Survey Trip to Venezuela

Dear Friends and Family,

 As part of our outreach to the whole Amazon Basin which comprises parts of various countries besides Brazil, we are planning a survey trip into Venezuela to seek God’s direction in opening our work there. We already see God’s hand at work. The Venezuelan Consul to Brazil who lives in Boa Vista, the capital city in the state of Roraima, is a Christian and member of our church there. He volunteered to accompany us on this trip which will facilitate our travels because of his influence and knowledge of the country. Besides the Consul and his wife, the team will also be composed of two families from Boa Vista and Becky and me. Becky and I will fly to Boa Vista on Sunday, January 15th. We will then travel by commercial bus into Venezuela where we will be renting a minibus for the remainder of our travels. We will actually meet up with the Consul in Venezuela as he is there on vacation but giving up his time to travel with us. Becky and I will return to Santarem on the 30th.

Please be praying that we would be strategic as we visit a number of cities and regions of Venezuela seeking God’s direction on how, when, and where to begin an effective work in the country. Pray for God’s protection as we travel and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit as we seek God’s will.

We love you and thank you for standing with us in this endeavour.

In Christ,
Jeff and Becky

2011 Wraps Up

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been an incredible year!  Becky and I visited most of our bases during the year, encouraging our workers as well as sharing on missions and family life.  Becky also led a team from Brazil to Japan for a 50 day outreach to the tsunami and earthquake devastated regions of the country.  Both the Japanese and our team were deeply touched.  Becky can’t share her experiences without crying.

Our whole family was present for a big family reunion in W. Va. to celebrate my dad’s 90th birthday, mom’s 80th birthday and our 35th wedding anniversary!  We also spent a week in Orlando with our immediate family before returning to Brazil.

Hrubik Family Reunion

Debbie is getting married on May 19 so we are now making plans to arrive in the US a couple of weeks before the wedding so Becky can help with all the preparations.  We would love to see as many of you as possible during our visit.  We will take advantage of the time to participate in a board meeting and also share the vision in as many places as possible.

Becky and I feel so privileged to have you as part of our team participating in what God is doing here in the Amazon.  Thank you again for your love and support.  Please let us know how we can pray for you!  It is a pleasure for us to be involved in your lives also!  May God pour out His richest blessings upon you in this coming year!

God bless you!

Jeff and Becky

PS – for more photos and an update on each one of our kids, download our Christmas letter and check out the second page!

Click to download the Hrubik Family Christmas Letter

Looking Forward to Seeing You!

Becky and I will be in Canada and the US from May 1 to June 21. We will be visiting churches, organizations, family and friends during our time there. For those of you who know my parents, Dad (Joe) will be celebrating his 90th birthday and Mom (Sarah) will be celebrating her 80th birthday. Becky and I will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary. We will attend the graduation of our youngest child, Debbie, who will be receiving her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Oklahoma University in Tulsa, OK. We will also be participating in our board meeting.

Our agenda is pretty full and we hope to see as many of you as possible. We do have some free time during the week of May 30 to June 5 as we travel from Charleston, SC up to West Virginia. So, we would be available to share at your church or meet with you or a group in your home if you live in states along our route.

We do have a need for a vehicle for our big loop from central Florida up to West Virginia and back to Florida. If you happen to know someone who could loan us a vehicle, that would be a wonderful blessing. You can let us know by emailing us at hrubik@myfastmail.com.

Here’s how our agenda looks at the moment.

May 2-3, Vancouver, BC
May 3-6, Edmonton, AB
May 6-9, Calgary, AB (includes board meeting)
May 9-11, Tulsa, OK –Debbie’s graduation
May 11-18, Chicago, Indiana, Illinois, Chicago
May 18-20, Syracuse, NY
May 20-24, Central Florida
May 24-29, Birmingham, AL; Atlanta, GA; Charleston, SC
May 30-June 5, Georgia, Tennessee, N. Carolina, W. Virginia
June 5-12, Joe & Sarah Hrubik family reunion near Beckley, W.Va.
June 12-19, Jeff & Becky family reunion, Orlando, FL
June 19-21, Miami, FL
June 21, return to Brazil

Please pray for us as we seek to maximize the opportunities to share what God is doing in our lives and the ministry of PAZ. Thank you for all you do to support this work and our family. God works through you every day and we are so grateful for your involvement with us!

