Tom & Luciana Stowe

Taco Night

2011-06-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

This last week we had a holiday weekend here in Brazil, celebrating the body of Christ. To me, it sounded sort of strange to celebrate the body of Christ. What were we exactly celebrating, his incarnation, his death, or maybe his resurrection? I still don't know. In actuality, it is a Catholic holiday, but it is a Federal holiday here in Brazil as well. So we took the day off with everyone else.

One of the members of our church had a great idea to get everyone together at the church that Saturday evening to celebrate the holiday with tacos! Personally, I thought that sounded like a great idea. What better way to celebrate the body of Christ than with Mexican food! We could get everyone together, enjoy some good food and build more friendship and unity in our congregation. And so we did.

We had a few guys in the church play some music for entertainment, while people hung out and got to know each other a little better. After a bit of a wait, the food finally came out. Now, on a side note, Mexican food prepared by people who have never been around Mexicans, is always going to be a little different than the real thing. But that does not mean it won't be good! Our food was similar to Mexican food, but it still tasted really good. We had hand-made corn tortillas, guacamole, sour cream, beans, a nacho casserole, and grilled chicken and beef. Along with all the little vegetables that were cut up, this feast was an amazing amount of work!

Everyone ate and hung out as the church got to enjoy some time simply relaxing and having fun together. Being together like that really is a blessing because it gives us a chance to build deeper bonds without having to worry about what time we need to get home or the things we need to do the following morning after church as our week begins. Sometimes after church people need to leave quickly and head home. But this Saturday night was free from all that, which was really nice.

Overall, Taco night was a huge success and a blessing for everyone who came. We hope to do some more special events like this in the future to continue to build strong relationships in the church.

Travelling Helpers

2011-05-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

About a month ago our church was blessed to have a missionary couple visiting our church. Warren and Sheri are from Calvary Chapel in Corvallis, Oregon. They feel called to Brazil but have not been able to get permanent visa due to difficult Brazilian immigration laws. But they have been able to come visit Brazil for months at a time on a tourist visa to encourage the pastors and missionaries and strengthen the members of the churches they visit.

They spent a few months here living at the church last year when Pastor John was away in the states. On top of overseeing everything, they provided a strong relational aspect to our church, connecting with people on a more personal level. People really appreciated being able to connect with these missionaries and receive loving advice or counsel. Unfortunately, their visas expired and they had to return home to the states.

When we arrived here in February, people were telling us all about this couple that had done so much work at the church. And people were so excited because they were coming back. Then in March, they returned for another stay. For me, being the new pastor of the church and not having a great knowledge of the people in our congregation, their coming really helping me to transition into my new position. As I was trying to get a feel for how the church ran everything and what people were responsible for what areas, they were here adding real continuity to the church since their relationships with the congregation went back much farther than mine did.

While here, they also started men's and women's Bible Studies on Saturdays, which was a real blessing for those who came to be a part of the groups. With valuable insight and life experience they shared about relevant issues to both men and women and provided a great forum for people to be able to share ideas or express themselves more openly if they were struggling with any issues in their lives. This was something that our church needed.

It was a blessing to have them here helping out at the church. They made the building feel more like a home and were always available to talk about anything. Unfortunately, again, they had to go. The good news is that they were able to head up to the church in Rio de Janeiro to help out for a few weeks before they head back to the states. But we wish they could have stayed a little longer with us here in Curitiba. But we know they'll be back when they get the chance and we are praying for them to get their permanent visas to be able to stay for good.

Resurrection Sunday

2011-04-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

I love Easter. I think it is the best holiday in the world. In fact, I think it is the best holiday in the history of the world! Unfortunately the name Easter needs to be changed because of its pagan origins from ancient Babylonia, so in this article we will call it, "Resurrection Sunday." It is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no forgiveness of sins! So that makes it extremely important to all human beings!

This year for Easter our church planned a special service. We decided to move the service time a little earlier from 6:15 pm, to 5 pm, in order to have a big meal together afterward. We had a few special decorations and even made invitations for people in our church to pass out to friends or family members. Our hope was to bring in people to our church to hear about the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and hopefully see people place their faith in Jesus to receive forgiveness of sins by His grace.

Well, as the service began, we had a great time of worship and then moved into a time of teaching of the word. We started in Matthew chapter 28 to look at the account of the resurrection and then jumped over to 1 Corinthians 15 to look at the significance of the resurrection. But during the sermon, a visitor began to talk out. At first, I thought she was just trying to add some sort of insight to the passage, which is not something we encourage during the sermon because it interrupts the teaching the God's word and can easily cause the person teaching to lose their train of thought. But because this was a visitor I just assumed that she did not know the norms of our church and I let it go. But then again, she chimed in and her comments were not really relevant to the subject, the resurrection. I let it go again. After a good amount of time had passed, she spoke up a third time saying something that was actually against what I was teaching in 1 Corinthians 15. She was saying that there is no resurrection, that is why we need cemeteries. I began to wonder what was really going on here.

Finally a fourth time she interrupted and I could not understand what she was saying. So I made a comment to the entire group asking them to please hold their comments or questions until the end because it was hard to keep my train of thought and I would be more than happy to sit down to discuss anything after the service had ended. We moved on. But it was not long before she interrupted again. At this point I had to ask her to leave. I asked a few of the guys in the church to escort her downstairs to avoid anymore interruptions. But as she got up, she began to tell the entire church that she was a servant of God and that we were all fallen angels.

The entire situation clearly disrupted our service, causing a ton of confusion, which disappointed me. And I am not the type of person who tries to over-spiritualize everything, but the way things happened and the things this lady was saying definitely seemed to be at least a little bit demonic. Personally, I think that makes sense. We have been planning this service for several weeks to invite new people to our church and tell them all about the forgiveness that God offers to them through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then when several new people came, it turned into exactly the type of situation that Satan would love to disrupt to prevent people from hearing the good news of Jesus.

Now fortunately, we were able to regroup. I apologized to the congregation for the distractions and for having to ask this lady to leave, because I never want someone to leave our church; I want them to stay and hear the teaching of God's word. But it had to happen because it was distracting everyone there. So we got back into the passage, finished up the glorious news of Jesus' resurrection and victory over death, and presented the offer of salvation that only Jesus provides, to the entire group. We were also able to move into another time of worship and take communion together to remember the body and the blood of Jesus that was broken and shed for our sins.

Following this we had our meal together. Everyone from the service hung out down stairs sharing the food, talking and enjoying one and others' company. Because of the earlier starting time, people were able to stay talking longer and not feel like they had to get home to go to sleep, which made for a great time of fellowship. The food was really good and there was more than enough for everyone eat. Overall, the service was a huge blessing, even with the distraction that occurred. God's bigger than anything and He would not allow something as little as that to ruin such a great celebration.

New Car

2011-04-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

When we left Joao Pessoa last November we sold everything that we had (minus personal items) in order to move back down to Curitiba. That meant that our sofas, refrigerator, stove, washing machine, mattress, table, chairs and everything else we had for our apartment had to go. The price to ship things back down south far exceeded the value of the items, so it made no sense to keep anything.

The biggest item we had purchased was our car. We had bought a 2000 Chevy Corsa hatchback in JP and it served us really well while we were there. We never had any mechanical problems with the car, only problems with the tires and rims, that took a beating on the broken and dirt roads of the Northeast! Overall the car was a huge blessing. But when it came time to sell it, we found that the value of the car had significantly dropped from the price we purchased it for. We ended up using the car for about a year and a half and lost $3000 Brazilian Reais on the buying and selling of the car. But we were at least able to sell it and had that money to put in the bank to buy a car in Curitiba.

When we finally moved back to Curitiba in February, we knew we needed a car badly. We live a ways outside the city and to get back and forth to the church, it would be necessary, especially at night. But we had a few things that we felt were necessary in a car in order for us to consider buying it. For example, we really wanted 4 doors to make it easier on our backs to get Sarah in and out of the car. We also wanted hot air and a rear defrost for the cold winters here in Curitiba. Now, that might sound strange, but in Brazil, when you buy a car that is basic, you really get nothing in the car except emergency lights and a fan, to go along with the necessary items like a steering wheel and parking brake. It doesn't even come with a dial so you can adjust the temperature of air that is entering your car! So we felt that having hot air and a rear defrost were necessary for us.

Well we looked around for weeks and saw all sorts of cars that had certain positive qualities, but were lacking others. We asked for help from Luciana's cousin Freddy who is a mechanic here in Curitiba. Freddy could always find what was wrong with the car to save us from buying a lemon. Finally, after several weeks of searching and looking at cars we found in the newspaper, we found a 2003 Chevy Celta with 4 doors, hot air, rear defrost, a rear window wiper, automatic locks and windows. So, Freddy and I went to meet the lady who was selling the car and to give it a good look over.

The car looked fantastic! The exterior looked relatively new and the interior was amazingly well preserved. The odometer said that the car only had 46,000 kilometers. I thought it had to be wrong since the car was a 2003. But when Freddy looked over the engine he said the mileage was legitimate. He said that the car was amazing and that we should buy it. So we did!

So far the car is awesome and it makes such a difference in our lives here in Curitiba. I can get to and from the church much quicker than on the bus which makes life more efficient. Before it would take me over an hour to get to the church(sometimes more), and now in the car it is only 20 minutes. We are really excited and thankful for our car and about the opportunities it opens up for us. The Lord is good!

Our Church Building

2011-03-24T11:04:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to post a short entry here to put some pictures of our church building. It is a super cool place; we are really blessed to have such great facilities to meet in. We have a three story house in a fairly quiet neighborhood. The bottom story is a basement/garage that holds 4 cars easily and has a ton of storage space. The first floor is the main floor of the house that has four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, another common bathroom, a large kitchen and a huge living room/dining room space. The bedrooms are used for the children's ministry and one is used for a hospitality room that guests can stay in while visiting. Upstairs we have a good sized area where the church actually meets on Sunday nights and we have an office that I have adopted as my home away from home.

Our church is simply trying to make our meeting place more welcoming for people who are visiting our church so that people will hopefully want to come back after their first visit. So far, I think our church is doing a great job of being welcoming and warm to new people.

First few weeks in Curitiba

2011-03-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

Back in the middle of 2010 we began to feel like our time in João Pessoa was coming to end. We were not sure when or where we were to go, but we definitely had this sense that we were supposed to move on. Fast forward to this past November when we finalized everything in JP, we decided to go back down to Curitiba to visit friends and family for about a month and hoped to gained some insight and perspective on our futures. But when we arrived, we still had virtually no direction as to where we would settle down and live for the next season of our lives. Moreover, when all our friends and family questioned us as to where we would be moving to, we had no answer.

Well, after about a month in Curitiba we headed back to the US for Christmas and for the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in January. Still unsure of what God had in store for us, we went back with open hearts hoping to hear from the Lord. Then the answer came. Right before Christmas, I got an email from one of the pastors here in Curitiba. He told me that he just learned that his dad had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the doctors were only giving 3 months to live, maybe 6 at best. As an only child, he felt like he really needed to move back to the states during this time to help his parents with everything that was happening. Therefore, he needed someone to come take care of his church for him while he was back in the states, someone to shepherd the flock; he asked me to be that guy for him.

Almost immediately I knew that this was what I needed to do, but I did not want to jump into anything too quickly. I wrote him back telling him that I would take the next day or two to pray about it, but I felt like I was going to be able to do it. After a few days of prayer about this issue, I felt total peace about stepping in to take over this church. I finally called the pastor and let him know that I would be more than happy to help him out by being pastor of his church for as long as he needed.

