a day that started with sleeping in a bit ;) some of us paid for it by eating what was left of the breakfast buffet at the hotel, but it was quite refreshing.
morning service at the church began at 0930, and it was already quite warm. i guess for a change of pace we were outside under an awning, and without the breeze we might well have melted away! since morning services tend to be more casual (similar to our sunday evenings), instead of a proper sermon, pr rodrigo exhorted the congregation to remain faithful to their first love and obedient to their commission: to make disciple-making disciples. of the 13 chapels pioneer missions built last year, almost none have done much growth. this is a trend that is growing all over brasil, pr tony told me when i asked him. this church family is going against the flow, however: last year when fbcj build this chapel for them, they had 36 members. now they have 50!
lunch together in and around the chapel was hot, bright, and delightful. almost like they knew we were about to head to the hotel, they pulled out the ice cream and reeled us all back in 😂🤣😂
the evening service we decided to do something extra special, so pr tony grabbed the mic and sent the kids to the side area, directed the women inside the chapel, and told the guys to stay put. kathy, caitlin, beverly, and mary had all the gift bags and handprint banners and paints ready to go. i helped linda and marlene set up their vision for the women's meeting. we had put together little bags with some simple feminine gifts like lotions, bracelets, etc., and handmade jewelry was laid out for them to "shop" for after linda and i shared some testimony and words of encouragement. i generally loathe being the object of attention, but i guess I did okay 😊. there were about 40 women who came, so that's a pretty good turnout!
today (monday) was another full day of service! marlene and i got our blood pressure cuffs going and slipped into a good little rhythm there! the church members nurse came for a bit, which was great because something was giving me another (?!?) sinus headache, so i needed to step away for a bit. i don't know the total, but i think we hit 50 visits!
the restaurant across the street from our hotel knows us by now, and after another delicious dinner we followed pr dan and the translators to an ice cream/frozen yogurt place 2 blocks away. a great finish to a great day!
ways 2 praise:
*about 50 more seeds were planted! this area has a high percentage of catholics, and i think it's hard to tell exactly what they mean or truly believe when they say they'd like to pray for salvation (i.e., they may think they're already saved, or think they'll make a better impression if they say yes, or treat it like saying another hail mary prayer, etc), but they heard the gospel.
* kathy, caitlin, and a couple others were able to give the gospel bracelet presentation to a school today: 200 children all at once! they said it was a busy, hot, noisy, but wonderful time
ways 2 pray:
*brasilian pastors are struggling much like american pastors, with high levels of stress and depression. pr tony said he knew of 3 suicides of Christian pastors in just the past year or so (i think).
*we are sending the children's ministry peeps out again tomorrow to another school while we do another day of sunglasses and blood pressure clinics at the church.
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