Breathing The Gospel

Raniere Vieira came to his first church meeting in the year 2000. He came because he was dating Fabiana. They have been married now for 12 years. Raniere has been a faithful Christian for 14 years, teaching all over Brazil in big and small, national and local church events.

Raniere and I traveled to Cajazeiras, where the soccer school is going strong. Some 40 boys were at the practice on Saturday morning. It was a Mother's Day weekend so some did not show. Not all of these boys are Christians, in fact most are not. I gave a short talk to them before practice about being humble and grateful. That was not the only reason we traveled to this city. We went to teach the book of Colossians to the church. It is such a rich and deep book, yet we had only six hours to go through the book with the church.

Leila, Café's wife, said something that we have known for a while. Café is great at evangelism but he is not very good at maturing the members after they become Christians and several have fallen away for this reason. I have been to Cajazeiras the last two months teaching different books of the Bible and plan to continue to travel to teach and help the church mature, but it is very hard to mature someone from a distance. They need a personal presence so that they can see how you live your day-to-day life up close and how the Gospel is your very breath.

Please pray:

· That God will raise up men and women who will be mature and help others to mature in Cajazeiras;

· That God will continue to use Café and Leila in the evangelism of the boys in the soccer school;

Comments

The Second Generation, Part II

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...

The Fall of a god

A lot has happened since the last time we talked. The World Cup has ended, and Brazil was not the champion, in fact the country was shamed by a 7 to 1 loss to Germany . There were not many riots as people were expecting to happen. People just went back to work and still a over a month later talk about how bad Brazil played. The expectations to win a World Cup have been pushed back many years. Germany seems to be the favorite to win the next World Cup. There are many Brazilians who, I guess you could say, worship soccer. Yes, soccer is their "god". They may not think so. I am sure they would all deny this fact because it sounds outrageous, but they eat, sleep, and drink soccer. They stay out late at night with strangers at soccer matches instead of being with their families at home. They take their meals in front of a soccer game on TV instead of eating at the table with their famili...

Everlasting Father

by David McKinney Beliza first met the church in 2009. Along with her came her little brother Kauã. He was two years old at the time. He has had the privilege of growing up in the church. This means that God has used many people to influence him in the process of his conversion. He has participated avidly in Sunday School, VBS, tagged along with big sister to all kinds of youth devos and retreats, studied the ...

McKinney Report

Search This Blog