Skip to main content

Hardships on the Field

By
      If this were not such a serious eternal life and death business, this would be downright laughable. What a sorry lot of weak human beings we are, and still God insists on using us to bring about His Glory.
      The Cajazeiras Campaign gave the church there some new ground to work, to seed, to water, and hopefully produce fruit, but behind the scenes not everything was as smooth rolling as it might sound.
      The plan: spend several hours each day door knocking and being with people in their homes. The reality: the heat was so intense that the group had to stay indoors during the day to avoid strokes; so that only left the late afternoon hours to clap at gates (more common than knocking on doors).
      Our fearless missionaries, not accustomed to the extreme heat, suffered several side effects. Lee had to go the hospital with a migraine (the air conditioner in their car went out on the eight hour trip), Danny had stomach craps due to heat or food, Ricardo had an ameba attack, Raniere's  nose started bleeding profusely from a recent surgery.


      One more person had to go the hospital: Joe McKinney. He stumped his toe twice on concrete, and his foot swelled till he couldn't stand to walk on it. The doctor told him to keep it elevated for 15 days - Yeah right! In the middle of a campaign? Needless to say, his foot was worse when he finally reached Joao Pessoa.
      Attacks from the enemy or just a hostile environment - whatever, let's remember these campaigners when the going gets tough and thoughts of giving up start wandering into our minds. God is using us for a reason! God knows best!

Comments

  1. MeganMarch 23, 2010 at 11:07 AM

    The devil will do what he can to stop the spread of the word, but the sufferings of this life makes heaven look even better! God bless!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Second Generation, Part II

By
In 1993 when we came in contact with a young struggling couple in Caruaru, Paulo and Simone, we never imagined what plans God had in store for them. Now 18 years later (Wow, has it been that long?), after conversion, ups and downs, growing pains, working to further the Kingdom and living it, they have had the pleasure to witness the beginning of their daughter's life in Christ. Juliana (age ten) was baptized by her older brother, Jheymerson, who was also ten years old when he gave his life to Jesus. What a wonderful blessing to have one's whole family saved in Christ! Maria and Cícero were also converted when we lived in Caruaru, though single at the time. They dated and got married, the ceremony performed by yours truly. Maria has been faithful to Jesus all these years though going through several difficulties. Cícero, on the other hand, fell away, but came back and renewed his life and his marriage, and now, along with Juliana, his daughter Vitória (age ten) was baptize...
Post a Comment
Read more

Out And About

By
    Last weekend I traveled to Patos, where I conducted the state-wide plan meeting, spent time with an evangelist, helped plan the Great Supper in October and met with two different congregations.              The state-wide plan is still moving forward.  Their goal for this meeting was to have someone prepared who is able to prepare another person.  Each congregation is still working towards this goal.  They each have someone in place that they are training.  The short-term goal is to train men and women who will be able to train other men and women.  The mid-term goal is to prepare the congregation in various aspects of the work and spiritual life so that it, the congregation, can continue to grow without the current evangelist.  The long-term goal is to prepare the congregation to send out the current evangelist or other men to establish a congregation in a new city....
Post a Comment
Read more

Missions In May

By
     I will be traveling this weekend to Cajazeiras to teach an intensive seminar on "Faith and Obedience"over the weekend.  Please pray for a safe trip and encouraging, edifying classes.  The church in this city has a lot of young people.  Most of whom have not grown up around Christian influences.  In fact, many of them have seen more drug dealers than people imitating Christ.  Helping them understand God's Word and the promises in which their faith is rooted is important for them, as well as any Christian.  Helping them understand how that faith will be evident in their lives through words, actions and attitudes will be important for all of those around them.       On May 13th , Joe McKinney and I will head out for Patos, returning on May 16th .  Our goal is to discover church's needs and how to best help them.  We will als...
Post a Comment
Read more