The Dempseys in Brazil

2009-08-16T19:45:00.002-03:00

Dempsey US Ministry Assignment

After 11 years in Brazil we are going to be in the U.S. for the next six months (return to Brazil-27^th of January) for our first furlough/sabbatical. We have several key objectives and we need for you to be a part of this important time of evaluation, renewal, planning and preparation for our next season of ministry. Although we will take a few opportunities for vacation with our families this is not a six month vacation. Rather, it is time of disciplined rest and preparation for our on-going ministry in Brazil. Listed below are some of the objectives and plans for our time in the U.S.

· Spiritual, emotional and physical rest & renewal

o Time away from field ministry responsibilities for personal study & development

· Personal, family and ministry evaluation

o Feedback & input from mentors and professionals

· Investment in marriage, kids and extended family

o Marriage development retreat

o Children’s exposure to U.S. schooling (Meg-6^th grade, Duncan-3^rd, Kate-kindergarten)

o Vacation, holidays and reunions with extended family

· Training, planning & preparation for next season of ministry

o Seminary courses on biblical counseling

o Develop 5 & 10 year family and CO Belo Horizonte plans

o Campus Outreach Directors meetings in October

· Financial support development

o Visit & update current supporters (we hope to see as many of you as possible)

o Raise needed new support for next phase of ministry

Contact info

· Demps

o Email: ddempsey@campusoutreach.org

o Cell: 864-630-5106

· Kristy

o Email: kdempsey@campusoutreach.org

o Cell: 864-915-9072

Sabbatical prayer requests

· That God would use this time of investment to renew us and prepare us for our on-going responsibility of leading Campus Outreach Belo Horizonte.

· That God would use this time to develop our staff in Brazil as they take on more responsibility in our absence.

· That God would help our kids with the transition to this culture, specifically their transition to school here.

2009-05-30T08:23:00.008-03:00

As the weather there is heating up for you, things are heating up around here as well (although not the temperature because we’re actually heading into winter in Brazil). We wanted to let you know some of the events taking place here.

Parents Investigative Study

We have to begin with an update about this because it is one of the most encouraging things that is taking place in our midst. The picture above is a group of parents (specifically parents of students and staff of our campus ministry) that have been meeting once a week for the last few months to study and investigate the life of Jesus in the gospel of John. There is a newness to their spiritual hunger that is unexplainable other than the reality that God is working in their midst. It is such a privilege for us to watch these lives being changed through the influence of their children that came to know Christ through the campus. This ripple effect of God’s grace is something that we long to see more and more in the Brazilian culture. Many of these students and staff have prayed for years for their parents and are now seeing the fruit of this right before their eyes. One of the couples is the parents of Alan, one of our Brazilian staff that I have the privilege of leading and Aline, his sister, a Physical Therapy student and one of the girls that Kristy leads. Alan recently told me with tears in his eyes that his parents had thanked him and Aline for bringing Jesus into their home. What a privilege to watch God transforming families in this way!

Please pray for these parents as they seek to know the truth about Jesus. Pray for healing and renewal in all of their family relationships.

Cross Cultural Projects (CCPs) arrive

Every year for two months we receive groups of American college students from Campus Outreach stateside ministries that come down to help with the ministry and to experience life in another culture for a few weeks. These year we have two teams, one from Campus Outreach Memphis and the other from Campus Outreach Gulf Coast. This is always an extremely busy time of the year for us with many different events and much to prepare and coordinate, but it is always a fruitful time of the year also as the “gringos” hit the campus and meet countless new Brazilian friends. Brazilians have an unlimited capacity for relationships and are eager to make friends and try out their English with the Americans. We’ll share more over the next few weeks about what’s happening and some of the specific events that we’re using with the CCPs this year.

Please pray for God to use the CCPs on the campuses at PUC (Catholic University) and UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) to change the hearts and lives of many Brazilian college students.

I now pronounce you “husband and wife”

We experienced another example of the transformation that is occurring all around us last Saturday as we had the privilege of participating in the wedding of two close friends and former students involved in the campus ministry. Cesar and Camila both came to know Christ through the ministry and last Saturday they officially began their life together as husband and wife. Demps performed the ceremony and Kristy sang so it was quite the family affair. (We’re thinking of taking our wedding song and dance show on the road if anyone is interested.) Once again, we are so thankful to see God transforming Brazilian families as He brings people to Himself and then brings them together to follow Him for life.

Demps, Kristy, Meg, Kate and Duncan at Camila and Cesar's wedding

Pray for Cesar and Camila as they begin their new life together. Pray that they would experience and reflect more and more of God’s love in their marriage.

From our hearts

2009-04-29T08:12:00.005-03:00

Dear Friends,

I have had something on my heart for a couple of weeks that I wanted to convey and haven’t found time until this moment to put it down in written form. This morning however, it flowed over from my heart to this page. It is a message that I hope will be of great encouragement to each of you and a stimulus to greater faith in a time when we need more faith. It is a message full of gratitude about faith and investment.

I have thought much recently about the economic crisis and have been concerned about its impact on so many people. It would be hard not to think about it when it dominates the headlines daily. In my thinking God has lead me continually back to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:19-34; words specifically addressing our perspective about money, treasure, investment, worry and faith. Jesus reminds us that our true treasure and investment are not in bills, bonds, cars or houses but are in the things that transcend this time and place. He specifically reminds us not to worry but to maintain our faith and our focus in Him. He is the ultimate Provider and He will care for us in the same way that He cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. He who has not forgotten these smaller parts of His creation will certainly not forget His loved ones.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Okay, great, but what does this have to do with me?” There are a number of ways that these thoughts relate specifically to you.

1. We are overwhelmed with gratitude at your on-going investment in things that transcend this life through your support of our ministry in Brazil.

2. Your investment in this “treasure” can’t crash and this is stock that is guaranteed to pay dividends beyond our greatest imagination.

3. Don’t worry yourself! This is easier said than done when people are losing jobs, there are bills to pay and mouths to feed but this passage reminds us Who is ultimately in control and it is not Wall Street or the Fed.

4. Don’t worry about us! We covet your concern, your prayers and where you are able your support but don’t fret over us. We are in the hands of the One who cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. He always has and will continue to care for us.

Whether it’s the economic crisis today or the swine flu tomorrow, we are continuously bombarded with ulcer-inducing reasons to worry. The 24-hour news cycle urges us to wring our hands and panic and when we stop worrying about one thing, there’s always something right behind it. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we should be informed and wise about all of the issues that we are facing. However, I also believe that we should step back and look beyond the moment to see a loving Father who desires to free us from the grip of worry and stress about so many things that we ultimately can’t control and yes, even the things that we falsely believe that we can control.

At the end of the chapter, after all of the promises about how God is our Provider and Caretaker, Jesus has some final words of encouragement that put things in perspective for all of us. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (our daily needs) will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

My desire for you and for myself in these difficult times is that we would seek Him more and see our faith continue to grow as our worry shrinks away.

With love,

Demps

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Post-Project

2009-02-04T21:24:00.002-02:00

We've just returned from our annual Project during the summer break from school. We usually hold this retreat at a beach outside of Rio but this year we decided to stick closer to Belo Horizonte.

Around 50 students and staff participated in this project crafted around the idea of Maturity and what it means to be a mature Christian. With all that has happened in the past year in our ministry, there has been much discussion of what it actually means to grow in a relationship with God and what are the true marks of a mature Christian. The studies focused on the Jesus the Son, God the Father and the Holy Spirit. One of the most talked discussed aspects of the project was a study on the attributes of God and how our understanding of these attributes (or lack of understanding of these attributes) can help us to determine where we are relying on "idols" instead of God. It was so encouraging to see students searching their hearts and learning more about God's nature.

Thanks so much for being here with us and ministering alongside us. We are praying for each of you during this time of financial crisis. It's a worldwide crisis -- things are difficult here too -- but we know our Provider and it is from His hand that we receive all that we need. We're praying the same for you!

End of Year

2008-12-15T21:15:00.001-02:00

Hi, all! You should each receive a year-end update via snail mail in the next couple of weeks (let us know if you don’t and we'll send it to you immediately. We might not have your address!) but we wanted to take this chance to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and express our gratefulness for your involvement in our lives and the ministry here in Brazil. We feel blessed to be a part of what God is doing here and we hope you do too.

Some highlights from the past year: (we’ll give you a little more detail in the snail mail version!)

Family

• Demps turned 40!
• Kristy sold another manuscript that will be made into a picture book for children, her fourth sale so far! Her first book, ME WITH YOU, will be out in May 2009.
• Meg began piano lessons.
• Duncan did all his own tooth-pulling this year and starts tennis lessons this week.
• Kate started school!

Ministry

• We felt God’s presence during a tough, emotional refining year in our ministry
• God’s provision financially during tough economic times
• Forward movement for our church in defining vision and values
• Baptism service yesterday (The newest members of our church, each shared a poster with one word that describes how their life has changed since they came to Christ. The words were: loved, thanks, life, happiness, transformation, love, brokenness, freedom, hope, and humility.)

2008-10-24T08:25:00.006-02:00

Hi, all. We haven’t been avoiding our communication with you for the past few months but there’s been a lot taking place in our ministry and at times it has seemed difficult to know exactly what and when to communicate. In the past year, three of the American couples who were working with us here in Brazil have moved back to the States to pursue a new call of God on their lives. Their departures were difficult because of our friendships with them (and our children’s friendships with their children!) but we’ve known all along that God might not keep the original team here forever. And we were confident as we watched them struggling through their desires to stay here that they were definitely hearing from God.

Then about a month ago, three of our Brazilian staff informed us of their decision to leave staff also. Their reasons boiled down to some theological and philosophical differences with our ministry, as well as some misguided perspectives about ministry that were consuming their time and their hearts. In the same way as before, though we love them and feel God is leading them to something new, we feel a loss of our relationships with them. Their departure has also been complicated because, as they left the ministry, they also left the church and it left many students in our ministry confused as to whom they should “follow”. Our unequivocal answer has been that they should follow God and where they feel He is leading them. But we have been grieving personally in many ways because of how this has affected our relationships with the three who left staff and how it continues as some students struggle in how to relate to us, or to the three.

