Happy Birthday Dad!

This post is in honor of my Dad, whose birthday was Wednesday of this week. This is Dad at his best: relaxing in a state park cabin, planning his next move to explore the off-the-beaten paths of our wild & wonderful West Virginia. If you haven't already, check out his photography websites on the links in the right column - they are spectacular! Happy Birthday Dad and we love you lots! We can't wait to see you at the end of the year!

Gabrieli & Guilherme

This is Gabrieli and Guilherme. Gabrieli is 20 years old and is the daughter of Lauro & Lorena, one of our church families. Gabrieli works as a receptionist in an English school and takes night classes in public safety. Guilherme (that's William in English) is 21 and works for a bank and also takes night classes in computer programming.
Recently Waleska and I began studying the Bible with these young "lovebirds'. Gabrieli is a Christian and Guilherme is very interested in learning about Jesus and about His word. He had never studied the Bible before until we began our meetings last month. We are becoming fast friends - he invited us to his birthday party last week and introduced us to all of his family. We apologized because we had not brought a present and Guilherme's response was "Getting to know you is my present!" We thank God for this couple and ask you to pray for them to be unified in Christ!

Mobile Church is Back!

You may remember us writing last year about a couple named Dariu & Mara (he is on the far right of the row of persons sitting across from me). They are friends of Renato & Branda and invited us to come have church in their home last year. Ever since then we have been trying to spend more time with them and find other opportunities to share Jesus with them. Two Sundays ago we finally got invited again to their house for a Sunday worship and a meal together. We talked about how Jesus is the "living water" and the only true source of life, and enjoyed a great time of fellowship complete with grilled chicken wings. Pray for this couple and for their daughters Fernanda, Bruna and Vitoria. We are planning another worship in their home for August and hope to start a Bible study with this family at that point!

Getting Equipped for Kingdom Work

This is Roberto and Moema. They attend the church that meets in the Blumes' house. They have been Christians for almost two years now. Their conversion is quite amazing - Moema was a card-carrying Marxist and sociology professor at the federal university until cancer forced her to retire early, thus deepening an already-burning desire in this couple to discover life's true meaning. Through their friendship with the Blumes, they began studying the Bible and eventually decided to follow Jesus as Lord. We have become good friends with this couple and their 11-year old son Kjeld. Waleska teaches English to Moema and I have a Bible study with her as well once a week. Roberto is a very talented singer who occasionally performs at different local venues.
Recently, a series of events left Roberto without a job. They decided to use this situation to seek God's will for their life direction. It seems that God has answered their prayers in the form of Youth With A Mission, an international Christian organization that trains and equips people to serve as missionaries and workers in local churches. Roberto will be leaving on Sunday to begin a 5-month YWAM discipleship course in a small mountain town about 1 hour from Porto Alegre. This is a big step of faith and we are all proud and excited for Roberto and family! It reminds me of when I first decided to do Let's Start Talking twelve years ago - it was an experience that opened doors to new worlds and possibilites that changed my life. I believe that Roberto is about to embark on a similar life-changing experience.

Pray that Roberto will find greater intimacy with God and find spiritual tools to be ever more useful in God's service through this course, and that Moema and Kjeld will be comforted and strong in his absence. Praise God that more workers are answering the harvest call!

Singing a New Song

Earlier this year I posted a video of Waleska & I teaching the folks at our church in Beckley how to sing in Portuguese. Now check out this video of us teaching the folks at Cantão, one of the house churches here in Porto Alegre, how to sing in English!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLT71zRAgnk

Sowing Seeds

This is my friend Julio Rosa. He just recently graduated from the federal university with his master's in metalurgic engineering. He and I have been studying the Bible together for the past year and a half. We became friends through the Let's Start Talking program when we last hosted LST in 2005. This week Julio is moving to Vitoria, in Espirito Santo state, north of Rio de Janeiro. Julio has taken a job as a railroad engineer for Vale, Brazil's largest mining company. Praise God for this opportunity that Julio has and pray that he will continue to seek God and study His Word!

Marriage, Family & Ministry Seminar

They seem like ordinary people at first glance - and in fact, they are ordinary people, a husband and wife who've been together for 40 years, drinking their daily coffee and chatting about life. Yet as you get to know them and listen to them teach together, you realize that they are extraordinary faithful followers of Jesus. They are Bryan and Jacqueline Bost, missionaries in Brazil for 32 years, who have dedicated the past seven years to work in multiplying the church from house to house. We had them in Porto Alegre last year for a weekend seminar on house churches, and the response was so overwhelmingly positive that we just had to have them come back again. This time they spent the weekend (June 13-15) teaching from their book "Partners in the Kingdom: Challenges and Victories in Life Together," based on their life experiences.

We had a packed house on Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon to hear Bryan and Jacqueline as they engaged us in Biblical reflections on marriage and family life. We were especially blessed to have brothers and sisters from four other area congregations present to share this special time!

We held our monthly celebration worship on Sunday to coincide with the Bosts visit. Bryan gave a fantastic lesson on "Seeking First the Kingdom" which really is the fundamental principle in all things related to marriage, family and ministry. We also had a special presentation involving the newest-born child in our church family: Emily, daughter of Daniela and Jorge. As is tradition, we presented them with a framed Bible verse and asked all present to sign it, and had a prayer of blessing for this family.

We enjoyed a home-cooked lunch after worship and tried to stay warm together as we waited for the final session of warming our hearts, discussing the power of ministering together as a family united in Christ!

Thanks to God for this wonderful couple and their vivid example of "seeking first the Kingdom!" as they work from house to house in the greater São Paulo area and throughout Brazil!