News from home

Our teammate Matt has done a few posts lately about lots of cool things that God is doing back home in Brasil.  

Please feel free to click here to spend a couple of minutes reading them.  

We believe you will be encouraged.  

Wednesday

You remember Everton and Daiana don't you?

Yesterday we were blessed to be a part of their wedding day.

It took place at a government building in front of a justice of the peace. It was a big deal. A lot of Brasilians prefer to live together instead of actually getting married. It's very common. So these guys are great examples of wanting to do it God's way.

Benay, Leni, Paulo Renato and I went to pick them up at their house and take them to the justice of the peace. Benay and I were also blessed to be asked to be the official witnesses to their wedding.

Before I go on I need to share that on Tuesday Benay, Leni and Bronwyn went and picked up Daiana and took her to buy some new clothes for the special day. The house church that meets in our house used our tithe from Sunday to buy those clothes. There was money left over and so they gave it to Daiana to get her hair fixed as well as her nails. I don't think she had ever had that done before. When we picked her up yesterday she was, literally, smiling ear to ear.Leni's son, Jorge, gave Everton one of his suits for the wedding. Leni made sure he looked perfect.
They both looked great.The ceremony was short but they were made to feel like they were important as the office workers kept every other person out while they did the official service. One poor guy came in and the woman performing the ceremony (I'll call her "the Enforcer") stopped and said, "Can't you see we are in the middle of a wedding? You will have to wait outside until we are done." The man apparently didn't think one question would hurt so he began to ask if anyone could help him and he got chewed out and told to leave again. He left and never came back. I almost lost it during that part. Those women were serious about making this just about Everton and Daiana. I liked that. When it was over "the Enforcer" presented them with their official marriage document. Immediately after the ceremony Everton told me that he felt like he could breathe again. He said had been very nervous.

After the wedding we took some family (blood and spiritual) pictures...........and then took Everton to work.

On the way, Benay and I were blessed to hear our Brasilian brothers and sister talk about how much of a blessing God's family is and how they are more connected with God's family than their own blood family. Isn't that the way it is supposed to be? Benay and I just smiled as we listened to the conversation.

Please pray for them as they continue to be a light to their kids and to their neighborhood.

A new house church was started in their house just two weeks ago. Our brother and sister, João and Clarice, are helping Everton and Daiana as they plant this new house church with hopes of reaching many of their neighbors with the good news.

We will have a religious ceremony/celebration at our house on Sunday. We hope to post some photos of that day as well.

God is doing so much good stuff here. It's going to be hard for us to leave next week for our visit to the United States.

Growing Family

God is really blessing this ministry.

Go here to see what He's been doing in our city over the last couple of weeks.

Our family is blessed to be able to witness all the things He is doing.

James

"My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God."

James 5:19-20(The Message)

Last month the house church that meets in our house began a study in James. We have specific verses to read each week with specific homework and then we all come together each Sunday and share what God shared with us.

Since James is such a short book I decided to read it all before doing the first week's homework. I arrived at the end of the book and was really hit by the verses above. God immediately put 3 people on my heart who have, for various reasons, fallen away from our church family over the last 1-2 years.

I shared these verses and these people with Benay and then with the accountability group on Wednesday morning. I (we) began praying for these people. I confess that it's easy for me to focus on new people and to always be looking for ways to introduce people to the body of Christ, but I don't spend enough time praying for those who have accepted Christ as Lord and, for whatever reason, have fallen away. I felt like God was trying to remind me of the importance of doing this.

The very next Monday I got a text on my phone from one of the three people. I literally had seen her once or twice over the last year. The text floored me. I guess it shows my shallow prayer life to not believe that God could act so quickly to our prayers. She and her son (keep praying Sascha and Jennifer) came to our house the following Sunday. Everyone loved on them. It was a blessing to have them in our house again. She then came back the next week.

I called the second person on my list. He didn't answer and so I left a message on his voice mail. I told him of our study and of the verses that God used to put his name on my heart. I told him his Christian family missed him and we wanted them back. I heard nothing for almost a week. He then called me to wish me a happy birthday. I thanked him and took the opportunity to ask him if I had hurt him in some way to make him not want to come around anymore. He said no one did anything like that but he just allowed some other things to take him away from his family. He wanted to know if he could come to my house right then. He did and we had a great talk in our backyard for about 30 minutes. He says he is ready to come back but did not want to come to the end of the month celebration because he wasn't ready to answer questions about where he had been. He wanted to wait until we had house church in our house. I reminded him that his church family loved him, that we weren't the police and that we were ready to welcome him (without one question if needed) back just like the father welcomed the prodigal son home. I told him of his sister who returned just 10 days earlier and how everyone loved on her. He told me that he plans on being in our house with his wife and two sons this coming Sunday.

