Hi, My name is Ellen Patton and I live in Brazil on an island at the mouth of the Amazon River where we serve with Encompass World Partners. I have a masters degree in electrical engineering, but God called me to leave that behind, when, ironically, my husband and I went to the Philippines and the Solomon Islands where we lived without electricity while working with Habitat for Humanity in the early years of our family.
I have always loved stories of global workers and Christians in other countries and the joys of how they saw God at work. I grew up in a wonderful Christian home and a church that was like family. While in Junior High I spent the summer in the Netherlands as part of an exchange program. These things fueled my desire to serve God where he would choose.
Currently, I am struggling with what is to be my role now that I have just entered that time of life know as ’empty nest’ and have more time to work in ministry. Our three sons and two daughters-in-law live in the states. Our daughter also serves cross culturally as a teacher at a school in a different region of Brazil. I love being a mom and home schooled when we moved from the city to the island. When we lived in the city near a school I taught pre-calculus and calculus.
In the past we worked with local teams, encouraging the local church to reach out to witness and build relationships with those on the islands where life is different than the city. Literacy is low in this part of Brazil, so we share stories from the Bible. I have worked with children, teen girls, and women. My husband has worked discipling other Christian workers, some of which have lived with our family. When we moved to the island from the city a few years ago, I designed our house and we helped build it. During the week we hosted construction workers and during the weekend, ministry workers.
We have recently returned from home ministries and a sabbatical. During our sabbatical the Lord provided us with a wonderful place for rest and renewal and strengthened us to return. Multiple times he used complete strangers to bless us and give us encouragement. The Lord impressed upon me the need to take times of rest, to spend more time with him and delve deeper into a real faith.
I enjoy photography and published a book entitled Amazon Prayer with photos of the Amazon area where I live accompanied with scriptures and prayer ideas. I have also written a number of published articles and edited a book on raising guinea fowl. We have taught Storytelling while on home ministries.
More information is available through our web site www.pattons.org
Please pray I gain an understanding of the role the Lord has for me and the doors he is opening for ministry and those he may be closing.
Pray I will travel on a closer walk with the Lord and have a stronger reliance on him and his strength.
We want to be a light shining in the dark. Pray Christ would shine into our neighbors lives through us, through our obedience to God and through the truths of the stories in his word we share with them.
Pray for our safety, both physical and spiritual. The darkness desires to banish the light of Christ, but he has overcome, victorious.
Thank the Lord for the many prayer and financial partners that allow us to be here and for his continued confirmation that we are where he wants us.
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