I'm Back in the States

I am back in the states. Why? Why did I come home early? After two ER visits, 15 total hospital visits, one surgery, and all with no insurance, I kind of ran out of money and had no choice but to come home. Pretty much that simple. What is it like being back in the states? It is bittersweet. I am excited to be home with my family and friends, but I was not one bit excited about leaving my family and friends back in Brazil. My time in Brazil was life changing. But life must go on here in America. God brought me back for some reason. I am not sure why, but He has begun to show me. He is showing me ministries to get involved with that I love. I created this blog for my time overseas. Now that I am not overseas I probably won't blog as much. I will blog every once in a while to tell something exciting that might be going on in my life and what God is teaching me. I feel as though this blog has done it's job. Thanks to all of you who have read this blog and have prayed for me. Your prayers and words of encouragement helped me get through all the rough times in Brazil. Thank you again for everything. If you have any questions or would like to know more about my time in Brazil, you can give me a call on my cell at 901-356-5054. God Bless

Until He Returns.

Jonathan Nason

9.15.08

Today I went to the hospital for the last time. I went in this afternoon and the doctor just pulled the pin right on out. I barely even felt it. I did get the opportunity to share the gospel with an english speaking doctor there. His name was Março. He learned his english in America where he studied for two years. He asked what I was doing here, so I told him. He heard all about it. We got into the religious talk a bit once he started asking me if I knew stuff about Mother Teresa. He told me that I was doing a good thing here by helping people. I tried to explain to him that I am here helping others to show them the love of Jesus. He didn´t quite get it though. The catholics here are real devout on the tradition of not knowing whether or not they will get to Heaven. It all depends on if the good out weights the bad. The conversation was ended when he told me that he needed to go check on a patient. Please pray for him and that Christ would open his heart to the gospel and The Truth.
Jr. and I have been hanging out with a group of guys this past week in the village. We have gone twice to the local college to hang out with some students there. We invited them to church and were delighted when four of them that haven´t come before show up at Saturday night´s service. Please pray for the lives of those men and women also. The village in which I live needs Jesus tremendously. It´s a small village so everyone knows everything about everyone and they spread it like wild fire. I am praying that God would allow Jr. and I to disciple a few men that will be able to carrying on the work that we have started.
Besides that, life is normal and great. It´s great having Jr. living with me. We have great conversations and the discipleship is amazing. He is helping me through one of the curiculums for his theology class. God is good and renews my strength everyday. I encourage all to spend all day in the Presence of God. It is Heaven on earth. I am not sure when I will be back in Cuiabá so just keep an eye out for future posts. Thank you for continuous prayers.

Three Month Reflection

Before I get into my three month reflection I just want to let everyone know that I went back to the doctor today and everything is great. Thank you for your prayers.

Wow! That is really all I can say right now. God is so good. He has brought me through three months here in Brazil. Through the many obstacles that I have faced, God has brought me through them and has given me victory. I have spent the last couple of days doing some serious soul searching. I have reflected on my first three months here and all that God has done and has taught me. I have also been scheming and dreaming for the next three months and the time thereafter. I´ll start with the three months that are behind me.

A quick rundown of the events that have taken place since my landing here in Brazil. I landed in this country not knowing or even seeing a picture of any one in this country. I only knew one name and knew that for me to survive I would have to find the man that I knew the name to. I knew only four words in Portuguese and one of them I learned on the flight over. I spent my first week helping Pastor Waldir finalize last minute stuff for the teams that were coming a week after my arrival. To be honest I wasn´t there to help him. He didn´t need my help. The time was designed more for me to see exactly what takes place prior to the teams arrivals. It was a learning experience for me. Then I experienced two amazing weeks with the American teams. The first week evangelizing in schools, homes, and churches. The second week hosting a medical clinic were we saw over 2,ooo patients. Then the reality of my mission started to sink home once the Americans got on the plane to head home and I was still standing in the airport waving to them. This was the first moment that I began to fill butterflies in my stomache due to fear and nerves. I then spent a week of being a tourist. I hiked, climbed, and jumped off plenty of waterfalls. I spent the week after that doing some hard labor that gave us building material to build mutiple homes and buildings for those in the village. Then I faced my first foot injury somewhere around the 13th of July. I recovered quickly and now had a cool story for the people back home. I moved to the village towards the end of July. That is when I finally began to slow life down a little. The days were peaceful and quite. I had tons of time to read and soak in the presence of God. There I also learned most of my Portuguese because no one in the village speaks English, leaving me with no option but to learn the language. About a month had passed and the village had become my home. I loved the people and they loved me. I tried to visit everyone in the village every week. It was a way of getting to know everyone and it also allowed me to practice my Portuguese. My foot had finally healed enough where I gained my confidence back to play a little soccer. BAD IDEA! Within thirty minutes of the first time playing soccer after my first foot injury, I did it again. I popped my toe back out of place and skin back open. This time it was worse. I already had my cool story so this injury wasn´t looked at near as optimistically as the first time. I ended up with surgery and back on my tushy for three more weeks. Not to mention the pain that came along with it all. This minor setback has pulled me away from my home in the village and with the people that I had tried so hard to form relationships with. When I do return I will have some ground to make up, but I look forward to any challenge because I know that God is on my side. Later today I get the privilege of returning to my home in the village for my final three months here in Brazil. Wouldn´t choose to be any other place in the world right now. Honest! These past three months have been awesome with the things above alone. I haven´t even begun to tell about the spiritual things yet.

