Tom and Linda Gilmer : December 2020 Prayer Letter

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

December 2020
Dear Friends of Zion:

Thank you for another month of prayers and offerings for our ministries. Even though a year has passed, it seems that just yesterday we were sending you wishes for a HAPPY CHANUKAH, MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Once more, we are canceling our scheduled furlough. No specific requests for meetings have been received; only, “Please come by when you are in our area.” As always, we are available for any who need us, whether in person, by telephone, SKYPE, ZOOM, or a Power Point presentation. But many “great door(s) and effectual” are open here in Brazil because of—and in spite of—the COVID-19 pandemic, and we must stay.

Over 50 years ago, José (Zé) Lopes cut my hair at his barbershop on the street where we lived. We moved away and lost contact for a number of years. We met again one night in a supermarket. He had bought a gun to kill a former employer who had wronged him. I promised to visit his exclusive hairdressing salon and prayed with his employees. He asked me to do a Friday night Bible study at closing time, normally 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. That was our family night! But Linda and the children agreed. Zé’s children attended the Bible study as well, and all the family accepted Christ. His shop has been a soul-winning station ever since. Recently, Zé suffered a heart attack and underwent surgery successfully. We need him! He will not let me pay for my haircuts—but most important, he is one of the two most fervent soul winners of all the people I have ever won to the Lord.

Two of those who accepted Christ last month are service station attendants where we fill up. (Brazil, by law, requires all gas stations to maintain “frentistas” to pump gas, check under the hood, and wash the windshields. Both of these men have received tracts every time they wait on us for years. During a rare lull in business, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with one of them. I gave him a BEAMS Bible and led him to Christ! Some weeks later, while refueling with the help of the other attendant, Linda was waiting in the convenience store and commented to the cashier, “My husband is talking to him about Jesus. Do you have a Bible? “No!” she replied. “I don’t have one and I am not going to lie to you and tell you I do have and that I read it every day when I don’t!” I walked in about that time, and Linda said, “Maria doesn’t have a Bible!” I went to the car and got a BEAMS Bible for her right then! She was thrilled! She had us write a dedication in it. Linda told her, “This is the greatest treasure that exists on earth, the WORD of GOD! More valuable than any precious stone!” She explained to Maria how to begin reading the Bible and gave her some tracts with the website of BBN Radio in Portuguese. She lives to far away to attend our church on Sundays. We pray for further opportunities to witness and to be able to find a good church she can attend in her area of the city.

May God richly bless you all who are giving a GOSPEL witness through your life and testimony, tracts, New Testaments or Bibles, with an invitation to go to church and also receive a free BBN Radio App or listen to another sound Christian radio station. We always have a trunk full of Bibles to sell and give when we run out of BEAMS Bibles.

Yours for the Messiah,
Tom and Linda Gilmer

PRAISE:

1. Professions of faith: (9)
2. Increased possibilities for face-to-face contact and    opportunities of witness for salvation decisions.
3. Progress with Bible reprinting, but special offerings still needed (see letter of Harold Ralph).
4. Leading of the Lord to cancel furlough 2021.

PRAYER:

1. Salvation decisions: Jews and Gentiles.
2. Ongoing projects (Bible study helps, media outlets, warehouse for Bibles, exportation of Portuguese Bibles.)
3. East Timor Tetum Bible translation project.
4. Full support for Harold Ralph Gilmer.
5. Health of Zé Lopes and David, an Israeli infant.