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 What a title right? I'm thinking of Romans 3:1 where Paul asks, "What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?"  This was always an avoided subject in Sunday school, especially in a mixed class. We didn't use the "C" word. Too wierd.  Paul is bringing up this topic for good reasons. He wants to show that the Jews definitely have had a great advantage during their history. In the next verse he tells one of them when he says, ... "First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God." The first jew talked to God in person. God chose Abram to be the father of many nations and to bring the blessing of the Messiah to the world. The Old Testament is the story of the Jewish nation. God dealt with the Jews throughout the ages of the time before Christ. They were the chosen. But in all that blessing they ended up crucifying the Messiah.  With all of their advantages the Jews came short of the ideal....

There are certain friends who I would love to ask this question. It seems like a fairly straightforward inquiry. Only three words that cut through the spiritual fog and right to the point. It seems that a short, one word, answer would quickly follow. Yes! No! Period.  However, it seems that salvation, the Bible way, is a cloudy issue for some. To be saved, in their perception, means that some sort of work has to be achieved. Things like: baptism, giving of money or time, helping the poor or needy, all are considered as part of the salvation process.  It is true that the many religions teach such things. There must be work. For why would God accept us without a decent effort at goodness? It doesn't make sense. We have to do our best or we don't get to go to heaven. Right?  Let me first say that good works do play a part in salvation. However, they are not the aspect that saves. They are the results of Christ saving work showing itself in our life. Before salvation we can ...

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...

  We had a great weekend of activities at Faith Baptist of Sorocaba. Saturday night we took six teens to a youth rally at Hope. There were over a hundred teens there to hear a great challenge from the Word. Earlier on Saturday afternoon we had over fifty kids at Bible Club. Many had participated in club in the past but had left for one reason or another. The club's new theme has a "Mission Impossible" type emphasis. Each week the three teams get a "Mission" that they have to work out during the week. On Saturday they come with either a successful or a failed mission. Success brings boo-cu points and failure brings latrine duty! The Green team (mine) did really well Saturday but we were edged out by the blue team 1300 to 150. The Red team got latrine. During club a little boy showed up that I wasn't exactly excited about having. He is a little "demon" or at least that is what I've heard. His name is Alex. He lives next-door to our newest ...

We had a wonderful week! It's great to be able to spend this special time of the year with good friends.  Wednesday we visited João’s mother Marcia. João was baptized last week and his mother was touched by the message. During the visit our coworker Joelma shared her testimony and Marcia made a profession of faith! That was a VERY great start to the Easter weekend. Friday we showed the film Thief in the Night . Do you remember that movie? It was hard for me to get over the goofy clothing and old cars. Did we really look like that back in the 60s? Our group, however,  thought that it was a very interesting film and they had questions about Christ’s return. It was a rainy night but we still had ten that watched and ate popcorn. Saturday at Club we had about 38 kids and teens on another rainy day. Bible  Club is in a bit of a transition. We now have three teams in what is called the Alpha Sector ! The teams will compete for rewards, special outings and a promotion t...

Working on a missions team has its wonderful benefits and God has allowed my family to do just that for a little over eleven years now. Needless to say we have learned a lot. In fact when God helped me to realize that He was calling me to the mission field it was because a visiting missionary, during his slide presentation, mentioned that he was going to work in Brazil as part of a team with his brother. I talked with him after his presentation that morning and now, eleven years later, am still a part of that team with Shawn and Donna Alexander and Ben and Dani Jacobs! Granted, the team has changed over those years but the goal has remained the same. We want to make and mature disciples of Jesus Christ who reflect Him in every aspect of their lives with the goal of becoming disciple makers themselves (cp. 2 Timothy 2.2). One of the many advantages of team work is that we often find ourselves serving in different corners of the world simultaneously. Take today for example. Shawn is head...

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...

For five months my Juniors have been saving their nickels, quarters, and dollars, to buy a special Bible for a missionary. It is the Child Evangelism Bible, recently translated into Portuguese, with tons of resources in it. It is an excellent tool that every missionary (or Sunday school teacher for that matter) should have. The cost? R$98.00! That is more than most of them have ever seen in their young lives. During the weeks of saving it has been fun to watch them counting the change, adding it up, and being anxious to give more. The day finally came, last Sunday, when we reached our grand total goal of R$101.50! So, I set a time for the class to go into town to pick up the special gift. There is a really nice little bookstore called Imago Dei (the Image of God) which has many good books and several that I would love to be able to purchase for our class library. We're praying to that end, that God would open someone's heart for a book purchase. Anyway, we went to the store an...

This week has been distinguished by many blessings. The Easter week is of course our privilege as we remember the Power of the Gospel demonstrated in the death, burial, and resurrection, of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. I will be preaching on that blessed event tomorrow from 1 Corinthians 15. Pray with us for souls saved. This week too has been bringing healing to my surgered arm. Is surgered a word? Anyway I am even now with my keyboard propped up on one side of my chair so as to get a “non-hurting” angle for my left arm. I’m progressing! I didn’t want to imagine two months of the hunt and peck method of communication. On Tuesday Ed and I made a visit on a young lady and her mother. Naomi had visited several weeks earlier and works so much that it was difficult to get a visit in. Both she and her mother had some good questions though she left us with the understand that she is searching for a certain feeling before she will be able to “fit into” the church. Ed explained that faith...