What has God done in my life. Above are the things that God has done with my life, the following is what has done in my life. He has taught me patience, to wait patiently for him to show up and show up big. Show up anywhere at anytime, just for me to make sure that I am ready. He has taught me that He is not a safe God and calls me to live in the Holy Wild, a place where prosperity is measured by rewards in Heaven and by nothing here on earth. He has taught me to share the Gospel of love through actions. He has taught me this through the language barrier. I was unable to share about Christ my Lord through words, so I had to share through actions. He has given me a small taste of what it means to suffer for His kingdom and given me a thirst for more! Because being beaten up by satan and then having Christ lift you up into victory is the greatest feeling in the world. This is the whole concept of salvation. He has taught me that He always offers refuge for the weary when I was tired and burdened by the feeling of homesickness. He has taught me many things about the love that He has for His church and how that applies in all aspects of a family. From being a brother and what it means to love a very special brother of mine that I can´t wait to hug and take to lunch as soon as I get back. He has first priority because of the lack of biblical actions on my part to be a Christian brother, a brother that disciples, guides, and teaches. And most imprtantly a brother that loves through my actions and not my words. I want you to know that I am sincere about this Allen and I cry as I write this. I love you and can´t wait to see you. He is continuing to teach me what it means to be a leader of the Church one day and how that applies to my future marriage and my future family that is the greatest earthly desire of my heart. Nothing except my salvation is a greater reward then the gift of marriage and a family.

And the list goes on. My God has been good to me and I am thankful for His absolute sovereignty in all things. He has given me a desire to serve Him with my life and to long to be righteous like Him. I am thankful that He has chosen me to be an alien in this place called earth. He has gone before me and is preparing my home with Him in His Kingdom.

Now what lies ahead? Things that I don´t know. But I can only expect as much glory towards God as the past three months if I continue to practice the presence of God. God has opened many doors for the future of my life once I return home, but that is not my focus currently. My focus is my mission at hand and that is how I can be someone who leaves an impact on this place for the Kingdom of God. I will spend the next three months living in Córrego do Ouro. I will continue to learn Portuguese and teach English twice a week in the local school. I will continue to work with two church plants (Igreja Batista da Água da Vida -Water of life Baptist Church and Igreja Batista da Colheita -Harvest Baptist Church). I will continue to help lead two other house churches and countless Bible studies in the home. Most importantly I will serve through love. I expect further attacks and persecution. But I will stand firm in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. But I am not perfect and need relentless prayers from fellow believers. So that is what I ask of you. Prayer! Pray that God would give me strength and rest when I am weary. Pray that He would give me abounding love for the people and His calling on my life. Pray that I would never let up nor give up, but I would press on towards the goal that Christ has set for me! This I thank you. Thank you for the support that you have given me the past three months and the support that you will give me in the future. I say all this in Jesus´s precious and glorious name. Amen

Until He Returns.

Another Three Months

Today I went to the Federal Police to try to get my visa extended for an additional three months. God went ahead of us because we had no problems. In fact the man that was helping us didn´t buy that I am staying here for 6 months only as a tourist. He asked if I was here helping a church. I told him yes and things only got easier. He was curious to what type of mission work I was doing. He even went as far as to give me advice on how I can get a missionary visa eventually in the future that would allow me to stay for a year and then get the visa renewed every year. He was very helpful. On top of that, this guy was a cyclist. He had the cycling t-shirt on, the training watch, the asics running shoes (which is rare here, so I new he had to be a runner), and the cycling water bottle on his desk and the water bottle had grease on it so it meant that that bottle had seen a bike or two. It was definitely a God thing that he was the one that was there when we went. I´m excited about the next three months here in Brazil. I have no clue what they are going to consist of, but the first three months were very eventful (check in the next day or so for a blog were I will reflect on my first 3 months here in Brazil), and I expect the same out the second three months. I will stay out of the hospital this half though. God and I have already had a serious chat about that! I will be heading back to the village this weekend and I will finally get back to my normal routine. I ask that you would pray for my next three months that God would bless the work that my hands do. Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement. They have been a lifesaver for sure.

8.26.08

I figured I would fill you people back home in America about what is going on in my life. I have been in Cuiabá for almost two weeks now. I haven´t blogged much because there hasn´t been too much to blog about. I have been sitting around doing absolutely nothing waiting for my foot to heal. Things are finally starting to pick up around here. I am able to move around more and go places. Here in less than an hour I will be going to the federal building to get my visa stamped for my aditional 90 days here in Brazil. There are chances that they could deny me my aditional 90 days and I will be coming home this week, but they have to have a reason to do that and I have given them no reason. I have actually done their countries some favors. I made quite a few doctors rich off medical bills. They should give me citizenship for that. I ask that you would pray for this meeting and for me to continue to heal fast and with no compications. I will write more tonight and let you know how my meeting with the feds went. Love and miss everyone

I´m Back!

It has been a long time since I have been able to write home. I have been through quite a bit and I´m hopefully at the end of the tragedy. My foot is doing so much better. There is no swelling and no sign of infection. I am going back to the doctor tomorrow just for a check up. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I want to thank my sister Amanda for keeping my blog updated on everything that has been going on. Because of her post you have been able to pray specifically for my foot. I thank you also for prayers and for words of encouragement. They were greatly needed. The problems with my foot has slowed my plans down a little, but hasn´t slowed God´s plans down one bit. I am thankful for that. As much as my foot has been attacked through all of this, my spirits have been under worse attack. It is hard to go through something like this being so far away from my family. It is something that God has put me through to only strengthen my faith. He is teaching me things that aren´t exactly fun to learn. Things like patience and discipline in certain areas. He is teaching me to rely on Him through all things. I sadly admit that my reliance on God through all of this has been pretty poor. There were times were I was wanting to abandon my mission here and just go home to be with my family. It seemed like the easy thing to do and no one would blame me for coming home. I have thought of every excuse to go home because going home was the easy thing to do. And it was the thing that satan wanted me to do. He wanted me to abandon my ministry and go home to the comfort of my family and home. I refuse to let him win. No matter what. I have committed my life to this and satan will not get in my way. There is one more thing that he can do to send me home, and that is to get my visa extension denied. I go to the federal building on Monday or Tuesday to get my passport stamped for my additional 90 days here in Brasil. Now there are chances that they will deny this but I have faith that that won´t happen. I put it totally in God´s hands and pray that His will be done in this situation. I am also asking for your prayers on this matter also. Pray that God will continue to assure me that I am where I am supposed to be and for Him to continue to make His presence known in my life and the lives of those around me. Thank you again for everything. I´ll try to write again soon.