Pray for us, for our staff, for the students involved in our ministry. Pray for all the families that left staff, that God will direct each of them to the place He wants them to serve. Pray that each of the staff will look to God for significance instead of finding it in the “success” of their ministries. We have never been more grateful than we are now to have the support –emotional, prayer, financial, any way you can describe it – from each of you. We need your prayers. We need to know what is going on in your lives too! We see God working in deep ways here in Brazil. Please keep praying!

Prayer Needs

2008-08-25T09:35:00.002-03:00

Praca do Papa (Pope Square) Belo Horizonte, Brazil

After a great vacation in the States in July, we came back to Brazil refreshed and ready for God to work in a big way in the lives of college students. Because of Demps's job responsibilities, much of his day to day interaction is with his staff -- training and leading them to lead others. We've had a lot of fluidity in our ministry in the past year, finding the best fit for people, making adjustments as individuals needed time for emotional and spiritual growth, as well as the health problems Demps had late last year. Suffice it to say, it has not been an easy year. God IS working in a big way here in Brazil in our lives as well as in the lives of college students. But we need His grace more than ever.

Here are some things you can pray for all of our staff:

*wisdom and grace in dealing with staff issues (spiritual, emotional, relational)
*wisdom and clarity for young staff on theological issues
*honoring God with time; a biblical view of work and rest
*humility
*capacity for development of the church our ministry is planting

Also, pray for Demps and celebrate with us as he turns 40 on September 3rd!

We love you all,

Kristy

A pic and a video

2008-06-19T14:42:00.003-03:00

Investigative Retreat 2008
Heroes

We wanted to update you a bit more on our Investigative Retreat from last weekend. This video provides a little more detail as to how we used the Heroes theme to relate to our search for and relationship with God. Many of the Brazilian students you see in the pic above are students just beginning to investigate who Christ is. The retreat was a big step forward in their desire to understand spiritual truth. Our earthly heroes, even comic book ones, are fallible in ways that Christ is not, but they represent our desire for something beyond this temporal world, something we can hold onto as eternal truth. Pray for these students as they continue to learn who Christ is and what he offers them.

Also, I've embedded a video below that shows a bit of a couple of different talks that Demps did during the retreat, along with some of the video clips we showed to support the theme. It's only about six minutes long and provides a good idea of what the Investigative Retreat is. Thanks!

Investigative Retreat!

2008-06-15T20:32:00.002-03:00

The Whole World Is Looking For Heroes

Let me get you up to date on where we are ministry wise. We currently have three groups from the US working with us for two months in ministry on the campus. These cross cultural projects are always great opportunities for us to develop relationships with students on the campuses, because Brazilians love to practice their English, and because Brazilians in general are very social and want to take full advantage of the short time they have to get to know these Americans.

It's been really encouraging to meet new students from each area of campus. The Brazilian students already involved in our ministry have been excited as they see their friends show interest in investigating who Christ is and what he said about himself. This past weekend we held our annual Investigative Retreat. This retreat functions as the first time many of the new students are exposed to the gospel and God's love for them. Our theme was "Heroes" as pictured above, and Demps used the theme to discuss what our real needs are and what kind of Hero we need to meet them. The administration team did a great job of developing culturally relevant videos and music to accompany the theme.

Please pray as we continue to spend time with the students who attended. Many of them made the first steps they've ever taken to investigate who Christ is, who he TRULY is and not just who they've always thought he is. Pray that the eyes of their hearts will be opened and that God would really reveal Himself and His love to each of them.

We're grateful for each of you and we'll keep you posted on all that's going on here.

Update

2008-02-26T11:28:00.002-03:00

Once again, it's been a while since we communicated with you. Most of you probably received a New Year's update from us via snail mail. If you didn't and would like one, please make sure we have your current mailing address.

We spent much of the month of January on our Summer Beach Project. With the theme of "Don't look back" our students were encouraged to persevere in their faith or in their investigation of the truths of Christ. It was encouraging to see the many non-Christians there be drawn to Christ through study and interaction with Christians. God did a great work among us!

Forgive us also for not updating you on Demps' health. He is doing better and the fainting spells he had a few weeks ago seem to be related to stress and anxiety. Continue to pray for him. He said he feels like he's back to 95% of himself but the last 5% is taking a while! Pray for all of us that we will have insight in how to help and serve him during this time.

Meg, Duncan and Kate started school on the 11th of February. They're enjoying being back in the swing of things though we've already come down with two viruses and several fevers. Pray that we'll stay healthy and the kids will miss a minimum of school days because they will need to miss some days in July when we are traveling.

We love each of you and would love to hear how we can pray.

Gratitude

2007-12-04T14:13:00.000-02:00

First of all, let me apologize that it has been so long since our last update. The last few weeks have been a blur. Here's what our October and November looked like:

Campus Outreach Global Conference -- Demps spent a week in Atlanta meeting with the leadership of all the Campus Outreach ministries from around the world. This was a time of reflection on where we are as a ministry and what our direction is, discussion of the differences in our areas and cultures, and how we can continue to grow and meet the needs ofindividuals in a changing world. The Campus Outreach Board of Directors also came in for a few days for a time of fellowship and interaction.
Since Demps was already in America for these meetings, the rest of us joined him in the States for a much needed vacation at the end of October.
We returned to Brazil and immediately jumped into meetings to plan for our Beach Project which will be held outside of Rio in January. There are still many details to be figured out, so we'd appreciate your prayers as we continue to plan this important time in our ministry.
In the middle of November, Demps led the beautiful ceremony in which Ze Flavio and Claudia, two of our Brazilian staff, were married. Then, this past Saturday, he did the same for Anselmo and Michelle, two more of our staff. The weddings were such celebrations of what God has done in the lives of these individuals and in their extended families. We felt privileged just to be reminded of God and His glory displayed in their lives.
Meg and Duncan are finishing up their school year (summer break is in December and January here) and are in the middle of final exams. Yes, I didn't know that 1st graders and 4th graders had exams but they do in Brazil! We're looking forward to a chance to sleep a little later and a break from the daily homework routine as they finish school on Friday.
For the past six weeks, Demps has had intermittent episodes of lightheadedness. Yesterday when he was taking some of Michelle's family to the airport, he had another episode where he felt like he was going to pass out. Needless to say, he stopped the car, asked someone else to drive and called me to come to the airport to drive him back home. We took him to the hospital yesterday afternoon and they ran several tests and ordered several more. Please pray for Demps, for his health and for the doctors to be able to identify exactly what the problem is.
We are coming up on the end of the year. As we review our financial support from the last few months, there is definitely need for prayer! We know that God will continue to provide for all our needs. We've made some changes here in Brazil in order to cut our budget as much as possible, one of which was moving to a less expensive apartment. (We are still in a great location for ministry and have plenty of room if anyone would like to visit!) Please pray for our year-end finances, that our financial support would not end with a deficit. If anyone would like more information on our needs, please feel free to email.

As always we want you to know how grateful we are for each of you. Your prayers sustain us and your involvement in our lives refreshes us. Thank you for being a part of our ministry here and may God continue the work He has begun in each of us.

2007-09-19T11:09:00.000-03:00

Moving at the speed of sound

It seems like there are so many things going on at once that it’s impossible to keep up. A couple of years ago Kent started calling me “rocket man” like the Elton John song because I said that it always felt like we’re riding a rocket around here. It seems impossible to keep up but it’s definitely an adventure. Just tighten up the belt and hold on. Here’s a few things that are happening that you can be praying for.

Love is in the air

The pictures below are two couples that recently got engaged and will be marrying before the end of the year. It’s been our privilege to be involved in the lives of all of these people since they are all on staff. Kristy and I have had the pleasure of walking through some of the pre-engagement counseling with these couples and will be continuing to do some pre-marital counseling over the next few days and weeks leading up to their weddings in Novemeber and December. It’s been quite a journey for us to watch both Ze Flavio and Anselmo come to Christ and now to see them starting their own families. It’s incredibly exciting to think about the long-term influence of new families in Brazil centered on Christ and the gospel. I have to say also that I predicted that Ze Flavio and Claudia would get married 5 years ago long before they ever started dating. I’m not sure what he’s been waiting on but finally my prophecy comes true.

Demps, Anselmo, Michelle, Kristy

Demps, Ze Flavio, Claudia, Kristy

Staff Stimulus

We leave today for our annual Staff Stimulus conference with our whole staff team. This is always an important moment of interaction, reflection and direction. This year we will be talking specifically about our vision and about our personal growth. Kent will be leading us in our discussion about our vision and I will be leading 3 sessions about our personal growth and development. Pray for my preparation for these sessions and that we will be encouraged to keep fighting the fight of faith. I’ll be using the theme of “Clay in the Potter’s hands” to talk about our personal growth. Pray that this verse would be true of all of us.

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.

We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand. - Isaiah 64:8

Moving day

We still don’t know for sure what day this will be but it looks like we will be moving sometime next week. The contract was finalized on our sell and we have found another apartment and will be packing up and moving soon. As you all know from experience, moving is a hectic process and is a very real threat to any marriage. (Especially when you live with someone like me, “Demps”) Pray for everything to go smoothly as we say goodbye to our home for the last 4 years and settle in to new living arrangements.

Demps Dempsey

Campus Outreach Brazil

VoIP in Brazil: 864-236-4009

ddempsey@campusoutreach.org

2007-09-06T10:46:00.000-03:00

Above is our most recent update. Just click on it to read it at full-size.

We're in the process of moving to a new apartment in the next few weeks, so please be in prayer that all the details work out! We're downsizing just a bit in order to cut our expenses but we're staying in the same general area of the city, so the kids' school and grocery shopping and all that will remain mostly the same. Pray that we can get through the mountain of things that need to be sorted and either thrown away or donated and pray that all the physical details of the move will go smoothly. We'll be at our staff training meeting from the 19th through the 23rd. You can also be praying for that time of our staff together, that it will be encouraging, and that it would be an intimate time of commmunion with God and each other.

