A Skinny Little Boy

See that fellow in the middle with a teeth smile?  I first met him in 2010 here in Sobradinho, Bahia, Brazil.  We had a missions team coming from the USA in conjunction with other missionaries.  One of the things on the list for the group to do was children's activities.  Somehow we thought a camp for boys and girls out on the then-still-in-use Treasure Island Camp would be a great idea.  

It was a crazy idea!  We had a horrible time convincing mother's to let us "take" their children.  Many were certain we, the Americans, were going to haul their precious babes off to slave labor in the states or worse.  At one point we had no kids signed up and the clock was ticking before our team would fly in.  Somehow we had to find children.

I felt like the person in the Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang movie who

went through the streets looking for boys and girls with his wagon while all the parents hid their littles ones... what to do.

In the midst of the problem solving, a teacher friend suggested that she could help.  She worked at the local school that was considered to be in the poorest part of town.  She figured with the support of the principal we could get parents to sign up their sons and daughters.  Somehow it seemed to do the trick.  Notes on official school letterhead went out to previously selected children deemed to be the most needy.  One by one I visited each selected child in their home to explain where we would be going, what we would be doing and exactly when we were coming back and that school officials would be going along for the entire retreat.

When I went to visit the home of this fellow, he wasn't really on my list.  His sister was, but he was actually too young.  When I asked for the mother to give her permission for the sister to go along, she stated that the girl could go if I would take the boy as well.  Oh, mercy.   I hate finagling.  I can't stand bending the rules.  I needed campers.  I said, Tell me his name!  Felipe Kairon dos Santos Alcântara.  I signed him up.  And he went.  His sister went.  They both accepted Christ as their Savior during the retreat.

But that's not the end of the story!

After the retreat Byron rode his bike all over town doing follow-up Bible studies with each boy and girl that had gone.  40+ kids!  Some accepted to do the study, some did not.  Some started coming to church.  Some we never saw again.  Felipe and his sister, Werica, didn't live right in town.  They lived just outside the city up closer to the lake, a little too far to ride a bike, and much too far for two little kids to walk to church all by themselves.  

Byron visited and started Bible studies.  I don't remember if Felipe did the study, too, or if it was just his sister.  I'll have to ask!  The sister was more outspoken that her little brother and asked about going to Sunday School.  At that time our Sunday School was held in the morning with no worship service afterwards just classes.  Byron told them if they could get to our house in time which was closer than the church, we would take them and then take them all the way home.

Oh, what a house full of children!  Felipe at that time had four sisters, Werica, and three younger ones.  Many times they would all show up at our house, sometimes quite early.  Always thirsty from their walk of about a mile.  We often wondered if they would ever give up.  They rarely missed.  They started showing up with more and more cousins and friends.  They were the start of our "bus ministry" in our old red Chevy Suburban.  The car was often so full that Byron and the boys would ride bikes to church to allow for more room for kids.

Werica and Felipe were baptized at different times when they were both a little older.  When Felipe was baptized a younger sister named Clarinha was, too.  One by one all of Felipe's little sisters have made decisions for Christ but the very youngest who is only 3 years old.  In fact because of this brother and sister, their mother came to the Lord, several neighbors and many, many people have heard the Gospel.

Felipe is an active member of the church here in Sobradinho.  He leads the music program, teaches in Children's Church and does the yard work.  And he has been doing those things for several years.

On a recent evangelistic outreach/missions trip to a small interior town in cooperation with Wordless Ministries, Felipe made an important life decision - to serve God in missions.  He didn't even plan to go on the trip.  Participants had to pay a fee to help with costs and he just didn't plan to go.  But God wanted him on that trip.  The leader of the event saw him working around the church helping to set things up for the team's arrival and asked him to be involved.  Felipe doesn't have all the answers yet like when, where and how, but he feels God has a job for him to do.  

This next month he heads to the New Tribes Mission of Brazil's Peniel Bible Institute for a year of missionary training. 

God took a little skinny fellow and brought him to an odd place to hear the Gospel.  Now that young man wants to take the Gospel for others to hear.  I love this story.  I hope you will pray for Felipe over the course of the next year.  His funds are small, but his God is big and we know God will provide all he needs.