Serving Him no matter the cost.

On Jonathan's behalf

Now that I have taken over Jonathan's blog, I want to take this moment to say that if Jonathan ever needed encouragement, now is the time.  I talked with him this afternoon and he is in alot of pain as to be expected the day after surgery.  He is in someone else's home, in another country, and can only get out of bed to go to the restroom.  His foot swells terribly if he even lowers it below his heart at all so his trips to and fro are very limited.  He is going back to the doctor tomorrow and they will be able to tell more but for now, without complications, he will not be able to walk on his foot for AT LEAST 3 weeks.  He did mention that he is able to check email, blogs etc. through his IPOD touch (they have wireless there) however it is very hard to type back because it is so small.  He has lots of time you see because he is stuck in one place for long periods of time. SO...please send him a note of encouragement either on this blog or at his email address jsnason@memphis.edu and let him know that you are thinking and praying for him.  He might not respond but know that he is reading them and will be very encouraged by your words.  Jonathan as you all know is very positive about his mission over there and we all want to keep his spirits high as he is trying to do what God has called him to do.  Pray for a quick recovery, wisdom for the doctors and Jonathan, and pray that God would use even this situation to further His kingdom!

Jonathan's sister Amanda

Out of surgery

This is Amanda again.  Jonathan just called my mom about an hour ago and had just gotten out of surgery and was already at Pastor Waldir's house where he will be staying during his recovery.  He was very "out of it" and groggy and probably won't even remember talking to her but says he is doing ok.  They did put him to sleep and put a pin in his toe right under the toe nail and then cleaned it out really good.  He has to go back in two days for the doctors to look at it.  He didn't mention much else but, with  the help of some pain meds, will hopefully sleep some of it off tonight.  He will have to be off of his feet for a couple of weeks (2-4 maybe) for recovery. Please continue to pray for him as he recovers and tries to get back to "normal" life in Brazil.

Jonathan is in surgery...

This is Jonathan's sister, Amanda, posting on Jonathan's behalf.  I know some of you are eagerly awaiting to hear about his last post about reinjuring his foot.   All weekend he was in quite a bit of pain and was only lowering his foot below his heart 3 times a day and even in those short moments it was swelling pretty badly.  The infection was putting him in alot of pain.  When he went to the doctor this morning, they thought that the infection might be a little better but due to his toe condition (it fell out of place when they unwrapped it...gross I know) they insisted that he go ahead and have surgery to put a pin in it.  They were going to try not to put him to sleep to minimize costs and such but he was not too sure about that as you can imagine.  But if he feels any of it then they would have to.  Please pray for him right now as he is getting prepped or already is in surgery.  He is supposed to call at some point today and as soon as I know something I will update again to let you know how he is doing.  I know Jonathan trusts the Lord and knows that this is all in His plan, however I am certain that he is worried about how this will all play out with his ministry there. Please also pray that the Lord would open doors for him even with an injury.  I know that he will appreciate and covet your prayers.

Amanda

Dejavu!

I did it again. I was playing soccer barefoot and the next thing I knew I was screaming in pain. I looked down and my foot was bleeding really bad. I had reinjured my foot. I got in a car and made the 2 hour drive to the hospital here in Cuiabá. Many of you know what happened after that. I wrote about it about a month ago. I was placed in the same room in the hospital as last time. X-rays, stitches, etc. This time the injury was a little worse. I go back to the hospital on Monday to talk surgery with the doctor. I´m not too fond of this idea. The surgery will consist of taking a metal wire and pushing it through all 3 bones in my toe right through the middle. He will insert the wire at the tip of my toe right under the toe nail. Ouch. He says I won´t feel a thing, but he said that right before he popped my bone back in place and I felt every bit of it. My foot is infected and swollen and the doctor said that if the infection doesn´t go away with the anitbiotics then I will have no choice but to do the surgery. If the swelling goes down then I can choose whether or not to do the surgery. If I have the option I´m turning it down. The surgery will put my off my feet four a month and that is too long. I have limited time here in Brasil and I don´t want to waste it by sitting on my tushy. I need prayers for strength and healing. My body is being attacked but my spirits is only growing stronger. God is at work here and I´ll go through any type of struggles to be able to be apart of the work hat is being done here. My foot is being propped up on the desk as I am typing and it hurts in this position so I am going to go and I will write more later. Please pray for me and the my mission here in Brasil!

His servant.

Anniversário da Minha Mãe

Hello from Brazil. I don't have a lot of time but I wanted to give a shout out to my mom because tomorrow is her birthday. I want to wish you a happy birthday. I miss you very much and love you with all my heart. I am in town only for the day. God has changed a lot of things in my life this week and has given me visions for the future of my ministry. God is good and thankful for the salvation that He has given me. Please continue to pray for me and for continuous miracles in my life.
Life in the village is slow and peaceful. The daily routine is about the same everyday. Coffee and reading in the morning. Visits in the afternoon and then school at night. I enjoy the slow pace lifestyle very much and that is something I do not look forward returning to in America. Maybe I just won't return. Just kidding mom, just a joke.
After praying about it this week, I decided to turn down the basketball offer I mentioned in the previous blog. I didn't want to make such a comittment to something so often and so far away. I need to concentrate on my mission at hand and that is the villages of Sao Vincente, which include Corrego do Ouro (where I live), Matta Matta (don't think that is spelled right), and Fartura. They are building a basketball court at the local school now so I want to be available to hold basketball clinics there, a little closer to my home. I'm excited about my mission at hand.
I miss and love everyone. Thank you for prayers and please continue to pray.

God is Good! Deus é Bom!