We're grateful for you all!

2007-08-10T17:51:00.000-03:00

You can read our latest update by clicking on the picture above to see it full size.

In other news, Kristy took a trip a couple of weeks ago to Argentina to visit with two of the students who are involved in our ministry but are doing a student exchange program right now. Robertinha and Aline are both fairly new Christians and when they decided to go, we worried that they it would be difficult for them to continue growing in their relationships with God so far away from fellowship. But of course, God had other plans! It's been amazing to see how much of an influence these two young believers have had on the people around them. One of their roommates told Kristy that she had never known what it was like to be loved unconditionally until she met Robertinha and Aline. She said that until she met them, the only Christians she knew were rigid and disapproving and that Robertinha and Aline had given her a completely different view of God and His grace. It was a reminder for us that it's better to trust God than to think that we can control circumstances or lives for our own purposes!

This week has been busy and tiring as Demps had meetings away with the leaders of each of our area's of ministry. He said he never knew how exhausting it could be to sit in a chair for 16 hours a day! Part of the exhaustion came from meeting with each other and meeting with God over issues and plans for our ministry, as well as communicating with each other on a heart level. Needless to say, the meetings were a success and we look forward to seeing how God moves our ministries forward over the next few months.

Continue to pray for the students we are pointing toward Christ and for our physical health. Pray also for our ministry financially, that all our needs and the needs of those around us would be met. We're grateful for your involvement and interest in what God is doing here!

Timely Needs

2007-06-20T20:04:00.001-03:00

Click on the picture above for the most recent ministry update and/or keep reading below for a little additional news...

*The Investigative Retreat with the theme of Behind the Music, that we told you about week before last was a huge success. For many of the Christians who went, it was an eye-opening experience into how something traditionally viewed as "secular", such as the music of U2, can cause people to ask eternally important questions. And for those students who went to the retreat just to investigate the claims of Christ, many of them moved forward in a commitment to continue studying and to not be afraid to ask questions of spiritual significance. There were a total of 180 people there, about 45 of whom are the American college students who are here for two months.

*Last month was a significant month in the life of our church as 15 people joined the church and were baptized. 90% of these were students involved in our ministry and the other 10% were families that have developed relationships with the staff that are now doing family ministry. Each of these people have been through our church's new member classes so that they understand the doctrine and philosophy of our church as well as for them to begin developing relationships with other members of the church. Continue to pray for the students involved in our ministry to find their "place" within our church. Also, pray for our staff that are now involved in graduate and family ministry, that they would transition to the new expectations and responsibilities those jobs require. Also, pray for a new place for our church to meet, as the contract on the place we are meeting in now is up in another month.

*Lastly, tomorrow (Thursday, June 20, 2007) around 45 American students and 20 of our staff here will be participating in a Vision Day. The theme is "the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few" and the conversation and study will be designed to motivate each person to be lifelong laborers in the harvest, being used by God to meet the needs of an ever-more-needy world.

Thanks for your prayers. We love you all!

Happenings

2007-06-06T15:46:00.000-03:00

I've uploaded our most recent ministry update above. Just click on it to see it full-size so that it's actually readable. Alan, oneof our new staff, shares part of his testimony in the update. Alan's story is such an example of God's faithfulness to work in out lives. Alan was such a skeptic. It took him over two years to finally believe the gospel was for him. God just continued to work on his heart and to give him the desire to investigate. It's such a privilege to see him laboring for Christ now among the students where he used to study!

We still do not know whether or not Demps will have to pay a fine for the driver's license fiasco but we'll let you know as soon as we do! Please keep praying for God's protection and provision in that situation. Thanks so much for all your prayers and notes of encouragement. We felt surrounded!

This is a holiday weekend starting tomorrow here in Belo Horizonte, so not only will the students be out of school, it will be maximum opportunity for the American students we have here to spend time with Brazilians and share their faith. We'll be doing a churrasco (barbecue) tomorrow for one of the groups of Americans and their evangelistic contacts.

Not this weekend but next will be our annual Invetigative Retreat, to which we invite the students that we've been inviting to investigate the truths of the gospel. We usually use something from popular culture to springboard our discussions and this year we'll be using the music of U2.

Begin to pray now for God to lead those to go that He would speak to. And pray for Sovereignly ordained conversations for our staff, students and the American students. May we all know God in a deeper way after the retreat!

For today, Demps won't go to jail!

2007-05-09T17:17:00.001-03:00

Demps had the court hearing this afternoon and to make a long story short, no one knew what to do. No one could figure out why he was charged and they just decided to let him go. So thank you for your prayers.

There are two things specifically related to this situation that you can still pray for. Even though the accident was not Demps' fault, the motorcyclist still has until October 10th to file a complaint and claim that Demps was at fault. We don't think he will do this, because he was clearly found to be at fault but if he appeals, Demps will have to appear before the same court. It would be a headache more than anything else but one that we hope to avoid. So pray that nothing else would come of this.

Second, there is also an administrative appeal process that Demps filed today to avoid paying a fine. He shouldn't have to pay a fine, especially since there was so much confusion today but we'll know in 30 to 60 days. Please continue to pray that God would turn the hearts of those responsible in our favor.

We're still on the hunt for a house for the American students who will be here for 2 months. We started this process months ago, but the house we were depending on fell through, so we are trusting God to provide a new option. Please continue to keep this need in your prayers.

We're grateful for you! Thanks for holding us in your hearts and keeping us from feeling alone!

Urgent Prayer Request!

2007-05-08T21:05:00.000-03:00

There are many things we love about living in Brazil but occasionally bureaucracy drives us batty...and gives us an opportunity to trust God. We have two urgent situations for which we need earnest prayer over the next 24 hours.

First, for the eight years we've lived here we have driven our cars using the international AAA driver's license that is supposedly valid here in Brazil. We've never had a problem before when we passed through a check point and have been under the impression that it is a valid license here. A couple of weeks ago, however, a motorcycle tried to pass Demps on the right as he was turning to the right. In the process of resolving the paperwork of the accident, which was not Demps' fault, Demps was charged with driving without a valid license, which in Brazil is a crime that carries a significant fine and detention from 6 months to a year. Tomorrow is his court date. The bottom line is that he was charged with this because the police are in the process of computerizing all their data and the responding officers needed a more formal number to put in their system. The judge should be able to recognize that Demps was driving with a license that is recognized here in Brazil, but we can't count on it. We've been told many different things by many different governmental departments. The law has recently changed, so that has some to do with the confusion. Anyway, we're almost positive that the judge will side with Demps and that even if he doesn't, that he wouldn't send Demps to jail for six months to a year. But we'd appreciate that you pray that God will grant favor with all the officials and that we would trust Him.

Also, the Cross Cultural Project, a team of 18 American students, arrives next week and we just found out today that we will no longer be able to rent the house that they had been planning to stay in. The best laid plans. . . Anyway, please pray that we will be able to find new housing and that God would provide for all their needs. It's quite difficult to find housing for just two months and we're feeling the time crunch. But we want to trust God's provision. Please pray fervently!

I'll post an update asap!

2007-04-22T20:39:00.000-03:00

Click on the above picture to see our most recent update in full size.

We also want each of you to be praying, especially this week,, for the father of three brothers (Fernando, Chico and Guilherme) on our national staff. Fernando, Sr. is set to have quadruple bypass surgery on Tuesday. In the heart catheterization that was done this past week, Fernando, Sr.’s heart stopped and had to be shocked to get it to restart. That same day, their grandmother passed away. Needless to say, the whole family is a little shaken and would appreciate your prayers. Pray that God will continue to use this circumstance to reveal Himself and His wonderful grace to this family and especially to Fernando, Sr.

Pray also for the Campus Outreach Staff at Virginia Tech as they minister to students in the aftermath of the killings there last week. Matt Bradner, the director of the ministry there, sent a note to our staff and his supporters, part of which says,

“Monday’s event is truly as dark and as evil as anything I have known. This is not the way things are supposed to be. Even so, we believe that God can and will take what was meant for evil and turn it for good. We are not thinking that this will happen overnight. Saying that, we appreciate your continued care and concern as we move forward.I dream of the days ahead when men and women from Virginia Tech will point back to 4.16.07 and not only think about death, but also about how that horrible day was the catalyst that pressed them towards a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Thanks for partnering with us here and around the world.

2007-04-05T14:07:00.000-03:00

We are headed out to a retreat in the morning with our church but wanted to swing by to give you this update. So much is happening here...and we need prayer for so many things that we feel sort of at a loss what to ask for first. But suffice it to say, there is much to praise God for. Click on the update above to read it at full size. Pray for the requests that are listed there. Pray also for our church retreat this weekend, for what it will mean in the life of our church. We are definitely praying for communion and true worship and for God to be glorfied in our union. Pray for each member to feel God's presence and to experience fellowship with other members of the church. Pray for it to be a developmental time in the life of our church. The college ministry is such an integral part of the church that it's hard to separate the two. So pray for it all! And may God be glorified in you this Easter season too and always.
We love you all,
Demps and Kristy
Meg, Duncan and Kate

2007-03-01T18:52:00.000-03:00

Every couple of weeks our staff sends out an article updating our supporters and friends on our ministry here in Belo Horizonte. For more info on what's taking place with our ministry here, check out this article about our new Brazilian staff. It’s amazing to see how our staff team is becoming more and more Brazilian. We may have mentioned this before but Demps is now the sole American among our full-time campus staff. It’s a great responsibility and privilege to lead all these guys and even more exciting as we’ve seen their whole journey up till now. Demps was especially involved in the whole process of Alan, Ze Flavio and Anselmo coming to know Christ since they came from PE where he was ministering originally. So now it’s like having the opportunity to work with and lead his own sons in the faith!

