Invading Sapé

           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 did the same with their bus driver (he broke down in tears in the meeting, sharing things his family is going through), and the restaurant owner and workers, where they had their meals, and the city's club where we had the baptism. While I was in the swimming pool, one brother took the club's guard aside and explained to him everything that was happening and why, and then we said a special prayer for him and his family, calling other people, relaxing in the pool, to join in.

          They made friends with sister Bel's family and got so excited when they found an open door for the Gospel.

          On my trip to Sapé, we passed a dead horse without its head and crowd of people looking down an incline at a wreck. In Sapé we found out that sister Vera Lúcia and her daughter had been in that wreck. The car in front of them hit the horse, and flipped down the ridge. Then they hit the dead horse and totaled the car. Everybody was okay, just bruised and scared.

          We were sad that Vera was hurting too bad to go to the church meeting, but she had another scare when 60 people showed up on her doorstep, singing praises to God, giving prayers of thanksgiving for their safety, and giving her fraternal hugs even though this was the first time they met.

          I had the privilege to preach and to baptize a young lady that came with them. One of the first convert when our family first moved to Recife was Ana, baptized by my father in 1981. Her daughter Priscilla decided on this trip to be baptized and asked me to do the honors. With the Peixinhos group every little thing is a reason to celebrate; imagine their reaction when Priscilla gave her life to Jesus - talk about partying in heaven and on earth.