I arrived early this morning into Cuiabá around 8 or so. I came into town because I had a meeting for the mission trip that I am going on here in Brasil. While we were driving to the church, Carlos told me that he had a surprise for me today. I had no clue what he was talking about. Him and another man on the team took me to a poorer part of Cuiabá. Not too bad. It is similiar to an area like Binghampton in Memphis. We pulled up at a huge outside basketball court. There were about 4o kids there playing soccer. He then began to tell me about this sports ministry at his church. Every other saturday, they go to this park and teach and play soccer. Then they share the gospel with them. It is a ministry that has been pouring into this part of town for a while. They are there for these kids whenever needed. It is run by two young guys and their wives. One of the guys own a professional soccer team here Cuiabá. So they know soccer. They have been talking for a while with Carlos, with the intents of meeting me and asking me to join there team as the basketball coach. They want me to teach basketball every other saturday. The saturdays that they aren´t teaching soccer. One of the guys wives speaks perfect English. So we got to talking and before long she has informed that she has a really good friend that owns the professional basketball team here in Cuiabá. Some connection. She says she will give him a call and wants me to meet him next saturday when I come back into Cuiabá. I am excited. She said that she has been praying for him because he is not a Christian. She has a special love for basketball ministry because she was saved back in 1994 when a basketball evangelism team came here from America. They shared the gospel with her, which was the first time she had ever heard about Jesus. She was in her teens. I´m excited about the doors that God is opening up. He is good. I also held a conversation in Português with some of the boys there this morning. Short, but it was a conversation nonetheless. Please pray for me next week as I hang out witht these kids. Pray that God will allow me to build bonds with these boys. I´ll let you know how things go. Love yall and miss yall.

Have you talked to God today?

His disciple.

In Cuiabá for the Day

Hello to all! I am back to civilization. Just kidding. I got up at 5 this morning to catch the two and half hour bus ride back to Cuiabá in order to go to the doctor. My foot is doing great. He removed the stitches and jiggled that toe every direction it could go with little pain. I am walking with hardly any limp at all. God is good. The doctor said I have to wait two weeks to play basketball. Good thing God didn´t tell me that or I would feel guilty for disobeying him. Seeing that I have a basketball clinic next Friday, I plan on playing some basketball. Satan couldn´t keep that from happening so neither is this doctor. I will be careful Mom! I can see you giving me that look all the way from America right now. My foot really is doing great and I am blessed because of that.
The last two days have been quite uneventual. I moved to the village on Tuesday and that is about all I have done since. Wednesday consisted of not seeing a single human being all day long. There was a lot of reading and listening to my ipod. Then I read some more, then I slept, then I read some more. That was about it. Thursday was a little better. I read, then cleaned the house, which took a while. My mind was a little more focused on God and not on my new surrounding. That made the day much quicker and definitely more enjoyable. Last night I built up the courage to go and watch some guys playing soccer down the hill from my house. I figured the only way I will make friends is to just be bold and introduce myself to people. That´s already hard enough, but to make it harder, try introducing yourself when you don´t know how to introduce yourself in their language. You can see why I was a little nervous. It wasn´t so bad at all. Eventually a man that I know from the church came and played. It was nice seeing someone I knew. I watched these guys play soccer for about an hour and half. It was the most excitement I had had in 3 days. One thing I did notice is that shoes are not allowed while playing. When I saw this I just began to laugh. They play on a sand field so you are not allowed to wear shoes. Sand soccer is really popular here. They even have a professional league. I´m not sure if I will ever be able to play any sport without shoes again. It just might not be worth the risk. But if I can make myself believe that it would enhance my ministry, then it will definitely be worth it.
Please continue to pray for me. Pray specifically for my foot, the basketball clinic on Aug. 1, and for me to make some serious connection with the people in which God has called me to serve. Thankyou for the prayers and encouragement. Love and miss everyone.

His Disciple.

p.s. College students please email me and tell me all about Kosovo. I would love to hear. My email is posted on the side of this site

To Corrego do Ouro I go

Today is the day! Tonight I finally get to go to Corrego do Ouro. I am so excited. The internet has been down the last 24 hours and I was afraid I wasn´t going to get the chance to put up one final post before I left. I´m leaving in about 30 minutes, so I made one last attempt at the internet and it was working. Thank goodness. In about 30 minutes I am starting a new adventure that I have been anticipating and praying for. The adventure that I have planned the next four months of my life around. It now begins. I spent about two and half hours this morning buying groceries and the things for the house. I am confident that I got everything that I needed. I´m not sure what else to say, but what God has put on my heart the last couple of days. There has been one huge prayer in my life that I have been praying for many many years. This prayer is the number one prayer in my life and it is the most consistent prayer in my life. The prayer is simply this, I have begged God since I comitted my life to the ministry to use me to do big things for His kingdom. This was a prayer full of passion and sincerity. Nothing wrong with this prayer, right? I´m not too sure about that. This prayer gave me a desire to glorify God in everything I do, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I had a desire to glorify Him in everything I did all the way to my death. I have recently been convicted of this. I have soon learned that this desire was a selfish desire. I have been begging God to humble me and teach me the prideful areas of my life. He is doing that. He has shown me that I have a larger desire to serve Him if people see me serving Him. In this process of God humbling me, He is teaching me what it truly means to be a servant. Someone who does things that people will never know that he/she did. Someone who rejoices in taking his cloak off and rapping it around his waste, and then washes the feet of those around him. Someone who tears there clothes and run through the streets at any sign of him being glorified and not God (Paul in Acts). In life people always try to be climb the latter of promotion in whatever they do. In our sinful natures, that is true for Christians as well. We desire to be the greatest in the Kingdom. Just like the disciples, we have a desire to do great things for God. This has been a prayer of mine for 8 years, and it is a selfish prayer. In the NBA there is a 6th man award given to the most productive person off the bench. This award is given to show the importance of a second string player, and to show that he is needed as much as the first string players. In an orchestra, the second chair is needed as much the first chair. Christians who surrender themselves and take the behind scene, never recognized, and never given credit for their acts of service, are needed as well. Jesus even says that that person is greatest in the kingdom. There are many of us who are willing to do the great things for the Lord, but few of us who are willing to do the little things (Dwight Moody). That prayer that I have prayed for many years isn´t a bad prayer as long as it is prayed without any selfish motives. God has called us to be servants and serve just as He has served. He has called us to do the little things that never get recognized. But here is another kicker. He wants us to love Him so much in the little things that we do, that we are truly disgusted if any glory or credit is given to us and not Him. We should have a servants heart on top of the servants acts. Our acts of servanthood are done in vain if we do them with a sour heart. Serve Him with a heart of pleasure and serve others as if you were serving Him. Look into the eyes of everyone you serve and find Jesus in them. I have a new prayer now. I now ask God to humble me with every breathe I take. Someone humble serves everyone as if they were a king. As a Christian, have the desire to do the little things for Christ.
Please pray for me as I start on my new adventure. Pastor Waldir is calling me out the door right now so off I go. I love everyone and miss them very much. I have no clue when I will be able to post again. Just keep an eye out. Thanks for everything!

