Ola wonderful people!
Some of us at the airport with the Qatar airlines staff
I’m writing from the vibrant little Ubatuba (which is the surfing capital of Brazil). This place is breathtakingly beautiful and the people are so dynamic and vibrant. I can't even begin to explain how crazy this all feels, I seriously feel like I'm in a movie it’s so surreal!
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ng our time here we will be partnering with Agape church and building relationships and serving in whichever way is needed. We have been spending some time with the youth and young adults in the church, even with the language barrier we cannot but be inspired by their generosity and zest for life. They really have gone out of their way to make us feel at home. more than once we have been taken to town and blessed with interesting Brazilian delicacies, Just the other night in fact we were treated to a kind pizza but not(known as a esfirho I think, not 100% sure though). Also might add that this has all been during the very late hours of the night and early hours of the morning. This really has given a new meaning to finding rest in the Lord!
It's taken a bit of time to adjust to the random structure of their days but we're getting into it:) the shops and markets only open late morning and afternoon but close at 12 at night. The streets are empty in the morning but are packed at night. I Think that it may have something to do with the heat, it is super hot and humid here! The randomness of their days has been great for development of relationships. It gives us the opportunity to do rad activities with them. Just yesterday some of the guys went surfing and had an opportunity to minister to one of the young guys who lost his cousin to a drug overdose. We had coffee with one of the young woman in the church (Luize) who is learning English and is really keen to do global challenge next year. We got to know her a little better and prayed with her and laughed a whole lot as we struggled through the language barrier. We will be meeting with her every day or second day to do a bible study she'll bring her Portuguese bible and we'll dive into the word of God but also learn the language. Please pray for this:)
Betty and i with some of the girls that we met at camp shakina
Coffee date with Luize and kaka (our first d group)
We have been purposeful about learning the language here, the guys laugh at us a lot because we walk around with our note books and write frantically when they speak, also because we keep telling them things like “my house is on fire”& hellip; this has brought so much laughter in our interactions, this has been a huge open door for the development of relationships. They love that we are trying so hard. God has really given us a desire to spend quality time with them and just live in their worlds and they love that too! They’ve been coming over to the little green house as often as is possible and have been inviting us out at night just to hang out, so we see them every day …this is truly incredible since most of them (bar like 4 people) only speak Portuguese. All I can say is eu esto apprendo falle Portuguese, which basically means “I am learning to speak portuegese”and “lovour Deus” which means praise God! (Excuse the spelling and grammar errors).
The language barrier also makes the experience of church very interesting as wellJ let’s just say that sometime we get an extra quiet time if there is no one to translate for us or if there is we all get different messages form the same sermon. But we have loved it! Their worship is incredible and we are learning the language through this as well. It Feels like our spirits connect despite the fact that we don’t necessarily understand the words…giving new meaning to worshiping in spirit and recognizing that EVERY tongue will confess that he is Lord! I have been so blessed at how they experience community and worship the Lord! Church seems to be a living a breathing entity and not just a building! It has really challenged me so much in how I view church and how we live it as a team.
God has been challenging and teaching us about unity a lot in the last few days. First, that our lifestyle as a team is important if we want our ministry to be effective and to have power, otherwise we are being hypocrites! Second, that we need to be intentional about being unified in everything that we do: god first then the team then the people we are ministering to. We need to be like minded and hearted and live that way!
There is so much more that I could write but think I’ll save some for the next time…(that way you have something to look forward too, I hope;))
Please continue to pray for finances for the team many of us are still trusting that the Lord will provide.
Hope that you are living a full and abundant life as you walk in the truth. There is no better way to life!
Be blessed…peace out
Max