God bless you!
Jeff and Becky

2010 Year End Letter

Click to view the 2010 Hrubik Family Letter

Here’s our 2010 Hrubik family newsletter. Click the picture to download it and have a wonderful new year!

Twins, Japan, US, and São Paulo

Grandparenting is so much fun!

Rebecca and Anna in their stroller

The twins are doing great. Little Anna is still off the bottom of the growth charts, but her development is normal and both of them are very active! Clck on this link if you would like to see a short video of them at Nate and Ruths’ blog:

Baby Video

Inauguration in Japan

The new church building in Japan

PAZ Japan is inaugurating their new church/office building in Japan in March. Two of our board members are going and through a generous gift, Becky and I are going also. We’ll put out another update shortly about the building reforms and inauguration but we just wanted to let you know the schedule for our trip as we hope to see some of you while in the US.

March 10: leave Brazil for Japan via Miami and Chicago
March 15-20: sightseeing, visiting works in Japan
March 22-26: visit S. Korea
March 26-27: family conference in Japan
March 29: leave Japan

East in the U.S.

On our return from Japan we are taking advantage of passing through the US to spend Easter with my parents and visit family, friends and organizations in the Richmond area. Here’s our schedule:

March 29: arrive in Richmond, VA
March 19-April 6: Visit family, friends, donors, and organizations in the Richmond area. Celebrate Easter!
April 6: Head to Miami and do final purchasing (we get to take 70 lb bags from Miami!)
April 8: Return to Brazil

Ordination in São Paulo

Pastors Bruno and Beth!

I am writing from São Paulo. Becky and I arrived Thursday to spend time with our daughter Beth and her husband Bruno. They will be ordained as pastors this Sunday and we wanted to be here for this very special occasion. Two years ago when they started working with the youth here, there we about 60 youth attending the church. Now there are over 500! The Lord has truly blessed their ministry!

Thank you!

Thank you so much for your prayers for us, our family and PAZ. It is making such a difference in our lives and the success of God’s work here and around the world. May God bless you richly!

Jeff and Becky

Straight from the delivery room!

Nate and Ruth’s blog has various photos of the delivery. One of the nurses got some good shots for us! To see them, just click on this link:

Delivery Photos

Be sure to scroll down to see all the pictures and the picture and text of “the promise blooms” — our “rainbow” reminder just before delivery!

Appreciate you!

Jeff and Becky

Prayers Answered!!!

At about 10:40pm our time (8:40pm EST), two beautiful little girls were born to our daughter Ruth and her husband Nate! I don’t know who cried more–the babies or all of us waiting! As the babies were born, Becky, accompanying the birth, called me on her cell phone and I put it on speaker phone so everyone could hear the babies’ first cries (great lungs!), Ruth’s laughter, and all the excitement going on in the delivery room!

Ruth is doing great! Rebecca Joy (2.60kg–5lbs, 12 oz) and Anna Grace (1.6kg–3lbs, 8oz) are beautiful and will be in the nursery for 3 hours for observation before being taken to Ruth’s room.

The blood tests showed Ruth’s platelet level to be high enough to just have the spinal block–another big answer to prayer!

Now we ask you to continue to pray for a quick recovery for Ruth, that her milk will come in quickly and that there will be no complications as the babies adjust to life outside the womb. We’re not going to let down our guard!

We’ll have some pictures later.

Your prayers make the difference!!

Jeff and Becky

9 PM (7 PM Eastern) Delivery Tonight

Ruth’s doctor called this morning and said that he wants to go ahead with the delivery of the twins. He feels that the dropping platelet count is serious enough to go ahead and schedule the surgery for tonight at 9pm rather than wait for the exam results. Ruth will be checking into the hospital shortly.

