Saturday at Bible Club we had eleven boys and girls and Eliana came with her kids again. Mara and Carlinhos lead singing and finished telling the missionary story. I brought some games and decided to play one with the kids. BIG mistake. The game I chose was a running game and I was actually trying to get little five year old Sabrina involved. She didn't want to play so I grabbed her hand and started to run. Just as I did I felt an awful shooting pain in my hamstring and began to tumble out of control to the ground. I almost landed on top of Sabrina while actually throwing her down. She scrubbed her knee and as I tried to console her I was thinking... WHAT ON EARTH HAVE I DONE NOW!
I got up haltingly and staggered to the wall. I sat there embarrassed and hurting like a dog. But after recovering my composure a bit I was able to share some more Gospel with Eliana. The story that Carlinhos gave was exactly what I needed to ask her THE question, “So, when are you going to accept Christ like little Samuel did?”
The conversation lasted an hour and she had a lot of interesting and good questions. I thought that she was going to make a decision for Christ. But, not yet. One very encouraging note about the talk was that she said, “Pastor, I had made up my mind to become a Jehovah's Witness until you began your Bible study with my son Eduardo. It was during the study that I realized that the Jehovah's Witnesses were wrong in many of their teachings and that what you were saying from the Bible began to make sense. Do you think I should still let them come to my house?” I told her that with what she already knew I didn't think that it was a good idea to let them keep coming. She agreed! Keep praying for her. She is really close to a decision.
Sunday I was invited to Cristiano and Aline's house for lunch. This young couple has been through a lot of difficulties recently. They were a hair's breadth from divorce just a few months ago. I praise the Lord for using Dawn and I in helping them to salvage their marriage. It was fun to share a meal with them and be able to have some more serious conversations with Cristiano who still is having trouble kicking the smoking habit. Pray for victory in this very difficult area of his life. Pray for Aline too. They are a sharp young couple that God could greatly use in His service.
Sunday evening we had eighteen visitors to a service that I thought might not happen. I arrived at church early to open up when all of a sudden the lights went out. But it wasn't just that I had forgotten to pay the light bill like a few months ago (how embarrassing). The entire city was out! That is about 100,000 homesteads (I guess that the mayor forgot to pay the light bill)! This happened at around 6:30. For some reason I was optimistic and went ahead and “turned on” all of the lights anyway as I whispered, “Father, are we going to have service tonight?” all the while trying to imagine reading my notes by cell phone light.
At about five to 7:00 Ben came to tell me that he was going to WalMart to buy some candles. No sooner had he left the front yard when every light that I had “turned on earlier” came to life! It was really cool because as I looked up and down the street there was not a light in sight but the church was lit up like a roman candle! It reminded me of the scene in Exodus during the plagues when the Jews had light while the Egyptians groped in darkness. Neat answer to prayer. We started the service with about 20 kids a few adults and those same two pesky dogs coming and going to add that Brazilian flavor. After all was said and done I believe that we had over sixty in the evening service.
One very exciting thing that I almost forgot to say. Yesterday morning during our Sunday School closing Mara raised her hand to share a blessing. She said, “Today I celebrate my fourth spiritual birthday! It was exactly four years ago today that I ask Christ to be my Savior. And one of my students Edson accepted Christ as his Savior today” (that is Jose and Eliana's second son)!” And that is definitely a BIG praise! Two down and just five to go!!
I got up haltingly and staggered to the wall. I sat there embarrassed and hurting like a dog. But after recovering my composure a bit I was able to share some more Gospel with Eliana. The story that Carlinhos gave was exactly what I needed to ask her THE question, “So, when are you going to accept Christ like little Samuel did?”
The conversation lasted an hour and she had a lot of interesting and good questions. I thought that she was going to make a decision for Christ. But, not yet. One very encouraging note about the talk was that she said, “Pastor, I had made up my mind to become a Jehovah's Witness until you began your Bible study with my son Eduardo. It was during the study that I realized that the Jehovah's Witnesses were wrong in many of their teachings and that what you were saying from the Bible began to make sense. Do you think I should still let them come to my house?” I told her that with what she already knew I didn't think that it was a good idea to let them keep coming. She agreed! Keep praying for her. She is really close to a decision.
Sunday I was invited to Cristiano and Aline's house for lunch. This young couple has been through a lot of difficulties recently. They were a hair's breadth from divorce just a few months ago. I praise the Lord for using Dawn and I in helping them to salvage their marriage. It was fun to share a meal with them and be able to have some more serious conversations with Cristiano who still is having trouble kicking the smoking habit. Pray for victory in this very difficult area of his life. Pray for Aline too. They are a sharp young couple that God could greatly use in His service.
Sunday evening we had eighteen visitors to a service that I thought might not happen. I arrived at church early to open up when all of a sudden the lights went out. But it wasn't just that I had forgotten to pay the light bill like a few months ago (how embarrassing). The entire city was out! That is about 100,000 homesteads (I guess that the mayor forgot to pay the light bill)! This happened at around 6:30. For some reason I was optimistic and went ahead and “turned on” all of the lights anyway as I whispered, “Father, are we going to have service tonight?” all the while trying to imagine reading my notes by cell phone light.
At about five to 7:00 Ben came to tell me that he was going to WalMart to buy some candles. No sooner had he left the front yard when every light that I had “turned on earlier” came to life! It was really cool because as I looked up and down the street there was not a light in sight but the church was lit up like a roman candle! It reminded me of the scene in Exodus during the plagues when the Jews had light while the Egyptians groped in darkness. Neat answer to prayer. We started the service with about 20 kids a few adults and those same two pesky dogs coming and going to add that Brazilian flavor. After all was said and done I believe that we had over sixty in the evening service.
One very exciting thing that I almost forgot to say. Yesterday morning during our Sunday School closing Mara raised her hand to share a blessing. She said, “Today I celebrate my fourth spiritual birthday! It was exactly four years ago today that I ask Christ to be my Savior. And one of my students Edson accepted Christ as his Savior today” (that is Jose and Eliana's second son)!” And that is definitely a BIG praise! Two down and just five to go!!
Thanks for writing this.
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