jewellpage.com

I met Tiago for the first time last night and our conversation was a rather short one as conversations go here in Brazil. Alexandre, Dawn, Maicom and I had just finished a couple of other visits when we were directed to Maicom's house for some odd reason. In fact as I got out of the van Dawn asked me something to that effect, "What are we doing here?" We were on our way to prayer meeting and if this chance meeting lasted too long we were going to be late! As I hopped out into the busy street I was almost run over by a speeding mororcycle but that's quite common where we work. Maicom came running out of his house with Tiago sleeply following him in a half-awake stooper (mind you that this was 6:45pm!). After about a minute of small talk Maicom said to me nearly under his breath, "So, where's your Sword?" With a half wink and a raising of his eyebrows I knew exactly what Maicom was doing. He later told me that he had bribed his brother (19years old) wi...

(all names have been changed) There are so many weird scenarios as to why people don't want to accept Christ but most boil down to pride or not wanting to give up a lifestyle. Even in very humble conditions we are finding that people do not want to give up their vices to come to the Savior. There are exceptions, however. Last week I had the privilege of leading one such "exception" to the Savior. Jim has lived a life on the run. Because of a parole violation years ago he was told to "go and dig a hole somewhere far from Sao Paulo and disappear". And that was a police officer's suggestion! The weight of that encounter on Jim's shoulders caused him to do just that. He ran until he reached Sorocaba. Through the years since that horrible day he had sought advice from several "pastors" and each had told him "You need turn yourself in to the authorities". A recent, near fatal, family brawl brought Jim's wife to us crying and ask...

We live at the end of the world! Not really but sometimes it seems that way; especially when all of our friends are moving away. Are you crying yet? The neat aspect of living where we live is that we are but minutes (8 to be exact) from where our ministry is forming and it was God who put us here! How can we argue with that? Well... I don't usually have trouble arguing but I know that it's to no avail. It is interesting how that even here at the very end of the world there are still Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs). For some reason I have always had an aversion to JWs. I'm not exactly sure why but maybe it is because I, as a child, was terrified by my mother, when some JWs came to the door and mom slammed me against the wall half screaming half whispering, "Don't MOVE!!" As the poor souls knocked on our door we were like escaped prisoners, holding our breath and hoping that the police would not discover our presence. Saturday as we were preparing for the arri...

We were going to have visitors for the weekend, very special visitors! The Mini Coral from our Bible college in Curitiba (about 6 hours south of Sorocaba) was going to be presenting special music and testimonies at Faith Baptist of the Habiteto this last Sunday and we wanted to have everything just right for the couple that would be staying with us. Dawn took her special Carf (I think that's how it's spelled) out of the cupboard and gave it a good rinsing out. We hadn't used it since our return to Brazil in August. Just before she set it on the table she gave it another glance and noticed a black speck near the spout. As she pressed down the button of the lid she nearly vomited as TEN (10!) cockroaches began squirming their way out of the opening! One was about as big as our dog (well that might be a slight exaggeration, but it WAS big!). She was SO thankful that she gave the carf a second look. In the end we had a wonderful time with Anderson and Liliane. They went with us...

Last night Dawn and I made visits with Alêxandre. We sat in on a Bible study and felt that the Lord had really blessed the evening with good contacts and insights from the Word. As we were about to leave the neighborhood we stood outside the van chatting and saying our goodbyes when all of a sudden a totally stoned, slobbering drunk burst into the middle of our small group. He approached me and began to spit out his driveling commentary on life. And when I say that he approached me I mean really approached me. He put his one hand on my shoulder and his other on my stomach. Several times during the conversation he tried to kiss my hand. His warm whisky pickled breath caressed my nostrils and I almost vomited in his crusty beard! A quick glance toward his pockets quelled my fear that he might be armed in some way. Our peculiar embrace must have been amusing because out of the corner of my eye I noticed several people (including children) snickering as they passed. For the next half hour ...

Missionary work is like seed planting. You plant and wait. Some crops produce much fruit and some never even grow. Truck painting was never like that. I would paint a couple hundred truck each day in my GM heyday and by the end of the day there were, surprise, 200 trucks in the yard. I got used to that mentality. Paint two hundred and you get two hundred. Missionary seed planting is not at all like that, plant two hundred spiritual seeds and you might get two, or none. Sunday was a rare occasion for me. I was able to plant and see a harvest in the same day. Talk about a farmer's dream (or a missionary's dream too for that matter). We were in Caseville, Michigan last Sunday, ever been there? A Michigander would look at his or her left hand and point to the left point at the top of the thumbnail and say, "That's where Caseville is." Caseville is a tiny town that often burgeons with summer tourists and is virtually abandoned in the winter. One restaurateur told me, ...

I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content . This was Paul's exortation to the believers in Philippi. Interestingly enough he wrote it from a Roman prison, probably chained to a Roman soldier. It wouldn't have been the easiest place to be content. The English sentence, as you can see, is only twelve words long but this tiny lesson speaks volumes. I have learned It goes without saying (though here I go) that Paul had an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That relationship had not kept him from sadness, hurt, danger, or death. But it had helped him to understand that dealing with difficulties was a learned skill. We have all heard of the school of hard knocks. Paul understood that those knocks came from a divine source, the hand of his all loving Father. Discovering the mind of Christ will take eternity. Learning how to deal with difficulty in my own walk is a daily application of the knocks that He sends my way. I cannot always understand why...