What about the blood tests?

When the blood results are in later today, the platelet count will determine whether she can have a spinal block or will have to have general anesthesia.

How to pray
• That the platelet count will be high enough to allow Ruth to have the spinal block rather than general anesthesia
• Successful surgery
• For a healthy, vibrant Rebecca Joy and Anna Grace
• No adverse reactions to the anesthesia
• Quick recovery for Ruth

If you are available at 7pm Eastern Standard Time, would you intercede on behalf of Ruth and the delivery?

We are at real peace about the situation. Yesterday Ruth was having a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions so there would be major concern to wait until the doctor returned from his travels. Ruth cannot go into true contractions because her last delivery was a C-section and there is a danger the uterus could rupture during a contraction.

We talked with the anesthesiologist yesterday at church (he goes there too) and he answered a lot of our questions about the risks. We all felt a real peace if it was determined that the babies should be delivered now. We were also informed that additional incubators have arrived in Santarem so that there would be no problem of availability if they were necessary. And both our anesthesiologist and doctor have access to the resources of the new regional hospital if there were any special needs (the hospital is on strike!).

Becky and I are pretty emotional right now–in the good sense! We are going to be grandparents tonight!

We appreciate all the loving responses to our e-mails. God bless you all!

Jeff and Becky

Congresso Begins! Surgeries End! Pregnancy Continues!

Our big evangelistic crusade at the city stadium starts tonight and goes through Sunday. Strong winds and rain on Wednesday night damaged the huge sets for the drama presentations that will occur during the crusade. The coordinator of the event was pretty discouraged and they are working around the clock to get everything repaired for the presentations tonight. Please pray for Forta and his team as they work to finish all the mounting of the sets and coordinate final rehearsals.

Also pray for good weather, protection, and an outpouring of the Presence of the Lord as we believe for the salvation of 2000 souls through this crusade! We are experiencing a lot of spiritual warfare and are counting on your prayers!

Great Surgery!

My follow-up surgery to remove the catheter between my kidney and bladder went very well on Tuesday–painless, quick, and with no complications! When the doctor showed me the catheter after they pulled it out and I saw the curly “pig tails” on each end which kept it in place, I was especially thankful for the general anesthesia! Thanks so much for your prayers!

Also, we just talked with Ivanildo’s wife and Clea said that Ivanildo continues to improve. He remains in the hospital receiving antibiotic treatment. The doctors don’t want to do the cortisone treatment for his eyes because the high dosage could cause undesirable long term effects. His eyes continue to be crossed with double vision but the doctors are pleased with his general improvement.

Please pray for his continued recovery and especially the restoration of his vision.

Ruth with her girls

They’re girls!

While I was in the hospital, Ruth had a routine ultrasound and the doctor confirmed that she is carrying twin girls–Rebecca and Anna! It was amazing that the doctor could read the name tags on their wrists! Just kidding–Nate and Ruth had already picked the names!

Here’s a picture of Ruth at about 18 weeks. She is in good health but just a little anemic. Please continue to pray for Ruth’s continued good progress in her pregnancy!

God bless you!

Ivanildo Improving and Jeff’s Surgery

We talked to Ivanildo’s wife, Clea, last night and she said that Ivanildo is out of any life-threatening conditions. His infections are under control and other symptoms are being treated. However, the doctors still don’t know what the root cause is. Ivanildo still has double vision and one of his eyes has moved into a “crossed” position. The doctors believe they can treat the condition with cortisone but do not want to do so until all other diagnostic tests have been performed as cortisone treatment could mask those results.

Please continue to pray for his complete recovery.

Clea also wanted to thank all of you for your prayers. She knows it is making a huge difference!

I will be going in for surgery tomorrow morning (Tuesday) to have the catheter removed that was put in from my kidney to the bladder. It should be a quick process and I’ll be under full anesthesia. Please pray for complete success of the surgery and a quick recovery.

Again, thank you for all your prayers. It’s wonderful how the internet makes it possible to have the body of Christ around the world praying for you!

God bless you!