day 4 - last day in barra mansa

Today was full of follow-up visits. Our team had some great times of fellowship and discipleship as we sat down with new believers and worked through their first Bible study together. I don´t think I´ll ever get tired of doing that. And the best part is that the nationals were doing all the work. The church we´ve been working with is full of soul-winners, which is a tribute to their pastor, Gerson, who is a tremendous man of God with a huge heart for missions.

Tonight was a great time of celebration. We had our last evening service in which we celebrated what God has done this week. It was a sweet time of worship with many Brazilians who have become very dear to us. We had a time of singing and then testimonies from Leo and Carlos, 2 nationals who went visiting with us this week. I spent the entire week with Carlos and grew very close to him. He has an amazing testimony of how Christ took him from a life of anger and abuse that led him to prison to a life full of love and dedication to making the name of Jesus famous. After the testimonies, I preached from Heb. 12:1-2, encouraging them to continue running the race for the glory of Christ after we´re gone. Then we presented the pastor with the stack of names and addresses of all those individuals who had received Christ during the week so that he and the church could disciple them after we leave. There were many tears shed as we probably saw many of these precious people for the last time (this side of heaven).

For the week, all 4 of our teams were witness to nearly 1,800 Brazilians making professions of faith. 1,800? Some of you may be wondering if that´s even possible. One reason for such a high number is that many of the local schools let us into their classrooms to share the Cube and present the gospel. So were 1,800 people really born again into the family of God this week? Maybe, but I doubt it. "Profession of faith" means exactly what it sounds like - each individual professed that they had recognized their sinfulness and the fact that they couldn´t save themselves by their good works; confessed their sins to God; repented (turned) from their sins; and placed their faith and trust in Jesus, and Jesus alone, for eternal life. Was each profession genuine? Really, only God knows. I guess the true believers will be borne out by the fruit they produce (or fail to produce). This is what Jesus was talking about in the parable of the soils in Mark 4. As the gospel is cast like seed, it will fall on hearts in different conditions - some will fall on the path, some will fall on rocky soil, some will fall among thorns, and some will fall on good soil. Only that that falls on good soil will produce fruit. So it´s not up to us to try and determine who the people are who had "good soil" hearts - our responsibility is to cast the seed (share the gospel) and leave the results to God. His Word tells us that ultimately the true believers will "bear fruit in keeping with repentance." All we can count are professions, not salvations.

Tomorrow, we will leave in the AM for Rio de Janeiro to do a little sight-seeing. It´s a welcome respite. This week has been very fatiguing - physically, mentally, and spiritually. Thanks so much to you who´ve been praying. I can´t imagine how exhausted we´d be without your prayer support.