I shared these things with our teammate Matt and how I was amazed at how fast God was working. He said, "Well now it's time for the third person on the list."

I agree. Just yesterday I received an email from this third person regarding something totally un-church related. I feel God is wanting to use this as an opportunity to remind him of the love that the family of Christ has for him.

Please pray for these three people. That the first two will stay strong, not allow Satan to regain ground and will continue being a part of what God is doing here and that the third will feel a desire to reconnect with God's family.....his family.

Leni

A few months ago we shared about our sister who is part of the house church that meets in our house. You can read more about her here, here and here. Her name is Leni.

Leni lives in a rented house with her son Jorge. Leni is a masseuse and is on call for hotels. Because of the world wide economy dive her business is really suffering right now. Jorge works in marketing, will graduate college in business administration next month, and is currently looking for a different job.

We have grown to love this family very much. They are a strong part of what God is doing here in Porto Alegre. Many Sundays they just hang out with us after house church and eat lunch with us and laugh with our kids.

To be honest, they don't have very many material things but you will never hear them complain. In fact, instead of complaining, Leni goes out of her way to help those in need.

If you've followed this blog for the last few days you know the story of Everton and Daiana.

They were with us at the celebration on Sunday.Benay asked Daiana if they were staying warm enough during the night. Their house is made of wood planks with many cracks in between and we have had some pretty cold nights recently. She hesitated and said no. That was all Leni needed to hear.

She immediately went to almost every person in the room asking for help. She then came to me and said, "I know you are sick (I've had a horrible cold for about a week) but do you think you can take me out there on Wednesday to take these things?"

Monday night Ivoli and her husband, Carlão, brought pillows, blankets and food. More people have committed to give but did not get the things to us in time before we left Wednesday for the visit.

Yesterday morning we picked up Leni. She had about 12 liters of milk for the family, clothes and blankets.

We loaded everything up in our little car and headed to see Daiana. Carys went with us.

We got to the house and brought everything in. Daiana was very happy. Last week she said the two people she really missed were Leni and Benay. Today she got to give a hug to both of them.

The boys and Cássia were happy to hang out with Carys. I find myself thanking God that our kids get to have a front row seat, and be involved in, selfless giving when there is a need. In a little over one week Daiana has really made this house into a home for her family. While Benay and Leni took a tour of the new house, I made my way to the back door to get one more thing from the car. I bumped into Daiana who was in the kitchen. She had tears rolling down her face. She was overwhelmed by God's goodness. She told us later that her youngest son was asking her for milk earlier and she had to tell him no because they didn't have any money to buy milk. God is good and it's fun to watch how He works through His kids.

Everything Daiana received today came about because Leni felt touched by the Spirit on Sunday night and immediately acted upon it.

Leni told me that she won't ask for things for herself, and I know this to be true, but if she knows someone else has a need she jumps on it.

Benay and I feel very blessed and humbled to be a part of what God is doing here. Today was another example of Acts 2 in action.

We praise God for Leni. He is using her in mighty ways.

Christ's Church

"The church of Jesus Christ is a home not only for the morally upright but for the moral failures and for those who for a variety of reasons have not been able to honor denominational teaching. The Church is a healing community proclaiming the Father's indiscriminate love and unconditional grace, offering pardon, reconciliation and salvation to the down-trodden and leaving judgment to God.

A Church that will not accept the fact that it consists of sinful men and exists for sinful men becomes hard-hearted, self-righteous, inhuman. It deserves neither God's mercy nor men's trust. But if a Church with a history of fidelity and infidelity, of knowledge and error, takes seriously the fact that it is only in God's Kingdom that the wheat is separated from the tares, good fish from bad, sheep from goats, a holiness will be acknowledged in it by grace which it cannot create for itself.

