Dear Friend,

It's rewarding to see how the Lord answers prayer. Since our last newsletter of 2000, in which we presented our greatest ministry challenges, the Lord has shown himself faithful to help us meet all those challenges, truly "perfecting that which concerns us" as the psalm says.

After Timothy arrived in January, we must admit that we were anxious about returning to the huge amount of church responsibilities we'd had last year. But our worry was all for naught! God has been in the process of sending us helpers. In November of last year we were blessed with the arrival of a Canadian couple through the Xingu Mission. This is the first full-time missionary couple we've had work with us, and with their proficiency in Portuguese, they've been a tremendous help. Aside from being wonderful friends, Richie and Christie lead the youth group, help with the children's ministry, preach on occasion, and navigate the mission's largest boat on the tributaries of the Xingu in an effort to plant churches. Also, in February, a Brazilian couple, Renato and Celinalda, joined us to work extensively with our worship team, children's ministry and church maintenance. As we write, one more Canadian couple is in the process of moving to town. They will continue language acquisition, work with river ministry, and be generally available wherever help is needed. We are blessed as we see the Lord joining these apostolically gifted Christians with us in the ministry. They are people with whom we can pray and plan, and with the help of whom we will certainly see our church grounded more healthily. Plus, we feel like a heavy load is being lifted from our shoulders-which makes stepping into our most important ministry, being Mom and Dad, a lot more pleasant! THANK YOU, JESUS!

At the end of February we hosted our first-ever church retreat for the river and city churches with the theme LIVING MY NEW LIFE IN CHRIST. What a great time we had! The event was three days long and included preaching by Richie, Railson, and a visiting Brazilian pastor. Several people gave their lives to the Lord during that time. We plan on hosting another retreat in July, and this time it will be BIG! Please pray with us as we seek the Lord's provision for bringing in a missionary as our speaker, and as we organize the events. We are believing the Lord for an evangelism explosion during this time, and we expect to see many salvations and healings.

Because we want to be accountable...

Once a year we do our budgeting and financial forcasting. Since our newsletter partners have always played an important part in this area of our lives, we want to pass some specific information on to you.

Our financial stability continues to be dependent on donations from our foreign (especially US) donors. Interestingly, in the year that we married, the fall of the Brazilian dollar made it possible for the two of us to live quite nicely on the income that Heidi had been receiving as a single missionary. Since that time, the US dollar has done nothing but rise, which continues to be a blessing to us. (We maintain our funds in a US account precisely for that reason. One US dollar now buys almost two Brazilian ones.) Of course, now with our baby to raise, we are looking to increase our income somewhat. As a note, the Xingu Mission, with which we are associated in Brazil, offers no salary.

Even though we currently rely on financial donations to provide for our needs, our vision is to gradually depend more on the local church for our living. But, as is the norm for church planting in poverty stricken areas, the pastoral salary grows very slowly. Railson currently earns the Brazilian minimum salary as senior pastor, which is the equivalent of about US$82 per month. Because of the depressed economy of our area, then, we rely on financial contributions passed on to us from more affluent areas of the Body of Christ. Beyond doubt, every cent that we receive has a project waiting for it! There is never a time that there aren't books and Bibles to buy, office supplies to refurbish, construction materials to furnish, etc. Our financial partners literally make it possible for us to have such things as a computer and printer, use email, send out newsletters, host short-term teams, buy snacks for the Sunday School, travel to the States periodically and afford many other important things that we simply couldn't otherwise. Because our supporters allow us to be more effective in what we do, will never turn down a contribution.

Here, we list our avenues of income, from biggest to smallest. As you can see, we pull from several areas to cover our ministerial costs:

1. Donor Gifts
2. Tent-making Heidi's part-time work in nutrition, although compensating poorly, has been a blessing.
3. English Lessons When time allows, Heidi runs an in-home class four times weekly.
4. Pastoral Salary Now, well into the year 2001, we need to know who we can count on to contribute to our work on a regular basis. Please take the time to pray about your involvement in church planting in Brazil. If you feel led to pledge your support, please contact us. We thank you in advance. Our monthly target budget for 2001 is available upon request for those who wish.

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Letters & Packages: Railson & Heidi Gil, Rua Abel Alves dos Santos No. 1704, Cabanagem, Porto de Moz, PA 68.330-000 Brazil
Financial Support: GCF, PO Box 561, Corvallis, OR 97339 (checks made payable to GCF with a note for Gil-Brazil)
Phone: 55-91-3793-1259 (note: the phone company will add an extra 3 to our number starting in July)
Email (forwarding):harnold@orst.edu