Skip to main content

AME Activities

By
The first year of the AME program has been a success. Oh sure, we have made mistakes, learned a lot, thought of several things that could be done better, but that is the challenge of life. Overall, AME has been positive to the João Pessoa church, to the youth group, to the AME students and their families, and soon to three congregations about to receive freshly trained, fired up workers for a year and a half. These are in the cities of Feira de Santana (Bahia state), Palmas (Tocantins state), and Bogotá, in the country of Colombia.
            This week we finish their last week of classes. I have been teaching about Evangelizing Other Religions. Our practical exercises have been interviewing priests, mormons, spiritists, etc. We visited a candomblé hut – an eye-opener: idolatry with animal sacrifices is still strong in our modern times. We saw rooms that would be a great setting for a horror movie. The strangest religion we visited is called Valley of the Dawn – it is the most syncretistic belief system I have ever encountered, a spiritism that draws power from Christ, God, Indians gods, African god, Egytian gods, etc. If something has ever been worshipped in the history of mankind, they have included it. We watched the indian spirits take possession of the acolytes, as they tried to cure evil presences from a person’s body. It would be funny to watch if it weren’t so sad. It amounts to slavery to rituals and superstitions and even to real spiritual powers, separate from God. The girls going to Bahia will have to deal with a lot of people who believe these things.


            AME has done several campaigns this year, the latest in Candeias, close to Recife, where they visited houses and invited people to study the Bible, helping the congregation there to round up new contacts.
            The previous campaign was with the João Pessoa youth group in Campina Grande. Six carloads of kids hit Campina Grande, to door clap in the neighborhood around the new building rented by the church. Several visitors came to the Sunday meeting and showed interest in studying the Bible. The good it does our kids to look up to the AME students and be a part of their training is priceless. We are really going to miss them. 





            The next big activity is this weekend: Mission Camp, organized, promoted all by AME. The weekend will be geared toward teaching and living evangelism, with different social events throughout João Pessoa, but concentrating especially in the Mangabeira neighborhood. Please pray for this event!
            After the camp, the AME students will return to their home congregations to spend a month with their families, and then after the New Year, it is on to the world…

Comments

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