His servant.

7.19.08

Hey everyone! Just wanted to update you on everything that is going on on this south side of the equator. I went to the doctor yesterday to get my stitches removed from my toe. The doctor said that everything is healing great and no sign of infection. He decided that it was best to wait and take out the stitches next week. I have to go back every Friday for the next month for him to check on it, and clean it to make sure there is no infection. I didn´t walk out of the hospital like I had hoped. I can stand on my foot but not walk yet. It´s not too far off though. I´m at Pastor Edson´s again this weekend. I have a meeting this Sunday and Monday for a mission trip that I am going on with First Baptist Church of Cuiabá. So, if plans don´t change again, I will be moving to the village this coming Tuesday. I am praying that plans don´t change beacause I am so excited about moving there. I went there Thursday to hang out with the college students, but had to come back to Cuiabá because I had to be at the hospital at 7 the next morning. God´s timing is perfect so I´m not worrying about it.

I want to give a shout out to the college students who are in Kosovo this week. I am praying for yall and I´m praying that you would call on the sovereignty of Christ and beg Him to make Himself known to everyone you share the Gospel with. Serve Him with all you´ve got! Spread His word. Allow God to use you to bless others, and, trust me, you will be blessed in return. Love yall!

Waiting With Expectancy Not Expectation

I want to start by thanking everyone for the prayers that you have lifted up in the last couple of days. I am doing much better. My toe is healing quickly. I hope to be able to walk on it by the end of the week. I get my stitches removed on Friday and hope I will be able to walk out of the hospital after that. That is my goal. The last couple of days have been very laid back and rather boring. But I have had the opportunity to rest and relax in God´s presence nonstop. I have spent a lot of time reading and pondering on God´s word. I have absolutely enjoyed it. I have enjoyed the feeling that I am hanging out with Jesus all day. It saddens me that soon I will be back into a normal life of on the go, and can´t just sit down anytime I want and read His word without cease. That has been my favorite part about this whole incident that has been turned into a very intimate week with my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The thought of this ending was not something I wanted to think about. Then God asked me, "Who says it has to stop?" This stopped me a second. The question was deeper then the actual surface of the question. I began to ponder. During this pondering time I was listening to my ipod and a new song that I bought yesterday was playing. It is a song sung from God´s perspective speaking to a man. The song goes through a day from sunrise to sunset where God tries to talk to the man, but the man is too busy to talk back, or better yet, he is too busy to simply listen. It shows the image of many many Christians who are just a little too busy for Christ right now. I want to extend this song for a second if possible. Let´s imagine this man at the end of the week. Let´s imagine him on a Sunday morning. This is a good Christian man who isn´t of the world, but just lives in it. This a man who lives by what the Bible teaches as far as actions go. He is a man who is respected by others in the church. He is a man who truly desires to be with God and wants God to speak to him, but he is just a little too busy most of the time. He loves Sundays so much because that is the day he gets to give all day to God. He loves worship and looks forward to going. He goes into worship hungry and longing to be fed by God. To be fed by his love and mercy. Often times though, he walks out of church still hungry. The man can never figure out why. He desires so badly for God to come and be with him, but can´t figure out why He doesn´t.

I want to take this man´s live and apply to our lives. This a Christian man who longs to be near God. He longs for God to come and be with him but it seems as though God is staying at a distance. For some reason the man just can´t seem to invoke the presence of God. Psalm 139:7-10 says this:

Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If if go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

According to this passage of scripture, we see that God is everywhere we go. There is nothing we can do to get away from Him. He is with you right now as you are reading this. He is with you when you are driving. He is with you in every shadow and step that you take. He there giving you every breathe that you take. So invoking the presence of God is not necessary. Then why don´t I feel Him near me? God does not need to be invoked, we do. We need to be called to our senses, to be as present to God as God is to us. God is near. The man, who is just a little too busy and can only find time to worship on Sunday, will starve and never see Christ infront of him. Kind of like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who did not recognize Jesus right infront of them talking to them. This brings me to the title of this blog. Waiting with expectancy not expectation. Expectancy is the belief that God will do something. Expectation insists He do it in just this way. Sometimes expectation blinds us more to the God who is here right now than outright disbelief does (Mark Buchanan) The two disciples didn´t see Jesus because, "We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21). That "hope" took a form that shut out suprises, like crosses and resurrection and a deeper redemption. Living a life of expectation leaves us often times disappointed because we are expecting it our way and don´t open our eyes to God´s way. If we wait with expectancy then we have our eyes open to all options. We invoke our presence toward God. We open our eyes and see Jesus in everything. We see that He is in everything we do. He is at our home. He is at the hospital with you. He is at your job. How different our lives would be if we instead made work into worship: as working for the Lord, not for man. And what if we did this, too, with our play, our leisure, our family time, our garden chores? Imagine. Imagine a life anchored by expectancy, by the conviction that the Lord will show Himself. How, where, when; we don´t know. If I were to live a life like this, then at the end of the week, when my foot is able to be walked on, I won´t have to miss the ability to hang out with God all the time. I won´t have to find a time to fit Him on my busy calendar. I will make Him my calendar and put everything else on top of it. I will worship Him in everything I do. Do everything for Him, not for man. Sit in class and learn Portuguese with Him right there beside me. I can rejoice and worship Him with every breathe I take. If Sunday for one hour is the only time we worship, no wonder we do it sloppily, hastily, and leave as hungry as we came. If we only ate one day a week, and on that day only one meal, we would die soon enough. And man does not live on bread alone. Robust worshipers worship in spirit and in truth. They don´t need a temple. A classroom will do. Invoke yourself to God´s presence which is right infront of you. Wait with expectancy for God to show up in your life however He wants. Find Him in everything in your life. Start by making this your prayer:

