This was the sentence that Luan, our Brazilian brother-in-Christ, serving alongside us, wanted us to teach him in English! And it truly was the theme with our latest short-term team from Minnesota. It's exactly what we did, over and over, to so many people, people of all ages...making the most of every opportunity to make His name known!
We were blessed to receive this team that included Karla, Harvey, Alex and Nathan! Serving with us were Pastor Auginaldo and Luan from Caju church, Diane, our teammate Craig Weyandt, and myself as we boldly proclaimed the gospel!
One of the first days of the trip during our daily team devotions, Nathan shared that he didn't want to say “no” to anything the Lord put before him. This simple statement set the tone for the entire week. Everybody was ready to share the gospel at any time, at any place in any manner!
Our team traveled to a city called Pouso Alegre located 6 hours northwest of Rio de Janeiro. Here an E-Free Church was just being planted and so we went to encourage the new pastor and his people, and of course “to preach the Gospel”. The new church building was a former butcher shop located in the center of town next to a LAN house where many people gathered each night. What an awesome place to get their attention! We went forth bearing the “good news” to all. We performed a different powerful skit each night, we shared our testimonies, we preached messages from the Word and we used the Evang-E-Cube (simple rubix-like cube that shows the gospel in pictures). Mostly, we talked to people of all ages telling them of the hope, peace, joy and love they could have being a follower of Jesus Christ!
This was an amazing mission for 2 reasons. The first being that the neighborhood was in a very conservative rural area where people keep to themselves and so our boldness for Christ brought positive attention. The second reason was the diversity of our team. It included a pilot, pastors, secretaries, businessmen, an artist, full-time missionaries, Brazilians and North Americans---and yet, God united us together with one spirit, with the passion to bring the gospel!
When I think back on the trip and remember the nine of us out on the streets each afternoon and evening bringing the Good News, well, it just doesn’t get any better than that!!!
Declaring His goodness,
Jeff
Ephesians 5:15 &16 "Be very careful, then, how you live---not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil".
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