A New Friend and Co-Laborer

Rafael and family with our family (my kids have “issues” with group pics).

The year of 2020 has been a strain on most relationships for most people; a dark year concerning depth of friendships. For me, the charge to continue firm in the midst of darkness in Phillipians 2 to "shine like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life," brought me alongside a new friend who has become one of my many "Band of Brothers". Rafael Santos, our local church's new pastor, despite all the challenges, maybe due to all the challenges, is a relationship that has been a blessing to me.

In March, I posted a quick blurb about Rafael officially being confirmed by our church as the new pastor on Instagram and Facebook. He had been serving as our interim pastor since July of 2019, so this was not a brand new relationship. However, beginning with his official calling to our church, Comunidade Horizonte, we began to relate closer and deeper, and even scheduled a weekly meeting to discuss a wide range of subjects from church, strategy, families and personal issues.

Our families took a short trip together in July, and it was great to sit down each night, the two couples, and talk for hours about life, ministry, faith and future! They have let us into their lives with no reservations, and it has been such a breath of fresh air.

I am currently the President of our church's Session of Elders; so our relationship is needed, strategic and purposeful as the Campus ministry and the Church have a direct relationship. But it is much more than that! It has been great to have a new friend, brother-in-Christ, and co-laborer with whom to walk along the challenging road of ministry.

Video Update - May 28, 2020

Video update during continued quarantine about us, Brazil and BH dealing with COVID-19 and distance ministry.

Yellow Mangos & Tube Socks

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The title is just because what nobody can stand is another "coronavirus update." Truthfully, I've eaten a lot of mangos recently, and I wear long socks everyday because there are mosquitoes under my desk in my office - so there you go.

The new coronavirus has made life and ministry much different than planned the past month. Our reality in Belo Horizonte is much like everyone else's. BH is a large metropolis; therefore, measures have been implemented to make sure the health system is not overloaded. No school, non-essential commerce extremely limited, social distancing - the whole 9 yards.

Personally, it is a challenge with A LOT of time in the house all together. It has been such a blessing to live in a house now, with outside options. The kids are still at ages where they desire a lot of interaction and dynamic changes of what is going on. That's not a bad thing, it's good quality time - but it is a change. Tension can grow, patience can wear thin, and bedtime, sometimes, cannot come soon enough! Our family style and being in ministry give to a very fluid structure, but the current reality has given way to a whole new form of fluidity. It's hard to prioritize urgent demands from the team, online meetings, time with kids, time with God, personal time - some days we don't do it well - and we are thankful for the joy that comes every new morning (Psalm 30:5).

Ministry has been a complete change of routine. It's been a whirlwind of figuring out how to do social distance with a team ministry that is based on face-to-face relationships on a closed college campus. My role is primarily in leading staff and the macro-ministry on campus. That is a challenge when nothing macro is really feasible! But as a team we have had a lot to interact together - because this is just hard. Our team is young, several non-Brazilians, and it's a lot to deal with. We continue to press hard in personal ministries, going deeper with discipleship groups and with students who are already engaged in a personal search for God.

One specific element that has been on my plate is that our local church is on the tail end of a pastor-search process and, currently, I am the church Session President. I am leading the search process and also am responsible for our Session meetings and decisions - and let's just say we have had many uncommon decisions to make recently. There is no game plan to rely on. It is a new way of practicing what a local church body looks like. It has been refreshing, but has also required a significant investment of time and energy.

Lastly, I want to be honest. I am not a fan of online meetings, conference calls and remote interaction. It is ok when needed, but using this as the foundation of almost every interaction I have outside my immediate family is not my cup of tea. But we press on!

Thank you for all the messages of encouragement. Please send more messages and prayers, it helps immensely!

