Flying High on Wings Like Eagles

Closing Shop in POA

2009-01-23T21:28:00.003-03:00

Our ride in Porto Alegre has been a great one! We have had some rough times and some exciting and blessed times. The Lord has been good to us during our journey in Brazil. We look forward to moving on and seeing what He has in store for us in the future.

That being said, I would like to thank you for following along on this blog. This will be my last post on "Flying High on Wings Like Eagles". I am closing shop in POA.

I will start a new site for our family and friends (in the U.S. and in Brazil). I would like to try to limit the traffic on the new site to the people that we know. So, if you are a regular reader and would like to find out what is going on with us today please leave me a comment on this blog with your email address and I will send you and invitation to our new site.

Hope to see you around! Até!

Saying "Good-bye"

2009-01-18T14:38:00.001-03:00

Although saying "good-bye" is one of the toughest things to do (in my opinion) it is necessary sometimes. I am learning from others and from our experience that if you must say "good-bye" you should do it right. Don't leave anything unsaid. Don't regret later that you didn't make an effort to be with someone or say something important even if it would have been difficult.

We have been saying our "good-byes" over the last couple of weeks. It has been our first priority to meet with as many people as possible to express how much we love them and appreciate them. We have had meals with families and couples; Jennifer has had time with a couple of her close friends; and I had the chance to go camping with my good friend, Tiago. We are trying to take advantage of what time we have left in Porto Alegre. As of now, the countdown is at 9 days. We leave on Tuesday, January 27th at 6am.

Last night we had our big good-bye. Our teammates, church family and friends threw a going away party for us. It was very special for us to receive this blessing. We were presented with a framed verse, a photo album of our church family and friends with messages, and Elisa was given a present of 2 great books. In addition, they put together an amazing slide show of our time here that definitely made the tears flow! The whole experience was very moving.

I would like to share some pictures of our party in the slide show below. Hopefully, you will feel the love that we felt in the smiling faces you will see.

One Month Away

2008-12-27T13:49:00.000-03:00

You've all heard the saying "time flies". After our time in Porto Alegre, Brazil and being the daddy of a 2 and a half year old I really believe it! One month from today (January 27th) we will board a plan and leave the place we have called home since March 9, 2004.

Jennifer's parents were here for a visit last month. They left on November 27th to return to the States. We marked in our minds the date of December 27th (today) as a half-way point between then and when we leave Porto Alegre. It is hard to comprehend that we are at the half-way point.

Today, Jennifer and I were talking about how we only have a few more weekends left to spend with a particular couple that we are close to here. Some of those weekends are already spoken for, so there really isn't that much time. It made me have the thought "we are running out of time and I don't feel like I have had enough". I know it is time to "move on", but saying all the good-byes is tough. Especially when you want to do it right and make an effort for it to be meaningful and not just a one-armed hug and a "tchau".

Well, those are my thoughts for today. I'm sure that I will have many more to share as January 27th grows nearer. Until then...

Overdue Update

2008-12-22T13:57:00.002-03:00

I stated in the last post that it is hard to find time to post on the blogs. That is so true! Today I finally made a post on the "Elisa Blog". If you are interested in seeing what is going on with our family I recommend you click here. Thanks for stopping by!

Relocation Update

2008-12-04T14:08:00.001-03:00

It is getting difficult to find time to blog. There is a lot going on, but almost too much to sift through and mention in a post. I do have the time now to share some details with our faithful readers a "relocation update".

In preparing for a move of this magnitude there are certain things that really set things in motion. You can talk about the move all you want for as long as you want, but before you do certain things all it is is talk. So, here are 4 huge things that we have done recently that puts this beast on the road of no return.

1. We turned in our 30 day notice to the real estate office and owner of the house we are renting that we will be moving. Once this is done there is no turning back. We, at the very least, will be moving out of our house.

2. Last Saturday (and continuing until we don't have anything left) we had a garage sale. We made the decision to sell a lot of things that we either don't need or could easily replace in the U.S. This will make the move much easier. It is hard though, because in many ways we feel like we are already in the camping stage (no dining room table = lots of picnics on the living room floor; dismantled bed = sleeping on a mattress on the floor).

3. This week (on Monday) we bought our one-way airline tickets from Porto Alegre, Brazil to the United States of America. Again, this is huge and makes everything that is happening so much more real.

4. Today (only an hour ago) we hired a moving company. They will be here on the 15th of this month to pack our belongs and load our container. They will store our belongings until our departure date on January 27th, then they will put them on a freighter and send them to the States.

We can tell that Elisa is a little troubled by all this and doesn't really know what to make of it. Please keep us and especially Elisa in your prayers as we continue moving through this transition. We need wisdom, peace and unity as a family. Thanks in advance for remembering us.

Over the next several weeks I will do my best to keep you all up to speed on what is happening. Don't read to much into a lack of blog activity. We are just really busy.

Peace.

The Invisible Woman

2008-11-08T21:52:00.002-03:00

This is a great lesson! I hope it blesses you like it blessed me.

Thoughts on the Presidency

2008-11-05T12:08:00.002-03:00

I want to start this post by congratulating Mr. Obama on his new post as Commander in Chief. I didn't vote for him (or Mr. McCain), but I have tremendous respect for the accomplishments that he has achieved. Unfortunately, when I got on-line early last month to register for my absentee ballot it was too late. I missed the deadline by just a few hours. I am still disappointed that I did not have the opportunity to vote in such an important election.

In my opinion both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain would make a good President. I believe that both have the respect of many, both love the United States of America, both have good hearts and both are intelligent and capable men. Having said that I also think that both men have flaws. But, to paraphrase the words of Jesus, who among us doesn't. No one is perfect, not even the President.

I have been appauled at the nonsense I have heard and read about both of these men, especially Mr. Obama. Americans are really good at pointing the finger and accusing others of all sorts of things. I honestly don't know who would be a better President between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama. I will say though, that as a citizen of the United States of American I will support the current President, the next President and all future Presidents no matter their party, color or gender.

You may ask how I would go about showing my support. I am a Republican, but I am a Christian first. I believe in the power of prayer and I plan on exercising it on behalf of our elected officials and leaders. As a Christian I feel that I have the responsibility to lift Mr. Obama (or Mr. McCain had he won the election) to the Lord in prayer. Many people feel that Mr. Obama's ideas and strategies are bad for the country. Why not pray about that then? More than anyone, Mr. Obama needs prayers for wisdom and strength. He needs prayers for clarity of thought and courage. He needs prayers for conviction to always do what is right not just for the American people, but for all people. The greater percentage of Americans felt that he will be able to lead us in the right direction. Let's join together in prayer for this man and his staff and all the other leaders of our nation. I believe that his heart, mind and soul will be moved to always do the very best thing - to make the best decisions if he is constantly covered in prayer. Let's pray.

What I Will Really Miss About Brazil

2008-11-04T12:22:00.006-03:00

As the time for our departure approaches I spend more time reflecting on my time in Brazil. I don't mean that I sit around dreaming the day away. I simply reflect and take in this 5 year experience. Over the last few days I have made a small mental list of what I will really miss about Brazil. Some things hold quite a bit of significance for me while others are just little perks. Here is my list:

I will miss our team the most. For those who are still here, Matt; Paul; Kevin and Benay, I will miss you deeply. I can't even write this without tearing up. We have had some great moments and some really difficult moments. We have grown spiritually in ways I never expected. Through it all I am so glad that the Lord put us together. Please know that each of you will remain in my prayers throughout the years to come. I love you.

I will miss our church family. I haven't gotten to know everyone in this particular group at the level I would have liked, but I honestly don't think that is possible. I will miss our time worshiping together and learning together. I pray that the Father bless you each with a special strength as you strive to know Him and His will for you and your life. I love you.

I will miss the Salgado Family. My family has spent a lot of time with Claudio, Rute, Keity, Jenny and Lhaumar over the last couple of years. Again, just thinking about saying good-bye to this beautiful family makes me emotional. I will hold you in my prayers to the Father each day; that He will bless you and that you will each grow in your faith. I love you.

I will miss all of our good friends: Dani, Alexandre and Ana Luiza; Milton and Julianna and their girls; João and Clarice; José Carlos, Paula and their family; Fabio and Thaís and baby Natalia; Tiago; Cesar; Paulo Renato and many more.

Okay, now that the ones that make me a bit weepy are out of the way I will hit the less emotional, but still important ones:

day and over night trips to Gramado and Canela.
churrasco (Brazilian bbq) - it can't be touched!
the way Brazilians as a people love children. I appreciate so much how strangers treat Elisa and other children. I wish the world as a whole would adopt a love like this.
the botanical scene. Our city's landscape is amazing. We have the most beautiful trees, plants and flowers. I will miss the nature in this city of 3 million!
the local restaurant scene. Brazilians aren't into the chain restaurant thing as much as Americans are. I love the different places to go and how your palate can have a variety of experiences.
believe it or not - speaking Portuguese regularly. I am not a great speaker, but I fear that I will lose some of my ability to communicate in Portuguese after we return to the States. I will work at keeping it up, but I will miss speaking it everyday.
our car. We drive a Honda Fit and it has been great. We have never had a problem. Not one. I think we would ship it back to the States if it were possible.

I know I could probably think of more things, but this is all that really stands out. When the day comes I will say "tchau" or "good-bye" or "later on, dude!", but I will always hold each person in my heart. I will speak for Jennifer when I say that we have grown to be different people because of our time here. God has used our Brazilian experience to produce fruit for the future that we don't yet know exists! Isn't that amazing? Because of our struggles and our searching we now see things differently than we did when we first moved here in March of 2004. What we have gone through here is our stepping stone for what ever comes next. This has been a part of our journey that will take us where He wants us to go. I'm glad I will miss all the above things because that means that this has meant something - it will always mean something. Always.

The Date Is Set

2008-10-23T19:48:00.001-03:00

Well, there is still an incredible amount to do as far as our move back to the States is concerned. We are planning to have a massive garage sell (which is not a typical thing in Brazil) on November 29th and will spend the month of December packing the rest of our stuff.

We still don't know what city will be our final destination. We do know that we will have a period of up to 6 months with our sponsoring congregation in Colorado Springs while I look for a job. Most likely, we will end up in Texas.

One important bit of information that we do know is our departure date. We will board a plane and leave Porto Alegre, Brazil on January 27, 2009. If ever there was a "bitter-sweet" this is it. We are happy to have the date, but leaving what we now know as home will be difficult.

We won't actually land on U.S. soil until February 4th. From January 27th until February 3rd we will be on a "transition/debrief" vacation. Continent of Great Cities and Mission Resource Network highly recommend a time for missionaries to go on a vacation before they get back into the American life. This will be a good time for our family to relax and reflect upon our time as missionaries to Brazil.

Like I said, we still have an incredible amount to do. We will do our best to keep you updated as things progress. Until then, tchau!

Kid's Day

2008-10-16T16:48:00.002-03:00

Of all the places that I have been to in the world (including the United States), Brazil has got to be the most kid friendly. Brazilians have a love and respect for children that is really unique. I appreciate so much the way perfect strangers treat Elisa. It is not unusual for us to be in the grocery store or at the post office or any where really and have people kneel down to Elisa's level and speak to her with genuine interest. It is a really sweet thing.

I'm not sure when it began but among many, many Brazilian holidays we celebrate Kid's Day every October. The 2nd Sunday of the month is full of festivities for children to enjoy throughout the city. Going to the mall the Saturday before is exactly like going to the mall on the 24th of December in the U.S. - crazy! Most children receive multiple gifts as if it were Christmas.

This year we celebrated Kid's Day with the Salgado family at their house. We told Keity, Jenny, Lhaumar and Elisa that we love them and appreciate them. Then they all opened presents. I think they enjoyed themselves.

It is pretty neat to have a day for children just like we do for mothers and fathers. It makes them feel special and appreciated. We really should make more effort celebrating the innocence and joy that children bring us. After all, Jesus did say, "I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

A Hard Life

2008-10-06T20:50:00.003-03:00

During our time in Brazil we have met a few folks who have their fair share of struggles. Some go through the most difficult of situations that I really can't describe on this website. Some seem like they were destined for a hard life. We probably all know the person that tries and tries, but can never seem to dig out of that enormous hole they are stuck in.

As I write this post I am thinking specifically about Diane. I wrote about this weary, young mother once before around 3 months ago. You can get caught up on her story here. A brief summary is: she is a young mother (I think she is 24) of 5 who has struggled to keep her children in a good environment. She has a job now, but comes to us once or twice a week and asks for bus tokens. We listen to her and try to provide some form of advice and comfort. There is usually some kind of extreme circumstance going on - sickness, lack of food, social services taking the kids because of poor living conditions, husband getting injured at work site, etc. The main thing the last several months has been the health of one of her twin girls, Pamela. She is sick with cancer. It is easy to perceive that Diane doesn't understand the seriousness of the situation, due to her lack of education, but she trying.

When I think about the brief summary above I think, "how could it possibly get any worse? This seems like a bad made-for-TV movie." But it is real. It is very real.

Now it is time to share the most recent hardship of Diane. About a week ago she came to our house. Normally, Jennifer speaks with her, but she wasn't home. So, I went out to visit with her. I could tell something was wrong. She told me that her 58 year old father had died. He had diabetes and pretty much drank himself to death. Although she is only 24 she is the oldest sibling, so she was in charge of the funeral arrangements (her mother had already passed away). Can you imagine being 24, the mother of 5, about to be the mother of all your younger siblings (ages 3 to 20 or so) and in charge of your father's funeral arrangements? I can't. I talked with Diane for a while and gave her some bus tokens so that she could go and take care of her family.

A few days later we saw her and she proceeded to tell us the following: she left her twin girls (they are 5 or 6 years old I think - remember, one has cancer) with their godmother for a couple of days while all this stuff is going on with her dad's funeral and trying to figure out what to do with all the siblings. She sent someone to pick up the twins, but the godmother wouldn't let them leave. This is a major inconvenience since they are poor and have to spend more bus tokens going back and forth, etc. When Diane went to get the girls, the godmother and the girls were gone. Just gone. Kidnapped. Apparently, the godmother took off with the girls with no intention of giving them back. So, Diane started trying to track them down. Somehow she found out that they went to a neighboring town. She went to the police who told her to wait 42 hours. She came to us asking for more bus passes so she could go to this town. We told her to let the police handle it and to try to stay calm. What else was there to do? I can't even imagine what she was going through. I kept telling myself "maybe it is all just a big, BIG mix up. Bad communication. Maybe the godmother messed up the days or... I don't know!"

We found out just today that Diane went to an old employer and asked for help making flyers with the girl's picture. Very smart. They posted the flyers all over the town where they thought the girls and the godmother were. Someone saw the flyer and recognized the girls. They called to notify Diane. Then someone else saw a flyer at a bus stop while the girls and the godmother were standing there waiting for a bus. They called Diane immediately. Diane, the ex-employer and the ex-employer's son (a lawyer) went to the bus stop. Luckily (thanks to God) they were still there. They were about to head to another state! Unbelievable! Diane probably just had a matter of minutes before her girls would have been on a bus leaving the city. Diane has her girls now and the godmother has been arrested.

Can you believe all this? It is so difficult for me to wrap my mind around this kind of turmoil. I have been stressed about our upcoming move, but frankly I confess that my biggest complaint lately has been the problems we are having with our high-speed internet and our phone. We have no problems! None!

I wrote this post because my heart goes out to Diane. I know the Lord's heart goes out to Diane too. He longs to save the lost, the down trodden, the broken. He has a heart for the suffering. She is the definition of suffering that only Jesus can heal. There are so many scriptures that could come to mind when I think of Diane's life, but only one really hits me right now.

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31

Diane needs to trust in the Lord for the strength that only He can provide. I pray that He would give me and Jennifer the wisdom and discernment to know how to minister to this hurting soul and to allow His Spirit to work through us to bring her comfort and rest in Him.

4 Months Left

2008-10-04T15:19:00.002-03:00

It is hard to believe that we only have 4 months left before we head back to the US. What a crazy time to head back too! The financial crisis has us scratching our heads, but we trust the Lord and know that He will put us where we need to be. Over the last 4 years the strength of the dollar has dropped significantly, so we actually have some experience being in an on-going financial crisis of sorts.

Anyway, we have transitioned out of our responsibilities here (for the most part). I still meet with the other team guys once a week for prayer and updates on the work. I am grateful for that time. Prayer with my brothers is so vital for me. I also meet Paulo Renato and Cesar for lunch on Tuesdays. After our lunch, Cesar and I have a Bible study.

We are doing what we can right now to prepare for our life in the States. I am working on professional development to renew my teaching certificate and Jennifer is studying for the GRE. She will take it later this month. She is leaning heavily toward returning to school to get her Masters next fall.

As our time winds down we are trying to spend time with individuals and families that we are close to here. We really want to take it all in before it is too late. Through the good times and bad we are grateful for our time here in Brazil. We have learned a lot and have grown to be much more wise and mature. Our family is looking forward to taking our experiences here and using what we have learned to help bring more people to Christ wherever we may go in the future.

For now, we don't really know where that will be. But, we will keep you posted. Please continue to pray for our transition and for the church family in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Relationships

2008-09-27T16:46:00.002-03:00

We have learned many things about Christian living during our time here in Porto Alegre. I think one of the most essentials lessons we have begun to understand is how to start, grow and maintain relationships. Relationships with other people (Christians and not-yet Christians) is vital to maturing your own faith and helping others find theirs.

In June we met a couple in a restaurant in another city. Elisa was drawn to them because of a toy they had for their infant daughter. As we did the small chat thing at their table we found out that they actually live only 3 blocks from us in Porto Alegre!

After a couple of months they called us up and had us over for dinner. The ironic part about them calling us is that they are unbelievers, but wanted to reach out to us because they felt that maybe we were homesick. Having spent a couple of years in Boston, they know what it is like to be thousands of miles away from family. They didn't know at the time that we have already been here for 4.5 years. They reached out to us with compassionate hearts the way we, as Christians, should always be looking to reach out to others.

We recently met this couple again for dinner at our house. Even though we are transitioning out of the work in Porto Alegre, we aren't transitioning out of our responsibilities as Christians. We will continue no matter where we are or what we are doing to work on growing relationships - just like Jesus did.

Our newest friends: Fábio, Thaís & their baby girl Natáilia.

Claudio and Rute Wed!

2008-09-13T10:07:00.006-03:00

On August 5, 2005 Claudio and Rute made some public commitments that have been life altering. On that day they gave their lives to Jesus and to each other! After living together for approximately 15 years they decided to be baptized and to be married on the same day!

A little more than 3 years later, on September 5th, they were able to have their wedding ceremony before the state. Due to various drawbacks they had not been able to take this step until now. They showed a lot of determination and persistence to get to this point! We are so happy for them that they were finally able to be married legally - on paper! This date will forever be special to their family not just because of their wedding, but September 5th is Claudio's birthday! I bet they would have had the ceremony at mid-night if possible since September 6th is Rute's birthday! I think that is just great!

