When our team was training together to come to Brasil, we were given some ideas, by past Brasilian missionaries, of what church should look like in Brasil, when and and how often to have team meetings, ideas on how to reach people who don't know Jesus, etc.
We moved down here and implemented a lot of those ideas. If you've followed this blog for any length of time you know that God has turned our preconceived ideas of what success is on its ear.
It became pretty obvious after a while here that some of the things we were trying to do were not exactly Spirit led things, but things that had been somewhat successful in other part of Brasil but just weren't reaching the lost here. Our team wanted to follow the Spirit, whatever that meant and whatever that looked like. We began study among ourselves, and then we studied Acts together with our church family. The Spirit spoke through those times together.
We felt Spirit led us to close our building and to begin a network of house churches. This change has been the hardest, most rewarding, most hairpulling, most incredible experience I've ever had as a believer. With each challenge God reminds us that truly being His family isn't easy. Life with our blood family isn't easy so why should we expect true Christian living to be full of warm fuzzies? It's not, but perseverance brings us closer.
God has changed what our team looks like and continues to make changes. Since we moved here in 2002, two families have left this work along with a single woman. Another family, the Terrys, will be returning back to the states in January.
That will leave Benay, myself, Matt and Paul as the only American missionaries left with this team. Since they've arrived here, Matt and Paul have married Brasilian women who are partnering with them in sharing Christ to our city.
All of the changes God has made to our original plans have been to His glory. One of the things I like best that He has done, is the way He changed our meeting times together. When we first arrived here we were given the idea of meeting together every Monday morning for a "business type" meeting to go over problems, finances, etc. We would also pray, but somehow the prayer part seemed to get pushed down over the important "starting a new church and all that comes with that" part.
If you know me (Kevin), you know that that was one of the hardest parts of my week. I love being outside. I love interacting with people and being out on the street. There is also a reason I never worked at a desk job. I can't stand anything that looks or smells like a business meeting. I also love to pray with my brothers and sisters in Christ. So, Mondays were tough for me. I was there, but was thinking of when it would be over. We would spend 2-3 hours on "stuff" and just a few minutes in prayer.
Over the last couple of years God has transformed our times together into the majority of time in prayer and just a few minutes on the "business stuff." We have disagreements and tough discussions when needed, but at the heart of our time together is prayer and our prayer time can make those tough talks times more compassionate.
A few months ago Matt began praying that God would bring us new people. Wow, I thought, that's simple and perfect.
We realize that there is power in prayer but also God expects us to faithfully act along with our prayers. As soon as Matt began praying this weekly prayer, he began telling stories of how God had brought someone new into his life that week. The rest of our prayer group began praying the same thing, and God began sending new people into our lives. It's been an incredible thing to see God work.
I am an inconsistent prayer person at best. I take great encouragement from a Christian sister of mine. When I told her we were pregnant with Giovanni, I asked if she would pray daily for Benay and our baby. She told me she could not promise that but she would promise to pray for them when the Spirit put them on her heart. I loved that response.
I guess the Spirit was working on me one Wednesday morning a few weeks ago. I am part of an accountability group that meets on Wednesday mornings. (A later blog on this group is coming.) That Wednesday I prayed the prayer that Matt started months ago. "Lord put new people in our path."
The very next day I went to Carys's soccer practice. Normally I don't go. On her soccer days she eats lunch at school and then goes straight to practice. That day Anderson and I hung out with Carys, ate lunch together and then went to practice.
We got there and before practice I saw Carys talking to her coach and some other man I had never seen before. She runs over to me to tell me the man was asking her if I was in the military (I get that alot with the short haircut). He then came over and started speaking to me. Turns out he lived 5 years in Arizona (about 20 years ago) and went to college there before returning to Brasil. I could feel God opening that door just a little bit as He answered my prayer from the day before.
He asked what we do here and I could feel God opening up the door even more. I began telling him about being missionaries. He wanted to know how our church worked. He told me he was raised Catholic but really only went to church for his baptism and his wedding. I began telling him about "being church" instead of "doing church." He shared some more things in his life. I shared some more things from my life. We talked for an hour and it passed by like 10 minutes. I even shared with him my prayer from the day before and how I felt God purposely put our conversation together.
He liked what he heard about having a personal relationship with Christ as he always had an interest in studying more about the Bible.
Please pray for my new friend. We've invited him to a Christmas party we have every year in our house (Dirty Santa style) and we'll see where this new relationship ends up. We just keep trying to join Christ where He is working instead of forcing something that doesn't belong.
We pray that in the future we will be blogging about our new friend as we share his decision to follow Christ.
We couldn't be more proud of her. 
We had a fun night. After the party we had a late supper. We aren't really a late night supper kind of family.
After supper Ansley was able to go with Bronwyn to her after graduation party. They had a lot of fun together. 
Everyone is a little bit tired today but for good reason.
............and we spent some time in his neighborhood. 
I guess I have to admit that I'm (cough, cough) impressed with her and her time. Way to go sis.
She's here for a two week visit.
.....Anderson had her helping him make cookies.......
......and she only lets Giovanni out of her arms for about 1 hour per day.
She's already been to Ansley's theater play, Anderson's end of the school year program, Garrett's soccer practice, one of our favorite places to eat and there's lots more to come. We're keeping her busy but it seems like she doesn't mind.
They were actually hurrying to get out because rain has been pounding the state of Santa Catarina. Roads have been washed out.
Homes have been washed away. People have lost everything, including their lives. 
As of last night it was reported that, since the rains started, 99 people have died and 19 more are missing. 1.5 million people have been, in some way, affected by the rain and over 51,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. Another 27,000 people are now homeless.