2020 Starting Block

The new year has already been with us for a month. In Brazil, the new year is smack in the middle of summer, so it has a slower pace. We spent January in the US for our vacation time and Tathiana and I spent a week at a “Marriage Intensive” in Rome, GA (ask me more and I’ll tell you all about it). We took our long voyage through multiple flights, airports and exhaustion to get home just in time to see February make it’s appearance.

We are back to our life, poised at the 2020 starting block, ready to start the next yearly race!

• We surpassed our Multiples of 40 1-Time Campaign goal! The goal was $10k and we ended the last quarter of 2019 with a total of $11,100. Thank you so much to all who donated and prayed.

• The city of Belo Horizonte has been pounded by record-setting rains this month(estimated at 1000mm - 40 inches). The city has regions that suffered from floods, landslides and structural damage that all together lead to over 50 deaths. Everyone is still talking about it.

• The kids started back to school already, their school supplies and materials still slowly coming in as we find out what we forgot to purchase or gather.

• Classes at UFMG do not start until March, so this month we will have our annual planning meetings, extra time with students who live in the city and special projects that different staff groups are working on (support raising, language classes, leadership team meetings to discuss the year and upcoming changes).

• 2020 will be the transition year for Pedro Albuquerque to take on the Regional Director role, and I want to help facilitate this transition between Demps, our veteran Regional Director, and Pedro as much as possible.

• Our local church will be continue the process of searching for a new lead pastor/elder. I will be involved in helping facilitate this process with a small commission from our church.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we get geared up for the race of 2020.

I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:23-24)

Part 2: Ministry Front - 2019

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(This update is going to be split into 2 parts, to help summarize and paint a picture of the past 6 months. This part is an update on the Ministry Front, the other in an update on the Family Front.)

The mere fact that 2019 has not seen a single update from us is an indication that it has been a busy year. Yes, the Family Front has been busy, but so has the Ministry Front. I will try to summarize below based on my current roles.

Area Director & Campus Director: My role as Area Director is to oversee the campus teams and help lead and coach the Campus Directors of each team. Interestingly, 2019 began without a Campus Director for either of our campus teams. Demps Dempsey, our Regional Director, and I stepped into interim Campus Director roles for 2019. That means a good bit more time back on campus, leading young staff directly in their personal ministries, and thinking for the strategy and execution on the campuses. My specific campus team at UFMG is composed of 6 staff. I, also, am trying to keep my ear to the ground for both campus teams and our English Initiative team in terms of relationships moving forward in their investigation of Jesus and discipleship. I have enjoyed being back to the grassroots, relationship-based reality of the campus dynamic. I have led two Bible Studies with students the past two semesters. However, both of these roles in themselves are full-time. Meaning, any given day has some give and take as to which “hat” I am wearing.

Resource/Admin: This year I fully handed the reigns of the Resource/Admin team to Pedro Albuquerque. He has done a wonderful job, and the Resource team continues to serve our entire team tirelessly and effectively. However, there were some things that I was not able to pass on last year to the Resource Team - most importantly the Visa and Residency processes in Brazil for our non-Brazilian staff (15+ American and 1 South African). In 2018, Brazil’s newly approved Immigration Laws were being put into action. We were only finding our bearings toward the end of 2018, and now in 2019 I am passing on the baton for these processes to the Resource Team with the help of Fabiana (Resource Staff) and her husband (our Legal consultant) - my Brazilian in-laws!

Leadership Team: The past 18 months have brought many conversations and meetings for the Leadership Team to help the entire team focus on contribution, team dynamics and health (physical, emotional/mental, spiritual). That has meant some hard and heavy conversations and some team members moving on or entering into a time of sabbatical/furlough. Also, the past 6 months have been exciting as we discuss the direction for our leadership structure for the next season - how to become more Brazilian, more contextualized and organizationally less dependent on outside resources. Next year, there will be more updates about what that will look like over the next 3-5 years.

