Routine?

Is work in God's kingdom ever routine? I am trying to make it so, at least for me. It seems to be working, but I have been through this before. Weeks begin to look alike. Before it was a schedule of Portuguese classes. Now it happens to be a weekly schedule of meetings and activities. I can look forward to Tuesday beginning with morning classes with my language teacher, Jaci, then to head off to a meeting with the men of our mission team to guide our spiritual focus for our church. Tuesday nights leads us into our small group meeting at our apartment. Wednesday, I wake up to get ready and then head to our staff meeting, a time when we can look at what we are doing and ask, how can we help that to go better, after a time of worshipping God together as a church staff. Thursday is again Portuguese class in the morning. Friday mornings comes our rehearsal for Sunday morning worship and then a meeting of the sermon writing team. Friday nights are always youth activities. And of course Sunday mornings at 8:30, we all meet at the building to pray and then lead the worship service.

Actually, it is my humanity that is calling out, "make my week something I can get used to!" Really, it would be best not to be routine, but to always keep things fresh. I know that whatever routine we are in now won't last. That is fine. I look forward being more invovled in people's lives, and I think that is what leads to chaos rather than the order of a routine. It is always good to have something to look forward to grounding me in relation to the clock part of the space time continuum, but it is also a blessing to be able to say that if we get to the point where every day really is the same, then we may need to look at shaking things up a bit so that we do not stagnate. So, while my nature yearns for things to be steady, my nurture tells me that they can not become overy so to the exclusion of progression. Still, the urge is pretty strong.

After Inaugural and the 1st Youth Event

We have had two good worship services since inaugural. The first service (after inaugural) we had 24 in attendance. This was a little disappointing after filling our auditorium the week before but expected. I asked one visitor, Ida, how she found out about the church. Ida replied that she had been praying for a church near her home to be able to attend but she didn't know that God would open one for her!!! For Easter Sunday, our second service after inaugural, we had 47 people. Ida came back with a poem about our church and all of our kids from Amaralina came with their families.

The second youth event went well too. There were 10 of us hunting Easter eggs and putting the parts of the verses together that were hidden inside the plastic eggs. Matt played the main role in Randy's drama skit about being stuck in the box of sin and that only Jesus can pull us out, making us new creations and giving us new life in him. We are still praying that they will take these messages to heart and want to be baptized soon.

3 Things In Common

Our first youth event went better than expected! We had 35 people total. Some of the kids from other churches here in Salvador were there and about 8 of our own teens (the ones we have been studying the Bible with), plus 2 more unchurched visitors. Anderson (one of our kids) was so excited by the end that he started going around trying to figure out which of the others would be at church Sunday morning. We ate pizza, played get to know you games, sang, and learned about the 3 most important things we have in common: God made us in His image, God loves us, and God is constantly seeking after us. We also made bracelets that coincided with the colors of the points in the lesson. When we told Claudio as he was leaving that he could bring friends the next week, his face lit up. Please pray that at this next event we’ll still have some kids in town (as many families here travel on Easter) and that the teens will have open hearts when it comes to learning about a NEW LIFE in Christ.

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.