Claudio and Rute with the Justice of the Peace after the ceremony.

Jennifer and I were asked to be their witnesses. This meant a lot to us because of the relationship that we have with them. We will, of course, miss everyone when we return to the US. However, I think of all the Brazilians we will miss Claudio and Rute's family a little more.

Sascha signing the marriage certificate as one of the witnesses.

Jennifer and Elisa with Claudio, Rute and their youngest daughter, Lhaumar.

The New Blume!

2008-09-04T21:17:00.003-03:00

Our teammates, Kevin and Benay Blume, had a baby boy yesterday morning! He is their 6th child! Everyone is doing great!

For more pictures and information you can visit their blog here.

Giovanni Müller Blume

4 Recent Baptisms!

2008-09-02T15:24:00.005-03:00

In less than a week 4 individuals have given their lives to Jesus! On Sunday, August 24th, 3 people were baptized out at the Chácara. Two of these people were mothers of guys that have been in the rehabilitation program. The other person was an intern at the Chácara. It is pretty incredible that the Lord is using these young men coming off serious drug and alcohol addictions to reach their families for Christ. More and more family members and friends are being touched by what the God is doing there.

Above: Jane is baptized by Pastor Isaiah. Below: Jane with her sons Eduardo and Rodrigo (Chácara graduates).

This last Saturday, Matt baptized Guilherme (William). The following is taken from Matt's blog about this experience:

A few weeks ago I wrote about a new Bible study we had begun with a young man named Guilherme. He is a bright guy with a bright future in the field of computer science. He has been dating Gabrieli, daughter of our friends and brothers Lauro & Lorena. Our Bible study time has been amazing - he has soaked up the Word like a sponge. It's always exciting to study the Word with someone who is so eager to learn. Last week Guilherme came to us and said he would like to be baptized! It's finally nice to be able to participate in a baptism! (It's a running joke here in POA that whenever I leave town for a trip, someone gets baptized - that has happened a dozen times over the past few years!)

Matt and Guilherme before (above) and after (below) the baptism!

Praise God for these recent commitments to Christ!

Things you can find on an outing

2008-08-30T09:35:00.004-03:00

Our family really enjoys getting out of the house. We love to go on walks in the neighborhood. We have a couple of parks near our house where Elisa likes to play. It is a good way for us to stay connected with each other and take in our surrounds here in Brazil.

There are times, though, when our surroundings are laced with darkness. You can read a lot in the Bible, primarily in the Old Testament, about sacrifices to false gods. We see a lot of sacrifices here in our neighborhood and in Brazil. A lot of dark religions were brought to Brazil during the time of slave trading. Now, there are many, many different sects and cults that practice sacrifices. In the evening it is not unusual to spot a candle burning on a street corner with a bottle of alcohol (probably Bourbon) near by as a gift to a god. Sometimes you see or hear of animal sacrifices. I have heard of large animals like pigs being sacrificed in the city, but have never witnessed anything.

The following is a series of pictures of a family outing we took yesterday. These pictures were taken about 3 blocks from our house.

Now I want to ask you not to skip ahead and look at the pictures below. Let's make a game of this. Elisa and I are posing in this picture. What caught our attention was actually across the street on the corner. Let's go in for a closer look...

This is the corner I was referring to. You can see that there is definitely something on the curb. Maybe it is trash or a bunch of leaves...

Or maybe it is a sacrifice that was either offered to the false god in the middle of the day or wasn't cleaned up from the night before.

This is a chicken that was sacrificed. It looks as though there is something like cornmeal with it and some other items. It could be that the cloth that the chicken is resting on belonged to the person that left the sacrifice. I don't really know though.

I wanted to share this with you so that you could see what we deal with some of the time. Spiritual Warfare is real and we are engaged in ways that we never imagined 5 years ago. Satan has a grip on a lot of people not just in Brazil, but throughout the world. What do we do to fight against spiritism and acts that don't glorify the true living God? We pray and we arm ourselves with wisdom, integrity, peace, love and joy in Jesus. We don't become numb to what is around us. We reach out to and pray for those who are lost to see and understand the truth of our salvation in Christ. If anything, things like what our family saw yesterday should make us more determined to fight Satan every day with all that we have: physically, mentally and especially spiritually.

"Household gods give worthless advice, fortune-tellers predict only lies, and interpreters of dreams pronounce falsehoods that give no comfort. So my people are wandering like lost sheep; they are attacked because they have no shepherd." Zechariah 10:2

Irresponsible Missionaries

2008-08-21T19:53:00.002-03:00

Don't let the title of this post freak you out! In some cases, being irresponsible is a good thing. Our team learned a lot about this when Bryan and Jacqueline Bost were here for a seminar in June. They are very wise people who have taught us some very relevant things about being missionaries in the house church setting.

Our teammates, Kevin and Benay Blume, wrote a great post about being irresponsible on their blog. I would love for you to read it. Just "click" here and you will see the importance of being an irresponsible missionary.

Chácara Graduation

2008-08-10T20:25:00.008-03:00

Today was a great day! Not only was it Father's Day in Brazil, but it was graduation time for 7 guys at the Chácara! These days the Chácara is always at full capacity. If someone leaves, that space become occupied almost immediately. The thing is - hardly anyone is leaving!

The rehabilitation program at the Chácara lasts for 9 months. Today we had what I think was the largest graduating class ever! The guys are welcome to stay and continue at the Chácara for more than 9 months, but leaving sooner than 9 months means they haven't met the goals and requirements of the program.

Today's graduation consisted of a uplifting worship service that included 6 of the 7 guys giving short testimonies. Let me tell you - it is something special to have one of these guys share their testimony, but to have 6 is nothing short of powerful. Listening to their stories can seriously change your perspective on things. It was all I could do to keep from being overwhelmed emotionally. I felt a lot of joy at the Chácara today.

It was a very encouraging and uplifting time for all the guys - graduates of the program and individuals who are still battling on against their addictions (By the way, Adão Claudio made it back to the Chácara and is fighting strong). The amount of love shown from family and friends was a treasure from the Lord. I am grateful that I spent part of my day celebrating with these brothers. I am sure that God is proud of the work and sacrifice that these 7 men have put into turning their lives around for His glory. What a great Father's Day present to our Father in heaven.

The Graduates (from left to right): Christian, Jefferson, Eduardo, Alexandre, Marcelo, Anderson & Rodrigo.

Alexandre shares some of his story.

Anderson has always had the support of his 5-year old son. Happy Father's Day, Anderson!

This is the Lima family (from l to r: Lucas, Lauro, Luis, Lorena & Gabrieli). Luis is a nephew/cousin of the Limas who has been at the Chácara for just one week. This was a very encouraging day for Luis.

All seven of the graduates became Christians at the Chácara. One of them announced that his mom will be baptized soon. I think it is obvious that the Lord used the transformed lives of her sons (Eduardo and Rodrigo both pictured above) to touch her heart for Jesus. Praise God!

Thoughts on Christian Conflict

2008-08-08T19:12:00.007-03:00

I have found in my Christian walk that the path is often full of conflict. Why is that? Why must a people who are taught to love show so much disdain? Why do we fight and argue and hurt one another instead of treating each other with respect and love as the Bible commands.

I think a lot of this comes from fear. A lot of fear comes from what we don't understand or what we find uncomfortable.

I have been reading a book called Surprised by the Power of the Spirit by Jack Deere. Whether you believe that the miraculous gifts are for today or not this book gives some interesting Biblical insight into different gifts and how they benefit and encourage the body when they are used appropriately.

I really appreciate how this book is delivered; humbly and with plenty of scripture. When I am reading a book that is charismatic in nature I tend to have this discouraging voice in the back of my mind repeating over and over that this is something that causes division and can be hurtful. The fact is I am reading such things to help grow, mature and build up the church.

Today I read some wonderful words about how to deal with Christian conflict that really encouraged me. This is near the end of the chapter entitled Pursuing the Gifts with Diligence. I hope you also find the following encouraging...

One of the most eloquent admonitions I have ever encountered along these lines is in Bishop Burnet's preface to the classic work "The Life of God in the Soul of Man", written by Henry Scougal in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Here is what Burnet wrote:

There is scarce a more unaccountable thing to be imagined, than to see a company of men professing a religion, one great and main precept whereof is mutual love, forbearance, gentleness of spirit, and compassion to all sorts of persons, and agreeing in all the essential parts of its doctrine, and differing only in some less material and more disputable things, yet maintaining those differences with zeal so disproportioned to the value of them, and prosecuting all that disagree from them with all possible violence; or if they want means to use outward force, with all bitterness of spirit. They must needs astonish every impartial beholder, and raise great prejudices against such persons' religion, as made up of contradictions; professing love, but breaking out in all the acts of hatred.

Somewhere someone has to stop this. Someone has to stop returning insult for insult, unkindness for unkindness. Why not make up your mind that no matter what is said about you, you are not going to reply in kind. And never forget that immediately after Paul told his readers to "eagerly desire the greater gifts," he wrote, "If I... have not love, I gain nothing" (I Cor. 13:3).

I found this to hit home. May God bless you as he has me with these words.

House Call

2008-08-01T14:37:00.003-03:00

As you may have read in the past, one of the ministries of our church family is helping a youth recovery center outside Porto Alegre in the town of Alvorada. We call this place the "Chácara". It can house up to 24 young men. Most of the guys out at the Chácara are trying to leave an addiction to drugs or alcohol or both. Matt Rehbein; Paulo Renato; and our sister in Christ, Irotilde go out to the Chácara every Wednesday to encourage and counsel the young men. They listen to their stories and try to help them through their struggles.

There have been a lot of successes over the last year. Many are staying for the duration of the 9 month program. Lately, we have seen more young men than we normally see overcome their past struggles. Some of the men have gone on to find jobs and have become the supporting husbands and fathers that their families needed.

Unfortunately, not all of the stories are good. There are guys who leave the Chácara prematurely and find themselves back in the mess that they were trying so desperately to get out of. One of these guys is Adão Claudio (Adam Claude). He left the Chácara after only being there for 4 months. He left for the wrong reasons and ended up regretting it. Before he knew it he was using drugs again.

Paulo Renato often gives the guys who have left the Chácara a call to see how they are doing. When he called Adão Claudio's house last week he found out some very disconcerting news. Adão Claudio's wife had just kicked him out of the house because he was using crack. His addiction to crack was still too much for him to handle and it was hurting his wife and 4 kids.

Paulo Renato, Kevin and I tried to set up a visit with him until we were finally able to make it happen yesterday. Paulo Renato spoke with Adão Claudio's wife again and found out that he was back at home. He didn't want to see us initially, but finally he agreed to the visit. Once we made it out to his house it was apparent that he had been struggling. He was much thinner than the last time I saw him and looked nervous. I think that he mainly felt ashamed because he knew that he messed up.

We spent between and hour and an hour and a half visiting with him and encouraging him. Paulo Renato invited him and his wife to the C.A.S.A. for visits and encouragement and Kevin offered the support of the house church that meets in his home. Adão Claudio is a good man who knows and loves God, but has allowed Satan to have a stronghold. After we prayed for him he embraced each one of us. You could feel the love and gratitude in the hugs he gave. It is possible that he will end up going back to the Chácara. I think he is open to that possibility, but he must humble himself first. He can and will overcome this difficult time with the support of the Lord and His family.

Adão Claudio during the "Every Man's Battle" study that Paulo Renato and I conducted at the Chácara earlier this year.

We care deeply for Adão Claudio and the other men of the Chácara. Different ideas of how we can better support these men are being mulled over and discussed. One idea is to start a house church for the men and their families once they no longer are at the Chácara. There are many possibilities. We ask you to join us in praying for wisdom and discernment to better know how to support Adão Claudio and men like him.

Celebration Time!

2008-07-30T14:27:00.008-03:00

As you may know, our church family is trying to reach the city of Porto Alegre through a network of house churches. Each Sunday our church family meets in different house churches in the city. However, on the last Sunday of each month we meet together at a rented facility for a Celebration service.

This last Sunday was a Celebration service - and it was a powerful one at that! We had a great time of worship and praise and a time of prayer as a church family. During the lesson (Don't Underestimate the Little Things) we invited three of our members, Garigran; Clarice and Tiago to give their testimonies. I have known each of the people who gave a testimony between 2 and 4 years. Surprisingly, I learned a lot about each person through the words that they shared. It was a real encouragement to me and to the rest of our church family.

Garigran giving his testimony.

Clarice giving her testimony.

You may remember that Tiago traveled to Australia about 6 weeks ago. He sent his testimony via email and our brother Paulo Renato read it to us. Here is Tiago's testimony translated into English for you.

It all started in a winter just like any other. I knew that some church was going to have free English classes, and what was more interesting was that the classes would be given by Americans. What more could an engineering student with no money and bad English want?

Anyway, during this time I was a staunch atheist. I knew that there existed something more, but I didn’t call this something God, or better, I thought that this “something more” had nothing to do with the god that people were talking about. I thought that church was just something that some unscrupulous people used to take money from others. For me Jesus was simply a person who lived some 2,000 years ago, did good things, and was made into a kind of baseless idol.

On the other hand, I had (and still have) a deep respect for the beliefs of others. I was really sure of what I believed, and I was certain that I wouldn’t change. But I knew (and still know) that I don’t know everything, especially about what is right for other people.

So, when I decided to participate in the English classes, also known as LST, or Let’s Start Talking, I always tried to respect what was they were trying to teach, even though at that time it didn’t touch my heart, and I didn’t have the slightest intention of changing. On the other hand, nothing was being forced on me. During the classes we basically read the Bible and discussed what we read, letting the Word do the work. In fact, if it had been the other way, if they had tried to force it on me, I doubt I would have continued going to church for very long.

This continued for a good amount of time. The “teachers” changed, but I continued participating in the English classes at the church whenever I could. What I didn’t notice at the time was that I was changing. In the beginning it was only about the classes; with time it began to make sense to me.

I think that the point when I realized I had been changed was when one of my teachers invited me to a Bible study group, this time in Portuguese. I accepted, and what’s worse, I liked it!

To make a long story short, from that time on I began faithfully participating in this group. During this same time period, the church of Christ started to utilize the concept of the house church, and I started going to worship every Sunday. I also started to participate in the Men’s group. All of this worked together in order for me to see how much God was doing in the lives of the people with whom I interacted during these activities.

All of this culminated in the moment when I decided that I would spend some time in Australia. I realized that it didn’t do any good for me to deny any longer how much Jesus had touched my life, and that I had already made Him my Lord and Savior. It was then, just before I traveled to Australia, that I asked to be baptized.

I hope these words have been encouraging in some way. I would have like to have written more, but I lack inspiration, just like I lack a way with words.

May God bless you and give you peace.

After the service we had a great time of fellowship - which usually includes some kind of delicious treat. We were all blessed by this great time of worship, encouragement and fellowship. Please remember our church family in your prayers when you can - that we would allow the Lord to work through us to grow is Kingdom in mighty ways.

Transition Is Upon Us

2008-07-25T14:40:00.002-03:00

Whether you keep up with our family or our work (or perhaps both) we want to make you aware of a big transition that our family is preparing for in the not-so-distant future.

It is hard to believe that our 5-year commitment to working in Brazil is almost up. We spent most of 2007 thinking and praying about where God might want us after this initial commitment. After a lot of discussion and prayer we came to feel peace in returning to the US in the second quarter of 2009. Of course, we expect that it will not be easy to leave Porto Alegre. Just imagining saying “até mais” to our many brothers and sisters of this church family makes me tear up already. We have invested a lot to be where we are and to do what we do, but we know in our hearts it is time for our family to move on.

Word travels fast, so I imagine that many who read our blogs already know of our plans. We shared with all the house churches in our church family last month. We were really blessed by the way each house church accepted our plans to leave Brazil. With less American presence there will be more shift toward Brazilian responsibility and leadership in the house churches – something we are all excited about.

One thing that I will say about our future plans is that we haven’t worked all the kinks out yet. There is still a lot of time (approximately between 8 and 10 months) for us in Brazil, so I will wait to share some of the more specific details for other posts. However, we are very excited about where we see the Lord taking us!

I wanted to express our gratitude for all the love and support that you have shown us. We shouldn’t start our transition out of some responsibilities here until sometime around November and will remain in Porto Alegre working with house churches in some capacity until March or May of next year. Once we land on US soil I expect we will spend a little bit of time with our sponsoring congregation in Colorado Springs before the next stage of our lives begins.

In the meantime, stay tuned…. we are still working hard and enjoying our time in Brazil, and will keep you posted as always on the many happenings in Porto Alegre.

Much love,

The Terrys

Cesar

2008-07-20T19:30:00.004-03:00

Last night our good friend, Cesar, gave his life over to Jesus through baptism. He shared with us last month that he had a dream in which a man resembling his father told him to "follow his heart". Cesar knew exactly how to interpret the dream. The night after he had the dream he expressed his desire to be baptized! We have had a few good discussions and studies since then to help him understand the significance of baptism and the Christian walk that the Lord calls us to lead. Cesar is a wonderful young man who is full of love and joy in the Lord. We are very excited for him and his new commitment to Christ.

Sascha and Cesar immediately following the baptism.

Cesar first came to know our church family through an LST campaign a few years ago. Since that time we have grown our relationship with him and he has grown his relationship with Jesus. It has already been a great experience to see him grow and mature spiritually.

We were very please by those who were able to come and witness this wonderful event. Several folks from different house churches came to encourage Cesar, as well as his mother - who we have only met once before about 2 years ago. We made Cesar's baptism the focal point of our worship to the Lord. During our time together each person gave a word of encouragement, shared a blessing, led a song, prayed or read from scripture. It was a wonderful time of celebration for each of us - especially Cesar!

Cesar and his mother after the baptism.

The celebration!

I plan to continue studying with Cesar for as long as we can. All Christians need support and encouragement, but especially the young ones. We hope and pray that Cesar would feel the protection of the Holy Spirit as he begins his walk with God. We ask you to keep Cesar in your prayers as well.

The Heat

2008-07-18T22:32:00.003-03:00

Last month I wrote a post about the cold we experience in Porto Alegre during the winter (June through August). You could say that I even complained about it. Sometimes it is pretty difficult to endure.

However, all residents of our part of the world have been pretty surprised about the drastic change and consistency of the weather for the last couple of weeks. I would estimate that it has been anywhere from 75 to 85 degrees during that time span. This is extremely odd. It has the look and feel of summer. Practically everyone is outside walking or running for exercise; parks are full of people; and swimming pools aren't such a nuisance to clean!

It started to cool down a little today and we expect it to stay in the 60s over the next few days. I don't know about Global Warming, but this kind of crazy heat really makes me scratch my head.

Anyway, I thought that I would keep any loyal readers in the loop on interesting stuff like the weather. Stay tuned, I expect to have more to write about in the very near future... maybe my favorite elevator tunes!

"A Cup of Cold Water"

2008-07-16T14:24:00.004-03:00

And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.

Matthew 10:42

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.

