Jeff commented to me the other day, "this attack from the enemy is worse than our car accident."
For those of you who didn't know us back in 2007, after arriving here in Rio 5 months previously, we suffered a serious car accident in which, between the three of us, Jeff, Hannah and myself, we broke 18 bones.
It was, we believe, used by God for various reasons, one of them being for us to strengthen our faith and depend completely on Him. It was horrible, painful and yet joyful, as we saw God work in so many miraculous ways! We give Him all glory and honor for it!
We have now been passing through an intense time here. I won't go into all the details. I will leave those for future blog posts. I do try to keep these blog posts short and to-the-point. What I will share, however, is that we are seeing the enemy trying to destroy many things in our lives here and I want to ask you all if you would please join us in prayer...as this is all for His glory alone! We can only guess why we are being attacked at this time. Here is one possibility....
...during the World Cup we began making friends with a group of thirty transvestite prostitutes 3 blocks from our home here. We go out each week to further these friendships and show love to a people group that is ostracized by society. We have invited a couple of them to come to our home to learn English.
Last evening, as we walked into the neighborhood in which they work, doubts came to my mind and I thought, "we have absolutely no reason to be here." We are so weak. We are simple people. My faith is that of a child's. No reason.
Then I heard Him---"the voice of truth." This song by Casting Crowns came to my mind and I remember Pastor Scott Davis from Johnston Evangelical Free Church singing it during our commissioning service as we were being sent off to Brazil.
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THE VOICE OF TRUTH
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand
But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again, "Boy, you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name and he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again, "Boy you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
But this stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them lookin' down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me
The voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
I will listen and believe
I will listen and believe the voice of truth
I will listen and believe because Jesus, You are the voice of truth
And I will listen to You
You are....
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We will choose to listen and believe that this is for His glory. Only for you, Jesus....
Coveting your prayers,
Diane and Jeff
This past weekend Jeff and I had the privilege to be the guest speakers at a youth retreat here in Brazil in Santo Aleixo , Magé, with over 90 youth!
The theme of the retreat was "Transformers" and we shared how, as we offer ourselves to His service, to transform lives, Jesus as well, transforms us to what He wants us to be.
We spoke about our mission work here in Brazil to motivate the youth to become even more engaged in missions and gave practical ways we use to share the gospel and encourage fellow Christ followers.
As well, we shared our testimonies of faith, our call to Brazil, our call to leave the church building and reach out to people on the street, the homeless, transvestites, prostitutes and children in high-risk areas.
The picture above is of a beautiful young Brazilian woman who, with tears of joy, shared with Diane that she felt God transforming her during our 2-hour talk!
We spoke about different ways that we street-evangelize, using skits, the evangecube, conversations and asking good questions.
We made "Story Ropes" that we learned from Marge Malwitz as an artistic way for people to share their life stories and testimonies.
We met a young couple that are friends of our "Brazilian Family", the Joia's!!!! A true blessing from the Lord!
We praise God for the privilege it was to speak and to meet this young body-of-Christ that desires to learn practical ways to work together to see more and more lives transformed by Christ!
Raising up missionaries here in Rio,
Jeff and Diane
Acts 4:13, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."
We have had the privilege these last few weeks to mentor and invest in the lives of two interns.
Kate, a 22-year-old ReachGlobal American
intern from Illinois, is serving with us here in Rio for 7 weeks, and
has a major in History and International Relations. She is here serving
the Lord by writing the story of Caju. Kate desires to serve in missions after she completes her education.
It will be a blessing to record the
incredible work of God through our partners Pastor Fabio and Lia and the
Christ followers at the Caju Life Church, which has become a movement
greatly impacting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and beyond!
We have had the privilege to serve alongside this
faithful body-of-Christ followers that makeup this discipleship and
small group movement that has taken root in 10 regions of the city,
outside the city and now in a city in the Northeast of Brazil!
Bruno is a 27-year-old Brazilian young
man that Jeff and I met through our brother-in-Christ and fellow missionary, Cassiano, who served for a year at
Mission CENA in Sao Paulo.
Bruno is originally from Rio and moved to
the south of Brazil. Bruno so much appreciated our ReachGlobal vision
to invest in Brazilian leaders and churches that he wanted the
opportunity to go through our internship program and is praying about
continuing to work here with our ReachGlobal City Team! Mission work is his desire for the future, as well!
We have also had the privilege to host
Nelson and Marge Malwitz. Nelson is from MissionNext and is the founder
of The Finishers Project. He is here to finish the Missionary
Mobilizing Website that he began work on last year. We're excited about
this project as it is a great tool to mobilize Brazilian missionaries!
Please pray for all of us as we live together and work together to further the Kingdom of God!
Multiplying Missionaries for the world,
Diane and Jeff
Last evening we returned to the streets near our home with Kate, a 2-month intern that is here with us, to talk with our new friends, a group of transvestite prostitutes, that we made during the World Cup with the TREK7 team. These men love to meet Americans and practice their basic English!
We brought a birthday present (Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque sauce!) to Bianca (not his real name) and he was touched that we remembered his birthday!
As well, we asked for prayer requests and many were glad to have us praying for them! One of the transvestites was talking to Cris, the boss, on the telephone and Cris wanted to talk to me...
Cris asked if we would PLEASE pray for him. He was having a very difficult week and would not be working on the streets that night.
He wanted to make sure we would return next Thursday, however, as he wants to share something with me! A few weeks before Cris asked for my phone number and has called me. Now, he is passing through difficulties that are hindering him from working the streets! We believe that the Holy Spirit is at work!
Our hope as we further these relationships is that when the tough times come, they remember us and turn to us for help and answers. We know that the only answer is Jesus and that we are ALL sinners. The only difference being that we have chosen to follow Christ and are saved by His grace. Our prayer is that these men do the same, choose to follow Christ and his teachings and spend eternity in His presence.
The Word tells us that God desires that no one should perish. And so, we continue to go into a very dark place, trusting in the leading of the Holy Spirit and staying patient knowing that it is His work alone. We are faithful and available and so we continue...
PLEASE continue to pray for us as we reach out to the lost here in Rio!
Privileged to walk into the darkness with the light of Christ,
Diane and Jeff
2 Peter 3:8 & 9 says, "Don’t overlook the obvious here,
friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand
years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure
lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the
End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and
time to change."