God be in my head,

and in my understanding;

God be in my eyes,

and in my looking;

God be in my mouth,

and in my speaking;

God be in my heart,

and in my feeling;

God be at my death,

and at my departing.

I get to hang out with Jesus all the time. It doesn´t get any better.

One Long Night

It has been one crazy weekend here in Brazil. I got the opportunity to stay the weekend with Pastor Edson and his family. Pastor Edson is the pastor of the church that I spent all week with during the evangelism week. It has been an exciting weekend. To start off with, no one in their household speaks a lick of English, which made things difficult, but good for me. I learned a whole lot of Portuguese this weekend. Saturday night, Karine and I went walking around town looking to buy some icecream. On the way we stopped by the ladies house that cooked for us all week during the evangelism week. Mateus, her grandson was there. He is the little boy that is in my facebook profile picture. They decided to go with us. We found icecream and it was so good. On the way back home we saw some kids playing basketball in the park. I didn´t have to pull out the dictionary to tell Karine what I wanted to do. She just started laughing and said go! So I did. This was the first time that I have seen anyone playing basketball since I have gotten to Brasil. I was excited. I just took off my flipflops and played. Let me back up really fast for a moment. Earlier in the night, we were at the grocery store and my head was getting really tired from trying to speak Portuguese. I told Karine, "This is going to be one long night." It took me about 5 minutes to get that point across to her, but she eventually got it. I had no clue how true that statement was going to turn out to be. Back to the basketball. I was playing and going for a loose ball, when my foot collided with someone elses foot that was wearing shoes. So my foot lost and lost big time. I hopped for a second in pain and then quickly returned to the game that hasn´t stopped. A couple of steps later I look down to see my foot bleeding prefusely. Blood wasn´t what bothered me. I can play with blood, no problem. It was the fact that my toe, when I touched it, felt like it was just hanging and not connected to anything. Your toe isn´t supposed to feel like that. So i wiped away the blood a little to have a better look. It wasn´t pretty. At that point I sat down and began to worry a little. Karine held up her hands in question form. I simply pointed to the bone that was sticking out of my foot. I didn´t have to pull out a dictionary to tell her what that was either. Long story short, I ended up at the hospital from 10 at night till 4 in the morning. A lot of non fun stuff went on while I was there. Things like setting my bone back into place and then stitching my foot up. Not fun at all. It was very very painful. But I am good now. It hurts a little, but nothing that a little time and prayers can´t fix.

My plans are still to go to the village today, even though I can´t walk. I told Pastor Waldir, while I was in the hospital, that this doesn´t change anything. If this is an attack by satan, then I won´t let him win by me changing what I have come here to do. My job is to share God´s love with everyone. Last time I checked, that really only needed a tongue to speak, and lips to smile. Not a good foot. God was very much glorified through this very long night. In a way it reminds me of the story where Jacob fights with God. At the end of the fight, Jacob is crippled, but he learned to lean and trust on God all the more. I feel that because of all of this, I am learning to lean on God all the more. With my body and my finances. I am thankful for everything that has happened to me this weekend. Sometimes rough and bad things happen to good people. I´m not saying I am good. I am just using the quote. People wonder why things like this happen to people who do God´s work. My do missionaries die young and tragically, leaving families behind. Why God, why? The only answer people have ever come up with is this, "Sometimes bad things happen to good people." Then that brings me to my next question. What is your definition of good. Yesterday I was reading in Mark and Mark 10:18 says, "No one is good-except God alone." It was a very humbling passage of scripture. I started thinking about this and then came to a very thankful and loving conclusion about that why question that I asked. Often times we take for granted the good things in our lives and often write them off as things that are normal. Things that are supposed to happen to us, or things that are owed to us. The Bible says that there are none good. If that´s the case then bad stuff never happen to good people, because there are no good people. Only good things to bad people. Everything good in our lives is a gift from God. A gift that we most definitely don´t deserve. We deserve the pits of hell, but because of God´s amazing grace, he has saved me allowing me to spend eternity with Him. THAT IS ENOUGH! If Christ doesn´t ever do one more merciful thing for me again in my life. If He doesn´t do one more so called good thing, then that is ok. Because Christ has already done enough. He has saved me. Be thankful for the good things. Ask God why are you doing this when He does something good for you, not when something bad happens to you. I have never gotten an answer when I asked God why when something bad happens to me. That is because there is no answer. But, I bet if you ask God why He is doing something when He is doing something good to you, you will get an answer. You will get a John 3:16 answer. An answer where God explains His perfect love to you. Be thankful for the good things in your life and don´t question the not so good things. Because the not so good things are what we deserve. Please pray for me and what good things God is doing here. God bless! (Deus te abençoe)!

