Parabens!

Yesterday was the first time I had celebrated my birthday outside of Arkansas. I was wondering how I'd feel about. I had nothing to worry about. Let me tell you, Brazilians know how to take care of a person, make them feel loved, and how to celebrate birthdays! I heard "Parabens!", which means "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese, countless times. Here are a few highlights:

~Getting a mango from a friend (Yes, there's a story behind it. But I think you'd have to be here to apprecitate it.)
~Getting a hug from every person I saw.
~Being sung to in Portuguese by an entire church.
~Being sung to in Portuguese, English, and French.
~Walking into the church auditorium to shouts of "Surprise!" and "Parabens!" followed by the birthday song in Portuguese and cake and Brazilian hotdogs.
~Seeing my number of Facebook wallposts increase substantially
~Knowing that my family got the gifts I sent them on my birthday ;)

It was a marvelous day. I am truly blessed.

Remember in my last post when I said that Francisco had a hard life? When I wrote that, I knew only part of the story. You can find out more about Francisco on John Jewell's blog (he's one of the missionaries here). Go here to read the blog post about the baptism.

Leave It In the Water

I have great news!!!! One of Ryan's readers was baptized last night. Francisco started reading in June with the LST team from Oklahoma Christian. He continued with Ryan, and was having Portuguese Bible studies with one of the missionaries when we got here. Last night, he decided to give his life to Christ. Praise God! His life has not been easy, but the love of Jesus conquers all.

One of Ryan's other readers, who is not a Christian, witnessed the baptism. Afterwards, I asked him what he thought about it. He said, "It is beautiful that he left his sins in the water." Not only did one reader gain a new life and salvation, but another reader witnessed it and recognized the beauty of it. Praise the Lord for the work He is doing here in Natal, Brazil!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Right now, it's winter in Brazil. For all of you Arkansans reading this, forget about what you think winter is. Here, winter basically means it rains a lot. For instance, it started raining yesterday morning (it's currently 2:30 am here. no, I don't know why I'm still awake.). And it hasn't stopped since. It poured all day long. Torrential downpours at times. In fact, I'm listening to a torrential downpour right now. It's actually quite beautiful. And this isn't the first time we've experienced this kind of rain here in the last month. Parts of the city are underwater. I keep expecting Noah to roll up in the ark any minute.

In case any of you are wondering why I'm living here in Brazil for an entire year, let me share something with you. Last Thursday, I was reading with a guy. He's been doing LST since last September, about 10 months total, so he's already read Luke and has moved on to Acts. We were reading in the Acts workbook about Peter and John getting in trouble for healing a man (see Acts 4:1-22). In this passage, Luke quotes the psalmist (Psalms 118:22), referring to Jesus as the cornerstone (or capstone). We discussed what this meant for our lives. Then he said something that made my heart praise God. He said, "I don't have a Bible. But I think I will buy one so I can read more about Jesus." That, my friends, is exactly why I'm in Brazil with Let's Start Talking.

Imagine how life-changing it would be for you to hear something like that as a result of you talking to someone about Jesus. It's possible with a little thing called short-term missions. Think about it. I know a great mission organization that would love to help you. Just go here.