Lessons from Brazil - Part 5

Tuesday

This was our final full day in Brazil and we were going to meet with our last church in Penalva. The four of us in our group from AL had a pretty good feeling about the church in Turiacu where we spent Monday. So, going to Penalva, I did not have huge expectations. My mind was fairly settled that we would be in Turiacu.

Well, if God didn’t go and mess up my plans with his sovereign, perfect plan : ) The bottom line is that by the time we were ready to leave Penalva that night we had a complete change of heart and decided to partner with the church there instead of Turiacu. Proverbs 16:9 was at it again. I am so thankful for God’s grace in gently leading me where He wants me to go. And I am also thankful for the guys with me who displayed wisdom and discernment in helping me see God’s path. God is so cool.

Well, here is how it all unfolded.

Tuesday morning we drove into Penalva and had lunch at a local bar-b-cue place. And by the way the food there was really good! I am such a picky eater and turn green at the smell of mayonnaise that I was deathly afraid of what we would be eating on this trip. But the food was fantastic! The strangest things we ate were chicken hearts and cow tongue. They were not that bad! I have definitely had worse at my high school cafeteria.

After lunch we had a few hours to kill before our meeting with the leaders of the church, so some of us decided to explore the city on foot. Let me take this opportunity to say that the weather was really nice. Now, everyone that knows me knows that I am happiest in arctic conditions, but considering we were only a few miles from the equator I was pretty comfortable. It was hot during the day, but in the afternoon there was a refreshing breeze blowing. And at night, I am almost ashamed to say, but we had A/C in our rooms. It was awesome.

Anyway, walking around the city gave us a chance to really get a feel for the people there. Everyone was curious about us. When kids would come up to us they would always start laughing. I was about to get a complex until someone told us that they have never seen or heard people from the US. Not only is our skin lighter, but we talk funny. I felt a little better knowing it wasn’t just my fat belly and balding head.

Also, it is not a good idea to call ourselves “Americans.” I don’t remember all the reasons we were told but it has something to do with the fact that SOUTH America does actually exist as a continent and they don’t appreciate the seemingly arrogant assumption that we own the exclusive right to the “American” label.

After walking for a couple of hours we got ready for our meeting with the pastors. Going into this meeting I was still thinking about the church at Turiacu. (I love typing “Turiacu” and I really love saying “Turiacu” pronounced ‘tuhr-ee-ah-soo’… try it you’ll like it too) I decided to be respectful and attentive in the meeting and let the other guys from Florida ask all the questions since they would probably choose this church.

But as soon as the introductions began and these lay leaders and their pastor began to share their hearts for Christ and the work there, my heart began to soften. I was truly amazed at what God was doing with people who had such a passion and zeal for God but none of the resources we have here.

We learned that this church had actually been around for 30 years (I think!). They had their own building, which was very nice. And they even had 5 preaching points they were involved in. A preaching point is what we would call a church plant. They had people in the church go into the surrounding villages and start sharing the gospel. Eventually they would start meeting in someone’s home teaching a Bible study.

They have FIVE of them! That is crazy cool.

They have a children’s ministry and youth ministry and a women’s ministry.

After a little while I started wondering why we were even meeting with them. I mean we could probably learn a thing or two from them.

Then we realized. They don’t know the Bible. They are faithful to Christ, but they have never been discipled or trained. One of the preaching points was being led by a woman… a young woman… a teenager. She was 19 years old. She said she was teaching the study because there were no more available men in their church to do it. The people in her group were asking all sorts of questions about salvation, and she wanted to help them. So, she took her concordance and found every reference to being saved she could find and they would read those verses. That’s all she knew to do.

Here was a church was was practicing evangelism but had no one to help them grow in Christlike maturity.

After this meeting we walked through the town again with our whole group. Ken, Andy, Chad and I got to talking and we all agreed that this church had tugged on our hearts. We decided to strongly consider this place and to pay close attention during the worship service at the church to see how we could help these people.

God was changing our direction again… to Him be the glory! We went into that worship service really excited about the potential of this church. As we evaluated the needs of the church with the resources and abilities we four have and our churches have to offer, this seemed like a great fit.

And then… my sinful nature tried to take over.

All week I had been praying for humility. I had been trying to be submissive to the LORD’s leading. I had been trying to be Christlike.

