McKinney Report

          Have you ever had a big supper.  I mean one where the food is spread out, and there is no room on the table for your plate.  I’m thinking of something like a Thanksgiving meal with the family all together,  where everyone is happy to see one another, interested in what is going on in each other’s life, and how they can be of help.  That is good! We had what we call the Grande Ceia (Big Supper). The church in Campina Grande hosted it.  Christians from all but two congregations in Paraíba came to the feast as well as from five other states, a total of 18 congregations were represented.  Paraíba is the only state in Brazil in which the congregations have a state-wide event like this one. The theme was “Wake Up, Church!” We ate well physically and left stuffed spiritually, deeply renewed, and reminded to wake up to the needs of families, to the focus on evangelism, and to the importance of financial stewardship.  Yes, you read right: the church in Campina Gr

            Yesterday afternoon, Nicholas (my son) and I traveled to Alagoinha, a city about an hour and a half away from João Pessoa.  I don't know if you remember or not, but a couple of months ago I met Fabiano in this city who I thought was an answer to my prayers for God to lead me to someone who could move the church forward.  He seemed like he was a planner and could focus on a plan as well as execute it.  Now, he is gone, not dead, just meeting with a denomination.  I felt saddened by the fact that we did not have the man power to meet his expectations of visiting the city and studying with him.  I also understand that each of us makes his or her own choices.  Sometimes we take steps back that may lead to steps forward.  I met with the two men who are working with the church in Alagoinha.  They have never really had a good working relationship, and the church has suffered a great deal because of their different visions in the way to deal with people.  We have tri

           Sapé is a small city about an hour from João Pessoa. One lady has been baptized and another moved there from the Peixinhos congregation after her son died.           The Peixinhos congregation, active and always looking for opportunities to serve, planned a weekend trip to meet with these two ladies. They were going to bring a van, but as interest grew, they ended up renting a bus.           They traveled from Olinda, near Recife, to João Pessoa on Saturday and ate lunch with the church here. Then they traveled to Sapé and stayed in the two small hotels of the city.           I took a carload from João Pessoa to meet with them on Sunday. I was greatly impressed with these brothers' and sisters' desire to share Christ. They borrowed a school classroom and made friends with the director, the janitor, a teacher, calling them in to pray for them, and giving them Bibles, and telling them at every opportunity how wonderful it is to know Jesus.           They di

On the outskirts of João Pessoa is the Industrial District, which began as a group of factories, but now has large residential areas. Francinaldo and Ivani, faithful workers for the Kingdom, bought a house there. Now they are one more step closer to realizing their dream (God’s dream too) of starting a congregation in this neighbor: Carlos and Girlene were baptized. They are a couple who visited the church a while back. They studied the Bible and found out what needed to be done. They had some hard decisions, like separating until they could get legally married. And when Girlene said she was ready to be baptized, we took her to the beach. Carlos surprised all there and said he was ready too. It poured down rain so by the end everybody was soaked but praising God for this new Christian couple.             Their schedules are a little hard to work around. They both work in factories; he, the night shift, and both have to work some Sundays, but none of this dampens the joy

            One of the important aspects of any mission and its future continuance is the financial side of those who give.  If Christians are having financial problems, that is, overburdened in debt, then hardly anything will be left for supporting mission efforts.  The question of whether it should be this way or not is rendered irrelevant since this is the practice in most people's lives.              You may think that I am writing about my own support, or that of other missionaries and mission works, but I am actually writing about the local work here in Brazil.  Brazil is booming economically.  People have more financial buying power than they have ever had before by the increase in salaries, easy credit, some lower interest rates (although lower, they are still around 280% a year on major credit cards, yes, that is not a mistype).  Most everyone is buying new cars, new TV's, new everything, and going into major debt.  This is also happening with a lo

            I traveled to Cubati where I spent the day with Afonso and Vania, visited families, gave a Bible study, taught the Church, and spent more time with Afonso and Vania.  I took Dylan, my youngest son with me on this weekend trip.  Training can never start too early.             Leaving Cubati, Dylan and I traveled to Areial where we spent time with Sônia, Beta, and Beatriz, participated in a radio program, gave some ideas to the church (the three ladies) about how to evangelize, and we worshipped together.             Leaving Areial, we traveled to Campina Grande where we met with the church and talked with the Brazilian mission team about their work, and I heard some ideas about our state-wide evangelism as well.             It was a two-day, three-city trip but well worth it.  I saw a light bulb in Areial, not literally, although they do have them, but something seemed to click as we talked about evangelizing their city, and I think and hope they be