We returned in February here to Curitiba to start work at Calvary Chapel International Fellowship. The plan is to be here for all of 2011, and then we’ll see how things are going at that point. So far the church has been great; people seem genuinely excited to have us here and they seem ready to help out in anyway necessary. Our first two Sundays have gone pretty smoothly with not so much as a hick-up to cause a problem. Plus we already know several people who go to church; in fact some of our closest friends and family are members here. So we could not be more pleased with how God worked things out for us. It seems that He prepared us to leave JP at just the right time to come down to Curitiba to fill this need. Thus far it has been a blessing for us, for this pastor and hopefully for the church as a whole. Praise the Lord!

Differences between Curitiba and João Pessoa

2010-11-23T13:18:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Curitiba excited to see family and friends, and to have a little vacation. For Lu, it was a major homecoming. But for me, it was a mix of emotions; I was excited to be back in Curitiba and to see people, but I also felt a little strange about leaving João Pessoa.

After nearly a week here, we have had the opportunity to spend time in the city and visit with friends and family. In doing so, we have noticed some extreme differences between João Pessoa and Curitiba. I thought it would be interesting to mention the things that stood out in our first week here.

1. The most obvious difference...the weather. Curitiba is much cooler and less humid than JP. When we left the Northeast the temperature was around 86, plus humidity around 70%. We arrive in Curitiba and the temperature was 59 degrees.

2. Curitiba is cleaner than JP. Walking the streets downtown, it was hard to find trash on the ground. Unfortunately JP had far too much trash blowing all over the streets; most people simply throw their garbage on the ground or out their car windows instead of in a trash can.

3. Curitiba is much quieter than JP. People just talk really loud in JP. But on top of this, there was more noise in general: people honking horns, playing music loudly, yelling, dogs barking, and motorcycles without mufflers. The neighborhoods where we lived here in Curitiba and where we are staying now are very quiet.

4. People are more fashion conscience in Curitiba than in JP. Walking on the streets of Curitiba, you see people are very modern and stylish. Even counterculture aspects like tattoos and piercings are more common. People did not seem concerned with style in JP (Personally I found it quite refreshing to not have so much superficiality around me while we lived in JP).

5. People smoke more in Curitiba than JP. I saw very few people smoking in JP. But immediately we noticed how many more people were smoking once we arrived in Curitiba.

6. There are more beautiful people in Curitiba than in JP. I was a bit shocked walking downtown and in one of the malls at how many attractive people there are here in Curitiba, both men and women.

7. There is more graffiti in Curitiba than JP. I personally am not a fan of graffiti. If someone paints a mural or does some sort of art, I think that is cool. But just tagging the side of a building with some name or initials or whatever, I hate that. Curitiba is covered with that! I saw very little graffiti in JP.

8. People drive better in Curitiba than JP. It would be hard for me to imagine people driving worse than in JP. I am sure there are people somewhere in the world that drive worse than in JP. But I personally have never seen it. People in JP were the worst drivers I have ever personally seen! Even the bus drivers drive better in Curitiba.

9. Curitiba is far better organized and people actually follow the laws. JP has some organizational issues. Their highways are systemically dangerous with U turns everywhere that merge into the fast lanes, stop lights and merge lanes only 10-20 yards long sometimes. Many of their roads are disorganized too, which causes traffic to come to a stop as 3 lanes merge in 1, or as signals have no signs to indicate which directions lanes can turn. But then on top of this, people don't care about laws and that creates transit nightmares with people blocking traffic to stop their cars wherever they want, making illegal turns, swerving in their lanes (I have never seen so many people unable to stay in their lanes! It was not uncommon to see people driving in two lanes at once!) and driving absurdly fast or slow compared to the speed limit. Traffic becomes even more dangerous because of people's lack of concern for the law. In Curitiba, people really follow the rules and the city is extremely organized! The difference is really obvious!

10. People in Curitiba don't react as much to my daughter as they did in JP. In JP, people were doting on Sarah as if she were a beauty queen. Strangers came up to us to see her and touch her in the supermarket or at the mall. Here in Curitiba, there is a little reaction, but not a ton. Maybe it is because there are so many white, blonde children here.

11. People in Curitiba seem to like Americans a lot more than people in JP. We have only been here a short time but whenever someone finds out that I am American, they are really excited and want to talk to me more. One neighbor of my mother-in-law even invited my wife and me over to her house after I met her on the street in front of the house. That doesn't sound like much, but just to give you an idea, not one person who is from João Pessoa ever invited us over to their house in nearly 3 years!

12. There are far less pirated movies in Curitiba than in JP. Anywhere you go in JP there are pirated movies being sold. It is totally against the law, but the police don't seem to care about it. Go to just about any restaurant near the beach and chances are that someone will come up to your table to show you their movies. Here in Curitiba, I have not seen anyone selling them.

13. Customer service and social etiquette is FAR superior in Curitiba as opposed to JP. JP doesn't understand that if you want customers to come back to your store, to your office or to your medical practice, you need to treat people well and you need to be polite! It was almost as if many places wanted us to leave and never come back...and that is what we did many times. But immediately in Curitiba we noticed how people are so polite and how everyone is friendly when you enter into a store. Even people who work for the bus lines, or security or whatever, are extremely polite when you talk to them.

14. People seem happier as they walk the streets of Curitiba than in JP. We were shocked when we arrived in JP by how people seemed so miserable. In Portuguese they have an expression for people who look really grumpy; it's, "cara de bunda." Literally it means face of butt, or butt faced. So many people on the streets of JP were butt faced! But going downtown in Curitiba, people seemed to be genuinely happier or more positive, or both.

So this is it. 14 differences that stood out to my wife and me in our first week here in Curitiba. Like I said before, Curitiba and João Pessoa are very different cities.

Questions and Answers

2010-05-21T11:52:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago I was invited to an event put on by ABU (the parachurch organization that I often work with here in JP) to talk about the validity of the Bible for the History department at the Federal University. At first, the idea of talking to history students, and maybe professors, about the Bible got me so excited; they would be able to ask good questions and understand more about ancient writings. But I also realized that I had to know my stuff forward and backwards. It was going to be a question and answer session, so people were allowed to ask anything to try to stump me!

Fortunately, I had already studied the validity of the Bible prior to being invited to this event. But I felt like I needed to brush up on some facts to be able to provide statistics when necessary, and do so as accurately as possible. I wanted to be prepared for the harshest critics of Christianity to step forward to challenge the Word of God.

So for a week prior to the event, I was reading and watching videos about the Bible. I made a sheet of notes to have with me so that specific numbers and dates would be precise. I even watched videos online from atheists and other anti-Christian groups to understand their arguments and to find the answers in case someone came to the event with the same arguments. I wanted to be prepared for anything.

When the day of the event finally came, I was pretty nervous. I am not a person who gets nervous to stand in front of people and teach; public speaking is actually fun to me. But I was nervous to see what type of crowd would come out since the guys who organized everything put fliers all over the campus! There could potentially have been tons of people there.

But when the moment of truth came, only 10 people showed up and most of them were already Christians. People asked very few questions about the Bible, just general things about Christianity or about specific passages in the Bible. I had to sort of take the initiative to explain some of the basic supporting facts for the Bible. I did my best to answer every one of their questions. But when it ended, I left feeling really over prepared! I guess it is always better to be over prepared than under prepared.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. Ideally, I would have liked to have had tons of skeptics come to challenge the validity of the Bible. I wanted to provide all the information and arguments that I had learned to show that the Bible is truly more than just another normal book. It really stands alone in terms of ancient historical documents for reliability and then when you get into the spiritual side of the book, it is simply amazing. But most skeptics do not know much about the Bible; they refuse to believe without ever reading the whole book and understanding the depth of spiritual and practical wisdom it possesses. The ones who do know something attack it with the most liberal of theology and discount it based upon weak theories, not facts. I read one skeptic foolishly saying how Bible prophecy is completely disregarded based upon a theory called the Documentary Hypothesis, which basically states that Moses did not write the first 5 books of the Old Testament. But this atheist discredited all Bible prophecy based upon 1). a theory written in the 1980's by a super liberal; 2) a theory that only accounts for the first five books of the Bible; and 3) a theory that has been widely criticized with parts of it already proven incorrect! It is really sad to me, because this book changed my life and is truly inspired by God. If people actually took the time to read it and do a little bit of background research about it, they would see for themselves how amazing it really is.

College Easter Retreat

2010-04-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

On Easter Sunday, I was invited to speak at a student conference for ABU (translated the University Bible Alliance), an affiliate of Intervarsity. Over the past two years I have had the opportunity to work with this organization on several occasions and have always been blessed by my time with them. For Easter, it was no different.

The conference was a Fall retreat (remember our seasons are opposite of the Northern Hemisphere) of college students from all over the Northeast of Brazil. We had students from as far south as Salvador, others from up north in Fortaleza and everywhere in between. They spent the holiday sleeping in rooms at a local church here in JP that supports ABU's ministry.

During the course of the four day conference, several leaders, missionaries and pastors taught the group with a variety of topics. Since it was Easter morning when I spoke, I chose to talk about the resurrection of Jesus.

I know personally that a University can be a tough place to be a Christian. Professors constantly attack the idea of faith and even attempt to make Christians look stupid for believing. In an attempt to be "scholarly", many students turn against Christianity too. Apparently, being a scholar means that you cannot believe in God. Then with all the peer pressure to party, many students have a hard time continuing to believe in Jesus through their college years. I had friends that were fairly strong in their faith in High School, who went away to college and came back without Jesus! So I know the reality these kids face.

With this in mind, I wanted to talk about why it is we are Christians and show that it is not illogical thing or just blind faith. There are several reasons why we believe in Jesus. But the main reason, the most important reason why we believe, is because He rose from the dead. So I started out by showing from scripture that the resurrection is the most important fact of our faith and moreover, if it did not occur, we should definitely not believe in Jesus! It is that important.

Then we walked through the resurrection scenario to see what could have possibly happened to the body of Jesus after He was killed on the cross. When we look at the facts logically, the arguments against the resurrection become increasingly absurd. I mean, if Jesus died and did not rise again, what happened to his body? Where was it when His disciples excitedly ran throughout Jerusalem and all of Israel preaching about the resurrection of their Lord? If someone (and remember that there were many powerful enemies of Jesus) could have produced the body of Jesus, they would have all together ended Christianity before it really got started. But they could not do it. The body of Jesus ascended into heaven to be with the Father. The disciples, who were eye-witnesses of this fact, were radically transformed and consequently spread the good news of the resurrection to the entire Western world.

I basically wanted to show how the arguments against the resurrection were weak and illogical. I wanted the students to be able to leave there with confidence in their faith and a few simple arguments to share with any "scholars" that might try to mock Jesus. With these goals in mind, the morning session was a complete success. We even had some great discussions following the session with several students who had follow up questions. It was a blessing to be a part of this conference and I hope to do more in the future.

Discipleship

2010-03-31T16:14:00.000-07:00

One of my greatest passions in the ministry is discipleship. But unfortunately, I think it is an area that is misunderstood and has often gone unpracticed in its purest sense in the church today. Discipleship is not just teaching someone else; it is so much deeper than that. It is an intimate process of leading someone else to grow by sharing your life, personal experiences and the Word of God to help them know and follow Jesus more completely.

Jesus did this better than anyone else. Although he had many disciples, He kept the 12 apostles closest to Himself to share everything from food, conversation, travel, teachings, wisdom, and mostly, His life. He spent three intense years discipling these men to prepare them to go out on their own after He went to go be with the Father. He did not say to His apostles, "Come to my church services on Sunday and Wednesday and then I will teach you; that will be your discipleship. Oh, and if you need anything during the week, you can give me call." No, He was there with them almost the entire time as the Good Shepherd.

If Christians want to make disciples, then they need to open their lives up to other people to share who they are and how they walk with Jesus. I have seen too many ministers, missionaries, pastors and leaders who do not spend time with the people they are leading, and consequently lessen the depth of discipleship growth. People might learn head knowledge, but they won't see how you walk with Jesus personally if you do not spend quality time with them regularly.

