Rejoicing in Heaven!

Well, it was back to Habiteto Sunday afternoon. It was a hot day with temps in the 90s. The heat combined with the dry weather we've had has left everything soiled, everyone sweaty, and most of the kids a tad stale. The dog day heat didn't keep the them away from the afternoon Bible club however; We had forty.

After a short opening and a Bible story we have a time where we let the kids talk with us about life in general. Those of you who have worked with kids know that you can learn a lot about a family if you let the kids talk. Often more than you care to know. Just a couple of week ago one little girl came up to me and said, "Man, we had a dead lady in our house the other day and did she ever stink!" I'm not sure what that meant but I didn't ask too many questions either.

In "friend" time I had Hallisom, Micom, and Rafael. As the boys were trying to memorize their verses Rafael had many interesting questions. One was, "When was God born?" After several others I was able to use the wordless book to explain salvation to all three. At the end of club Rafael told me, "I want to accept Christ!" Because of our talk he knew the steps he need to take and prayed to ask Christ to save him. When he looked up from his prayer he said, "And what about him?" pointing to Micom.

I said, "That is his decision not mine." Rafael quickly looked at Micom and said, "Don't you want to be saved?!" To which Micom replied, "SURE I do!" He too prayed to receive Christ. So, there was rejoicing in the presence of the angels Sunday as these two young men came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Now for news from Hope: Saturday we had our normal teen activity and played volleyball. The lessons that Ben is giving on God, this week's title "You can depend on God!", are really an encouragement and the teens are anxious to be passing their memory verses each week. Of course there is a prize involved. The winners will be making at trip to the mountain peaks just outside Sao Paulo. I'm sure that I will be involved in that trek and will have pix from the summit (I'm memorizing my verses too!).

On Sunday we had good attendance in both morning and evening services. During the week too we had a great Wednesday night service. The testimony time must have gone on for twenty minutes. It was a real blessing to hear how God has been working in our people's lives.

This week promises to be busy with all of the moves taking place. With those moves we are also planning and preparing for several Cottage prayer meetings in the month of October. Each Wednesday night we will be meeting in three different houses to be able to contact neighbors and relatives of our people. This Saturday night we will be having a Men's conference with Calvary and New Life Baptist churches participating too. The men will be challenged in the area of missions by a local missionary.