Also…Take a look at Claudia’s little commentary. Many of you will remember Claudia from previous trips that she’s taken with us to the U.S. It’s amazing to see what God is doing in her and through her here.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE ABOVE TO READ THE UPDATE FULL SIZE!

Beach Project Pictures

2007-02-11T13:39:00.000-02:00

I've finally received copies of the digital pics from our beach project and wanted to share them with you, as well as a little bit more about the project. Above is the official project picture with the theme of Braços Abertos -- Arms Wide Open.

Many of the students who went to the Beach project are just beginning to investigate a relationship with God. Some are new Christians and others have been walking with God for several years. Regardless of where we were in our walks with God, we were challenged to live with arms wide open to the Sovereignty of God in our lives, with arms wide open in community to others and to the world as we reflect the love and glory of God.

Kate sang at the Beach Project Talent Show, all by herself, with a little help from Daddy to hold the microphone. Her song of choice? Twinkle, twinkle, Little Star. :)

Summer Beach Project

2007-02-01T22:37:00.000-02:00

Yes, it's summer here and we're just returning from three weeks on our Projeto na Praia (Summer Beach Project) where God did many things in our own hearts as well in the hearts of the students and staff we are ministering to. Our theme was Arms Wide Open, which allowed us to focus on themes of surrender and community.

We'll share more, including pictures over the next week or so, but I just wanted to share what one of our students said about what God was doing in her heart those three weeks. Robertinha, a student at the Catholic University here in Belo Horizonte, said, "I was having a hard time surrendering my whole life, my desires and plans, to God. I thought that I needed to be in control and that if I gave in, I wouldn't get what was best for me. But I'm realizing that the only way I'll be happy, and completely fulfilled is to live out God's plan and that it will be the best thing for me and for His glory."

May that be true for all of us, this week and always.

Visitors and Thanksgiving

2006-11-29T11:24:00.000-02:00

We've had a busy few weeks with visitors, Thanksgiving and community meetings. We're in the process of developing graduate communities for our recent graduates led by Brian and Candace Lane and Jeff and Amy Dowdy.

Thanksgiving found us with about 60 people and a bounce house in our house as we celebrated with turkey and all the trimmings with our team family here. The Brazilians love it as much as we do!

In our Physical Education community, we've been having meetings on Identity and Sexuality, a topic that came out of our separate men's and women's retreats a few weeks ago.

And some of our most cherished friends who are also cherished supporters of our ministry here, Jonathan and Jennifer Howse came for a short mission trip along with their children and another couple from their church, Mike and Cheryl Moffitt. Jonathan is the pastor of Graystone Church in Grayson, Georgia. It was a special time for them to get to know the different aspects of our ministry here and for us to reconnect. Our children had a great time together and that was a ministry in itself!

Here is a picture of Meg and Julia with some girls from our ministry at the Vila.

Here's a picture of the Howes family with Marisa. Marisa was their househelper when Jonathan and Jennifer led a summer mission trip with Campus Outreach to Brazil in 1995.

And here's our two families together. We're thinking some arranged marriages are in order for the future. (Just kidding. Mostly.) :)

Please continue to pray for our ministry. Pray for the church and some important transitions and decisions that will be made over the next few weeks. Pray for all of our support needs to be provided by the end of the year. Pray for wisdom and for strength and energy for Demps as he and others make significant decisions about the direction of our ministry over the next few weeks. We're grateful for how God is leading but sometimes feel exhausted! We know He will provide. Thanks for your part in that.

Men's and Women's Retreats

2006-10-31T21:23:00.000-03:00

WOMEN

The theme of the Women's retreat last weekend was Identity, Intimacy and Impact. It was an incredible opportunity for the women involved in our ministry to reflect on why they were created and how their intimacy with God affects their intimacy with others.

Pray that these women would continue to be changed daily by God's love for them, His plan for their lives and the opportuniities they have to reflect God's love into the lives of others.

MEN

Above is a picture of some of the men who participated in the Wild at Heart men's retreat last weekend. Flavio said, "It is crucial is for me and other men to understand what it means to be a man." The Brazilian culture tends to be either very macho or very passive as far as the men are concerned. So this retreat was a step forward in getting some of these men to think about their identity in Christ and how their Heavenly Father views them.

Pray for these men to continue to grow in the gospel and for all of Brazil to be impacted by their lives.

We'll be at a staff training time for the next few days with Jim Downing, former Deputy President and Chairman of the Board of the Navigators Ministry. We'll also be joined by Ken and Theresa Currie. Ken is the director of Campus Outreach Minneapolis. Pray for our hearts to be renewed and our eyes to be fixed on the One who is our Hope.

Trips, Conferences, Retreats, Barbecues and More

2006-10-12T19:43:00.000-03:00

The past few weeks have been a blur with all that has been happening.

Demps just returned from a trip to the States to attend the Desiring God conference in Minneapolis, MN with other Campus Outreach staff from around the world. The focus was on ministering in the post-modern culture while holding fast to the integrity of the gospel. It was a thought provoking time especially relevant to our ministry here in Brazil and our ministry in the future.

The day after Demps returned from the States, he and the rest of our staff here participated in a Global Leadership Summit out of Willow Creek Church in Illinois. The entire staff team got together on Sunday morning to recap and talk about how to be effective leaders for a lifetime.

The weekend of October 20-22, both the men's and women's ministries from our area will hold weekend retreats designed to draw young Christians into deeper intimacy with God. The theme of the women's retreat is Identity, Intimacy and Impact. The theme for the men's retreat is True Masculinity, a theme which is extremely applicable in this culture which has so few true male role models, falling instead to the extremes of macho-ism or passivity. Please pray for the planning and preparation of these retreats, as well as recruitment. We'll let you know how it goes.

We just returned from a barbecue for the recent graduates involved in our ministry. We've really been seeing a need for our continued investment in their lives during this process of transition and have been trying to create opportunities to build more community and unity among them. Please pray for their needs to continue to be met and for them to "find their place" within their jobs and opportunities for ministry.

Thanks to all of you for joining with us here in ministry. You have no idea how grateful we are to God for each of you.

The Fruit of Our Labor

2006-09-21T21:45:00.000-03:00

We called together those who have recently graduated or are about to graduate. There were around 40 who showed up! This was a first step to create community among the graduates and to share the vision behind these key times of fellowship. After the event, Mirella, an Education major, encouraged us with these thoughts…

“It was like a day of harvest. The laborers (you all) had worked hard for a long time and on a day like today, you saw all of the fruit come together. And there, at the BBQ, everyone was celebrating because of the work that God had done. It filled my heart with thankfulness. It was the first time that I really understood what you all have done and are doing here with us: preparing us to be laborers full of the Spirit to be a blessing wherever we go. It is so much more than making Campus Outreach missionaries. You all have been incredible instruments in the hands of God to equip us to go and bare fruit wherever we are in life.
I thought about the privilege that I am going to have as a teacher. Imagine me with a class of 30 children each year and being used by God to speak to them about Him! In 5 years, I would have had the privilege to influence 150 children. Just thinking about them coming to know the Father overjoyed my heart and gave me so much hope! Thank you so much for everything! Thanks for being available to serve us. Your labor was never in vain!”

Please pray for wisdom for us as we are in the beginning stages of helping the graduates as they face many questions in this new phase of life. Pray that each of them would walk with God and labor for a lifetime.

We are in a War

2006-09-06T13:49:00.000-03:00

Our church has a ministry in a nearby “favela” (slum) called Acaba Mundo or End of the World. How would you like to live in a place called the End of the World. It’s amazing to see what God is doing in this little “neighborhood”. There are many families from this area that have become a part of our church and especially many children. There are about 35 or 40 children that are involved in weekly bible studies with Campus Outreach students and staff and we have 2 weekly meetings in the favela, one for the children and one for the adults. We just got an update from Fernando, one of our Brazilian staff guys who leads this ministry in the slum, and he said that we couldn’t have the meetings this week because there is a gang war going on. Two gangs are fighting and trying to kill the leaders and members of each gang. This is the “real” world here in Brazil and we are smack dab in the middle of it. Please pray for the people of “Acaba Mundo” and that God would use our ministry among them to make Himself known in a real and powerful way in the midst of this confusion, fear and hate. Below is a picture of the “Acaba Mundo” favela.

A Test of True Belief

2006-08-27T17:45:00.000-03:00

“Do you ever wonder if what we’re doing here is something real or is it just a good thing?”

That was the question that I asked the 40 or so college students that were part of our “community” discussion group last Wednesday night. You see, we’ve talked a lot about “community” in the last couple of years and how much people today need to both see and hear the gospel and how people need to belong before they will believe. We’ve discussed at length this idea of “gospel community” and how the truths of the gospel like forgiveness, love, acceptance and transformation need to be lived out practically within a group of believers. I can honestly say that we’ve learned a lot about that and that every week we see people that have shunned “religion” in the past beginning to actively investigate the person of Jesus because of the love and acceptance that they have seen and felt from our little “community” of believers.

However, we are continually challenged in our understanding and practical application of this valuable truth called “community” and God continues to bring circumstances into our lives that force us to prove our belief in the power of Jesus’ message.

An example of one of those circumstances was the basis for my question to everyone last Wednesday night. Returning to the question, I said, “Sometimes God brings things into our midst that reminds us that what we’re doing here is more than a discussion group, it is a real search for a real God that brings Himself to bear on our real issues.” I then went on to communicate with the group there about the circumstance that God is using to cause us to examine our beliefs and live them out.

The circumstance that I shared was the fact that one of the couples involved in our community had just found out that they were pregnant. Both are committed believers who have seen their lives being changed in the last couple of years. They had been dating a short while and were having difficulties in their physical relationship. They had been open about these difficulties and had been receiving help and accountability in this area. Nonetheless, they found themselves pregnant and facing a situation that was and is beyond their means to solve.

As Kristy and I, along with others, have been counseling them in the past few days we have been reminded of how these are the moments that test what we believe. Do we really believe in a God that forgives, loves, accepts and transforms? If so, then how do we respond in a way that shows His forgiveness, love, acceptance and transformation?

