5 days of a missions conference

1 Sunday morning meeting

2 clearances to leave for the field (need 6)

1 car totaled (Sarah’s car but we weren’t driving)

1 offer for our condo

1 rough draft completed

2 Seminary classes listened to

1 Conference listened to

2 many fill ups with gas

This month has brought trials that Sarah and I have never faced before. We are so grateful that they are only minor in comparison to others. God has been very good and faithful to us. We have so much to learn as a young couple. We are sure that there will be many trials to face on the mission field and throughout life that we need to trust God to take us through.

We are getting excited about arriving in Brazil soon, Lord willing. The month of June could possibly be our last full month in the US this year. We are praying for a second half of July departure for Brazil. (If we do not make it by August, we have to wait until next February). Our support has gone to around 87% with a couple individuals (who have told us that they would support us) not included in the percentage. We know that God could bring in the support (600 more per month) over night. As we prepare to leave, would you please prayerfully consider being one to help in pushing us over the top? Every bit will help especially with momentum. We are praying that we will be at 100% by the end of the month of June so that we can buy plane tickets, get our Visas, and make final preparations as we leave.

Thank you so much for you all’s prayers.

All for HIS glory,

David and Sarah Carrel

There is just too much to tell so for all those who say I write too much, I am going to make the letter brief, but also have a link to where you can read more.

We left at the beginning of the month to drive through Ohio where we had a meeting at Mill Creek Baptist and then shared briefly once again at my uncle Drew’s church in State College, PA. From there we went to Field Prep Seminar. We learned a ton while there. Everything was so practical and applicable for us right now. In fact, since being home we have started to do all they were talking about in getting prepared to leave.

This past weekend we drove down to Panama City Beach where we met the youth group from Blackburn Road Baptist Church, one of our supporting churches. They were having a youth event where they were at the beach for the weekend. I spoke 5 times (and Sarah taught the girls once) while we were there from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning. It was tough suffering through all the heat and sand, but we understood our role as ministers during this time of prefield. We were sad that we had to leave early, but glad for the opportunity to speak at Tiftonia Baptist Church in Chattanooga. We had a good time there and had the opportunity to meet a couple of missionaries that were attending their church. It was especially neat when it only took 15 minutes to drive home after a meeting! That doesn’t happen very often.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. We are still right at 83%. I can talk all I want about leaving, but unless we receive full support, we will not be cleared to leave. So please pray to that end. The date we would like to be able to buy our plane tickets for is July 15. Language school in Brazil starts in August, so it would be good to get there and get settled in and then be able to start language school. Please also pray about our Visas. We are going to be applying for them soon and I just received an email from our administrator sharing a prayer request for Amazon missionaries and their permission to be in that area of the country. I will post the article that he attached in case you would like more details about that. It sounds like it may be more difficult to get Visas now (and it was difficult before this also).

If you would like us to go to your church before we leave, please let me know as we do still have some dates that are open.

Thank you all and God bless. If you would like to read more, just follow this link: http://davidcarrel.blogspot.com/ (There are three posts I just wrote)

All for HIS glory,

David and Sarah Carrel

The Dream Giver, The Way of the Master, and unChristian are three books that I have read or am reading this month. We must, as Christians, keep thinking. As we read more and more information and take that in view of Scripture, we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul wanted to know Him and to make Him known and I hope that we all strive to do the same.

Along the lines of knowing Him more, a lot has happened in the lines of discipleship this month. Sarah is currently planning to meet, or meeting, with three different girls about discipling. She met with Tait last week, who is an eighth grader. She is also meeting with Melody and Laura who are in college. I finished up going through books with Brian, a college student. He is already wanting to work with some guys on his floor and possibly another young man in high school. Matt and Anthony, the other young men I have told you all quite a bit about are now starting to disciple some other kids in the youth group. I asked Matt how his first meeting went and he said "awesome!" So needless to say, I have been excited about that. Praise the Lord for the opportunities. I am thoroughly convinced that we all have opportunities to fulfill the Great Commission that we often miss because of our lack of initiative. I am mainly talking about myself. There are so many times that I should speak out about my faith and I don’t, or that I should talk with someone about doing the right thing, and I don’t. I say, take Nike’s advice and Just Do It.

March 5, I drove down to Florida to speak at Mill Creek Missionary Baptist Church. Sarah was not feeling well due to a nasty week long flu bug. So I went by myself. The church was very gracious in receiving me. The first member in there asked me how old I was, haha. Of course, if you have had us come to your church, that question was raised at some point during our time there. Sarah felt right at home this past Sunday in Alabama where we presented our ministry. After telling them I was from Michigan, I said that Sarah is from Alabama, and everyone cheered. Isadora, an exchange student from Brazil who was saved at their church, asked if we spoke Portuguese. It was a blessing for Sarah to spend some time with her over lunch learning more about Brazil. Afterwards, Sarah said that she couldn’t wait to get to Brazil.

Please pray for us this month as we go to Field Prep Seminar where we will receive more training. As we head there, we will speak in Ohio on Wednesday and then update my Uncle Drew’s church in State College, PA Sunday morning for a couple of minutes. When we get back from FPS, we will head to the beach in Panama City to be the speakers for one of our supporting church’s youth events. Then we will come back to a church in Chattanooga. Please pray for these meetings. We know you will and we thank the Lord for you all. God bless.