For the past year and half or so, I have had the opportunity to go through the discipleship process with a guy in our church named Thiago. We met him at the Federal University when we first started our English Bible Study there on campus. As a English student, he was excited to come practice his English and learn the Bible. Several weeks after, we began to meet for discipleship. Although it has not been without its bumps in the road, Thiago and I have grown closer together and helped each other to walk more with Jesus, not just me helping him.

We went through a discipleship course that I do with people based on basic apologetics, then moved into more personal issues with some work in the Proverbs and then finally began a few weeks ago a class on Inductive Bible Study (IBS). The course, which I taught at the Bible College a few years ago, is meant to equip a person with the methods of how to properly study the Bible in its context and to prepare them to teach it to others. So every Tuesday night we get together at the Federal University and work through the IBS method. On top of all this, we have spent time together in prayer, waiting on the Lord, and evangelism, on a regular basis.

It has been awesome to see the growth that Thiago has made, both personally and in his relationship with Jesus. He has also become a regular part of our lives. I cannot even imagine what life would be like if we had never met him because I see him at least 3-4 times a week. Both Lu and I have opened up our lives to let him in. And although there have been some difficulties at times, overall everything has been very rewarding. That is what discipleship is about.

Here is Thiago making observations from Acts 18:1-6, in the first step of IBS.

First Service at Home

2010-03-10T17:37:00.000-08:00

This last week we made a big decision in relation to the direction of our church. We decided that after nearly a year and a half of renting a little restaurant to meet at on Sunday nights, we would move the church back to our apartment to do services in our living room. But we were a bit worried about it. Our concern about the move centered on the fact that we had somewhat established ourselves at the old location and did not want to lose any people who had come to the church, even if they came just every now and then.

But the facts were simple; we were paying rent for a building that was not very nice, in a neighborhood that was not that good and there really were not very many people coming. I felt like we were wasting the church's money by renting a place that we really did not need. Moreover, there were some cultural barriers that were hard to get around. For example, people here have a hard time picturing church in anything other than a building made for church. So when people came to the restaurant, they thought it was a bit odd. We had several people come visit our church once, and then never come back. Now maybe it was because of something else entirely, but after talking with people in the church, I got the feeling that it might have had something to do with our location.

So, after much prayer, thinking, and collected wisdom from some respected friends, we called everyone to let them know about the move. Our hope was that people would feel more comfortable, safer and that we would have fewer distractions by doing things in our living room. But the true test would be Sunday's service. So as 5:30 arrived, the time we are supposed to start our service, nobody was there! I began to get worried when at 5:45 there were still no people! But sure enough, people arrived, just late as usual. In fact, we had a great group for our first service here and things could not have gone smoother. Set-up and clean-up were a breeze and I felt more relaxed with less things to take care of. Plus, my wife got to come to church for the first time in almost 2 months, which was a huge blessing.

Overall we are really excited about the move and I think people are rather pleased with it as well. We are hoping to see God create more unity amongst our members as we get to know one another a little deeper in a little more intimate setting.

New Location

2010-03-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

When we started our church here in Joao Pessoa, our first several services took place in our living room. But quickly an opportunity arose for us to move the church to another location. We jumped at the opportunity and moved to this little restaurant called Casa do Galeto (translated, house of chicken). The restaurant was small and extremely simple, but it provided a roof over our heads, tables and chairs for us to use, and a place that could comfortably hold more people than our living room. Plus we thought that if it did not work out, we would soon enough find a better place to move to.

Well after nearly a year and a half at Casa do Galeto we are praying about whether it is time to move on or not. The problem is that things are never so simple. As a small church we really do not have an excess of people that we can afford to leave behind anywhere. And as we look at this potential move we fear that we would be losing a few members who live close to our location and do not drive. Plus, finding a better place could be very expensive and our tiny church has a small budget to say the least. Personally, my heart always wants to be near to where people are hanging out. But here in JP that would mean being near the beach or along the main street in town, both of which are really very expensive.

A strong option that we are really considering is moving our church back to our apartment. It offers an easy, comfortable location that is already equipped with everything we need for our daughter Sarah. We can have people come over and hang out, turning our church into more of a cozy home fellowship. In fact, we have thought that a move like this could help build a greater intimacy among the members of our church, which is one of the main reasons we want to move.

With all of this in mind, this week has been dedicated to much prayer about this issue in order to find our exactly what the Lord has for us. Please join with us in prayer about this potential move.

Carnaval 2010

2010-02-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

Carnaval 2010 has arrived...again? Well, sort of. Every year hundreds of thousands of Brazilians get together to celebrate one of, if not the worst holiday in the world today. The original meaning, which was terrible enough to begin with, has been mostly lost (not unlike most holidays in the world) and people spend the extended weekend living as morally depraved as possible.

Some connect the origins of Carnaval celebrations back to the days of the ancient Greeks, but the holiday seems to have originated in Italy from the Catholic holiday Lent. Lent began as a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus and involved self-examination and penitence to prepare one's heart to be closer to Jesus. The primary act of this penitence was self denial in the form of fasting, especially from meat. Later on, it officially became a 40 day celebration, starting 40 days before Easter and beginning on a Wednesday, called Ash Wednesday (the ashes were meant to be a sign of repentance and grieving of sins). At a certain point, Italian Catholics began a celebration the day before Ash Wednesday called Carnaval, which means, "to put away the meat." This putting away of the meat became a huge party where people wore masks to hide their identities enabling all excesses to be experienced to the fullest, including meat, dancing, singing, drinking, sex, etc. It was the final chance to "live it up" before they had to give things up for Lent.

Obviously, this holiday is completely hypocritical in nature. If you want your heart to be right to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, celebrating Carnaval should not be one of the things you do. A heart that is right with Jesus and that shows true repentance, turns us from our former sinful ways to follow Him. It certainly does not look to indulge in the depths of sins for as long as possible.

Well, here in Brazil, Carnaval is celebrated by pretty much all people (minus Christians of course), and it seems to have lost much of its Catholic tradition. I hear people talk quite a bit about how it is a cultural event, or a celebration of life, or a celebration of Brazil. But I rarely hear any talk about Lent and nothing about Jesus' Resurrection. Moreover, the celebration is more than just one day; it lasts a week and half now! Last weekend began the Pre-Carnaval celebration and this weekend begins the actual Carnaval. So Carnaval is here...again.

People will be drinking like fish, the government will hand out free condoms for people to "enjoy" and many people will be getting naked or half naked in the name of culture. But the problem with this "holiday" is the aftermath of the wildness. When people come to party and do not have sufficient funds to buy the "supplies" they need, they end up robbing others so that they can enjoy the celebration too. Moreover, there are more reported cases of Hepatitis, STD's, and pregnancies after Carnaval than any other time of year in Brazil. Anytime someone promotes this type of wildness, there is always going to be unwanted consequences.

So this weekend, we will spend most of our time at home. We try to avoid the wildness and the mostly naked people "celebrating" culture, or life, or whatever they are celebrating. But we will be having church like always. We will be trying to go against the current of society by teaching the Bible and talking about Jesus! It is really difficult to fight against the current, but it is exactly our goal.

I find it interesting, have you ever thought about how powerful of an influence your culture is on your life. Most American Christians spend far more time pursuing the American Dream rather than the Will of God. When we have gone home to the states for a visit, we rarely hear people talk about what God is doing or teaching them, but we frequently hear about the new things people have bought or the things they are redoing in their houses or cars. I find it a bit sad that culture and society seems to have more pull over a person that God, the Creator of the Universe. I hope that this article can make you think a little more about how you are living. If you are following the flow of the culture you live in, you probably are not following Jesus!

Baby Sarah

2010-02-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

After months of anticipation, our long awaited new year present has finally arrived! On January 11th at 7:54 am, Sarah Aliyah Stowe was born at Lady Center Hospital in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. She weighed about 7 pounds 4 ounces and was almost 20 inches in length. Her skin is very light, like her dad's, and everyone told us that she had "cara do Pai" or her dad's face. I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

After two nights in the hospital, mommy and daughter came home to our apartment for good. Things have obviously been insanely busy ever since. There is little freetime and so many things that constantly need to be taken care of. But that is the life of new parents! Fortunately we flew my mother-in-law up from Curitiba to help us out. She is a HUGE help, as she cooks and cleans everything for us! We don't know what we would do without her.

The good news is that Sarah arrived during the summer time here in Brazil. That means that classes at the Federal and State Universities are on summer vacation and so we have more time to take care of Sarah and all her needs since our Bible Studies are currently on hold. Things with the church seemed to stop for a few weeks with all the commotion of a new arrival, but now that she is three weeks old, we are getting more used to everything. We have restarted our Saturday night evangelisms at the beach and our services are continuing as normal. I know that things are going to be so much different from this point on forever, but the Lord is slowly teaching us how to deal with all of this change. It is a bit scary but also a lot of fun. We look forward to seeing all the Lord has for us in the upcoming months and years.

Baby Shower

2009-12-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we planned a baby shower for Luciana. We called up some of our friends (which is not really that many people) and invited them over to our new apartment in honor of little baby Sarah. It really was not much of a grand undertaking to plan, but we had a few games, a bunch of food and drinks, and people came bearing gifts for the baby.

Initially we were a little worried about the event. You see, people here in the Northeast can be pretty flaky. Time means nothing to them and making/keeping commitments can be difficult. So we just were not sure if anyone would show up! In fact, Lu told everyone the shower started at 3:30, just so people might make it by 4, the time she wanted to actually start.

Our original plan was to speak personally to every one of our invited guests beforehand to invite them and find out if they could come. But even if we could not talk to everyone to confirm, we sent emails to everyone that was invited. We wanted to find out who was going to come and we needed to make sure that everyone had directions to our new apartment. But although we asked for an RSVP of sorts, almost nobody responded. Lu even sent out second emails to certain people and never heard a word. Welcome to Paraíba (our state)!

Well, as things often go here, an hour after the set starting time there was 1 person here. We started to worry that people would not show up. But fortunately, most people finally started to trickle in between 4:30-5:00. I think we started all the activities at about 5:30, 2 hours later than planned, but it all went really well. Everyone was really lighthearted and we had a great time playing some baby shower games. Then Lu opened up all the presents and everyone ate well while enjoying the conversation. We even had some happy prize winners of our games!

I think one of the coolest things about the night was getting people from different groups together. We had people from our church, people from our Bible Studies and people who are not even Christian all hanging out together enjoying the evening. Most of all, I think Lu felt loved, which is so important for a pregnant lady living a couple thousand miles away from home. So overall our first baby shower was a totally success and now all we have left is to eagerly look forward to the arrival of Sarah in January!

Our New Apartment

2009-11-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

Before we returned from the states to João Pessoa, Lu and I had already decided that one thing we needed to do as soon as we got back was to find a new apartment. Our living situation was not ideal for us and thus, clearly not ideal for our soon to be arriving baby. You see, we lived in a two bedroom apartment that was very reasonably priced, but when you pay less for rent, it is usually the case that you have to make-up for it in some other way. We had several ways that we "paid" for our rent!

For example, although our rent was cheap, we lived next to a small farm. This farm had banana, avocado, mango and palm trees with coconuts. They also had ducks, geese, fish, capivara and of course, chickens! Everything up until the chickens was fine. But the chickens made life miserable. I had always thought that living next to chickens would be sort of quant; you could wake up early to the sound of the rooster crowing, just like back in the good old days. But in reality, that is not how things work. The roosters (and there was at least 3 of them) woke up every night at about 1 am. Then they would begin to crow. They would continue to crow all night until the early afternoon when they slept until after midnight again. At times they wandered throughout this little farm in search of food and ended up directly below our bedroom window, crowing like their lives depended upon it. To say the least, it made it difficult to sleep.