Such a Church is then aware that it has no need to present a spectacle of higher morality to society, as if everything in it were ordered to the best. It is aware that its faith is weak, its knowledge dim, its profession of faith halting, that there is not a single sin or failing which it has not in one way or another been guilty of. And though it is true that the Church must always dissociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping any sinners at a distance. If the Church self-righteously remains aloof from failures, irreligious and immoral people, it cannot enter justified into God's kingdom. But if it is constantly aware of its guilt and sin, it can live in joyous awareness of forgiveness. The promise has been given to it that anyone who humbles himself will be exalted."

Hans Küng-from his book On Being a Christian

Saturday

We shared yesterday about what we did last Friday night.

Today we wanted to share about what we did on Saturday. It is going to be a long blog. Honestly, it's too good to be short. Hang in there until the end. We know you will be blessed by reading about what God is doing here.

If you've followed this blog this year then you will remember Everton and his wife Daiana and their five kids.

Everton just completed his stay at the chácara. I feel like I need to give a little background on him before continuing.

Everton was 11 when he started taking drugs. I won't get into things he did, and who he was before the chácara. Let's just say God has worked a miracle.

This was Everton's third time in the rehabilitation center. The first time he stayed for 15 days and then left and quickly returned to drugs.

The second time he stayed for 8 months and was asked to leave when some guys with guns came to the chácara looking for him. The director thought it would be best for the safety of the other men there if Everton went to another rehab center. It is one that is run by the director's mom. Everton went, and didn't stay a day there. He left and went home to Daiana, and within days was back on crack.

This time has been different for Everton. He completed 9 months at the chácara and even stayed a little longer just to be sure he was really ready to go back out into the world. He told us many times that the financial help that our house church gave to Daiana and the kids while Everton was in the chácara helped him to completely focus on his recovery. Before God brought us together there were literally days when his family had no food to eat. Daiana had to sell some of her things to be able to buy food. For the last 5 months our weekly tithe has gone to this family. Just knowing his wife and kids were being taken care of helped him to stay focused on his recovery. Today, he is a new man.

I will never stop being amazed at God and how He moves. While Everton was in the chácara, he became great friends with another man named Walter. Walter lives in another city just outside of Porto Alegre. They entered the chácara together and ended up leaving within days of each other. The recovery program is 9 months but it is no magic time table. You can leave when you want after the 9 months. You aren't kicked out when the 9 months are over. You can also leave at any time before the 9 months. God had it worked out to have Everton and Walter together for time at the chácara.

Some critical factors when leaving the chácara are to find a church family, have a job, and have a place to live. The place to live part tends to be the toughest because there are times when a recovered man has no place to go but back to his home. Unfortunately it's at that home where some of the men began their drug addiction.

This was the case for Everton. He knew that he could not go back to his old house. It's in a horrible neighborhood and he knew it would just be a matter of time before the drug dealers returned after they learned Everton was back. He needed, no had, to move but had no money to do so. He committed to pray about it and was willing to stay at the chácara for as long as he needed.

Walter found out about this and spoke to his dad. His dad had some land close to his house where he had started but didn't finish a house for himself. He had a little building in front of the future house that had been vacant for some time. He offered that to Everton and his family. He offered to let them stay for the next 2-5 years rent free. Yes, rent free.

So a few days ago the Aggies for Christ group went in and began to clean up the house. You can click here for more info on that day. The vacant house had been turned in to a crack house. People had moved into it and used it for drug abuse and prostitution. It was not a pretty sight.

I was completely humbled by Everton when he showed it to me for the first time. Even though the house was filthy from the previous users, Everton acted as if it were a castle. He was so proud to have his own place in a better neighborhood.

The Aggies worked hard and cleaned the house up.

Last Saturday we had the pleasure of loading up Everton, Daiana, the kids and their stuff and moving it to their new house.

I'd like to show you were they moved from first.

As you arrive in their old neighborhood, you have to get out of your car and walk up this alley to get to their house. This is Garrett coming out of the gate that leads to the house.
Here is a view of the front yard.This is a view of the back yard. None of what you see belonged to them.This is the entrance to the home. The bricks on the right aren't even part of their house. They lived in some rooms built off the side of Daiana's mom's house.
A room with a bed. The bed took up almost the entire room space.
A room downstairs. Downstairs was more like a dungeon than a room. It was cold, humid and damp. Their kids were always sick.
This was their kitchen.
Moving day was not a sad day at all for this family. They were excited to begin a new life in a new city. We started loading up and taking things out to the cars. These are our brothers Tiago and Ellinton.
We were also blessed to have Everton's boss there helping us. His name is Marcus and unfortunately the only picture I have of him is this one of him loading up his trailer.Everton has only worked for Marcus for a couple of weeks. Marcus came to the chácara with the purpose of finding a man to help him in his business. He has a gardening business. God put him and Everton together. He has been an incredible blessing to Everton. After only one week of work he allowed Everton to miss days to help clean up his new house, go to the proper places to have the power and water turned on, etc. He told Everton he was going to help him move and then asked if he needed a sofa, television and refrigerator. Everton told him he didn't have any of those things and so Marcus and his wife gave them all to Everton's family. Hard to believe that one month ago Everton didn't even know this man.

