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.