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 Bible with Joseph and myself, and so forth.
      Kauã is only thirteen years old, but has had a rough life. His mom died when he was little, his dad is distant. His dad remarried and his stepmother, unlike certain fairy tales, loved him as her own. However, she got cancer, was cured, then it came back and finally ended her life four years ago.
      As we talked about him giving his life over to Jesus, I told him that something very new and different was about to happen in his life. I told him that God was going to adopt him and that this PARENT was going always going to love him, care for him, and be with him.
      I said to him, “Your new Father will never get sick, will never treat you with indifference and will never die. The Father who wants to adopt you, who wants to be your Father, is an Everlasting Father… He will be the best Dad you have ever had… and He will be your Dad forever! I asked him, “Do you accept?” His answer was YES!

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"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!

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.

Men Preparing Themselves in the Word

Every Tuesday night for the last month we have been getting together to study God's Word. The subject is controversial but needed because it affects relationships and families in the church, and we as spiritual leaders will be more effective if we are united in teaching Jesus' will on marriage and divorce. Just like Jesus, we want to go back to beginning and uphold God's ideal when He created marriage: “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19:4-6

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