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

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...
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

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more