But when the service started, all of that went out the window. My arrogant, condescending, self-righteousness took over and I started judging this church.

I was judging the heart of the pastor. I was judging the sincerity of the people as they sang. I was judging the little girls who were dancing during the service.

My desire to evaluate turned sinful and I was seeking to condemn this church simply because I didn’t think they were holy enough.

When the service was over and our group was comparing notes. We all saw the same things, and while I certainly cannot judge what was in the hearts of my cohorts, we were all seeing the same things. And it just didn’t seem like the pastor was interested in being there. The people seemed relatively unresponsive in worship.

After such a great meeting in the afternoon, this was a downer.

We didn’t want to overreact, so we decided to sleep on it. We didn’t have too much time though because Richie was hoping we could give him an answer before we left Brazil.

That night the grace of Christ rescued me again. Thank you, LORD! I was so convicted over my judgmental heart. Instead of seeing their need and being heart-broken over it, I judged them for not being holy enough to deserve my love and effort. Ugh! God reminded me that this is why He sent us here. This church needs the gospel. Oh sure, people are getting saved by the gospel, but they need to be taught how to live by the gospel; how to reproduce godliness; how to grow into Christlikeness.

Jesus said He came for the sick. And here I am acting like I am so much holier than these ‘sick’ people.

I repented of my arrogance and pleaded for God’s mercy.

The next morning at breakfast we were discussing the situation. We HAD to decide something. And it is so cool how God works. The night before we all had our reservations for different reasons, but by the morning God had made it clear to all of us that Penalva was the place for us. We knew it. We were unanimous and excited in that that decision.

As we each shared our thoughts and how we arrived at this decision, it was so cool to see that God showed each of us the same thing: This church has need that our group of churches is uniquely qualified to meet. And He gave us a passion to meet their needs.

The bottom line is that we are committing to partner with the church in Penalva for the next 3-5 years. We will send a team at least 2 times a year. We will focus our efforts on training the church there to reproduce itself. Our goal is to see Brazilians reaching Brazilians with the gospel. Our primary goal is not to send evangelistic teams that will do all the evangelizing. If we only send teams to evangelize their community, then we will actually stunt the growth of the church. Their greatest need is for us to help them be a New Testament church. So that’s what we will do.

And by making this kind of investment in missions, we will see a greater long term return in the growth of the Kingdom.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 4

Monday

There is a verse in Proverbs that is very straightforward yet still makes by brow furrow every time I read it. It speaks to the sovereign work of God in our lives in planning our discipleship. God is the one who makes the plans for our growth and development. We experienced this first hand on Monday in Brazil.

Our original plan for the lat two days of our trip was to spend time with the churches in Bequimao and Alcantara. But while we were in Brazil, Richie recieved two pieces of information that caused us to rethink our trips to those towns.

First, he heard some things about the work in these two cities that gave him pause. They were not bad things, but the challenges were unique and significant enough that they put up a couple of orange flags (not red flags) in his mind.

Second, he heard that the work in two other cities was beginning to really take off and they needed help. These two cities were Turiacu and Penalva. It also just so happens that these were two places the Richie had been praying about for some time.

Remember, the whole purpose of our trip is to identify the local church in Brazil that we were going to partner with for the next 3-5 years. There was a lot at stake. Would we go to the places Richie had been working on for a long time even though they had some concerns with them? Or would we strike out in a brand new direction with no previous planning?

Hmm… We had a decision that had to be made quickly. And it was basically a decision that would affect our commitment for the next 3-5 years.

We decided to meet with two pastors who functioned as the supervising pastors of these two churches, Riba and Francisco. We drove to a neutral meeting site and spent about an hour or so discussing the situation.

This is Monday morning and we are supposed to be visiting with some pastor somewhere that afternoon, so we didn’t have a lot of time to deliberate.

By the grace of God there was a quick consensus reached, when to a man, we thought Turiacu and Penalva to be our best option. Bequimao and Alcantara were going to be just fine though. God has other plans for them.

So, we are now on the road to Turiacu. And we are all excited. There was a general sense of anticipation as we just knew that God was directing us and setting the agenda.

It was on this van ride that Proverbs 16:9 occupied my thoughts. “The heart of a man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

Here is what I learned: We thought we had it all figured out. We knew where the work of the gospel was needed and our hearts were ready to go there. But God had already established our steps. He knew where He wanted us. And while our hearts were willing and ready to go to Bequimao and Alcantara, He directed us in his time to go to Turiacu and Penalva.

