Tom and Linda Gilmer : October-December 2025 Prayer Letter

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

Dear Friends of Zion:
Wishing you a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Blessed New Year, we thank you for continuing to provide prayer and financial support for our ministries.

The first service of TBI (Templo Batista de Indianópolis, our first church) in their new building was held on the last Sunday of November, even though only the ground floor was ready for occupancy. While researching past prayer letters and documents for writing a short history of the church at Pastor Marcos’s request, we found a sketch of a projected seven-story building, drawn in 1986 by a young architect, Kátira, as she was finalizing plans for our first church building. She is now with the Lord. The actual building is almost identical—built nearly 40 years later at a new, better location, free from the floods that tormented the church frequently at the original site. The ideal is to have schools at the church, which will require two or more years to obtain government permission.

By the way, the first offering for a multi-purpose church building was given in 1968 when we were in a little store front, rented for services and used during the week to house three young men who were preparing for the ministry. A little girl interrupted my sermon as I was preaching about the multi-ministry church we dreamed of. She handed me an old, ragged cruzeiro note worth about 2 ½ US cents. “What is this?” I asked her. “To build that big church you are talking about!” she said. Built on the faith of a little child who gave all she had, that building is now a miraculous reality. May God continue to bless.

Yours for the Messiah,
Tom and Linda Gilmer

PRAISE:

1. Professions of faith: 1 Jewess, 14 Gentiles.
2. Open door for weekly ministry in elderly rest home near TBI, our first church, where various Jews reside.
3. New, scholastic, seminary-level book released by Pastor Alexandre, President of our Jewish Ministries, which substantiates the authenticity of Bible History.
4. Successful surgery on Tom’s right ear lobe on 12/19/2025 to remove squamous cell lesion.

PRAYER:

1. Salvation decisions of Jews and Gentiles.
2. Release of body of last Israeli hostage.
3. Wisdom for Pr. Marcos, preparing members for new ministry opportunities in the new building.
4. Linda still treating erysipelas. Pray for healing.
5. TBI assumed revitalization of 60+ year old Igreja Batista Bíblica em Parque Bristol, in the city of São Paulo
6. Our Emanuel Baptist assumed church started by Pr. Sales and his blind sister, missionary Maria Antonia.