We then arrived to their new house which is in Canoas, a large suburb about 15 minutes outside of Porto Alegre.This a picture of the group (minus Benay and Marcus) that helped most of the day. After we unloaded the first load, Everton and I returned to Porto Alegre to get some more stuff. This included a stop at Leni and Jorge's house where they gave Everton a baby crib and a sofa. Acts 2 continues. If felt like home quickly for everyone. Especially the kids. They had never played in grass before. They stayed in their yard the entire day. We got there about 11 in the morning and we, literally, had to drag them inside at 6 that evening.
Part of having so much freedom for little boys is getting in trouble. I couldn't resist taking this picture of Bruno after his dad made him sit in the chair for some punishment time. He wasn't happy about it. But I kept bugging him until he smiled. Even Cássia felt right at home in her new baby bed. Everton's hammering didn't wake her up. At the end of the day Diego read Cássia some books. And the family photo in front of their new house just beams with pride and thankfulness doesn't it?Please pray for this family. As with each of us, it can sometimes be difficult to get settled in to a new neighborhood. Everton has already said they want to start some kind of house church in their neighborhood. They want to be the light of Christ to their neighbors. We want to help them with that. Benay called Daiana on Sunday and Daiana cried because she missed her house church family (especially Benay and Leni).

They also want to get legally married. They want to be registered by the government as well as having a religious ceremony. This is an incredible blessing.

Before they left the chácara Walter told Everton that he need him in his life to stay strong after they leave. God has now put them two blocks away from each other. Our brother João Spencer, who lives in the same city, has already talked to both of these guys about starting a new accountability group. God is already blessing this family.

I like what Everton told me last week. He said, "Isn't it just like God to give me and my family a new beginning in a place that used to be a crack house?"

God again shows His power.

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.

Busy, Blessed Week

These little guys (from l to r.....Ismael, Leo, Bruno and Diego) spent three days living with us this week. Why?

Because Daiana had her little girl.Last Friday night Benay called me while I was in our accountability group with the guys from the chácara. She told me Daiana thought she was going into labor. Daiana had no way to get to the hospital (no car, no money for taxi or bus) and so Benay had told her a few months ago that when it was time then she was to call Benay no matter the hour. After the call Benay and Bronwyn took Daiana to the hospital, and Paulo Renato and I left our group to go to the chácara to tell Everton that his baby girl was about to be born. It was a very humbling and special thing for me to be able to see the excitement on his face while knowing that he couldn't be with his wife.

We called Isaias (our brother who runs the day to day things at the recovery center) to see if he would allow Everton to leave the next day and go to the hospital to see his new baby. He agreed and I told Everton that I would pick him up the next morning between 6:00-7:00. I went home and about an hour later Benay arrived. False alarm. Daiana went home.

The weekend was a waiting game.

Monday came and Daiana called saying her contractions were stronger. Benay and I went to pick her up and take her to the hospital. This time they kept her and told her it was time. I dropped them off and headed out to the chácara to pick up Everton. I prayed that God would allow me to get him back to the hospital so that he could see the birth of his child.

When I got to the chácara Everton greeted me with a smile. I told him it was time and we were off.

God blessed my prayer request even as we fought through lots of slow traffic and other obstacles on the way. I hate slow traffic, always have. I found myself feeling anxious in the traffic as I really wanted to get Everton there in time. Everton seemed more in tune with my prayer request than I was. I looked at him and he was very calm and sharing some really deep things about his life. It was like he knew God was blessing our drive and we would make it on time.

He was right. Everton got there about 2 hours before his little girl was born. He was in awe of the miracle that he was able to see. About 10:15 that night we began the journey back to the chácara. All he could do was praise God for allowing him to be a part of the birth.