God directs our steps. It was always his plan for us to go there. We did not see it before. Just because we did not see it beforehand does not mean that we were wrong or disobedient. It just means that God directs our steps and that in his time He will accomplish all his purposes.

It is common to say that the number one rule on mission trips is “Be flexible.” While I understand and appreciate that sentiment. I think that it misses a great opportunity to give glory to God. Instead of “flexibility” being our guiding principle, let’s say, “God directs our steps.”

Being flexible implies that we need to handle unforeseen changes to our plans with a soft and malleable demeanor as if these things are out of our hands, so there is no use getting upset about it. But acknowledging that God sovereignly directs every detail of our trips, even the ones that inconvenience us, will lead not to a shoulder-shrugging “Oh well that didn’t go according to plan” attitude but rather to a rugged, sturdy confidence in his Spirit’s leading that truly magnifies his grace as He leads us.

Don’t let “flexibility” by your guiding principle. That does not necessarily honor God. Let submissiveness to the sovereign direction of the Holy Spirit guide you. And be firm and un-flexible in following his path with a passion for fulfilling the work of God.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 3

Saturday afternoon

We were able to have our first experience with evangelism. Richie likes to use this thing called an Evangecube. It is a really easy-to-use evangelism tool that is image based. It folds out and flips around as you tell the gospel story. This makes it very easy for people to see what we are talking about and it is easier for our translators.

Oh, and a special note for you door-to-door types… that method works extremely well in Brazil! We would walk to someone’s house and our translator would just yell through the doorway. Maybe one or two people would come out at first, but once we sat down with them and started our presentation, a crowd would gather. Now, some of their curiosity was more about seeing the people from the US than it was interest in our message. But they listened very attentively and wanted to understand. It was very cool. Only time will tell what will come of our efforts.

After we went through this little village, we were told that the local radio station would allow one of us to speak on air if we wanted to. “Uh… a chance to proclaim the gospel on the airwaves? Sign me up!” Richie asked which one of us would go. We cast lots and it fell to me. I’m just kidding about the lot-casting.

That was probably the most nervous I have ever been in my life. I wasn’t mentally prepared to preach at that exact moment. I was having to take extra pauses for my interpreter because we had to alternate switching each microphone on and off which threw off my tempo even more. All the guys were crowded in the studio STARING at me. AND there were 8 million Brazilians listening to me! Okay, that is a little bit of a preacher exaggeration… maybe only 7 million.

Anyway, I told the parable of the man who find the treasure in the field from Matthew 13:44. It only lasted about 5 minutes but I was able to get the gospel out to the 137 people or so who were listening.

It was really cool actually how willing the radio guy was to just stop whatever he was playing and allowed some dude from the US start preaching. They just don’t have the same hang ups about religion that we do here. In fact, we were told that if we were to go into a school and tell the teachers that we wanted to talk to the kids, they would stop everything and let us do it! Can you imagine what would happen if you tried that in the states???

Well, I could write a few thousand words about every little thing that happened, but since I want you to keep reading this, I will skip ahead a little bit. The rest of Saturday was good but the events of Sunday were very significant. I will tell you about Sunday morning and afternoon tomorrow. Now I want to tell you about Sunday night because it was a follow up to my lesson from Saturday morning about finishing the great commission.

Sunday night

Our group spilt up so that we could be at two churches for their evening services. I went to the church at Cururupu with Ken Mostella who was going to be preaching. He is my accountability and prayer partner and I wanted to be able to support him. Every Sunday morning Ken meets with me to pray for me and our church services that day. This was my chance to pray for him before his sermon.

The first night I was in this church for worship I was too busy analyzing and evaluating everything to notice all the really important things. This time I was able to really focus on Christ and worship. There were a few things that really impacted me.

First, the prayers of the worship leaders were long, detailed and totally God-centered. Sometimes when I pray in church, I get in a hurry and just cover all the usual stuff, “God we love you… help us… bless us… may your Spirit move, etc.” 30 seconds tops. This leader prayed for about 5 minutes, and the people were totally involved in the prayer. I don’t know how to explain it, but this was truly a corporate prayer. Not just a pray for the congregation, but a prayer by the congregation.

