Conversations, Invitations, Transformations

I guess the best place to start with this series of posts about our trip is with the heart of it...showing God's love and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Jeyson and I were part of a team that went door to door telling people about how knowing Christ has changed our lives and how God wants to have a relationship with them as well. We also invited people out to the free medical/dental clinics that the team was running in their communities.
It's amazing how warm and receptive the people were! Most people gladly invited us in and insisted on serving us coffee as we chatted. One thing that our group really focused on was quality rather than quantity when it came to visiting. It is more important to spend time with just a few families, but that time be spent really listening, sharing, and getting to know the person, than visiting a whole block and the time have been meaningless. Sometimes we spent the whole day with about 4 families, but it was worth every moment and we left after having a meaningful conversation and having made new friends.

Overall the community was extremely poor (especially compared to the States). As a result, the people were very creative and made gardens out of everything. We even saw a garden made from an old sink basin...perfect for draining the excess water :) We spent a lot of time with this couple above. They are both illiterate and were very confused about what the Bible says - since they are completely dependant on believing only what other people say it says. They were very interested and open to talking with us and we had a great, long conversation.

This family above is facing a particularly difficult financial situation. The man has been unable to find work for a while and they have received no help from the government so far. During the morning we spent with this family, the man showed us his nearly empty container of rice. He said that once it was gone, he had no more. We could see through the clear containers that the flour, beans, etc were also running out. There was no lush pantry in the back room. We prayed with them that the husband would be able to find work. After we left we still felt this family's burden and spoke to the leader back at the "base". She helped us put together a box of food that we were able to bring to them the next day. The family was SO happy and relieved to receive the food. It was also neat to see when we returned the next day that the husband had his Bible open and was reading it before we came to the door.

We started talking with this young man, Hilton, as he waited outside a shop to get his bicycle tire repaired. He has a very rough past of addiction and violence - he told us that the first time he shot someone he was only 12 years old. 6 months ago he gave His life to the Lord and he has seen God completely transform him. His wife and him moved to a new city and are very involved with a local church. They started a business making pizza at home and he rides around the city on his bike trying to sell them. Our conversation was encouraging for us as well as for him and we were able to challenge him to keep pressing on in his new faith.

We met this sweet lady one afternoon and had a great conversation about faith. She was so sweet and even came to where we were staying to see us off on the last day.

This last visit was the one that stuck out to me the most. Marinauva (the woman) was alone in her living room when we stopped by but she immediately invited us in and seemed very interested in talking. We started sharing the Gospel with her and she explained to us that she had recently become a Christian and that it was changing her life. We had a long talk encouraging and challenging her. She then said one of the hardest things was that her husband Josue (middle) wasn't a Christian. We asked where he was and she said he had been in the next room listening the whole time.

She went back and got him (though he was very reluctant). As the conversation went on, he was more and more engaged in the discussion and by the end said he also wanted to give his life to the Lord. We prayed together and expressed that to God.

Then as we were about to leave there was a knock on the door and Marinalva insisted that the neighbor at the door come in and sit down and asked us to start all over talking about the Gospel. The neighbor also became more and more interested during the conversation, and although he wasn't ready to make a decision, he wanted to take a Bible with him. He works and lives on a farm 28 days out of the month, all alone in the middle of no where with no tv or radio even. He was leaving right after to go to the farm and said he would take the Bible and try to read through John while he was there. Although his name is escaping me, if you think of this young man this month, please pray for him!

The neatest part of this whole story was later that evening to see Marinalva and Josue at the Jesus film. They were both smiling ear to ear and Marinalva said Josue had been the one asking her to go, something VERY unlike him. It was amazing to see God was already beginning to transform this young man.

Sneak Peak

We're back! We got home this morning and are exhausted, but had an incredible time. We grew so much and saw God use us more than we ever imagined.

We can't wait to tell you all about our trip, but instead of writing one long post about it, I'm planning to write several shorter posts on different aspects of the outreach throughout the next week or more. For now though, here are a few sneak peak pictures...stay tuned for posts that go into details about these pictures and include more pictures on each subject.

Heading Out the Door

At 4am tomorrow (Saturday) we'll be leaving for an outreach trip with a big group from Asas and Brazilian churches. We'll be gone until next Sunday (July 26th) and each day will be PACKED. You might remember this anual trip from last year's post, but if not, here's a glimpse of what the week will look like:

• Working in small, poor communities


• A (min) 6 hr bus ride to get there


• Free medical clinics


• Free dental clinics


• Working with children and teens from the communities


• Visiting house to house to invite people to the activities and share the Gospel (this is the team we'll be on)


• Lots and lots of walking


• Sleeping in a school (on the floor)


• Eating rice and beans....and LOTS of them!


• Jesus film in the plazas or parks at night


• Sharing with and challenging the teens and adults who have come along to serve in ministry for the first time


• Being drained physically, but charged up emotionally and spiritually

We would really appreciate your prayer for us this week. Please pray for physical energy and that we would be able to share the Gospel with people who God has prepared to receive it.

When we're back we'll post a blog with lots of pictures from the week. Until then we'll be very, very far from the internet, but we'd still love to get a comment or email that we'll be able to see when we're back home! Have a great week!

New Faces for Ministry

This past week was very different for us...it was the yearly week where new candidates for Asas de Socorro come and spend time at the mission, go through interviews, etc. We were able to be involved in different ways including a "tea" for the ladies (in the hangar...you can see the planes in the background! Here at Asas there are almost always planes in the backgrounds of our pictures :)

I was also part of the breakfast "crew" which was pretty challenging for me since the meal had to be on the table at Asas at 7:15! I am NOT a morning person :)

Overall the week was a neat, different time of ministry - a time when we could spend time with people who were contemplating what God had planned for their lives. We had the chance to minister in a very different kind of way by sharing about our lives and how God had lead and provided for each step.

