60% - The Good and The Ugly

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Sixty percent (60%) is more than half, but not quite full. Sometimes 60% is really good. Sometimes it's just plain ugly.

Let's get to the ugly first:

• 60% is about how normal our return to Brazil has been since January 23rd. When we expected schools to start-up in February, COVID-19 got in the way. In Belo Horizonte, elementary schools have been delayed from starting in-person classes for the new school year until Feb 14th. Our kids, and Tathiana, thought that was really ugly. 

• Our COBH team was planning our first team-building retreat since September of 2019. However, COVID-19 got in the way and we decided to cancel for now as we had several positive COVID tests pop-up on the team and in our church.

• Our car needed some service, nothing major, but because of a lack of mechanics and parts caught in the supply chain issue, we are on day 4 of being "car-less". That limits what we can get out and do by about 60%.

• Overall, life and ministry feel about 60%. That's not a complaint, it's still just the overall reality of a late-stage pandemic in a tropical metropolis.

The good 60%:

• Our trip to the US for connection with family and supporters was really great. COVID-19 did limit us some, as during the end of the year the Omnicron variant was in full swing in Chattanooga, TN and Birmingham, AL. We had several meetings canceled and overall decided to not expose ourselves close to our return trip as not to test positive and risk not making our flight back to Brazil. So, the trip was a great 60%. It's better to have a 60% visit than not come at all!

• Lastly, our 20/20 1-Time campaign celebrating 20 years on the field has closed its first 2 months, and we are happy to report that we are already at 60% of the goal, with over $12,000 in donations so far. Thank you to all who have donated, encouraged and prayed for this important campaign. 

Please continue to pray for us as we try to live-out 2 Timothy 4:2, "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season."

Summer Project 2017: #pnp2017

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Our annual Summer Project (in Portuguese: Prosa na Praia) for 2017 is almost here! Our team will spend January 24-31 with a group of students and recent graduates. We are returning to Cabo Frio beach in the state of Rio de Janeiro for the third year.

For this year's edition we made a decision to invest in a better option for housing to facilitate a project that is attractive to students and, also, provides an environment conducive to building community and a shared experience for the students who will attend. Since most Brazilian universities do not have campus housing, time with students is always a challenge, and our Summer Project allows for us to create a unique experience that we rarely get throughout the year with students. Our project is 8 days and involves talks, discussion groups, bible studies and a leadership training option for room leaders. Our project has a more evangelistic scope, continuing with relationships built over the previous year, or even years! For that reason the “greenhouse” effect of relationships and gospel conversations makes this project a great tool for our ministry.

As a team, we made the decision to cover the ensuing deficit that we knew would be incurred with available funds and staff participation. However, an added challenge to the 2017 Project began in October of 2016. Our main campus focus, UFMG, had classes suspended because of a student occupation in protest of a change in Legislation to the Ministry of Education, that was followed by a professor strike. Both these events have severely limited our recruitment for lack of contact with students on campus, and we do not expect to reach the contractual minimum of spots at the hotel.

I ask for prayer for our Summer Project for the following requests:

• For this project to facilitate a momentum for 2017 as we have been tracking with a number of students who are investigating Jesus.
• For young and new Christians to grow in their knowledge and relationship with God.
• For the financial challenges to be minimized by participation from students, graduates and others who are considering joining us.

If anyone would like to consider making a donation specifically to the Project or to help a student attend the Project, please follow this LINK to donate online through the Campus Outreach giving site, with the Brazilian Summer Project already selected. 

Year-End Giving 2014

Many pledged supporters use year-end as a time to make sure their yearly pledge amount has been met, and sometimes give some extra 1-time gifts, or even for some unexpected 1-time gifts from other friends who do not give through a pledged amount.

This year-end, due to the fact that we are beginning a support-raising season and our account balance needs some help, we make a special request to everyone to complete your pledge for 2014. Also, should anyone wish to make any other gifts other than regularly pledged amounts, these options are available:

1. Via donate.campusoutreach.org: if you are a pledged supporter you may have an online account already or need to signup for one. Gifts for up to $100 can be given through credit card or debit draft, however anything over $100 must be processed through draft of a bank account.
2. Via check: make to "Campus Outreach", with "Jon Elam 2180" on the memo line and sent to: Campus Outreach Int'l Network / PO BOX 43737 / Birmingham, AL 35243

Remember, all gifts to Campus Outreach are tax-deductible. Any and all donations need to be made online, delivered or post-marked by Dec 31st, 2014 to be considered for the 2014 calendar year.

Thank you for your partnership and commitment to us and the work of Jesus's gospel in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Conference & Contributions

October 2014 is going to meet me with some drastic climate changes. I will bid a brief farewell to Brazil's dry season finale and its 95º dry-heat and brushfire-smokey air. Then, I will say hello to a brisk Fall in the Southern US. Then, I will close out October with a return to Southeastern Brazil's arrival of its monsoon-like rainy season. These rushed travels do have TWO good reasons; not one of them having anything to do with the weather.

I'll start with the second, but most pressing, reason. During my time in the US I will be meeting with some support contacts and churches in Chattanooga and Nashville to try and raise $6500 in one-time donations. Over the past 2 years, Tathiana and I have had an above-average loss of support for various reasons, and we now need to raise a lump-sum in order to finish the year in the black. If any of my monthly and annual supporters desire to give beyond their pledge, it would be graciously appreciated.

Now, continuing the reverse order, the first reason is that I will participate for the first time in an annual conference of all the Campus Outreach administrative directors in Atlanta, GA. We call ourselves Resource Directors because we want to be administrative teams that are a resource to the front-line work of evangelism and discipleship on the college campus. These meetings bring together conversations and meetings about best practices, networking, vision for the future as a ministry and fellowship between us Resource Directors. In my almost 4 years as Resource Director in Belo Horizonte, I have not been able to participate in person because, well… I live on another continent.

I will be leaving Brazil on October 4th, spending some days with my extended family in Tennessee, then a trip to Nashville sometime in the middle, and finishing up with the conference in Atlanta, where I fly out of on Oct 30th.

Hope to see as many people as I can, and raise as much support as God allows me to.

Trunk Space!

When Tathiana and I were in the US in 2011, one of our goals was to raise 1-time support for a vehicle upgrade.

With family plans in the near future (nearer than we thought) and our little car at the end of its financial usefulness, we were thinking about an upgrade to a mid-size sedan with a trunk! Not only do babies need a lot of stuff, but working with administration for events and retreats requires a good bit of stuff, also (sound and video equipment, materials for set-up, sports equipment, etc…). Our 10+ year-old hatchback was not cutting it anymore (picture, bottom).

So here it is, our new Chevrolet Cobalt sedan (picture, top), the dealership even gift-wrapped it for us! It has a spacious interior for 5 people, large trunk, ABS and double airbags. We have already put a few thousand kilometers on it, filled it full of stuff for retreats and events, and are getting it broken-in for little Elam to arrive at the end of the year.

Thank you to all our supporters who gave to help this become a reality. In a big city like BH and a big country like Brazil with not-so-great highways, this is something that makes a world of difference.