English Party

My teammate Matt and I are runners. Over the 7 years that we have been together in Brasil we have spent many hours running together. We kind of go in spurts because he normally likes to run in the afternoons and I prefer to run early in the morning. Lately we've found time to run together a couple of days a week. It's been good for both of us. We always end our runs with prayer.

Monday is a running day for us. This past Monday we spent some time talking and praying about something that happened in our house last Saturday night.

For a while Benay and I have felt led to start a ministry to our Brasilian friends who speak English. We finally found a free weekend to do it last weekend. We called Matt and his wife, Waleska, to see if they would be interested in starting this ministry with us. They said yes. We knew they would. They have a heart for the lost and are always looking for new ways to reach new people. Waleska actually teaches English to Brasilians. We also called some other English speakers in our church to invite them to walk with us in this ministry. Almost every Christian brother and sister that we invited came.

Last week we were having a conversation and Matt made a statement that shares exactly what Benay and I feel in our hearts. He said, "I no longer consider myself someone in the church of Christ but as just a Christian." Why do I share that? Because God has blessed us with other people who believe just as we do. That the name on the front of a church building (if you even have a church building) is not relevant. What's in your heart is relevant. We try to serve God the best we can and we know we need all the help we can get in reaching those in this city that don't yet know Christ.

One family God has blessed us with is Jeff and Cam and their two boys, Blake and Parker. Parker and Anderson are actually in the same class and they are best friends. We love this family. They are Baptist missionaries and they think like us. Our unity in Christ means everything. We called them last week and invited them to be a part of this new ministry. They were here last Saturday as well.

We had a great night. Our house was full of visitors who had never been to our house.

We started with the 'Who am I?' game. You put someone's name on your back and then you have to ask people one question to give clues as to who you are. You keep guessing until you get it. We've done this kind of game before and it's always fun.

Here are some of the famous Americans that were there:

Alexander Graham Bell.......
..........Jennifer Aniston and her date Homer Simpson......

.........Oprah, Ronald McDonald and Walt Disney.......

..........Julia Roberts and an attempt at her big horse teeth (not a fan)......
......and the super cool Tom Cruise.
The funniest was when our brother, César, could not figure out who he was. No matter how many clues we gave him he literally had no clue. We finally told him he was Jerry Seinfeld. He had never heard of him.

In everything that we do, Benay and I try to share our faith. With something we called an English party we didn't feel like we could just bust out a Bible study on the first night, but we did share a little bit of God's love.

Benay printed up the words to the song "Big House" by Audio Adrenaline but left some words out. We listened to the song a few times and then we had everyone fill in some blanks. It was a good way to learn English and hear a Christian song with a beat as well. At the end we added a Bible verse and that was the extent of our study time.

We then enjoyed fellowship and food. Even our cookies were English teachers. God just naturally opens doors in those times of fellowship. I had the chance to share with Garrett's soccer coach and his wife after they asked about house church and what it was.

Our plan is to do this once a month. God is already blessing it.

It was a great beginning and we think everyone had a great time.