Matthew 25:35-36

Last year our family moved from an apartment to a house. There are many differences between apartments and houses that are very obvious. However, many differences exist that you wouldn’t find to be quite so obvious. One example in particular is the amount of contact you have with people passing by your home. In an apartment, the doorman always talks to the people passing by. If people come to the front gate of our house, we are ones who speak to them.

Sometime late last year we met a young woman named Diane. She came to our door one day asking if we could spare some change for bus tokens. We don’t typically give out money and rarely do we have bus tokens. However, there is a member of our church family who tithes a bag of bus tokens each month. This member had given us a bag of tokens to hand out to folks who needed them. So, on this day we were able to help Diane with some tokens.

Time and again Diane would return to our door asking for tokens. Through this need we began to grow a relationship with her. Jennifer especially felt called to minister to this young woman. Jennifer would visit with Diane when she would come to our door. Over time we started to learn who Diane is and what kind of life she has.

Diane is 25 years old and is the mother of 5 children. Her three oldest are from a previous relationship (their father is deceased) and her two youngest are from her current husband. Her children range in age from 7 years to 4 months.

She lives in a shanty town not to far from our home. Living conditions have been really difficult for them, but most recently they have been able to do some standard renovations that will allow them to have some small comforts that most of us take for granted (warm showers and electricity).

It isn’t unusual for Diane to come to our house once or twice a week asking for bus tokens or food. We visit with her and usually help her with her need. On occasion she comes to our home upset by something that is going on with her children. A few months ago she came to our door in tears because Camilla, her 3 year old, swallowed rat poison and almost died. Several weeks ago she came telling us that her first husband’s mother, who had been caring for the 3 oldest children, passed away unexpectedly. Last month she told us that child protective services had come to her house to take away her children because of the living conditions. Last week she came to our door every day! One of those days she came to tell us that one of her 5-year old twins, Stefanie, has leukemia. Unbelievable!

Sadly, the world has influenced us at times to want to not believe this poor woman. In a world of dishonesty it is easy for one to become cynical toward people with needs like Diane’s. There are times when we are so tired of the situations and stories that we don’t want to listen. I confess that I have wanted to ignore the door bell of various occasions. But, I can’t do that. If I am to call myself a follower of Jesus I need to listen to Diane each time she comes knocking on my door. I need to show her grace and mercy. Maybe she has lied to us. So what!? She still deserves to know Jesus’ love for her. She still deserves to have someone to listen to her troubles. She still deserves that “cup of cold water”.

I ask you to be in prayer for Diane and her family. I believe that she wants to be the best wife and mommy she can be and is really having a difficult time. Please pray for her children; for their safety and health. Please pray for them to be blessed by a relationship with Jesus Christ…

and please pray for our family to be a family of mercy and compassion so that we may be ready to minister to the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick and imprisoned of this world.

Roberto

2008-07-15T17:04:00.002-03:00

Roberto, Moema and their son, Kjeld

Over the past year and half we have learned a lot in our house church network. We have learned who people really are - their strengths and weaknesses; their passions and fears; their levels of spiritual maturity and immaturity. Sometimes it can be difficult and sometimes it can be overwhelmingly rewarding.

Roberto and Moema are some of our members who meet in the Blume's home on Sundays. They gave their lives to Jesus and were baptized almost 2 years ago. It seems that for them the transition to house churches was an easy one to make. Their faith-walk has been a struggle at times, but they always seem to do the right thing. We love them very much and are very proud of them and their desire to grow closer to the Lord.

Roberto is a man who is always striving to do better. He is always ready to share a blessing with a fellow follower of Christ. He has a great personality and an awesome smile and laugh.

This Sunday, Roberto will begin a 5-month Spiritual discipline course with a group called JOCUM (youth with a mission). He hopes to discover how to grow and use his spiritual gifts and to learn how to be a stronger disciple of Jesus. During the 5 months of the course, Roberto will be in another town. This means that he will not have the comfort of his own home or the company and encouragement of his own family.

Please pray for Roberto during the next 5 months. Pray that the Lord would use this opportunity to grow Roberto and to mature this church family. Roberto is an awesome example of how to sacrifice for the Kingdom. Like I said before, we are very proud of him.

Ismenio

2008-07-11T09:54:00.006-03:00

In 2004 and 2005 our church family hosted Let's Start Talking campaigns. LST is used as an avenue to bring folks into a church environment using English. Study sessions are set up with readers and American campaigners to read the books of Luke and Acts. Throughout the 6-week campaign there are parties for the readers and even a Friend's Camp. It is a good way of establishing relationships and introducing Jesus to many people.

After the 2005 campaign Matt Rehbein, Tessa Sexton and I did follow-up studies with around 30 interested individuals. As a result we made many good friends through LST. Some of these people have come to know Jesus through our relationships with them. Just to name a few: Waleska (Matt's wife), Grace, Tiago and Cesar (who will be baptized soon) each started studying the Bible with more interest through LST. I have been able to maintain relationships with a couple of other LST readers too. Ricardo and I had an on-going Bible study in English up until recently that last almost 3 years. It is possible that we will resume again someday. Also, I have another good friend from LST named Ismenio (pronounced is-men-E-o).

As you may have gathered from the title of this post the subject is Ismenio. Ismenio is a sergeant in the Brazilian Army. He is stationed in a little town outside of Porto Alegre called Sapucaia do Sul. After the 2005 LST campaign we were not able to continue our follow-up studies. We stayed in touch by playing soccer together on Saturdays. However, after a few months the soccer ministry fizzled and I went on furlough. One drawback to furlough is that sometimes you loose your established rhythm and relationships suffer. Unfortunately, this happen to my relationship with Ismenio. I thought about him often, but didn't stay in touch.

A few months ago, after almost 2 years of nothing, Ismenio sent me an email. He was wanting to know if I would be willing to study English with him to help him prepare for a test the military had invited him to take. As it turns out, he had been invited to take an English proficiency test in Brasilia. If he did well enough he could possibly be invited to participate in military training and courses in the United States. This possible series of events had potential to really bless Ismenio's family and his military career.

I agreed to meet with Ismenio once a week until the week of the test. We read through magazines and different articles in English to work on comprehension. Then we started working on Ismenio's endurance. What I mean is that I would make up practice tests that were similar to what he would take in Brasilia. He was able to take practice tests for about 4 weeks before he left for Brasilia to take the real thing.

He had been under the impression that there would be a lot of people (sergeants) taking the test with him. As it turned out, he was only 1 of 4 sergeants participating. I was very confident in Ismenio and what he did to prepare. He ended up scoring an 88 out of 100 questions! The other three scores were: 61, 66 and 69. Needless to say, Ismenio was invited to participate in the training and courses in the United States.

For the last few weeks Ismenio has called Ft. Bliss (El Paso, Texas) his home. I have received a few emails from him. He is working hard and doing really well. I am really proud of my friend and how hard he worked to get to where he is. Please pray the Lord's blessings on Ismenio. It is my prayer that his relationship with God would come full circle through this experience and that he too will come to call Jesus his Lord.

This picture is of Ismenio and a Brazilian colleague posing with the mayor of El Paso, Texas. Ismenio is the soldier on the right.

Christian Architecture

2008-07-08T18:10:00.005-03:00

"Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better." Colossians 1:10

I recently had a couple of experiences that made me think a little bit about "Christian architecture". In relation to Christianity, you may think of architecture in the sense of construction of a church building or you may also think of the growth and maturity of a Christian soul.

This last weekend we went with my parents to the towns of Gramado and Canela - just a couple of hours away from Porto Alegre. While we were there my dad and I took in the architecture of a Catholic church. I must admit that I admire and love the stone work and the stain glass windows. Man really can build some amazing structures! However, it is my opinion that too much emphasis is given to the physical aspects of a building.

Today I spent about an hour and a half studying with a good friend named, Cesar. Cesar has been a part of the house church that meets in our home for almost a year. A couple of weeks ago Cesar told us that we wanted to be baptized! He grew up in a religious home and already has a knowledge of Jesus Christ. As we studied today we talked about the difference between having religion and having a relationship with Jesus. We talked about the significance of baptism and what it means to be a new creation in Jesus. It was a great study for us as Cesar prepares to live his life for Jesus. As we talked I could see how his soul will soon be a new structure in Christ. He knows that the next step is his baptism. I expect that it is very possible he will show his love for Jesus through his baptism this coming Sunday. Whenever it is Cesar decides to be baptized we have committed to spend every Tuesday for the foreseeable future studying Christian living and answering any questions or doubts Cesar may have. As he continues to study (just like all of his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ) he will grow into "Christian architecture" that is shaped and formed by grace, mercy and love. This is the most beautiful architecture of all.

From left to right: Paulo Renato, Leni & Cesar. This photo was taken moments after Cesar told us of his desire to be baptized.

Prayer for the Weary

2008-06-30T15:29:00.004-03:00

In a world full of muck, it is my prayer and hope to use the internet to share the prayer that is on my heart for my brother in Jesus Christ, Claudio. I haven't planned this prayer. I am simply allowing the Spirit to open my heart as I share his struggles on this post. Please join with me in lifting Claudio and his family up to the Father...

O Holy Father,
Almighty Giver of all things. I thank you for the avenue of prayer. I thank you for the opportunity that you give your children to come to you with praise and request. My heart is heavy for my brother Claudio, Father. I see how weary he has become. I see how exhausted he is: physically, mentally and spiritually. I ask you Lord, in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, to release Claudio from his burdens. I know that as people pray this prayer that most will not know or understand Claudio's situation. They won't understand that he needs to be fired from his job. They may not understand that he will benefit, his family will benefit, from his being fired. Regardless of understanding or lack of understanding I ask you, Father, to hear the cries on Claudio's behalf. Hear the cry of your people on behalf of your struggling son. He loves you, Lord. He wants to honor and glorify you with all he has. He wants to give his home that he is working so hard to keep for the growth of your Kingdom. He wants to raise his daughters to be strong, productive, Christian women. He wants to honor and cherish his wife. He wants to see your Family grow in and around Porto Alegre and throughout the world. Please lift this man up from his despair. Please raise him up to be a mighty warrior in your Kingdom. May he not be a victim of Satan's schemes. Instead, let him bring light to the darkness. I ask you to bind those who persecute Claudio and his family. Don't allow them to open their mouths if they wish to speak evil and bring him down. Fill him with joy and comfort and peace in knowing that he will overcome with you leading the way. I ask you to reveal whatever lesson you may want to teach him through this difficult time. I pray that he would be submissive to whatever you may be trying to tell him or teach him. I pray that he would be led by your Spirit in all things.

Father, I ask you in faith to fire him from his job and put him in a much better situation. You have power of all people and all things. You can fire him as I write this. I beg you to fire him! Father, I ask you to surround your servant Claudio with people who love him. Encourage him with visits from his brothers and sisters in Christ. Lift him up and keep and protect him from any excuse that Satan can put in his heart to be angry and dejected. Fill him with joy. Give him the strength to share the joy of Christ with those who are persecuting him. I ask you to bless your servant and honor his requests.

I ask you to hear and bless this prayer in the power name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Abba Father. Thank you. Amen.

The Cold

2008-06-23T14:59:00.003-03:00

Unless you have been to Porto Alegre during the winter months (June through early September) you really can't imagine the cold of South Brazil. It can snow in the mountains just a couple of hours away, but it rarely does (and it never sticks!). That may seem normal and not that big of a deal to folks from the northern United States where it gets to sub-zero temperatures during the winter.

Well, we aren't exactly tropical here! As I write this it is 52 degrees outside, but it feels like it is 45. The humidity is 76% which makes it feel much colder since your clothes hold in the dampness. The main cold factor comes from the way buildings and houses are constructed here. Everything is solid concrete with no insulation. The lack of insulation means that when it gets cold outside it slowly gets cold inside, then it stays cold. The weather channel might say that it is 52 degrees outside, but it is more than likely that or cooler inside! We usually keep an oven thermometer around the house just to keep tabs on how cold it gets.

We have some good gas space heaters and a fire place that do a good job of keeping us warm. We use the oven more often and leave the door open when we are done in order to not waste any heat. We also have learned to adapt by wearing extra layers of clothing. It is funny how it works sometimes; you may wake up in the morning, see your breath and think "it is going to be a cold one today." But, once you are outside and in the sun it is completely different. It really makes me wish that Southern Brazil would find a way to introduce central heat and air. A lot of folks could really use it. I went to bed 2 nights ago with a ski cap on and I wore it the whole night. You do what is necessary to stay warm I guess.

Unfortunately, not everyone can stay warm. Last week 2 homeless people died due to the cold night temperatures in this region. One person was here in Porto Alegre. Last winter was the coldest in this area in over 40 years and they are predicting that this year will be about the same. In fact, they are saying that this winter should last until October for us. October should be mid-Spring!

It is hard not to think about and complain about the cold when it is a constant - inside and out. It is even harder to manage when you know that so many people are suffering and dying because of the elements. I pray that the Lord would show us ways to be helpful in times like these - ways to show the warmth and love of Jesus. Thankfully, it looks like we are in store for a little warmer weather soon.

Water? What water?

2008-06-21T14:35:00.006-03:00

It is really easy to take something like running water for granted. You might think that missionaries like our friends Kemmel and Lisa in Guatemala would have problems with running water, but not missionaries in a city of approximately 3 million people!

On Thursday of this week most of the city of Porto Alegre was without water! In fact, we read in the newspaper on Friday that 38 neighborhoods were lacking water. We didn't find out that there was a water problem in our house until late Thursday night when the toilet wouldn't flush. What a great way to find out that you are out of water! I went out to the street to see if it was our problem or a neighborhood problem. Our meter was on, but it wasn't running. I then went up into our attic to check our water reserve "caixa" or box. It was practically empty.

Most folks have a "caixa" or water reserve on the roof of their house like the one in the picture above. Our "caixa" is in the small attic of our house (pictured below).

Friday afternoon the water finally came back on, but we are still having problems. There is only enough pressure to wash our hands and brush our teeth. Our water reserve needs to fill back up so that we can have water pressure to take baths, flush toilets, do the dishes, etc. It is quite the problem to have.

We have been able to handle the situation by using the extra shower (with an electric shower head) in the garage and by trying to be extra conservative with the water that we do have. Hopefully, by the end of today or tomorrow morning we will be back in good order with the water situation.

This is our extra shower that
doesn't get used often!

Bost Seminar II: Marriages, Families & Kingdom Workers

2008-06-15T16:05:00.004-03:00

This weekend we had Bryan and Jacqueline Bost back for another seminar. Last year they came and blessed our church family with a seminar on house churches. This couple is full of wisdom and grace and are wonderful workers for the Kingdom.

This particular seminar was on marriages, families and working in the Kingdom of God. On Friday and Saturday they had some very insightful things to share about Christian marriages (how to communicate, how to deal with differences, how to manage finances, etc) as well as raising children in a Christian home (being in control, setting boundaries, helping your children grow as individuals, etc). Today (Sunday) they spoke about being Kingdom workers (opening up your home to others, putting the Kingdom of God #1 in your life, etc).

The entire weekend was a great benefit to the growth and maturity of God's family here in Porto Alegre. We appreciate Bryan and Jacqueline and the work that they do in São Paulo, Porto Alegre and throughout Brazil.

Here are a few pictures of the seminar and some fellowship time...

So Long...

2008-06-10T23:48:00.003-03:00

Today we said "so long" to some pretty good friends. Tiago and Lili have been a part of our house church for a little over a year. Today they embarked on a great adventure to study English and work in Sydney, Australia. Tiago became a Christian just a month and a half ago. He is a very mature individual, but will need the support of a church family while he is away. We will be praying that the Lord bless their journey to Australia and that he provide for their every need (physically and spiritually) while they are there. They are good friends and we will miss them dearly until they return around December.

We also said good-bye to our friend Sheryl Ramsey. Sheryl is on the missions committee of our sponsoring congregation, Eastside church of Christ, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was able to spend a few days with us; meeting the Brazilian church members, strengthening relationships and encouraging us. Sheryl was able to visit us with her son, Luke, back in July of 2005. We are so grateful for her sacrifice to be here. Our time together was a real blessing.

Super Saturday

2008-06-10T09:06:00.002-03:00

Our teammate, Benay Blume, started a ministry that we call "Super Saturday". It is held on the 1st Saturday of every month. Super Saturday is centered around teaching the Bible to the children of our house church network and community with fun activities, skits, etc. This ministry has really taken off and is making an impact. I encourage you to take a look here to see how this last Saturday went. Please keep this ministry and the many children involved in your prayers.

Prayer Groups

2008-06-02T14:14:00.005-03:00

Jennifer and I are involved in 3 different Bible studies during the week. Two of the groups are house churches on Sunday (1 meets in our home) and the third is a small group that meets on Thursday nights. We always have great study, worship and prayer time in these groups. The individuals involved have become a part of our extended family and we care for them deeply.

If you have ever been in a Bible study group you know that there can be times of transition. At times there is a season of change. I wanted to introduce our groups to you and ask you to keep them in prayer when you remember. As I introduce each group I will outline some prayer requests. Thank you in advance for your support through praying for us and these groups.

Salgado House Church

From left to right standing: Claudio, Rute, Jennifer, Ezekias & Keity.
From left to right sitting: Paulo Renato, Lhaumar, Sascha, Jennifer & Elisa.

We meet at the Salgado's house on Sunday mornings for house church. They are a very special family who have dedicated their home to the Lord as a place of worship. They need prayers for peace and strength during a difficult trial in their life. Claudio is an incredible worker (for his family and for the Kingdom). His job situation has become increasingly difficult over the last year and a half. He has had 2 jobs; one as a maintenance man in an apartment building for 10 years and one as a night security guard for 7 years.

His situation is one that is a little difficult to explain. He needs to be fired from his maintenance job to receive a much needed severance package that would be paid to him. The apartment where he works wants him to quite, which would hurt the amount that they would pay him. Since the people in the apartment building do not treat Claudio with respect and kindness it has been a struggle for him to be patient and wait on the Lord. Please pray that (as strange as it sounds) that he would be fired, would receive his severance package and that the Lord would have another job ready for him.

The night security job is for only one night a week (Saturday). It is not an easy job, but Claudio takes it seriously and does it well. This is a job that he needs to keep, but it looks like he and the other night security guards will be without soon. The people who live in the apartment are realizing that it is getting more and more difficult to pay the security guard salaries and transportation (employers pay for employee transportation in Brazil). So, they are forced to cut back their spending. Unfortunately, it is possible that Claudio could lose and important source of income for his family. Please pray that he will be able to keep this job - that the money will be there!

Terry House Church

From left to right: Cesar, Gustavo (visitor), Rosana (visitor), Leni, Jorge, Gabriela (visitor), Jennifer & Lindsey.

The group that meets in our home on Sunday afternoons for worship has been going through some transitions for a couple of months now. For the last month or so we have had just one person in regular attendance outside of Jennifer and me. The picture above was taken last night when we had 9 people in attendance (one being our friend Lindsey from the U.S.). Sadly, we didn't expect to see that many people. However, it really blessed us to see folks that have not been able to worship with us in a while. Work and travel have really kept a lot of our normal folks away from a normal routine.

