Skip to main content

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.  We are moving slower than I would like to see but we are moving forward.  That is good news. 
            I spent a full day with one of the evangelists supported through funds from the U.S.A.  We spent time talking about the work, about his personal life, and about vision for the future of the church in Paraíba.  I am confident that he now has a better understanding of the direction in which, I believe, the church needs to move.  It was good to spend time with Givanildo.
            While with Givanildo, Silvan and Diogo, I helped plan the Great Supper.  This is an event for the church throughout the state of Paraíba, a feast of knowledge of God's Word, of fellowship with the church and evangelism in the host city, Catingueira.
            I met with the church in Emas, Catingueira, and Patos on Sunday.  It was encouraging to see the simplicity of a small congregation, meeting in a house and having lunch together after services, as well as, the simplicity of a larger congregation in Patos, meeting in a building in construction, supporting an evangelist all at the same time, but having the same love and concern as the smaller congregation. 
Please pray:
  • that God will direct our path for the state-wide plan.  That the plan will be His, not ours;
  • that the vision Givanildo now has will permeate his plans and actions;
  • that the Great Supper will be a true spiritual feast for the church in Paraíba;
  • God's people will live and "...proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;" 1 Peter 2:9

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two Weeks of VBS!

By
          You might think that one week of 60 screaming, starving for attention kids is more than enough for the year, but no, here is João Pessoa we doubled the fun, doing a repeat of VBS back to back: four more days with the Mangabeira congregation. inviting the children who go to the school where the church meets.           VBS is indeed a lot of fun, but a lot of work, the kids, though, who love it and who start getting a taste for God’s word for the first time make it worth it. Acting out the story of Joseph in Eygpt, teaching how God cares for us and blesses us, resurrecting King TUT (Jeremy Newlin) and the Mummy in skits that teaching these truths, are all part of creating an experience that boys and girls will remember for years.           Lori Hagewood did an excellent job organizing this ministry, and we thank the Joelton church of Christ for ...
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

Unity Through The Word

By
          Thank you all for your prayers for the PORMISSOES meeting last month.  It was a great blessing.  We sat and studied God's Word together for the entire day.  There were some differences of understanding on some passages, but we worked our way through them.  In the end, everyone was saying how the meeting was edifying.            It started around 9:30 am.  We broke for lunch at 1 pm.  We started back around 2:30 and went until 6 pm.  They wanted to keep going, but the SEARA class started at 7 pm.  If every meeting could be as encouraging as this one, we would be in heaven.           My goal with these meetings is to teach the church workers throughout the state how to listen to someone who has a different belief about God's Word, try to understand their logic, their thought process...
Post a Comment
Read more