Skip to main content

Discouraging

Last week was discouraging. We lost one of our most promising teens because of a comment that I made about baptism*. We had a low turnout on Saturday at Bible Club (22) and our Sunday turn out was very very low (8). Ministry is like that, highs and lows. I don’t like the lows!

Here are some quick prayer requests for tonight’s prayer sheet:

  • Restoration for João, Marcia, Josué and Jonatas
  • Salvation for Marcia, Luiz, Maria, Maria, Daniel, Daniel (no I´m not repeating myself), Benidita,
  • God’s direction for our church building (location and funds)
  • My English class that should be starting soon in the public school
  • Summer work for Abby and God’s provision for her return to Clearwater in the Fall

Along with discouragements came some bright spots. Yesterday, for example, we went to the Federal Police to pick up our “renewed” permanent visas (no that is not an oxymoron). We had applied for them in 2008 but the process became overloaded and took much longer than expected. Yesterday I expected to wait and wait some more but, God blessed our visit and we spend only about eight minutes at the FP. We also noticed that our visas really are permanent this time! That was encouraging.

gramma Another tremendous encouragement was that Ann, Jackson, Gabe and Abby all made it back to Brazil for a short visit! We are very excited to have them with us for a couple of weeks. We’re praising the Lord that both Ann and Abby were able to renew their visas too.

Another couple of blessing that we are watchinggraz are Juliana and Victor who asked Jesus to be their Savior just a couple of weeks ago. Waiting and watching because it is often easy for kids to say the prayer and difficult for them to demonstrate a true decision for Christ.

Saturday, though our Club turn out was low we participated in a special event. Thirteen kids recited Ephesians 6:10-17 to enter the new phase of club called Delta Sector. Hearing them recite Scripture was a thrill.

*João’s mom was recently saved so I mentioned baptism. That comment lead to the prohibition of coming to church.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Twenty Buck Challenge

Well I went and done it! That's bad grammar I know. But I done it anyway. We've been having a Bible study with Esmano and Genesie and their two kids Jennifer and Jadson, for about seven weeks now. This week Jennifer threw out a challenge. "Let's memorize a verse!" I thought that was a great idea. I told them that if they did memorize the verse that I would give them each an American coin. Esmano, their dad usually sits in on the study but he hasn't really been a part of it. When I mentioned the coin idea his eyes lit up a little. I then reached into my wallet and said, "If YOU memorize that verse I'll give you $20 bucks! His eyes really lit up then! Was it a good idea? I doubt it. No one has ever offered me money for memorizing verses. However, this will be the first verse that this man has ever memorized. If he does it. It is not a conventional way of doing memory work and it could cost me a bill for nothing. But if God uses this simple chall...
3 comments
Read more

What About the Property?

Some of you have been asking about the land purchase. In fact I got a note from my friend Tom asking about it just this morning. So, I decided to respond to Tom's question and send the note to everyone on my list.  Tom Funny that you should ask about the property. We talked about it last night in our team meeting. We see three options.  We could buy a piece of land near the neighborhood and build.  We could buy a couple of houses that are side by side and remodel or  We could buy just one house and expand as we grow.  We have R$37,000 ($22,000) available to choose our option. We decided last night to pray and ask God for specific guidance as we proceed. We plan to talk to a man next week about option one . There is a huge piece of property next to our neighborhood and we will be asking him to sell us a 600 meter square piece. If he does we will have our land but no money for construction. If the man say, "No" we will consider that God is closin...
4 comments
Read more

If this is the kingdom of God, do I really want it?

If this is Kingdom Living, Do I Want it? Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. In a study of the Sermon on the Mount to this point we might be tempted to say, “I don’t want to be that happy!” If this is Kingdom living then I want to go to Disney World. This place is depressing.  What Jesus describes here seems to highlight all of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more