Harold and Lílian Gilmer : June 2021 Prayer Letter

Harold and Lilian Gilmer – South America Director, Church Planter and Bible Translation in São Paulo, Brazil.

Dear Brethren:

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11).

Church Planting
Thank you for your prayers on behalf of our congregation. We are still greatly missing the Bruners, but their absence made the people see the need of labor and come up to bat. It is exciting to see the people want to help anyway they can, from setting up the chairs in the tent for the meetings, to cleaning up the premises. We are blessed with such a loving Church and great Church planting team.

Though the pandemic is still raging in our area, the people are excited about reaching every house in our neighborhood. Please pray for the Lord to bless and guide in our outreach efforts and give us souls for our labors.

Please also continue to pray for the right property for our congregation, seeing our landlords are seeking to increase the rent by 30%. There is a piece of property just a few doors down from where we are meeting that just opened up for sale. Please pray the Lord will lead and guide us if this the property He has for us.

Bible Ministry
In Ephesians 2:1 the apostle Paul said: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” How “dead” are we? I would like to propose that we are as dead as soil: “. . . For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19b). Physically speaking, we came from the ground and to the ground we shall return. The apostle Paul compares our dead body to a seed that will be resurrected in glory (I Corinthians 15:35-58). Spiritually speaking, the same analogy holds true.

In Luke 8:5-15, the Lord Jesus compares the hearts of men to soil and the Word of God to the Seed. The soil, in and of itself, cannot produce fruit, but when it is prepared, and receives the seed and is watered, it can burst into new life. In Isaiah 55:10-11, the Word of God is likened unto water.

The soil is the hearts of men and the combo seed & water is the Word of God. In Isaiah 55:11 God promised: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”. That is why we are so passionate about sowing the Seed and preaching the Word of God! Brethren, pray for us.

Yours fellow servants in Brazil,
Harold, Lílian, Raphael and Danielle