A Sea of Beautiful Faces

God truly loves the little children, ALL the children of the world! How precious it was to behold so many of His beautiful ones today. We spent the day at a school outside of town in a poorer area. We spent time with 200-300 kids each session (morning and afternoon). They schools run three different sessions each weekday for about 4 hours and the families decide which one their child will attend. The school was a very simple structure with a concrete wall around it and locked gates at the entrances.

John led us off in the morning with an ENERGETIC worship time, that the kids loved and really got into. I joked with him later that I

never saw him lead worship like that back in Corvallis!

We followed up with our typical format of a few more songs by a couple of the team members, and then invited some kids up to pound on the wooden box. After the "drum lessons" the teams performed each drama; which the kids loved. With the explanation of the dramas and the alter call, about 50 to 75% of the kids responded that they wanted Jesus in their hearts. It was precious to behold.

They seemed to really connect well with the team as everyone got into playing with the kids following the formal presentations. The game of soccer got a little wild with half the kids in the place wanting to take on whoever had the ball. We ended up breaking into smaller groups with some doing Gospel bracelets with older kids, and skipping rope or playing duck, duck, goose with some of the smaller kids. When it was time for the morning kids to leave there were lots of hugs, kisses, slapping hands, and knuckles with big smiles. Love seems to overcome any cultural or language barriers especially with children!

The afternoon session was similar to the morning, expect we broke into smaller groups, with some going into the four older classrooms to do Gospel bracelets and talk further.
Inside the classrooms we also handed out some homemade Portuguese scripture cards that put together before we left and gave them a taste of American chocolate! They had lots of questions about the US and enjoyed being with the team. I left a copy of the New Testament in a modern Portuguese language with the teacher in the classroom that we went in and asked that she read it to the class after we left. She seemed very thankful. We also encouraged the children to ask their teacher to read it and to help remember our visit.

After class, every one of our team members were covered with kids pushing booklets or extending bare arms for us to sign our autographs for them. Apparently, this is very common with American visitors. We signed our name, provide some scripture references, and generally just truly enjoyed being with them. Thank you Lord for your favor with these kids, their teachers, and with this country!

We again ended our time with various displays of affection and a lot of our heart left with the children as we boarded the bus. And yes, we left them with a soccer ball that we brought with us.

Tomorrow we team up with YWAM and go to a high school for extreme sports demos, our dramas, and more opportunities to share the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you all for your continued prayers. Please keep our faithful translators in your prayers and ask for a special blessing on their lives--especially Karen and Tim who have been with us each day. All the team is doing well and missing you all very much!

James

Weekend Retreat...A refreshing and encouraging time

While the bus ride proved longer than expected, the Lord had an incredible facility to refresh the team for a couple of days. We arrived about 10:30 at night and only caught a glimpse of the beauty that would surround us. The facility had a wonderful meeting room, great dining area, and about 30 bunk rooms each with a private bathroom.

While this was planned as an opportunity to come together with the two Calvary Chapel Churches in Curitiba (one pastored by John Hwang and the other by David Dawson) and have the team encourage them; it proved to be a wonderfully refreshing time for the whole team with the Lord ministering to us and providing an opportunity to make new friends.

We started Saturday morning off with worship in both some songs in Portuguese and others English. Pastor David shared a message on the love of God (in Portuguese only--a new experience for many of the team members, followed by Pastor Rory sharing on the Grace of God. In the afternoon we split up between the men and women with Chris leading the guys in a group discussion on what it means to be a man of God and Cindy lead the women by sharing her testimony and in the call of a godly woman. Following these break out sessions we spent some time teaching the Brazilian's how to play softball (we brought a bunch of equipment given to us by Heather Smith to leave with the church--Thank you Heather and Mikiah)! Cody led the training session and I have to say they picked it up very fast. The smiles when they started batting practice was priceless. A few Brazilians also joined Chris Cross in a little American football game. Unfortunately, a thunder storm put an early end to our games and we retreated to the ping pong/Billiards /Foosball area. But it was a great time to make new friends and strength the relationships with some of the brothers and sisters we had met Monday night at our reception at the Church. This is a couple from Australia and Brazil that met at a YWAM camp in Denmark. They have only been with the Church for about 1 month. A couple of the boys from our team are shown in Peter (Pedro) who has been a favorite. He is the nephew of John's right hand person (Adriani) and her sister Karen (holding one of the children on the retreat)-- who has been our main interpreter all week (Karen also leads the children's ministry at the Church).

