day 3 - follow up

Discipleship visits. These are what I think distinguish e3´s trips from other ministries, and they really get me fired up. There´s nothing quite like sitting down with new believers and watching them search the Word of God for answers to Bible study questions. It thrills my heart. I believe that a lot of them probably attended our evening meeting tonight (I haven´t heard from the team since they haven´t returned as of this post). I wasn´t there because I was with approximately 20-25 English students in their class. I was told ahead of time that I could not share the gospel with them - apparently some Americans had visited their class a while ago, tried to bash them over the head with the gospel, and soured many students and teachers to Christianity. They asked me many questions on a variety of topics - family, job, Brazil, weather, movies, global warming, George Bush, music, war in Iraq, etc. While I couldn´t share the gospel, by the end of the night they knew what I did with e3 and that I definitely live life from a biblical worldview. Also due to how I said what I said and in honoring their request, I believe I helped repave the road for Americans to share the gospel with them in the future.

I don´t think I´ve done so yet, but I want to brag on my team this week. When each team gets to its mission point, it divides up into smaller groups of one American, one translator, and at least one national church member. For the past couple of days, I´ve been going out with Jarbas, a translator, and two nationals, Carlos and Gutierrez. Carlos has such a heart for missions. He is a prosthodontist (makes dentures) but has closed his business this week so he can go out evangelizing. His desire is to become a missionary to India. He has become a dear, dear brother to me. Gutierrez is a sweet old lady who is a prayer warrior and an inspiration to me. As I mentioned before, the goal is to train the nationals how to evangelize and disciple on their own so they can continue the work when we leave to go home. Today was a thing of beauty - I would begin with my personal testimony, Carlos would lead the individual through the tract, Jarbas would "cube ´em" (do the Evangecube presentation), and Gutierrez would close in a prayer of thanksgiving, also lifting up any needs the individual might have. As Jarbas said today, we operated like the "Dream Team." Again, I didn´t need to be there because the nationals in my group are capable of doing it all on their own, but I was privileged to serve with them.

We have one more day of follow-up visits tomorrow and then our last evening meeting. It is going to be a great celebration where we honor the nationals who´ve participated, present the pastor with the names and addresses of all the new believers, and praise God for all He did this week. I will be preaching the message, so PLEASE pray for me. Fatigue is beginning to set in among all the campaign team members. It´s been an awesome, yet tiring, week. I have photos and short video clips that I plan on posting when I get back. Boa noite (good night).