House Church #5 and Answered Prayers

#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.

1. 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!
2. 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!
3. 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

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:

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

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

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...

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

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.