On Wednesday night, I told our “community” and the couple (they were in the room as I shared their news and wanted to be there to ask for help and share their lives with their "community" of believers and friends) that I only “knew” two things about the situation that they were facing. One, that God desires to use this difficulty and their wrong to glorify Himself and make Himself known and two, that our community would walk with them through this.

The response of our community was a joy to watch and to be a part of. Many were crying with compassion and there was a real desire to experience and display the truth of Jesus’ message in this crucial moment among us. One girl who has been “checking out” our group said later that she became convinced of her desire to join our church because of the love and acceptance that she saw. She said that she had never seen anything like it before. Another girl said that up until that point she hadn't understood what "community" meant but that seeing it in action that night had convinced her that she needed "community".

That, my friends, is something very “real” and not just a discussion topic.

I believe that as we each seek to find the truth of the gospel in this situation and to live it out in the way that we forgive, love and accept this couple and their child that God’s greatness will be displayed and that others will want to know a God like that.

Please pray for this couple and the journey that they are just beginning and please pray for us to see and display Jesus in and through this situation.

Quick Catch-up

2006-07-27T12:21:00.000-03:00

We're coming to the end of the Winter Break here. Our kids go back to school on Monday and the university students go back as well. Breaks here are never a dead time for our ministry. On the contrary, most everything continues as normal. Our trip to Campinas was a great opportunity to connect with the American students and staff who were there for two months. They are now back in the States and we will continue to consider Campinas as we look at opportunities for expanding our ministry here in Brazil.

This week please pray for:

*Kids' transition back into school

*Upcoming visit by Demps' parents from the States (and everything that entails, including everyone's health and someone to take care of all they usually take care of in the States for two and a half weeks.

*Meetings over the next few weeks that will determine some of our next steps as a ministry here in Brazil

*Hearts full of hope and peace concerning the health of family members back in the States and wisdom for the doctors involved

2006-07-14T18:23:00.000-03:00

Good-bye CCP or Life in the fast lane

It’s hard to decide which title is more appropriate right now. The last few weeks have been a blur as things have been coming to a close with the CCP (Cross-Cultural Project) here. This is always a busy time of the year since there are so many activities with US project students and the Brazilian students here. It’s been great to see God at work in the middle of all of this activity no matter how exhausting. It’s always worth it when we look back and see the lives that God is touching. Just last week we had a retreat to wrap up the CCP’s time here and there were 65 Brazilian students that went along with the 11 U.S. students and our staff. We’ll post some photos in the next few days. Check out something interesting that happened while were at the retreat in the paragraph below.

Here’s some things to be aware of and be praying for:

We will travel to the city of Campinas on Sunday to help debrief the cross-cultural team that has been there for the last couple of months. This team along with our full-time staff, Jeff & Amy Dowdy have been investigating a new city and campus for future expansion possibility.
We have a list of 16 guys and 13 girls that have been expressing more and more interest in investigating the person of Christ as a result of their contact with our staff, students and the students on the U.S. team. Pray for us as we seek to help them in their search for faith.

No mere coincidence

I have an interesting story that I would like to share with you about seeing God at work even if it is a little long. The focus of our time at the retreat was about God and suffering. Although most people talk about their intellectual questions or doubts about God, many times it is their heart issues that arise from their own personal pain that is the primary obstacle to faith in God and a search for him. Therefore, each day at the retreat we took some time to read some chapters of the book, The Case for Faith, by Lee Strobel and then spent some time discussing these chapters in groups of about 10. Anyway, something really interesting happened on our last day there that confirmed God working around us.

We were responsible for cooking and arranging the food for the retreat so I had gone to a local bakery when the retreat began and arranged for them to deliver fresh bread each morning for breakfast. They told me that they would do that and that I could pay for it on the last morning. When the owner of the bakery delivered the bread on the last morning I had set out the money to pay him but had forgotten it in my room and I asked him to wait just a minute as I went to get the money. When I returned with the money I found him reading one of the copies of the text that we had been using for our discussion. He looked at me and said, “Do you have any other copies of this that I could have?”. I told him that he could have that one and I asked why. He pointed to one line of the text, the question, “Is our suffering an accusation against God?” and said, “some men came into our bakery two years ago and murdered my son-in-law and I’ve been trying to understand that since then.” My heart fell as he said that and I could see his eyes fill with tears. We talked a couple of minutes about the fact that we had been discussing the very issue of suffering and faith and I told him that I was glad that he had found the chapter and that I hoped that it would be helpful to him. I was reminded of the C.S. Lewis quote in the chapter that says, “God whispers to us in our pleasures and shouts to us in our suffering. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a sleeping world.” Before he walked away he mentioned that he wouldn’t have found the text had I not “conveniently” left the money in my room. I knew that it was no mere coincidence and could see God confirming what we had been doing there the last few days. As he walked off, I prayed a little prayer for him to find the faith that for two years had eluded him and thanked God for the small “coincidences” of his sovereignty that change our lives and the lives of others.

Moving and Shaking

2006-06-13T14:09:00.000-03:00

What moves you?

That was the question that we spent all weekend trying to convince over 150 college students to consider. We had our annual Investigative Retreat this past weekend and spent a lot of time hanging out, playing together and thinking about things that matter. I (Demps) gave 4 talks to stimulate the students to consider what moves them and used this quote by St. Augustine, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee”, to challenge everyone to consider that it might just be God that is behind our desires and that it’s a worthwhile investment to seek answers to life’s questions by considering God first and foremost. It was a great weekend and many students left with a commitment to investigate the reality of God by taking a serious look at the person of Jesus Christ.

World Cup fever has arrived

This weekend also signaled the beginning of the World Cup which is the world’s biggest sporting event. I know that it doesn’t mean much in the good ole US of A but in Brazil it’s like a national holiday. Today is the opening match for the Brazil team which is easily ranked # 1 in the world and is expected to win a record 6th championship. I’m heading out in just a few minutes with Duncan to go watch the game with a bunch of the students. Kristy said today that the atmosphere is like a snow day with no one working and everyone running around getting ready for the big game. The fireworks and car horns have been in full effect all day and will be deafening when Brazil scores it’s first goal. Here’s a link to a short video on-line that shows just how important soccer or “futebol” as we call it here is to Brazil. This is a great opportunity to gather people and to have fun together. Pray for God to use this momentous event for Himself. Go Brasil!
This video gives a great picture of how wild Brazilians are over futebol:

http://tinyurl.com/rlq6h

Happenings

2006-06-06T15:51:00.000-03:00

On Saturday night, we held our annual Festa Junina, a type of Fall Festival that is a big part of Brazilian cultural history. There were well over 200 people there for the music, square dancing, hotdogs and kababs and beef and manioc stew. It was a great opportunity to invite students who the Cross-cultural team has met and to create a greater connection in a comfortable environment.

Meg with three friends, ready for the Festa Junina
(Meg, Giovanna, Amanda and Luiza)

Duncan

Anna Rogers with Kate ready to square dance!

We know Anna from when we lived in Carrollton, Georgia and ministered at West Georgia College. She is a junior at Duke University (and on the swim team) and is living with us for two months to learn Portuguese and to swim with the Brazilian Olympians in our city. She's been a lot of fun and a lot of help. Our kids have loved having another set of hands to swing them around and play with them.

The Cross Cultural Projects are in full swing here in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The 61 American students who are here have settled in and are meeting new students within each of our target areas. It's busy, busy time with a lot of Churrasco (barbecues), a lot of forro (a Brazilian dance),a lot of truco (Brazilian card game) and a lot of practicing Portuguese while Brazilians practice English. In the midst of all this, many of the Brazilian students are becoming interested in Christ as a person rather than as the figurehead of a religion. It's opening new doors for conversation and investigation. Pray for those doors to remain open and for their continued investigation.

Pray for the Investigative Retreat this coming weekend, that many of those students would attend. It's a great opportunity for them to "see" the gospel in a non-threatening environment.

PE freshmen at last Saturday's Brazilian barbecue

Invasion

2006-05-14T21:42:00.000-03:00

The Cross Cultural Project students from America have arrived! Every year it's a celebration. Brazilians are so social and love to welcome others into their culture. We had a churrasco (barbecue) on Saturday and the students were able to hang out with the 60 or so Brazilian core students involved in our "community" within the ministry. We ate a lot of meat, laughed a lot and the Americans learned a lot about Brazil, Portuguese and the culture here.

Please pray:

*that the Americans will settle in and feel the freedom to learn the culture and not feel the pressure to produce "spiritual" results
*that God would work to turn all of our hearts toward Him
*that Brazilian students who have religious prejudices would be drawn to investigate the claims and the love of Christ

Two more teams arrive this week in Belo Horizonte and one team arrives on Wednesday in Campinas, Brazil. Demps and Duncan, as well as two Brazilian students, will head down there to welcome the team and to spend time with Jeff and Amy Dowdy, members of our CO Brazil team that are facilitating the project there. Pray for safe travel and the same requests as above for that team.

We're grateful for you all. When can you come visit? :)

The Rocket

2006-04-10T21:30:00.000-03:00

On a the continuing theme of what God did on our beach project, we'd like to share a testimony from one of the students involved with our ministry at the Physical Education faculty.

The beach project was just one more thing that God used to transform my life. For my entire life, I have struggled with what others thought of me. My cousins used to tease me about my appearance and I even went so far as to shave my head because my cousins had me convinced I was going bald. Fearing that people would see me losing my hair, I chose to just shave it all off to make it look like I did it on purpose. This of course is just one example of how I was imprisoned by others' acceptance. I was able to confess to my roommates on the beach project about my fears and began to experience the truth of Proverbs 27:17: "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

God has also grown my understanding of community.I participated in "community" but I didn't experience it. The beach project gave me the chance to experience the benefits of a community of Christian believers, and the support and the vision that it brings. ---Alberth

Thanks for all you've done to invest in the life of Alberth and others like him.

