Dia Gratia | December Update

“I know of nothing so utterly exciting as being a Christian, sharing the very life of Jesus Christ on earth right here and now, being caught up with Him into the relentless, invincible purposes of the almighty God, and having available to us all the limitless resources of Deity for accomplishing those purposes. Can you imagine anything more exciting than that?” 

–Major Ian W. Thomas

Merry Christmas and happy almost 2023!! We are so grateful for you…for your love, support, prayers, and encouragement. The work that the Lord is doing though us is enriched by our amazing supporters from around the world! We are thankful for what the Lord is doing in your lives as we all work together in furthering the Gospel. 

Like most years, this year has flown by and as I pause and take a moment to reflect on this last year, and all the good and hard things the Lord has allowed, it still amazes me that He would use us to be His hands and feet, even with our weaknesses and struggles. I hope I never lose the incredible feeling of wonder that God choose us, such ordinary people, to be part of His great work.  

Calvary Belem- The church is continuing to grow and with it we are seeing more and more people step into leadership positions and into their God given callings. It has been a great year of sharing the responsibilities of the church with others and helping them grow in their new role as ministry leaders. Kyle continues to pour into his men’s leadership team as do I (Krista) with the women’s leadership group. Over the last year we have worked very hard to begin a transition from our leadership to the leadership of the Brazilian nationals in our church and the Lord has been faithful to raise up amazing men and women. Our children's ministry, Calvary Kids, is growing and had an amazing community outreach this year and is praying about having our first vacation bible school this summer. Calvary Wave is a new ministry meeting every Friday nights for the adolescents in our church and from the community. Church in the Park continues each week at the main square downtown.  Open House is our mid-week ministry/apologetic outreach, which uses the church’s coffee shop and live music to draw our community in the doors, especially the students from the large University across the street.  After the music, we have a time of discussion, using an apologetic approach and Q &A.  This ministry is bearing much fruit already!

Proverbs 24:11-After 7 years of praying, and 5 years of working and evangelizing on the streets of Belem to individuals involved in prostitution and human trafficking we are beginning to see some fruit! Each month we have a banquet dinner for these workers and each month the participants for the dinner continues to grow along with their interest in the Bible and Jesus. Our monthly dinners are focused on growing our relationships with them outside of the street evangelism work and we are all really enjoying this special time together. The Proverbs ministry continues to do the prevention/education trips up the river to the Amazonian River communities and we already have 3 trips planned for next year in new communities. The Lord has been showing us that it is time to train and hand over the ministry to the next person, and for the last 6 months we have been praying and preparing my (Krista’s) replacement. 

Fox Family- Our family is at an interesting point in ministry this year. We have always believed that a foreign missionary’s job is successful and accomplished when the work they began can not only be sustained without them, but flourishes under the leadership of the nationals. To this end, we believe we are close to mission accomplished. We do not know when or how exactly the Lord will maneuver things for this, but we sense it is getting close and we are doing all we can to prepare the workers in the church, and the ministries for this. It is always an adventure with Christ, but especially when you are moving into a new season. 

We hope you enjoy the slide show…a brief glimpse of the past year! 

Prayer requests:

- Please pray for the ministry leaders that the Lord is raising up

- Pray for the stamina we need to keep up with our busy schedules

- Pray for the church to grow in their giving in order to become self sufficient 

- Pray for continued financial support for the ministry here in Belém and for our family

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support! 

Much love, 

Kyle, Krista, Aidan and Liam Fox