Update Missionary Life | Winter 2025!
- Em Missão Nay Camargos
- 26 de fev. de 2025
- 8 min de leitura
Hey! Welcome to my first newsletter of 2025 that is full of joy,New beginnings, new arrivals, new friends,more of God and good endings. :)
Thank you for taking a few minutes of your time to be here reading this update. My wish is that we’re together, having a coffee while I share every part of this letter with you, so let’s imagine that’s happening hehe :)
THE GRACE OF LIVING THE PROCESS AND SEEING GOD'S MOVEMENT:
In January of this year, I had the privilege of witnessing the fulfillment of one of God's plans in the life of my new friend – Carol, in which I played a part, and that directly impacted my life and our community here at YWAM Salem. – Carol de Lima finally arrived in Salem.
In August 2024, while I was serving in the Communication ministry, Carol connected with us through social media, and I kept in touch with her, helping clarify her doubts and providing guidance on how she could make her way to us. Like two good Brazilians, we became great friends in a short time, and after about 5 months, Carol came to volunteer at our base!
God allowed me to be a part of this process in Carol's life and used it to teach me many things. Throughout the months of waiting for her to arrive here:
We prayed together! We prayed for each other!
We celebrated the victories of the doors that opened.
We contemplated more of God’s Love and Grace in our lives.
We learned to rest in the Lord even more during the time of waiting for provision.
We lived God’s faithfulness in fulfilling His promises and realizing the big and small dreams we have in our lives. + so much more that I'm surely forgetting to list here.
Carol came here to serve and bless us as a volunteer for 1 month, bringing renewal and more life! Joy and many laughs! Hope and new expectations! In addition to sharing with us her artistic knowledge through a Dance Workshop, which aimed to teach us about spontaneous dance and how to identify God in Art. Without a doubt, it was for me the opportunity to learn a new way of how to use the gifts and talents we have to serve God’s Kingdom.
Carol has a Dance school in Brazil, and if you want to know more about it, click here! :)
Without a doubt, not only knowing but being a part of the process and receiving Carol here made me love even more the fact of being able to walk with God and trust in the paths He directs us to when we trust and surrender everything into His hands.
NEW ARRIVALS. NEW BEGINNINGS. NEW WAYS TO SHARE ABOUT JESUS.
This new season in our community was marked by the start of the new Winter school (WDTS 2025 - Winter Discipleship Training School). In total, they will be here for 3 months, being prepared to GO and serve God’s Kingdom in Uganda - Africa!!!!
While they are here, we have the privilege of accompanying them throughout the time they also serve in our community, helping with maintenance, hospitality, meal preparation, and cleaning the kitchen, which allows us to disciple and be discipled by them all the time - What a privilege!
The arrival of a new year also brought new areas and novelties in the ministries we are connected to in some way. At the beginning of the year, we received a ministry focused on evangelism through Video Games. It was 3 weeks of training for gamers to learn how to share the Gospel through games. We were blessed by the presence of approximately 30 people who came from other nations to be part of this movement, and once again, our eyes were opened to the new and countless ways we can share God's Love.
THERE ARE NO EXCUSES FOR NOT SHARING THE GOSPEL!
Seeing ministries like this happening, I think about how EVERYTHING, literally EVERYTHING we do, can be for the honor and glory of God if we desire to serve Him with all our heart. I want to challenge you to think about something that flows easily in your hands, something you love to do or have extreme ease in doing - Pay close attention!
This could also be one of the ways you can use to share the Gospel wherever you are right now.
ENDINGS FULL OF NEW BEGINNINGS!
The way God leads us is wonderful, and I love being able to witness all that He is doing, as well as live and be part of so many incredible things. This month of February, for example, we also celebrated the conclusion of the Fall School of 2024 (FDTS 2024), which returned from Japan after two and a half months of practical time serving and making the name of Jesus known there. It was encouraging to hear the ways God used each of them during their time in Japan and to see how, in our simple OBEDIENCE, God can do great things.
Even more encouraging was hearing about the plans and next steps that many of the students and staffs are focusing on after this phase of the school. We even have one student who already returned to Japan two days after graduation to serve in a discipleship school at the first base they visited during their time there; one student returning to serve in the Youth Ministry with Mission Adventures; another with the decision to serve in Ukraine and Romania, and many more who would make this letter enormous if I kept listing them here hahaha!!!! UAAL!!! It’s impossible not to rejoice in seeing the fruit of all the investment in these young people’s lives!