We wrapped up Saturday night with a message by Pastor Chris on God's chosen method to bring about character in our lives--hardship and suffering.

Sunday morning Pastor John preached on the character of God as Moses met Him face to face and God revealed Himself as "merciful, gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands (of generations), forgiving iniquity and

transgressions and sin, by no means clearing the guilty (just)" Ex 34:6-7a. We ended the morning session with a baptism of three Brazilians. One American (Rory) also unwillingly got an opportunity to going in the pool when John gave permission for all the boys to catch Rory and toss him in.

After lunch we packed it up and had one last group picture. Unfortunately, the bus was late in arriving so when we arrived back at the hotel, we only had 10 minutes before we had to be back on the bus to head off to the Sunday evening service. We arrived home late that night and enjoyed a day off on Monday.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will go a a school in a Favela. Please be praying for this outreach to be fruitful. I will try and post again tomorrow night.

James

Day 3 of the Outreach (sorry we are late)

Friday was the third day of the outreach with the team headed down about 1 mile down the road (walking with our equipment) to a local University. We were immediately met by a couple of Christians that were very encouraged by our presence. A couple of them stayed around to help translate. Again we found ourselves not only reaching out to the unbelievers, but providing encouragement to the believers. We have been starting each of our drama times with some praise and worship (picture shown to the left) and trying to give everyone an opportunity to minister. It has been awesome to see the team coming together and supporting one another! I know I share the same thought with all of you that, "I have no greater joy than to hear (see) my (and your) children walk in the truth." 3John1:4 I wish each of you could see how the Lord is using your children and how the Lord is growing their faith and trust in Him as they see His faithfulness to fulfill all that is on his heart.

The giftings that the Lord has given each member are really coming through. While everyone is performing their dramas, we have those that are gifted in sound system, others gifted in singing, others gifted in instruments, and everyone handing out tracts and praying for the harvest.

You can see the picture on the right with students gathered on the steps in front of the university as the team performed their dramas. They also stopped along the street and behind the team as well, curious to see the performance and here the message that the team was bringing.

We only performed each drama once this day and then Taylor Sabo got a chance to get up and share the meaning of the King of Hearts Drama, mix that with a testimony of his life, and give an alter call. It was another great response with about 10-15 people responding and many more in the valley of decision. Several people who didn't respond by coming forward were obviously touched by the Gospel as well and have received the Good News through the performance and a tract that the team gets in the hands of everyone that walks by or stops to listen.

At morning devotions, God put Isaiah 43:1-13 on our heart to remember to fear not for He has redeemed us, called us by name, and we are His. That though we pass through the waters, the rivers, or walk through the fire we will not be hurt. Because He is God, we are precious in His sight, and He is with us. (v 1-5a). He then reminded us that He is the Lord and there is NO other...that when He does the work there is none that can reverse it (v 11-13). Praise be to Him who is doing an awesome work! Continue to pray the Lord of the harvest would not only save people, but that they would respond to the call for discipleship and growing in their new relationship with their Savior, Jesus.

It was a shorter day of outreach as we had to go and get ready to leave for the weekend retreat. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to post to the blog and the retreat center had no forms of communication (phone or internet). Probably good for the team, but not so good for all of you at home wanting to hear what's going on :( ....sorry.

James

Day 2 of the Harvest

We had our devotion time in the park at 9:00 this morning as all the conference rooms in the hotel were filled. God knew, as he drew two different men to stop and inquire what was going on. Tim, an Englishman who has been has been an absolute joy to serve along side and who has only been apart of the local Church for just over a week, shared the Gospel with them both. One of them walked away and the other stayed around to listen to us worship. You could see God was drawing the young man's heart to Himself, but he wasn't ready to respond. God was pursuing him though and the Father would not relent, as later in the day he came back, watched the drama's, and responded to a call to repentance.

