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For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5.10) I have had more than my share of spotlight experiences. I ran track in high school and was the anchorman in our 880 yard relay team. In one meet in particular our team was tied and our 880 team would be the deciding race. The gun sounded and the boys ran hard. As I received that baton all seemed a blur for the next 220 yards and twenty-three seconds. As I breasted the tape an amazing thing happened. I was swamped by exuberant team mates who were yelling and screaming our victory. It was one of those, “head held high” moments that you want to last forever. Being a missionary has had moments like that too. Speaking before large congregations, leading mission type trips overseas and building churches in foreign lands has often put me in the undeserved spotlight. It seems rare air. Here  in Brazil, on the news daily, there is another type of spotlight show. It is a national news program called, “Cidade A...

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...

I sit here at 9:59 PM Mid-Atlantic Time, knowing very well that I need to get up at 4:00AM to make the two hour trek into the international airport in São Paulo. I sit here and am petrified! Why? Are there burglars outside my door? Not that I know of. Am I sick? Nope. I have been sick about two week now but am finally on the road to recovery thank the Lord. Am I afraid of the dark? A little bit. So, then, why am I petrified? I am trembling about our pending Music Conference! An event that will probably be a delightful experience and will enlighten us all in this very important aspect of life and I’m in a fuss. Silly isn’t it? It probably is but my mind is a flutter with the many things that remain to be done. How many people will come? How many lunches should we order? How much will all of this set us back financially? What if nobody come? What if too many come?? WHAT IF…. It is ONLY a TWO day conference for Pete’s sake! What could go wrong? Probably nothing. But, I have never had ...

I am BIG TIME owing an update! Much has happened in recent days and much is on the horizon. Sounds ominous doesn't it? Its not. Our club took a break at the beginning of July and we ended with a bang by visiting a local National Park about a half an hour from Sorocaba.  We took almost the whole Bible club for this special hike. It was a fun and exausting day and a great way to end our club at winter break. On July 6 Alexandre, Dawn and I took four of our teens and one of my Juniors to Maringá, Paraná. It was a nine hour trip and our first Missions trip. Those who participated were: Amanda, Dani, Graziele, Alison and Mirela. The team worked together like a well oiled machine. There was no grumbling, complaining or whining. We had a great time getting to know the ministry of pastor Claudinei and his wife Eleaneu (I don't think that I spelled her name correctly). They are a very sweet couple and helped our stay to be a delight. We got to visit some of the spe...

Dawn and I love dogs. We have had a dog almost non-stop since our wedding day way back in August of 1975. We counted just the other day and could name: Fido, Domino (though we had her for just a couple of weeks), Butch and Babs. These were all of our BB (before Brazil) dogs and came as boy, girl, boy, girl over twenty-two years. When we arrived in Brazil in “97” we noticed something different about the country. They have no Humane Society so at times you might see five to ten dogs walking down the street with nary a one having an owner. Things here have changed over the years and animals are being babied more now but there is still the occasional horror story. Dawn saw one just a couple of days ago but I’ll not go into details. Our Brazilian brood has included: Sammy, a mini-pincher, Old Dog, a street mutt that I took in for a few months and eventually had to put down because he bit two neighbor kids. That is another story in itself. Also included were Ursinha, one of Old Dog’s wild-...

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6.12) Our enemies are not corporeal. They are headless, brainless and body-less. They are not people. Don’t give me that line Paul! I have a nasty neighbor and I’ll admit that he is brainless but body-less, don’t believe it! He is real alright and he has a huge sound system to prove his reality. I remember another example from my football days which will also prove that enemies have bodies. It was the fall of 70 and football practice was in full swing. We were in one of the worst losing seasons of Oxford High school history which made each practice session a misery. To top off the fun coach Armstrong had devised a new instrument of torture to delight all of his disciples. The contraption consisted of about ten posts in two parallel lines. Each set of opposing posts had a rope that spanned them. Thus the ten posts formed a sort of morbid tunnel. The drill was to test I don’t know what. In today’s reticent world it would have bee...

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6.12) Don’t you just hate long and laborious explanations? I want to get to the goods in a hurry. Save your verbose tirades about how something works and let’s just get to the plan. If I want to know all that other stuff I’ll Google it or ask my Facebook friends! We live in the information age don’t we? We can research the minutia without lengthy preparatory narratives right? Well... I guess it really depends on the subject doesn’t it? Some times we need extra information to get the job done right. Paul gets into a seemingly lengthy introduction to the believer’s armor in Ephesians chapter six. He starts out well with these words, “ Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. ” Cool so far. So, Paul, just what is that armor? It is at this instant that Paul goes into a lengthy aside. Notice what he says in vers...