May 15th – May 22nd

General:

So second week rolled along very well, but still without Aaron. Much happened this week. Starting with the Homeless Ministry Friday night – great fun, great meeting new people and seeing how things work out in the street in preparation for the one week we will be living with them on the street. The following day we had the youth service (my first one to participate since I have been back), and that was a little saddening. The youth pastor did not seem to have prepared something really meaningful to say, people do not even care about what he says and everybody is disperse. I tried to bring the focus back, only to find out that it seemed like I was preaching one message and the youth pastor preaching another. Also. After the service, we usually go out together, but this time people were going to different places, disunited. Sad. But thank God that I got a really cool friend of mine to come and speak to us on “Fruits of Revival” for next week. Revival is a word spoken much down here and though there is very little understanding of that actually mean, it does something to people. So yeah, I pray that next Saturday things may be looking much better as with the youth service.

Here is the Advertising for that Special Service:

               Then came Sunday service where I was able to tell people about my experiences in Egypt as well as present all these projects to the church. It was great! People were really interested and are willing to change and help people through these things!

                Then Monday rolled in and my first assignment was to put together an Agenda for the youth program and organize all the events we will be planning! That was not hard, however, I started to feel a little overwhelmed with all the stuff we will be doing! But by the grace of God everything will be alright! Then after that I went to Bethesda (the Soccer Project from our Church) and there I led devos for the older kids who are now playing a really important championship where they play on TV and everything and also the really small kids (7-8 years old)…wow, everytime I go there I feel so realized, so good with myself…there is something about being there with those kids and being able to say: “I have been there where you are today” and be able to share the change that happened in my life going abroad and everything, which for most is a big dream!

                The Tuesday and Wednesday were Small group days. I went to the teenager one and the youth one. Both really powerful in message and inshaallah people will actually hear what was said! After these small groups though I went to different BBQs and meetings because social life in Brazil never ends.

                Finally Thursday was a day of much planning trying to figure out the best place for an event called “Radical Praise” which should be in a skate park. We finally found this really cool place up in this guetto and we are gonna come over with sound and everything and see what happens! After that there was the Theological Coffee with friends and once again I loved it in spite of the fact that I could not stay long because I had a “soccer commitment” to go to! And so life goes…

Specific Testimony:

                Two things really touched my heart this week, though they might be simple. First of all, it was the fact that the kids from the Bethesda project all remembered who I was and even some things we had given them! It was great to feel that love that sometimes I did not show back and once again you start to figure out the purity and trueness when Jesus said that the Kingdom of God was revealed to these children. I hope my faith becomes childlike more and more as I interact with them more and more.

The second testimony comes from one of the small groups. Larissa, this girl that has been coming to our Church for some time now but has never fully committed her life to Christ was given the task of leading the Small Group that day. At first she was freaking out about it and how everything would not work out cuz she had never done anything like that and all…However, she really pushed herself to do it in spite of an exam she was going to have the next day. The Small Group meeting  was amazing! She preached on judging others, a reality in our church, and used various Bible verses as examples but all coming from Jesus’ life himself. So, again, one does not have to be a master in theology to really understand the reality of God’s love and Jesus’ teaching.