On June 1oth our good friends Tiago and Lili plan to travel to Australia where they will work and study until December. One lady in this group, Leni, has a desire to start a new house church in her home with her son, Jorge and some of her friends. Another young man, Cesar, sometimes is unable to come for different reasons. When you take out these people our group consists of just our family. We occasionally have visitors from other house churches, but nothing consistent. We have begun to think that it is possible that God is calling us to start a new group in our home with fresh faces.

Please pray that the Lord would bless all the individuals in this group. That they would grow and mature in Jesus and that their walk with him would bring his name honor and glory. Please pray for us all to have wisdom in following the Lord's guiding; that we would do his will and not our own. Please pray for us to stay focused on the Father and growing his kingdom.

Thursday Night Bible Study

From left to right: Alexandre, Dani, Ana Luisa, Luzia, Mateus, Jennifer & Sascha.

This is the small group that we started in the South Zone a couple of months ago. Although this group is small, it is fun and dynamic! We have seen some incredible prayers answered in this group (including Dani's decision to follow Jesus and her baptism). This last week Alexandre was able to participate in the study for the first time. We ask you to pray that he would be able to participate more consistently and that the Lord would touch his heart and call him to serve. We ask you to pray for each of the adults in this group to have wisdom and patience. All of us are parents of children between the ages of 2 and 3. We also ask you to pray for Luzia's mother. She has been fighting cancer for a long time and is nearing the end of her battle. Please pray for her comfort and for her peace. We also ask you to pray for this small group to grow - that we would be reaching out to the not-yet Christians that we know in the South Zone of Porto Alegre, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Marathon

2008-05-27T14:25:00.003-03:00

Sunday was the Porto Alegre Marathon. I usually don't go and check it out and I certainly don't run in it, but this marathon was different. It was special. Our teammates, Matt and Kevin, got a team together of 6 guys from the Chácara to run a relay part of the marathon. It was a 40K. Including Matt and Kevin the team had 8 guys that ran 5K each. If you don't quite get the "K" it means kilometers. 5K is just a little more than 3 miles and 40K is almost 25 miles. It may as well be 100 miles for me because I just don't run (unless I am being chased)!

These guys who ran have never really done this type of thing before. A few months ago Matt started training with them so that they would be ready to run the marathon in half-way decent shape. Well, they did great! In fact, in their category, out of 13 teams they came in 4th place! They all received medals for finishing the race and will receive a trophy for finishing in the top 5.

After the marathon our church family met together for our monthly Celebration. We had a fellowship time with lunch and then we worshiped the Lord together. There was a great theme of running the Christian race and being a support and encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are running the race with us. It was a great day.

As we closed our worship service we showed a couple of very inspirational videos (translated in Portuguese) for our church family that were really powerful. They were about a father and son, Dick and Rick Hoyt, that do Ironman Triathlons. The son has such a binding physical disability that he has his father carry him through the triathlons. These videos were amazing examples to us of how our heavenly Father carries us through the marathon of life and how we should carry and support our brothers in Jesus who need encouragement.

I encourage you to take the time to watch these 2 videos. It will take about 10 minutes in total, but it is well worth it. You will be encouraged.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
2 Timothy 4:7

Family Vacation - Part VII

2008-05-25T07:00:00.002-03:00

I hope that these last several links to posts about our family vacation have been enjoyable. We really wanted to express how amazing this country is and how blessed we have been to be here. Instead of making you go to another site to view a slide show of our time in Foz do Iguaçu I will embed it right here for you. Enjoy!

Family Vacation - Part VI

2008-05-21T14:06:00.001-03:00

To read about our adventures checking out the waterfalls in Argentina click here.

Family Vacation - Part V

2008-05-19T23:43:00.002-03:00

This was a really exciting day for us! Click riiiiight here for some great pictures!

Family Vacation: Part IV

2008-05-19T11:45:00.001-03:00

Click here to read all about our experience at the Itaipu hydroelectric plant. It is the largest in the world!

Family Vacation: Part III

2008-05-18T19:36:00.001-03:00

I have the 3rd installment of our trip up and running on our other blog. Click here to read it.

Family Vacation: Part II

2008-05-17T20:48:00.002-03:00

If you are interested in checking out Part 2 of our family vacation, click here. You might find it interesting...

Family Vacation: Part I

2008-05-13T17:55:00.001-03:00

Read all about the first part of our family vacation here.

The Storm

2008-05-04T22:03:00.004-03:00

We have had a few big storms over the past few years here in Porto Alegre, but this weekend was one to write about. We ended up with a damaging cyclone early Saturday morning. It started raining here late Thursday night and we didn't get a break (just a few minutes) until mid-morning Saturday. Since then it has stayed cloudy and has rained consistently. In fact, it is raining as I write this post.

Today we went to Cachoerinha (cash-o-air-een-ya) for worship with the Salgado family and on the way we visited with Paulo Renato (Paulo has been going out to the Salgado's with us for worship for a couple of months now). Paulo was telling us about the effects of the storm that he experienced. He told us that the C.A.S.A. that we are renting has been without electricity since the early hours of Saturday morning. That wasn't a surprise because we knew that most of the population of the greater Porto Alegre area was without power for most of Saturday (approximately 20,000 homes)! He said that 2 large trees fell on top of a house and 3 cars just across the street. No one was hurt, but there was a lot of damage. As we continued on our way we saw billboards completely destroyed and lots of debris scattered throughout the streets.

I read about some of the damage that the storm/cyclone caused over the weekend in today's paper. There are some pretty amazing and yet scary statistics recorded. From 12 am Friday until 9am Saturday we received 5.77 inches of rain (it looks much worse when you see the metric number of 146.6 mm and when you see stranded cars in the streets!). That may not seem like much rain, but it is 122.2% of Porto Alegre's average rainfall for the month of May. So, it is much more than what we typically get. Most of the problems and damage was caused by the cyclone winds. They were recorded at 62 mph (100 km/h) on Saturday morning. At about 3am Saturday morning I ran down to the garage to find that the garage door had been blown open by the winds! They ripped up trees all over the city. I read that one individual stopped his car on Saturday morning to help move a fallen tree out of the road and was hit by another falling tree in the process. Unfortunately, he was killed. I haven't heard of any other fatalities due to the storm, but I know that approximately 300 people had to completely abandon their homes.

We had some minor damage at our house, but nothing worth mentioning. In the wake of this storm/cyclone I feel compassion, confusion and awe. I have thought a lot about the folks who live on the street and don't have any shelter or warm clothing. I have thought about the families and individuals who have been stranded or have been forced to leave their flooded homes. I have though about those who have been wounded or killed.

Storms like this leave me praying for those who are in these difficult situations, yet I am in awe of the Lord's powerful hand to bring such forceful winds and rain. I can't wrap my mind around what it must have been like to be a disciple of Christ in the boat on those tossing seas or to be on the Earth when the flooding rains came in the time of Noah. This storm wasn't really that big, but it disrupted a lot of lives. I sort of feel like I am rambling now, but it makes me think about how we need to be and should be in awe of God's mighty hand. Whether engineering a beautiful landscape of snow-peaked mountains or bringing torrential down pours He is amazing - he is powerful in the storm.

Church's Mini-Spiritual Retreat

2008-05-02T12:29:00.005-03:00

Yesterday our church family had what I like to call a "mini-spiritual retreat". I am only calling it "mini" because it only lasted several hours. Normally when I think of a retreat I think of leaving the city and going somewhere different for a couple of days. It was a holiday here in Rio Grande do Sul (our state) so it was easy for most people to get together to talk about what is going on with the house churches and Celebrations.

We met in a gazebo at the Botanical Gardens for the morning session.

We decided to meet at the Botanical Gardens here in town and have a time of reflection. We spent about an hour and a half remembering the blessings that we have experienced in house churches over the last year and a half or so. There were many wonderful things that were commented on. To list a few we mentioned:

That we have learned that house churches really do challenge you to develop close, intimate relationships with those you meet and worship with. Superficial relationships get thrown out the window!
The offering that is given in house churches is usually given to an immediate need. Although we are renting a house (the C.A.S.A.) it is not that much rent and upkeep. If someone in a house church knows of someone that really needs financial assistance - we help right away with what was given!
The environment of a house church helps you see the needs of others. You can perceive much easier when someone in your group needs help. Plus, our house churches try to do regular service projects in the community. We are challenged to serve!
House churches allow everyone to participate and use the gifts they have been blessed with to in turn bless the body. Anyone can read a scripture, share a word of encouragement, lead a prayer or a song, etc.
In house churches, individuals are given more freedom to interact and question during the Bible study. It is much easier to retain what you are being taught (or even teaching) because of the discussion that takes place around the study. Not too many people ask a preacher a question about his sermon... during the sermon!
We are learning that anyone can lead or host a house church. You don't have to worry about money for a new building to start a sister church. They can reproduce and multiply quite easily!

Around noon some of us went and did our own thing for lunch. Because the weather was getting much cooler it was a little hard to stay comfortable and concentrate on the task at hand. So, we all ended up meeting at our house for the afternoon part of the retreat.

In the afternoon we briefly reviewed the blessings that we had experienced in house churches. Then, we spent some time reflecting on some of the more difficult and challenging aspects of house churches. We realized that there are some common themes in what a lot of people were saying. Most of our struggles centered around:

Lack of communication (on different levels).
Lack of feeling of celebration in the Celebrations - no real dynamism.
Lack of feeling responsible for others who are not in our own house churches. No consistent encouragement.

There were a few other struggles that were mentioned that we need to address as well. Benay Blume read a passage from I Peter that really helped put us all in the right mindset as we talked about our challenges. We know and trust that the Lord can use our struggles to stretch and mold us. It is important to remember to be positive about struggles. We know what we need to improve on, so now we will spend time praying about how to actually make adjustments to bless this church family.

We needed to spend some time brainstorming about how to do better where we struggle. The group decided that the best way to go about this (because we ran out of time yesterday) is to pray about these blessings and struggles and come back together on May 22nd for a time of brainstorming. May 22nd is a holiday too, so we hope to at least have the group that participated yesterday.

This is the group that met in the afternoon at our house. What a blessing it is to see all those smiles right after we spoke about our failures and challenges as a church family. I really believe that the Lord blessed those who were present with the right attitudes, mind-sets and hearts.

I feel so blessed by the way people handled themselves and spoke up yesterday. We all realize that this is just the beginning of an incredible journey that the Lord is guiding this church family on. Please partner with us in praying that He be the one to lead us and that we don't try to achieve any thing on our own. Please pray for our focus to be on God and His family. Please pray that He bless us with ways to resolves the issues that we see are problems. It is our constant prayer that what we do in the following days, weeks, months and years will bless many people and will help grow the Kingdom of God in Brazil.

Tiago

2008-04-29T16:25:00.013-03:00

In the last 2 posts I have put on this blog I have written about our good friend, Tiago (Chee-a-Go). I think that it is time for me to give as much of his story to you as I can.

We first met Tiago in 2004 when Let's Start Talking did a campaign with our church. He was one of the readers who came to practice his English using the Bible. I didn't really know him well back then, but I remember him coming to church a couple of times. I recall him being very laid-back and reserved in those days.

Tiago continued to come in and out of our lives with LST coming again in 2005 and with an English class that he had with Tessa Sexton. He studied with Tessa one-on-one for some time before their classes eventually ended. He was a part of the "Growth Group" small group study at the Klein's home from June 2006 until December of that year. As we made our transition out of the building and into house churches Tiago came to be a part of the group that meets in our home on Sundays. We praise God that he has been a regular part of our group for the last year and a half. In addition, Tiago has also been a consistent participant in the Men's Ministry studies and retreats.

Here is a picture of the group of men that went on a retreat in July of 2007. Tiago is circled.

Tiago is only 24 years old, but he comes across as someone with a lot of experience, maturity and wisdom. He wasn't taught anything of significance about the Gospel before coming to our church family, but has always carried himself with integrity and humility. He is an upright young man that we are all very fond of. He has given out of his own pocket to help those of our church family who have been in need and is always available to listen and encourage when someone needs him to.

Tiago and I went camping a few weeks ago. On that trip I had an opportunity to visit with him a little about his faith and where he is at spiritually. I tried not to put pressure on him, but I wanted to let him know that I was concerned about his salvation. He had let me know before in a previous conversation and again in this one that he wasn't sure when he would be baptized, but he wanted to spend more time in reflection about Christianity. He told me that he saw something powerful in the family of God, but didn't quite know how to grasp it or how to have it in his life. We talked about the Holy Spirit and the power that comes through confessing Jesus as your Lord and being baptized. I talked about my personal faith walk and how much of a journey it has been. We were very open and honest. I left that conversation feeling like he was on the right track and that one day he would indeed give his life to Jesus.

Since mid-March Tiago has been a part of a small group that has had an English class with Jennifer. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening this small group meets up at the C.A.S.A. to study English grammar (fun!) and read through the book of James. Every now and then Jennifer would let me know that Tiago was taking a deep interest in what they were reading and talking about in James. The book of James is some real, convicting Christian living stuff. It really started to take hold of Tiago and eventually started to touch his heart in a way he hadn't yet been touched.

A couple of days ago I wrote about how Tiago told me he wanted to give his life to Jesus. I am still so moved that he has allowed the Lord to penetrate his heart. Tonight Tiago and Paulo Renato came over for a pizza dinner to close out their English classes with Jennifer. After dinner Tiago and I had a chance to talk alone while we prepared the bathtub for his baptism. I explained to him how we would do the baptism and that I would read some scriptures beforehand. I told him that this is the most important day of his life and that in just a few moments he will have a new life in Jesus. He then told me that when he first made the decision to be baptized it was when he knew that he would travel to Australia. He began to think about how he wouldn't be with us on Sundays and that bothered him. He wanted to be connected to us through Jesus. He then told me that at first he thought that being baptized would be something simple to do. However, after studying scripture over the last few days he realizes how serious of a commitment to Jesus it is. He realizes now that this is a life-altering event and that he will never be the same. Amen!

Sascha & Tiago immediately after the baptism.

Paulo Renato welcomes his new brother into the family of Christ!

Our family with Tiago after his baptism.

Please remember to keep Tiago and his new walk with Jesus in your prayers. He will leave us on Friday to spend a few weeks with his mom in his hometown of Santiago, Brazil. On June 9th, he will board a plane for Sydney, Australia and will be there until December.

One Nice Long Weekend

2008-04-27T19:56:00.004-03:00

As it happens our weekends are sometimes much busier than our weeks. We find that it is much easier to fellowship with folks and strengthen relationships when we aren't all "working". What better time to do that than a weekend? This weekend was pretty long, yet very good. Most people include Friday in the weekend so that is where I will start with this post.

Friday I went to lunch with Tiago. Tiago (James in English) and I have become pretty good buds. We really enjoy each other's company (see this post), so it wasn't something out of the ordinary for him to want to have lunch. I did think that something might be up because he "wanted to talk". "Wanting to talk" is always code for something serious is going on in my life! So, Tiago came by the house and picked me up. We went to this pretty good buffet and were just having causal conversation when he hit me with a bomb - "I'm leaving for Australia on June 9th". What?! He wants to go to Australia to study English and work for several months. He expects to be back in Porto Alegre sometime in December of this year. He didn't want to say anything until he knew for sure that things were going to work out. He has his passport and just got his visa so it was time to share the big news. Then he hit me with a super bomb!!! "Before I go to Australia I want to be baptized". Awesome! I can't tell you how pumped I was (and still am) about this. He is telling me all this in the middle of the restaurant. I seriously took his confession right there at the table in front of the food. It was great! I asked him if he wanted to study regularly after he is baptized and then he hit me with "I am leaving on Wednesday for my hometown and won't be back until right before I leave for Australia". What craziness! All I can say is that his heart has been touched and he is ready to live for Jesus. I have more to say about this, but I will wait a couple of days and dedicate a post entirely to his story.

Friday night Jennifer and I ended up having Tiago and his girlfriend, Lili over for supper. It was a great time of fellowship and food.

Saturday started off with us going up to the CASA for a class that Jennifer teaches. She has been teaching the teenage girls of our church family a study on the book "Just Like Jesus" by Max Lucado. This is a really good book and a really good study. Please keep this study, the young girls involved and Jennifer as the facilitator in your prayers.

I went along to help watch Elisa with our good friend Rute. Elisa has really had a hard time being left with other people. She is going through a stage where that just really scares her. I ended up taking her home after only an hour so that she could take a nap and get ready for a play date.

Saturday afternoon we went over to the apartment of some old neighbors. We hadn't seen them in about a year and a half (since they moved out of our old apartment building). They called us out of the blue on Thursday and wanted to visit. We were very grateful that they remembered us and wanted to renew our friendships. We had tried to reach them several times over the last year without success. Eduardo and Fernanda are their names and they are really fun. They have 2 kids, Mariana and Marcelo. We were over at their apartment for about 3 hours on Saturday and we all had a great time. Jennifer and I got caught up with our old friends and Elisa got caught up with Marcelo and his really cool toys! All we heard from her for those 3 hours was "OOHHHHH! TOOYYYSSSS!" She was in heaven!

Saturday early evening: we got Elisa home in time to eat supper and get ready for bed (which is around 7pm). Bronwyn Blume arrived about that time to babysit, then we got ourselves ready to go over to Matt and Waleska's apartment for a couple's ministry meeting. Once a month Matt and Waleska lead a study at their apartment for married couples. The subjects are designed to help grow and strengthen the relationship that you have with your spouse. In March the subject was communication. This month was the first of 2 studies on dealing with finances as a couple. The second study will be toward the end of May. I think we got home around 10:30 or 11pm last night, but is was worth it. It was a blessing to encourage one another with such a difficult subject. Please keep the marriages of our church family and the Couple's Ministry in your prayers.

Today (Sunday) we started the day off by getting ready to receive the Lima family for lunch. This family has been a party of our church body from the beginning. They are Lauro, Lorena, Gabrieli, Lucas & Gabrieli's boyfriend Guilherme (William). Lauro makes pretty tasty food and recently started his own business. We made a deal with them that if we bought all the food they could make it! They happily agreed! So, we feasted on some amazing churrasco (Brazilian bbq) and salad and garlic bread, etc. It was great! They are some of our favorite people here in Porto Alegre, so even without the food it is always fun being with them. We are grateful to have such wonderful, tender-hearted people like the Lima clan in our church family.

Grillin' the meat! Yummm!

Here is one picture with Jennifer and one with me just to prove that we were both there!

You can't blame Lucas for taking the time to let the meat settle!

After a few hours with the Lima family we got ready for our church's once-a-month Celebration. The last Sunday of every month all of the house churches get together for a big gathering. There is always singing and some form of lesson. We share the Lord's Supper together and sometimes have some kind of a meal. After our time of worship people usually hang around and visit with each other. There is always strong fellowship in the Celebration gatherings. Today, instead of a meal, we had a baby shower. There is a girl in our church family, Daniela, who is expecting a baby. We threw a simple bash for her with cake and presents. Please keep her and the baby in your prayers. Their entire family needs prayers for strength and wisdom.