Please be praying for us over the next few weeks. We feel as if we are riding a rocket. The Cross Cultural teams arrive in one month and not only do we want to be prepared, we need to connect with God and feel him working in our own lives to transform us. Financial pressures, the phase of life we are in with young children, staff and ministry transitions, as well as our own sins all join together to keep our hearts distracted from the work Christ wants to do in us too. Thank you for being here with us. We don't feel alone, because of each of you and because of Christ.

2006-03-04T15:47:00.000-03:00

Here are some pics from our summer beach project. We were unable to be there because of our trip to the States but many of the students we minister to were there!

These are students from our specific "community" of students. Many of these students are in our home every week for a discussion time and have come to know Christ in the last year.

Our beach project this year was in Saquarema, Brazil which is about an hour and a half from Rio. It was an intense time for students to invest in their relationships with God and to develop in Christlike character.

Claudia, one of our staff girls, with some of the girls in her discipleship group

Our official Beach Project Picture 2006

We are grateful for all of you and your investment in these students lives. Demps is in the States for about another week. Please give him a call to encourage him and to let him know you are praying for him. (864) 979-0346

A continent apart

2006-02-21T15:45:00.000-03:00

We're so sorry we have gone so long without updating you on what is going on with our ministry. We've been in the States since the middle of November and now Kristy has returned to Brazil for the kids to start back to school. Demps is still in the States seeing some of our supporters and raising new support to prepare us for the next phase of our ministry here in Brazil.

We will be updating this blog over the next couple of days with pictures and highlights from our Summer Beach Project that took place in January (the seasons are opposite here.) But in the mean time you can be praying for these specifics:

1. Pray for Demps, for safe travel and for encouragement, as he continues to raise support in the States. He will return to Brazil on March 10. The exchange rate has fallen here over the last year so that we have effectively lost 1/3 of our salary. This time of support raising is necessary to keep us here for the long haul and to help us prepare for future expansion. But it sure is hard to be away from each other and to be away from ministry here in Brazil.

2. Pray for Kristy as she has returned to Brazil with the kids. Pray for our children to continue to grow in knowing God and His love for them. Pray they will recognize their need for Christ.

3. Pray for the community of students that we minister to. The needs are great and we have seen an outpouring of God's love shown through the members of our "community" to each other. Pray that the struggles that bind them to their pasts will be broken and that they will experience true freedom in God's grace.

We're grateful for each of you. Give Demps a big hug if you see him in the States or call him to let him know you are "with us". (864)979-0346

The plane, the plane!!

2005-11-15T15:28:00.000-02:00

As I write this we are literally on our way out the door to catch a plane to the States. We will be in America form November 16 until February for Demps' knee surgery and support maintenance. We would love to see each of you and wanted to send this quick update to touch base before our arrival.

*Staff training was a great experience. We had tons of interaction throughout the week on what it means to be an "insider" in the culture we are ministering in...not just Brazil, but college student culture and post-modern thought culture also. Jim Peterson, our speaker who worked for years with the Navigator ministry here in Brazil, challenged us to meet these students where they are rather than trying to fit them into our mold. Jim still speaks portuguese so all of our discussions were in portuguese. Thanks for your prayers during last week. The picture above is from our staff training time.

*Demps' knee surgery is bright and early Thursday morning. Please pray for a simple surgery and a quick recovery.

*Please be in prayer for our year end finances and know that we are grateful for how each of you co-labor with us here in Brazil. We're hoping to finish the year stong financially in our support accounts and be able to position ourselves for a strong next few years as our ministry expands.

See you soon!

2005-11-08T13:47:00.000-02:00

Staff Stimulus

Every year in November we take a few days as a staff team to get away from our campus and church responsibilities to renew our vision and focus. We always invite someone to meet with us and help us see the big picture again in the midst of the daily grind. This is always an important time for each of us to recommit our selves to God, His kingdom, our team community and our mission together. This year we have the privilege of having Jim Petersen from the Navigators with us. Jim is on staff with The Navigators and helped pioneer the work of The Navigators in Brazil. He no longer lives in Brazil but will be able to relate directly to the issues that we face every day as we seek to take the life of Jesus into this culture. (and we won’t have to worry about translation because he speaks Portuguese) We’ve recently been reading a book that Jim wrote and much of what he will be speaking to us about will be rooted in ideas that he shares in the book. “The Insider” is a great book about experiencing the life of Jesus in our daily lives and taking the life of Jesus with us into our relationships. Check it out sometime. The book shares a lot of his personal experiences in Brazil so it would give you a unique glimpse into our life as missionaries here.

This is from the book cover. YOU ARE RIGHT WHERE GOD WANTS YOU. – As a citizen of God’s kingdom, you are already uniquely positioned to live out your kingdom citizenship among the people you relate to every day. God has called you to be an “insider” to your family, neighborhood, and workplace. As you adopt the winsome patterns of a kingdom lifestyle, people in your life will see that there is, indeed, a better way to live.

Please pray specifically for our time together Nov. 8-12.

Pray that:
• God would use Jim encourage us to live out the Kingdom of God in a real way
• God would renew our hearts for Himself and the work here in Brazil
• God would give us greater unity and community through this time.

Unity in Diversity

2005-10-31T15:44:00.000-02:00

Every Wednesday night, thirty or so students gather at our house to discuss spiritual questions. The picture above is of some of the students who were at our house last Wednesday night. Demps recently explained the purpose and
result of this "community" of seekers and believers in another newsletter that our team sends out. For those of you who didn't get a chance to read it, it provides an insight into our ministry here. Please pray for us and these students as we involve ourselves in each others' lives and encourage each other to seek God.

Unity in Diversity

This is actually what the word “university” means and I feel like I’m getting a great opportunity to see it right before my very eyes. As the area director overseeing the staff and ministry in the PE school at UFMG I have the privilege of seeing God raising up a movement on the campus at UFMG. However, I am even more privileged to see God working in the community that we’re building alongside the ministry at PE. Our “community” is made up of 30-40 students and recent graduates from 5 different universities and all kinds of different backgrounds. Men, women, black, white, rich, poor, mature Christian, new Christian, non-Christian, we are all jumbled together in one melting pot of people seeking God together. We often say in our community that it doesn’t matter where we are on this path but just that we are all on the same journey of faith to know God through Jesus. We are seeking to be “one” in the middle of all of our diversity.

The last weekend in September we had a retreat and spent the weekend talking about this idea of “community” in the gospel of grace and how we can pursue it together. It is exciting to be a part of this but also for me to observe this band of “sojourners” of ours taking shape. This process of becoming “one” is a pretty fluid process and at any given moment we easily just see the diversity rather than the unity. But, thankfully God is using this process, the relationships of those around us and his grace to mold us and shape us into His image and something that draws both us and others to Himself. Isn’t that what Jesus was talking about when he said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." That’s my greatest desire, that we would together be his disciples, love one another and that others would be dying to know about this love that we share unified in our diversity.

Demps Dempsey

Area Director - UFMG

Going to the Doctor – Questions to Diagnose your Spiritual Health

2005-10-17T13:49:00.000-02:00

As Demps prepares for knee surgery in November we thought we would share the "spiritual" checkup we've all been experiencing here as well.

We live in an increasingly health conscious society. We’re constantly monitoring our weight, exercise, and nutrition as well as paying more and more attention to our vital signs. But, how often do we check in on our spiritual health and what are the vital signs that we should be watching in regards to our souls? These are the questions that we’ve been asking for the last few weeks in our church here. We recently began a 5 week series on Sunday nights to ask, “5 questions to diagnose your spiritual health”. These questions are helping us to evaluate our personal spiritual health and the spiritual health of our church by helping us know and examine critical signposts in the life of a Christian.

The questions that we are asking and talking about are:

Do you thirst for God?
Are you governed increasingly by God’s Word?
Are you more loving?
Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

These questions and the series are stimulated by a book entitled “10 Questions to Diagnose your Spiritual Health” by Donald S. Whitney and is a great resource if you would like to examine your own spiritual health along with us. We will continue this series through the end of October and some of our staff will be sharing on these subjects. Pray for God to use this series in the life of our church to allow every member and visitor to move to greater spiritual well-being.

We're thankful for each of you, your involvement in our lives and your desire to be involved in our ministry here. Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

Retreat, Planning and Preparation

2005-10-08T21:53:00.000-03:00

What do you do when 35 college students invade your house for the weekend? Pray. And study the bible. And grow in a spirit of community and fellowship.

Last weekend, we hosted a retreat in our home for the students in our area of the Campus Outreach ministry. It was really humbling and motivating to see these students growing in their desire to influence each other and their non-Christian friends for Christ. "They will know that we are His disciples by our love for one another" is something we are actively trying to build into our relationships. This spirit of community gives these students (and us!) a "home" in which to function as believers and a place to bring our non-Christian friends to.

This week also included 3 days of meetings for Demps and the rest of the leadership team. It was a time of evaluation at the ministry level and at the self level and provided an opportunity to prayerfully consider and prepare for the future of our ministry.

Please pray for:

*the possibilty of expanding the ministry to another part of Brazil in the next few years

*continued personal growth for each individual on our team and for healthy marriages and families

*the children in our ministry to see their need of Christ

*Preparation for Demps' surgery in November and our travel for support raising in December, January and February

We love you all. Thanks for co-laboring with us here in Brazil.

Demps, Kristy
Meg, Duncan and Kate

A Wedding!

2005-09-13T07:44:00.000-03:00

Many of you know Paige Hardy who has been on staff with us here for 6 years. We thought you might want to see her wedding picture. She married Jeremy Mueller in a ceremony here in Brazil on Friday night. Demps performed the ceremony. Jeremy and Paige will live in Anderson, SC.

Here is a picture of our family enjoying the festivities:

Support, Surgery and Staff, oh my!

2005-09-02T16:14:00.000-03:00

We hope you are all doing well and back into the swing of school and tying up all the loose ends of summer. We are definitely back into the swing of things here in Brazil and wanted to update you on what's going on in our lives and ministry.

