Skip to main content

November 12 2006

November 12, 2006

The weather here is lovely! One year ago, in the States, we were taking pictures of the first snow that we had seen in years. This year it is back to the same old boring 75 to 80 degrees with sunny skies. Ho hum! What else is new? Are you feeling jealous yet? Hope so. Why, because we would love to have you come down for a visit. We haven’t had any visitors since our return. What's more is that you could participate in ministry with us. That would be fun wouldn’t it?

And, speaking of ministry, we had a very good day Sunday. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a special service dedicated to testimonies, special music, and a good message from the Word. We had a good number out for the service and we had some visitors too. There were many tears of joy shed as families spoke of how God had blessed them and how they were used to be a blessing to others.

We are in our fifth week of Bible study with Carlinhos and Mara and the questions that they are asking are more and more interesting. We are seeing them grow before our eyes. We also started a study with another couple, Cristiano and Aline along with Ludmila. There are many dificulties in these three young lives but nothing too big for God to handle. We are excited that God is allowing us to be a part of their lives.

We will have our annual couples retreat this Wednesday and should have a good turnout with the three churches participating. I’ll send pix.

Davi and I visited with Eloine this week. She visited our church last Sunday with her grand daughter Aline. Pray for their salvation. Their's is another sad story that I’ll tell in another entry.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

God Made Clothes

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Gen 3:21 I have always heard the following explanation of this verse.  Because Adam and Eve had sinned, they died spiritually. They also lost the right to be in the Garden of Eden and were cursed in other ways. For example, they had made clothes out of fig leaves, but God sacrificed a lamb; thus, God shed blood and made clothes. This sacrifice of an innocent lamb symbolized what Jesus Christ would do in the distant future.  Is this what you have heard? I don't know; it seems like this interpretation is stretching what Moses wrote in the above text. The text says that  God made clothes for Adam and his wife from skins.  We see no blood, we don't know what kind of skins, nor can I imagine God making an animal sacrifice. Did God have to skin animals to make these clothes? Or could he have just made them like he had everything else in the universe just a little while earlier?  To th...

What Are You Worth?

What are you Worth?  Have you ever thought about what you are worth? In investing circles there is a term used to gauge this exact question, it's called Net Worth. You take all of your assets, like property owned, funds in your bank account, clothes, jewelry, car, etc.. You total all of these things. You then take everything you owe, like mortgage, car loan, and credit card debt, and you subtract these items from the first total. This gives you your net worth. That number represents where you are financially. Most people never stop to think about this number because they don't understand anything about it. They never have two nickels to rub together. They live from hand to mouth and know (or at least believe) nothing will ever change so, they fall into the "daily grind" mentality. Psalm 49 should be a great encouragement to such as these. The sons of Korah write about them. These sons write about all of us. They call all people everywhere to listen to their wisdom. Bo...

Who did What?

We see Abraham lying at times. He twice told people that his wife was his sister. He was worried that someone might kill him because his old wife was so beautiful. In the text that I read today, he comes into territory ruled by Abimelek and tells the great fib. Not too long afterward, the king takes Sarah into his harem.  Lately, I have become interested in real estate investing and have learned quite a bit in the last few years. One crucial lesson acquired was that I need to treat investing as a business and not have too many sentimental attachments. Years ago, I would rent with a "charitable" mindset. I kept the rent low on my only rental because I was "helping people (friends) out." I kept that rent low for 20 years. For those years, that rent never moved from $650 a month.  Granted, we could keep the property and barely pay the maintenance and taxes, but the rent was low. It wasn't until I turned that property over to a property manager that I realized what ...