“The waves don’t stop!!!!” - And my joy is being able to write this sentence in this letter while sitting in a café with a view of the Pacific Ocean, watching the waves come and go between one paragraph and the next, sipping a coffee. Literally witnessing how all of creation proclaims the Glory of God.” :)
BE A BRIDGE!!!
This was a word one of the students from the Winter school gave me in the first weeks they were here, after dedicating some time to pray for me. It really resonated with what was happening and what I’ve seen God use me for, and a great example of this was being able to be a bridge in connecting a new friend who needed help while in São Paulo with an old and dear friend who lives there.
This connection came through the bridge that brought me to the United States for the first time and connected me with YWAM in California, and as God doesn’t do things without purpose, through this bridge, new connections were formed.
I am very grateful for the way God allows me to have such incredible people like my friend Rafa and Wesley (from Brazil), who made themself available to help Finn (from Canada) find a safe place to stay during his time in São Paulo. :)
KITCHEN AND OTHER MINISTRIES!
Here, I continue serving in the kitchen of our base as God has led me, and each day I see how God has been moving through the most routine tasks and needs of our daily duties, teaching me to be more like Jesus (a task that is not easy, but possible hehehehe). The question I hear the most is: 'How long will I serve as the kitchen leader?' - The answer is, 'For as long as God wants/Until the next direction from God.' And I am at peace and happy with that because I know that better than having everything within my own plans is being in God's plans and timing for my life.
"Leading a kitchen and taking care of everything that’s needed has been transformative, while also an interesting challenge. I trust that during this time, God has used each situation to shape me into a good leader and also a person who honors what is His and for Him.
During this time, I have also dedicated myself to participate in a new ministry - King of Kings, which focuses on building relationships with non-believers to evangelize through the game of Chess - which I am learning how to play. Please pray for that too! :D
IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO TALK ABOUT JESUS!
It’s impossible to live the gospel and have any conversation without mentioning Jesus, and with each passing day, I am more certain of this. A brief testimony I have about this happened during a 2-day trip to San Francisco with my friend Jessica, which turned into 3 days, plus the privilege of bringing God’s love from the beginning to the end of our trip with the people we met along the way.
In a brief conversation with a man at the airport, we prayed for him and his wife, who is sick at home; I shared part of my testimony with the security guard at the Brazilian embassy office, and we also heard the testimony of one of the YWAM San Francisco workers, where we stayed.
These things weren’t on our 'agenda,' and if we look closely, they weren’t really 'concluded' in the sense of seeing people accept Jesus or desire change, but I am sure that these encounters left seeds along the way in the lives of these people. :)
What a privilege to have friends who share the same faith and the same passion for making God's name known everywhere and anywhere!
POLITICAL SITUATION OF THE COUNTRY X MY VISA:
Well, a question that I’ve noticed I've been receiving quite frequently lately, due to the political situation in the United States, is about my visa or my current status. I appreciate the concern and intention of wanting to know how I am, and I want you to know that I am fine, my documentation is valid, and it does not put me at risk of leaving the country. The only thing still pending in my documentation is the fact that if I leave the country, I will need to have an interview with the U.S. consulate to get the visa stamped in my passport, which requires both time and money. Let’s pray that all provision will be available when this need arises.
GIVE THANKS WITH ME!!
For the arrival of the Winter School.
The return and conclusion of the Fall School and for the new beginnings in the lives of the students who return home with a desire to continue faithfully serving God's kingdom.
The ministry of Gamers being trained at our base.
The entire process and the final realization of Carol coming to serve as a volunteer with us.
For the bridges we have and can be in the lives of others, and the ability to create new connections, sharing God's Love everywhere He allows us to be.
PRAYING WITH ME!!
For me to be even more sensitive to the new paths and directions that are coming for my life in this new season.
God's guidance and provision for a possible missionary trip at the end of this Summer.
Clarity for new projects and ideas for the ministry that God has entrusted to me during this time (kitchen) and in the next, according to the movement of His waves.
More open doors, new connections, and bridges to share the gospel everywhere I go.
I know this is a long letter, and I can say there’s still so much more I’d like to include here, but I don’t want it to become a book (yet haha), so I’ll be wrapping it up here. :D
OBRIGADA!!! (THANK YOU!!!)
From the bottom of my heart, I love taking the time to write these letters because I can share a small portion of what God's LOVE and CARE can do in our lives, of which you are a part in some way, whether by encouraging me, praying for me, supporting me financially, or even with small gestures, messages, or reminders that all of this is for our God. :D
Thank you for allowing yourself to be a part of something much bigger that God is doing through our lives.
"For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever!" Amen.
Romans 11:36 NIV
With Love,
Nay <3
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