Visit to the States

We were in the States for a vacation and a couple of weeks of support raising in July and August. The kids certainly enjoyed seeing their grandparents (as did we!) and it was fun for them to have the chance to go to the beach.

As far as support goes, we are grateful for how God is providing. We need to shore up our support in advance of some changes taking place in our ministry here in the next couple of years. We're trusting God for new monthly support as well as one time support. We hope to see many of you in December and January when we make another support raising trip.

Surgery

It appears that Demps will have to have knee surgery again (2nd time in 10 years.) Pray for wisdom in the when, where and how of this decision and pray also for God to turn back the clock and make him 20 again...No, just kidding on that one, but oh how he wishes it could be true so that he could play, run and jump as far as he wants to. Seriously though, a large part of our ministry here is through interaction in sports, so we are trusting God for Demps to still be able to relate to these active college students.

Staff

Two of our national staff, Flavio Vital and Cristina Saporetti will be traveling to the States in September to see their current supporters and raise new support. Please pray for their time in the States as well as for the students they disciple. Pray for our ministry team as we minister to students in the physical education faculty. Many students desire to investigate the claims of Christ after the summer American teams were here. The harvest is definitely ready.

Thank you for your support and prayers. We love you all.

Demps, Kristy, Meg, Duncan and Kate

2005-07-06T15:26:00.000-03:00

Something More was definitely more than we could have dreamed it would be! Two weeks ago we took about 25 new students on a retreat close to our city. The purpose was for them to be around Christians and have the opportunity to investigate the claims of Christ. Students already involved in our ministry invited friends from their circles of influence as well as new students we have gotten to know through the American students who are here. The theme of the retreat was Something More and we were daily amazed at how God revealed MORE to each of us who went.

Since then the conversations with each of the students who went have continued and we are trusting that these students' hearts would remain open to being transformed by God's love.

Our CCP close-out retreat will be this weekend, the 8th, 9th, and 10th of July. We are expecting 60-70 students from our area of the campus to attend. The time will include discussions and conversations about spiritual issues with a goal of breaking down the students' barriers to the gospel. Pray for this time to be fun, energizing and glorifying to God.

The final week of our church series will be on Sunday night as Demps preaches on God's reality for our lives. For 5 weeks we've discussed God's reality for relationships, money and possesions and ourselves. We're trusting that many will make a commitment to live lives based on the reality of God and His word rather than to continue in the false "reality" of this world.

Trip to US

On the 13th of July we will be traveling to the States for three key reasons. First, we need a vacation! We'll spend a week at the beach relaxing and refueling. Second, we will need to raise new support to cover our needs for the next few years. Thirdly, we hope to visit with many of you and connect again in our friendships and partnerships.

You can pray:

*for the new students involved in our ministry who are investigating a relationship with Christ. Pray that our relationships with them will continue to grow.
*Safe travel to the US and in the US
*productive support contacts--Trust God with us as we rely on him to meet all our needs.
*Demps' preparation of his staff for the time he will be away.

Again, we could not be more grateful for each of you. Thanks for being our partners in the gospel here in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

2005-06-09T15:20:00.000-03:00

The next couple of weeks will be key in our lives and ministry here in Brazil. Many of you know that we have 30 or so American college students here with us for two months, meeting and sharing the gospel and their lives with Brazilian college students. Over the next few weeks we have several key events that we are praying God will use to draw people to Himself.

One of these events is an ongoing series we are doing on Sunday nights at church. Demps will be the speaker for the six week series "Is this the real thing?" Pasted above is the announcement we have used to invite people to the series. Our desire is that rather than feeling like they are coming to "church" that they would feel like they are taking a step in evaluating who they are and what they believe.
The translation for the picture above and the title of each talk is:

June 5: Is this the real thing?
June 12: Jesus' reality about God
June 19: Jesus' reality about self
June 26: Jesus' reality about others
July 3: Jesus' reality about possessions
July 10: Knowing Jesus' reality

We've developed a reality show theme to capitalize on everyone's fascination with reality shows (yes, even here in Brazil!) and are using that theme to demonstrate the reality of living out God's Kingdom here on earth.

Please pray for Demps as he develops each of these talks and pray for others to receive the truths of God's reality in their lives.

On Friday June 10, the Brazilians and Americans will join together to celebrate Festa Junina, which is sort of a Brazilian version of a fall festival, complete with square dancing, soup and straw hats. In addition to being a great cultural opportunity for the Americans, it is a great evangelistic and relational opportunity. Pray that God will use it to cause non-Christian Brazilians to feel comfortable and interested in their American friends' lives.

Next weekend we will have an evangelistic retreat. This will give those students that we have had the opportunity to develop relationships with the chance to dive a little deeper into their understanding of God and their understanding of themselves. Pray for God to use this time to draw hearts to Himself and to answer any lingering questions they may have about their purpose or a relationship with God.

We are grateful for you all and hope each of you will take the chance to visit sometime to see firsthand what God is doing here in Brazil.

Demps, Kristy, Meg, Duncan and Kate

2005-05-11T15:18:00.000-03:00

The picture above was taken in Thailand. Yes, those are real tigers that were chained very tightly. Otherwise, you wouldn't see us near them! we only had the courage because we thought that a good Clemson tiger fan wouldn't miss a chance like that. :) For more pictures, check out www.isc.campusoutreach.org and click on the "photos" link at the top of the page.

CCP

Next week, 14 students from our Campus Outreach ministry in Alabama will be coming to participate in a Cross-Cultural Project for two months. many of you are familiar withe fact that this is something we do on an annual basis. It is always one of the times when we most see God's hand at work in the hearts of students. The 'novelty' of having 15 English-speaking students in our area of the campus certainly draws crowds! But engaging in conversations about eternal things is what God uses to draw Brazilians to himself. The Americans' lives are also changed forever as they learn to relate in the gospel and to daily walk in faith. Please pray for their final preparations, our final preparations, and for God to prepare the hearts of Brazilian students to receive the gospel.

Family

Demps: Busy, busy, busy with CCP preparations, leading his staff team, planning and preparation at church and time with the guys he disciples, with a little play time with the kids thrown in. He also eats, sleeps but only when he gets the chance!

Kristy: Continuing to write for children's publications, disciple girls and mentor a few girls who have already graduated. Please pray for her as she helps Meg learn to be an excellent student and as she homeschools Duncan.

Meg: Just turned 7 years old, in the first grade. Made 100% on her math test the other day and advises us all on how to speak better portuguese. :)

Duncan: loves to jump, run and play pirate. Lives on a skateboard with a bike helmet on his head.

Kate: Will turn 2 in September. Starting to speak in some sentences (though the first was in portuguese!) and knows how to hold her own with her roughousing big brother.

Thanks for all your prayers. Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

The Dempseys

2005-04-21T18:13:00.000-03:00

IT WAS WORTH IT!
It is always a little difficult to project what will happen when you convene over 150 people from 5 continents for a 7 day Conference. One thing that we knew for sure was that Ephesians 3:20 was true and God certainly did “immeasurably more than we could ask or think” during the Conference. It was amazing to see such a diverse group truly UNITE:

· To seek God

· To fulfill His purpose for us through Building Laborers

· To commit to growing in gospel community together [connection and collaboration]

Although Campus Outreach has had teams in various countries for several years, you got the sense that this was the beginning or a big first step toward a global movement. If God could do that much in a week, it was exciting to think, dream and pray about all He could do in the next 15-20 years. All the staff returned to their homes and campuses with more focus, more joy and more desire to see God glorified through students coming to know Him and growing into multiplying laborers. We calculated roughly that the sum total of miles traveled by the conference participants was more than 2,175,000 miles. After all of that, we unanimously had 1 response – IT WAS WORTH IT! Your co-laboring with us in prayer was a major part of the success. Thank you.

Making way for the CCPs…

In just a month the CCPs will be arriving! Yes, it’s that time of the year again! With just coming back from the conference, it is not hard to imagine everything that will need our attention as we prepare for their arrival. Please pray with us over the next month for the many needs that will surface. Pray that God would provide apartments that will house teams as big as 20 people. (More specifically, pray that God would go before us and work in the realtors’ hearts. We will need 4 apartments for just a 2 month period.) Pray also that God would provide each of the student’s and staff’s visas quickly, that they would find favor with the Brazilian government. Pray that God would also provide transportation (vans, cars, etc.) for the ccps to utilize during the summer. Trust God with us to provide in every situation. “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).

The flight is HOW long???

2005-03-24T12:06:00.000-03:00

Imagine, if you will, being trapped in a room with 25 of your co-workers and 17 of their children for 20 hours, along with 100 other people you've never met in your life. It'd be, um, interesting, huh?

We leave on a two-day to-the-other-side-of-the-world trip on Monday morning at 8 am...with 25 members of our team and 17 children. The first ever Campus Outreach International Staff Conference ( www.isc.campusoutreach.org ) will take place April 4-9, 2005 in Kohn Kaen, Thailand. We will spend 3 days in Bangkok adjusting to the time difference and then head to Kohn Kaen for the conference. The main objective of the conference is connection among the international Campus Outreach ministries as well as development and strengthening of our common vision. The needs of the international ministries are unique and we will spend time discussing counseling issues, evangelism, church relationships and perseverance in living out the gospel in our respective countries. Pray that it will be a time of renewal but more than that a time of recommitment to laboring in the Kingdom. Pray that our eyes will be drawn to Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith and that we will return to Brazil even more committed to the Great Commission.

The children will be participating in a Vacation Bible School and Sports Camp during the conference. Pray that their hearts will be drawn to God and that they will enjoy fellowship with other missionary children.

We're grateful for each of you. When are you coming to visit us? :)

Community

2005-03-11T16:52:00.000-03:00

This week our staff team has met together to study and discuss what a community centered around the gospel looks like. God is always at work in our relationships here but we want to be intentional in working with him to relate to others because of the gospel. Some of the things we are learning are that some of the marks of a true gospel community are transparency (openness and honesty), forgiveness, acceptance, sacrifice and service and encouragement in obedience.