This picture is of Paul Morrow bringing us a word from Psalm 23 during our Celebration.

Here is Daniela opening some of her presents at the baby shower. By the way, it's a girl!

After the Celebration and baby shower started winding down we headed home to try and relax a little. Elisa is already down for the night and Jennifer and I are sitting at our computers. This wasn't necessarily a typical weekend, but it wasn't out of the ordinary either. It was simply one nice long weekend.

Camping With Tiago

2008-04-09T07:43:00.017-03:00

Over the last few weeks I had been trying to recruit the guys in the 2 house churches and 1 small group that we participate in to go on a camping trip. I thought that a little get-away would be a good bonding time for us. Most of the guys (7 of us in total) where excited about it. As time for the trip got closer most of the guys had to bail out due to work or being sick.

So, it ended up just being me and Tiago (Chee-a-Go). We went to the waterfalls where we had a house church meeting a few weeks ago. Not being regular outdoors men we don't own any camping equipment. We had to borrow a tent from Matt Rehbein and sleeping bags from the Blume family. It was a great time to go camping. We were the only people at the site until Saturday morning. That gave us free reign on whatever without having others interrupt us. It was the ideal situation.

We weren't familiar with Matt's tent, so we took pictures of the assembling process just in case we couldn't get it broken down! It was really fun - and easier than expected!

We spent most of our 24 hour camping trip (Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon) talking about God's creation and how small we are in the grand scheme of things. The nature that we experienced was awe-inspiring. The trees, the water, the flowers, the animals (little wolf-like creatures and monkeys) and the night time sky really blessed us. Here are a couple of pictures of the camping area that we enjoyed.

Tiago and I really had a great time grilling hotdogs in the dark and making "Smores". It was his first "Smores" experience. I was glad to accommodate! We are moving from Summer into Fall, so nights and mornings are a little chillier. We appreciated the warm, relaxing fire in the evening.

Tiago warming himself by the fire.

Munching on "Smores"!

The place where we went has 5 waterfalls. I believe that you can jump off the first 4 (and I did jump from the 2nd one!), but the last is pretty large and dangerous. We hiked down a trail on Saturday morning to get a first-hand look at this monster of a waterfall. It looked like something out of an adventure film. It was, along with most everything else we saw, incredible!

I am standing next to a zip-line that goes over the 5th waterfall.

This 5th waterfall is just over 108 feet tall and the water is almost 40 feet deep! Needless to say there was no jumping off this one!

Tiago and I had an amazing time that blessed and grew our friendship. We plan on taking another trip like this one in the future, but with more of our buddies.

Please keep Tiago and his search for Jesus in your prayers. He is an amazing young man with many talents. I know that one day he will do wonderful things for the Kingdom!

Dani - A New Sister

2008-04-06T14:51:00.005-03:00

When our team moved here in June of 2002, Dani was one of the first people they met. Dani, being a language teacher, was the team's initial language teacher when they arrived in Porto Alegre. Over time the families on the team decided to hire individual teachers instead of all having the same one. Although Dani had formed relationships with everyone on the team, she only continued teaching Kyle and Leslie Klein.

When Jennifer and I moved to Porto Alegre in 2004 we began our friendship with Dani. She was our Portuguese teacher for a little over 2 and a half years. During that time we really became good friends with her and her husband, Alexandre. We were there when their little girl, Ana Luisa, was born (she is now one of Elisa's best friends). We have gone on several family vacations with Dani and Alexandre and are planning a big trip for next month. In the four years that we have been here; through dinners and outings and many Bible studies we have become very close friends.

Last Thursday night we were in our Bible study in the South Zone of the city. This is a study that Dani has been frequenting. In the study we were talking about Jesus' authority versus the authority of man's teaching. We eventually started talking about the power and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have had many discussions in the past with Dani about similar subjects, but I don't know that they were penetrating her heart. After about 30 minutes of discussion on Thursday night though, Dani asked to be baptized!

We have prayed consistently for this over the last few years, so when the day of her decision to follow Jesus arrived we were ecstatic! We knew that we were not the ones to touch her heart. We have been patiently presenting the truth to her and praying that the Lord would touch her and that she would accept Jesus as her Lord, and she did!

She and Alexandre and their daughter came over last night after Anderson Blume's 4th birthday party for her baptism. Due to the cooler weather we stayed indoors and I baptized Dani in the bathtub. It was a such a powerful and blessed event.

Please let this be an encouragement to you as it is to us to pray for those in your life who haven't accepted Jesus as their Lord. Sometimes we need to be patient. Jennifer and I feel fortunate that we were able to witness Dani's confession and baptism, but we know that there are many others that we may not see come to Jesus. Just because we aren't there doesn't mean they won't though. It maybe today, tomorrow or in 20 years, but God does answer prayers for the lost.

Dani's baptism!

Jennifer embracing her new sister!

Paulo Renato Preaching It!

2008-03-28T22:51:00.003-03:00

I thought that it would be cool to share a clip of my precious brother Paulo Renato sharing a word during a class out at the Chácara. Now this is in Portuguese, but you should still feel the power! What a teacher!

Chácara Blessings

2008-03-28T21:08:00.009-03:00

Over the last 9 weeks Paulo Renato and I have been going out to the Chácara to teach a class on sexual purity using the book "Every Man's Battle". Yesterday was our last study with the men and it was a great one! Although it was hard to say "this is our last study" it was wonderful to say "and now you are armed and prepared for the fight for purity!" The guys chewed and chewed on this study. They are hungry and are looking for ways to fight for the right life - for the Christian life (Colossians 3). I reminded them a few different times over the 2 months that we were studying with them that they can interchange the examples of sexual addiction in the book for drugs and alcohol. It is possible for us to win the battle against any temptation or addiction with the tools that we have in the Word - if we want to.

I am so blessed to have spent the time that I did at the Chácara on these Thursdays. The relationships that I formed with these men have already had an impact on me and my walk with Christ. After seeing what most of them have gone through and overcome I have no reason not to live a blameless life in Christ. I know I have been armed with the Spiritual weapons I need in the every day battle against Satan and his schemes. I will always be encouraged by the men of the Chácara - because of their smiles and hugs and most especially their powerful prayers!

All the guys are deep in the study. Even guys who are there for the first time participate in the discussion.

Paulo Renato (middle) leads the discussion. He has been a tremendous blessing as a teacher and leader.

Adão Claudio gives us a word.

Accountability Groups:

Leandro, Adão Claudio, Christian & Paulo Rogierio

Rafael, Paulo Renato & Daví

Rodrigo, Anderson & Fabio

Marcelo & Eduardo

Gabriel & Andre

Josimar & Isaías (Isaías is the selfless director of the Chácara)

These two guys are in "accountability group" pictures above, but I wanted to point out that these are the two guys that I mentioned in a previous post. This is (L to R) Daví and Anderson. On March 16th they gave their lives to Jesus through baptism! Praise God!!!

This last Sunday (Easter) there was a short program aired on a local TV station in the afternoon. It was about an up-and-coming Christian hip-hop music group. The 3 guys in the group have come from difficult backgrounds. One of the guys was actually at the Chácara a few years ago recovering from drug addiction. For the TV program they went out to the Chácara to promote freedom from addiction. This really gave the Chácara a lot of publicity that it doesn't get. From Monday until Thursday of this week there were 6 new guys at the Chácara - 4 of them saw the program on Sunday! Although this seems like a huge blessing, it isn't the best part. The best part is that there is no more room! They are out of beds! That is a great problem to have at a place that tries to free young men from addiction!!! We can see that God is working at the Chácara. Who knows, maybe we should pray for another new dormitory to be built in 2008!

Here is a picture of the hip-hop group. The guy on the far right was at the Chácara a few years ago.

Hopefully, from the pictures above you can put a name to a face and find it easier to pray for these guys. They know that many people are lifting them up to the Father. I ask you to carry them in your hearts and your prayers as we do. They are sons of God who are discovering grace and mercy and the truth - that Jesus loves them no matter what they have done. Please pray for them and their spiritual growth. Please pray for the Chácara and the blessings that continue to flow. Please pray that God would send us more and more Brazilian leaders like Paulo Renato and Isaías. Please pray!

Easter Retreat

2008-03-25T20:53:00.010-03:00

This Easter we went to a nearby town with our church family for a retreat. It was a wonderful time of worship, fellowship and relaxation. We have had a couple of retreats in the past over the Carnaval holiday (normally in February), but this year we decided to do something different. We spent the weekend, as a church family, thinking about how Christ's suffering on the cross relates to our sufferings in this life and how we have victory through his resurrection.

We had 70 people participate in the retreat, which included several friends that were invited by our members. What a way to reach out - invite your friends to an Easter retreat! One of the friends that was invited decided to give his life to Jesus and will be baptized in the near future! Praise God! We ended our retreat with an Easter sunrise worship and a traditional Easter egg hunt and Brazilian churrasco (bar-b-que). It was a great weekend!

Here are some retreat pictures of our growing church family....

Matt Rehbein brings us a lesson.

In addition to lessons we also had activities for the kids, "break-out" sessions and plenty of fellowship (hang-out) time...

The Kid's Class:

Let's not forget the traditional Easter egg hunt...

"Break-out" Sessions:

Fellowship (hang-out) time:

Easter Worship at Sunrise... in the rain:

No. 31

2008-03-18T11:51:00.008-03:00

Sunday was my 31st birthday. One thing that is great about birthdays is that you can (and should) spend them with people that you are close to. I don't really care for the big bash. Instead I prefer to invite just a couple of families to have a little fun. On Saturday (the day before my birthday) we had over the Blume family (teammates), our friends Milton & Juliana and their kids (2 girls and a baby boy) and Dani (her husband couldn't make it) and her little girl Ana Luisa (Elisa's good buddy). I grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and we had a banana split buffet for the desert. It was a lot of fun for everyone. Later, Jennifer and I reflected on the day and it was a really good day. A blessing in fact!

Above: Dani, Milton & Juliana partake of the hamburgers and hotdogs.
Below: Kevin, Benay, Bronwyn & Jennifer converse while Elisa and Carys come to break things up!

Sunday (on my actual birthday) we went out to Claudio and Rute's house for worship and a Bible study. Afterward, Jennifer took me out to the Outback Steakhouse for lunch - it was great! Then we made it back home in time for our 2nd house church. By the end of the day we were feeling a little blah from all the food, but it was really good. Benay Blume gave me a plate of homemade cinnamon rolls, which we took care of with a candle lit in it! We ended the day with opening presents and cards. It was a lot of fun.

Elisa's birthday card to me...

that she decided she wanted to wear. Check out her arm!

We miss our families and friends in the states on days like these, but it is special to be able to share experiences with people that we have grown close to in Brazil. These special occasions build a bond that can be strengthened some day through the blood of Christ. We want our friends to know the Lord on a deeper, intimate level. Please pray that we have the wisdom and strength to be their friends as Jesus would be.

Chacara Update & New Small Group

2008-03-13T13:14:00.004-03:00

Chacara Update: Today we had our 7th study out of 9 out at the chacara . It was really good. We studied and conversed about "bouncing your eyes", "starving your eyes" and arming yourself with your "sword and sheild". The Lord has really been working through this study on sexual purity to bless the young men of the chacara. Although we have seen many young men leave for various reasons, we have seen many stand up in faith and show the strength the Lord has given them.

Special Announcement: This coming Sunday, March 16th, two of the young men at the chacara (Anderson & David) will give their lives to Christ through baptism! Please keep these young guys and their new walks with the Lord in your prayers.

New Small Group: Last night Jennifer and I started a new small group in the south zone of the city with our sister-in-Christ, Luzia. It was just the three of us (+ Luzia's 2-year old son, Mateus) for this first meeting. Despite the low number it was great! We were extremely blessed with a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer. It was especially productive since we believe we were given a confirmation that we should study the gospel of Mark together. There is potential for several more people to join this group in the coming weeks and months. Please pray that the doors to this time of fellowship and study with the Lord will open up to the hearts of those who are seeking.

Anniversary at the Waterfall House Church

2008-03-10T22:30:00.004-03:00

Yesterday we celebrated our 4th anniversary of our arrival in Brazil with a little house church trip. We combined with another house church and went to a small town about an hour and a half away from Porto Alegre. The purpose of this trip was to escape the city and enjoy the nature that the Lord has blessed us with. In English the name of this town is "Two Brothers" (or Dois Irmãos). It is pretty well known in these parts for the magnificent waterfalls that are nearby. I believe there are 5 large waterfalls in all.

We had a great time of fellowship and devotion to the Lord. I really needed this time to take a step back and reflect on the Lord's provisions in my life. Believe it or not I was able to really focus on what the Lord is calling me to as I jumped off the waterfalls several times.

The Lord amazed me with the power of the waterfalls and the beauty of His nature yesterday. I must have seen 10 different species of butterflies. The trees and the rocks and the water all demonstrated God's power and His artistic hand. I can't wait to get back to the falls and reflect on His majesty as I fling myself off a 20+ foot drop!

Looking for a good spot to make "the jump".

I was able to land a couple of "can openers" that made decent splashes (from what I heard).

This is me and Tiago (James) taking a plunge together!

Prayer Requests and Updates

2008-03-01T21:35:00.002-03:00

With all we have going on here in Porto Alegre sometimes we forget to remind our supporters and friends of the things that they can be praying about. Needless to say, we all have praises and needs. Here are a few of ours that we would appreciate you lifting up to the Father:

Claudio's Job: One of our brothers in Christ has been working as the "super" of an apartment building here in the city for 10 years. He and his family moved to another town about 30 minutes away (by car) back in June 2007. Because of the distance and the fact that things just aren't going well with the management of the apartment building we are praying that the Lord would bless Claudio with a new job closer to home. He is a very hard worker and is dedicated to his walk with the Lord. It would mean a lot to this special man if he new that brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe were praying for him and his job situation.
Teen pregnancy: Unfortunately, we all make mistakes. Sometimes our mistakes are permanent. One of the members of our youth group is pregnant and expects to have her baby in May. She is learning a hard lesson and really needs a lot of prayers and encouragement. Her family is really poor and their living conditions are difficult. They expect to move into a new house sometime this year, but don't really know when they will be able to. This girl is only 16 years old and the father of the baby is only 14. They really have a hard journey in front of them. Please bathe them in prayer as they make decision that will shape how they live their lives. They need you to pray for peace, wisdom and encouragement through the Spirit. Please also be praying for purity for all our young people.
Men's Study: On March 8th, I will begin a new 8-week study with the men in our church family. We will study and discuss the Spiritual Disciplines (prayer, meditation, worship, fasting, etc). I expect this to be a heart and mind opening experience for all of us. Please pray that the Lord bless us and lead us and we strive to grow closer to him and to each other in fellowship.
English Class: Jennifer began and English class last week. She has 4 students on Tuesday and Thursday nights. 3 of these students are not-yet Christians. Please pray that Jennifer would be used mightily and that the hearts of these students would be touched to follow Jesus.
Bible Studies/House Churches: We continue to reach out to our community through the house church network and through one-on-one Bible studies. I have a couple of studies and hope for more. I have studied with Ricardo for 2 and a half years. Please pray for Ricardo as we search the scriptures together and learn about the Christian walk. We have had 5 house churches since June of last year. We really believe that going out into the different neighborhoods and setting up small churches in people's homes is the most effective way to reach this entire city for Jesus. In the next week or two Jennifer and I will start working with our 3rd group which we hope and pray will become a house church. This will be a mid-week group Bible study in the South Zone of the city where there currently are no house churches. Please pray that the Lord bless us with wisdom, joy and endurance. We are very excited to take a study to a new part of town where many want to know Jesus!
Easter Retreat: This year, instead of our Carnaval Retreat, we are planning an Easter Retreat (March 21-23). Please be in prayer that this will be a time when many who don't yet know Jesus accept him and that the rest of our church family will grow closer to him. Also, please be in prayer for our planning - that we would allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in all that we are doing.
Chácara Study: We are half way through the study out at the Chácara (just finished week 5). The guys are excited and very animated about the things they are learning. Please continue to keep these young men in your prayers. There is a lot of turnover at this rehab center. It seems like each week there are one or two guys who have left and one or two new guys that just got there. They need the physical, mental and spiritual strength to endure coming off their various addictions. Please keep my co-teacher, Paulo Renato, in your prayers as well. We took over leading the study at week 3 and hasn't looked back. I am so happy to turn a ministry over to a Brazilian and so proud of the work and preparation he is putting into it. I praise the Lord for this humble brother who loves the men at the Chácara with all his heart. We all need purity and self-control, so I ask that you pray for this as well.

I thank you for your faithful, fervent prayers on behalf of our ministries and our church family. May the Lord bless you for your faithfulness to His Kingdom.

Permanent Brazilian Residents

2008-02-25T22:30:00.002-03:00

I have more to post about the work here in Porto Alegre in the coming days, but for now I thought that I would share a little bit of good news...

After living in Brazil for nearly 4 years we finally received our ID cards stating our Brazilian Residency. It is pretty cool to have accomplished this. Every 6 months (or sometimes more often) for the last 4 years we have gone to the Federal Police to renew our temporary residency while awaiting our permanent residency. It is almost like we have been on probation for the last few years.

Last week our "permanent" temporary cards were to expire so we went in to see if our permanent cards had come in. We have been in the waiting process for these particular cards for 2 years. Well, they came!!!

What this means is:

We are free to come and go without a visa in our Passports.
We can get jobs here if we needed to (Brazilian earned income).
We don't have to go back to the Federal Police for anything until August of 2017 (that's 9 years)!
Even if we move back to the states at some point, we still have residency in Brazil (as long as we renew these new cards every 9 years).

I am sure that there are more positives, but I am too tired to care right now and they are probably things that I wouldn't take advantage of anyway. I just thought that I would share this little bit of positive news with the few people who read this blog.

Carnaval

2008-02-10T20:48:00.000-03:00

If you watched our video presentation in the post below you saw where we were planning on doing a series of activities during the Carnaval weekend. The last two years we have taken our church family to a camp ground of sorts outside of the city to escape the atmosphere of Carnaval. This year we decided to focus on being a family within our community. We had activities starting on Saturday, February 2nd, through Tuesday, February 5th (the day of Carnaval).

Day 1:

On Saturday some of our church family went to a beach that is south of the city. The beach is on the lake that Porto Alegre rests on, but was an hour and a half away. We really didn't know if we were going to be able to go because it had rained quite a bit leading up to Saturday. We had everyone on "stand-by" waiting to see what the weather was going to be like Saturday morning. We made the call to go ahead and make the journey to the beach. Jennifer and I had to leave a little late because a certain someone (Elisa) needed a nap. When we finally got to our destination it was pouring rain. The other 25+ church members that went out there were just standing in the rain. It was a sad sight! There was no where to take cover from the rain, so you either stayed in the car or stood in the rain. Fortunately, after about 45 minutes the rain stopped and we were able to get some burgers on the grill. We ended up having a fun time with our church family.

