For those of you who are still basking in the brevity of last week’s shorten email, I hate to burst your bubble but you may want to pour another cup of coffee, sit back and settle in for one of my more typical emails of length, with very little meaningful content or relative importance.
Labor Day weekend proved to a busy one, if not for the church, for me. We had three young (early twenties) guys stay with us for a week. They had gone to a Bible college in Campo Grande, Brazil a year or two ago and were just spending some youthful energy traveling around Brazil. So for better or worse I had some unexpected roommates for the week. Not too bad, I survived and they slept most of the time they were here. Youth can wear a person out.
The kicker to my week was on Friday night, 9/4, I was out for dinner with Hudson, Russel, Aline and the Americans and after we had finished and were walking out of the restaurant, Elder (that’s his name not a position in the church) was waiting outside for me. I was a bit surprised to see him, he was getting married on Saturday so I figured he would have other things to do the night before his wedding. What he needed was to drop some things off at the church. No problem. I hopped in his car and as we were driving back to the church he mentioned, in passing, that thirty members of his family would be arriving at 6am, via a bus, on Saturday morning from Sao Vicente (9 hours away). They would need to use the church to rest, eat lunch and clean up for the 4pm wedding. Obviously, or not so obvious, I knew of the wedding but that was the first time anyone had told me of his family needing to use the church. Again no big thing, so at 11pm I had to clean the church and set up 20 army cots, which are used for missionary groups when they come through. So for period of time on Saturday there were 34 (including the traveling Americans) of us sharing two small bathrooms, a kitchen and whatever available floor space that wasn’t taken up by the cots or exhausted travelers. Plus I had to leave early to set up the audio equipment for the wedding. The ceremony and reception was across the bay in Niteroi. That’s the third wedding in the church since I have been here. For my sake I hope it’s not contagious.
I have been going to the Alpha class on Wednesday nights. Alpha is very straight forward non aggressive presentation of Christianity giving you some solid practical and factual information to build a firm foundation to base your beliefs on. The class is being held at someone house, in a very nice part of Rio alongside a lake. We have small dinner, watch the DVD and then discuss the video. It’s group of about 15 people, most are members from the Anglican Church, varied backgrounds and ages. I was exposed to members of the Anglican Church when I was in Canada while volunteering at the Food bank. All good and successful people but I am genuinely surprised by their lack of understanding or exposure to the Bible. In fact, the facilitator of our group, in her own words said that she wasn’t quite sure where she was in her walk with Jesus. It was very interesting to sit and listen them discuss the DVD. There was a women, in her mid sixties, thought that Christianity had messed up the world and said if she had a little more self discipline she would be a Buddhist. Wow, I was taken back at first and didn’t want to cause any conflicts but now I know why I am in this group. In God’s timing and prompting I will try to present and represent the truth of the Gospel to these people over the next 8 weeks.
One good thing did come out of the Alpha class, Jezzele and Dave, the Brazilian women and her English husband, were there as well. As you may recall they were the couple (mid twenties) that came to our Thursday night Bible study two weeks ago. She’s a believer and is very excited about connecting with a church. He wasn’t quite there as a believer just yet but very open to the Gospel and had some questions. During the Alpha class he was sitting in the back and listening very intensely to the DVD. Afterwards we went to a corner in the room and he asked me a lot of questions about the video and the Bible. We stayed and talked for quite a while. Well last Thursday night while talking with Jezzele in the privacy of their apartment he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. She was so thrilled and could hardly wait to tell me the exciting news when we had lunch on Sunday. They came to the Sunday Night service, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and she also brought a friend. It was a great night of worshipping.
Not to confuse you but another couple, out of the blue, came to our Bible study last Thursday night. Again the woman is Brazilian but this time her husband was from Texas. (I hope you’re writing this stuff down.) He said he had gone to Calvary Chapel in Houston and was surprised and excited to see one in Rio. They too came to last night’s service. He’s an English teacher but also plays the drums and wants to be part of our Worship team, which right now consists of about 4 people. So God keeps drawing his people to our church while adding to his flock.
Also I got a great email from Dr. Hasse, and any of you who know me know of Dr. Hasse, he’s the Veterinarian in Florida that led me to Christ. I admit when I give my testimony I sometimes say that Midnight (my dog) led me to Christ, but it was actually Dr. Hasse who introduced me to the love that Jesus has for me. He’s the best Christian I know and I consider him my best friend. Well the Doctor sold his clinic and is getting ready to take on new challenges for God’s glory. He’s talking about going to Mongolia as part of for a veterinary mission’s team. It will be neat to see how God will use this humble and devoted man. My only question is what he is going do with the sign that says “Dave was saved here.” Maybe put it on EBay or donate to the Smithsonian. (Just kidding there’s no sign.) But Dr. Hasse has been alongside me, encouraging, disciplining and supporting me for my entire journey as I have tried to serve an awesome God. I know it’s been a bigger challenge for him than for me at times but I can’t thank him enough for being there that day when God reached out to me. Thank you.
Okay back to serving while always looking up and giving God all the glory.
Dave
