Ron and Alana Greenwich

IMPACT 360

ronalana — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:40:20 +0000

IMPACT 360 is an academic gap-year experience with the mission of equipping future generations to become Christ-centered servant leaders.
Each year, the students spend a month in Brazil putting into practice things they have learned. This year we were blessed to have 16 of the students to come work with us for 10 days. They did street evangelism, spoke on a radio program, visited an English school, painted a church building, held a three-day VBS, distributed health kits in Frei Damião and led out in evangelistic services in four different locations. They touched many lives while here.

The team

Great painters!

VBS

This man decided to follow Christ during a home visit

St. Andrew Baptist Church in Chapecó

ronalana — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:25:15 +0000

A team from St. Andrew Baptist Church in Panama City, FL worked in Chapecó November 7-12 with Pr. André, a Brazilian home missionary. Part of the team did house-to-house evangelism, part of the team manned a medical tent in front of a neighborhood supermarket, part of the team held basketball clinics in two different schools and JJ, the clown visited the classrooms in both schools with her balloon animals and gospel presentation.

All of the teachers wanted balloon animals too!
All the kids love JJ!

Pr. André, his wife, Erika, and their daughter, TaísThey are starting a new church in the neighborhood near a University and are Brazilian Home Missionaries.
On the last day, we had the opportunity to visit a Kaigang Indian reservation. We can’t publish pictures from our visit, but we can post pictures of the river that runs through the reservation! Taís and Sara were brave enough to wade in the water.

VISITS TO SOME OF OUR CADI KIDS

ronalana — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:09:07 +0000

Each Thursday afternoon Sara, Jan and Alana visit homes of the children sponsored through the PAI program that is part of the ministry of the CADI. The visits are part of the spiritual development emphasis of the program.

TEAM FROM TEXAS

ronalana — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:52:41 +0000

The team composed of members from FBC Wylie and FBC Murphy in the Dallas Metroplex worked with the congregation at Rio Tavares. They did a lot of house-to-house visits, evangelistic services in homes, spoke in the public school, held a ladies’ tea and a gathering for the men. They were a great encouragement to the pastor and his wife. Don and Sharon Cole, former missionaries in Florianópolis were instrumental in getting this team together.

Team from FBC Wylie and FBC Murphy
The congregation meets in rented space on the third floor of this commercial center. This was our meeting point each day before we all went out into the neighborhood. The bakery on the ground floor was a favorite spot to have an evening snack before the services!

SMALL TEAM – BIG PROJECT

ronalana — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 00:14:26 +0000

Bill Rogers from Woodmont Baptist Church, Barret Long and Sammy Richardson from First Baptist Church Tuscumbia spent a week ministering in Frei Damião. They built a bathroom for D. Maria Silva, raised the walls on D. Bila’s house, preached at Lisboa and São Sebastião, visited Alto Aririú Baptist Church, NURREVI Women’s Rehab Center, the Men’s Rehab Center, the CETE orphanage, and the IBE (Baptist seminary sponsored by the Kobrasol Church). Woodmont Baptist Church has been coming to Santa Catarina for many years and they have been a very important part of our team.

D. Maria Silva’s house and the site where the bathroom would be built

Almost finished!

Time for a break! Laying bricks is hard work!
On the way to D. Bila’s house

The foundation for D. Bila’s house is ready

Getting ready to raise the walls
All done! This was one happy family!

JOEL’S WEDDING – WOODSIDE, CALIFORNIA

ronalana — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:43:51 +0000

What a special time it was as family members gathered for Joel and Autumn’s wedding! It was great to finally get to meet Autumn’s parents, siblings and extended family. The setting was beautiful! The weather was perfect! The ceremony was very personal and meaningful. It was a wonderful way to begin a lifetime as man and wife. May God bless Joel and Autumn as they establish their home on the only sure foundation – Jesus Christ!

Our seventh grandchild – Lily Ann Greenwich

ronalana — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:00:28 +0000

We were thrilled to receive the news of Lily Ann’s birth while we were preparing to leave Los Angeles to drive up the Pacific Coastal Highway to Woodside, where Joel and Autumn were married. She was born August 25th in Nairobi, Kenya at approximately 9:30 pm. What a precious blessing from the Lord! It will be hard to wait until next summer to meet her!

A few minutes after Lily’s birth – proud Mom and Dad, Jeremy and Ann

Sleeping peacefully

Meeting big brothers, Gabe and Caleb and big sister, Madelyn

Visits with family

ronalana — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:57:21 +0000

We spent our vacation in the States during the month of August. It was such a blessing to be with our families and to enjoy some special times together. We flew into Dallas and spent the first few days with Jana and David. This was our first time to visit with them in their home. Our son-in-law, David, was so gracious to let us borrow his car and a cell phone, which made our time there much nicer.

