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

Daughter and dog...

About six months ago we discovered that Ann was pregnant and were very excited for she and Jackson. We will have babies on this side and that of the Atlantic. We weren't prepared for that news and we we were even less prepared for the news that our little dog is pregnant. To date we have spent more on the dog than on Annie (don't tell her... Ann that is). Ann has yet to discover whether her baby is a boy or girl. Both ultrasound images were inconclusive. Though I did some further investigation of my own and was startled with what I found. to me it looks as if the baby is definitely a boy and has some resemblance from both sides of the family. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.
3 comments
Read more

Entertaining Angels

Hebrews 13:1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hospitality is a gift. It can also be a learned trait. Some people seem as if having strangers in their homes is normal and natural. Others have to fight against themselves in order to have friends over for a meal.  The author of Hebrews says that some have entertained angels when they thought that they were helping a stranger. That's weird. This statement brings questions to mind. Do angels eat? Of course, silly, they eat angel food cake!  Seriously, who in the Bible entertained angels by accident? Well, how about Abraham, Lot or Jacob? Granted, Jacob's treatment of the Angel of the Lord was questionable. But he did wrestle the night away, when in fact that angel could have dislocated Jacob's hip early in the match.  Abraham, read Sarah, prepared a big meal and Lot had to offer ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Music Conference

This is going to be a long post. Just a few days ago I was trembling in my boots as the First Baptist Church of Lake Orion's missions team was just hours from their arrival. My fears were many because I felt that the weight of success or failure of their visit would fall on me and I could see a tremendous failure looming. I knew that the team would come well prepared and ready to minister. I knew that there would not be a lack of talent and experience on their part. I knew that they would have great expectations I just didn't know how our people would react or if they would attend. My fear was that the attendance would be poor and that the team might go away frustrated. God be praised! God be glorified! God be worshipped! I highlight the previous paragraph because my Father deserves all of these and more. Let me explain. It is a wonderful story. The team, Jim and Hannah Watson, Faith Gaskell and Brenda Johnson, arrived safe and sound on Tuesday, July 19 though Brenda lost he...
2 comments
Read more