On the Road Again

Our first weekend back in Lage was hard. We were jet-lagged and unsure what to expect. Thankfully, the woman helping with the children still had lessons left in the book I’d given her and agreed to finish them, giving me a break for the first few weeks. Byron jumped right into the Friday and Sunday Bible studies. Saturday afternoon, we visited our faithful friend Jué, grandmother of Max, the boy in a wheelchair near Lage. Byron went to soccer, where more boys showed up than ever! An unsaved man helps with the older boys, and a church teenager has been helping with the younger ones.

Our second weekend coincided with the first round of presidential elections. Friday attendance was low, and soccer was cancelled because the school served as a polling place. The Sunday street fair was moved to Saturday. We still hadn’t seen the family who had been attending Bible studies at the church, but we visited Jué again. On Sunday, people kept passing the church on their way to vote. Several questioned why I was cleaning since, they said, no one would come to church that night. One of our key members had also hinted that we should cancel or move the service to Saturday, but no one told us beforehand. Only three adults and one child came Sunday night. It was disappointing, and Byron returned to Sobradinho on Monday feeling discouraged.

This weekend was a little better. Friday’s Bible study had a reasonable turnout, though no one mentioned or apologized for missing the previous Sunday. Soccer had a good number of boys, but sadly, no men from church seem interested in helping. All our afternoon home Bible studies were cancelled for various reasons. I tried to get the women involved in planning something for Children's Day on Monday. It looks like we'll at least have snacks for the children during Children's Church, and I've bought some gifts.

Monday morning update:  The ladies came through with snacks for the children. There were 14 children present!  I only had enough gifts for sixteen!

It's been super-hot since we got back from our time in the USA.  It's rather comical that we were the coldest during our whole trip while waiting during our layover in the airport in São Paulo!  

Pray as we seek to get our little church plant growing and flourishing in the weeks and months to come.  It has been discouraging, but we can hope that in the future it will have all been worth it all.