With a beautiful team from our home church from Sunbury, Ohio, we visited a remote village called Cueidas.  This village is about 10 hr from Porto de Moz on the Jaurucu River.  The local people knew only that day that there would be a service and yet about 40 adults (and as many kids) came to the meeting in the village’s one room school house.  We worshipped God together, some on the team shared testimonies on how they came to Jesus, Dennis spoke of God’s heart for them, small toys were given to the children, and the team was warmly received by the local folks.  God’s spirit was so evidently working and several people showed great, sober enthusiasm for pursuing a relationship with Jesus.

Kevin traveled back with Isaiah Kiener (Isaiah is visiting us for two months) and several Brasilians two weeks later, only to find that the hunger in the people there is real and they long for us to help them understand the grace and love of God. 

This is such a cool illustration of how God will use a team from North America.  They visited, at great personal cost, and communicated affection and value to the local people who will likely never again be visited in their homes by a group from a country they have only heard about.  It, for them, is something they will talk about for a long time, and likely always remember.  How often we hear from villagers, "I can’t believe they came all that way to see us!"  Then we have the privilege of following up and equipping those that desire to follow Jesus. 

This was also an example of God’s willingness and ability to take us where He desires us to go.  Our plans were to be at another village that night and through a variety of circumstances, we ended up at Cueidas, where there were a few hearts whose soil had been prepared to receive from Him.

At the health clinic that afternoon, I sensed God tell me to tell one young man that He had called him into ministry and service, and that God wanted him to know that this day.  He came to me that night and said that he had spent the day praying and believed the word to be true.  We talked of calling and cost and his enthusiasm didn’t wane.  He will be another in this village that we can pour into, assisting him in his pursuit of God.

This team was special.  They have been like our last several, in that they came wanting to serve in any way, supporting what we were doing, with a high degree of flexibility along the way.