Other ways that we "paid" extra to live in our building was by living in a really poorly ventilated apartment (that is the last thing you want when the humidity is anywhere near 90%!), living above the angriest most selfish old man I have ever met, having dogs in the building that like to bark at all hours of the morning and night, having unfriendly and inconsiderate neighbors, and finally, by having windows that leaked water into the walls of our rooms when it rained. Clearly it was not the ideal situation.

So, the week that we got back to JP we began our search for a new place to live. Our plan was to move to a neighborhood called Intermares. Intermares is a beach neighborhood, has nice buildings, and is technically just outside the city limits of JP. That means that although it is near the ocean, the prices are substantially lower than the beach neighborhoods within the city. And because JP is still a relatively small city, outside the city limits means 15 minutes drive time to heart of the city. But, the most important part about Intermares is that it has lots of wind! Wind is one of the most important commodities in a tropical climate like here because without it, you suffer through more than half the year. Even during winter, if the wind is not blowing, you feel the heat. So our goal was to find a 2-3 bedroom apartment, in Intermares, with a veranda that faces the ocean so we could get the most wind possible.

As our search began, things looked a bit bleak. The two bedroom apartments in our price range that met our criteria were pretty ghetto. A few of them we walked into, looked at each other, and then quickly left knowing it was too run down. Now I don't want to give you the idea that I am snob. I am not. I did grow up in Orange County and I have lived in nice places. But I am not a person that has to always have the best. The thing is, all human beings make decisions on where they live based upon their personal value system. For example, some people will pay extra to live in a safer neighborhood because they value safety for their kids. Others will spend more to have their house designed because they value having a floor plan the way they want it to be. If you were to ask any of my old roommates, they would tell you that my value system is based upon money, specifically, saving the most money. Let me put it in a simpler way, I'm cheap. But as a missionary living on a missionary budget, I think this is important. I am not a missionary who needs to live in the best neighborhood of the city and drive a really expensive car because I cannot live at a lower level than they did in the states. And believe me, there are many missionaries like this out there! I am a pretty simple guy on a pretty simple budget. So I believe that my apartment should be in line with that.

Well, after several days of looking we only found one apartment that really worked. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, along with a veranda that faced east. It was a little older, and sort of close to the highway, but it had wind and that was what we valued most! So we called the owner, told them we wanted to rent it and asked to move in as soon as possible. The owner agreed and it was all set by Saturday night. We were excited to be moving to a new place even though the apartment was not that nice. We just wanted to be far from chickens, lame neighbors (and their pets) and the heat.

Mondays are our days off since we work much of the weekend doing church stuff. So when the phone woke us up at 8 am, I was less than excited. Then to add to the problem, the call was from the owner of the apartment; they changed their minds. They did not want to rent it to us anymore. I guess their nephew was going to live there for the summer. Man! Back to square one.

I got up and drove to a newsstand to find an old copy of the Sunday paper to get the classifieds. When I got back Lu and I went through searching for places that met our criteria and we began to call. We set up several visits to see the apartments and spent the entire day driving around from apartment to apartment. Finally, the last one we saw was this guy that had been so weird on the phone. We were not sure if he had a problem or if he was just another super unfriendly person from JP who had no business sense. We met him anyways, and he showed us the place. The apartment was in our price range, had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a veranda facing east, was recently renovated (in some areas of the apartment) and painted, had build-in closets (which sounds funny to say but in Brazil you usually get nothing but four walls and a window per room) and most importantly, had a ton of wind! I actually asked him the price again because I thought the newspaper must have printed it incorrectly; there was no way this place was the same price or cheaper than the other apartments we saw and yet, was bigger and better in almost all ways. But it was! It was incredible.

When we got home we talked about it and quickly decided to call the guy to tell him we wanted it. We began packing that night and by Wednesday we were all moved in and spent our first night in our new apartment. What a difference it makes to have a place that suits you! Our neighbors are quiet, there are no chickens next door, our apartment is noticeably cooler, we have an extra bedroom and bathroom and the place is way nicer. We had to pay a little extra to move here, but to pay just over $100 US extra per month to have a better quality of life is well worth it. Plus when baby Sarah arrives in January, I think she will be much happier and cooler in our new apartment!

Vacation Time

2009-11-18T11:46:00.000-08:00

On September 14th, the very day after our church's one year anniversary, Lu and I, along with Julian, John and Sam (the three guys who stayed with us the week of our church's anniversary) loaded all our things into a taxi and headed down to Recife. Recife is the closest big city to JP (about 2 hours driving) and has an International Airport. The guys were going to stay in Recife for a few weeks to hang out with the Calvary Chapel there and then to do some work with YWAM. Lu and I, however, were headed for a vacation!

It had been over a year and half since we had moved to JP and we never had the chance to have a real vacation. We did get a few days at the beach here or there, but nothing for more than 2-3 days at a time. But this felt like it was a good time for a vacation and a chance for us to go back to the states to buy some important things for our baby who will arrive in January.

After a long flight back, we arrived in Los Angeles tired and a bit confused. On the way to my parents' house I began tripping out on the freeway how everyone seemed content to stay in their own lane and did not even swerve back and forth, crossing over the line into other lanes like in JP. Cars seemed to keep a reasonable distance from the car in front of them, not staying a foot behind them flashing their lights for the person to get out of their way. Exits on the freeway were all clearly marked and had freeway overpasses to allow a car to go right or left after they left the highway. There were no lights, speed bumps or areas for U-turns on the highway. Everything seemed so organized and clean! How could it be?

Obviously, we experienced a little culture shock. It's strange how you can become so accustomed to the culture you are living in that when you return to your own culture, you began to experience shock because of the differences. I was in shock, but only for a short time. I quickly began to enjoy the organization and social etiquette that people showed one another in normal day-to-day life. I think it had been months since I had anyone say to me, "Hi, how are you? Do you need any help with anything?" It felt nice to be treated like a human being again.

While back, Lu and I were busy! We spent time with my family in Southern California, traveled to Las Vegas to visit my sister and brother-in-law, went to San Luis Obispo to see friends and my home church, went to Oklahoma to see my first ever Sooner Football game at Memorial Stadium in Norman, OK., and got to take Lu to her first baseball game ever! It was a blast!

We really had three main goals for our trip: buy some things we need for our baby, spend quality time with friends and family, and have fun relaxing. Thankfully we were able to accomplish all three. We had a fantastic trip and it gave us the chance to get refreshed for our time back here in JP. I think getting away from your immediate surroundings helps give you a greater perspective on life and the things you are trying to accomplish. We feel like we are more prepared to take on the challenges here after a little vacation time.

Before we left

2009-11-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

It has been quite some time since I last wrote something on our blog because we have been super busy. Over the next few weeks I am going to try to catch everyone up on what has happened over the last 2 months through a series of entries. So here goes the first "flashback" entry to take us back about 2 months ago.

In the beginning of September, a group of guys who studied at the Bible College in Brazil, came to visit us. These three young men each spent a semester or two down at Calvary Chapel Bible College in Campo Mourão, and subsequently wanted to see more of Brazil. So they saved up some money, planned out their trip and came down for over 2 months. One of the first stops for these young explorers was João Pessoa! These guys came and stayed with us the week before we left for our trip to the US and we had a TON of fun showing them around. These three are all really fun guys to begin with and then taking them to the best places in JP just made things even better. I even had the chance to take them to Picãozinho, the reef that sits about 2 km off the shore of our local beaches, to do some snorkeling, which I had wanted to do since we moved here!

Also, on the Sunday that they were here, September 13th, we celebrated the one year anniversary of our church here in Joao Pessoa. The time really flew by as this anniversary came upon us so quickly. But it gave us a great reason to celebrate together. One of the guys visiting, Sam, played worship along side me on his Djembe (Drum), Luciana planned a little party for after the service, people brought some food and everyone (minus only 1) who attends our church showed up on the same Sunday! It was amazing! We had a great service talking about the grace of God through Galatians chapter 5, which is one of the most important chapters for practical Christian living in the entire Bible. We saw how He is actually the one who helps us to follow Him, through the Holy Spirit. Moreover, I think we had a great party which really had a unifying effect on the people from our church. It is really important to have positive things like this to celebrate together!

What it's like living in João Pessoa

2009-09-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I really have very little idea of what people think about us living here in João Pessoa. I have never conducted a survey or even casually asked around to get people's opinions about the subject. I do know however, that most of the Americans that I talk to about Brazil think it is this tropical paradise and that we are living this beautiful life soaking up the rays at the beach. Of course, this couldn't be farther from the truth.

In preparing to write this, I felt a strange sense of fear because I know that people have all sorts of opinions of what missionaries are supposed to be like or how they should think. They can never be negative because they are serving the Lord. I know that I could upset readers and possibly even lose supporters of our ministry because of what would be perceived as complaining. But I want to write about what life is really like here and the things we really experience on a daily or weekly basis. So here we go.

The Northeast of Brazil is known for being the most conservative area in the country. Its strong catholic roots continually influence most parts of the culture as life has changed slowly over the years compared to rest of the country, and especially the rest of the world. It feels a little like going back in time a few years as a laissez-faire attitude swirls throughout the culture ranging from people not waiting in lines to most buildings looking a bit rundown.

People here view life completely different than I do, and different from how most of Western society views it. They have different dreams, goals, values, political views, religious views, music, philosophies, food, customs and routines. In many ways, the Northeast of Brazil is opposite of the US (I have actually made a list of ways it is opposite from the US and will post it here, hopefully someday soon).

In being so different from anything I have ever experienced in my life, many challenges have arisen in beginning our ministry here. First of all, Northeasterners in general don't have the same view of Gringos as people in the south of Brazil. In the south, people tend to be much more open-minded to foreign cultures, and tend to have a real love for foreigners, especially Americans. What happened was that many European immigrants moved to the south of Brazil in the early to mid 1900's. The culture obviously felt the effects of all these converging people groups and it created (in my opinion) this really cool, open-minded culture; it seemed to get the great relational values of Brazil mixed with the strong work ethic and structure of Europe. Here in the Northeast, however, they didn't experience the same immigration. Foreigners are usually seen as outsiders, and even seem to be viewed with a bit of suspicion and distain. Often times when I walk down the street people will stop and stare at me like I'm some sort of freak (I can admit I am a little weird, but the staring definitely goes overboard!). People constantly assume that we are some sort of cult because I came from the US and I look like I could be a Mormon (they always ask me if I'm Mormon, I guess because I am white? I don’t wear black pants, a white button-up shirt, or a tie.). A friend of one of the guys in our church even asked him why Brazil needed a Gringo to come down to start another church in their country.

So the stereotypical Latin American warmth is not flowing to say the least. We are not invited to people's houses for meals or invited to go out. In fact, people here in JP tend to be rather unfriendly and extremely closed. Outside of our church I have two guys that I am building friendships with and both are super cool guys...both are from Sao Paulo! It makes for an overall difficult place to move to when you do not have a preexisting group of friends to get oriented through.

Another major issue in living here is the structure of the culture. Many things simply don't work the way we are used to. For example, it took us 3 months to get a phone set up in our apartment and a week to get a bank account set up for Luciana, a Brazilian citizen! I met a guy who works in some administrative position at the bank who told me that the workers will often send people home saying that the system is down when they don’t want to help them. I asked him, "You mean, they will say the system is down when it really is not, just to not help someone?" He responded, "Of course!"

