It's not all my fault...

Today is a glorious day! Sarah, the reader you know all about by now, came this morning. We read Lesson 15 (from Luke 11:1-13) about continuing to ask, look, and knock. We talked about things that people look for in today's world. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: What are you looking for?
Sarah: I am looking for knowledge, God, and love.
Me: I think that if you find God, you'll find knowledge and love.
Sarah: Really? Yes.
Me: How will you find God?
Sarah: I pray, read the Bible, come to this church. And it's all your fault.
Me: How is it my fault?
Sarah: We spend all the morning reading God's Word, talking about the love of God and God's power that changed your life. I didn't read my Bible. Now I read it every night. It's your fault.

Actually, I don't believe that I did very much. I am just the life and the mouth God used to speak to her. She wants to start studying the Bible with someone from the church. Tonight I am going to introduce her to the missionaries so they can talk about a Bible study. God is amazing!

As Paul quotes Jesus in 2 Corinthians, "My power is made perfect in weakness." How true that is! To think that God used my past (and probably present) weaknesses to speak to her heart and draw her closer to Him...I stand amazed and in awe of Him who sent me here.

The Lord is working

Another week has come and gone. We are now into our fifth week here. It has been amazing. We've gotten pretty close to some of our readers and to each other's readers. We had about 7 readers at our English Bible study yesterday. About 5 of them stayed for worship. One of my readers, the girl I've posted about, was there. She said she really liked it and would like to go next Sunday too. Several of the readers have been asking us, the missionaries, and other church members questions about Christianity, the Bible, etc. They seem pretty interested. We are so amazed by the way God is working here!

Here is a link for some more pictures:
http://atu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030585&l=6b0e8&id=73101414

I told myself I wasn't going to post again for the third day in row, but I had an amazing conversation with someone this morning, so I just had to tell you about it.

I was reading with the same girl I posted about earlier. We were on Lesson 11 (the one about the parable of the seeds). We were talking about what kind of soil we are. She said that she wasn't quite the good soil. I asked her how she could become the good soil. She said that she needed to follow God's teaching. We then got into a discussion of how to do that. Then she said, "Since reading this with you, I have tried to follow God teachings. You teach me to follow Jesus." I was blown away. I give thanks to the Almighty Father for working through me to change her. And He has changed her heart and her life. Even her mom has noticed. I praise God for His work!

Feliz Dia de dos Namorados!

Today is Valentine's Day in Brazil. They call it Dia de dos Namorados. Who would have thought I'd celebrate V-day twice in one year? Well, I just thought I'd celebrate by telling ya'll I love you and I am so very thankful for each of you. You have blessed my life in ways that you may never know. I pray all of God's blessings on you!

Eu quero muito mais

Okay, I've said this before, but it's just so true that I have to say it again. God is great! Yesterday, four of our readers came to our English devotional and two (one of mine and one of Anna's) stayed for Bible class and worship. The guys said that they both asked a lot of questions in the men's Bible class. How great is that?! We can really see God working in our readers. What a blessing it is that God has allowed me to be a part of His work here. I am only worthy of this because of Christ.

I learned part of a song in Portuguese! I think it speaks what my heart feels right now and always. It goes like this (the spelling may be a little off, but it'll be close enough):

Eu quero mais, muito mais
do teu amor, voce e todo pra mim, Senhor
Eu quero mais, muito mias
do teu poder.

In English:

I want more, so much more
of Your love, you are everything to me Lord
I want more, so much more
of Your power

May the Lord bless you as much, no, more, than He has blessed me! Adeus from Brazil...

Oh Brazil.......

After today, I have only three things to say:

1. Snorkeling is my new favorite hobby.
2. Brazilians are WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL!
3. I wish I knew Portuguese.

Okay, 4 things:

4. We serve an AMAZING God! There just are not enough words to describe how awesome He really, truly is. I stand speechless and in awe of Him.

What a week!

Whew....it's been a very tiring, but very wonderful week. I have had some great conversations about the Bible, Christianity, and Jesus. I posted about one of those conversations. I also have two readers who are agnostic. One believes all religions are good and the other believes in evolution. We've had some interesting conversations. Please pray that the Lord will give me words to say to them and that He will touch their hearts and lives so that they will believe in Him and Jesus as Creator and Savior of the World.

Our 2nd party on Wednesday went really, really well. The theme was Christmas. We decorated cookies, made Christmas cards, made snowflakes (none of them have seen snow!), played card games, and listened to Christmas music. Cyndi made banana bread and fudge, which everyone loved. Someone even asked her for the fudge recipe. At first we didn't think many people were going to come, but keeping with Brazilian culture, most people showed up at least 30 minutes late. But then it took a while to get everyone to leave! The church members have been great. They talk with our readers and are establishing some good relationships. Everyone loved our party, and we got another 9.9.

One of my readers goes to the woman's Bible class at the church here and is studying the Bible with Marta, one of the missionaries. I think they started before we got here and they wanted her (the reader) to study English with one of us to keep in contact with her. It's amazing how God works and how He uses people for the littlest things to do His work and plant seeds of belief.

We are enjoying our day off. We worked very hard this week. But it is so worth it. Now we're relaxing, building up our strength for next week. And we're going to take a boat ride and go snorkeling! Woo hoo! I hope you are all having a great summer. May the Lord bless you in all you do and may all you do be for His glory. Until next time...Deus te abençoa!

Change is good!

I had one of the most amazing conversations today with a reader that I've ever had on an LST project. We were talking about how John the Baptist wanted to encourage people to change by telling them the Good News. I asked her how she has changed over the course of her life. She answered, then asked me the same thing. God opened the door wide for me to tell her why I decided to give my life to Christ and become His disciple. I shared with her what my life, feeling, and thoughts were before I became a Christian and how I have changed for the better since then. It turns out that we have had a lot of the same experiences, thoughts, and feelings. She was shocked to hear parts of my story, and I was shocked to hear some of hers. We were both shocked that we had so much in common. She told me that she thought that God had put me in her life to help her with some of those things. I am so amazed at how God works! He can use our weaknesses for His good and touch someone's heart with our lives in order to bring them closer to Him. It's breath-taking! I can see Him working so much in the lives of my readers as well as the others' readers. I cannot wait to see what God will do next!

I'll leave you with something my reader, my friend, said today (and this is pretty much a direct quote): "If we want to change the world, first we have to change ourselves." The best way to do this is through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Pictures

This is a picture of us eating at the missionaries house. We are with the missionaries' daughter Andressa and our Brazilian friend and guide Bob. They are wonderful!!!!

Here is a link to my pictures on Facebook. There are several on there I took here, and I plan on adding more as time allows. Have a wonderful day/night!!! God bless!

http://atu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029939&l=2a726&id=73101414