McKinney Report

…but not for the Christian. When we look at our lives through God’s eyes, the ending of years is not nostalgic, but almost invisible compared to the continual renewal of life that shows up on God’s radar. Though to us, the year 2013, graduation from school, leaving a job or even dying are big things, I imagine that God watches carefully our constant discoveries of His reality, the maturing of our spirits, the small daily steps we take closer to His Son Jesus. These thrill God more than any Happy New Year’s party. Just as “His mercies are renewed every morning” Lm 3:23, every day is an opportunity to live anew in His Kingdom. So no more need for New Year’s resolutions, let’s live our new day resolutions. Every day wake up excited about reaching new ground for Him, new goals, new ways to serve, new discoveries of His presence. Life is not yesterdays or tomorrows, but a continual succession of todays. 2014 is not guaranteed, but if you are reading this, then you are alive today. Toda

RICARDO: came to the church through his wife, Flávia, and his two children, Rodrigo, 14, and Beatriz, 12.   Flávia was baptized in August 2012 and both of her children a couple of months later in October 2012. This year was Ricardo's turn.   He had been studying the Bible with Joseph.   Ricardo said that the studies with Joseph along with the Sunday School class and the Finance class helped him make the decision to be baptized.   His mind was made up, but he had not told anyone. In October of this year over 20 of the members from João Pessoa made a 6 hour trip to Catingueira where the Great Supper (a weekend event, uniting all of the congregations in Paraíba together for fellowship, Bible study, and spiritual growth) was held.   Ricardo was in attendance this year.   As he was talking with some of the men about the Sunday School class and how much it had helped him, one of the men asked him if he had been baptized.   He said, “no.”   They said, “What are you waiting for?   Je

             This past year took several people from the work in the Northeast of Brazil. Our longtime workers in Caruaru, Paulo and Simone Rodrigues, have moved down south to Curitiba. They received a proposal to help in a new congregation in that city. They were looking for a change, and the city offered educational and job opportunities for their kids not available in Caruaru. Fabio, an active brother in the Caruaru church, also moved to Curitiba. The congregation is sorely missing them, but knowing the workers they are, we are sure that God is using them well.             A goodbye a little closer to home – Hunter, Lori, Mathias, Sabrina, and Daniel Hagewood moved back to the US in July. We miss them greatly, especially our kids miss their cousins (they were inseparable while here), even though they are on Skype nearly every day. Hunter had to relocate because of his job situation. They are living in Nashville.           Daniel and Jana Palk also returned to t

I traveled to Patos in December, as I do every month, to teach the last class of the year to those being trained. The course was on Hermeneutics (Interpreting Scripture). I know, it doesn't sound very tantalizing but it is very important. All of the students said they learned about how to read and capture what the text says. I taught using the "CAPTOR" method from the book "Getting the Message" by David M. Doriani. I was surprised at how most read their Bibles without knowing how to degust the banquet God has prepared in His Word. All of the students are very humble a nd eager to learn and put this new knowledge into practice. Please pray: that we all will read and study God's Word with humbleness and an eagerness to learn; that all Christians will find the joy and love in putting God's Word into practice in their own lives.

     The Sycamore church of Christ, Cookeville, TN, began its first Bible Bowl in 1980 with six teams. Thirty-three years later, held in a university basketball stadium, Bible Bowl had nearly 500 teams participate, with representatives from Brazil: Mathias and Sabrina Hagewood were there. Mathias's team went to the finals.     In 2004, Daniel Palk came to Brazil as a missionary from Cookeville, and he brought with him Bible Bowl. This has been an excellent avenue to get kids into Bible study. All three of my kids have participated, and every time they left pumped up about studying God's word.     After nine years of Bible Bowl, Daniel Palk returned to the US. He said that if he didn't get someone to take over this work, it would cease. We decided that we couldn't let that happen. So I assumed responsibility for the 10th Bible Bowl in Recife.     Organizing an event in another city is hard, but the hardest was not having Daniel and Jana's nine years of

Joseph and myself  traveled   to gether, he stayed in   Patos  and I went on to  Cajazeiras .  Joseph taught the book of Isaiah in an intensive class to SEARA (Servants Sent To Announce the Kingdom of Love).   While in  Cajazeiras ,  I taught around 15 people the first night about hell.  I asked them if they wanted to go to hell, what they thought hell would be like ,  and who was going to be there.  We read Revelation 21:8 and spent quite a bit of time discussing what type of people would be in hell.  After a little over an hour class, one of the students commented about Jesus, as if to say, do you not believe that Jesus saves us from hell.  I was happy with the comment because I felt like I was getting through to someone.     Most of the kids that were there are a part of the Right Step program where they play soccer and have Bible studies ,  but most of the boys seem more interested in soccer than in learning about God.  Knowing this, I gave them a decision to make so t

  I traveled to Recife with a car load of people to a leaders retreat called ELICAMP (Encounter of Leaders in the Field).  Some unexpected things happened.  The first thing is about Nicholas, my 13 year old son.  He loves to play soccer and was invited to play with the Right Step program from  Cajazeiras .  The program was coming to Recife to play against a professional soccer team.  You may be thinking, he must be good to play against professional adults.  If that is what you were thinking then you were wrong.  He is good but  -  come on people.  He was going to play against people his own age that are a part of the, let's call it ,  the very minor leagues.  The day we arrived in Recife, Café called me to tell me that the trip had been rescheduled.  So here Nicholas was, a 13 year old among men who would be listening to lessons on how to have peace in your; (Spiritual life, Finances, Congregation, Family and Ministry).  Nicholas  tear ed  up when I told him that he was going to

The first year of the AME program has been a success. Oh sure, we have made mistakes, learned a lot, thought of several things that could be done better, but that is the challenge of life. Overall, AME has been positive to the João Pessoa church, to the youth group, to the AME students and their families, and soon to three congregations about to receive freshly trained, fired up workers for a year and a half. These are in the cities of Feira de Santana (Bahia state), Palmas (Tocantins state), and Bogotá, in the country of Colombia.             This week we finish their last week of classes. I have been teaching about Evangelizing Other Religions . Our practical exercises have been interviewing priests, mormons, spiritists, etc. We visited a candomblé hut – an eye-opener: idolatry with animal sacrifices is still strong in our modern times. We saw rooms that would be a great setting for a horror movie. The strangest religion we visited is called Valley of the Dawn – it is the mo