NEWS FROM HQ

Ministering for the Lord in Brazil

Dear Friends,

The country of Brazil is going through rough times today that the people here call “the crisis.” The economy is in recession and there has been a large corruption investigation called “Operation Car Wash.” A system of bribes and kickbacks totaling billions of dollars has been uncovered which has, in great part, led to the downfall of the ruling party and the impeachment of the president of Brazil. There is nothing new under the sun. We are told in the scripture above cited that the ruler of Judea, Felix, was in the habit of receiving bribes and wanted some from Paul. Praise the Lord that at least some corruption has been uncovered and punished these days in Brazil.

“The Fundamentalist”

As we have pointed out before, a great advantage is gained by sending out our newspaper loose in the mail. First of all we do not have to buy envelopes and do not need to take the trouble to put the papers in envelopes and put return addresses on the envelopes. The biggest advantage is that it widens our readership immensely. People in the Postal Service handling the paper can read it. We send most of our papers to churches and everyone who gets the mail and passes it on, like caretakers, secretaries, elders, etc., can read it, not just the pastor. We received a letter recently from an elder who did just that and he said, “I found a newspaper, ‘The Fundamentalist,’ as I arrived at the Bible Study in my church and I was astonished with the articles. I would like to receive from now on the newspaper and for this I leave my address.” We then sent him a packet with about 10 copies of past newspapers, which we do with each new subscription, and he said that “he was delighted with the reading of the articles [in the packet].”

Another thing we are doing is updating and redoing our mailing lists. There are about 6000 addresses in all even though we only send out 3000 each time. We send every copy to our personal list and to churches that would call themselves “Fundamentalist.” We rotate the mailing lists so that the other churches receive the paper about every other time.

There is an evangelistic cover on the latest issue of which we have enclosed a picture. There are the words, “FEW ARE SAVED,” in bold letters which are meant to “hit between the eyes” all who handle the paper. This is what Brazilians need to hear because practically everyone here thinks he is saved. Everyone believes in God and is religious but most are lost. The article then goes through the most common wrong ideas people have concerning salvation.

We took a trip recently to the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul, and gave a brief presentation at a church whose pastor had sent us an article that we had published. There is a meeting of CIEF on June 25 in Campinas. Brazil is again in the world news as the Olympics will be here in August. Ira is still working on wrapping up the earthly affairs of her mother who passed on last year. Pray for Ken as he has recurring allergy problems probably due to the rainforest humidity and mold.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support that make this ministry possible.

In His Service,
Ken and Ira Olson