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Let's do a Bible reading today and see if you can deduce the theme of the following texts: Acts 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:  1 Peter 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,  1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.  Hebrews 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;  James 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be...

Asa was a king who soared to victory as he followed God with his life and kingdom. In 2 Chronicles 14 Abijah’s son takes the throne and builds on his father’s tradition of following God. Look what he did: “Asa pleased the LORD, his God, by doing what was right and good. He removed the foreign altars and the pagan places of worship, broke down the sacred stone columns, and cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah. He commanded the people of Judah to do the will of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his teachings and commands. Because he abolished the pagan places of worship and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, the kingdom was at peace under his rule.” He was dedicated to the God of his fathers. All seemed to be going very well. And then it happened. A one million man army descended on Judah from, of all places, Ethiopia. Zerah and his troops came with 300 chariots; the drones of his day. Doom was certain. Why when someone is ...

Saturday was Green Day at Bible Club! My team worked really hard and because of their excellent effort we finally WON first place for the day. With that win came our first Gold Star! The only problem was that it was the last day of competition before the graduation ceremony to Delta Sector. That happens next Saturday. The kids memorized Ephesians 6.10-17 and all that can say it next week in front of everyone will be promoted to that new level of fun. Mother’s Day was special too. We had a great attendance for the second annual Dessert afternoon. There were sixteen mothers present and several family members. Dawn counted eighty-four total! The above pictures the kids giving their moms little presents that Joelma and Dawn had made for them The Lord is at work but the news is not all good. A mom raised her hand at the invitation on Sunday, two kids came to talk to me about accepting Christ on Saturday after club. Those are good signs. The bad news came when one of our faith...

Yesterday, Tuesday, we had our first Bible study with Marcia (left to right: Dawn, Jonatas, Marcia and Joelma, our coworker). She had informed me earlier that it was her birthday and so Dawn made a birthday cake. She celebrated her ___ years with the FIRST (yes first!) birthday cake she has ever had! Man that is hard for me to believe. I’ve been spoiled with about 56 in my lifetime! During the study she related time and again how confusing her religious past has been. At one point she said, “ I have been in church since childhood and NONE of my pastors have ever told me how I could have the Holy Spirit’s peace until you all shared it with me just two weeks ago !” She also had many good questions about spiritual things. Marcia has four sons. It was her teen son João that got baptized just three weeks ago and we are seeing God begin to move in this family. The oldest, Josué (Joshua), is a big 250 lbs teddy bear and is in my juniors Sunday school class. He just LOVES his teacher and...

Saturday at Bible Club we had eleven boys and girls and Eliana came with her kids again. Mara and Carlinhos lead singing and finished telling the missionary story. I brought some games and decided to play one with the kids. BIG mistake. The game I chose was a running game and I was actually trying to get little five year old Sabrina involved. She didn't want to play so I grabbed her hand and started to run. Just as I did I felt an awful shooting pain in my hamstring and began to tumble out of control to the ground. I almost landed on top of Sabrina while actually throwing her down. She scrubbed her knee and as I tried to console her I was thinking... WHAT ON EARTH HAVE I DONE NOW! I got up haltingly and staggered to the wall. I sat there embarrassed and hurting like a dog. But after recovering my composure a bit I was able to share some more Gospel with Eliana. The story that Carlinhos gave was exactly what I needed to ask her THE question, “So, when are you going to accept Chris...

When one is off the net one tends to grab time when one can. As I type now, I am sitting in Ben and Dani's echoing house. I just finished painting the babie's room. Don't panic, there is no baby yet, though I wouldn`t be surprised if one doesn`t come soon (just a guess). Anyway, while contempating life disconnected from the internet I am realizing that one can live a good and productive life with out it. I believe that my spiritual life has improved. My communication with my wife and daughter has improved. And it is refreshing. I am the type of person that can get on the internet and go from one thing (whether, artical, software site, or blog) to the next without much planning or forethought. What was a tool becomes a stumbling block. In fact not long ago I said to Dawn, "Why on earth do I need to know what is going on on the other side of the world?" Not that "keeping up with the news" is necessairly bad, but it can be addicting and a become a time wa...

This is my first blog from the cyber cafe close to home. We have had our second week of our in-home missions conference and our group was a bit smaller this past week. We had 18. Ben had a great turn out with several visitors. Davi too had six visitors which was Shawn, Donna and family. Pray for our two visitors who were Katia, Francisca's neighbor, and Marcio Francisca's husband. Both need Christ. Friday afternoon we had a suprise visit by Annie, Jackson, and Gabriel. They were able to stay with us through the weekend. Sunday we began a baptism class with three participating. Sunday afternoon I went to Habiteto to help with the ministry there. We had a group of over 40 kids. We are gaining the confidence of several families and will be making some visits in their homes soon. Pray for the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Sunday evening Dawn helped put on a special presentation for Children's day and I preached from Matthew 18.1-5. There were several hands raised at t...

What is a "normal" missionary letter? When you read a missionary prayer letter what are you expecting to see and hear? Someone commented to me the other day that my letters are not your "normal" missionary letters. As I thought about that I wondered, "What makes up a 'normal' missionary letter?" and "Do I want to write a 'normal' letter?" First of all I realize that we are living in a world where reading is becoming a thing of the past. Ask most young people if they like to read and you will have very few that say they do. Throw into the pot the words "Missionary Prayer letter" and the percentages will drop drastically. Missionary prayer letters are interesting to those involved in the ministry. Not just pastors, but people like you who read letters (or in this case Blogs) like mine. Though you trudge through names like Zelha, Alenildes, Itapetininga, or Barueri, as you might when reading the book of 1 Chronicles you are...

Seminary and excitement are two words that don't seem to go together. Unless, that is, you are really excited about serving the Lord. Ronaldo has really been realizing God's call on his life lately. His salvation story is really incredible and I'll have to have him share it with you in a future update. God brought this man from the brink of destruction to Salvation as only He can and Ronaldo is seeking God's perfect direction and will for he and his family. He lacks two years of seminary training and would like to complete that at our seminary in Curitiba as soon as God opens that door. Currently the family is living on a shoestring ($384 per month!) so God's provision will definitely be needed. The other day he called me and said, "Pastor, I had the day off today and said to myself, 'I'm not going to just sit around and do nothing today. I'm going to hand out tracts in my neighborhood!'" So for the next few hours he did just that and had t...

It started early Monday morning at the hospital and ended with me leading games at Youth Group (Dawn didn't like that). It actually seemed like a short week with the one day hospital stay and the day of "recoup". We had a pastor's get-together on Friday with all of the local pastors participating. Saturday we had Teacher's training with four different classes. And then Youth Group. It was fun! Sunday morning Carlinhos taught the memory verse for the first time! He's growing. In fact he brought his brother Walter to Prayer Meeting in Wednesday. He says that Walter has seen such a difference in Carlinhos, that he wants to know what happened. So, Carlinhos has offered him a Bible study! In the top picture, Abby tries to catch a cheese-it in her mouth without using her hands, as part of the team challenge games we had on Saturday night. In the other pic, pastor Davi is taunting my father-in-law with a big juicy steak, that he was cooking at the pastoral get togeth...