Skip to main content

Teaching, Cleaning and Planning

I traveled to Patos at the end of June to teach an intensive course on Romans, visited with evangelists from four different congregations and met with three congregations.  It was an encouraging and productive trip.
                The class on Romans was 12 hours long.  It was supposed to be 15 hours but got cut short because of the rain.  The city of Patos got about three inches of rain.  That is a lot of rain for the desert region of the state and it had been a while since such a hard rain.  The drain at the back of the building was stopped up because a cat had crawled into the drain pipe under the building and died.  The water backed up and eventually flowed into the church building.  The class stopped and the clean up began.  Everyone was really excited with the rain.  They all enjoyed the class as well, and we were able to finish the whole book.
                Two of the evangelists were in my class on Romans so it was easy to visit with them.  The other two were about 30 miles away so I went and visited them and met with the two congregations in those cities.  We also planned our next moves for the Great Supper in October (a weekend for all of the Christians in Paraíba to get together for fellowship, learning, teaching, and evangelizing in the host city).
                
Please pray for:
·         The evangelists:  Luciano, Santo, Givanildo, and Silvan
·         The congregations in the cities:  Patos, Belem, Emas, and Catingueira
·         The unity of the church in all of Paraíba

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"What About Baptism?"

Edda and I went to a nearby city to study the Bible with a family, Genilda (who is already a Christian), Ana, Mariana, Luiza, and Jefferson. While we were reading God's Word, Ana's husband, Silva, came in and sat down, and then blurted out: "What about baptism?" It took me by surprise because he has barely studied with us, but, most certainly, is already thinking about spiritual matters. Our Bible study then took a lot of detours, answering this question or that. Silva said he still has a lot of questions, and we pray that the Lord will use us to answer them, bringing him to understand the Good News!

For the Kids, Part III

    In the USA, there are two special days during the year that children love: birthday and Christmas. Brazil adds one more: Children's Day. On this day, children receive a present and since it coincides with Our Lady of Appeared Conception, Brazil's patron saint, it is also a national holiday.     Each week we get kids from the Castelo Branco neighborhood together at the square in front of Dona Terezinha's house to talk about Jesus. For Children's Day, we invited the parents to watch the kids perform a play of the "Prodigal Son," then each kid receives his or her fill of cotton candy, cake, and a sack full of goodies. The parents who came received a Today's Portuguese New Testament and an invitation to the weekly Bible study at Terezinha's.     Lori Hagewood has organized this activity for three year with the help from Terezinha, Joseph, and Michel (from the China Taiwan restaurant). Michael, Ashton, and Tif...

One More Goodbye

This year has been rough for Borges's family. They lost a pillar in their family, his wife's mother in February. Now her brother has passed, buried today. He was diagnosed with prostrate cancer 18 months ago. A policeman, used to taking care of the family, he had to settle with being taken care of by the family as his body gradually shut down when the cancer metastasized to his bones. Borges and Geilza have spent every free moment taking care of Demilson's needs, and it has been torture watching him slowly wear away. His colleagues in the Military Police carried his casket, played taps on a trumpet, presented his family with a Paraiba flag, and thanked his family for supporting him in defending society for nearly thirty years. It was a nice gesture, but the event that gives us believers hope in the face of death is Jesus winning over the grave. He is our certainty that a grave is not the end.