Second, the worship leaders were totally prepared. I mean they did not have one piece of paper in front of them. The singers knew the words and the musicians knew the notes. I asked later about that, and they had been taught by one of the mission teams that helped them that if they were totally prepared to sing and play that they would be able to participate in the worship. Instead of having to focus on singing the right words or playing the right notes they were able to play/sing out of the overflow of a prepared heart… they were able to worship. And it showed. You could just tell that worship was flowing out of their hearts. The Spirit was moving and using them. The whole congregation sang with passion and enthusiasm.

Third, they had the windows open and cool breeze was blowing through the church building. It was truly a unique sensation to feel the wind blowing during a worship service! I know this will sound kind of cheesy, but it really was like a fresh movement of the Spirit was blowing through that church. The church was alive and you could feel it.

Fourth, as I stood there, eyes closed, feeling the cool breeze on my face, hearing passionate worship sung in a language I do not speak the Spirit took my mind to Revelation 7:9-10

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

And I thanked God for giving me this glimpse into what eternity will be like with Him: My brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the world from every age singing in different tongues… I was moved… and convicted.

Here is what I learned: God is actively working to make Revelation 7:9-10 a reality and I need to be as passionate as He is in bringing that to pass.

Missions is not just about telling people about Jesus. Oh we should have a compassionate heart for the lost, absolutely! But missions is also about having a vision of the Glorified Christ surrounded by people from every corner of the earth singing praises to his Holy Name, exalting Him with the worship He alone is worthy to receive.

I want to find my lost brothers and bring them home. The apostle John has already seen them around the throne. I want to be a part of making that God-centered eternity a reality.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 2

After the LORD humbled my heart and gave me ears to hear, what I experienced Saturday made the whole trip worthwhile. Here’s how it happened…

We arrived in Cururupu Friday night. This was going to be our staging area for the next two days before we set off on a whirlwind tour of Maranhao searching for churches to partner with. This night we were able to sit in on the last night of one Richie’s seminary classes for the local pastors there.

ASIDE: Richie Allen is the missionary we were working with. He started LINC-UP missions in order to help churches in the states partner directly with churches in Brazil. It is a fascinating model and seems to be very effective. He works in cooperation with the IMB although he is not funded by them. One of his primary works is to train the local pastor in Bible study and theology. This Friday he was teaching them about expository preaching… and locative prepositions in Greek.

Friday, night was our first chance to see the local church worship. I was too busy taking in all the sights and sounds to really focus on God. LORD, forgive me! This night my mind was more analytical and scientific. I was too busy processing information to notice what was really going on.

That night we were all so tired from all the traveling that we just went straight to sleep without any real reflection. Besides Saturday was going to be a busy day.

Saturday morning we rose early, took a cold shower, ate a breakfast consisting of fruit, and a cheese and bologna sandwich… and NO tap water! Richie repeatedly harped on how dangerous the water was to drink. By God’s grace, the lady who owned our hotel also owned a store across the street where we were able to buy cold, bottled water every day. I had $50 worth of spending money which converted to about 85 reiz (pronounced hay-eye). I think I spent every bit of it on bottled water. I must be half camel.

Anyway, we started off to a little town to see a very interesting church. This church was startes some years ago by another missionary. He quickly had 40 converts and they started building a place for them to gather. The missionary solicited money from churches in the US and scheduled teams to come and help construct this new building. Well, when the money ran out and the missionary moved on all this church had was four half-built walls with no floor, no roof, and no doors or windows. For years this group of people had no understanding of how to finish the job.

Fast forward to Richie’s arrival. When he found this struggling church they only had two people who remained from the original missionary’s work. Richie began the long, difficult process of discipling the leader and helping them build the church… not the building, the CHURCH. Riche taught them how to evangelize the lost and make disciples. He told them they did not need to depend on US money and resources. They started growing and working.

When we arrived last week, the building had been completed. They did it themselves with just a little bit of help from outside churches. They raised the money. Most importantly, Joal, the pastor who had been one of the two to persevere through the lean years, had grown his church spiritually. When we asked them how we could help them, his answer was, “Help us grow in God’s word.” They didn’t want our money. They didn’t want us to do their work of evangelizing their community. They wanted us to finish the great commission, teaching them to obey all that God has taught us in his word.