Customer service is not one of their cultural values, so people tend to not go out of their way to help someone when they don't have to. I have honestly walked into many stores and greeted the workers only to receive a strange look back, as if to say, "Why are you here?" They claim to be a capitalistic economy, but they don't understand perhaps the most fundamental principle of capitalism, that the customer is the most important commodity. It seems that many people work because they have to in order to survive, not because they love what they do and want to work. Therefore, it is extremely rare to hear a 'Hi,' 'How are you?', 'Can I help you?', 'please,' 'thank you,' 'your welcome,' 'excuse me,' or any other polite etiquette in a work place.

In another sense, the lack of structure in society leads to confusion on the roads. Driving seems to lack serious structure as things like stop signs mean nothing and aggressive driving rules the highways. Parked cars line the sides of major streets where no parking signs are posted on every light post. People stop their cars right in traffic to let people out or pick people up, even when there are parking lots or areas to pullover. The hardest part is that the police do absolutely nothing in concern to all this. In fact, the police seem to do very little anywhere which has dramatic effects on the society as a whole. People know they won't get tickets for speeding, running red lights or illegally parking, so they just go ahead and do whatever they want. It blocks up traffic, causes accidents and puts innocent people at risk. Two American girls were here visiting and we drove them to get sometime to eat. They said that they were terrified when they rode in cars here in João Pessoa.

Also criminals know that the police won't make much of an effort to find them if they mug someone on the street or steal from a store. With little fear of consequences, criminals control the country with fear. Even if they do get caught many stories have occurred where the victim decides not to press charges because the criminal threatens to come back and do something to them once they get out of jail, which will most likely happen within a few days or weeks. One shop owner had a guy rob his store at gun point. The criminal told the shop owner that if he did anything he would comeback someday to kill him and his whole family. After he left, the shop owner called the police and gave them a description of the guy. So the police caught the actual guy (which was a shock to me) and brought him to the shop to have the shop owner identify the robber. The police asked, "Is this the guy?" The shop owner out of fear responded, "No." The police had to let the criminal go. Imagine the fear that people live with when criminal activity rises to such incredible levels!

Finally, probably the most difficult part of our job here is that people don't seem to have the sense of commitment that we are used to. Like I said before, the laissez-faire attitude of the society works it way into most every facet of life. We learned very quickly that when someone says, “I’ll call you,” that you better not hold your breath waiting. My next door neighbor did this to me almost every time I saw him for close to six months. Not once did he ever call me! The ministry is about people and building relationships with them. It makes it very hard to build relationships when people constantly flake out on meeting together.

Moreover, with our work here in the ministry we often ask people we meet what they think of Jesus. The vast majority are completely apathetic about the topic, even though they say they believe in Him. But this is really hard to get used to after spending my entire life in the United States and Europe, where the subject is so polarized. People are usually for or against Jesus. Some people get so upset when they talk about Jesus or the Bible that they cannot even think rationally anymore! But here, almost everyone “believes,” but they just don't care; it doesn't seem to change the way they live their lives. There are a fair number of evangelical Christians who truly follow Jesus and the Bible with all their hearts, but they tend to be the minority of people we meet.

In the church this lack of commitment becomes all too apparent as well. People don't even have a commitment just to attend church every Sunday. I have written before about how when I became a Christian I was at church at minimum twice a week. My Youth Pastor once said to me, “Don’t you have a home?” because I was always there hanging out. But here it is different; people come about twice a month, and usually arrive late. If the problem were that we were asking too much of them, by having services during the week, on Saturday and twice on Sunday, I could understand them getting tired or burnt out. But we only have one service a week, on Sunday evenings for an hour and a half. It seems if we were to ask people to serve in some way at the church on top of coming every week, it might blow people’s minds away.

An obvious problem arises that you cannot build a strong church alone, without faithful, committed members to help. But since some people arrive up to 40 minutes late for an hour and half service, it seems their commitment is severely lacking. Plus it is sometimes the people who think they are the strongest in their faith that have the greatest problems in this area.

Overall we are slowly adjusting to the cultural differences and dealing with some of the issues we have faced by communicating with people individually about these problems. We are trying to encourage and exhort people to be more responsible and committed in concern to our church. But the culture is a powerful influence. Every one of us has become who we are after being shaped by the culture around us. These people here are no different; it’s just that their culture is different. So we, as missionaries, are trying to adjust to a drastically different culture in order to carry out the work God has given us to do. Please pray for us to have wisdom and strength to continue serving the Lord and continue to teach people the Word of God, even in the face of a difficult culture.

2009-07-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

Calvary Chapel in Brazil is slowly spreading in the south of the country with at least 8 churches and a few other church plants that are just starting up. But up here in the Northeast there are just two, us and another church two hours south in Recife. The church in Recife has had some small problems over the years and were actually going for a while with no pastor at all. Finally, Wellington, a guy from Calvary Chapel Sao Vicente, in Sao Paulo, moved up to help serve at the church and ended up taking over as pastor the last few years. His leadership was able to bring more stability to the church and more kids to their outreaches as they have a soccer camp every weekend with around 100 kids from the surrounding neighborhoods.

This past week, Wellington was back home in Sao Vicente to celebrate the anniversary of his home church. After the service, people went out to eat and celebrate the things that the Lord had done over the years. But after it had gotten late, Wellington decided to catch a taxi home because it was raining so hard that night. On the way home, the taxi lost control, hit a light post and the post fell on top of the car, killing Wellington instantly.

We heard the news here the next morning and were shocked, the say the least. The Lord took our friend and co-worker in the gospel to go home with Him; we will miss him a ton! But it made us think about how fragile life is and how quickly things can change.

Many of you read the story of the kid who robbed the bus we were on here in JP. I told about how torn I was, wanting to step up and do something to stop this kid. But I ended up not doing anything. Well, about a month ago, I went down to the street fair to get something to eat with one of the guys in our church. While we were talking the same kid who robbed the bus walked up to our table asking for money! I saw him and was in shock! I told my friend later, "That was the kid who robbed the bus we were on!" The kid just walked away, seemingly having no clue who I was.

But imagine if I had done something on the bus that day. How easy would it have been for that kid to remember the face of the gringo who attacked him? He would have never forgotten my face and could have attacked me unsuspectingly there at the fair. Who knows, he could have stabbed me or shot me to get revenge. I mean, if he was less than 18 nothing would happen to him by the law, and even if he were 18, he would probably go to jail for 7 years and be out in 3 for good behavior. He would have had nothing to lose by killing me!

Our lives are so short and we really have so little control over the things that happen to us. With that in mind, it makes me want to live even more for Jesus, because the things we do for the Lord are the only things that will last after this world ends. Wellington left his work here, but he by no means leaves ashamed of the life he chose. He left his friends and family to move to a new city, to help a struggling church and to teach people about Jesus. Although he is now gone, everything he did was for the Lord and he has nothing to regret about his life!

So what about you? Are you wasting your time here on earth? Give your life over to Jesus and spend your time serving Him. Everything else will be forgotten shortly.

We will never forget Wellington's sense of humor, like in this picture when he tried to pose as a cowboy!

Rollin' Along

2009-07-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

For the past two months we have not really had much news to share about things in Joao Pessoa. As pastoral/church ministry goes, there are slow seasons where not much new happens and you simply need to persevere, teaching the Bible and building relationships with people. That is basically what we have been doing.

During this time, we did finish up our Bible Study at the State University here because they have the month of July off for vacation. We went through and completed the book of 1 Peter in our study there with a pretty good group of students that came. We plan on going back (I think in August) when the new semester begins. In the meantime, our Study at the Federal University is rolling along with a great group of all guys! I thought it was sort of strange because we always had more girls than guys coming, but now the tables have turned and we have had all guys until this last week (which just happens to be the day I brought our camera and took some pictures!) But I love working with, teaching and hanging out with younger men, so it is a fun experience for me for sure.

Our church is rolling along as well. We have had a few visitors the past several weeks, which is always nice to see! But we are still struggling with consistency from the core members of our church. People here in the Northeast of Brazil view church differently and don't seem to make a serious commitment to go every week and serve. Even the seemingly more mature believers only make it 3 out of every 4 weeks. It is a tough situation because I don't want to say something to force them to come; it needs to be from their hearts that they want to come. But at some point I am sure I will need to talk about consistency with people who think that are mature in their faith.

I have to admit that personally I don't understand this mindset, because once I became a Christian, I wanted to be at church. I would be there at least twice a week and never missed services. There were times when my youth pastor had to tell me to go home because I would be there all the time. But the culture and the people here are WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY different!!! It seems that if they have the smallest thing on their schedule, they don't come. Some of the students don't make it to church when they have too much work or a project to finish. But I always had the mindset of, "Well, I have church in the morning, so I can work on my project afterward." It was like church or Bible Study was set on my schedule and I planned around these things. Here it seems to be the opposite. I guess I am still learning the culture here.

So, please keep us in your prayers, especially for more consistency from our core group in our church. We have some great people coming, we just need a little help getting them all on board and unified!

Our new car

2009-05-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Lord blessed us tremendously with a car and it has already drastically changed our lives for the good. It is truly amazing how much easier life is with a car, than without one. So now we are enjoying our new found freedom!

Our search for cars began a few months ago, attempting to get an idea of the price and quality of cars in this area. We quickly realized that they are more expensive than in the US and usually lower quality. For example, most cars do not have power steering here. Although this is not the most important aspect of a car, it makes a difference when you are paying more that you would in the states and it does not have it.

Moreover, while searching at used car dealers we felt very a little suspicious of the prices they had because obviously a car dealer is going to charge more for a car than a private party. But with normal people we had a bit of fear because we really did not have any guarantee that the car would not break down in a matter of days after we bought it since we do not know any mechanics that we can trust here in JP. So our goal was to buy a car from someone we knew to try to avoid some of these situations.

Finally, our next-door neighbor, who works for Peugeot, called us and told us that one of his co-workers was selling his own car and that we should come down to take a look at it. We did. We arrived to find his 2000 Chevy Corsa super clean, well kept-up and running pretty smoothly. We were impressed. After bargaining with the guy for a bit, we finally got the price to where we could afford it, and after a little Brazilian bureaucracy, the deal was finished. We had our new car! So far it has run like a champ, so we cannot complain. With God's grace, and our regular maintenance, hopefully it will last us for years!

What would you do?

2009-05-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday of this week, Lu and I walked to the bus stop just like any other day we've had for the past year or so. But this day was supposed to be different; we were going to pick up our new car that we just purchased (not technically new since it is a 2000, but new to us)! So after a short wait, the bus came and we got on bubbling with the excitement of not having to take the bus home. The bus was not the normal city bus because it was going to actually leave the city limits, so it was a bit smaller and only had a driver, instead of a driver and cashier like normal busses here in Brazil. Being somewhat crowded Lu and I could not sit together and I ended up sitting in the very first seat, cramped into the one right after the turnstile in the front of the bus.

As we passed along the way to the freeway we made one final stop, picking up three people. Two people paid the busdriver and passed through the turnstile. The final passenger stopped to get his money ready. The kid, about 18 years old, was missing his front 4 teeth and spoke in such a way that I literally thought that he had some sort of mental dificiency. "How sad," I thought. He paid the driver $1 Real. The toll, however, is $2 Reais, not $1. When the driver explained this to the young man, the adolescent began to search for more money but stated that he did not have it. As the driver proceeded to the side of the road, he opened the door for the young man to step out. But the young man was not ready to leave. In fact, he began to get angry, hitting the door of the bus in protest.

The driver then merged back into the lane he had just vacated and proceeded onto the on-ramp of the freeway as the discussion continued. The young man seemed to want to be dropped off a little further ahead of where we currently were and the driver continued on as if all things were normal. I, sitting with only a thin wall of plexi-glass separating me from the youth, became more confused since the driver did not close the bus door as we entered the freeway. I thought, "What is he doing? This kid could fall out of the bus! This is not safe." A bit naive and little confused because of the poorly spoken Portuguese between the driver and young man, I really had no clue was happening.

