Sept 2003 Update

Chapecó, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Phones: (49) 329-5598, 323-2356

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2003

24,000 kilometers by car + 20,000 by air!

Glad! Sad...overwhelmed... Full of praise! Kind of empty...tired... Fired up! Full of memories! In a daze... Full of possibilities! Don't know where to start... Happy to be home! Homesick for kids, new friends, family...

Wow, what a confused mess of mixed up feelings inside! We don't know whether to shout hallelujah or collapse on the bed and weep! It was almost four months ago we left our house in Chapecó to begin a journey that would bring many changes to our lives. To be exact, it was May 15th, 2003. On that day, we slowly pulled out of our driveway in our little VW Gol, pulling a small baggage trailer and starting our three and a half month sojourn to and from the USA.

Much happened during our travel time and we'd like to try to remember some of it in this update letter. We also plan to put new trip pictures on our personal website (www.abeprod.com.br/Armours3 to share with you folks. There were many answers to prayer as well, so I will put both the need and the answer to that need in the columns below:

Need / Prayer request	Answer from the Lord
Funds for 5 airline tickets to the USA	Gifts from Liberty Baptist church SS class in Virginia and several individuals
Transportation while in the USA	Provided through the graciousness of Sonia’s brother Darrel and Dois Rosser of ICM ministries
Funds for travel in the USA	Gifts for travel from several brothers and sisters across the USA – YOU FOLKS!
American driver’s licenses for twins – (needed for everything: school, bank accounts, jobs, ID etc.)	Training provided “in route” by Al Ratliff in S. Dakota and Dave Poole and Clay Templeton in Virginia. The twins passed their drivers tests shortly before they left for Bible School
School and place to live in the USA for twins	Last two openings for single girls at the NTM Waukesha Bible School in Wisconsin
Funds for twins schooling and support in USA	Gifts from the twin’s grandparents in Oregon allowed them to start at the school
Jobs for twins so they can pay their schooling and support themselves	School bus driving jobs at a good wage - if they pass the test! (“you’ve got to be kidding!? School buses?” Nope! Great big yellow ones!)
New powerful workstation computer for video/audio editing and accompanying software	Dian S. in Oregon provided the gift that allowed us buy what we needed for new equipment and also pay the heavy import duty taxes Brazil charges
Needed video equipment for producing further Bible studies in Portuguese and for new productions
Safety in transporting our kids, selves, and new equipment to where we (it) should be	Safe flight back to Brazil from Atlanta and during the long bus trip from Sao Paulo for Richie and Marcie (Sonia’s stepmother) as they went traveled to Vianopolis and the NTM school in central Brazil

Prayer Requests:

Pray for Stefanie and Cynthia as they seek God's will for their future and for them to pass their bus driving tests. Cynthia very much enjoys her new Greek studies and both girls love the school. They still have some big bills to pay, but are trusting the Lord to provide according to His will.
Pray for Richie as he does his Senior year at NTM's Vianopolis High School in central Brazil. He is taking a heavy load and doing Physics, Trigonometry and Algebra II all at the same time! (Yikes!) School started a month ago, and he is doing quite well.
Pray for our future plans. We are seeking God's face for the ministry He desires for us. Opportunities are unlimited, so we need wisdom to chose according to God's perfect will.
For the continuing outreach of the “Além do Véu” video tape series and for my re-editing of the series to fit two lessons on each tape. It is important for us to lower the total cost of the set as much as possible so many can buy and use these tapes in evangelism. Sponsorship is one possible way.
For the local fellowship of believers here in Chapecó. The group has grown to near 400 and there are standing needs for more leadership and help.

It was not possible for us to see everyone during our very short, intense furlough! We apologize to those we could not visit, but are trusting the Lord to be able to do so in the future. We are looking forward to seeing some of you folks down here in Brazil and please keep in contact. Praise the Lord for His goodness and for the work He is doing in the hearts of men, women and children in Brazil! God bless each of you and we cherish our memories of each brother and sister we could see.

Steve and Sonia Armour (Stefanie, Cynthia, Richie)

"...we give thanks to God upon every remembrance of you..."

I Tim 1:3 (NIV)

Phones: 55 (49) 323-2356 (home), 55 (49) 329-5598 (office)

Emails: steve@armours.com - sonia@armours.com - stefanie@armours.com - cynthia@armours.com - richie@armours.com

Personal Website: http://www.abeprod.com.br/Armours3

(I will send an embedded picture with the login and password when I put new pictures on the site)

Mailing address:

Caixa Postal 203

Chapecó, SC, Brazil 89801-973

Gifts: (Please make all checks payable to: ACI International - see NOTE below)

PO Box 1769

Ontario, California 91762-0769

(NOTE OF EXPLANATION ON GIFTS TO OUR MINISTRY: Assisting Christian Individuals International (www.aciinternational.org), is an non-profit, Christian organization that allows us to receive gifts destined for our ministry and give tax-deductible receipts for those gifts. They charge only 5% of the total of all gifts for this purpose, so we receive 95% of everything given. They send us a list of all gift donors at the end of every month, then deposit directly into our US-based bank account. Checks need to be made out to ACII for them to be able to legally give tax-deductible receipts. Please include a note in the envelope with our name on it as the recipients for the gifts.)

If you wish to include someone on our email address list, or do not wish to receive these regular email letters, please contact us at: stephen@armours.com