As you can see, God drew many to repentance during the afternoon singing and dramas. Here about 30 people responded to the invitation to receive the Gospel. During the late morning presentations another 10-20 responded as the harvest is ripe. Many are openly crying and are joyfully coming forward. We have also been met with encouragement from several Christians who are elated to have our team in their city and "marvel at our boldness." Several adults commented on how the youth in our group were filled with the Spirit and how it provided hope for the mother's that their children had a future. God had put that on Alison and Hannah's hearts earlier in the day that the mother's with young children were seeing a better life for their kids.

I met with a man named Rafael who was trying to break free from an association with darkness. He was experiencing attacks in his home and he wanted to know what was going on. He told me that when he came out of his place of business this morning he saw a vision of a dove. The dove led him down to where we were and he watched our presentations of the Gospel. After answering questions and sharing the Gospel through a translator, he prayed to receive the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. We then prayed for an Acts 16:31 experience for him and his family as he is on the verge of divorce and has a young child. When we asked if he was familiar with the Dove descending on Jesus after His baptism, he answered no. We explained that is was God's Holy Spirit that drew him and the angels in heaven were rejoicing over his salvation. He plans to join us for Church on Sunday night. Give glory to God, another one snatched from the enemy!

Thank you for your continued labor with us in prayer. We are truly enjoying the favor of the Lord and witnessing His outpouring of grace. At the same time, the enemy is attacking the team on different fronts, trying to discourage the work. But as Pastor John exhorted us on Tuesday morning, with Isaiah 51: 12-16, it is God who comforts us, why should we be afraid for "I have put my words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, "You are my people"

James

Jonathan participating in the drama with the crowd looking on. We were so blessed with a great harvest today.

Good Morning,
It has already been an interesting morning. Apparently the next two weeks is drama week in Curitiba. Right outside our hotel is a park that was transformed overnight. Booths were set up for vendors to sell their wares. The huge city walking street is filled with sooo many people. We were told by our translator that the people gather here to participate (we aren't quite sure what the whole story is behind this festival) even the movie stars come here.
We found a spot to set up for the outreach. As the kids were leading us in song it sounded like a loud marching band was right behind us. Then after the kids did the drama Chris began to preach. By this time quite a crowd of about 60 people had gathered. In the middle of preaching these fireworks started. They continued for about 15-20 minutes. The crowd stayed to listen but I figured I'd come into the hotel to send out a little prayer update. Mom called and told me that in spite of the noise/distraction many many people came to know the Lord. We do need prayer for more translators. Many of the people who normally translate in the church have jobs right now. That is a blessing for them but it makes it kind of difficult to really find out what people are saying. This morning we have 2 translators and there are 27 of us. Not the best ratio. We are so thankful that God has chosen this as the day of salvation for so many. Please be praying that we will have good follow up for them.
All of your kids send their love. If you haven't heard from them it could be because we were having some trouble with the internet. They are doing well and are all estatic to be used by the Lord.
Blessings
Heather

Oi, from Brazil

Hey everyone,

Jonathan here. WOW! right now I am just oveflowing with God's provision, love, and ultimate provison!!! Today God has totally just been with us all day, and it has been amazing to see him move in the lives of the Brazilians.

It has been so awsome that the Brazilians have been so friendly too all of us. Just like what Chris Cross said that they are THE friendliest people in the world, and I didn't really believe him. But it is TOTALLY true. They proved me wrong....they have been the best, I have really fallen in love with these people. :)

Ok really cool story, so we headed of to eat after we had done the dramas for a couple hours, to have a lunch break. We were gonna go and try to eat at the same place that we had eaten the day before, but it turned out that they were closed. Which was a huge God thing.... so instead we went to the Mcdonalds across, and man that was the biggest Mcdonalds EVER! so then we all fiannlly after all 30 of us figured out what we wanted. And I got a Big Mac, which was cool cause all I to say was Big Mac, and they totally knew what i meant! Anyway....so we went to sit down and eat. And after we had been eating for a while a lady came over and started spouting out Portugese like nobodys business. We really had no idea what she was talking about but then she pulled out this astonishing pitcure so then we really wanted to know what she wanted , then she left and came back a few minutes later with one of the Mcdonalds workers. Which I found really interesting how they love to speak English. Sorry Rabbit trail....anyway... so the guy translated it for us, and we found out that she wanted to put the picture in the newspaper, and wondered if it was ok with us. of course it was ok with us. I really felt like I connected with him, and tried to really encourage him and let him know that he had really great English, and he was like "no no" it was exciting.

