May 2017 – Brazil – Marcos & Telma Pereira 

Dear friends and family,  In the month of April, we had the opportunity to participate in a Missionary Retreat our Mission (UWM) organized in Peru. The theme was, “Rest and Rejoice”. It was a great time of taking our minds off ministry for a week and for being encouraged with the Bible studies and times of sharing with other missionaries. For the teens and kids, they had special speakers that were very good. Our entire family had a good time and finished this retreat refreshed and encouraged.  One of the Bible studies that was given spoke a lot to my heart. The verse that stuck out was,

‘And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”’ Exodus 33:14

 What caught my attention was the fact that what would bring rest for the Israelites was the presence of God. So many times, I find myself trying to rest and end up frustrated as I wake up tired out the next day. Rest for the world means one thing, for God it means His presence. We often surround ourselves with entertainment thinking it will bring rest but it rarely does. The rest God has for us will be found in the middle of a busy weekday at work, mowing the lawn, doing chores and yes even while sitting in a hammock. It is a rest that will come from within and not from outward circumstances. His presence brings rest in the middle of the storm.

 I found myself realizing that I do not seek the presence of God as much as I ought to since I do need rest. I am now not seeking to rest as much as I am seeking His presence and asking Him to go with me as I seek to live out His will for my life. It is in His presence that we will find true rest.

Trip to Machu Picchu  Since we were already in Peru we could take a couple of days off and make our way to the Archeological Park of Machu Picchu. My mom and dad also went with us. It was a fun time admiring the huge mountains and visiting the many ancient ruins. The boys really enjoyed visiting another culture, and many of the places we visited made us feel as if we were in Tibet.  Telma even had a chance to share the gospel with a young girl from Holland who we met at some ruins on a mountain top one afternoon. She told us she was going to an expensive meditation seminar in that area as she sought to get to know herself better. Telma listened kindly and patiently to her story and then she asked Telma what her spiritual views were. Telma was able to tell her about Jesus and how He had changed our lives and helped us understand ourselves, not religion but Jesus. The seed of the Gospel was planted and who knows what fruit we will see in eternity from this tiny moment.

Online Training   I spent much of March and the first half of April making 8 more video classes for our online camp leadership training program. Dionisio the Mozambican CEF missionary that is doing an internship with us helped me with the recordings. Andrew is now working on getting the classes uploaded along with the study guides and tests. We already have two different online course up and running.

Furlough in U.S.A. end of 2017  Our new furlough dates are now from the beginning of November till the end of January 2018. The kids school made this schedule the one we will have to abide by… We’ll just have to pray for good weather 😊.

We will need places to stay in the following areas;
-Winlock / Toledo /Chehalis
-Bellingham
-Colfax / Pullman

Also looking for a reliable and safe vehicle for 5 people to use during our time on furlough.







Matheus College Exam As many of you know Matheus will not be coming to the USA with us due to his Government College exams at the end of the year. If he is able to pass these test, all college tuition is covered by the Brazilian Government. He is considering studying Psychology or Foreign Relations. There are 3 different Government Colleges that offer these courses within a 4-hour drive radius.

2017 Summer at Victoria Ministries

                  Our summer kids and teen camps were great. We had over fifty kids for each week, most of them from non-Christian homes and many who had never come before. This made for an awesome opportunity for many to come to better understand the Gospel and others to decide to ask Jesus to come into their lives. Matheus was one of the counselors in the first week and had an entire cabin of non-Christian boys which were full of questions about God for him. The Bible teachers for the kids and teens did an awesome job along with the entire staff. The number of participants was a blessing as Brazil struggles with one of its worse years financially amid numerous political scandals involving billions of dollars and unemployment at 11.5%.

            Our Christian camp leadership training programs were also a success. As we are currently switching to part of the teaching being done through the internet and the hands-on training at Camp Victoria. We had fifteen students take our Outdoor Adventures Leadership Training and eleven take our online Camp Leadership Course. One of our students “Dionisio” came from the African country of Mozambique where he is a missionary with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF). They want to start using camp ministry as a way of evangelism. As Mozambique is one of six Portuguese speaking countries in Africa all our training material can be used by them.

Online Training Programs

We are starting February off with much work on improving the training website. With the first batch of students that went through the training we could hear from them areas that need improvement and see things that could be done in a more practical and dynamic way.

            One thing is for certain, the online training will broaden the reach of people that can take the courses Victoria offers tremendously.