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Our Bible club has been exciting recently after nearly dying. We were down to around 25 kids when Alexandre came up with the idea of changing our theme. We went from “normal” club to Sector Alpha! Just like that. As I mentioned in a previous post we have a weekly Mission that we have to work on as a team. Last week’s task was to bring five kids with the same name to earn our 5000 points and complete the mission. Even though we fell one kid short we still had TWO Grazieles and TWO Jonatas. Three of the four were nearly yanked from their homes by our own Graziele (left). She is our little missionary and always ready to seek out that unknown kid. GREEN came close to winning our first Gold Star but the blue team took the day again. We had over 60 kids at club. The mission has already been given for this week and it included a bombshell for Sunday. All of the kids that came to club on Saturday had to return Sunday morning for Sunday School. EVERY ONE OF THEM or NO points were giv...

We had a busy week with the 18 man BJ soccer ministry team here from Thursday until Sunday afternoon. There were several exciting opportunities to share the Gospel and literally hundreds heard the message. Many were talked to one on one and several made decisions for Christ! (That is Gil with the kids from next door at right.) Wow! That was refreshing to write. Things around these parts are definitely getting exciting. Which makes it even harder to think about leaving for a year! Our Sunday school class had 10 kids for the second week in a row! And that with 4 visitors. Jose Carlos, a little boy I met while talking with the kids next door, and who basically lives on the street, brought his parents to church last night and both raised their hands for salvation! Carol, Ana Luiza's friend was back too and she also raised her hand at the invitation. Man do we have work to do. I am so thankful for all of your prayers and look forward to sharing what the Lord will be doing in the near fu...

“Dear friends and family, We want to thank you for your prayers and support for our ministry....” How many times have you read those words in a missionary letter? They seem so... general, so impersonal, so emotionless. But here is the missionary's (my) dilema, I want to communicate with each person on my support team. I want that communication to be personal. I want that communication to seem vital and important. I want it to be written personally to you. I want you to know that you are a part of our team; that what we do, we do for Christ, and because of you. I want you personally to know that without you we wouldn't be able to keep doing what we are doing. I would love to put your name at the head of every email, Dear Jack, Wilma, Kent, Sandra, Juan, Steve, Bob, Sylvia, Vicki, Jim, Martha, Rick, Sherry, Ron, Del, Glynn, Greg, Mike, Guy, Tim, Adam, Jeff, Andy, Dan, .... But I can't. I was recently verbally spanked for not communicating more. “What about the people who don...

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...

As Christians we know that One person has made a difference in our lives. We often forget that through Christ we too can make a difference as "one". We remember Adam and the difference that he made. One that we would love to forget. We remember Moses and the difference that he made. Men like Abraham, Noah, Paul all tell stories of one man who made a great difference. Not to forget the ladies; we remember Eve, Sarah, Hannah, Rebeca, Rehab, Mary, Priscilla. All women who made a great difference in the course of their history and ours. When I am tempted to get discouraged I remember these characters and many others in the Bible, and in my life, who, as one person against the odds, made a great difference. This past week, June 4 to be exact, was the seventeenth anniversary of the massacre in Tienanmen Square. To my shame, I lived through that event but never really paid much attention to it's significance until this past Friday. As I was looking at the headlines I noticed one...

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...