Chapecó, Santa Catarina, Brazil
Phones: (49) 329-5598,
323-2356
Email: stephen@armours.com
Friday, Nov. 8, 2002
"DEEP IMPRESSIONS" (or...how Richie left his
mark...)
"Impressive". What do your normally think of when you hear that
word? Do you think of things like big, new,
fast, expensive, strong and
other adjectives? We recently discovered a new meaning for "impressive". It all
started like this:
It was early Sunday
afternoon and Richie was again late for a Bible study across town. Dad was gone
somewhere with the car, so he grabbed his bike, heaved his 6 ft frame onto the
seat and stuffed his small, zippered Bible into his back pocket. Charging down
the section of gravel road, he turned off the dirt onto the asphalt and pedaled
fast, cutting across town to the Bible-study street. Traffic was light, so he
opened up the throttle and pumped hard. The little leather Bible kept slipping
up out of his slick back pocket, so he yanked it out and tried to carry it in
his hand. That made steering hard and he finally stuffed it in his mouth,
clamping his teeth down hard to keep it in place.
The light ahead turned
yellow and he pushed even harder on the pedals, trying to beat the red. Speeding
through the intersection, the brake assembly suddenly twisted off into the front
wheel, ripped off the front fender and wrapped the cable around the tire,
smashing it into an instant "PacMan" shape that flipped it and the fender high
into the air. In the same dramatic, highly syncronized maneuver, his 190 lbs
reduced the bike frame to a pretzel and he plunged face-first into the black,
not-so-smooth pavement. His left arm took much of the tremendous impact and
fractured near the wrist as his face slammed onto the hard surface.
Miraculously, the Bible took most of the blow, but jammed up against his front
teeth so hard they punched through the back cover and all the way from
Revelation to I Thessolonians! His lower jawbone cracked from the blow to his
chin and his teeth jammed up a little into his gums. In the words of the
wide-eyed woman who witnessed the whole scene:
"It was really
impressive!!"
Later, as we took cards and candy from
impressed admirers to Richie in his hospital room (shortly
after his 1 hour operation to add a plate and screws to his arm architecture),
we showed him the punctures and dents in the pages that actually continued
through the whole New Testament! Quite a mouthful of
words! Definitely impressive! We also shared with him the sad
news that his pretzel-bike had been lovingly carried away by several
long-haired, street people, apparently recognizing in it's poor contorted form,
some artistic value. Needless to say, the whole matter has made a definite
impression on all of us. We are thankful for broken bones
instead of a broken neck and thankful for punctured pages rather than toothless
grins (or worse). Thank you Lord for Your creative ways of getting our attention
and helping us to focus on what is truly important.
Happenings:
- Richie stole the spotlight with his spectacular bike wreck, leaving quite a lasting impression. See above story for details.
- Another set of tapes is on it's way to Africa, this time to Angola. Though the volume of "sales" is not great, the geographic spread is expanding! Keep praying...
- We started a new Tuesday night Bible study at home. We decided to use some of our tithe money to buy a 29" TV for the lessons. We wanted to use the tapes again so as to enable us to see where we can improve the lessons, or just to help with planning for other future projects. There are between 15-20 people coming.
-
Construction to try to finish our house is still an on-going, dirty, noisy process. Adding to the fun, work has begun on grading many of the rough dirt/gravel roads in our neighborhood, with much of the traffic up and down the hill happening right in front of our house. At the same time, large storm drain pipes are being installed and buried, so the dump-trucks, backhoes, roadgraders and steamrollers are kicking up much dust. The plus side is the drainage improvements and asphalt that will be put in some day. Hopefully not too far in the future.
- I'm still slowly making progress on the "digital tape-to-DVD disk" conversion of the tape masters. Time is still a problem!
- Pray for Stefanie and Lúcio (a good friend and believer) as I train them to use my cameras. My other two cameramen are leaving for the States soon and will be unavailable for further projects. Pray for patience, wisdom and skill.
- Cynthia continues to have an active outreach with children and adolescents. The Lord has given her a very real love and tremendous gifts for teaching and reaching these age groups. She is still seeking the Lord's will for her future and ministry.
- We have appreciated so much those giving to our ministry. We know times are hard in the States and some have continued to support us even when their own financial situation is quite precarious. May the Lord bless you folks and may He continue to multiply your gifts a hundred or thousand-fold.
Prayer
Requests:
- For strength, health, perseverence and continuing wisdom in reaching out with the "Beyond the Veil - God Revealed" series, and for many decisions needing to be made concerning the future of this tape series and others to come. The second phase of the series is on shaky ground now, due to some unexpected barriers. Please pray for God's real work in some hearts, if this is truly His will for our next project. We are laying our future solidly in God's hands, allowing Him to open and close the doors and guide us as He sees fit.
- For the salvation of many different people studying the Bible for the first time in this region and throughout Brazil. The Fire is spreading! Fan the Flames! Pray! In an age of unbelief and great sin, God is still calling out a people for Himself before He returns for His Church. We are certainly on the final dash to the finish line, so breath deeply and keep on running...
- The women's Bible study in the little German town called "Homesick" ("Saudades", about 75 km from Chapecó) is struggling. Pray for this small group of women, the Enemy is not happy to have his territory invaded!
- I am in need of some necessary equipment for my two main cameras and for one of my tripods. The Lord knows all about it, so pray He will provide according to His perfect will.
Thank you folks for your part in our ministry here!
Every day we are conscious of the fact that without those helping us by giving
and praying, we could not do what we are doing. We give thanks every day for
those that stand beside us. Praise the Lord with us for His goodness and for the
work He is doing in the hearts of men, women and children in Brazil! God bless
you as you serve our soon-returning King.
Steve and Sonia Armour (Stefanie,
Cynthia, Richie)
"...we give
thanks to God upon every remembrance of you..."
I Tim 1:3
(NIV)