Rain or shine it is hard to keep young people out of the water!

Benay and Jennifer sought shelter from the rain in the Blume's van while they made the hamburger patties.

Spencer and I worked on grilling burgers for the group. We had 30 mouths to feed!

Here is some of our group enjoying the few minutes of sunshine that we had at the beach.

Day 2:

On Sunday we had a celebration service at the athletic club where all the house churches come together on the last Sunday of each month. We had a wonderful worship time together. Matt brought a lesson, encouraging us to take care of each other as Christians. After our time of worship we had chicken prepared on the grill. There was a great time of fellowship and some games played. It was a wonderful experience in which many took part. The best part (in my opinion) is that we had almost 10 visitors! It really was a great day!

Worshiping together as a family should!

Daniel did a fantastic job with the chicken! It was tasty!

Days 3 and 4:

On Monday and Tuesday we went out to the small town of Cachoeirinha (cash-o-e-rEE-nya) to do a service project. This was the first time that our church family was going out into the community to work on something that didn't directly effect us. What I mean is, our service projects in the past have all been about fixing up our building or doing something for our church family. This time we were going to a poor neighborhood to help out a government run daycare center. We have a contact at the daycare that let us know that there was a lot of work that needed to be done, but that there weren't any funds to make it happen. So, Jennifer, one of our members and I went out to see what needed to be done and what kind of materials we needed to buy. We decided that we needed to work on all the interior walls of the daycare. We deal with a lot of problems that come as a result of humidity in Porto Alegre. One of those problems is when the walls get damp on the inside and start to deteriorate. This was a big issue at the daycare. We got as many people together from our church family as we could these two days to peel paint off the walls, lay dry wall and cement and then paint. It was a lot of work, but we managed to get it done. I am really proud of everyone who went out to help. I believe that we were a light in a difficult place to live. We have some church members who live down the street from the daycare. We pray that this service to the community will open doors for our members, Claudio and Rute, to share Jesus with the lost in Cachoeirinha.

The group: trying to get organized!

This is the majority of the group that helped on Monday and Tuesday out at the daycare center. I was very encouraged by all the selfless work that was put into making that a better place for the community. Great work, guys! I'm proud of you!

The Chácara Study - Continued

2008-02-08T11:14:00.000-03:00

Yesterday we had our first official study at the Chácara. It was an incredible experience. The men there know all about fighting temptation and evil desires. They are already starting to understand that sex is something to be honored. It is a gift from the Lord that is only meant for a husband and his wife. Like drugs and alcohol it has the ability to drown you in addiction. The guys had tons of questions and they were very open and shared a lot about some of their experiences and what the streets of the city are like here in Porto Alegre.

There are a lot of sad facts about sexual sin. I had heard horrible stories about 11 and 12 year old prostitutes here in Porto Alegre when we first moved here. I also remember an article that was published in the newspaper that talked about fathers taking their young sons (12 or 13 years old) to prostitutes so that when they had a girlfriend they would know what they were doing when it came to sex. That made me sick. The guys at the Chácara were telling me during the study yesterday that there are girls who will do anything for R$5 (less than $3) to feed their drug addictions. That really made me tear up. How is it that people are so willing to give their bodies up like that? There are a lot of things that I don't understand about the world. I don't understand the chains that can hold a person down like that. Only the love of Christ can penetrate something so dreadful, but how do we share Jesus with someone who is so sick with addiction that they don't know right from wrong anymore - or ever care about right and wrong.

I am seeing with fresh eyes that the Lord calls us to pray for and be advocates of Jesus to all people - addicts and prostitutes need Jesus too.

Well, back to the study. We had a great time of discussion about the first 3 chapters of the book we are reading, "Every Man's Battle". Then we broke up into our accountability groups for more discussion and prayer through a few verses of scripture. The guys read and prayed through Romans 13:13 (freedom from sin in Christ), Philippians 2:1-3 (fellowship with brothers in Christ), Psalms 143:7-9 (the Lord is our shelter and strength) and I Peter 3:7 (showing love and respect for women will bless our prayer life). We then met back together to close out our time in a group prayer.

I could tell as I looked in on the accountability groups that it was a blessed time for the men. Here are a few pictures of some of the groups for you to get an idea of what they look like.

Study at the Chácara

2008-01-31T16:58:00.000-03:00

As most of you know I led a 10-week study on "Every Man's Battle" last year with several men in our church family. We had a great time getting to know one another on a deeper level as we spoke and learned about sexual purity.

Now I have taken this study out to the Chácara. While we were in the states Eastside church of Christ gave me the money to purchase 20 books to have this study with the guys out there. One of our members/employees, Paulo Renato, is going to help me with this study.

We began today with an introduction to the study and book as well as an introduction to our Accountability Groups. We plan on continuing the study for 10 weeks until the last Thursday of March. The guys at the Chácara are overcoming drug and alcohol addiction. There is a great chance that they could be corrupted by an addiction to sexual desire as well. Satan knows how to use sex against God's children - especially here in Brazil.

Starting this weekend the whole country will be in the midst of celebrating Carnaval. This is a time when most Brazilians do whatever they desire (sex, drugs and alcohol to name a few) and then move on with their lives next week. They are actually expected to step away from their lives and be "free" to do what they please until Tuesday night (the day of Carnaval). It is sad and very difficult to deal with for most of our Christian brothers and sisters.

I ask you to join the Christians in Brazil in praying for God to reign over this weekend. Please also pray for the men of the Chácara as they learn how to treat women (God's daughters) with the respect they deserve.

We will be conducting this study every Thursday. If you would like to pray for the men by name I will list them below. I know that it would mean a lot to them to know that they are prayed for by their brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Men of the Chácara:

Isaías (the director)
Gabriel
Airton
Antony
Claudimier
Adão Claudio
Eduardo
Rodrigo
Marcelo
Valter
Braulinho
Anderson
Diego
Jefferson
Ronaldo
Alexandre
Paulo Roberto
Marcos
Leandro
Paulo Rogierio
Josimar
Fabio
Christian
Gutimberg
Tales (at 14 years old he is the youngest to ever go to the Chácara. He and his girlfriend are expecting a baby)
Paulo Renato (my co-teacher who will take the study over in a few weeks)

[Morbid] Cultural Milestone

2008-01-25T21:12:00.000-03:00

This is Jennifer. I don’t think I’ve ever written a blog post before, but today’s experience was so unusual, I really wanted to write about it. Let me warn you now that if you’re easily freaked out, you probably should stop reading about here.

After living in Brazil for almost 4 years, we went to our first Brazilian funeral today. Weddings and funerals are great ways of seeing a culture’s value system, so I knew that we would get an authentic glimpse into Brazilian culture and family life by going. I’m not going to tell you about the actual funeral service in the chapel (because we were 10 minutes late and missed the whole thing) but I’ll tell you about what came next. I want to be clear in saying that you can’t make generalizations about a country (or even a city) by going to just one funeral, but I’ll tell you what we observed.

First of all, the dress code for funerals here is whatever you happen to be wearing. I thought that surely we should at least wear our nice every-day clothes, but no – I could have worn any old jeans and a t-shirt and I wouldn’t have been out of line.

Second, embalming is not really practiced here so funerals take place within a day of death.

Okay, now for the interesting part. We drove to the “cemetery” only to find that instead of a grassy field, it was an immense 5-story mausoleum complex. Imagine an apartment complex in the US (with little roads through it and everything). This place was enormous. There were a bunch of chapels (I think 10-20 of them) and the hallways were lined with plates in the wall with peoples’ names and pictures. I had heard that sometimes people in Brazil are buried in the same grave as their family members in order to save money, but I didn’t realize that this is the norm. After the service, we followed the casket down the hall to the appointed square in the wall. The employees of the mausoleum pushed the casket into the slot, then pushed 2 plastic bags in after it – one long and one small. I thought, surely those aren’t other people’s remains. I asked a Brazilian man about it and he said that he didn’t think they’d be in plastic bags, but then I asked some other people and they assured me that yes, those were the bones of other family members. Wow. After the employees put everything inside the vault, they put the cover back on and started slapping cement over it to seal it up again. As we walked away, I looked at the hundreds of other squares on the walls and noticed that most of them bore the names of at least 2 people, and many of them had entire families on them. Pretty amazing. Tonight I’m thinking of the unfortunate person who has the job of opening the vault and consolidating the decomposed remains in order to make room for the new casket. I’m told that all of this happens while the family is in the chapel having the memorial service. Definitely a cultural milestone.

Our History and a Look into the (possible) Future

2008-01-22T15:42:00.000-03:00

Well, we are back in Porto Alegre getting back into the swing of things. While we were on furlough we had the opportunity to visit with several church families and some individuals about the work we are doing here. Unfortunately, we were not able to visit with everyone who may be interested in our ministry.

This video is the same one that we showed to everyone that we visited with in the states. If you have about 15 minutes to sit in front of your computer I can promise that you will be much more informed about what we are doing. We hope that you are blessed by knowing what the Lord is doing for his Kingdom in the house churches of Porto Alegre.

Ready for bed

2008-01-02T00:23:00.001-03:00

Well, our furlough is winding up. I am looking at 3 bags that weight approximately 70lbs each. In the other room Jennifer is working on the last 2 bags of the same status. We are pushing the limits. Tomorrow we will leave Colorado Springs for Denver and catch the first leg of our 24+ hour journey home to Porto Alegre, Brazil.

We have been all over the place. We have visited 7 churches (3 in Colorado, 1 in Missouri and 3 in Texas) and a lot of family. Furlough has been a blessing because of all the love and encouragement our supporters have given us. We were taken care of above what we could have expected. We have a wonderful network of supporters and we thank the Lord for them.

Furlough has also been difficult because we are never settled in one place for too long. We have seen several different beds. I decided to count up the miles that we will have traveled by the time we arrive in Porto Alegre on Thursday afternoon. The total is over 16,800 miles!!! Needless to say we are a little road weary and are ready for our own beds.

We have a long journey ahead of us to get back home. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and get back into the swing of things in Brazil. Thank you and God bless your 2008.

Overdue Update - Lots of Good Stuff!

2007-10-29T22:16:00.000-03:00

Okay. It has been quite a while since I put an update out there for the World Wide Web. Sorry it has taken me so long. For a number of reasons (mainly Jennifer's computer giving up the ghost and we've been slammed with good work) I haven't been much of a blogger lately. So, here is a big update that I think will be worth your reading...

Furlough:

This Thursday we will start our 27 hour trip from Porto Alegre, Brazil to Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. We are planning on being in the states on furlough from November 2nd until January 2nd (2008). We will visit churches in Colorado throughout November (Eastside in Colorado Springs; Grand Junction in Grand Junction; and Meadowlark in Ft. Collins). In December we will visit churches in Joplin, Missouri; Houston, Texas; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Arlington, Texas. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us. We also plan on seeing family in other cities in Texas and New Mexico.

We expect furlough to be full and fun. It will be really good to see our family and supporters - especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Men's Retreat:

Last weekend (October 19-20) we had our 2nd Men's Retreat! This year has been so good for the men of our church family. We have gone from having a stagnate ministry to having a dynamic spirit-filled ministry! In this last retreat we concentrated on Spiritual Warfare - answering the questions "what is it?" and "how do we fight in it?". It was a great time of fellowship and bonding; a great time of learning and growing; and a great time of fun and awesome food! Here are a few pictures to show off the great time that we all had...

Sascha gave a talk explaining what Spiritual Warfare is.

Matt's shared with us different Christian attributes that we can use to fight effectively in Spiritual Warfare.

We had 20 guys attend this retreat (5 more than the last one!)
Top row (L to R): Paul, Bretton, Garigran, Roberto, Sascha, Alexandre, Cesar, Regis, Paulo Renato and Spencer. Bottom row (L to R): Tiago, Lauro, Jorge, Matt, Renato, Daniel, Rudinei, Gabriel, Cice and Rony.

New Brothers!

Two weeks ago Daniel gave his life to Christ! He and his family came over to our house where several others from our church met to witness his baptism. Daniel grew up in a Christian home but had never fully given himself to the Lord. He and his family are a part of the house church that meets in Paul and Ana Morrow's home. They have really being growing their relationships with each other and with the Lord in that house church. Last year Daniel's wife and two of his children were baptized.

Paul baptizes a very joyful Daniel!

This last Saturday Kevin Blume and I team baptized Garigran. We have both spent a lot of time with Garigran over the past year. He first met Kevin's family at a function for their kids' school a little over a year ago. Garigran and his family began coming to our church right when we began transitioning into house churches. He has turned from being a very closed and private person to being much more open and sharing. Although his journey is just beginning he has already come a very long way! A little over a week ago Gari told me that we was thinking about being baptized in December. When I asked him why we wanted to wait we replied "I don't need to! Can I be baptized at your house on Saturday!?" So, that was that! He came over with his family and renewed his life in Jesus!

Before: Garigran proclaiming Jesus as his Lord!

During...

After: a new creation in Christ!

Service:

After Garigran's baptism one of the house churches that we work with met out at the Chácara for a "service project". A lot of the guys at the Chácara don't get many visits from their families. Needless to say, they don't see too many birthday parties. So, we decided to throw a big birthday bash for them. Leni made hotdogs for all 20 guys and she bought them all new Bibles with our house church collection. Jennifer made 3 huge chocolate birthday cakes that were so good I don't know the right adjectives to describe them! We had a good time celebrating each one of the men's lives. We praise God that they have all been spared and that the Lord is working in them!

All gathered together to celebrate 20 birthdays!!!

I couldn't leave this picture out. I think it is safe to say that no one saw Jennifer coming with the camera! ;)

Spiritual Retreat

2007-10-09T13:57:00.000-03:00

Last week our team escaped the city for a Spiritual Retreat. We have gone off to be renewed a couple of times before, but this was the first time that we did it without taking any children along. This was also the first time that we left Porto Alegre with the primary intent on reconnecting with God and each other through prayer, meditation, worship and conversation. It was such a blessing to us all. We left our retreat feeling more unified having spent time reflecting on the past year's blessings and discussing what may be in store for the ministry here in Porto Alegre. We are in the middle of difficult, but exciting times with the House Churches that the Lord is growing. We look forward to what He has planned with future Brazilian House Churches and leadership.

I hope that you enjoy these pictures that were taken by Kevin Blume. Our beautiful surroundings really brought a refreshing spirit to us.

The hill country outside of Porto Alegre has some stunning landscapes.

You could say that we were "basket cases" before the retreat...

but, time outdoors really brings you back to where you need to be.

The Porto Alegre Mission Team: Paul, Kevin, Benay, Matt, Jennifer & Sascha

Dave Meadows

2007-10-01T19:26:00.000-03:00

Today at 8:30am (Brazilian time) we lost a friend, brother and colleague. James David Meadows passed from this life and started his journey home after losing his battle with cancer. He was a missionary in Brazil for over 30 years. Dave was an elder at the Church of Christ in Guarulhos, which is one of the larger Churches of Christ in the greater São Paulo area. He was respected and well liked by all. He will be missed.

Youth Devo

2007-09-30T11:29:00.000-03:00

Along with the Men's study and lunch at our house last Saturday (see previous post below), Jennifer and I also hosted a Youth devotional that evening. Needless to say, it was a very busy day for us - but very rewarding too. We had a great time of fellowship and worship with the teens. After the devotional Jennifer served them roast with potatoes and carrots (American style). I guess you could say that it went over well!

Here are a few photos of our time singing praises together. Enjoy!

Wild at Heart Study

2007-09-30T11:00:00.000-03:00

The Men's ministry closed out our "Wild at Heart" study this last weekend (Sept. 22nd). It was our 2nd 10-week study this year. There are a lot of wonderful and deeply spiritual things going on in the hearts of the men who have been participating in our studies. I am pleased and feel so blessed that the Lord has put it on my heart to work with the men in this capacity.

In the coming weeks we will have our 2nd Men's Retreat. Our focus will be on Spiritual Warfare (what it is and how to fight in it). I have high expectations that the Lord will do some amazing things for us and to us.

Please pray for this upcoming retreat (October 19-20). Pray for a good number of participants and for their hearts to be touched through the messages and activities.

Please also pray for the Lord to raise up a Brazilian to take more of an active role in the next study. I have been praying that a Brazilian would step into the role that I have had as facilitator and coordinator of the studies. I really want to work someone into this role as I work myself out of it.

I thank you in advance for your many prayers and your support of the work in Porto Alegre. I hope you enjoy these photos of the churrasco (Brazilian bbq) we had, ending this most recent study.

Renato, Lauro & Matt look on as Regis (far right) prepares the various types beef for our lunch.

Elisa was very interested in the workings of a good Brazilian churrasco.

Elisa and the guys wait for the meat!

Chácara Update - September

2007-09-14T00:12:00.000-03:00

This video update of the Chácara (sha-ka-rra) was something that I put together with our teammate, Matt Rehbein. Matt goes out to the Chácara every Wednesday for a full day of fellowship, counsel and prayer with the men who are there recovering from various addictions. Our church family has been trying to help the men at the Chácara construct a new dormitory to live in by giving of our time, resources and finances. I have given updates on the progress of this construction in past posts, but this one is much different. I hope that through this video you will be able to get a better grasp of what is happening at this place where lives are literally being transformed!

To learn more about the Chácara and the men who live there I encourage you to check out Matt's blog "The Chácara". I know you will enjoy it! http://thechacara.blogspot.com/

A Look at Sunday

2007-09-10T16:06:00.000-03:00

One of the reasons for having this blog is to communicate what our ministries are like. I thought that it might be helpful to you faithful readers out there to know what our Sunday typically looks like - since it is our fullest day.

Our church family gets together in a network of house churches, so this may be a little different than what you are used to. Just to make this a little easier I will give you a run through of our day yesterday. Let's take a look....

Jennifer started yesterday by putting together a lunch with breaded chicken and tomato sauce, accompanied by a beautiful chocolate birthday cake. This last week Claudio (Claude) and Rute (Ruth) both celebrated birthdays. So, we decided to take them and their family (they have 3 girls - Keity, Jennifer & Lhaumar) lunch to show them how much they mean to us. After all was ready we got out the door at around 12:15pm.

We drove to Claudio and Rute's house which is in the little town of Cachoerinha. With little traffic and good driving conditions it takes us 30 minutes to get there. When we arrived yesterday we started off by introducing ourselves to C & R's neighbors. Their neighbors are a young couple with a 5 month old baby boy named Samuel. This little family has really struggled lately with health issues. C & R have really been making a great effort to get to know them.

Jennifer and Elisa went into the neighbor's house with Rute and the girls while I went in and visited with Claudio. Claudio and I talked about how last week went for us and about the neighbors. C shared with me that last Sunday night he and R went over to visit. They talked to their neighbors about our church family and told them that they would be praying for their health and various struggles. Then, Claudio prayed for them. He said that the wife cried the entire time they were visiting and the husband was on the verge of tears. C really felt that this couple had never been shown the love of Jesus before. He was very glad that he was making an impact on them already.

