Our Rio City Team recently offered training to our Brazilian partners and it was our privilege to receive two amazing full-time missionaries from CENA in Sao Paulo at the mission house.
Ricardo and Guilherme stayed with us for 3 nights and what a joy it was to spend time with them getting to know them better. Ricardo has an amazing heart for the lost! He is strong man-of-God and is currently in seminary. Guilherme, as well, is in seminary and has a desire to become a pastor.
Next week we will receive our youngest daughter, Hannah and her boyfriend, Jake here in Rio for a month. One of our top priorities will be to visit CENA, as Hannah has a heart for this beautiful ministry, as it is truly the hands and feet of Christ in Crackland.
Please pray for CENA.
Pray that they continue to reach many people with the gospel of Christ. Pray that as they GO into the darkness to bring the gospel message, they continue to MAKE DISCIPLES of Jesus Christ!
Humble servants of our Lord Most High,
Diane and Jeff
I love this message below from John Piper!
You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting
difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things
that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The
people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people
who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great
things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect
of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth
and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don't have to have a
high IQ or EQ; you don't have to have to have good looks or riches; you
don't have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You have to know
a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things,
and be set on fire by them.
Just a normal day in Rio....we left the house early to meet one of our partners, Juliana of Atuacao Voluntaria, in a community here in Rio.
Juliana received a call en route telling us not to come because the BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) had arrived there and it would not be safe for us to go into the community to the church. This community will soon be pacified.
God had a different plan for us today! We were able to visit the local public health clinic where Atuacao Voluntaria has started a program reading books to the children of the community.
We were then able to visit another of our partners to discuss how the community can join together to fight against the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents in tourism as soon Rio will host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 olympic games.
We ended the day with an encouraging phone call with a young woman in the States who is praying for God's direction to serve Him overseas. Our intent was to encourage her, but in the end it was us who were encouraged as we reflected in all that God is doing here in Rio!
Simple activities....a normal day......being available.....being flexible.....being led by the Holy Spirit....multiplication.....lives impacted.....people encouraged.....the body-of-Christ working together....WE LOVE OUR WORK HERE IN RIO!
Boasting in the cross of Jesus alone,
Diane and Jeff
Galatians 6:14, "But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and
I to the world."
We recently visited the Joia family at their church's brand new church building. We've known this family since we first arrived in Brazil in 2006 and we have enjoyed their friendship immensely. We celebrate with them God's provision of this beautiful new facility and how God continues to grow this body-of-Christ!
God has not only blessed them with a new church building, but another piece of land close by where they are building classrooms and have a dream to reach out to the children of a local community. Instead of having a once-a-year VBS, they can teach the children from God's Word on a regular basis. As well, this location eliminates the dangers of the children crossing heavy traffic.
Deus é tão bom!
Diane and Jeff
Hebrews 10:24 & 25, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
This past week, our Rio City Team offered training on how to preach inductively from the bible to four of our Brazilian partners. We received and hosted two pastors from the United States. The training was received well and we pray that God will use it to multiply His kingdom!
Along with these pastors came their sweet wives, Linda and Edie. We planned to join Juliana of Atuação Voluntária one day to minister to a group of 28 women in a slum here in Rio. Edie had brought materials for the women to make bible covers. But God had another plan.....
2 hours before we were to leave the mission house, Linda and Edie went to a nearby neighborhood to purchase some Brazilian sandals. Unfortunately, Edie suffered a fall and within a half an hour, the three of us were en route to a hospital, as we thought that her ankle could possibly be broken!
On the way to the hospital, sitting in the front seat of the taxi, I had a conversation with the driver. I asked Him if he believed in Jesus and he responded that he hated religion and that he believed that all religions lead to the same place. I shared with him that I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to have eternal salvation. And so, the conversation continued....
....when we arrived at the hospital emergency doors, our conversation had changed to what countries we had traveled to. He shared that he had traveled to Europe and the United States. He said that I was different than the Americans he had met. He said I was joyful. I said it was the joy of the Lord and I asked him to consider a life following Jesus----only one God. I said the difference he saw in me was only from the Lord!
Edie didn't break her ankle, praise God! She sprained it and is now at home recouperating! Pray for quick healing and pray for salvation through Christ to come to our taxi driver!
Being the hands and feet of Christ here in Rio,
Diane