All for HIS glory,

David and Sarah Carrel

As Sarah’s uncle gave the invitation Sunday morning, he asked for all those who were saved to raise their hands. Then he asked for those who were not sure of their salvation and wanted prayer to raise their hands. While he said thank you to those putting their hands up, Sarah’s elbow brushed my shoulder on its way down. Surely, I thought, Sarah does not believe that she is not saved. I could not believe it but prayed that if she really was not saved, she would go down and get it settled once and for all. Immediately as we stood she went down the aisle and repented for her sins placing her trust in the Lord Jesus and what He had done on the cross and gave her life completely over to Him to do with it whatever the Lord pleased. I wish that I could say I was completely overjoyed as I went down front to be with her. But instead, I would say that I was in shock. How could my wife not have really been saved. (That means I dated and married an unbeliever, something I would advise against).

I went home still confused and went up to my room to think about it. Sarah had doubted her salvation before, but I thought that she was just being attacked by the devil to cause inconsistency in her Christian walk. But I know that she believed in what God had done for her through Jesus Christ on the cross. Yet, I know that according to James even the demons believe in God and tremble (but I don’t think that they are on their way to heaven). So what was it that was missing in Sarah’s life before this past Sunday? A little while later Sarah came up to the room and explained it to me. She said that when she had gone down the aisle with her mom before she had just responded to a salvation message. She remembered thinking, I cannot tell God that I am a sinner with my mom right here (she never repented of her sins). Then she had never completely given her life over to the Lord to do with it as He pleased. I am really excited now about what God has done in her life. (If you have facebook, Sarah has done a video of her testimony and you can view it).

This last week has really given me a new view of salvation and how God saves us. Seeing that my wife had just gotten saved, I even prayed many times asking God if I needed to get saved. Some of us have grown up in church with so much head knowledge, but could really be missing out on the heart knowledge. We all need to examine ourselves and see if we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Now, on the missions side of things, I believe Sarah’s salvation explained to me two different reasons for my previous frustration. First of all, why we are still here in the U.S. I heard that a saved missionary is probably a lot better missionary than a lost one. Secondly, why we had two different meetings scheduled for the 24^{th of February, the day that Sarah was saved, and they both were cancelled. I was pretty frustrated over that and it was not until this morning that I put that together. Praise the Lord for no meeting that day! This month I was able to meet with several younger people for discipleship reasons. On one day I was scheduled to meet with three different people (1 didn’t pan out, but that is ok). That is definitely not the norm, but oh how I wished it were.}

This next month is huge for us support wise. We are currently at around 80% and need to be at 85% by the 21st of the month. Please pray, pray, pray that if it is the Lord’s will, we make it there. Of course we know that if we don’t, it will be for some reason, God only knows, (that will frustrate the life out of me until I know, haha). Also, please pray for us as I really believe that we are going to be attacked spiritually during these couple of months before we leave. I believe that with a couple of little things, it has already started. Thank you all so much for your prayers! We love you all.

All for HIS glory,

David and Sarah Carrel

"Dave, don’t you want to take me home?"

"No, I love you, have fun, bye."

I know it sounds harsh, but that was Sarah and I’s last few words before I left Sarah to speak at a girl’s all nighter at Starkey Road Baptist Church in Florida. You see, Sarah never lived in a dorm through college, so she never adapted to going to bed past ten or so. She also grew up saying that she would never have anything to do with public speaking. So when Pastor Lancaster and Pastor Dean talked to me about her doing this speaking engagement, I knew that we would have to choose our words wisely. We convinced her and then Sarah and I learned something about ourselves with those opening words; women think emotionally (she was nervous about speaking, didn’t know about staying up all night, and thought she had a loving husband who would see those needs and rescue her) and men think logically (we drove 9 hours to Florida for her to speak, she was on the schedule, there is no way she could back out). The focus that night was on making girls feel special for who they are in Christ. They had Sarah speak on the topic of self-image. I heard that she did excellent, which did not surprise me, as I heard her practice 3 or 4 or 5 times with me. She did a great job of relating with the girls as she has had the same struggles growing up. And of course, Sarah is too sweet to ever be a boring speaker. (Maybe that is just my opinion, I don’t know). But I was so proud of her for going and speaking for 45 minutes to 50 girls at midnight! She has since caught up on her rest and can now say that she spoke for 45 minutes.

This month we were also able to visit two churches in North Carolina along with visit with some friends from there. One of the churches was Sunset Road Baptist Church where my friend Brad Willoughby had been helping out with the youth. The other church was New Hope Baptist Church in Salisbury where the Lord has been doing a great work.

This past Sunday we were back at the church that was the first to start supporting us, Crosspointe Community Church. They had a missions dinner in culmination of missions/stewardship month. The interviewed some of the people running their ministries and then Ryan Hill one of their missionaries and my friends in Thailand via Skype (a computer program where you can use a webcam and actually see who you are talking to) and then Sarah and I were there live. We had a lot of fun with that and hopefully were able to explain a little about God’s will, discipleship, and more on Brazil.

I had mentioned in the last update about discipleship and from that I have already been showing one person a little bit more on discipling and have also been able to challenge other. Please pray that the Lord will have His will in that area of ministry.

Praise the Lord we are at 78%. Please pray that we will be to 85% for sure by March and 100% soon after that!

Thank you so much for your prayers.

All for HIS glory,

David and Sarah Carrel