Daiana came home Wednesday. She and the baby are doing great.

We were happy to open our home to Leo, Diego, Bruno and Ismael. They are really good boys and we had lots of good helpers while they were here. Even Giovanni helped. Our kids, as always, were great babysitters. Our sister, Leni, came over one day and made lunch and supper, colored with the boys, prayed with them, cleaned our house and was an incredible blessing to us. I think you can tell how much Anderson loves Leni. Our time this week also reminded us that we aren't quite ready to have 10 kids.

By the way, we are also blessed by the name of this new little girl. When Benay was pregnant with Giovanni and before we knew he was a boy, we both just KNEW he was a girl. We had a name picked out that we both quickly agreed on. I even came across that name in the Bible one day. Who needs more confirmation than that? Okay, so we were wrong.

But before we realized we were wrong we chose the name Cássia. We loved it and the kids loved it. It was perfect.

Daiana had only had boys and so when she found out she was having a girl she told Benay she was having trouble thinking of girls' names. She asked if Benay had any suggestions. Benay told her if Giovanni had been a girl he....okay, she.....would have been called Cássia. Next thing we know Daiana is telling everyone her baby will be called Cássia. So we get to use the name we loved on a regular basis anyway.

I guess in His way God actually was confirming this name with our family. He was just delivering it for Daiana and Everton.

Please keep praying for this family and this new little girl.

God is moving in Brasil

One of our brothers in Christ sent us this email tonight from a missionary in the northern part of Brasil. God is doing some amazing things through house churches in this country.

Here it is:

What strategy would you use to evangelize a strong Catholic interior city in Northeastern Brazil? Campaigns do work, Schools of the Bible call attention, and mission teams do find some people who are seeking Jesus' simple truth. But these front door methods, time after time, are met with the customary "I was born a Catholic, my parents are Catholics, and I am going to die a Catholic."

We have started visiting the city of Esperança (2.5 hours west of João Pessoa; population - 30 thousand).

Downtown Esperança

Jesus provided a back door to this city. Our first visit was a mere 24 hours in duration - a Monday at the end of January - a first contact with most of the people.
Take a look at the results:Ten Christians from Joao Pessoa went on this mission trip. We visited over 20 families, most of which we didn't know personally. We were so well received: huge meals prepared for us in several houses, people begging us to spend the night in their homes (we ended up staying in five different homes - note the picture of Dad conked out on somebody's floor), over fifty came to a Bible study at night held in a borrowed meat packing warehouse. One young man insisted that we have another Bible study in his garage the next morning so he could invite his neighbors. When we left, some people were upset that we didn't have to time to visit their homes.

So what was this back door that Jesus opened? What warranted such a tremendous reception in an interior city? The congregation that meets at Irene's house is visited by several of the China Taiwan Restaurant workers. Most of them are from the city of Esperança. The visit itself came about at their insistence to share God's word with their families.

The families in Esperança, who send their sons and husbands to work in Joao Pessoa, worry about the temptations of the big city. They are happy, many are relieved that God is providing a positive spiritual influence in the form of their co-worker Michel and a house church for them to meet with.

I don't know what God has planned for the city of Esperança, but judging by our first contact, it has got to be something really good.

Blowing my Mind

Last Friday night was our regular accountability group night with the guys who have left the chácara. Every week these guys continue to blow me away.

Christian hasn't been able to be a part of our accountability group for the last three weeks because he got a new job at a gas station. He now works every night of the week except one, and that day off is a different day every week. So, he is no longer able to be a part of our group. We've really missed Christian. He brings an incredible worship and confession spirit to the group. Even though we've lost Christian we've gained two new brothers every Friday night (Ellinton and Eduardo). Our group is growing, and getting stronger and more encouraging every week.

One of the things that we've shared that we like so much about house churches is that you can change them weekly to meet the hurting or celebratory needs of people. It's a hospital one week, a baby shower the next, a prayer group the next, etc. It's exciting to be able to change everything as the Spirit leads.

Our accountability group is no different. Last Friday night we decided since Christian is no longer able to be a part of the group then we would take the group to him. On the way out Anderson suggested that while we were out visiting Christian, that we also look for guys who have left the chácara but are struggling right now. We know that some have returned to drugs, some have stolen to buy more drugs, some have returned to being with prostitutes, all have fallen away from their church family.

So we squished 7 people in this type of car. It looked like a clown car..........and we were off.

