A Much Anticipated Beginning

After our inaugural service yesterday, a visitor from Tulsa stated, “You must be very happy. I know you have been anticipating this day for a long time.” I am not sure if that was an intentional understatement or a blatant statement of observation, but it is altogether true. It was a very emotional morning for our family, beginning with a gift of beautiful flowers to the church from Mary Virginia’s family (Rick, Cindy, Spencer, and Brannon) in the name of her great grandmother, Little Momma. With a capacity crowd of around 350, the auditorium, which has no AC and no windows was steamy, but we are working on that problem. We expect that we had about 100 unchurched visitors; people with whom we have begun to build relationships and lead to the most important relationship with Christ. The worship service was dynamic with a great time of singing praises, wonderful blessings and messages both from guest and team speakers and prayers. Matt’s emotion heightened during the children’s worship time when the little ones were singing in Portuguese, “Can you whisper in God’s ear, something sweet he wants to hear? I love you...” God’s love for us has been so apparent in the last couple of weeks of preparation for this event, as has the love of God’s people, in all of the sponsoring and supporting churches of the Salvador mission team. And in a very public way, we were allowed to show our love for God and for the people of Salvador, finally. The reception following the service was a great time to converse with our visitors, including our realtor, Helena, and her family, our usual taxi driver, Roberto, and his family, and Jaci, our Portuguese teacher, and 25 members of her family. Now, it is just the beginning, and we have much more learning to do as we are also beginning the process of teaching others of the goodness of God’s grace and the life He calls us to in His son, Jesus Christ. We are thankful to everyone who has helped make this beginning a reality. Thank you for your prayers, and please remember to continue praying for us.