Jeyson also got to take some of the candidates for short flights. It feels like yesterday that it was us being taken for rides when we were candidates. How time has flown ....pun intended :)

One of our favorite parts of the week though, was getting to know this couple, Alec and Estela (center). They are from Columbia and their dedication to God's call in ministry was an inspiration to us. They are a very simple couple, but when they felt God leading them to candidate for the mission, they left their 3 children with relatives and came from their small town in Columbia to Brazil by boat....a 6 day boat ride that is! And this was not a cruise ship either....it is the kind of boat where everyone hangs their hammocks in large rooms and sleeps side by side, sometimes even hammock one on top of the other! They traveled like that to Manaus, Brazil, and then came by plane the rest of the way.

Although in the end it was decided that Asas wasn't the right fit for them, we were so glad they came for the week, and so were they. We had them over for dinner on the last night along with Andres and Camila (as soon as I get the hang of speaking Portuguese I once again was lost in the Spanish conversation!! :) and during the time they shared about how God taught and stretched them so much through the trip. He showed them they He will provide for their every need and that stepping out in faith is stepping into the hands of the Great Provider. They had left their hometown without even enough money to make the trip, but along the way God provided just enough for the next step. He even provided shoes that Estela needed but hadn't told anyone about. They both felt that God brought them on this trip to show them how they can depend on Him for the ministry He has for them. We know wherever they end up God will use this special couple in an amazing way.

Treasure Hunt

Last week the totally unexpected happened. My Tuesday afternoon English student cancelled, so I was excited about an afternoon doing some deep organization in our home. We have a large shelving unit where we keep our storage things and it was a terrible, disorganized mess. I started by removing almost every box and putting it on the floor and I created a HUGE pile of things to sort through. I finally got one box organized and went to put it back on the shelf, but as I pulled my hand back, I heard BANG!!! (Don't worry the shelves hadn't fallen on me...the bang wasn't THAT load :) My engagement ring had gotten hooked on the shelf above and the "bang" was the ring slamming against the metal shelves. Although I wasn't hurt, I looked down to my horror to see the diamond from my ring had disappeared!

Immediately I started looking, but very casually at first...assuming it hadn't gone far. After about 15 minutes I really started to get nervous. After all, there was TONS of stuff all over the floor around the room - how would I ever find a small, clear stone? I started removing things from the room one by one, checking each one for the stone...but it was nowhere to be found. I looked and looked and looked and looked and looked. Two hours passed as I searched and I went through each item in the room. By the end, was the room was nice and organized, this wasn't how I had imagined it happening. I was devastated! There was no where else to look and the stone was SO sentimental. Soon Jeyson came home and he started all over and looked everywhere in the room again. He searched all evening (he only stopped for a quick dinner!) Finally, there was no where else to look...we had both checked everywhere countless times and after I had a good cry we decided it was time to stop searching. But just because we stopped crawling on our hands and knees it didn't mean we stopped searching. For the next week we were constantly looking down on the house floors. Countless times we were convinced we had found it, so we would bend down only to discover it was a fuzz or a speck of dirt....how disappointing!

Then finally it happened! Unknown to me, Jeyson was walking by the shelves one day and happened to look down and see something that looked like glass RIGHT in front of the shelves where we had looked countless times. And this time when he picked it up it wasn't a fuzz diamond :) It was the real thing!! He held onto it and put it back in the ring and surprised me with a fun little "re-proposal".

Even though I don't have the world's biggest stone, my stone meant the world to me....enough to search and search even when there was no where else to look. Throughout this long week of finding "fuzz diamonds"and continuing to search anyway, God really spoke to my heart in a special way....I kept thinking of one message over and over....Do I seek God as much as I am seeking this diamond? It is easy to say we are seeking after God, but another thing to tirelessly pursue Him with our whole hearts because He means everything to us.

"Seeking You as a precious jewel, Lord to give up I'd be a fool, You are my all in all"

What a lesson to learn from a ring!

Disparity

When I think about what Anapolis looks like, one word always jumps to mind....disparity. While the "average Joe" here definitely lives far below the average standard of living in the States, the dramatic contrast between the way the lower class....

and the upper class .....

live here never ceases to amaze me. Of course you can find disparity anywhere, including in the States. In Chicago there's the "Magnificant Mile" and the project neighborhoods...but that's just it....most of the time they are whole neighborhoods that are well off or living in poverity. While in Anapolis there are neighborhoods where (almost excuslively) poor people live, however looking around the city as a whole, what stands out to me here is that it's all a big mix. Disparity is SO obvious...a beautiful house and a shack are often next to one another, or right around the block.

That's the case here with these two houses....

They are next-door neighbors, but the owners probably live in very different worlds.

Lower class people usually earn minimum wage. What is minimum wage, you might wonder? $465 Reias a month....that's less than $240 (US dollars)....A MONTH! When you divide that by 4, 40 hour work weeks in the month, that's about $1.50 (US) an hour. And it's not just teens that earn minimum wage, this includes adults who do hard, laborous jobs or even the teachers who work at the PETI children's program where I volunteer. (The street below is around the corner from where we live.)

But their neighhoors live more than comfortably.

Many, many families live month to month, and it is not uncommon to see young children selling popsicles or dish towels for a little extra money for the family.

(Here is that above house closer up)

And below is a beautiful manion that I couldn't even get a whole shot of since it takes up almost the whole block!

Did you see it? Did you feel the disparity? That's what it feels like to drive through Anapolis.