Thanks to Bob and Denise Griffin!

The Stowell Family would like to thank Bob and Denise for coming to Brasil and visiting us!  We also want to thank them for helping us in getting more people to pray for the ministry that God has opened up to us here in Brasil!  We love you guys!

Here are a couple of videos that Bob has made about where we live and the work that is going on here.  We would greatly appreciate your prayers!!

Pascal, Amy, Micah, Matthew and Miles

Click on the links below to go to the videos:

Ministry in Sao Paulo

The city of Sao Paulo

What a Night!

Death...It is real!

Last night, the cutest and spunkiest little dog showed up at our gate.  In no time flat, the boys and I fell in love with her and wanted to take her in.  For various reasons, we just couldn’t do that.  It was obvious she was abandoned and trying to find her way in the streets.  We left for our nightly walk and she followed us.

Death…It can happen in a flash!

In less than five minutes, you probably guessed, the dog was gone.  It was ugly.  It was extremely difficult to watch.  It was even more difficult to hold the young girl (the driver of the car) in my arms and listen to her gut wrenched cry.  Again, God gently reminded me of a few things.

Death…It is real…It can happen in a flash…but more important than these...

Death…Are you ready?

As we walked back home, God led us to the conversation of being ready at all times and keeping our “house” in order because it could happen to us, too, in a flash!

Are you ready?  Do you know that those around you are ready?  So many people, just like that little dog, are abandoned and trying to find their way.  What are you doing about it?  What am I doing about it?

Oh God, shake us, move us, use us.  People are dying!

Are they ready?!

We love y’all!

Amy

Amazing Country....Amazing People

We hope this video touches your hearts the way these people and this country touched ours!  They need our prayers!  They need Jesus!!



Japan One Year Later - Watch More Funny Videos

Are you listening or just hearing?

I'm learning to find Jesus in ALL things.  If you asked me if I would find Him while helping my son with his homework I would, no doubt, tell you no... seriously?!  Well, I did!

Matthew, our middle son, had to do a little research on the difference between hearing and listening.  Quite honestly, I had never really given any thought to this myself, just passing it off as meaning pretty much the same thing.  Maybe I did know at one point, but right then it didn't ring a bell!  Here is what we found....

                    Hearing - the sense by which sound is perceived
                    Listening - take notice of and act on what someone says

When I ponder these two words, I feel as though someone is tapping me on the shoulder saying, "What about Me?  Are you listening to Me, or just hearing Me?"  So many times in my life, God has spoken to me.  He gently tells me to pray for a certain person, reach out to a certain person, share my faith with a certain person, give to a certain person, and all along I'm just hearing Him.

I know I'm not in this boat alone.  I don't know about you, but I want to be a better listener.  That's why I want to encourage all of us to be on the lookout for Jesus.  You never know where or how He might choose to speak to you.

I promise you if you look for Him, and sometimes even when you're not, you will find Him...in ALL things.

Happy findings!
Amy
When you come looking for me, you'll find me.  "Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I 'll make sure you won't be disappointed." Jeremiah 29:13

Encounter with Reality

Over jetlag, bags unpacked, boys back in school, and life back to normal, but daily I find myself thanking God for our recent trip to Japan.  It truly was a gift from Him.  One specifically ordained, I believe, for our family at this particular point in time.  It moved us.  It encouraged us.  It changed us.  More than anything else, it opened wide our eyes and hearts to the peoples with whom God has called us to work…Japanese descendants in Brazil.  For me, I will forever have places and faces etched upon my heart.  I want to share with you about a place where God led us, if for no other reason, to break my heart all over again for the deep, complete loss and emptiness of precious souls.

Our new team leader, Gary Fujino, took us to the Buddhist temple in Tokyo.  The darkness and desperation one (follower of Christ) feels as you see and enter a place such as this is overwhelming.  As you approach the temple, there is a well overflowing with incense smoke which quite frankly, was stifling!  It was at this spot my heart was first stirred as I watched a woman desperately attempt to bathe her husband’s body in this smoke to cleanse him in order for him to be able to enter the temple to worship.  My God gently reminded me that He takes people just the way they are.  No cleansing necessary beforehand. 

 As we entered the temple, I was amazed as I watched people scuffling to the front to throw their offering, get close to the priest, and worship idols placed so strategically.  What caught my eye and forever will be on my mind, were the children that we saw taking part along with the elderly who with no doubt have been doing this for years. 

Our three boys accompanied us on this day.  I wasn’t so much worried about the two older ones.  Although intrigued by it all, they both stand firm in their faith and will be the first to tell you so.  However, our youngest is at the point where his heart is tender and he is full of questions.  As an onlooker, I knew he was observing everything.  I gently put my arms around him and whispered in his ear, “Sweet boy, this is not the true way.”  What I heard next, I will never forget.  Miles looked up at me and said, “I know, Mom.  I love Jesus.”  Now that, my friends, brought peace to this momma’s heart!

          

Stories of our trip to Japan will be the topic at our dinner table for a long time.  We have a lot of work to do.  We face it knowing that it won’t be easy.  At the same time, we face it knowing that it is possible with God and through the prayers of His people.  To those who have partnered with us in prayer, we are grateful for your willingness and faithfulness to lift us up.  For those who haven’t partnered, we invite you to join us in praying for and reaching the Japanese.  The reality of the lost is HUGE!  God, bring us to our knees for these precious people.

Here are more pictures of this day that might be interesting to you.

Written by Amy Stowell