David and Jana’s house in Arlington, TX

From Dallas, we went to Minden, LA, where we spent a week with my parents, Bill and Jerry Ichter. A highlight of that time was the celebration of my mother’s 80th birthday. All of my brothers and most of their families were able to be present, making it a very special time with family. How thankful we are for the godly influence my mother has had on all of our lives! She has been a wonderful example of faithfulness to the Lord, of wisdom and love as a wife and mother, and of grace and selflessness as we have seen her extend her gracious hospitality to countless people over the years. She has touched many lives, but most of all, she has touched the lives of her children and grandchildren as we have watched her live her life. We know we are blessed and we are very thankful!

In Little Rock, we had some very special days with Ron’s side of the family. It was wonderful to be able to spend some quality time with his Mom and siblings. All of his family lives in the Little Rock area, making it a little easier to gather everyone. We even enjoyed a reunion with extended family. It was so good to see cousins, uncles, aunts, and all the little children running around! The family is still growing! What a blessing to be able to catch up on everyone and to just enjoy being together!

We returned to Dallas before flying to California for the wedding, and enjoyed a special evening with Alan’s family and Nelson’s family celebrating Barbara’s 50th birthday! Jason arrived in Los Angeles from Italy the same day we arrived from Dallas and we spent some quality time with Joel and Autumn there before driving up to Northern California for the wedding. It was wonderful to visit their church, the seminary, and to meet some of their friends. Jana and David arrived a few days later and joined us for some special family times.

Fuller Seminary
Lunch with a friend
Malibu Beach
Covenant House – Joel’s work place
Joel’s supervisor
Griffith Observatory
Driving on the Pacific Coastal Highway

San Francisco – Golden Gate Bridge
Pizza with friends

At last!

ronalana — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 01:30:53 +0000

Well, after many months of silence, we have decided to just forget about trying to catch up and have decided to just move on from here. We are so thankful to Loretta Young for sending out the weekly Brazil Bytes prayer letter so that you have at least had some news and have kept up with our prayer requests. If you did not sign up to receive the Bytes, it has indeed been a long time since you have heard from us!

We have been blessed with many volunteer teams since our last post. They have done basketball clinics, neighborhood visits, Bible School for children, ladies’ teas, construction work, medical clinics, and have worked with orphanages and drug rehab centers. We have had some wonderful short-term missionaries who have come to minister here and we praise the Lord for sending them our way. We have also had some significant family events – visits from two of our children and their families, a wedding, the birth of a new granddaughter, an 80th birthday celebration, etc. We will write more about those in another post. Here are some photo highlights of the last year and a half. Enjoy…

January 2009 – The Ipiranga congregation was officially organized as a church.

Holly Gibbs – volunteered from January through May, 2009. Holly lived and worked with the women of NURREVI, the women’s drug rehab center.

March 2009. Campout with some of the guys from the rehab center

April 2009. Team from FBC Ellisville, MO – in Ilhota and Palhoça doing home visits, school visits, and vision clinics

April 2009. Santa Catarina State Baptist Convention – meeting new Brazilian missionaries in our state.

May 2009. Woodmont Singles group – ministered in Ilhota and Frei Damião doing home visits, sports ministry and a ladies’ tea.

Bill Rogers and Cameron Olive also came with the Woodmont team.

June 2009. Ralph and Martha Nelson, emeritus missionaries, came for a visit. Pictured here with Ralph are several Brazilian pastors who came by to see them while they were here.

Chris Bowman, journeyman from April to December, 2009. Chris worked mainly with the CADI, helping with home visits to the families of the PAI program, the sports program, and anything else they needed. He also preached on a number of occasions and helped with volunteer teams.

July 2009. Beginning of a congregation in Lisboa. Tiago, Nazareno and Rui are young seminary students, committed to serving the Lord. We are thankful to be working with them.

July 2009. Youth team from Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio, TX did drama in many schools in São José. Their leader is MK Doug Dixon.

July 2009. Team from Nettleton Baptist Church did door-to-door evangelism in Lisboa and ministered in the school at Lisboa as well as at NURREVI.

July 2009. Team from Park Place Baptist Church in Pearl, MS, ministered in Pinheira through a basketball camp at the public school.

August 2009 – Medical team from Woodmont Baptist Church and UNA nursing students. They held a medical clinic at the public health center in Frei Damião and did home visits with the local health agents.