Here is what I learned: Finishing the great commission is just as important as starting it.

Every mission trip I have been on has been very short-sighted and focused on spreading the gospel to as many people as possible in a short time. This is not bad at all! But this is only the beginning of the great commission. Jesus gave the great commission to the church, and in Southern Baptist polity that means the local church. So, it is each church’s responsibility to obey all of the great commission. Sending money to the cooperative program is essential. Sending mission teams to spread the gospel to people who have not heard it is essential. But this is where most churches end the great commission. We need to finish the great commission. We start strong, but we end weak.

If the Church in Brazil is going to survive past one generation then we must make disciples teaching them to grow up in their faith and do all that God commands in his word. We must train Brazilians to reach Brazilians. We must train their pastors to preach the word. We must help them disciple their children. We must finish the great commission.

I will have more on the really cool happenings of Sunday night in tomorrow’s post.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 1

Before I even begin to recount the events of my trip to Brazil, I want to share what I learned most about me and what God is doing in my life. I am not sharing this first because I think what I am learning is more important than what He is doing there. It is the exact opposite. It is because of the amazing work of the gospel in Brazil that I need to correct a sin issue in my life first so that I can faithfully share what is happening there.

I took two books to read on the many different planes we would fly. One was a heavy (literally) book that would take some time and thought to get through. I thought that would be a good idea considering how much time we would spend in the air and in the airports.

But on the two short flights we had to Orlando, I decided to pull out the shorter book that I thought would just be a nice, devotional read; a perfect filler for two short trips. So, I started Humility: True Greatness by CJ Mahaney.

I didn’t finish that book on those two flights, not because the book is very long (only 169 pages) but because God really got my attention, and I had to read it much more thoughtfully and prayerfully than I originally intended.

God was softening my heart for what I would find in Brazil. When I got on the plane in Birmingham, my thoughts about Brazil could generally be summed up by, “Those poor Brazilians. It is a good thing we Americans are coming to rescue them from their miserable lives.” Of course, I never verbalized that. No good American Christian would ever say those things. And if you asked me to articulate my thoughts about Brazilians I would toe the party line and say that we wanted to spread the gospel to people who need Jesus.

But there was still an arrogance in my heart about this trip. I didn’t even realize it at first. As I spent those first two flights thinking on humility, God graciously showed me my sin.

I spent the rest of the week meditating and thinking on humility, especially in evangelism.

The problem with a sin like pride is that it is an attitude that can be subtly hidden in our hearts where people who aren’t looking will never recognize it. Oh sure, pride can be very obvious in some people, but it can also be just as opaque in others. The point is that it is an attitude that can manifest itself in many different actions. Looking for pride in a person cannot be as simple as examining his work. It is a deep heart issue, and those who are experts in pride have learned how to mask it well.

One way God revealed my pride to me was through my complaining. I know that complaining is wrong. Philippians 2:14 states that plainly. But the root of the sin of complaining is pride. Complaining is arrogance... rising up against God as if we are wiser than He. God has sovereignly chosen the circumstances in which I will live each day. When I complain about them, I am telling God that He was wrong to bring those into my life. Heat, humidity, long plane rides, delays, mosquitos, weird food, all of it… God in his wisdom planned those for me. He wanted to use them to shape my character, to make my faith in Him mature. He is the one who satisfies my heart. He is where my joy and comfort lies… not in cool weather or easy travel or familiar foods.

God was opposing me as I went into this trip. He had to humble me so that I would see this trip as He saw it: one undeserving sinner who received God greatest grace taking the message of hope in Christ to other sinners who are no worse than I.

I will share more about what God is doing in Brazil and how we can be a part of it, but I needed to humble myself first.

Just for fun

This is a list of 10 styles of hand-raising in worship that was written by Jon Acuff on his website, Stuff Christians Like. Funny stuff and I just had to share… And, I will get back to blogging about Brazil this week.

By the way, I am a "pound cake" kind of guy : ) What about you?

1. The Ninja
You are tricky sir, truly, you are tricky. This guy is testing the waters. He sees ladies near him that throw their arms in the air at the first hint of a Chris Tomlin song but he’s not so sure. I mean, what if his friends see him? He used to make fun of people that did that. So instead of going all out, he does a fancy little move. He puts his hands by his pants pockets and just flips them over with his palms facing the heavens. From behind, you can’t see that he is doing anything out of the ordinary and from the front it just looks like he is cupping his hands slightly as if to show you what was in his pockets.