Once the girls got back we decided to start our meal. Rute made bread and rice to share with the chicken that Jennifer prepared. It was a wonderful meal. As we gathered around the table we also shared the Lord's Supper. We each went around and shared a way in which the Lord has been blessing our life. It was really good. Afterward we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate birthday cake.

Everyone enjoyed the meal and birthday cake.

We then had our worship time for about an hour or so. We normally have a Bible study and are currently working through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, but yesterday we just sang our hearts out! As we closed our time together we took up our collection and decided to give it to the neighbors to help them pay for some medications.

At about 2:50 (two hours after arriving) we were out Claudio and Rute's door and on the way home to prepare for our 2nd house church of the day. This one meets in our home at 4pm. We were already pretty tired on the way home, knowing that the day was only half way over. Little Elisa feel asleep on the drive home (this is rare! she usually gets her 2nd wind in the car).

I have no idea how Jennifer took this picture while supporting Elisa's head with my driving! Poor thing was exhausted!

We made it home at 3:30 or so. Within 10 minutes of getting home we had a knock at the door. Tiago (James) and Lili were at the door. They came in and took a seat on the sofa while Jennifer put Elisa down for a nap and I ran all over the house cleaning up the mess we had made earlier (clearing off the table, putting away toys, sweeping, etc). I also made the bread for communion since we were fresh out.

Soon the others had arrived - Paulo Renato, Leni and her son Jorge. Because it is so much hotter these days we met in our living space downstairs that is protected from the hot sun. We sang songs and fellowshipped. We picked up where we had left off in our study of the Sermon on the Mount (same study that we are doing with C & R). This particular lesson was on adultery. It made for some pretty interesting conversation. We questioned and shared and studied. Then we took part in the Lord's Supper together. Our collection normally goes toward the construction of the dormitory at the Chácara (sha-ka-rra).

Our 2nd house church of the day (from left to right: Paulo Renato, Jorge, Jennifer, Lili, Tiago & Leni).

Afterward, Paulo Renato, Tiago and Lili stayed and visited. We had refreshments and good conversation until a little after 6pm. It is not unusual to have people in this house church stay until 7 or 7:30. We were a little grateful by the early departure this day though - just because we were already really tired.

Usually Elisa wakes up and entertains us all with her participation. However, she didn't wake up yesterday until everyone was long gone.

Once the day has come to a winding down point we (Jennifer and me) reflect on the day and how it went; whether we see people growing and maturing in their faith. Some Sundays are great and some are frustrating and of course there are days that fall somewhere in the middle.

We are all learning and trying to do what the Lord is blessing. I am very pleased with how things are going in all the house churches. The Lord is teaching us and stretching us with each moment we share with our church family. We really feel blessed to be involved in such a great ministry.

Thanks, Eastside!

2007-09-10T14:47:00.000-03:00

I wanted to take a moment to post a "thank you" on this blog. We have 6 supporting congregations and 1 main sponsoring congregation, Eastside church of Christ.

Yesterday, Eastside had a Missions Sunday. They took the time during their worship to listen to recorded reports and watch presentations from the missionaries that they support. We are very grateful to have been a part of that special time. We hope that Missions Sunday was beneficial to the different works that Eastside is involved in. We know that not every church family does a Missions Sunday, so this is very special to us.

We are blessed to have Eastside as our sponsor and to have all the other churches and individuals who give us support. We look forward to the time we will have in our upcoming furlough to visit with you face to face about the many wonderful things that the Lord is doing in Porto Alegre.

May He bless you in all you do.

Safe and Sound

2007-09-04T22:27:00.000-03:00

A few days ago I had the wonderful opportunity to relax and watch a few hours of TV. We lost the remote to the cable box of our TV a couple of months ago, so once a channel has been selected it usually stays there. Luckily, we had turned it to the Discovery channel just in time to see a show that is called "I Shouldn't Be Alive". Each show is an hour long and is based on the true events of a person or people who have found themselves stranded in dangerous situations - looking death straight in the face. It just so happened that on this day the Discovery channel decided to show 4 or 5 hours of different stories. There were stories of people trying to survive a deadly wrong turn in the Amazon; people stranded on an inhabitable deserted island in the Sea of Cortes (surrounded by Hammerhead sharks); and of people stuck in the middle of a crocodile infested river (one guy was bitten, but survived).

I was glued to all of these stories. It was very interesting to see how these people made it through their different ordeals. It got me thinking about how people in the Bible survived difficult situations. I am specifically referring to David fighting wild beasts to defend his flock and Daniel being thrown into the lion's den (among other stories). Does God still protect His people in times like these? When we are in certain peril can we trust in God that all will be well? I'd like to think so. Whether we are lost in the middle of the Amazon or driving the dangerous streets of Porto Alegre late at night - God is watching us and is protecting us. Accidents happen all the time to all sorts of people, but trusting that God can, will and is protecting us is important in our walk. He watched after the apostle Paul on various occasions. I believe that when we are giving ourselves completely over to the Lord, He can keep us safe and sound if he chooses.

Celebrating Prayer

2007-09-03T21:09:00.000-03:00

Last Sunday, August 26th, we had our normal last Sunday celebration. Our celebration services are a time that we all look forward to. Normally, our church family meets in 5 different houses each Sunday, but on the last Sunday of the month we all meet in a rented room at a Sports complex in town. This particular celebration was extraordinary (far from normal). On this Sunday we had a special family prayer time. We had couples to lead prayer groups in different parts of the room. As individuals and groups felt the need they went to the different couples for prayer. Some prayer groups were small while others were large. Whatever the size, the effect was the same - overwhelmingly powerful. The power of prayer can be revealing, healing, soothing and even freeing. Maybe everyone at the celebration had a stronger sense of family through our prayer time together. I think it is possible we all left last Sunday's celebration feeling truly blessed to have been in such powerful fellowship with our Christian family.

In addition to the wonderful family prayer time that we had, we celebrated the birth in Christ of Bronwyn Blume. Bronwyn is the eldest daughter of our teammates Kevin and Benay. She was baptized in July while their family was on furlough. It is our church family's tradition to present a gift of a new Bible to members of the youth group who choose to give their lives to Christ. Afterward, all the teens gather to pray for the new brother or sister.

House Church Video

2007-08-20T20:12:00.000-03:00

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated this blog. I hope this video makes up for it. It is a run down of the journey that our church family has been through over the last couple of years and shows how things are for us now. I am pretty excited to be able to get it on the web for all to see! Feel free to give me some feedback if you are moved to do so.

God bless you all!

Chácara Dormitory Update

2007-07-27T23:05:00.001-03:00

Here is a recent picture to show the wonderful progress that has been made since my last update on the project.

Over the past couple of months the men of the Chácara (drug and alcohol rehabilitation center) have been working on completing a new dormitory in which they will live. We hosted a campaign of Aggies here the first week of June to help us with some of the construction. Since the Aggies have left the men of the Chácara have really been working hard - with little assistance. Our church family has been providing most of the financial support to come up with the materials. This new dormitory has been a great blessing of hope and encouragement for many people associated with the Chácara.

Men's Retreat - "Seeking Adventure"

2007-07-16T16:26:00.000-03:00

This past weekend the men of our church family had their first ever Men's Retreat! It was such a great time!

The theme of the weekend was "Seeking Adventure". We are gearing up for a new Men's study using the book "Wild at Heart" and this retreat was just what we needed to get us going. We had great fellowship, some talks on how men need to seek adventure, some awesome food and a fun tournament of "tug-of-war"!

The times that we shared together in our "break-out" sessions after each talk were probably the best part of the retreat. I heard one guy (whom I have known to have marital problems) talk about how he had always viewed his marriage and his relationship with his wife as "a mission". He said that he recognizes now that "a mission has a beginning, a middle and an end. An adventure, however, keeps on going." He continued by saying that he wants to start viewing his relationships and his marriage as adventures. Sure there will be ups and downs - but you fight and keep going.

Hearing guys talk like this really blessed and encouraged us. Not to mention that out of the 16 guys that went on the retreat, 5 haven't yet made a decision to follow Jesus. I think it shows what kind of things the Lord is doing when one-third of the guys on the retreat were not-yet Christians. Praise the Lord!

Please pray that the Lord continue to bless and strengthen our men's ministry. Please pray that the lives, marriages and souls of these men be changed and strengthened through the Holy Spirit.

Sascha telling one of his adventurous stories...

The guys listening to one of Sascha's talks.

Being macho in our "tug-of-war" tournament.

Matt & Sascha got drug through the mud, literally! At least they came in 2nd place!

"Tug-of-War" heroes: Tiago, Renato & Silvio.

Our much anticipated lamb feast. It was incredible!

Chowing down together... baaaaaaah!

Front (knealing): Regis, "Sausage" the dog, Lauro, Spencer, Alexandre, Paul.
Back (standing): Renato, Garigran, Paulo Renato, Matt, Roberto, Ricardo, Sascha, Silvio, Tiago, Jorge.

Life of humility

2007-07-05T16:32:00.000-03:00

Most of my "posts" on this website are fairly formal about our work in Porto Alegre. I am feeling the need to just ramble a little about life and what I am feeling and learning being a missionary in South Brazil.

I am just now coming out of a stint of anger. It is hard to be real and confess that for all to read. I don't want people to think differently or poorly of me because I can get angry. But, that is what I have been feeling.

I had an incident about 6 weeks ago that I haven't really told anyone in the states about just because I didn't want anyone to freak out. This "incident" really got to me. For some reason I allowed it to fester like a bad blister. Any little thing would set me off. I became rude and obnoxious to a lot of people.

Finally, my lovely wife pulled me aside one night and asked me what was going on. After some good conversation I felt like my attitude problem was coming from the "incident". I was seeing that Satan was using what had happened to effect me, my relationship with God, my family and my ministry. Jennifer encouraged me to spend some time specifically praying for humility. What a gift she is to me! I don't like other people telling me what I should pray for to better myself as a Christian. I think that feeling alone is a good reason why I should pray for humility. I need it.

As I began to pray I started feeling more peace in my heart. I was feeling a calm that had been missing. I know that God is not pleased with me when I am angry. He longs for me to honor him through peace and humility. Colossians chapter 3 has really been helpful to me getting back on track with a good attitude and a tender nature.

I ask that you pray for me to continue strong in my relationships and ministries. I don't want to allow Satan to have a stronghold in any area of my life. I want to be armed and ready for any "incident" that may come along. I want to be a man of humility and peace.

House Church Seminar

2007-06-26T15:39:00.000-03:00

This last weekend we had a seminar on house churches for our church family. Bryan and Jacqueline Bost, from São Paulo, led the seminar. They have been missionaries in Brazil for 31 years and have seen and done many wonderful things in their ministry.

They worked in São Paulo for 20 years and Manuas for 5 years doing what we did in the beginning of our ministry here: having different ministries and activities to attract people to a strategically located building. For the past 6 years they have been back in São Paulo working with house churches.

When they returned to São Paulo in 2001 they had made the decision to work with house churches, without recruiting any other Christians to help them. For 2 months it was just Bryan and Jacqueline - staring at each other! Today, there are so many house churches and Christians participating in the house churches that they don't have any kind of a count. They have no idea how many disciples of Jesus have become involved! That is awesome!

We asked Bryan and Jacqueline to come to Porto Alegre to share their experiences and their stories with us. We wanted our church family to be encouraged by what the Lord has done with house churches in São Paulo and what he can do with house churches in Porto Alegre; Brazil; and the rest of the world. In total, we had 10 hours of listening to and interacting with this wonderful couple. Many of our members were able to participate and have walked away with more vision for what is possible.

I think the most important thing we learned is to pray constantly and to be faithful disciples of Christ. God will do the rest!

The 2 pictures above are from part of the seminar on Sunday morning.

The 2 pictures below are from our worship service that took place Sunday afternoon. You can literally have church anywhere - we met in a bowling alley!

Men's Ministry

2007-06-25T22:52:00.001-03:00

Renato, Lauro & Alexandre preparing to eat the meat at our last study!

Back in April I posted an update about a sexual purity class that the men here were going to start. A little over a week ago (June 16th) the men of our church family finished a 10-week sexual purity class using the "Every Man's Battle" book and workbook. We ended the study with a celebration churrasco (bar-b-que) at our house.

This class was an amazing opportunity for growth on various levels. As I stated in the previous post, we had a few purposes of this study:

strengthen and grow our relationships with the Father.
strengthen and grow our relationships with our wives.
view women with the eyes of Christ; with respect.
strengthen and grow our relationships with other men.

I believe that we not only met these goals or purposes - we hit them head on! We spent a lot of time in prayer and praise to our Lord and God; and we confessed sin, bringing us to a closer relationship with our God. We learned how to better treat our wives and how to give them our full attention - starving our eyes of sensual images outside of our marriages. We talked about how to guard our minds and our hearts from Satan's attacks with sexual lust and how to "make a covenant with our eyes" (Job 31:1). We spent time in meaningful conversation and confessed sin; opening doors for deeper relationships and trust with the other men in the study.

The Lord used our sexual purity class to renew all of us and to renew our ministry. The men's ministry in our church family hasn't ever had a real foundation. Now, we are standing firm! I believe that the Lord has some wonderful plans for the men of this church family. This study was just the beginning...

We are planning on our first men's retreat for the weekend of July 13-14. I will be using the book "Wild at Heart" to help us discover our masculine hearts and how God wants us to use them for the Kingdom. Beginning on Saturday, July 21, we will start our next 10-week study using this book by John Eldredge.

I am very excited by the changes and transformations I have already seen in the men who have been participating in this ministry. It is my prayer that the Lord would use all the men involved to bring more men of the city into our family - extending the Kingdom in Porto Alegre.

Visiting around the bar-b-que...

Lauro prepares the meat for our meal.

Paulo Renato and Mario have a deep conversation after the study.

Some of the guys digging in!

Regis tells more stories about that "big fish" he caught!

The 10-week "Every Man's Battle" study comes to a close with some of the men (and a couple of wives) having a celebration churrasco.

International Matthew Dinner Follow-Up

2007-06-24T21:48:00.000-03:00

The following is what the Blume family wrote about their International Matthew Dinner. You can read more about their family and friends and see great pictures on their blog at: www.blumesinbrazil.blogspot.com.

On Friday night, June 15th our house church hosted our first (and it won't be the last) Matthew party. We took the name from the story of Matthew, in the Gospels, when he was so excited about meeting Jesus that he hosted a dinner and invited all of his friends to come and meet this life changing person. We decided to do the same but with a small twist. Because our house church is made up of so many different nationalities (Honduras,Uruguay,Bolivia,Brasil and United States), we decided to have an international dinner and bring a dish from our native country or, as some Brasilians did, from their ancestry. As we continue to teach and learn together, church doesn't mean a club where we go and stay comfortable with the same people. It means sharing the Good News with everyone we come in contact with. This is easier for some than for others. So to take away any discomfort from those who might feel uneasy in asking someone to come to something 'churchy' we decided to have a supper. Our house church, as is very much our nature, decided it would be very informal. It would be a time to invite people to interact with our church family and be a part of our church without even knowing they were doing so. Just be and show Christ to them instead of feeling like something needs to be said. We also decided to invite any foreigners that we knew as well as encourage our Brasilian friends to bring a special dish. Let's just say that God completely blessed our night. We had 40 people in our home and 15 were visitors. This was very encouraging as we even had 6 more of our regular house church members who weren't able to be there because of work and sickness. We had exactly the right amount of chairs for everyone. We had visitors from Russia, Germany, Peru and of course Brasil. The night started with Benay, Bronwyn and Ansley taping different countries names to the backs of every person. It was then that persons job to walk around and ask everyone else (only one question per different person)a question about their country (i.e. "Do we speak Spanish in my country.....Is my country in Asia?"). It was a great ice breaker and really got people talking and interacting. Our brother Silvio then led a prayer for our food and thanked God for everyone in our house, especially our visitors and then we enjoyed hours of eating and fellowshipping with our new friends. We enjoyed food from Brasil, United States, Uruguay, Peru, Russia, Germany and Denmark. Each dish was labeled in Portuguese as well as their native language. Benay and I feel very blessed to have been a part of this night as we were able to see this baby church really be Christ to the lost people of this city.

2 Russians, 1 Brasilian, 1 German and 2 Americans fellowshipping at the dinner!

Bronwyn and Silvio are ready for the game!

House Church #5 and Answered Prayers

2007-06-18T21:28:00.000-03:00

#5:

Yesterday was a unique day for us. It was the first worship in our 5th house church! The Salgado family (of whom I wrote about on May 24th) moved into a house in a neighboring town last week. The neighboring town of Cachoerinha (cash-o-air-een-ya) is approximately 20 minutes from our house. To get to Claudio and Rute's house you must drive an additional 10 minutes. Although getting out there takes more time than we normally spend in the car on Sunday, it was well worth the drive there and back to be able to worship and study with the Salgado family. Some of our time was spent talking about how they want to fix the house up, the difference they are feeling in being so far away from the city (1.5 to 2 hour bus ride), how Claudio needs to find a job closer to home (currently works in POA), and how they have a plan to get their eldest daughter, Keity, to school (transportation is an issue).

We also spent some good time singing praises to the Lord, taking the Lord's Supper and studying some passages in the book of Colossians. It was a well-rounded time of fellowship.

Although Claudio and Rute would hesitate to call our going to their home and doing what we did "church", that is exactly what it was and will be the next time we go. They hesitate to call it "church" because they understand the responsibility of leading a church and don't think they are ready for it. At this point, we don't think they are quite ready either. Of course, we are not thrusting them into anything they are not ready for. They are simply hosting a church in their home when Jennifer and I go to gather with them in the name of Jesus. One day though, they will be ready to take it and run with it.

We really see a lot of potential for the Salgado family and their future in Cachoerinha. They are already getting to know the people of their neighborhood. Please pray along side us that they will feel more comfortable and confident as time goes by to eventually lead the house church that has begun meeting in their home, and that they would be blessed with peace and courage during this time of transition (moving from the big city to a little town).

Answered Prayers:

Boy, we have some good ones here! I love and believe in the power of prayer. I just want to put a few of some great responses we have had from the Lord the last couple of days.

