Dear Friends at Tenth Presbyterian Church,
Thank you for your ongoing support for our church plant. We are happy to say that we are continuing on our mission to reach Portuguese and Spanish speakers in the greater Philadelphia area. God is blessing the work!
More than anything, we have learned to depend on God to provide for all our needs, personally and as a church. We have been learning to live by faith more and more each day as we have been going through a long period of personal financial and material want. But we are grateful for His many provisions.
With the adjustments involved with a church plant and dealing with all of the difficulties working with and being part of an immigrant community, we must be very flexible. We must be ready and willing to do many things that are not part of the normal tasks of a pastor at an established church, including more social work. We are grateful for these opportunities and, by God's grace, we are being pushed to the limits of our weakness. But through this, we see how God is glorified as He uses weak vessels to reach His people through the outpouring of the gospel.
A Quick Update
Members
Praise the Lord that He has given us our first 21 members that were received through baptism, profession of faith, and transfer. We have more than 30 people preparing to become members in our next cycle.
Setting up the Church
We have begun ministries to equip our church, including:
- Women's meetings
- A Financial Committee
- Adolescent and Children Ministry
- New Membership Classes every Sunday, with around 30 people attending
- Weekly lunches to welcome visitors and grow in communion with one another
In recent weeks more non-Christians from the community have come Sunday mornings and have stayed for lunch.
Outreach Events
- Futebol (soccer and ping pong) every Friday night (9:00-11:00pm). This is an outreach to non-Christians in our area. We have Spanish, Portuguese, and English Speakers, as well as four Muslim men joining us every Friday.
- Churrasco (Brazilian Barbecue). We are kicking of our monthly outreach at the end of May, reaching Portuguese and Spanish speakers with food and community.
Worship Services
We have begun our regular worship services on Sundays, by first preparing our core group with "New Family" classes every Sunday.
Partnership Raising
Praise the Lord, other sister churches like Tenth have committed themselves to partnering with us. That said, we still are in need of more partnerships and are regularly visiting other churches. Our people have also been giving regularly. The salary and support for Pastors Diogo and Alberto, though minimal, have provided for their families during this initial planting and partnership development phase.
Items for Prayer
- Pray for the more than 35 potential new members we are currently leading through our "New Family" course.
- Pray for our time of evangelism every Friday night; many non-Christians are coming and we have been engaging in spiritual conversations.
- Pray for continued support-raising for the CTK. Pray for opportunities and time to visit sister churches, even while taking care of the needs of our members and visitors.
- Pray for grace in the eyes of the government as Pastors Alberto and Diogo go through the process to receive their R-1 visas.
Thank you again for your support and partnership in this kingdom work!
Your brothers in Christ,
Pastor Diogo and Pastor Alberto