Learning How To Love Others

Gicilene and Sonia are two of our most faithful attenders. They have come ever since the second Sunday. Gicilene, a struggling single parent, has been hurt by a church before. She has not been to a church in two years and is not a Christian. Gicilene was brought to our worship service by her friend and neighbor, Sonia. Sonia went to the Assembly of God church down the street but found out about our church when someone she met at a bus stop gave her the visitor packet they had from our inaugural service. Recently, Sonia has come to a crossroads decision. She has continued to come to Igreja de Cristo O Salvador because Gicilene will not go to any other church and Sonia loves her enough to want her to come to Christ. However, after 2 months now she misses her old church family. “Should I go back or should I stay?” is the question Sonia has been asking herself and praying about.
We have been in prayer as well and this past Thursday we got an answer. We have been showing the Brazil world cup soccer games at the church as a way to bring people in and build community in our church. Sonia and Gicilene are big soccer fans (everyone here is). During half time Sonia told Mary that she has made a decision. She said that she has been praying about how to grow in her relationship with God and she realized that she needs to learn how to love better. After much prayer she decided that our church is the best place to learn that. What a compliment! If there is one thing that we want to portray as a church, it’s how to love. She and Gicilene have now accepted a Bible study. Please be in prayer for these two sweet women.

New Car, Brothers Visit, Youth Nights, Birthday Party, Winter Intern

What a month this past one has been. We had a visitor Thomas Phillips (Bethany Forester’s brother) at the beginning of May. We bought a car – a green Toyota Corolla! One of the few automatics we found here. It’s 6 years old but it has been well taken care of. We got the car just in time to pick up Mary’s brothers Spencer and Brannon from the airport. Spencer’s birthday and Mary’s are a week apart so we celebrated them together after our youth event last Friday. We had 19 at the devotional. It was a good turnout for us and we made 2 trips taking everyone home in the new cars (Randy and Jennifer Porter just bought one too). Our first intern arrived yesterday, Paul Goncalves. His dad is a well-known Brazilian Church of Christ preacher in the South of Brazil and his mom is Amercian. So, it’s really good that our first intern is fluent in English and Portuguese. We’re not sure how much we have to teach him at this point in the work (since he grew up on the mission field); but I’m sure God has a few things in store to teach us all these next few months.