Local Church: On September 16th, our church pastor, Daniel Souza, officially ended his tenure as our pastor at Comunidade Horizonte. His family’s four years at our church, his leadership and his teaching was transformative in the life of our church at just the right time. They left with many tears after making a difficult decision to move on to their next place of ministry. With Daniel’s absence, our church elders, myself included, will continue to lead the church. We will have an interim pastor who will take on the bulk of the teaching responsibilities for the next year as we seek God to call our next pastor. I will also be taking on some greater leadership as the Session President until our next pastor is installed.

It is a lot. I don’t pretend it’s not. But I have consciously been saying “no” to some other roles and appointments. Also, Tathiana and I have begun weekly counseling (some weeks individually, others together). Please pray that I, also, will be a loving husband, father and most importantly stay grounded in my relationship with Jesus through the Word and Prayer.

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. (Colossians 1:28-29)

Part 1: Family Front - 2019

(This update is going to be split into 2 parts, to help summarize and paint a picture of the past 6 months. This part is an update on the Family Front, the other in an update on the Ministry Front.)

We spent February, March and April in the search for a new residence on the other side of town, close to the UFMG campus and close to the majority of the team I am now leading. The total distance between the two neighborhoods isn’t even 10 miles. However, it is an average 45-minute commute each way due to traffic. So, while we were searching and negotiating those 3 months we lived the logistically-heavy reality of going back and forth to take Isaac to school, get to meetings, be on campus, etc - while juggling our one-car schedule.

In May, we moved into our rental house, right smack in the middle of where we wanted to be! It’s walking distance to the UFMG campus, close to ministry office space, and close to the majority of our staff team. It was great for a few weeks. Then, we noticed a mold problem in the kids’ rooms, and negotiated with the owners to replace the moldy closets. However, the first contractor started well, then lagged, then disappeared. That was hard on us, especially Tathiana and the kids as they were in the house most of the day and sleeping in other cluttered rooms with all their stuff. There is a possibility of getting some money back because we used a third party payment system, but we are not sure. We hired another contractor to finish and he did a great job. Finally, the two-week job took over two months to finish between the two contractors.

Isaac’s transition to his new Elementary school went very well. He is a shy boy, but now, well into the school year (which started in February), he is doing very well socially and learning to read and write in 1st Grade. Funny point: his best grades are in English!

In June, Sara started going to Pre-school at Isaac’s school a few days a week. She is enjoying it - and Tathiana is enjoying a few afternoons a week to concentrate on other commitments: discipleship with a student, our church’s children’s ministry, and meeting with team members as we hoped we would be able to in this side of town.

More to come concerning the Ministry Front!

OPPORTUNITY (Phil 4:10) - Year-End 2018

We love to be involved in what God is doing here, and the small strides are reason for celebration. We hope God will explode a new season of students coming to know Jesus and be burdened with a desire to be used by God to make the good news of the gospel of grace known through all walks of Brazilian life and to the ends of the world.

Here are some brief highlights in numbers to help summarize:

• 10 years: it has been this long since our Belo Horizonte campus teams have had a dedicated Area Director.

• 5: the number of new campus staff we have transitioned to our team in the past 18 months - and the possibility of 2 more in 2019.

• 35: number of full-time students who will participate in our Beach Project in December 2018.

• 115: participants in our annual Investigative Retreat in June.

• 3: new Christians on campus who were baptized and joined our local church!

• 80%: discount we were awarded for Sara to attend preschool 3x/week next year.

• 3: new monthly support partners in 2018

• $470: total in cancelled monthly support pledges over the past 2 years.

• -($1000): current negative support account balance.

As we approach the end of 2018, we close one chapter in a current role and home of the previous 7 years, and look toward 2019 and a new role (see post for more), we are entering in #GIVINGTUESDAY with a special request for Year-End Giving. I am sharing this opportunity for Year-End Giving, much as Paul wrote to the Philippian church, “I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.” (Philippians 4:10). Thank you for your continued concern, prayer, pledges and care!

Please send an email to jon.elam@campusoutreach for more info that will not be publicly posted.