Cactus Flower

This study was part of a day of prayer hosted virtually on April 4, 2020 - Together in Prayer, Calm in Christ

Our prayers are with each of our supporting churches during this crazy days.  We are so thankful for each one.  Thank you for your prayers for us and for our ministry in Brazil. TRUST GOD - OBEY AUTHORITIES - HELP OTHERS Pray for the interior communities along the  many dirt roads in Northeast Brazil during these days of world crisis.

How does a person pray for an on-going, world-wide catastrophe? That was the question I set out to answer earlier this week.  I wanted to have some sort of low-key [not live] prayer event for the followers of our Brazilian version of Umbrella Prayers called Sombrinhas de Oração.   In this quest for information I sought answers from friends and my Sombrinhas' colleague, Anne Almeida.  We both decided to "sponsor an event" through our Facebook page.  Interestingly as I set up the "event," Facebook gave me several warnings about sponsoring a group activity during a health crisis with stay at home edicts in effect.  I made sure I wrote "on-line" only and "each one in their own home" in several pertinent locations. On Wednesday or Thursday we decided on a Bible passage for our "guests" to read and I set to making a brief devotional and looked for a list of prayer points.  All day on Friday we worked and edited and correct...

I'm not really sure when I first heard the word.  When I did it seemed far away and remote, not very likely to cross the big ocean and come into my little interior, middle of nowhere, world.  Little by little it started getting closer and closer to "home."  Byron and I were in the interior for a two day trip.  I had already informed our family that we would be out of touch for about 24 hours.  We left for a little place called Várzea Grande where we showed the Jesus Film on a Wednesday night.  Our "crowd" was small, but so was the community!  We actually had around a 90% turnout and all were very attentive.   We planned to spend the night car camping off a little used road and head on to our regular Bible study students in Lage dos Negros on Thursday.  The family that hosted the film insisted that we stay with them.  They gave us a good supper and a nice breakfast the next morning. March 12, 2020 Lage dos Negros The next day w...

Two years ago. I remember what I wore. I woke up early. I walked a million times between the church, the mission house and the fellowship hall. It had snowed two days before, but this day was just right... perfect!   Everything didn't go quite as planned.  I remember the Brazilian cheese breads were sort of cold.  The kids got restless in the wagon.  My attempts at live streaming on Facebook were rather feeble.  But none of those things really mattered.   What was important was seeing two young people follow God in obedience to marry well.  And that they did.  God had brought them together under interesting and unusual circumstances.  He had planned it and guided it.  This day was a celebration of just that. I told my daughter-in-love last night that it was one of the top ten best days of my life.  And indeed it was.  When my day isn't going quite right or the grief bug bites, I can look back over the photos from Marc...

Last week we headed interior on Friday instead of our usual day - Thursday.  In spite of recent rains and the threat of rain showers, we opted to take the yellow sand rail/dune buggy.  We left super early in hopes of stopping by the house of a Sr. Walter whom we'd met a few weeks ago and had accepted one of the solar Bible players.   Everything seemed to be going dandy as we got ready to leave when we got a message from the third on our list of students canceling her Bible lesson.  Ah well, no problems, right!  It would give us more time to visit with the others, right?  Well, it should have.  As we got close to the place to turn off to visit our Bible player person, the oil light on the dashboard came on.   Sure enough a little tube had come loose and almost all of the motor oil had leaked out.  We had just passed the first house of a little community.  Engines don't go without motor oil.  So Byron traded his helmet for a ha...