A Month of Travels

Spreading the Gospel throughout a state requires planning and meeting, traveling and teaching, and a lot of calling. I even do Bible studies over the phone. All this has been going on this past month, but I wanted to share with you the more noteworthy events with you, each one requiring its fair share of planning, praying, and calling.

David and I traveled to Campina Grande to meet with the evangelists, see how they are doing, what their future plans are and to update them on how their support is coming along. I hope that you will remember that this mission team began the work in Campina Grande as the first Brazilian team to receive full support from Brazilian churches. They had support for about two years before losing some and then funds from the U.S. have picked up the slack.

Nicholas, my son, and I traveled to Alagoinha, a small town and a small congregation. We visited and I taught. We met with the church in a member's house. They have met in a separate house, using it as a church building for years but do not have the money to continue paying the rent.

We hosted the PORmissões meeting here in João Pessoa. I wrote about this meeting in another newsletter note, so you can get the details on our blog under the heading: "Jesus Prayed for Unity."

Yesterday, I traveled to the city of Campina Grande again. I met with the church and accompanied Isac and his family to a Bible study. Isac and I talked about the work in the state, the PORmissões meeting, unity, and the future of the church.

Please pray:

· For vision, obedience, and sacrifice for each member of the church here in Paraíba

· That God will guide His church to maturity and growth in numbers;

· That God will give Joseph, David and me wisdom to lead, courage to teach, and love to be exemplified in the church in Paraíba.

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Consecration

We know that God can do anything. The question is what will He do? What will the Lord do in the lives of His people when they consecrate themselves to Him? We hope to find out. Friday, May 22 nd , the Luna congregation had an all night vigil of consecration. We went from 9 pm to 5:30 am, and over 50 people participated, from the ages of 10 to 75 years. In the prayer corner, brothers and sisters signed up for time slots so that we would have prayer without ceasing. The vigil focused on Consecrating our Lives, in Gratitude, in Unity, in Service, and in Sharing . Each part consisted of prayer, singing, Bible Reading and Reflection, and practical activities, like in Service, we washed everyone’s feet, and then everybody joined in making breakfast for the group: homemade bread, fruit, tapioca and eggs, juice, and coffee. In Sharing, we ended with a wonderful meal together in family, talking about people with whom we want to share the gospel. Spend

Luna Men

The men of the Luna church of Christ have a weekly meeting for the purpose of edification and planning God's work in the congregation. Some are going strong, others have family problems, and we all want to grew in God's purpose for our lives. Last night's meeting included a discussion of what really happened on the cross, on resting in Lord in the Psalms. We made plans about the upcoming Carnaval (Mardi Gras) retreat, and talked about the need to do some manual labor on our building. Though the group was smaller this week, there is a hunger to serve. Five out of the six committed spending Wednesday ripping up a big wall that needs to be redone. Whether leading, studying, admonishing, evangelizing, or tearing up a wall, let God use us to His glory!

Pentecost in Paraíba

"This is Pentecost in Cajazeiras," Rivaldo Café said, "Almost three thousand were baptized in Jerusalem, almost ten in Cajazeiras." A wild comparison, of course, but the excitement that produced it was legitimate. Six young men gave their lives to Jesus and were baptized on Saturday. I was blessed to be there: the sixteen hours on a bus, going and coming, was worth it. I went to teach a weekend couples' seminar on the theme "God Gave Me You". The couples (around 12) were mostly parents of kids in the Right Step Program. The changes in these boys' lives have made an impression on the families, many of which have started Bible studies too. Saturday morning, after the soccer practice, three of the boys asked to be baptized. We headed to the building. Café began filling the portable swimming pool while I talked to the boys about what it means to come into the Family of God. Franze (15 yrs), Luam (14 yrs), Jorcelam (17 yrs)

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