Finally the bus driver pulled over at the next stop and motioned for the boy to get off. At this the young man became even more angry and hit the bar that separates the driver from the people entering the bus. Then, lifting up his shirt, he reached down and pulled a knife out of his boardshorts! The 12-15 inch bar-b-que knife was the typical member of your normal bar-b-que utensil set bought at any Walmart. The wooden handle was close to a foot long with another 3 inches or so of actual blade. The young man had picked up this "tool" somewhere along the way and hid it from sight in his shorts.

At this point my naivity quickly left and I realized that this kid did not have any mental problem, but was probably drunk or high, and he was robbing the bus! The once confussing conversation became real one-sided with the boy explaining to the driver that he would use the knife if the driver did not take him where he wanted to go. He also told the driver to give him all the money from the bus tolls. The driver sheepishly handed the kid about $6 Reais, which only infuriated the kid more, and then finally handed him the entire stash (at least the money that was visible; they usually take the money when it gets to a certain amount and hide it somewhere like in their pockets or in some hidden drawer under the money tray).

As the kid took the money, my mind began to race! What should I do? Should I do anything or just sit still? Should I hide my cell phone and shove my money in my sock? Should I grab the kid? The money? Should I rally the other passengers to stop this crime and protect our driver? What would you do?

As the kid took the money, he placed the knife back into his shorts and put the money in his pocket. His stood there, directly in front of me, only the plexi-glass separating the two of us. My mind raced even faster. The kid did not seem interested in robbing the rest of the passengers on the bus. If I did something would it provoke him to attack other innocent people? Could he really do anything if I reached from behind him and gripped his throat as tight as I could? Surely he couldn't pull his knife out in time to do something with my hand around his neck like that? Surely the driver and the man seated next to me would do something to help me, wouldn't they? I sat motionless, confused.

We quickly arrived at the young man's desired stop and the driver pulled over. The kid stepped off the bus as if nothing had happened and walked, not ran, away from the highway onto a dirt road that runs parallel to the highway, never looking back.

Now, here's why Brazil will never be a world power or be considered a first world country: when the bus stopped, there was a police car sitting about 20-25 yards in front of us on the side of the highway. The bus driver quickly started driving toward the car, honking and flashing his brights to get the cop's attention. The cop looked back, got out the car and came to have a conversation with the bus driver. The driver got out of the bus, and as the two walked up to the same dirt road the young bandit was walking down, the driver frantically pointed at the kid telling the cop that that was the guy who robbed the bus. At this point, everyone on the bus is standing, looking out the windows and even yelling at the cop to go get the kid. So, let me try to describe exactly what the cop did when he saw the kid about a half block away: NOTHING! Absolutely nothing! I could not believe it! I know I am a gringo and I need to be repectful to the authorities in this country, but those of you who know me, know that I cannot sit and let something like this happen. So, I yelled at the cop, "Hey Policeman, that's the guy! Go get him! He's right there!" The cop glanced over at the bus, glanced back at the kid, then continued to stand there motionless, still doing nothing.

I thought, maybe he's scared! The kid did have a knife. But the Cop had a gun strapped to his right leg! Was the kid really going to intimidate a cop with a stupid bar-b-que knife. Common'!

Well, the kid saw the cop, turned down a street that ran perpendicular to the high way, and we never saw him again. The cop, after about 5 minutes of standing and staring, finally ran down a street parallel to the one that the young man ran down, but it was a few minutes after the kid ran away. We could see that he never intended on catching the kid. I was blown away. I had heard tons of stories of police corruption, ineptitude and even outright laziness, but I had never experienced something like this before. Welcome to life in Brazil. Although life is not bad by any means, it's not all palm trees and beaches either. Only Jesus can change it and that is why we are here.

Easter Service

2009-04-14T19:08:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was Easter Sunday. This is the biggest and most important holiday for Christians because it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This wonderful miracle is what finalized our salvation and proved that Jesus' death was really for the sins of the world, like He said it was.

Our church had a really good service as we went through Mathew, taking a look at the death and resurrection of Jesus. After that, we jumped to a great passage in 1 Corinthians 15 to explain the significance of the resurrection. Paul basically says that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then he and all the preachers of Christianity are liars because they preached Jesus' crucifiction and resurrection from the dead. He also says that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then our faith in Jesus is futile and empty. Moreover, we are the most pitiable people on the face of the earth, because we basically are following after a lie. But the good news is that he ends this arguement by strongly affirming the resurrection of Jesus.

But why is the resurrection so important? Couldn't Jesus have died for our sins and not risen from the dead? Wasn't His sacrifice on the cross still significant enough to accompish the salvation of all Mankind? The answer is no. You see anyone can say they are going to die for your sins. Your mom can say that when she dies it is to save you from your sins. I can go downtown and be crucified and tell everyone that I am dying for their sins. But the only way to prove that it is true is if someone has the power to rise from the dead. If they rise from the dead (which no normal person can do) then they show that they are someone beyond this world, and their death really was some sort of special sacrifice.

When Jesus rose from the dead, He showed that death had no power over Him. But death has power over all human beings. Therefore, Jesus could not be just an ordinary human, but God in flesh. That would mean that his sacrifice was really for the sins of the world and that He was who He had claimed to be. But not only that, Jesus' resurection also showed that death would have no power over those who believed in Him. That just as Jesus rose from the death to new life, so will we who are His disciples! Hallelujah!

This is why we celebrate Easter! This is why it is the most important of all holidays in the entire world! We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and our salvation from sin and death!

New Bible Study

2009-03-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know everything there is to know about ministry. But one thing I know, and that has been continually confirmed, is that I love ministering to college students. I like being on a college campus, working with, talking with, studying with, and hanging out with college students. They are awesome! And when they have a desire of some kind to know more about Jesus, I love to be there to help them along the path.

We have a Bible Study on Thursday nights at the Federal University. But recently, the President of ABU (the parachurch organization we have been working with) called me to ask me about doing another English Bible Study, but this time at the local State University. She said that they had a few Christians there who were asking for a Bible Study in English because one of the majors there is International Business. These guys need to know English, and what better person to practice with than a Gringo Pastor living in JP?

I have always felt that if I have time and people want to hear me teach the Bible, I will go do it. So this Tuesday Lu and I went over the State University to meet with a group of these students. There was only one girl who we knew, and so we really did not expect a lot of kids to be there, but we had at least 12 people there to find out what we were planning to do for the rest of the semester. We did a small introductory study on the Word of God and told them our plan to get together, study the Bible, and reach out to other students who don't know Jesus. We are hoping to do a small question and answer period every week to give students a chance to ask questions about the Bible or God or whatever. They seemed excited about it.

Overall, we are really excited about our new study. We don't know what God will do there at the University, but we are open to whatever He has for us! Please pray for our new Study on Tuesday afternoons!

Carnaval Retreat?!

2009-03-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

Brazil just celebrated Carnaval. When we lived in the South of Brazil, every year for Carnaval we had a retreat with all the Calvary Chapels. It was always a great time of fellowship with everyone together.

But this year, we are up here in the Northeast, too far away from the churches in the South, and lacking a sufficient number of people in our own church to plan a retreat for ourselves. So we just planned on hanging out at home for Carnaval.

But that weekend, Wellington, the Pastor of the Calvary in Recife (about 2 hours south of us) called to inform me that he was coming up for a visit. I said, "Great! That should be fun." And he said, "Ya, me and four others. Do you have room for all five of us?" We live in a two bedroom apartment, so with 7 people it would get a little tight!

The guys from Recife arrived Monday morning and went back home Thursday morning. The "mini-retreat" in our apartment was an absolute blast! We hung out, talked, played games, worshipped, prayed and ate lots of food! Our Wednesday night prayer meeting was awesome with so many people there. We turned it into a time of meeting with the Lord in worship, prayer and sharing of the Word so that everyone could contribute. It was just like a real retreat. We even were able to connect with some of the people in our church which was cool to have them get to know the crew from Recife to know that we a part of network of churches in the country and the World.

Wellington and I talked about planning a "real" retreat for next year for both of the churches to get together. He told me that he thought he had a place we could do it that would be just perfect. I asked where it was, wondering if it was in our state or their state. He responded, "Here, in your apartment!"

Back to School

2009-02-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

This last Spring (Fall for you guys in N. America) I was fortunate to be a part of a Portuguese class for foreigners at the Federal University here in JP. The program is designed with classes for basic, intermediate and advanced speakers, to help any foreigners learn Portuguese while here in Brazil.

My class was a ton of fun! We had a group of guys from Congo, several Germans, a few French, and then others from Norway, Israel, Argentina, Costa Rica, and the US. With all the diversity of languages, the real challenge was to try to understand the different accents that people spoke with!

But we had a great time and it really helped me to learn more grammar, which was where I was weak. Portuguese, a more complex language than English, seems to have quite a bit more rules than English. So when I speak, I can communicate whatever I need to say, but I often make grammatical errors. The class was perfect to help me learn proper grammar in situations like expressing the difference between desires, promises or suppositions. Or even differences between past, present and future when dealing with real or unreal/imaginary situations. I did not know that there are completely different conjugations for situations that seem so similar to one another. Many times I simply translated the phrase I needed from English, and unfortunately, it usually doesn't work like that.

So, in December we had a big party for all the students that were involved in this program to celebrate the end of the year. You can see us together above in the picture, and me with some of the guys from Congo below. I look even whiter than usual!

This week started the first week of classes at the University after the long break for Christmas, and that means back to my Portuguese class. But it also means that we are back to our Bible Study there on Campus on Thursday nights. Please pray for our study because this last semester was tough one. When we started in July/August, the study seemed to just grow and grow as we had 13 people coming by the beginning of September. But then after the semester break we started back up in October and really never saw the same people coming. So we are hoping to see some more people coming as we start back up this time. Please pray for our influence to reach farther at the university and for more people to come and hear the teaching of God's Word!

Lu Goes Home for a Visit

2009-01-31T10:12:00.000-08:00

This past week Luciana left JP and headed down to Curitiba to visit her friends and family. She had been a little home sick and wanted us to go back for a short visit, but it would have been impossible for both of us to leave since we do not have anyone to run the church for us. So Lu went by herself and I stayed to take care of the church.

But while she was gone, our friends from down south came up to visit and help me out. Kaka and Lilian are missionaries working at the Calvary down in Iguazu Falls. They have a heart for the Northeast of Brazil and wanted to come up for a scouting trip in order to experience life here and be able to pray more about moving here. So they were able to help me by leading worship and just being available to help with set-up and clean-up. It was a huge blessing!

So we had a great time hanging out with the people in our church, doing evangelism down at the beach and simply talking with each other. They really helped me to have a great time while my wife was gone and encouraged me a ton in the work that we are doing here in JP. This is something that I really needed being alone up here doing the work. Just having someone to chat with, who understands what you are experiencing, is really important.

We hope that Kaka and Lilian will come back up here some day soon to either work with us or to start another church here in the Northeast. We'll see what the Lord does.

Holiday Vacation

2009-01-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

Pretty nice, isn't it? Not too many people either on this beautiful tropical beach. This is Porto de Galinhas (Port of the Chickens), with it's white sand beaches and clear blue water.

For Christmas, we got to spend a few days at this northeastern paradise with Pastor John Deming and his family. John is the Pastor of Calvary Chapel in Porto Alegre, which is the capital city of the farthest state to the south of Brazil. His father, wanting to spend Christmas with the family, rented a beautiful house in Porto de Galinhas for a week. And John was gracious enough to invite us for a visit!

We got to spend a few days relaxing in the sun, swimming in the ocean and pools, and chatting away with our friends. It was a great time for us, especially since we do not have any family here in the Northeast of Brazil. Since Christmas is a very family-based holiday, it can make you feel a little isolated when you do not have family to be with. But this trip definitely made our Christmas better! Thanks Demings for the awesome blessing!