We went to visit Christian and it was very encouraging. He thanked us for coming to see where he worked. He talked about trying to be the light to the other men he worked with. He had already told them of his recovery from drugs. We were all blessed to be together with him at his work. We all gave him a big hug and we were off to try to find the guys who are struggling.

We had gone about a block from the gas station and we saw the first guy on the street we were looking for. His name is Marcelo. It truly was a God thing. We were headed to a park where we thought he would be and within 1 minute we saw him on the other side of the street. In our city you rarely are able to make left turns on roads. It's just the way the city was planned. You have to make a right turn and do a circle to come back to the road you were just on to be able to make a left turn and go back. Sound confusing? Try figuring that out when you first move here and don't understand the language or the signs which usually look like this:Thankfully it makes sense to us (most of the time) now. We finally made the big circle back and went back to where he was. We didn't see him. We thought that possibly he went into a church that we passed by, so we made another circle and came back and saw him again. He had not gone into the church but into a little cafe to get some coffee with a friend. We literally stopped on the sidewalk and all piled out. He did not look good, but was excited to see us. It was amazing for me to see the love that my brothers have for this fallen brother. No judgment, just love and concern. We talked to his friend that he was with. He and Marcelo had just met this week. Paulo Renato invited both to the house church that meets in his house on Sunday. We pray they both will show up. As we were talking to Marcelo's friend I saw Anderson quietly ask Marcelo point blank if he was using drugs again. I saw Anderson looking at his hands and fingers for signs of drug use. Marcelo confessed that he is smoking cigarettes and drinking but not using crack again. The brothers, who know what it looks like from experience, all said he was lying. They could tell by his appearance that he is again using drugs.

While we stood on the sidewalk of this very busy street on a Friday night, we made a circle around him, laid hands on him and prayed loudly for him. I am slowly getting more comfortable with praying the way the guys from the chácara pray. When I say we prayed, I mean we all prayed in a loud voice at the same time. Let's just say that didn't happen too much in the church family I grew up in, the Christian college I went to or, to be honest, any church experience I've had up until now. I used to think it was a disruptive way to pray that made it hard to focus. I was judgmental. I know better now. It's not the way we pray every time but it is an incredibly powerful way to pray for someone and the Spirit guides every second of it.

Please pray for Marcelo. It really hurt my heart to see him that way. When we were leaving he asked how my Anderson was doing. We visited him one day at the chácara over a year ago and Anderson was with me. Marcelo has never forgotten my son. Please pray that Marcelo will return to the family of God and recover from his return to drugs. I want my Anderson to grow up around Marcelo and to see God's power in him.

We then went to find Josemar. He used to live with Christian and Anderson but they had to ask him to leave because of his return to a life of drugs. Imagine an addict fighting against being around any type of temptation and having his own roommate coming home messed up. It was a tough decision but the right one to ask him to leave. We went to where he lives and spoke with some men who lived in the same complex. They had not seen him all week. We were not able to find Josemar. Please continue to pray for him.

We then went to Diego's grandmothers house. Diego came to our first couple accountability groups. Here is a picture of him (in the middle) with Paulo Renato to the left and Isaias (who runs the day to day operations at the chácara). Diego was a little surprised by our visit but he welcomed us into his home. We shared with him our love for him and how he needs to come back to our support group. He told us he is not on drugs but he is far from his church family right now and he confessed some impurities in his life. I once again got to witness my brothers talking to him about his sin and encouraging to come back to the family of God. Rodrigo asked me to pray for Diego before we left. We got up and put Diego in the middle and prayed over him. He told us he will come to our accountability group next Friday. I ask that you pray for him to do so.

Here is a group picture of some of the guys as they had a ceremony last year to celebrate their completion of the chácara program. Some other incredible things happened last Friday night:

One brother told me that he broke up with his girlfriend last week because of sexual sin. He wants to be a pure servant of God and he knew that he could not be one and continue to live the way he was living. He decided, as he told me, to put God first in everything in his life.

Two brothers and their girlfriends want to begin studies with Benay and myself about marriage and what the Bible says about it as they are thinking about getting married soon.

One of the girlfriends (who 1-2 months ago wanted NOTHING to do with Christians or Christianity) spoke with me for about 30 minutes about life after death questions. She will begin a Bible study with Benay in the next few days. She also brought her brother and his family to house church Sunday. They loved it and have already invited our family to visit them in their house this Saturday. A miracle is the only way I can explain the transformation in this young woman's life from just a few weeks ago to today. Amen.

