Kept busy

Lindy and Carol Drake with co-workers Barry and Denise Spor serve as church planters among the Guanano people of Brazil. Recently they had an opportunity to sit down with a church planting consultant and Brazil field leader to help lay out some work plans and goals, which will keep the team busy this year, and beyond. Guanano church leaders helped them focus their attention on the real needs of the church, and the leaders wives shared some of what the ladies were thinking.

Pray for the following activities that are going to keep them busy in the new year:

Work on some new translation in the book of Old Testament portions that they published in 2020 and also do some minor revision in the Guanano New Testament that Wycliffe published in 2007. The final goal will be to publish these two volumes, which up until now have been separate books from two different mission boards, into one book for the Guanano church.  They are excited to see this project get started.
The Guanano Bible teachers have taught from Bible lessons which they helped develop taken from lessons in Spanish and Portuguese. Now the missionary team would like to coach them through the process of learning to study a book of the Bible on their own and produce their own teaching lessons without following a previous model. This will be taking a big step forward towards a functioning church which can grow independently, without the presence of foreign missionaries.
They would like to develop a website with their IT co-workers in Manaus where everything Guanano i.e. Scripture, Bible lessons, recordings, and videos can be found and downloaded by the Guanano believers to use for their own spiritual development and for church activities.

This year of 2023 is going to be a year of transition for Lindy and Carol. Sometime in the middle of the year, they will be moving from their home of 20+ years in Brazil and taking up residence in an apartment at The Homes of Ethnos360, a retirement community for those of us who have served with the mission, in Sanford, USA.

They will be retiring from the field of Brazil, but that does not mean they will stop doing missionary work. Lindy will continue to work on Guanano Bible translation, and the ministry goals as mentioned above. He will also continue to serve as a translation consultant for other missionary teams, which will require trips back to Brazil. The Lord has blessed them with good health over many years of ministry, and they plan to continue to serve the Guananos and Bible translators, as they are able.

Thank you for partnering with the Guanano team through prayer.