We actually spent Christmas day and New Year's here in JP and were able to connect with a few people from our church family, which was really good. So we are looking forward to a great 2009 here in JP and are praying for spiritual maturity and growth for everyone in our church. Please join us in praying for more consistency within our church.

2008-12-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I last wrote an entry on the blog. I would have liked to tell everyone about something new and exciting that was happening, but to be honest, there just wasn't much going on. Church ministry can be like that sometimes because we are working toward long term progress, teaching people the word of God, praying for them, and counseling them. I truly believe that these are effective ways of ministering to the spiritual needs of people, but they are ongoing processes that take time to really see change. As one pastor once told me, it's like placing a sharp rock into a river; the river will eventually smooth the rock out, but it will take time for it to happen.

But this week something happened! I was invited to speak at a Bible Study from a different university here in JP. The leader wanted to do something special for the final study of the year and so she planned to have the study at the beach with me as a guest speaker/teacher. It was cool; we talked about unity in the church as Paul explains it in 1 Corinthians 1. He tells the believers that they were really not all that great, important, cool, rich or whatever, before they came to Christ. But that is exactly why Jesus chose them. Paul wanted to remind the believers of their humble beginnings so that they could continue in that same humility because that would be the only way for them to establish real unity in the church.

We had a good time with the students at the beach discussing some things about the passage after we had finished. We are actually hoping to see some of them at a little end of the year party for ABU (the para church organization that we are working with here at the university) that we are going to tonight (Friday).

On another note, we are continuing to meet at the beach every Wednesday and Saturday nights for prayer and evangelism. So far it has been cool, but we would really like to see God do something great through our time down there. Please keep these times in prayer when you think of us down here in JP.

Trip to Recife

2008-11-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

Our friend Katarina is the typical Northeasterner here in Brazil: loud, boisterous, spontaneous, super fun and very hospitable. We met her in Campo Mourão when she moved down there to go to the Bible College last fall. But when problems arose back home for her with her apartment and father becoming very ill, she had to leave the Bible College to take care of business. This was the last time we saw her until this past weekend.

Now Katarina is living back in Recife and is running a little Crepe shop that is below her apartment. Once every month she invites all her friends and family for a special service at the shop to encourage believers and preach the gospel. This last weekend, she invited Lu and I to come share a message at the restaurant.

It was really super cool! We had about 30 people come to the shop and I spoke out of Romans 3 about the purpose of the Law. Most people do not understand the Law and how it relates to us as Christians. With so many misconceptions, I took the opportunity to clarify the issue.

The Law is not for us to live by, as a list of rules for our life. The real purpose of the Law is to show us our sin and our need for the Savior, Jesus. We see the standard and consequently see how we have fallen short of it. For example, the commandment, "Do not lie." The meaning is very obvious, but the problem is that we all have lied. So we are guilty of breaking this law. As a result there is a punishment coming to us....unless we have the Savior to save us from the consequence of our sin.

After we have come to the Savior, we no longer live by these rules, but by the leading of the Holy Spirit, who leads us to do everything we need to do. He leads us closer to God and never leads us to break any of the commandments. Many Christians continue to live by the rules after they receive the Holy Spirit and miss out on the true freedom we have from the Lord.

I love this message because it has something relevant for both Christians and non-Christians a like. Those who were not Christians got to hear about their sin and their need for the wonderful Savior, Jesus. Those who were Christians were able to hear about their freedom in the Holy Spirit and be encouraged to follow Him. Overall a really great weekend trip for us!

2008-11-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, the organization we work with at the Federal University (translated University Bible Alliance) held their annual weekend conference for college students throughout the state. The purpose was to teach and motivate students about their roles as Christians at university campuses they attend. And they invited me to be one of the keynote speakers for the weekend, which was a tremendous honor for me.

My topic was the relevance of the Christian student at the University. This was sort of a no brainer, since the relevance of a Christian in any place is huge as Jesus has called all of us to be the light of the world. So I went through the end of 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul talks about having an eternal perspective and about the ministry of reconciliation. He basically says how his eternal perspective makes him view people in terms of where they are going when they die. It's like Paul is thinking, "Is this person going to Heaven or not?" With this simple separation, Paul divides the world into two categories to know how to address each person.

After this He talks about the ministry of reconciliation which the ministry that God has given to all Christians. Reconciliation is moving from a state of hatred or hostility to friendship. This is what Jesus has done for us on the cross, removing our sin that created the hostility between us and God. Now He is calling us to tell others about this reconciliation that come through Him.

With these two things ideas, we attempted to show the students at the conference about their role at the university, being Student Missionaries to their friends and professors. Afterward we had a short time of questions and answers, which was really fun for me. The students asked some great questions about the ministry and their roles there. I thought it was cool because I was able to speak from my personal experience from when I was in college and share from the lessons I learned. It was blessing for me to be able to be used like this and hopefully there will be even more opportunities like this in the future.

Our New Church Building

2008-10-08T17:06:00.000-07:00

We first heard about Casa do Galeto from one of the ladies who has been attending our church. She lives only two blocks from the little outdoor patio-style restaurant and is very good friends with the owner. After telling us about it, she said that she could talk to her friend and maybe our church could use it for our services since they are not open on Sunday nights. My initial thought was, "Sure, let's check it out. What do we have to lose by asking?"

So the next week Lu and I went to the restaurant to see it and talk with the owner, a really sweet lady named Luzimar. Located in a simple neighborhood, the restaurant is by no means fancy. But it has a roof to keep the rain out, no walls to let the wind blow through and is fully equipped with tables and chairs for us to use as we please. Moreover, when we talked to her about the price, she did not want to charge us too much since we were just starting out, so we settled on $100 Reais per month, about $45 or 50 dollars (depending on the current exchange rate). Considering how some churches pay thousands per month for rent here in Brazil, we were super excited about it! So we decided to give a test run for the month of October, and if at the end we don't like it, we can find another place.

This last Sunday we held our first service at our new location. We had a great turnout; it was our biggest so far (15 people). We also had several people there who were either not Christians or we were just not sure where they stood with the Lord exactly, since we are just getting to know them. But going through the first half of Romans 2, talking about the judgement of God that will come, led us perfectly into a presentation of the good news of Jesus Christ. I had the opportunity to show that although God's wrath was waiting for people who sin, there is a solution to spare us from this judgment, faith in Jesus' death and resurrection. At the end of the message three people raised their hands to make a proclamation of faith in Jesus and to have their sins forgiven! I could not have been happier!

Our first service in our new location was a complete success! And Luzimar, the owner, came, accepted the Lord, and now wants to invite some of her friends as well. Praise the Lord! His Grace is truly amazing!

Refreshment Trip

2008-09-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

Last week, Luciana and I got to enjoy a quick getaway with two of our new friends here in João Pessoa, as we went to a beach called Porto de Galinhas. Translated as "Port of the Chickens," this Northeastern beach town is one of the premier beaches in all of Brazil (and that is really saying something!). The name comes from the days of the slave trade when the slaves were referred to as chickens and Porto was a landing place for ships coming to the Northeast. We had heard and read all about Porto during our time here but had never gone.

This place is unreal! They have reefs on the outside that block the waves from coming into the beach in some areas during low tide. In these very spots, rock structures inside the reef form natural pools anywhere from about 3-10 feet deep that are filed with tropical fish that you can swim with. The fish are so used to being fed by tourist that they swim right up to you while you are swimming. It is really an amazing experience.

Our friends' family have a little beach house there in Porto where we stayed for free for two nights and checked out the beaches. I guess it was sort of a celebration of starting our new church.

After our little getaway, we came back to JP for our second service last Sunday. I got a little worried when at 5:15 there was nobody in our apartment except for us. But as will probably always be the case here, everyone showed up late. People just don't come on time, so we are starting at 5:30 instead of 5:00. But we did have a great service, going through Romans 1:8-17, where I was able to explain what the gospel is, how it is relevant to all of us today and why we should believe in it. Really good fundamental things for our new church here.

This last photo is of the first synagogue in all the Americas! It is not open anymore for normal use, but it is a museum about the Jews who first came to the Americas. It was super cool!

Our First Service

2008-09-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we had our first official service for our new church. We had told everyone we knew (which is not really that many people), we placed an ad in the newspaper, and we contacted many people by email and phone. But we really had no idea who would actually come. We did not know if we would have 30 people or 3!

So come Sunday afternoon, we got prepared. We moved the furniture in our living room to fit more people, brought in extra seating from the office, cleaned the whole house, prepared coffee and snacks for afterwards; we prepared everything and waited. Come 5 o'clock, we had one person! I started to worry a little. But then slowly more people showed up... it just was not on time.

Overall, things went really smoothly. Worship went well, despite an inexperienced worship leader (me), we had a good time teaching the word as we started the book of Romans, chapter 1, verses 1-7, and we had good fellowship afterwards. Our service ended at 7 pm and by the time Lu and I said good-bye to the final group of people, it was 9:30! So we hung out a bunch afterwards, which was really fun.

I think we had 11 people here for our first service, which to me is great. I am not sure if any of them will come back (hopefully they will), but we will see what the Lord does. We have simply been praying and asking God to move in people's hearts to bring them and help them feel at home here. We believe He will do that by His grace!

Thank you for all your prayers for us. Please continue to pray for us as we continue down this long path with Him.

In The Beginning...

2008-09-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

A church plant is an interesting project to undertake. In preparation, you spend months praying about where you are going to go, you develop a love for the people there, and you come to the city all excited about doing something great for the Lord, hoping to help thousands of people along the way.

But you find something very interesting after you arrive; nobody seems to be waiting for you. More accurately, nobody seems to know that you are even there.

When Lu and I arrived in João Pessoa, we did not expect them to have a city-wide holiday, a parade, or even have the mayor come to greet us. We really did not expect much from the people here at all. But after our arrival it became extremely clear that we were here alone. We had very little to do and even fewer people to do it with. We had come to start a new church, but what do you do to start a church? What are the first practical steps you need to take? And how do you start something with no people? As we have learned, it all takes time to develop.

As we celebrate our six month anniversary of being in João Pessoa, we are now ready to start our church! This Sunday, the 14th of September, we are opening our house for the first official "service" of our church. It will not be fancy by any means; we do not have a projector, sound system or even chairs for the church. But we will try to welcome everyone who comes with arms wide open. We will worship the Lord in music and prayer, and faithfully teach God's Word. Then we will leave the results to God, to see what He wants to do with it. Please join with us in prayer this weekend for our church here in JP, as we begin this Sunday evening!
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On another note, Lu and I recently celebrated our 2 year anniversary! We spent a great day together and enjoyed some fantastic traditional foods from Northeastern Brazil. I almost cannot believe that 2 years has flown by so fast! But it has been a great 2 years that makes me look forward to many more to come!

Recent Activities

2008-09-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

After getting involved with A.B.U. (the Christian parachurch organization that we are working with at the Federal University) we have found our ministry opportunities increasing almost every week!

For starters, we have our weekly Bible study on Thursday nights which has had fairly consistent turnouts over the past couple months. Also, I have recently started doing discipleship with one of the guys who comes to our study, Thiago. He is an english major at the Federal University who has a genuine hunger for truth. He wants to learn more about God and apologetics to help him share the Lord with his classmates. Discipleship with a guy like this is fun because he is so excited to learn.

We also had a campus-wide outreach done by ABU where they asked me to share a message about the meaning of life for the students. The turnout was not exactly what they were hoping for, as not many non-Christians came to hear the message. But I shared about having an eternal perspective that causes us to live not for this life here on earth, but for the life that is to come afterward. I figured that whether they were Christians or not, it could give them something to think about in concern to the way they live their lives. (You can see me above sharing with my beautiful translator seated beside me! She's cute!)

