Skip to main content

UpDate

Our Music Conference was a blessing though poorly attended by our sister churches here in Sorocaba. I am learning that good things are worth doing but are not always well received. Over the two days around 45 participated. The majority of these came from Bible Baptist Church in Jundiaí. These brothers and sisters were a real encouragement to us.

We invited a music team from two churches in Curitiba. Pastor Ari, his wife Carol brought eleven other musicians to present and teach. We had classes in choir directing, voice, violin, cello, flute, children’s and adult choir.

Our people really enjoyed being with professional musicians. It was fun to see our kids playing as a part of an orchestra. It sounded great too!

Our little church is really struggling lately. Just last week Dawn and I met with one of our young moms. She wept as she related how that her husband had held a machete to her throat and threatened to cut her head off. Satan has attacked our youth with two of our most faithful being torn from our family. Maicon is still in jail and Amanda says that she is NEVER coming back to church. Even our team has been hit with marital problems so severe that a separation might be in its future (NOT Dawn and me).

Among these trials we have seen blessings. Cido and Zita recently came to the Savior as result of a Conference on Revelation. Cido is a leader in our neighborhood. His life has changed so much over the last few weeks that most of his friends have abandoned him. However, he has invited his newly found church family to have a special dinner with he and Zita at his house in just a few days to celebrate their 100th day of Salvation. We are so excited for this couple.

Cido has friends who do grading. Tuesday he and I will be getting estimates on just that. We hope to grade within days. Alexandre and I visited our architect last Friday to ask why our process was taking so long. We discovered part of the problem. He had lost our plans! We helped him find them and we should have what we need in had by Friday August 3.

We have a team meeting scheduled for Tuesday night and will be tackling some of our coming discipline issues. We are praying for the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and direction. We know that blessing is coming because of all of the bad things that seem to be happening.

Speaking of blessing. We start Bible Club this Saturday. Our Club theme this semester is Missions. We will work for points but will be doing a lot of mission work to get that credit. Should be fun.

Father’s Day is on the horizon in two weeks and each of our four Bible Club teams will be making a film to present to the dads. I have a good idea I just need to get in on “paper” (ie. Google Docs) so that we can make some dads happy. Really I want the dads to be challenged about their responsibility with both their kids and God. Pray that my idea will be a real awakening to these men.

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

Urgent Prayer (part 2)

Does God ever give you a gut punch? He did that just a few days ago when I watched a missionary story from the other side of the world. It was short but poignant, and it punched me in the belly button and brought a few tears too. One thing that shook me was the final statement that the missionary made. He was questioning himself and said, I wonder if what I have done will make a difference. This question comes to a missionary's mind now and again as they ponder how vast God's world is and how tiny one’s work is. As I thought, and identified, with his sentiment, the Lord brought a verse to mind that I had used recently in a youth talk. It was this one in John 12:24, “ Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ” When, in Matthew, the sower sowed his seed, it was the Word of God. Here in John, Jesus indicates that the seed is the life of the servant. Jesus talked of his comi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Church Isn't a Place

  Many times we say, I'm going to church on Sunday. What some fail to understand is that "church" isn't a building. I remember our pastor saying, "the church is an organism, not an organization." He was teaching us the Bible truth about the church. Jesus Christ is the head of the body, and the church is his body on earth. Another pastor once said, "God's hands have human fingers." This is a difficult concept for some to grasp, pun intended. However, it is important to understand that God accomplishes his work through human beings. He uses us, the church, to do his will and work. It's not that if we don't do his will that he is stymied. But he does use willing servants. To be in the church, one must be a part of the family. You cannot be in the church if you don't have the Savior. The church is not for the lost; it is for the edification of the saved. The lost can come and hear the message of salvation. But the church is made up of t...
Post a Comment
Read more