One brother asked if there were any Bible studies he could do during the week. I told him about our teammate Paul's study that he started recently. He was very excited about it.

The title of this blog explains how I feel after every Friday night group time. I am amazed at how open these guys are and how they take that openness to their brothers who have fallen away. It would be much easier to say, "Let's pray for him" or "what a shame" about these fallen guys but these guys made a game plan and we acted on it last Friday night. I saw the power of a group of guys coming in love to hug on fallen brothers. They also demonstrated tough, compassionate love. It's a great example to the family of God.

I pray that the example of these men will bleed through our house church network and that soon this city will look at this church family and understand the true meaning of John 13:34-35:

"Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other."

Big Garrett

A few days ago we got an email from this guy:His name is Garrett. We actually call him Big Garrett to keep things easier around here.

Garrett has lived for most of the last two years in Santiago, Chile. His email said he would be passing through and wanted to know if he could stay with us for a couple of nights.

We first met Garrett about 2 years ago when he came with a team from Texas A&M University. They have a missions program called Aggies for Christ. They travel the world during their summer breaks to go and help different missions around the world. This group came and basically built a building at the chácara.

Like I said, he has lived in Santiago and he was using his gifts to help a church family there. He will now live in Rio for the next 6 months as he will again use his gifts to help another church family in any way he can.

We don't stop much in our day to day lives. We told Garrett to jump in wherever he wanted to as well as just stay home and chill when he needed to do that. We told him he could stay with us as long as he wanted. His two night stay turned into a 4 night stay. We were blessed by his time with us.

While he was here he was able to share in spiritual things with us. He was able to go to a church family celebration with us, he got to visit with some old friends from the chácara as well as make some new ones and he went with me one morning to an accountability group that I am blessed to be a part of. He also got to experience lots of Blume family activities. He went to little Garrett's soccer practice, visited Anderson's school, ate churrasco (Brasilian bar-b-que), ate pasteis (a family favorite....like a fried pie filled with whatever you want), experienced Anderson's non-stop questions and got to be a part of Carys's "live in the moment" world. He also got to spend some quality time watching Kung Fu Panda and Sponge Bob with Anderson and Carys. Even if it meant watching them upside down while being a human pillow. And if you live in this house and you are a visitor, you have to mix it up with our kids. They wouldn't have it any other way.He was even blessed to have Thanksgiving in April. Benay and Bronwyn found some real orange sweet potatoes and couldn't wait to make turkey and dressing with it. (Typical sweet potatoes here are white and don't have quite the same taste.) When you never have something (peanut butter, sweet potatoes, etc) and then you find it.......you celebrate. Big Garrett happened to be here when they decided to make it and so he enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal with us.We even were able to have some adult time conversations about family, God's kingdom and ministry.

We were blessed by his visit. We don't think we scared him off with our big familyness or our sleeping hours. He hung right in there with us and became a part of our family for a few days.

I always like to hear what people think about what they see here as far as this ministry. I asked Garrett if he wanted to share anything about his time here and here is what he sent:

It's my third time in Porto Alegre, I'm here a few days past my original plans, and I'm trying to purchase a plane ticket online to get to Rio, my future home for six months. I was already a bit shocked by just how early this family wakes up and Kevin asks "Do you want to go to a prayer meeting at 7:00 in the morning? We can go by the airport afterwards." Do I really want to go? Better yet, do I really want to wake up at 6:30 a.m.? No, not really. But I do anyway and I accompany Kevin to the crack-of-dawn (it really wasn't that early) gathering of guys. I was moved by the church family's frankness and realness at the celebration on Sunday and it didn't stop there. We walk in and the guys just start sharing, no façades, no pretexts, straight up opening themselves up to each other with nothing held back.

This church is church. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says to, "…encourage one another and build each other up…" And that's what I see. I see people from all backgrounds and histories coming together, loving each other, and building each other up. One can't not be encouraged by it. I hope that wherever we are we drop our pretenses and just get real with one another.

Oh, and the Blumes serve up some incredible food as well!

I ask that you please pray for Garrett. After Rio he isn't sure where God is leading him. Please pray for him to have God's peace and direction in whatever that next step may be. Whatever it is and wherever he goes we know he will do great things for the kingdom.

(you can check out his blog here)