Tom and Linda Gilmer : March-April 2024 Prayer Letter

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

Dear Friends of Zion:
Linda and I thank you for your faithful prayers and offerings, in spite of no prayer letter last month. I have before me a list of 18 different projects in areas of ministry that I am working on. Even if space and time allowed me to describe them all, most would sound boring and uninteresting. But let me emphasize just one.

Preparations are underway for the Bi-Annual Congress of the National Bible Baptist Fellowship of Brazil, of which Pastor Marcos Antonio da Silva, pastor of our first church, Templo Batista de Indianópolis, is president. It will be held in July in Manaus, a city on the Amazon River in the north of Brazil. A plane ticket from São Paulo, where we live, to Manaus is more expensive than airline passage to the USA! Thus, the number of pastors able to attend the Congress is limited, but the need for such a meeting in that area is great.

Harold Ralph will speak on “Perseverance in the Doctrine of the Bible.” I have committed to help with two expenses: (1) Passage for local pastors, whose presence is needed to make the Congress succeed. (2) Quality sound and video team so the Congress can reach out to those who cannot go to Manaus. We will try to repeat the success of the Congress held during the 2020 Covid Pandemic lockdown, via social media: YouTube, Facebook, etc., accessed by 5,800 people.

About a year ago I met Tiago at a Saturday morning preachers’ meeting in one of the satellite cities around São Paulo. Tiago told me he was impacted by the sermon I preached on soul winning during the 2020 Congress, which he heard by internet, and accepted the challenge to win someone to the Lord. He did! I encouraged him to attend the Monday night devotions at the Bible Institute. He did! Now he is a student, training for the ministry, and is still winning souls.

My life was greatly impacted by a Sword of the Lord Soul Winning Conference at the Lake Louise Conference Center in Toccoa, GA where my pastor, Donald Tritt, took me when I was a 16-year-old preacher boy. I went forward, promising to win a soul. I did and still do! I haven’t gotten over it yet! “Just One More!” May God richly bless you all.

Yours for the Messiah,
Tom and Linda Gilmer

PRAISE:

1. Professions of faith: 5.
2. More progress in updating Bible App.
3. Governor of the State of São Paulo (possibly next president of Brazil) visited Israel recently, assuring his support and that of Brazil for Israel.

PRAYER:

1. Salvation decisions: Jews and Gentiles.
2. Ongoing Bible projects and study helps.
3. Various Church projects.
4. For favorable laws concerning schools.
5. Upcoming Bi-Annual Congress of national pastors to be held in Manaus in July.