We have been praying fervently for 3 children (one for just a day or 2, one of a week, and one for a couple of months). One of these children possibly had a kidney problem. Today we found out that recent blood tests showed that there is nothing wrong - stumping the doctors! Praise God! Another of these children has been in the hospital for a week with a staph infection and problems with her kidneys. After a rough first few days she is now responding well to treatment. We are praying that she will recover completely from the infection and the kidney problems. The third child is Ethan Powell. A while ago I posted a blog encouraging you to go to his daddy's website to find out what you could do to help him fight his cancer. Ethan is just 7 months old and is fighting for his life. Today was a major victory for him and his family. Based on test results today Ethan was either going to just be made as comfortable as possible until he passed away, or treatment would resume. Against all human odds, Ethan's tests came back showing no signs of cancer! He is still sick, but they are starting new treatments to help him get better instead of letting him go. I believe that this little boy is a fighter and that he will grow to serve the Lord in ways we cannot imagine!
Claudio and Rute Salgado were able to finalize all the paperwork on their new house and make their move. There were so many times when it looked like Brazilian bureaucracy was going to destroy all the hope they had in getting this home for their family. They stayed faithful and the Lord blessed them!
Jennifer felt convicted a week ago to commit to praying for the people who don't come regularly to our house church or haven't been in a long time. After just one week we saw a major difference. Yesterday 3 of the 4 people who came to our house were people who had not come in a long time. It seems like a simple thing to pray for those who don't come to church, but it isn't always. There are times when people don't come because of work or travel. There are time when people don't come because they are sick or the weather is bad or they are just plain lazy. It happens that no matter what the reason we can easily become discouraged and even frustrated. When you feel discouraged and frustrated you don't always pray. I appreciate Jennifer calling me back to praying for those who haven't been coming to our house church. We were both touched by this answered prayer and will continue to pray for those who aren't regularly spending time with our church family.

International Matthew Dinner

2007-06-14T21:40:00.000-03:00

The following is from an email that our teammate, Kevin Blume, sent out tonight. I think that this will give you an idea of the kinds of things we are doing in Porto Alegre to reach out to people. When Kevin has pictures of this dinner I will post them for you to see.

In our house church we have been emphasizing the importance of sharing the Good News with our friends and family. One of the reasons our mission team felt led to move from a more traditional church type setting (meeting once a week in a big building) to a network of house churches (meeting in homes three times per month with a big celebration, with all of the house churches together, the last Sunday of every month) was because in our 5 years of being here we rarely saw any one attracted to the big worship style, big events (bring a friend day, etc.) or big building. People might come for a big, well marketed event but would rarely, if ever, step back into the church building. But, when we opened up our homes for cook-outs, suppers, watching soccer games, going to or playing soccer games, etc and invited our not yet Christian friends they would usually show up. The people in our city have a fear of something that looks and feel "churchy" to them. Our team saw these things and realized that the Spirit was asking us to change what we were doing to meet the people where they are and show them Christ in our everyday lives.

Our team has adopted a saying of 'Stop asking God to bless what you are doing and start doing what He is blessing.' We are applying this throughout our various house churches.

Our house church is made up of people from Uruguay, Bolivia, Honduras and obviously Brasil and the United States. It's fun to listen to our group get together for any event (house church, small group, cook-out, whatever) because you will almost always hear conversations in English, Spanish or Portuguese. We have bi-racial, bi-country and bi-lingual couples. It really is a mixture of God's family. Building on this unique situation, we have decided to have an International dinner that will be a Matthew party. If you remember the story in the gospels, Matthew, immediately after leaving his tax collection booth and following Jesus, invited his lost friends to a dinner the very night he met Jesus to break bread with this unique man. He wanted to share this exciting person with all of his friends.

This is what we are planning for tomorrow night. Each family will bring a dish from their country of origin and a friend. We told our house church that you would not be allowed to come in if you didn't bring food and a guest. Okay, so maybe we didn't read that part in the Bible but it helps us, in a lighthearted but serious way remind ourselves that this is an evangelism supper. Let's just say that Benay is worried about having enough space in our home. What a great problem to have.

As of right now, we already have commitments from a lady from Peru, a family from Germany as well as Russia. The kids have also been inviting their friends. We are teaching and learning together that church is the people and not the place. What better way to introduce our not yet Christian friends to Christ than a very informal supper together. To be honest, most of our friends who have made a decision for Christ since we've been here were introduced to Him through a supper, soccer game, our kids, etc. It's good to be reminded that everyone can and should evangelize, and this supper will be a non threatening way for our church family to do it.

I know that when these people come and are a part of our group they will want to come back. I believe that. The Spirit of God moves strongly in our house church. We laugh all the time and we love being Christ to new people and to each other.

We ask that you pray for our supper tomorrow night. That those who don't know Christ will be introduced (through actions, words and observing) to him. We ask that you pray for this to be a good first or second step, towards Christ, in the lives of those who will be here with us.

We will try to post photos sometime in the next few days.

Thank you in advance for your strong prayers for this dinner, our family and this ministry here in Porto Alegre.

Peace in Christ,

Kevin

The AFCSA Chronicles:

2007-06-06T16:23:00.000-03:00

It has been a while since our team has had a campaign group in Porto Alegre. This year we welcomed a group of 18 Aggies (Aggies For Christ South America) to work along side us for several days. The campaign has them traveling to 6 cities in about as many weeks. The particular project that this group worked on in Porto Alegre was quite special. We had them out at the Chácara Rehabilitation Center building a new dormitory for the men that live there. The dormitory will have 5 bedrooms and a bathroom. It will house 20 men (4 per room). The following is a day to day chronicle of the Aggies' time in Porto Alegre (photos included).

The Aggies For Christ South America team

Day 1 (Wednesday, May 30th):

The Aggies arrived at the bus station downtown at 8:30am. We picked them up and took them to our house for a pancake breakfast and an orientation. After the orientation they walked to the nearby mall with Jennifer for lunch at the food court. In the afternoon we went out to the Chácara to take a look around. After they got the full tour of the Chácara we brought them back to our house where they were picked up by their host families.

Day 2 (Thursday, May 31st):

We started each day bright and early. Since the Aggies were spread out all over the city with their host families we made it a part of our routine to meet at a local shopping center each morning. Once we all arrived we would have a little "pow-wow" and get loaded up to go to the Chácara. This morning in particular was really cold. The day before was the coldest day in Porto Alegre since 1919! We made it out to the work site and got started right away. The men that live there had already laid the foundation, so brick laying was our main task. One group began the process of mixing fresh concrete while the other began laying bricks. Work began around 10am. We broke for an hour lunch and then continued working until 5pm. The Aggies needed the morning to get the feel of it, but once they figured everything out there was no stopping them!

Day 3 (Friday, June 1st):

Rained out!

It began raining really early in the morning. I made the decision to cancel our plans of working on the dormitory because you really can't work with cement in such conditions. So, we pulled an audible and took the Aggies to the Emmanuel Society for women. This is a place where women can go to stay if they are homeless and/or ill and have no where else to go. It was my first time to go there, so I didn't really have a whole lot of knowledge about what we were doing. BenayBlume suggested we go and it turned out being a great blessing. We spent about 2 and a half hours singing to and with the ladies there. We prayed with them and hugged on them. Benay brought a bunch of candy that we handed out to them. The highlight for me was taking socks that Jennifer had wanted to give them and actually putting several pair on feet. It is good to have experiences like that to humble us and grow us. I'm glad that the physical work plans got rained out so that we could go do some spiritual work.

The afternoon was much needed down time for the Aggies, who had already been to 2 cities in South America. They hung out at a mall and did their best to stay out of trouble. Although, I will have to say that not everyone was so lucky. Poor Garrett (one of the leaders) tried to lean on a table in the food court that only was supported by one centered leg. The round table top broke off the leg, tipped over, and started to roll away! It was quite a site! I wish I had my camera for that one. Everyone looked to see what was going on and a few people clapped! Everything ended up being alright. The mall staff weren't upset about it. They just wanted to make sure that no one was injured.

Day 4 (Saturday, June 2nd):

Excursion to Gramado!

We had planned a little trip to the mountain town of Gramado for this day. There are lots of little touristy things to do in this town. It is usually a pretty fun trip with visitors. We went around the Lago Negro (Black Lake) together, ate fondue (at least some of us did), and walked around a bit. It was a real quick trip because we needed to be back to Porto Alegre in time for the Aggies to meet the Blume family and their house church for dinner at a Pizza joint. All in all it was a fun day that was full of laughs and lots of food!

Day 5 (Sunday, June 3rd):

We all met out at the Chácara at 10am for worship. Most of our church members, the Aggies, and all the men who live at the Chácara were there. We probably had between 70 and 80 people out there. I never had the opportunity to count, but I think that is pretty accurate.

We had our worship service together, which included testimonies from one of the Aggies (Garrett); one of the missionaries; and one of the men of the Chácara. It was neat to get the different perspectives on the work that we were doing.

We ate a meal together and then those who could stay worked on the dormitory. It was really awesome! We had kids and adults alike out their mixing concrete and passing bricks. It was such an encouragement to see such involvement! I will never forget seeing how everyone worked together on this particular day.

Day 6 (Monday, June 4th):

Monday was our last full day of work. We really got a lot done. I meant to mention earlier that the men who live out at the Chácara were helping us. They are work horses! All together we had about 35 people working on this project. When we left the work site around 4pm on Monday we had completed about 60% of the dormitory. That is pretty good after just 2.5 days of work!

Day 7 (Tuesday, June 5th):

Moving on... to Buenos Aires.

Jennifer, Elisa and me with our "kids", Frank, Sam & Amanda.

You might be saying, "why would there need to be an entry on the day they leave?" "Nothing excited ever happens at the airport!"

Well, let me share with you an awful truth. The adventure usually doesn't end at the airport. That is where it usually begins!

Everyone got to the airport around noon to catch their 2pm flight. As the Aggies were gathering and preparing to check-in, one of them noticed that her passport was missing! She looked through everything. Other people looked through everything. No luck. It was lost. We started brainstorming what to do while the rest of the group started to go through the check-in line. This young lady who lost her passport was one of the Aggies who had been staying in our house. We felt like one of our daughters was in trouble! It was hard to know what should be done. Well, we called the US Consulate and they told us that if we couldn't find the passport she would have to go to São Paulo to get a new one. São Paulo! This was not the option we wanted. We went back home and looked around the house. No luck again. We called to find out what all she would need to get a new passport. With an upcoming holiday on Thursday we knew that this could take a week at minimum, maybe longer.

Well, to make a really long story short, the passport was found this morning in a bag that had been looked through several times by several people. It just plopped out on the floor when it was hopelessly being searched for one last time. I think everyone (even the lady at the US Consulate office) had the same reaction: "Praise God!"

We spent a couple of hours at the airport today getting her plane tickets squared away. She should join the rest of the group in Buenos Aires tonight. It really couldn't have turned out better.

The AFCSA team with some of the men of the Chácara.

The men of the Chácara were incredibly blessed by the AFCSA team. They had been praying for this dormitory for a long time. Before too long we will be able to put the roof on and they can move in.

I would like to say that I was very impressed by the work ethic of the Aggies and their amazing attitudes. They are great examples and definitely left their mark in Porto Alegre! Thanks guys!

The Salgado Family

2007-05-24T22:27:00.000-03:00

I thought that I would invest some time writing about some of the folks that are a part of the house church that we host in our home on Sundays. Including me and Jennifer we average about 13 people.

First, I would like to introduce you to the Salgado family:

Claudio and Rute (Claude and Ruth) were introduced to our church family about 4 years ago by our teammates, Kevin and Benay Blume. Claudio is the building maintenance man of the apartment building that the Blume family lived in for their first year and a half in Porto Alegre. Claudio and Rute had been together for quite some time and were considered to have a common law marriage. Almost 2 years ago they decided to give themselves to Christ and to be married. We got all of our church family together on a Friday night and had 2 baptisms and then a wedding. It was a wonderful evening.

Now, Claudio and Rute are an active part of our house church. They are learning that anyone can have a group of people in their home to study the Bible. We are trying to prepare them to have a church in their own home. They are maturing along side the rest of us and are eager to serve the Lord.

Over the last few years they have worked really hard at paying off all of their debts and have saved enough money to buy their first home. Debt is a real problem in Brazil and it is rare to find someone who has paid it off. In Brazil it is possible to have your debt forgiven if you don't pay it off after a certain amount of time. Responsibility and accountability are real struggles to teach when the government/society doesn't expect it from you! However, Claudio and Rute are wonderful examples to many Brazilians in how to handle finances, especially with a tight budget. We hope and pray that they will be rewarded and will be able to move into their new home sometime in the next couple of months. Unfortunately, with all the Brazilian bureaucracy and red tape you never really know when things will get done.

Their new home will be in a neighboring town about 20-25 minutes away from Porto Alegre. They will be wonderful hosts/leaders to a house church family when the opportunity presents itself. In the meantime we will continue to teach and mentor them with the help of the Holy Spirit. Please join us in praying that they will get their house soon and that the Lord would be preparing them to have a house church if it is His will. A house church in their new home would be a wonderful opportunity to reach out to people in an area where we haven't yet ministered.

Claudio and Rute Salgado with their daughters Keity (15), Jenifer (12) and Lhamar (7).

Last night I took the entire Salgado family to see Spider-Man 3 (in Portuguese). They had a blast! They don't have the money to get out and do things like that, so it was a real treat for them. What really made the evening special was finding out that last night was Lhamar's first movie theatre experience. About half way through the movie, after a fight between Spidey and the Sandman, she leaned over to tell me that she liked the movie. I smiled and said "you still have about an hour more to go!" She giggled and went back to watching the movie. I think she really enjoyed herself.

Couple's Ministry

2007-05-16T23:50:00.000-03:00

Last Saturday night we had our first couple's night. We had a great time of fellowship, worship, and dining. A local missionary, Rui (who-E), came and spoke to us about marriage and our commitments to our spouses. It was very good. The night was full of laughter and smiles. We really enjoyed ourselves. Jennifer and I were able to host the event in our home. We were surprised that we were able to fit 13 couples around different tables in our living room. Of course, we had to move a lot of furniture to make room. A couple of the Brazilian women, Branda and Waleska, did a great job of organizing and putting everything together. Hopefully, we will do something like this again in the near future. It was very uplifting to us all!

Where Two or Three Come Together...

2007-05-14T18:30:00.000-03:00

The weather in Porto Alegre has been really bad the last few days. It has been really cold and rainy. Just miserable conditions. Yesterday morning I got a call from one of the families that comes to the church that meets in our house. All five of them were sick with the flu and they weren't going to be able to make it to church. Two other people were traveling because of Mother's day, and a few others were also out of pocket because of the holiday. Another one of our members called and let me know that he and another guy couldn't make it because they were "under the weather" too. We were expecting one couple to make after calling them to confirm, and a our friend, Ricardo, that I have been studying the Bible with. Ricardo came to our house church for the first few Sundays and then wasn't able to come anymore because of the distance. It takes him 2 hours of travel on the bus to and from our house. I can understand why that would make wanting to come to church a challenge. I have offered to meet Ricardo at a point in the city that would shave off about an hour and 15 minutes of travel time. This Sunday, he finally took me up on my offer. I picked Ricardo up at about 3:30 (church typically starts at 4). We got back to our house and visited while we waited for the others to arrive. At about 4:40 we decided that they weren't going to make it because the weather was so bad.

Ricardo really enjoys speaking in English, so we had an English service. It was me, Ricardo and Jennifer (Elisa was taking a nap). We sang songs in English and studied some in 2 Samuel (where Ricardo and I are currently studying). We had some good time praying and we took the Lord's Supper together. It was really a great experience. We knew that the Lord was present! After we concluded our service we had dinner together and watched some of a movie before I had to take Ricardo back to the bus stop where we met earlier in the day. He was at our house for about 5 hours.

At first, I was a little discouraged that no one else came. Ricardo doesn't come much anymore because of the distance, so I thought that this time would be good for him to reconnect with everyone else. Selfishly, I also wanted there to be more people. Sometimes we get caught up in the numbers. It is easy for us to lose track of what can actually make a dynamic time of worship and study. Yesterday's church had just 3 people. But, it was still church! In fact, it was one of the best services we have had in my opinion. It was real. We studied and asked questions. We sang and prayed together. We communed with one another and "broke bread". If not for Ricardo sacrificing by getting out in the rain and cold, Jennifer and I would have had church by ourselves. I praise God for yesterday. It blessed me to see that the power of the blood can be seen and experienced in the smallest of groups. I pray that he will continue to show us his mighty power no matter who comes to church or how many people we have.

"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:20

Ethan Powell

2007-05-02T17:07:00.000-03:00

I am sure that many of you have heard heart breaking stories of young children who are suffering from terminal diseases. Two-month old Ethan Powell is among them. He is suffering from Leukemia. He and his family need all the prayer and support they can get. Please go to www.ethanpowell.com to find out what you can do to help Ethan and his family.

Revealed!

2007-04-15T21:56:00.000-03:00

This evening our house church had a good discussion about the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, in Luke chapter 24. We talked about why Jesus didn't reveal himself to the men as he walked and talked with them on the road, but how he did show himself right before he disappeared after he broke bread with them.

It is interesting how people can know who Jesus was and is but they don't really know him. I think that there are times when he chooses to reveal himself. We can get him intellectually, but not accept him in our hearts - and that is what matters. Today, he revealed himself to Keity Salgado! She accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour and welcomed him into her heart. With our house church present I baptized Katy in our pool.

Keity prepares to be baptized by Sascha.

An emotional Keity comes up out of the water.

Sascha hugs his new sister in Christ!

Every Man's Battle

2007-04-13T11:57:00.000-03:00

Tomorrow I will begin a study on sexual purity and integrity with the men of our church. This is a much needed study in our society. Brazil is literally plagued with nudity and sexual content almost everywhere you look and go. My prayer is that this 10-week study will help prepare the men in our church family, both young and old, to fight this battle everyday.

The purposes of this study will be to:

grow and better our relationship with the Lord!
grow and better our relationship with our wives.
learn to look at women with the eyes of Christ (with respect).
grow and better our relationships with other men (through newly formed accountability groups).

We will be using the book "Every Man's Battle" to guide us through some of this study. If you are a man and struggle with sexual sin I highly recommend this book. It can help you get back on the right path.

Please join us in praying for the men and the teenagers who will participate in this study. Please pray that the Lord equip us and bless us with all that we need to defeat Satan in this daily battle.

Farewell

2007-04-07T11:54:00.000-03:00

This morning we said "goodbye" to our teammates Kyle and Leslie Klein and Tessa Sexton. Kyle and Leslie and their family (children: Katy, Elijah and Emma) and Tessa have worked hard for the Kingdom in Porto Alegre, Brazil and are ready to start a new chapter in their lives back in the USA. They will be moving to College Station, Texas where Kyle will begin his Masters at Texas A&M in the fall. Tessa has lived with the Kleins for the past 4 years in Porto Alegre and will continue to do so in the states, helping to ease the transition back into their old culture and way of life. She will be looking for a job in the Speech Pathology field.

We are grateful for all that the Kleins and Tessa did for the church family here. They have been a blessing to many people. Please pray that the seeds that they planted would grow and mature.

We also ask you to join us in praying that the Lord bless them and keep them in their transition back into a culture that should be familiar, but in so many ways will be more difficult to adjust to than the Brazilian culture was. All that they left in the US 5 years ago has changed; they have changed. This will be a difficult time of getting reacquainted. They will need peace and encouragement.

Kyle, Leslie and Tessa - thank you! We love you and will miss you. Take care.