Rory finally said that we had to get back and do out dramas. So about 20-30 minutes later the guy from Mcdonalds came back. I was very very excited, so Ben, Cody, and I all talked to him and found out that his name is Wellington (THE coolest name EVER!!!!!!!) and that he is a Christian, goes to chruch and is in a really cool rock band that he showed me on his MP3.
Well its realy really late, so I'm gonna say bye....I have soo much more to tell about.

Thanks so much for all the prayers, WE LOVE YOU! and miss you.

Jonathan

The Great Commission 09

Finally, after months of practice and prayer, we were all excited to shine for the Lord through our dramas. God's Spirit moved mightily with about 10 people responding to His invitation after the first drama. Throughout the day we saw hearts responding.

Each of the team's had an opportunity to share their drama. We started the drama's around noon and were still going at about 4:00 and couldn't believe how the time had flown by. Crowds gathered all day long with an average of 20 to 60 people watching each drama and stopping to hear testimonies, eagerly accept tracts, listen to worship, and receive prayer.

God provided miraculously across the language barrier with amazing interpreters from the local Calvary Chapel Church, from believers and unbelievers passing by, and even a server from McDonalds came to help in the outreach. Please continue to pray for God's constant provision. May the God of joy and peace fill your hearts as ours are overflowing in the encouragement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Reconnaissance Mission

Here is the team in the "Center of Curitiba" near the end of our tour of the city. God favor was on our tour as what should have cost us $560R was only $150R. God's favor and provision has been awesome of this trip as we prepared to come, and is continuing as we have arrived. We prayed for the city as we took the tour and had not idea how God had been preparing hearts all over this city to receive the Gospel the following day.

The Guys!

A message from Hannah!

Hey friends!

So, today was our first day of evengelism! The morning started off with prayer, which led into going to the Praca Osorio. There, we started by handing out tracts because we had no power or generators for the drama music. We were disappointed but willing to do whatever God had planned, even if it wasn't what we were planning for. The experience of handing out tracts was truly SPECTACULAR. At first it was a little intimidating, but after we got started it was a lot easier. People were more willing then we thought to even recieve tracts. There were even times when people would come to us and ask for some! It was so cool to see that people were willing to see the gospel!



When out of the blue, the Lord provided power. We were caught off guard, but so excited that the Lord had picked this time to do the dramas. Might I add, at this time the police officers had just left, and it was lunch time, so a lot of people were in the park! Doing the drama was TRULY amazing. Just to see the looks on peoples faces while the drama going on was breath taking. They were broken or recognized that the characters being portrayed were like theirs. There was a woman I prayed with who was like the "hypocryte"..sort of. She had read the bible every day, and prayed, but never truly had Jesus in her heart. She was so broken and was weeping throughout the drama. Afterwards she rose her hand to accept Jesus into her heart and ended up ministering to others in the crowd. God has really moved and will keep moving throughout this trip. Thanks for you prayers. We all are SO blessed.

PS, the internet is really grumpy, and had been kicking us off a lot. Calling cards are also really hard to find, so parents and friends, just so you know, we are NOT ignoring you. Hee Hee. I hope this relieves you! We all are missing you guys so much and wish you were here to experiece what we are.

Looooovveeee, Hannah :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Praise the Lord!!! He has blest us with safety and precious memories! We have just now been able to get on line so please forgive our tardiness in reporting. We just got back from a 2 & 1/2 hour bus tour of this beautiful city. The kids have been such a testimony to Jesus by their excellent behavior and sweet spirit. Our travel was remarkably smooth and each airline recognized the kids over their intercome and wished them well. Last night we ventured by bus over to John's church for a time of welcome, prayer and worship. We are so blessed to be here and know all your prayers are of huge importance. Will share more later with pictures! Cindy

Getting Ready to Blast Off

It is a little scary to look at this picture and envision all of us travelling to Brazil together. After this weekend of prayer and preparation we are feeling empowered and excited for what lies before us. There are a few people who didn't make it into the picture and we will catch them on film before too long. Please check back to this blog as we post adventures and praises as the Lord leads us.