To the College Students at Faith Baptist Church

I want to start by saying that I miss you all very much. I miss hanging out countless hours and enjoying the fellowship of friends that love you like a brother and sister. In all four Gospels we see a story of Jesus´s mother and brothers calling Him from outside a building. The crowd which was sitting around told Jesus that His mother and brothers are looking for Him. "Who are my brothers and sisters," he asked. Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God´s will is my brother and sister and mother." You all are my brothers and sisters and I miss you very much. I have been praying for all of you this summer and for the work that you are doing. I have been hearing good things. I want to thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words, they have come at the times I needed them most. This Monday I am leaving for the village where I will spend the next 5 months of my life serving Jesus. In the village, I will have very little contact with the world outside of Corrego do Ouro (the village in which I am living). Before I left, I wanted to extend a few things to you that I have learned thus far here in Brazil.
I have spent the majority of my Bible studies concentrated on the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In these four books of the Bible we see countless miracles done by Christ on a helpless and dying world. In many stories we see Jesus telling those in which He has healed not to let anyone know what He has done. I have spent a lot of time pondering on why Jesus wouldn´t want anyone to know what He has done. Didn´t He come for the lost and the sinners. Didn´t He come to offer forgiveness unto the unrighteous. So why wouldn´t He want people to know the miracles He is performing. I think I know why, but that´s not what I want to talk about. I want to concentrate on how the healed reacted after Jesus told them not to tell anyone. He very clearly demanded them not to say a word, but the majority of the time they disobeyed Him and told everyone about what He had done. Why would they disobey someone who has just saved their life. I know if someone saved my life and then they gave me one request, I would do whatever they asked. But these people in the Bible could not keep this one simple request. In one particular story in Mark 7, we see the healing of a deaf and mute man. The man couldn´t hear or talk before Christ healed him. Once he was healed, Jesus commanded him and the onlooking crowd not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. (v. 36-37) People were so amazed at what Jesus had done that they just had to tell someone. Now that is a faith that can´t be kept quiet. These people chose to disobey Jesus and tell others about Him, rather than obey Him and do the easy thing by keeping quiet. That is more striking to me than Jesus telling them not to say anything. Jesus changed these peoples lives and they just had to tell many about it.
Now finally in Matthew 28 we see The Great Commission. In The Great Commission, Jesus finally gives us permission to tell others about Him. We finally will be able to tell others about how He has changed our lives and obey Him all at the same time. Now we get to our stories of how Jesus Christ has changed our lives. But now we get to the most striking thing about all of this. The consistency that we are looking for between the stories in the Gospels and our stories, is the incapability of keeping quiet. Sadly the consistency that we find true between the stories is the disobedience towards Christ. Christ has given us a command to tell our stories and often we choose not to. Why is that? Why do we choose the easy thing and keep our mouths shut? Is our story not worth telling? Is the reason that we don´t share our faith because maybe our faith hasnt´t changed our lives enough that we can´t help but share it? It brings up a striking question about our faith. The question that I ask you is, "Has your faith changed your life? And if so, then how can you keep quiet?" I challenge you all to own your faith. Own it to the point that your are like the seed that landed on good soil. You hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop- thirty, sixty, or a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4:20) Live a faith that can´t be kept quiet. If Christ has changed your life then tell many and many about it without cease. You shouldn´t be able to keep quiet. If you can, then ask yourself if your faith has changed your life. And if not, then why not!
I can finally say that I truly own my faith. Because for the first time in my life, I can´t keep Jesus off my lips. He has saved my life and given me eternal life with Him in glory. That is worth telling others about. In this letter I don´t condemn anyone in the college, but only use something I have learned about my faith to challenge you in yours. Like I said in the begining, you are my brothers and sisters, so I only want to challenge your faith so that it might be tested and grow. Fear Christ and walk in love. I love you all and can´t wait to see you. Just a short time away.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14

Until He Returns!

