Wow, how good it is to drive again. I can’t thank everyone who prayed, gave and encouraged us through this process. God is so good. We are excited to see how God uses this new tool to further our ministry.
After our near accident a month ago I woke up burdened to raise the money. Based on what I had been seeing I thought we needed $5,000 to buy a decent car. When we started to look closer we realized that to truly get a car that would meet our needs and bless the Lord we would need much more. We had exceeded our goal and had $6,000 but when I seen this van I knew it was the one the Lord had for us. Unfortunately it was almost $10,000. I knew God didn’t want us to borrow money in Brazil, the interest rates are high. We kept looking and praying. My dad arrived, wanted to see this van and we began to go look. Within an hour of his arrival we received a text that we had the rest of the money and had a deal to buy it. God is amazing.
Saturday, the first day of ministry with a van, I was able to go buy the food for our lunch ministry at church, pick the family up, go get started cooking in the time I normally spend walking to the grocery store. It is so exciting to see how much more we will be able to accomplish now. I made fried cabbage and calabresa, a type of sausage, and my friend Raphael Palazzo made rice with corn and peas. We were a little short handed so I didn’t get to talk to many people but we did give out a lot of food.
The most exciting part was seeing the parents of some kids who come every week finally getting close enough to see the building. The dad was too shy to come all the way onto the property but the mom sat down and ate. Pray for them, I don’t have names at the moment but they have agreed to come to church Wednesday. I plan to pick them up near there house. They live in a small favela and go out with hand pushed carts to dig recycling out of trash for a living.
Also, our church shares a location with a car wash. The people who work there don’t have a lot of money and aren’t paid well. This week several of them finally accepted food. It is amazing how difficult hurt people are to get close too. So guarded, it makes me think how good it is to walk with Christ. It makes me want to work and strive to be an instrument of life and healing instead of hurt and death. The gospel is for today, not just heaven. Life starts now.
After lunch we had a good amount of food left over. Maybe 15 lunches. Melissa, the kids and I took the rest of the food up to a small favela. There is a vacant lot where some people sleep and some apparent drug dealers spend there days. We decided to give them the food. We invite them to lunch every week but they never come. There were 3 or 4 girls there, fairly obviously prostitutes, one of whom was cross-eyed, pregnant and I am pretty sure high on crack. They were shockingly grateful for the food and kind of stormed the van to get it. They were very friendly until I began to invite them to church and tell them where and when. Amazing how that always pushes people away. So clear, the need to be consistent in location and build relationship.
I by no means speak good Portuguese, but oh how good to be able to communicate. I make a lot of mistakes and people don’t always understand me at first, especially the Paraguayan Spanish speakers who came to church last night, but God is giving me the ability to begin sharing His love with people. It makes everything better. With language and a car I feel we can finally begin to do what we have been called to do.
After church last night we gave a ride home to six students from a kind of missions training center. Most of them were Paraguayan. Pray we can connect deeper with this group. Last year we were working with them on Saturdays. Doing children’s ministry in a very poor community just outside of town. It is an exciting ministry to me. People from south America learning Spanish, English, Portuguese, French and studying the bible and ministry techniques. During our little vacation with my parents we went into a small Paraguayan border town. In one of the stores a Paraguayan girl asked me what language my parents and Melissa were speaking to each other. I told her English and she was amazed. She asked what we were doing here. I told her Melissa and I are missionaries and asked if she had a relationship with God. The answer to that is always yes here so you follow up with do you go to church. She said no, Paraguayans believe in God and have some superstitions too but don’t like church. That fits with the semiar students because how cool would it be to develop relationship with the students coming from that country and go on outreaches with them back to there homes to see them come to Christ. One of the students told Heitor and I that he is the only Christian in his family and he lives just on the other side of the river. Hopefully we can see that change.
Some areas for continued prayer
- Tim, the pastor of our church feels called to leave Brazil and prepare to go to Asia. He leaves in August. We had been looking at opportunities in other cities but perhaps we should remain here for a time and help the transition to Brazilian leadership.
- Also with a car we are seeing ministry open up here but also costs increase. The exchange rate is low and inflation has been high here. We need wisdom as to whether or not to fund raise, look for tent making opportunities or move to a cheaper smaller town. Cities always cost a bit more.
- Wisdom in ministry direction. Right now I am beginning to be able to communicate better. We do lunch at the church, I go to a boys prison, have neighbors, and other things. We want to be effective and I think this means we need to pick some areas to minister consistently and frequently.
- I am beginning to desire to teach more. I am going to apply myself to more study of God’s word in preparation and perhaps start a video blog/devotional. Pray God would confirm this with opportunities.
God is so good. He is doing a work in us and preparing us to impact many people. I can feel it, I can feel my family growing. I want to remain close to the Lord and walk with Him. Do what He does and see what He sees.
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