Friday Night

It's Friday and that means tonight is accountability group night with guys that have left the chácara.

God is really doing some amazing things through this group.

Every Friday night is different and each Friday seems more blessed than the one before.

From this group we've seen the following:

• Men openly confessing all kinds of sin. Their openess about tough things inspires me.
  
• Benay has begun to spend time, weekly, with the girlfriends of some of these men. It's a time of them getting to know each other better as well as study the Bible.
  
• Our group going mobile as we went to the streets one night to find our brothers who have returned to the streets. (I got a call this week from one of the brothers telling me that Marcelo has checked himself into another recovery center in a small city just outside Porto Alegre.......thank you for your prayers!)
• Our group went mobile again last week as we loaded 8 people in our little car and went to the chácara to be a part of their nightly praise time. The guys in the accountability group remembered how much of an encouragement it was when anyone from outside the chácara showed up to just be with them when they were in the chácara and they wanted to return the blessing by going and doing the same last week.
  
• Tonight we should have one or two brothers, who are still in the chácara and are close to leaving, with us at the guys' apartment as we begin the process of helping them with their re-adaptation to life outside the chácara.
• We've had new guys show up almost every week.
• We have also seen family members of these guys being a part of our house church because of what is going on with the group.
  

God has really blessed this group. It's been an amazing encouragement to me. We realize we are sinners but that we have an open, supportive, non judgmental place where we can go and be free to share anything on our hearts. These guys are teaching me so much.

I think I can best share the way God blesses me each and every Friday by sharing something that happens even before our group meets.

Paulo Renato, Ellinton and I leave a little bit early every Friday to go and visit a man who lives by himself. His name is Chaves. He was at the chácara while Paulo Renato was there recovering from his alcohol addiction. He is a man in his 60's. He lives close to where we have our accountability group but it is in a place that a lot of Americans would not feel comfortable visiting. It isn't the best or the safest place to be after dark. We see drug dealers/users almost every Friday as we leave our car on the dirt road and walk 3 houses down a dirt path to get to his house.

He literally doesn't have anything. His lives in a two room house that is about the size of our den. And yet I have never heard him complain.

He loves our visits even though they are brief. We spend a few minutes with him and then we make a small circle in his "den" and pray over him. Once again, we are the ones blessed by our time with him.

The most important thing about Chaves is that he is a light to his lost neighborhood.

We were visiting with him a couple of weeks ago and we heard a knock on the door. It was 3 small children who wanted to talk with Chaves. He politely told them he had company but told them to hold on. I then watched him go to his empty kitchen and take his last three bananas (I saw no other food in his kitchen....when I say kitchen you need to think one sink and a couple of moveable cabinets) and then give it to those kids. He then quietly sat back down and we continued our discussion. No fanfare, no groaning about my last bananas, no complaining about those kids always asking for stuff. Nothing. Just quiet compassion.

These guys aren't perfect and don't claim to be, but I hope you are getting a better understanding of why I love my Friday nights so much.