Skip to main content

God is at Work


Lately my notes have been rather dismal. But let me assure you that God is at work! You might remember that a few weeks ago I related the story of Ana Luiza (“Something Happened on the Way to the Orphanage”, and pictured at left in her "car" that I made up for our Sunday school contest). God has used this little girl recently to impact several lives.
She is an incessant little missionary who is always inviting her friends and family to come with her to church. In fact her dad, Paulo, has told her on a number of occasions that he would come.
Almost every week Ana comes to me and says, “My dad is going to come to church next week.” I know that for some reason he is stalling and my mother's old saying comes to my mind, “Tomorrow never comes.”
Ana, however, doesn't give up! Just the other night after service she interrupted a conversation that I was having with one of our men, “PASTOR... come quick!!” “Ana, just a minute I am talking with Nelson.”
Out of the corner of my eye I could see that she was squirming with excitement. She interrupted again a few seconds later “PASTOR... come quick! My DAD is outside!”
I hastily excused myself from my chat and literally bolted out the front door to greet Paulo. He seemed to be hiding around the corner but I went after him. I grabbed him and acted as if I was going to drag him into church (sounds drastic doesn't it. It was!). “I can't come in pastor! I'm in shorts!”
Needless to say he was a bit embarrassed but I really wanted him to know that we wanted him in church. As we talked he again promised that he would come ... “next week.” He's still a no-show.
But recently, another development has surfaced that might speed Paulo's arrival. Tais, one of his blood daughters, went to Japan to work a few years ago. Many Brazilians do. They go to make the big bucks and hope to return with money to invest in a house or a car. Tais went for exactly that reason but while there she met a young man named Miller.
Miller is also a Brazilian who went to Japan to make money. Through a set of circumstances they were introduced and fell in love. Miller and Tais were married just about a year ago in Japan.
Now, however, both have moved back to Sorocaba and are living for the time being at Ana's house. So, you already know what has happened; Ana has invited both of them to church. Last Tuesday Dawn and I made a visit and also invited this young couple to church. Both Miller and Tais seem to be searching for some type of a “religious experience” and I was able to share some of the Gospel with him. Wednesday Miller came with Ana and later told her that he really liked the Bible study!
So, let's pray that God uses Miller's excitement coupled with Ana's dogged determination to help all three (Paulo, Miller, and Tais) to realize their need for Salvation in Jesus Christ. That would be another exciting chapter in Ana's story!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tottering!

I was watching my one year old grandson, Brandon, today. He had on some baggy little shorts, weird flip-flops over his socks, and he was tottering. It made me think about how I often feel these days. Funny how that when we are little and "innocent" and tottering in our baggy pants, with our little potbelly sticking out from under our t-shirt we look precious. When we are older and tottering in our low slung trousers and the same potbelly, we looks pathetic! I guess that the two drastically opposite points of view are based on the viewer's chronological perspective. Brandon is growing and I'm dying. He is cute because the little guy has a lot to learn and we love to see him progress. The old guy has already had his chance at learning and what he is progressing toward is not quite so much fun to ponder. When I have these weird thoughts I praise my God because He never lets go of my hand whether a tottering little guy or an old one. And I found this verse to prove my po...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Missionary Thing

"I wish I could get into this Missionary Thing!" I have heard this statement a number of times during my missionary career. People say it in feigned jest. Especially when they see something special happening to missionaries. Tonight for instance a friend loaned us his brand new Chrysler Sebring. Or how about this one, Someone once gave us $10,000. I think that the "Missionary Thing" statement is a reaction to perceived preferential treatment. Granted, I had never receive $10,000 in a lump sum offering until I became a missionary. I had never had anyone give me a car, house, apartment, computer, airline ticket and myriad other things until I became a missionary.  Being a missionary does have it's definite benefits. One of the biggest of those being that we get to do what Paul did. Paul was able to recount his story to perhaps thousands before his death at the hands of Nero. We are still feeling the after-shock of his message. Paul's is that Christ-like exampl...
Post a Comment
Read more