As our schedule slowly fills we are enjoying building deeper relationships with people. That is really important here in Brazil since people here are generally much more relational than in the US. But I also believe that is what the ministry is all about; it's about people and having relationships with them. That is the part of my job that I probably love the most. I am blessed to be able to spend time with quality people, talk to them about Jesus and help them to know him more. It is amazing if you think about it; I have the best job in the world!

New Worship Leader?

2008-08-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Ever since we started praying about moving to João Pessoa, one of the biggest needs that we have prayed for is a worship leader for our church. Recently, while already here in JP, the Lord spoke to me about this very issue. He said to me, "You can do it."

I originally started learning the guitar in college so that I could play some worship songs on my own. Although I have very little musical ability, my roommates helped me to learn chords and songs so that I could worship when I was by myself. It worked; I can play many worship songs since they are usually fairly simple. But I do not have a great voice or a great understanding of music, nor guitar. Consequently, I never really aspired to be a worship leader.

But when the Lord spoke to me, I knew it was true....I could do worship for our church. So, we found a friend who bought a guitar with hopes of learning how to play. She has had the guitar for over two years now and has never had the time to start lessons. So she lent it to me until I can get my guitar down from the states.

I have been practicing everyday to relearn songs that I had forgotten, and to learn them, this time, in Portuguese! It is a whole new challenge for me, but something I am having fun with so far. I figure if the Lord can use Balaam's donkey to speak His words, he can use me to lead to worship for our church.

New Bible Study and more

2008-07-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

When we first arrived here in João Pessoa we really had no clue what we were supposed to do. I mean, we knew we were going to start a new church, but we we really did not know how to do that practically. What steps did we need to take to get this thing going? how would people find out about us? So we decided to pray.

In our prayer time the Lord spoke to me about the Federal University here in João Pessoa. Consequently, we started going there to pray for the campus and the students. And after a few weeks, we made contact with the President of an on-campus Christian organization there at the University. To make a long story short, we are now doing a Thursday night English Bible Study everyweek at the University.

We have now done it for three weeks and the results have not been overwhelming. But we do have students coming and that is what matters. Last week we had 4 students there, plus Lu and I. Not bad. But we are praying and asking the Lord to bring the multitudes. He is capable of doing far more than we can imagine so could He not bring 100 students?

We also had a good story that came about as we made a flier to post up around the University. I made it on the computer and put it on my pendrive so I could print it out there on campus. When we went to this little copy/internet store there, the lady who owned it turned out to be a Christian. When she read our flier for an English Bible Study, she was so excited she printed out 50 color fliers for FREE! So cool. That would have cost $40 normally. I know $40 is not like winning the Lottery, but still just very cool how the Lord blessed us!

On a final note, this last weekend we had our first visitors since we arrived in JP. An old friend from back home, Steve, and his girlfriend Korina came for a visit. They were travelling throughout Brazil for about 3 weeks and made a stop for the weekend here. We had a blast showing them the best spots in our new city and being able to catch up over some traditional Northeastern food. It was a great time.

A New Season

2008-06-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

My last entry was inspired by a few moments of real frustration that hit Lu and I as we tried to get things done in our new city, João Pessoa. But as we have learned, things just don’t work the same way here; it seemed that everything was so difficult for us. But now it seems we are coming out of a difficult time into a more fruitful season.

We recently moved to a new apartment that is bigger than the last one. We now have a spare room for visitors to stay in. So if you want to come visit, we have a place for you!

We also have opportunities in two different areas as we are going to start working with a group of Christians at the Federal University and be starting our home Bible Study soon. The group at the University is excited about starting an English Bible Study and that is exactly what we have been praying about doing. Our home Bible Study will hopefully start soon after we contact people who responded to a recent outreach in JP.

Overall, we are really excited about the possibility of everything the Lord has been setting up for us. We think that all these things can be the beginning of a great work of the Lord!

2008-05-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

How big of a difference is there between first and third world countries? Growing up I never really thought about this question. In fact I sort of just assumed the difference was that we had money and they were poor. But now that I am actually living in a third world country (or “developing country” for you PC people) and experiencing the difference first hand, the separation between 1st and 3rd has never looked so big.

You might be wondering why I’m talking about this now since I have been in Brazil for over two years. But living in the South of Brazil and living in the Northeast are two different worlds entirely. Perhaps you could think about it as if Curitiba and the surrounding area in the south are more second world (although they are not really), and the Northeast is third. That is at least how my wife and I are seeing it…and she is Brazilian!

There are so many differences between here and the South; Luciana is actually making a list of the things that are different. But the main thing, the most frustrating thing, the thing that makes me want to return to the US for the first time since I moved to Brazil, is that things just don’t work here! We have been here for two and half months and we still don’t have a telephone line in our apartment! We have had medical insurance for over a month and half and we still don’t have our insurance card so that we can go to the doctor! We have had a few things sent to us in the mail and not one of them has arrived at our apartment! We have called numerous companies for various products and issues and almost none of them has called us back. I called five or six times and talked to the head manager of the furniture store we bought from because we had multiple problems; she never once apologized, never once had an answer, but told me she would find out about the issue and call me back. She never called back once! Even after I asked her directly why she never called back, she still had no answer.

We got charged interest on our health insurance for last month because they said my credit card had a problem. They called the day before the payment was due and said they could e-mail the form to us, we could print it out and then pay it in cash so it would not be late. We thought, “Great!” They never sent the e-mail. We then got charged interest for having a late payment. When I went there in person to talk to the manager, she just said, sorry, there is nothing I can do because you were late. “But it was your fault; you guys never sent the e-mail to us” I argued. “Sorry.”

Although João Pessoa is still Brazil, it is like being in a different country. We regularly have to fight against frustration as things just don’t work. But the thing is, they will never work! We cannot fight against the system and change it. We cannot make people think that their customers are valuable to their business and that they should treat them well. The only thing we can do is bring Jesus to them! He is the only hope this country has for everything. It is in this mission that we find our comfort to continue on.

Getting Settled

2008-03-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

We arrived in João Pessoa planning to stay with our friends for only a few days until we could move into a new apartment (they are newlyweds!). We had already found a few possible apartments before we arrived and all of them were directly rented through the owner, so we had no rental agency beaurocracy to deal with. No problem, right?

Well, just like the situation with our plane tickets, nothing came easy. We found the apartments over priced, not kept-up, or lacking an area or connection for a washing machine. We even spent one entire day walking the city looking at apartment buildings. But we finally found an apartment, small but nice, and the owner said it was ours. Unfortunately, he did not say that we would have to wait almost another week to get the keys!

Finally, after two weeks in our friend’s apartment, we got our own apartment. But here in Brazil, when you get an apartment, it normally comes with a sink and toilet in the bathroom, a sink in the kitchen with maybe a cabinet, and maybe a third sink for the laundry. That is exactly what we got; nothing more! So, we spent a few days shopping for everything for our apartment. Unfortunately while we were waiting for the things to arrive, we were sitting on the floor doing nothing, because all we had were a few things for the kitchen that we brought with us, and a new mattress (at least we had a place to sleep!).

The good news is, now everything has arrived and we finally have a home. It feels so good to have a closet to hang your clothes in! After we thought about it for a minute, we have been living out of a suitcase since December 18th when we left Brazil for the states. We lived 5 1/2 weeks in the states, a week in Campo Mourão, a month in Curitiba and almost 3 weeks here in João Pessoa; all out of the suitcases. We are so relieved to finally be getting situated. Now we can begin to think the work the Lord sent us here to do. Praise God!

Arrived

2008-03-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

We have arrived! We made it to João Pessoa Wednesday morning, March 5th, at about 4 am. We were tired and ready for a shower, but we were relieved to arrive without any complications. Our friends, ready for our early arrival, welcomed us in and showed to a long anticipated shower and bed.

The next few days we spent searching…searching for an apartment, furniture and a better orientation for the city. Nonetheless the Lord is faithful. He opened-up a nice, affordable apartment in the same building as our friends, Hercules and Jill. We are especially excited because the neighborhood seems to be the perfect location, being centered almost directly in the middle of the city; we are half way between downtown and the beaches (only ten minutes to either destination).

Yet even before we get completely situated, the work is ready to begin. A few weeks ago several groups of street performers and evangelist got together in João Pessoa for a big outreach, going to parks, beaches, markets, and downtown preaching the gospel. As a result, Hercules has over 300 contact cards of people who made decisions for Jesus! Now, I am not naïve enough to believe that all these cards have people who completely understand the decision they made and that they are waiting for me to arrive to help them walk with Jesus. But I know there are at minimum a few young sheep in need of guidance. Obviously, these young believers are in need of discipleship and a church, and that is why we are here. Praise the Lord for His amazing timing!

Finally!

2008-02-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

When we returned from our visit to the states, we planned to leave Campo Mourão, visit Curitiba for a week, buy tickets from there to João Pessoa, and then move. So simple, right? Well, one week in Curitiba has turned into 4 and the simple task of buying plane tickets has turned from a little hurdle into a sizable mountain.

We found tickets on the internet with 3 different airline companies. The first company indefinitely cancelled all their flights to João Pessoa on the very day we tried to buy from them. The second two companies would not accept my international credit card. After deciding to buy with cash using a travel agent, three times the price rose from the time we checked it until the time we arrived at the agency with the money! Finally, I tried to buy with an internet discount ticket vender (like Expedia or Orbitz). Most of them don't sell tickets that originate in Brazil, but we finally found one that had tickets originating in Brazil, sold e-tickets (not paper tickets) and accepted international credit cards (supposedly). After buying the tickets and finally feeling relieved to be done with it all, they sent me a notice saying my card was denied...again.

After all this planning and searching for tickets, leaving people here in Curitiba and in João Pessoa wondering when we would leave, we finally are ready to leave on Tuesday the 4th. Please pray for us. It has been pretty stressful with everything and we just want to move to João Pessoa to get started. The good thing is that we have had more time with our friends and family here in Curitiba; so all this waiting was definitely not a waste of time. Praise the Lord. Also as a result of all our waiting and frustration, we have a greater urgency to get to João Pessoa. It seems the Lord was working in the midst of all our confussion.

A Year and Half

2008-02-19T16:48:00.000-08:00

Today, Luciana and I are celebrating our year and a half anniversary of marriage. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. It seems like just a few months ago we were standing at the altar at our church and now a year and half has passed. But I guess we have been super busy starting our life in Curitba, doing ministry, moving back to Campo Mourão, visiting the states, moving away from Campo Mourão again, and now preparing to move up to João Pessoa.

But in all this I am so blessed to have such an amazing wife who loves the Lord and serves Him along side me. She truly is the perfect match for me from the Lord. The Proverbs tell us that "a prudent wife is from the Lord." (19:14) Oh how He knows to give perfect gifts to His children! Thank you Lord for my wife, Luciana!

The Move

2008-02-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

Our move has begun! Luciana and I returned to Brazil at the end of January just in time for our annual Calvary Chapel Carnaval Retreat at the Bible College. We had a great time, and got to catch up with a lot of friends from other churches. The Pastor's also had the opportunity to share with the whole group our plans to move to Joao Pessoa, to pray for us and send us out with the proverbial "right hand of fellowship". It was a special time for Lu and I.

Following the retreat, we packed up all our stuff there in Campo Mourao and went to Curitiba to visit Lu's family and our friends here. Now we are preparing to move to the Northeast, to Joao Pessoa next week! We are super excited, but also a bit terrified. We know the Lord is guiding and providing for us and will continue to do so, so we find comfort in Him. But please pray for us: for our move, a place to live, a car, all the things you need to live like a bed, stove, fridge, etc., for a quick adjustment, for favor from the people there, and just for God's leading in all we do.