The next adventure

Finally enough news to warrant a newsletter! Here's a copy of what I sent out to all the fabulous people on my mailing list . . .

Dear Friends and Family, thank you so much to all of you who have already joined the “Get Kelly to Brazil” campaign. Your prayers and financial help have been essential in getting me to this point. As I write this letter I am only days away from a departure. I decided to stick around home a little longer than originally planned, mainly for the chance to meet my brand new baby niece! And spending the holidays with my fam isn’t so bad either. The timing of my exit could not have been better. These past few months I’ve been able to see everyone, do everything and wrap up this chapter of my life exactly as I wanted to before beginning the next adventure. I’ve been willing to go for a while; now it’s really exciting to finally be ready and able too.

I will leave Florida after the first of the year and begin language school in Campinas, Brazil on January 9th. I will be living with an amazing local woman, Tia Zezé, who opens up her home to missionaries studying Portuguese. She knows very little English, so it will be an intense language and cultural immersion experience for me, no doubt! In June I will move out to Chapada dos Guimarães to assist a local organization that’s coordinating and hosting a huge meeting of indigenous Christian leaders from all across the Amazon Basin. They’ll be strategizing about how to reach out to their own people, and Bible translation will definitely be a big part of that. Following the conference I will continue working in CdG as a volunteer coordinator. I’ll be hosting short term mission teams and helping long term volunteers get to Brazil and get acclimated once they do. Our work in Brazil will not only focus on the indigenous people of the Amazon, but also empowering Brazilians to get involved with Bible translation in other Portuguese speaking countries, like Angola and Mozambique in Africa.

Thank you again for your support, encouragement, standing with me and just believing in me. I couldn’t do any of this without you. Don’t forget to check my website, and please keep me in your prayers. You are appreciated! Love, Kelly