McKinney Report

by David McKinney         Juliana is 35 years old. She is the girlfriend of a member of the church and that is how we met her. She had attended a Presbyterian congregation for some years, before moving to João Pessoa, but she fell away.   She said she was baptized in 1998, but she said she felt weird about being sprinkled and wondered about it for several years.   Studying the Bible with her is very refreshing. She is eagerly open to the Word, and she is not one to conceal her emotions (see the photos). You can literally tell when she is touched by the Word of God and her relationship with Him. We are very grateful to welcome her to the family.

        Bible Bowl 2012 was a mess: miscommunication with my volunteer question makers so I received two sets of questions for Luke 19, Luke 21, none for Luke 18 nor 22 and one person sent questions for Matthew 9 - wrong book; the nightmare of finding rides to Recife for 4 teams of 4 kids since most people traveled this past weekend; and a couple of kids dropping out at last minute leaving teams incomplete. All this left me feeling drained and disorganized.          But it was all worth it: to learn how to do things better next year, but especially to benefit the kids spiritually this year. Our fifteen competitors came away excited about studying and knowing God's word. Yury's last minute cramming Two teams won first and third place in the 1st Division (6-12 year olds) Nicholas Newlin won third place individual score (83/100 questions) in 1st Division. Samuel McKinney won first place individual score (88/100 questions) in 2nd Division (competing against 13-25 year olds -

            Seeing someone who finally understands what Jesus did and God's forgiveness given in baptism is one of the most profound joys that one can feel.  Seeing a Christian who understands a new truth in God's Word and wants to live it and tell others about that truth comes in at a close second.              S.E.A.R.A. (Servants Sent to Announce the Kingdom of Love) began as a training ministry for new and old Christians in the church who were already serving the body and would do even more with a greater knowledge of God's Word.  The first group formed seven able servants.  Two of those were Junior and Kátia who now live in Campina Grande as missionaries, sent by various congregations and individuals from all over Brazil.  Another, Fabiana, is married to one of the Brazilian evangelists working with the new church plant on the other side of town.             A new S.E.A.R.A. group began about a year ago.  I have had the privilege of teaching these eager students fo

            Joe McKinney and I are teaching the Sunday school class here in João Pessoa.  We are teaming up because both of us travel quite a bit so we cover one another's absences.  We began teaching on the subject of contentment the first Sunday of September.  I taught for three months on this subject almost two years ago.  The reason I began studying this subject and decided that it needed to be taught to the church came from simply reading God's Word and asking the question; "Am I living this truth?".  Almost two and a half years ago, reading through the book of Acts, I came across a very familiar verse that I have used on many occasions, Acts 20:35.  The apostle Paul quotes Jesus as saying: "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive".  I stopped and thought about Jesus' words and began asking myself if I believed in what my Lord said.  After meditating for a few minutes I decided that I would be living a little different if I really practiced

The Colinas do Sul congregation is still just one year old but has already grown out of Naldo's house. Following the example of most mission points in Brazil, they have rented the Colinas do Sul Educational Institute for Sunday meetings and other Bible studies at night when the school is not in use. We pray that they will outgrow this place to reach more people in this neighborhood.

While in Cubati I received the wonderful news that there was going to be a baptism in Campina Grande.  This is the first person to give her life to Christ in the beginning of a new church plant. You may not realize this but the first conversion on the mission field is very important and usually the hardest, and most exciting.  It is usually hard to convert the first person where the Church is just beginning.  There is no one to testify to her that the church is not a cult or a sect.  There is not anyone to encourage her and no family or friends with connections to the church family.  The first person is testing new waters.  Since there is no one to encourage her, no ties with friends or family, her decision is solely faith based.  I am not saying that yours or my decision to follow Christ was not one of faith.  I am saying that most of us were blessed to begin a spiritual journey that friends or family were already living.  Odete was invited to study the Bible through the campaign we

