He knows our heart....

For the Last year our choir "Lar Feliz" has been practicing every week! Every Wednesday the same time we try to gather all the kids and have them sing their hearts out. Last Saturday they sang during the service, and you know what? It actually sounded GOOD! Especially the girls , but it was such a pleasure to hear them sing praises to the Lord. I do have to admit though that some voices were, well... what can I say?

But for me, the proud "Father", it didn't matter. I saw their excitement and joy and that was all what mattered. I can just imagine the Lord loves every sound that we try to make for Him. Every sound or everything we try to do for Him. He knows our heart!!

LAST SUNDAY.....

Last Sunday we went to the big shopping mall for Mother’s Day. We were having a wonderful time, when suddenly on our way to the shoe store to get new tennis for Elisa and Jeremy, we heard chilling cries and screams from a woman in the center of the mall. She had lost her three year old son, and was pleading for someone to help her. We, along with a massive crowd around us, stood frozen, not knowing exactly what to do. The woman’s heart-wrenching cries paused for only a moment while the police came on the scene to help. When we then went on to the shoe store, I could still hear her cries, but could only pray for her. Later, I thought of the verse Mat 2:18, “ A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Holambra, Mei 2010






Dear friends and family,



Even though we keep in touch with many of you through email, face book
and other ways, it has been a long time since you have received an official newsletter.

So we decided to get started.

The Lord has been so faithful to us and to Lar Feliz. As a family we are doing well. Jill continues to coordinate the baby/toddler home and that requires a lot of work and patience. She also is part of the worship band in our church and gives flute lessons to two students a week.

Elisa is the 2nd year of Brazilian high school. She has to do lots of studying and reading. Apart from that she does gymnastics in and out of the water twice a week. She has been suffering lots of head ages lately. We took her to several doctors and on the 14th of may we have an appointment with a neurologist. We want to ask you to cover that in your prayers.

Jeremy is doing well in last year of Brazilian Elementary school. A parent committee is busy organizing a big graduation party and a trip of 4 days as well. He loves to play basketball at school. He really is into his x box, which we are trying to moderate a bit. Here is Brazil it is hard to find a good sports club, something Jeremy would need. You can pray for that as well.

I went to Holland for a week in April to be at the wedding of my sister Anja. The time went by fast, but it was great to see family and most of our friends in the Sunday service. My church had organized a lunch after the service so many people stayed to talk and catch up.

Lar Feliz..

Many things have been going on here with Lar Feliz. After the huge project of building the new
home for the babies and toddlers, this year again there are many projects. After dreaming for
many years about a home for 18 years and older, this dream finally came through. We were
able to rent a big home we started our transitional home. A place where young adult receive
support in finding their way to adulthood. Living with us they will have to work, study,
pay a bit of room and board and help in the house hold chores. Right now we have one
young man living there; Paulo. The exciting thing is that the there is also room to start a
bi-weekly youth group.



Another exciting thing happening is our green house project. Some of you know that about 5 years ago we got a big green house donated. Back then we tried getting it of the ground, but didn't have the means to continue. Now we started the project again and are growing native trees. Apart from it being a workshop for the kids it will hopefully bring in a little money for Lar Feliz.

This weekend 15 of our teen age boys went to a retreat of one of the churches helping us. The left on Friday night and came back on Sunday night. When you ask how it was they will answer; Tremendous, it changed my life!! If you ask them what exactly they did while they were there they will answer; if you want to know then just go the next time!!! Pray with us that this time will have been an encouragement for them to continue with their walk with the Lord. The girl will be going in two weeks, please keep them in your prayers as well.

Last week one of our boys that have been living with us for 8 years was adopted by a wonderful family. How exciting to see this happen.

This coming week we will be starting the renovation of the home of the teen-ages boys and after that we will do some smaller projects in the other homes. Some of the labor will be paid for by a local construction company but we will need to raise about 15.000 dollars to pay for all the materials. You can keep that in your prayers as well!!

In July we will receive a team from Calgary, Canada led by Pastor Gordon. Please pray for them as they prepare their stay here.

Finally I want to thank all of you for being so faithful to us and the ministry. It is hard to believe that this year we will be here in Brazil for 12 years!! Pray for strength and energy because as you might imagine, it is not always easy doing what we do!

We are always looking for people to partner with us in prayer and financial support, like we all know prices are going up and the value of the dollar and Euro are going down. If you want to get involved please drop us a note and we can talk!!

May God bless all of you!

Paul & Jill, Elisa and Jeremy

+551938024587
paulvanopstal@hotmail.com (email and Facebook)

If you want to support us financially monthly or with a onetime gift then you can make your check out to The Gospel house Church and send it to:

The Gospel house Church
14707 Alexander Road
Cleveland, OH 44146-4924,

Please include a separate note saying the gift is for The Van Opstal Family
(all gifts are tax deductable)

When she came home from preschool.....

When she came home from preschool, I noticed that she had wet her pants. V. and her brother have been at the baby house for almost a year. When they first arrived, we were all amazed at how quiet they were, but as time went on we could see through their behaviour how much they had suffered at the hands of their mother. Through time, with lots of love and patience, we worked with them teaching to love and trust adults again. We see so much progress and yet, once V. started preschool, she slipped back into some of her patterns like wetting her pants and continually disobeying her teacher. Every day, I send her off on the school bus with a friendly wave, and every day she promises me to try to do better at school. One of these days, I feel certain that she will do better, but for now, we continue to hope and pray for her.