Skip to main content

There is Power in God's Word

          The month of August has come and gone as a blur and we are almost half-way through September already.  I have only been back in Brazil for seven months, since our last visit to the States but it seems so far away.  So much has happened; so many trips, classes taught, meetings and baptisms that it is a blur.
            In August there were 9 baptisms throughout the state, that I know of.  Three of them were in a small town called Emas.  The evangelist, Givanildo, has lived in this city for several years and the church has grown very little.  I began studying the Bible with Givanildo by phone once a week, every week and he began teaching more people in his city of Emas.  This past month, three people were baptized and more are studying God's Word. 
            I do not believe that my studying with Givanildo was the cause of these three baptisms but I have "seen" or should I say heard a change in his voice and the subjects he talks about.  I have seen him more often on my trips to the interior, where as before, he would hardly show his face, I have grown closer to him and he has helped me to grow in my relationship with Christ.  He is a very humble person with a great desire to serve God.  He is now seeing evidence of the service he is giving.
            This article was written to celebrate the power of God's Word in our lives.  Read it. Study it.  Live it.  It will change your life and the lives of some or all of those around you.
Please pray:
  • for the maturing of your three new brothers and sisters in the city of Emas;
  • for Givanildo's love to study and live God's Word to continue to grow;
  • for the congregations throughout the state of Paraíba and their growth.

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...

Samuel McKinney's New Life in Christ

It has been only three days since Samuel gave his life to Christ, but it is so exciting to see my young son exercising his faith, like getting upset when his history teacher at school taught that miracles in the book of Exodus can be explained by natural phenomena: low and high tides in the crossing of the sea, natural disasters for the plagues, etc. The day after his baptism, Samuel went on a trip with his school and received a new nickname: the boy who reads the Bible. He read 1 Samuel, chapters 1 through 6, out loud for the whole bus to hear. His eagerness to take the Lord's Supper for the first time was refreshing. May our Father bless all our families with life changing faith.