    This past August 16 ladies, 13 from João Pessoa plus 3 from interior Paraiba cities, embarked  on a four day trip to learn about our "Battles of the Feminine Soul". Leaving our families, work or our daily tasks is a battle in itself, but we wanted to experience this journey to enrich our spiritual lives and be ready to face our troubles and strives ahead of us. We left early, taking a 12 hour bus trip, 2 dozen ladies from Recife tagged along and we reached our destination safely around 8 P.M. on a Thursday night.      The XXI Women's Seminar was held in Aracaju for the first time, and all 177 ladies that attended this year were very excited about the lectures, workshops and fellowship, that was to take place there. The hostesses did a wonderful job with our facility arrangements, we were able to enjoy a beautiful retreat site surrounded by nature, with simplicity and comfort. The atmosphere was relaxing, the food was delicious, but the most enjoyable part were broug

I left for Cajazeiras thinking I was going to teach the church on the role of men and women.  I did begin the subject but Café thought it better to wait for another time when more members of the church could be present.              What I ended up doing was giving Bible studies to different groups of boys from the Right Step soccer program and one family.  Their 16 year old daughter and 13 year old son were the only two who were not Christians in this five member family.  The week after I left the son, Igor, was baptized.  Also, in one of the Bible studies with the boys from the soccer program, Jean, another 13 year old, who listened intently and purposefully to God's Word seems to be close to giving his life to Christ.  Doesn't God always know best?              Please pray for Rosa, Chico and Claudia's daughter.  She is now the only one in the family who is not a Christian.  I think the odds are against Satan in this family.  This could be the first family in Cajazeiras

     Sapé is the tenth largest city in Paraíba, population 50,000. It began in 1883 with a Great Western train station, coming to be recognized as a city in 1925. Its name comes from the indian word for a type of grass predominant in the area, Eçape. The indians would bundle the grass together, making a torch to light their path at night.     Sapé is called the "Pineapple City", because of its pineapple festival in November, and Augusto dos Anjos, one of Brazil's greatest poets, was born there. He was elected Paraiban of the Century.     Catholicism is predominant. There is also a spiritist center, and several evangelical groups (Assembly of God, Baptist, Foursquare Gospel, Congregational, etc).     And on September 4th, 2011 we arrived and had a first Bible study in Sapé. Severina's sister, Vera Lúcia, had been begging us to come. She invited 15 neighbors, half came and we studied about God's purpose for our lives. His purpose is to bring the True Light to the p

Teddies for Honduras The João Pessoa congregation got together and made 100 teddy bears for an orphanage in Honduras.  Sewing                 Filling Spacebagging    Packing Giving Here is an excerpt from Diego dos Anjos's newletter, telling about his trip to Honduras. If you would like to receive Diego's newsletters, write him at     diego_dosanjos@hotmail.com .............................. TORCH MISSIONS             Since I got back from AIM I had the desire to remain involved with missions. It could be here, working with the local church, but I also wanted to do some ministry overseas. One big dream that I had was to be involved in some kind of Medical Missions. Even that I am not a doctor yet, I wanted to start learning about medical missions for future plans.             Then I heard about this group called Torch Mis

      The Adventures in Missions program's purpose is to give young people a taste of what it means to be a missionary. It's all about bringing people to Jesus, and our AIM team have been here one year and are doing just that.       This past week Lidiane was baptized. She was one of the first Bible Clubbers, studying the Bible in English when our first AIM team (Sabrina, Melissa, and Janae) came  in 2005. We lost contact with her, but this AIM team met her, became good friends, and they studied the Bible with her. She realized that she needed to be baptized.       Dani was also baptized last week. The process of her conversion, from the first contact, the Bible Club meetings, to the studying the Bible two-on-one, to the baptizing were all done by Erick and Jenny. Dani has worked lined up in New Jersey and will move there in a month. Please say a prayer for these new Christians.       We praise God that these young people are learning ways of being useful to the Lord'