September 2009. Women’s ministry team from First Baptist Church in Oviedo, FL ministered in Forquilhinhas, Lisboa, and Rio Tavares. They did home visits and ladies’ teas. They also had a very special evening for the teenaged girls from the Vinde a Mim orphanage.

Malcolm and Dana Philips – wonderful ISC couple who served from January 2008 to October 2009.

November 2009. Group of Canadians visit the CETE orphanage, which was built by a similar group of Canadians about 10 years ago.

November 2009. First Baptist Church of Minden, LA sent a team to help do some work on the roof and on the ceiling at Forquilhinhas Church. The team also ministered in schools and held ladies’ teas in Forquilhinhas and Lisboa.

Kristen Vaughan, Hands on missionary from August – December, 2009. She worked primarily at the CADI teaching art and sports. She was also active in the Eldorado Baptist Church and taught art lessons to the women.

January/February 2010. Two girls from the orphanage spent 6 weeks of their summer vacation with us.

February 2010. Once again, For We Care organization from Canada sent a great group of workers. This year they worked on the third dorm at the Men’s Drug Rehab Center in Estiva.

February 2010. This team from FBC Wylie and FBC Murphy, TX had a great week of ministry at Rio Tavares. They did door-to-door evangelism, evangelistic services in homes, school ministry and a family night at the congregation in Rio Tavares which included a ladies’ tea, children’s activities, and a men’s Bible study.

March 2010. FBC Winter Park has been sending teams to work with us since 1987. This year they served in Garopaba with the local Baptist church which they had helped build back in 2000. The church finished their building and is a growing, dynamic church. The team helped tear down some walls in an existing house and raise up new walls to provide space for their ministry to senior adults. The church has a very active social ministry including weekday early education and a ministry to senior adults in the community.

Sara Cadden, journeyman. Sara’s ministry will be with the women and children of Frei Damião. She will be working with the CADI, ministering to the families in the PAI program as well as children and teens. She arrived in May 2010 and will be serving through the summer of 2011.

May 2010. First service of the congregation in Vila Nova Palhoça.

May 2010. The campus ministries from University of Louisiana at Monroe ministered in Frei Damião through children’s ministries and visits to the families of the PAI program. The team was led by former journeyman, Jenny Harrington Street.

June 2010. Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, AR once again brought a great team. They ministered in Frei Damião with the children and doing health visits to the PAI children. They were here during the World Cup and got to see Brazil win this game!

Landon Williams – ISC missionary. Landon will mainly be working with the Rio Tavares congregation and with a church plant in Jurerê. He will be here until January 2012.

June 2010. FBC Collierville, TN sent a team to work with us at the brand new congregation in Vila Nova Palhoça. They did several days of door-to-door visitation, handing out invitations to visit the new congregation and talking to people who expressed interest. They did a block party on the last day of ministry in Vila Nova Palhoça. They also ministered to the children of the AEBAS project in Frei Damião one day. They also caught two games of the World Cup while here. Unfortunately, Brazil lost the second one

July 2010. Park Place Baptist Church in Pearl, MS, sent a team to do a basketball camp at the public school in Ilhota. The response was great! There were over 100 children participating. On Awards night, even though it was very cold and rainy, there was a very good group of parents who attended as well and heard the gospel story.

July 2010. At our annual mission meeting, two couples were honored for their service in Brazil. They will be retiring soon. Vic and Sharon Johnston and Dennis and Alita Blackmon. They are good friends and faithful servants of the Lord.

Visitors from Kenya!

ronalana — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:16:29 +0000

What a special blessing to have our Kenya family here for Christmas! It has been 9 years since Jeremy was able to come back “home” for a visit. He and Ann were here in 2001 – just the two of them. Now they have three precious children! Actually, while here, they found out they will be having a fourth child in August! It was such a joy to take the grandchildren to see some of the places their Daddy enjoyed while growing up. Gabe, Caleb and Madelyn enjoyed the beach and the sand dunes. The boys enjoyed wearing cowboy hats and riding horses with Pop, while Madelyn did “girl” things with Mimi. Many of you prayed for them as they prepared to come because they had problems receiving their visas. They finally received them two days before traveling! We are so thankful for the very special time we had together.

Caleb and Madelyn playing at the CADI Christmas party

At the CADI playground

Enjoying a cool evening in the front yard

Madelyn resting on a sightseeing day

The guys getting ready to ride horses

Little “Pops”

Enjoying a swim at the waterfall

We enjoyed several good beach days!

Visiting with friends

Time to say good-bye