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Showing posts from August, 2010

Recital / Habiteto

            Sunday Alexandre announced the first annual Music Recital for his students. He has nine who will be participating in either piano or recorder. For kids who didn't even know what a musical note was just a few months ago this is a huge accomplishment! Recital and Habiteto are such contrasting terms. The two words don’t seem to go together. Alexandre isn’t bothered by that misconception. He is so right. When you think about it Habiteto and Gospel don’t go together either. But it is just the Gospel that will make Habiteto a habitable place to live. We’ve seen that change already taking place.   I was talking to a music teacher the other day and he commented on what a change had taken place in Maicon’s life since he had started going to church. I told the teacher that it was the Gospel that had made that difference. It is making a great difference. Alexandre has been working with a group of kids over several months. He has had some piano lessons over the years and he c

Father’s Day 2010

Yesterday at our special Father’s Day activity we had several men. Granted three of them were from Hope and Calvary and three others were “pastoral” staff but it was SO good to have men! We were very excited to have eight from the neighborhood. They seemed to enjoy their time with us and the afternoon was a great time of fun and preaching. There was a puppet show, the kids put on a play; directed by Maicon. The children’s choir sang with the flute troupe and a cello violin trio. Sounds hard to believe but it was great. There also was food. How could it have gotten any better? Overall there must have been  fifty participants. It was fun. One sad aspect, however, was that some of our faithful kids had no family members at this important event. I heard from at least three little ones, “ How can I invite my dad to come when he is in prison? ” What do you say to that one? I said, “We’ll adopt you for the day!” but they didn’t come. Pray for us as we do follow-up on the dads that visited

So… Now what should we do?

We met with the owner of the two houses on Seventh Street and the guy wants $40,000. That seems to have been a deal breaker because we were thinking more in the neighborhood of $20,000. So if you were me what would you do? Get mad? Be sad? Cry? Or, pray some more? No, I mean seriously, what would you do? We have saved half of that money and to tell you the truth we don’t think that the two houses are worth that much. It is the location that makes these houses ideal, however, and thus our dilemma. I remember an illustration years ago where Dr. Bob Gray saw a piece of property that he wanted for his College in Jacksonville, FL. There were some complications and it looked like the deal wasn’t going to happen. However, after reading the story of Joshua, Dr. Gray decided to march around the property seven times kneeling in prayer after each trip. He ended up getting the land.  I personally think that he got his dispensations mixed up but it made for a great story. Is that what we

Pray With Us

We are going to be looking at a couple of houses in the neighborhood this afternoon. We are asking for God's clear direction as to whether to purchase them. They are located in what seems to us an ideal location. For those who have visited us, the houses are on the first street parallel to the main road leading to the neighborhood (Itavuvu). We were initially going to buy land and have saved around R$33,000 toward that goal. We are praying for God’s fair price on these two houses, which we think should be in the neighborhood of R$45,000. If you also would pray for God’s direction with us we would greatly appreciate your support. We will be meeting with the couple right after Bible Club which ends at 5:00pm. Thanks for your help. We truly appreciate each one of you!