Our Real-Life Ministry Drama

This weekend was a bit different for us since it was the annual Asas "recycling" weekend (as they call it in Portuguese). If you are imagining cans, bottles, and newspapers - that is not quite it :) Actually it is the weekend where the mission "recycles" a lot of information about the mission, support raising, etc. through our brains. The idea is to remind us of info about the mission, bring up new ideas for support raising, and encourage us to stay connected to our support team. There was time for workshops lead by leaders and also time for brainstorming ideas that work. One I couldn't resist suggesting is setting up a blog. We started blogging about a year and a half ago and it drastically improved our way to stay connected with our support team from back home....all of you who faithfully check in with us via this site. By the way, when I say support team I dont' just mean financial support, but also prayer, encouragement, and so much more. You are all so important to us!


On Saturday morning this above pastor shared with us from the Bible, but what I really remember was his testimony about how he ended up in full time ministry. For a while this pastor had really sensed God's direction and leading in his life to become a pastor, but for various reasons he was choosing to question whether this was really what God had for him. Being a little stubborn, he told God that he wanted to know in a much more obvious way if God wanted him to be a pastor. At the time this man was working on a factory assembly line. His job was to put a sack up to a machine that poured in beans and to then seal it....over and over. Can you imagine?!? Anyway, one day while at work he was filling the bags and he noticed that the man working on the line next to him had stopped and was staring at him. Beans were spilling everywhere as the man just looked at him. The (now) pastor asked him what was going on and his coworker, who was not a Christian, answered that he couldn't not help noticing how much he looked like he should be a pastor! I thought the story was so funny and just showed how our God has a wonderful sense of humor with us!

Another memorable part of the weekend was a workshop that taught us a creative tool in teaching churches or youth groups about missions. In the workshop each of us was given a different role....doctor, tribal person, pilot, missionary, pastor, etc. We each got props to represent our character and were given a situation to act out. The idea in a church would be to give different people from the congregation or youth group each a role and US be the "director" but this was just to give us an idea how it works.

In our group's drama I was a "ribeirinho" which means basically a person who lives in an isolated part of Northern Brazil along the river. Here are some pictures of actual riverinho houses.

Some live in small communities

And other homes are far isolated from others. As you can see they are built on stilts since the water rises and falls. Other houses are built to float on the water.

Obviously boats are the major mode of transportation here. Our mission works with these people in the Northern bases and above you can see a boat that arrived in the area for one of our outreach clinics. Many people have come to see the doctor by canoe....interesting parking lot, right?



Here is another group that came on a canoe bus :)


Well anyway, back to the scenario in Anapolis:

So I was supposed to be a "ribeirinho" who is friends with a tribal person (who our mission also reaches, mainly by airplane, in Northern Brazil). This indigenous person is sick and comes to me for help. I then go to our local missionary and tell him about the situation.

In turn, the missionary calls Asas de Socorro to bring in an airplane.

The pilot then calls the mechanic, who needs to do some repairs on the plane. He also calls his supporting church.

Someone from the church makes the situation known to the pastor.

Although in real life obiously the supporting church would already by supporting financially, however in the drama, the local pastor says that the church will be praying and supporting the missionary pilot to make the trip in to the tribe.

A doctor is also flown into the tribe

And able to treat the otherwise unreachable, sick patient

So obviously all o this does not work exactly in this order each time, but this drama really brings to light the fact that ministry involves SO many different people with different gifts, abilities, skills, resources, and vocational callings. Each person in this drama was vital to reaching the tribe....not only in this situation for the physical need, but for the greater need of reaching isolated places with the Gospel! It really reminded me what a small part of the team we are in our work, and how the team involves SO many people - including YOU! And also, what a great director we have to our real life situation - God who is orchestrating and enabling it all.

This weekend we really were reminded just how blessed we are to have such supportive family and friends. We have seen how God has used many different people in unique ways to participate in this ministry. Some have helped financially, others with technology assistance, others with airline miles, others with filing our taxes, others have donated tools Jeyson has needed, others faithfully pray, some send loving letters and care packages to keep us encouraged, and who can forget my Mom who prints and sends our newsletters? We are part of a body that is healthily working together for His glory. And each small fruit, each conversation about Christ, each step ahead in Jeyson's process, each new relationship, is fruit that we have all reaped. Wow! Who knew so much would come out of a drama?