2. The Half & Half
This person often wants to sing with both hands raised, but they go to a conservative church and don’t want to be known as “that guy.” So instead of singing with both hands up, they hold one in the air and put one in their pocket or on the chair in front of them. It’s like half their body is saying, “YAY JESUS!!!!” and the other half is saying, “Nothing to see here folks, move it along please, move it along.”

3. The Single Hand Salute
This is the cousin of the half & half but is different in it’s level of intensity. Instead of just kind of floating in the air, the hand you have up goes out straight at an angle, as if you are saluting some visiting military dignitary. It’s possible this move was first instilled in people when they were young with the song, “God’s Army.”

4. The Elevator
This one technically marks our transition into multi-hand motions. In this move, you act like there is a rule against having both hands raised at the same exact time. So you start rotating your arms. As soon as one arm comes down, the other arm goes up. It’s kind of an awkward dance move, but works pretty well when set to “Blessed be the Name.”

5. The Pound Cake
This is what we in the industry, of hand raising in case you were wondering, refer to as an “underhand move.” Instead of sticking your arms out, you hold them with your palms facing the sky as if you are ready to receive something from someone in front of you. In the pound cake, your elbows should be at stomach level, with your hands tilted at a 47 degree angle as if someone visiting your house warming party is about to hand you a delicious pound cake. It’s not a heavy cake, so you don’t have to brace yourself, but can instead just relax and think, “hey cool, pound cake. Let me take that for you.”

6. The Tickler
It’s getting serious now. The tickler is the person that sticks their arms out horizontally as if they were trying to make a big T with their body. This is a fine move except that because we’re all sitting so close, they inevitably bump into you with their hands. So while you try to sing along with the chorus, you can’t help but giggle as they, lost in a moment of blissful worship, accidentally tickle you.

7. The Double High Five
I am very stingy with my high fives. I think the last time I gave one was in the delivery room of my second daughter. The next time I give one will be if I get a book deal. Other than those two situations, I find the high five to be the physical version of using a lot of exclamation marks!!! That’s why I rarely do this move. The double high five looks exactly like it sounds. You act like you’ve just scored a goal in soccer/football and are about to double high five the person in front of you. (Some people call this move the “Secret passageway” because it kind of looks like you are feeling along a wall for a hidden button that will open a secret door. But I’m a purist and don’t use that term.)

8. The Huge Watermelon
This is like the pound cake on steroids. In this move, your arms are held higher and with a considerable amount of dedication and determination. It’s still an underhand move, but now, instead of a light and fluffy cake, someone on a truck is handing down a huge watermelon to you. Better get ready, that thing looks heavy.

9. The Helicopter Rail
At this point, both arms are raised high in the air. This is professional hand raiser territory we’re in. Please don’t try to do this at home. With this one, you reach your arms out, way over your head but out in front of your body. Imagine if you were stuck on a piece of driftwood and a shark with a laser on its head was about to get you and you had to desperately reach out for the rail of a helicopter that was attempting to rescue you. Stretch, stretch, you gotta want it.

10. The YMCA
This is my favorite and probably most common hand raising technique. It’s not complicated. Much like the famous song, you simply raise your hands above your body and form a big Y. That’s all, but it leaves little doubt to the folks around you what is going on. You’re worshipping. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s messy and it’s great.

Blogfast

I have only made a couple of blog posts in that past few weeks. The infrequency of the posts is due to two reasons mainly.

One, I have been busy getting ready for vacation and for a mission trip to Brazil. Before vacation I was doing two weeks worth of work in one and the same goes for the trip I leave on tomorrow.

Two, I only want to post something if I think I have something worth saying. One of the things I am learning as a preacher-pastor is that just because God has called me to proclaim his word regularly to my church that does not mean that everything that comes out of my head or heart is worth saying. So, I don’t want to talk just to talk.

Now, when I get back from Brazil, I hope and pray that I will have something worth saying. And I want to give you guys a full update on the trip when I return.

Please pray for Ken Mostella, Andy Frazier, Chad Montoya and me as we travel to Brazil to proclaim the gospel to the quilombola people and as we encourage the fledgling churches there.