Tom and Linda Gilmer : September 2020 Prayer Letter

Dr. Thomas and Mrs. Linda Gilmer – Church Planter, Bible Translation in São Paulo, Brazil

Dear Friends of Zion:

Linda and I appreciate your keeping our work going by praying and giving.

In response to the request of many, we have a new picture in our letterhead. It was taken in front of our house on the 54th anniversary of our arrival in Brazil—August 30—also my 79th birthday. My hat is the best sinus prevention measure I ever found, and it fits well with our Jewish ministry. The annex or QR at the bottom of this letter will enable you to make a larger picture for your mission display or to use on a large screen.

A surprise call from Pastor Ranulfo on August 21 brought great joy. He called from a distant city to thank us for working with him as a bus kid when he was ten years old. He lived in the Radar slum near the airport in São Paulo and rode the church bus to Sunday school at Templo Batista de Indianópolis. His broken family moved away from the area, and as a teenager, he became involved in drugs and crime. While in jail, he accepted Christ and was called to preach. He trained for the ministry and is now serving with his wife and two children as an associate pastor in south-central Brazil. His church is building a rehabilitation home for women on drugs.

Our goal has been to prepare and use every type of tool for evangelism. A young man came by our house selling chocolate bars. He rejected our offer of a Bible, saying he only reads what he can download on his cellphone. Thank the Lord I could offer our SBTB App with our Brazilian text and the King James Version of the Bible with an exhaustive concordance. In case you overlooked the news, we endeavor to get as many App companies as possible to use our Bible text. As Harold Ralph pointed out last May, one of these companies reported 3.1 million regular users and 7.9 million that downloaded the App and consulted it at least once in 2019.

Through our Jewish Ministries, Amigos de Sião (Friends of Zion), we help some Brazilian missionaries who raise their support in Brazil and also maintain a good working relationship with different mission groups. One of these missionaries, Roberto Kedoshim, who works in Portugal and has a Friends of Zion group, reported that an anti-Semite he won to the Lord some years ago has finished pastoral training and was ordained on the last Saturday of August to begin his first pastorate. Pastor Alexandre Dutra, the President of Amigos de Sião, led Pastor Marques in North Central Paraná, who teaches in a Bible institute, to begin a Friends of Zion group at the institute. We hope to help him with a supply of Bibles and Jewish materials to take to churches for his weekend meetings and to promote the Jewish and Bible ministries.

May God richly bless you all.
Yours for the Messiah,
Tom and Linda Gilmer

PRAISE:

Professions of faith: (5)
Two converts of past years now in the ministry.
Bible Apps producing results.
Amigos de Sião (Friends of Zion groups) in Portugal and Paraná,

PRAYER:

Salvation decisions: Jews and Gentiles.
Ongoing projects (Bible study helps, media outlets, warehouse for Bibles, exportation of Bibles to Portuguese speaking people around the world).
East Timor Tetum Bible translation project.
Additional supporters for Harold Ralph Gilmer.
Worldwide deliverance from COVID-19 Plague.