These things can really be transformational in this culture is because of the prevalence of "surface" Christianity. There is often an emphasis on doing the right thing and not on being the right thing. And our being the right thing comes from the transformation that Christ does in our lives and not from ourselves.

Demps' cousin, Lee Cunningham was here last week for a visit. He has posted some pics of us, our home, our kids and our friends (and his friends now!) on his personal website. Click here if you'd like to check out the pics. (3 pages worth! It looks like all we did was eat.)

Many thanks for walking along with us in this journey. We're grateful for each of you.
Demps, Kristy, Meg, Duncan and Kate

Post Beach Project

2005-02-25T11:36:00.000-03:00

The last month has been an exciting experience for the students and staff as we spent 20 days in Saquarema, Brazil, in search for a deeper understanding of the treasure we have in our relationship with God. As we embarked on this 3 week journey, God was faithful to reveal the treasures in our hearts that compete for His glory. Getting to know Jesus as the GREATEST TREASURE led us to understand our IDENTITY in Jesus, the value of the COMMUNITY He has placed each of us in and how He has given each of us a MISSION to carry this great treasure to all those we meet. As we treasure the true TREASURE, every area of our lives has so much more value as we learn to value people in our lives and the purpose He has called each of us to.

KEY EVENTS

Our leadership team is planning for the future! They will be meeting February 23-25.
Our area teams will have their annual planning meetings February 28 - March 2. We will also have a special staff training time March 9-11.
Please be in prayer for these events, for the key decisions that will be made regarding our ministry here and for our hearts to become increasingly more committed to God's vision for our ministry here.

FAMILY

Meg is back in school and hard at work with homework everyday. The highlight of her year so far has been swimming class every Thursday. Duncan imagines himself to be an expert skateboarder and is a great big brother to Kate (meaning he is teaching her to fight back!). Kate is a year and 4 months old and is the delight of all the Brazilians with her blonde hair and blue eyes, especially since she is the littlest girl on our team.

We are grateful for each of you. Please be praying that God would be glorified in us and through us here in Brazil.

Demps, Kristy, Meg, Duncan and Kate

Whirlwind

2005-01-02T16:20:00.000-02:00

We leave in the morning to go to the beach project. Whew! Is it already here? We're definitely feeling the time crunch. In addition to planning and preparing for the beach project, we're loading up supplies for two weeks worth of vacation bible school for the children on the team.

Holiday Wishes
We hope your Christmas and New Year's celebrations were full of family, fun and faith. We enjoyed family time on the 24th and a team celebration with the kids exchanging gifts on the 25th. We were reminded of how blessed we are to be surrounded by such good friends and to co-labor with our supporters around the world.

Beach Project
Pray for the 70 students going on beach project as well as the staff. Pray that we will hold tightly to the great treasure we have in Jesus and that each of us will grow in our knowledge and intimacy with God. Pray especially for the students going who are just beginning to investigate the truth of the gospel. With faith we want to believe that God will draw them to Himself and into the freedom of faith and repentance. Pray also for our safe travel, over the river and through the woods, through the mountains, on bumpy, poorly marked, pothole-filled roads. :)

Gratitude
We are grateful beyond words for how each of you has sacrificed this year to keep us here investing in the lives of college students. The benefits are eternal-- for them, for us, and for you. Thank you from the bottom of out hearts.

Demps, Kristy, Meg, Duncan and Kate Dempsey

Where's the Faith?

2004-11-18T14:41:00.000-02:00

Do you ever feel like life just sort of overtakes you and you don't even have time to stop and determine if you are living by faith anymore? (HA! In general if you feel like you're just keeping your head above water then the answer to the question of whether or not you are living by faith is pretty obvious!)I hate to say it, but we are smack dab in the middle of life right now. The daily "stuff" of life just seems to have overtaken us so that even when we do stop to evaluate what God is doing, it is hard to see it because of how focused we are on ourselves. Clearly, the bills have to paid and the children have to get taken to and from school and groceries have to be bought and the meals have to be made and the bible studies have to be planned and the car has to go to the shop and the beach project has to be planned and....It gets overwhelming, doesn't it? How do we step back and allow our hearts to breathe in the power of the gospel?
Right now we are trying to step back and focus on the fact that we are to live just like we recieved Christ, by grace through faith. God IS doing incredible things in the P.E. faculty right now. And just as we need to be reminded that God causes the growth, we need to be reminded that He gives us grace when we are overwhelmed. "It is the gift of God, not of ourselves, that no one should boast." Grace. Not just for salvation but for everyday.

Please pray:
Bible Study with the PE students: Every Wednesday at lunchtime

Beach Project Preparation: Our beach project will be January 3-27, 2005 and we have much (!) to do before it takes place. Pray for planning and also for recruitment.

Thanksgiving: We'll celebrate with our staff team at our house on Thursday. Pray for fun, fellowship and thank God that we truly feel grateful for where He has placed us and what He is doing in our lives.

Support:We are running slightly behind in our support for the year. Pray for our yearly needs to be met by December 31. If you would like to give any extra to help with our year end needs, you can send it in along with your regular support.

Demps' Car:We're trying to sell Demps' car and just have one car for now. Pray for it to sell quickly. (Duncan would like to pray that we could get a motorcycle with a side-car....but ummm, we're not too sure about that.)

We're grateful for each of you.
Love,
The Dempseys

Paying the Mail

2004-10-08T10:21:00.000-03:00

I hate paying bills. I hate looking through them, tallying the totals, realizing "uh-oh, that one is due today...", and all that bill paying entails. Often the only thing that we ever get in the mail are bills, so every time I head off to the bank, my kids ask me "are you going to pay the mail?" Probably sounds familiar to you, too! But I am grateful for what bill paying reminds me of. Every time I sit to tally the total, and figure out what to pay and when, I am grateful for each of you and your commitment to keeping us here in Brazil to minister to college students. I am grateful that through you God has provided the resources we need to live in a foreign country and give our lives away to eternal things. I know that it is a huge sacrifice for many of you and we feel privileged to co-labor with you here. God is multiplying your investment.

Flavio, who many of you met while we were in the States, has returned to Brazil and is amazed to see what God did in him and through him while he was in the States. He wanted to express his gratitude (we do too!!) for all that you all did and all that God did throughyou. He wrote an e-mail back to one of our staff while he was still in the States and I just wanted to share part of it with you.
"Certainly, God provided the money we needed but He also is showing us that this trip had a much bigger purpose than raising money. It is incredible how God has used this trip to teach us of His glory, his love for the lost world, His power, His faithfulness, His wisdom, etc. This trip was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life but it was the most blessed." Flavio
We are grateful that God has used each of you in Flavio's life to show him a little more of God's glory.
Much love,
Demps, Kristy, Meg, Duncan, and Kate

Just in case you ever want to send us anything besides a bill....:)
Rua Monte Alegre 74/101
Serra, Belo Horizonte, MG
30240-230
BRAZIL

Dempsey Update

2004-09-28T14:45:00.000-03:00

Yesterday was Kate's 1st birthday and we wanted you to be able to share in the excitement. Here is a pic of her enjoying some of the gifts she received.

Since all our staff have returned we have been spending our time reconnecting with the students involved in our ministry. Many of these students are seekers who grew interested in investigating the gospel through our conversations with them over the past few months. It has been exciting to see how God has continued to work in their hearts even though we were in the States for a while. It is really proving to us that it is God who causes the harvest to grow and nothing of it comes from us. Pray for these seekers to continue seeking and trust God along with us to give them insight into their need for a Savior.

This Sunday we begin a new sermon series at church titled "More than just a Book". Each of the speakers for the next few weeks will be sharing from their favorite chapters of the Bible. The goal of this series is to create interest in God's word--both among Christians and seekers alike. Demps will start off this series by preaching this Sunday night. Pray for his preparation for this time as well as for his rusty language skills (so he says, the rest of us think he speaks fine!).

We're grateful for each of you. We'd love to hear from you. You're welcome to e-mail us or to post comments here.
Love,
Demps, Kristy, Meg, Duncan and Kate

Back at it in Brazil

2004-09-21T10:45:00.000-03:00

Just wanted to say a huge "thank you" to everyone who was a part of our trip to the US, and even if we didn't get a chance to see you, you were still a part. I feel like I know what bands feel like when they go on the road. It was exhausting as well as incredibly encouraging to share with others what is going on in Brazil and to hear what is happening there as well.

We started out our trip needing to raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $5000/month for my whole team. (That's a pretty big neighborhood) Obviously a big part of that is what we needed to raise for the 3 national staff, Claudia, Cristina, and Flavio. It's been incredible to watch so many people get excited about what God is doing in Brazil and to reach into their pockets to give sacrificially. We're still waiting to hear from some people but to this point we've seen God raise up about $3500/month. Wow! Thank you.

Although it was amazing to see what God was doing while we were in the States, I couldn't wait to get back to Brazil to see my family and to get back in the trenches. I've been back since last Thursday and it seems as though God has really used our absence here to push our young leaders into a greater sense of ownership and responsibility as they seized the torch while our staff was gone. Good stuff happening all over the place.

Check back in to see updates occasionally. We're thankful for each of you and would love to hear from you.

Pray for:

Thank God for all that He has provided for our team over the last month
Thank God for people like yourself that God uses to change our lives and the lives of Brazilians here through our work together.
God to provide the remaining $1200-$1500/month that is needed for my 3 national staff.
Us as we settle back into life and ministry here. There are a lot of people to see and work to be done that has accumulated in our absence.

Dempsey Update Blog

2004-09-20T10:46:00.000-03:00

We'd like to use this site so that you can check in on us at any time. Hopefully we will be able to post short updates to it a couple of times a week and our regular updates once every couple of weeks. Check back here for prayer requests and ministry info as well as to hear about what is going on in our lives and family. Feel free to post comments and prayer requests of your own. We're thankful for each of you!