the people are. We are in the process of doing a demographic research of the area this week and also looking for a possible place to rent.

Prayer Needs

A.      Please pray for my need of a computer for the ministry. The seminary computer that I am using is not working good. It was badly damaged when we moved from Recife. This is a very important need since I am using a computer for everything. Darcy also needs this for home schooling. She does a lot of research for school through the internet. The cost for a complete system is $1,200.00. Thank you for your prayers.

  1. We need funds for purchasing our home schooling supplies for the new school year that should start in February. Broken down, the cost of this is between $700 and $800 plus an additional + or - $200 for language arts workbooks for the four children. Ideally, but optionally, we also need $200 for a good microscope for Kaleb’s science class. This totals at about $1100-$1300, which seems like a lot, but I guess is not that bad considering it is for a years worth of school for 4 children (and the microscope, of course, would be used for all the children for years to come).

Needs Met

A.      Praise the Lord for meeting the need for replacing the roof of the dormitory. There are four families living in this building and every time it rains they get wet. They are not complaining or anything but I am concerned for the children. It is raining quite a lot here. Part of the roof was blown off when we had a bad storm the first of December. We repaired it by using old material that we had on hand since we didn’t have any money to buy a replacement. Now that we have received gifts for this repair we can begin replacing the roof before classes start on the 9th of February.

  1. Also, a gift has come in for building another bathroom at the school. How we thank those who have given for these needs.

In closing, I want to thank you for your concern for the ministry in Brazil and around the world. May the blessings of our Lord rest upon you and your ministry.

In Him,

Joel, Phil. 4: 6-7