Final Day of Presentations

Thank you Lord for your awesome provision. As you read in Heather's blog earlier, God did provide a place for us at the appointed time. Although the enemy was trying to keep us from presenting the Gospel right from the start, and tried to discourage the preaching throughout the presentations with mocking and distractions, God's Word went forth in power. And thank you for your prayers, as neither the police nor any of the local businesses came to shut us down. We were able to go until ~4:30 even though we were apparently not supposed to be amplified after 2:00. John preached an awesome message after the Redeemer drama. He did an excellent job explaining the purpose of the cross and calling people to repentance. We will not forget his "Andrew" story about why today is the day of salvation and how we are not promised another day on this earth. Andrew was a young man who didn't respond during an outreach presentation in England. Later in the day he came back and found the team as the Lord had been was working on his heart and he wanted to receive the free gift of grace. A couple of hours later as he stepped off a bus near his mother's house, he was struck by a car and died. His mother told the outreach team that they needed to continue to go and tell people the good news, because Andrew's friends had said his last couple of hours on earth was the happiest they had ever seen him.

Praise be to God several did respond to the offer of grace today. All in all probably 20 to 25 came forward during the calls to come and stand for the Lord by Rory and John today. Each new believer that responded received prayer, was given a Bible or New Testament, and encouraged to grow in the Lord through discipleship. There were several others that were in the valley of decision that we talked with following the presentations, but God started a good work in many hearts as we made ourselves available to plant or water the seeds. A couple of people in particular stuck out: a Mormon man who, along with his wife, has been questioning their religion's beliefs and a biker who stopped to hear the message and then talked with us for about 45 minutes afterwards with lots of questions. The mormon got distracted with a cell phone call and ended up walking away, and the biker wasn't ready to respond today, but agreed to read a pamphlet he was given on being born again by Chuck Smith and to meet with John after the team leaves. Please pray for him as he was very open and had lots of questions, but was very distracted by a man from Bend, Oregon that was an obvious ploy from the enemy, who came and stood next to him as we shared the Word of truth. They had never met before, but in the end the Word of God was planted in his heart.

One of the most thrilling part of the day's outreach occurred when our hotel manager, Ricardo, responded to the Gospel and came forward during the last alter call of our entire trip! It was a rejoicing time for the team as he and his staff have been so hospitable to us and we specifically prayed for the staff this morning! As a way to remember this day and the team, we bought him a very nice leather Bible that we are all signing and will present to him tomorrow. That was an incredible way to end the outreach on the streets of Curitiba. Thank you Lord for ALL that you have done in our lives, in the lives of many of the believers in this beautiful city, and for reaping a harvest and new souls for your Kingdom. We give you all the glory and praise!

We love you all very much and appreciate your faithfulness to pray and support this outreach.

James

Hello to all of our supporters,
Thought I would give you a bit of an update on our needs for prayer. We had a great time of devotions today. We prayed over Rory because he is sick again. Jonathan and Anna were a little under the weather too, although after praying Anna felt better. We all had the heart to finish the race well. We wanted to run the last lap hard and in a pleasing manner. We were supposed to get started around 11 but we didn't have any translators till 1. We didn't know this till we were ready to go. Instead we went to get lunch, which was needed. While we were eating we had about 5 people show up that could translate. Praise the Lord. After we finished eating we went to set up. But we couldn't find anywhere to set up. There were little old men playing where we usually go, and the fair was in our other place. We sent the kids out to hand out tracts while Rory, John, and Chris tried to find somewhere to land...and still nothing. SO I thought I would ask for some prayer. Our desire is to do what the Lord wants us to do. The kids are ready to preach it.

The women/girls are meeting tonight for a fellowship time and for mom to share again with the women of the church. So please pray for that time would be sweet and a blessing as well.
Thanks soooo much for the support!
Heather and the team

P.S. as I type this I hear loud worship music coming from the street. Praise the Lord. Since it is not the drama festival time we are technically not supposed to be doing this so Pray that we can stay as long as the Lord wills.

Teaming with YWAM

We knew we were in for a treat as we boarded the bus today with our YWAM brothers and sisters. We thought we were teaming up with a few of them to go to a high school, but when the bus pulled up and we saw about 20 energetic break dancers we knew today would be an adventure. The YWAM team is part of an "EX" or extreme team . A few of them spoke English, but the majority spoke Portuguese.

We actually ended up at another elementary school with another group of tender hearts for the Lord. Although I thought we would be at a high school, I was thrilled to interact with the young children again as they are so precious and very open to receive the love of our Lord. The YWAM team performed first with some excellent dances, both group and individual, and a testimony from one of their members. This group is going through DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM as they go around and perform. Following YWAM's presentations, we performed our two dramas and Rory gave an alter call. There were about 500 kids there and I would say a majority responded to the Lord's call. Rory even challenged them to not raise their hands just because their friend might be doing it, and still there was an incredible response (see picture to left).

Oh, and don't worry, that is a professional jumping over six of your sons. Besides his record is nine so we figured that would be no problem! Yes, Marcos Pesch, a great brother from the local church, has been with us during most of our outreach time and even did one of the testimonies and alter calls after our final drama presentation last Thursday. A long-time friend of Chris Cross', Marcos has been a real encouragement to the team and a joy to have around. He and his wife also joined us on the retreat last weekend. Marcos often performs with YWAM teams, but we were too tight on our agenda today for him to do his routine. However, after tell him how I was really looking forward to seeing him after talking with him about his work several times

during the outreach he agreed to do a few things after the kids had departed. I'm not sure the boys new what to expect at first, as he warmed up on 3 or 4 kids before completing this jump over these six. The boys loved it and so did the rest of the team.

While a long day, it was actually a shorter day of actual outreach. We had another energetic bus ride home with a sing off challenge between the back of the bus, the YWAM team, and the front of the bus, the Calvary Chapel Team.

Tonight the boys did their nightly routine of soccer with the locals at the park across the street from our hotel followed by some basketball. I even joined in on the basketball, but you couldn't pay me to jump in on the soccer--a much higher level of play. You don't have to use much imagination to figure out which countries players dominated each sport. It has been great fun for the guys, with many of the girls on the team coming to cheer them on; and so far only minor injuries! I know the guys are hoping to not only shine the light of Christ through their sportsmanship on the field, but share their faith with the guys too. Please pray for an opportunity to bridge the communication gap.

Tomorrow is our last official outreach day were we hope to openly worship, share the Gospel, and perform the dramas a couple of times. Currently we are planning on going out by our hotel again into the confluence of walkways for shopping, commerce, and the park. Please continue to pray for God's will to be done, for people to be saved, and for the Lord's work to be done in our hearts as we share testimonies or all that God puts on their hearts.

Our devotion times in the morning have been wonderfully encouraging. Rory took us to IKings 18 this morning with the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. We also had a great time of prayer and sharing our hearts. The unity of this group as been outstanding...something we have been praying for since the beginning of our time together, and the Lord has truly delivered.

Saturday is coming soon. It has been a blessed trip, but we are truly looking forward to seeing many of you and sharing all that the Lord has done.

James

PS: Sorry there were fewer pictures today. My camera isn't working well and I could only get a few from others tonight. I'll try and get more tomorrow. Blessings on you all.