Don´t Leave it on the Desk

DON'T LEAVE IT ON THE DESK

There was a certain Professor of Religion named Dr. Christianson, a studious man who taught at a small college in the western United States.Dr. Christianson taught the required survey course in Christianity at this particular institution. Every student was required to take this course his freshman year, regardless of his or her major.Although Dr. Christianson tried hard to communicate the essence of the gospel in his class, he found that most of his students looked upon the course as nothing but required drudgery. Despite his best efforts, most students refused to take Christianity seriously.This year, Dr. Christianson had a special student named Steve. Steve was only a freshman, but was studying with the intent of going on to seminary for the ministry. Steve was popular, he waswell liked, and he was an imposing physical specimen. He was now the starting center on the school football team, and the best student in the professor's class.One day, Dr. Christianson asked Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him. 'How many push-ups can you do?' Steve said, 'I do about 200 every night.' '200? That's pretty good, Steve, ' Dr. Christianson said. 'Do you think you could do 300?'Steve replied, 'I don't know.... I've never done 300 at a time.''Do you think you could?' again asked Dr. Christianson. 'Well, I can try,' said Steve.'Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I have a class project in mind and I need you to do about 300 push-ups in sets of ten for this to work. Can you do it?I need you to tell me you can do it,' said the professor.Steve said, 'Well... I think I can...yeah, I can do it.'Dr. Christianson said, 'Good! I need you to do this on Friday. Let me explain what I have in mind.'Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room. When class started, the professor pulled out a big box of donuts. No, these weren't the normal kinds of donuts, they were the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and frosting swirls. Everyone was pretty excited it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they were going to get an early start on the weekend with a party in Dr. Christianson's class.Dr. Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked, 'Cynthia, do you want to have one of these donuts?' Cynthia said, 'Yes.'Dr. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, 'Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?''Sure!' Steve jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten. Then Steve again sat in his desk. Dr. Christianson put a donut on Cynthia's desk. Dr. Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and asked, 'Joe, do you want a donut?' Joe said, 'Yes.' Dr. Christianson asked, 'Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?'
Steve did ten push-ups, Joe got a donut. And so it went, down the first aisle Steve did ten push-ups for every person before they got their donut.Walking down the second aisle, Dr. Christianson came to Scott. Scott was on the basketball team, and in as good condition as Steve. He was very popular and never lacking for female companionship.When the professor asked, 'Scott do you want a donut?' Scott's reply was, 'Well, can I do my own push-ups?'Dr. Christianson said, 'No, Steve has to do them.' Then Scott said, 'Well, I don't want one then.'Dr. Christianson shrugged and then turned to Steve and asked, 'Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?' With perfect obedience Steve started to do ten push-ups. Scott said, 'HEY! I said I didn't want one!'Dr. Christianson said, 'Look!, this is my classroom, my class, my desks, and these are my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it.' And he put a donut on Scott's desk.Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down. You could start to see a little perspiration coming out around his brow.Dr. Christianson started down the third row. Now the students were beginning to get a little angry. Dr. Christianson asked Jenny, 'Jenny, do you want a donut?'Sternly, Jenny said, 'No.' Then Dr. Christianson asked Steve, 'Steve, would you do ten more push-ups so Jenny can have a donut that she doesn't want?'Steve did ten....Jenny got a donut. By now, a growing sense of uneasiness filled the room. The students were beginning to say, 'No!' and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks.Steve also had to really put forth a lot of extra effort to get these push-ups done for each donut. There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face, his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.Dr. Christianson asked Robert, who was the most vocal unbeliever in the class to watch Steve do each push up to make sure he did the full ten push-ups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work for all of those uneaten donuts. He sent Robert over to where Steve was so Robert could count the set and watch Steve closely.Dr. Christianson started down the fourth row. During his class, however, some students came in and sat down on the steps along the radiators that ran down the sides of the room. When the professor realized this he did a quick count and saw that now there were 34 students in the room. He started to worry if Steve would be able to make it.Dr. Christianson went on to the next person and the next and the next.Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time. He was taking a lot more time to complete each set.
Steve asked Dr. Christianson, 'Do I have to make my nose touch on each one?' Dr. Christianson thought for a moment, 'Well, they're your pushups. You are in charge now. You can do them any way that you want.' And Dr. Christianson went on.A few moments later, Jason, a recent transfer student, came to the room and was about to come in when all the students yelled in one voice, 'NO! Don't come in! Stay out!' Jason didn't know what was going on.Steve picked up his head and said, 'No, let him come.' Professor Christianson said, 'You realize that if Jason comes in you will have to do ten push- ups for him?'Steve said, 'Yes, let him come in. Give him a donut.' Dr. Christianson said, 'Okay, Steve, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way right now. Jason, do you want a donut?'Jason, new to the room, hardly knew what was going on. 'Yes,' he said, 'give me a donut.' 'Steve, will you do ten push-ups so that Jason can have a donut?'Steve did ten push-ups very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered, was handed a donut and sat down.Dr. Christianson finished the fourth row, and then started on those visitors seated by the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each push-up in a struggle to lift himself against the force of gravity. By this time sweat was profusely dropping off of his face, there was no sound except his heavy breathing; there was not a dry eye in the room.The very last two students in the room were two young women, both cheerleaders, and very popular.Dr. Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, 'Linda, do you want a donut?'Linda said, very sadly, 'No, thank you.' Professor Christianson quietly asked, 'Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?'Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow push-ups for Linda.Then Dr. Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. 'Susan, do you want a donut?'Susan, with tears flowing down her face, began to cry. 'Dr. Christianson, why can't I help him?'Dr. Christianson, with tears of his own, said, 'No, Steve has to do it alone; I have given him this task and he is in charge of seeing that everyone has an opportunity for a donut whether they want it or not. When I decided to have a party this last day of class, I looked at my grade book. Steve here is the only student with a perfect grade. Everyone else has failed a test, skipped class, or offered me inferior work. Steve told me that in football practice, when a player messes up he must do push-ups. I told Steve that none of you could come to my party unless he paid the price by doing your push ups. He and I made a deal for your sakes.''Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Susan can have a donut?'As Steve very slowly finished his last push-up, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 push-ups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.
Dr. Christianson turned to the room and said, 'And so it was, that our Savior Jesus Christ, on the cross, plead to the Father, 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' With the understanding that He had done everything that was required of Him, He yielded up His life. And like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on the desk, uneaten.' Two students helped Steve up off the floor and to a seat, physically exhausted but wearing a thin smile.'Well done, good and faithful servant,' said the professor, adding, 'Not all sermons are preached in words.'Turning to his class, the professor said, 'My wish is that you might understand and fully comprehend all the riches of grace and mercy that have been given to you through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He spared not His only Begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all, for the whole Church, now and forever. Whether or not we choose to accept His gift to us, the price has been paid.' 'Wouldn't you be foolish and ungrateful to leave it lying on the desk?'

"The Will Of God Will Never Take You Where The Grace Of God Will Not Protect You."

A Triumphal Reminder

Today was a good day. We got a lot of work done. Today I spent about 3 hours on top of a roof all by myself taking apart the elctrical system in two houses. It gave me a lot of time to think. I started thinking about home. I missed it a little more than I did before. I know that this is where I am supposed to be but I still can´t help to miss home. I thought particuarly home much I miss my family, my mom and dad. How thankful I am for them and all they have done for me in the past 19 years. Especially lately! How much they have supported me leaving home. Thank you mom and dad. I love yall so much. I sat down to read my Bible tonight like I usually do. I´m reading through Matthew right now. I got to Matthew 19 where it is talking about the rich young man. He is asking Jesus what must he do to gain eternal life. Jesus tells him to sell his things, give to the poor, and then follow Him. The man leaves sad, because he had great wealth. Of course Peter is the first to speak up on the matter, he usually is. "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?" A selfish question if you ask me, but I´m glad he asked it. Jesus´s answer is the reminder that I needed to help me push on here in Brasil. Verse 28 says this, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Verse 29 is the triumphal reminder to me. "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sister or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first." This verse turned my grin upside down. It was a reminder from Jesus that He is with me and that He has His hand on everything. That He is the ruler of my life and my life is all about ridding myself of the world and following Him at all costs. I also read a note by George Siler on Facebook earlier and it was about student missions. He was encouraging the Church to be more mission minded with students. Be more worried about the number of youth and college student we are sending out then the number that are coming to our hour services. I´m proud to say that that is exactly what Ryan Johnston and the other pastors at Faith are doing with our college students. I give glory to God for that. I´m thankful for my church and college ministry for encouraging, equipping, and challenging me to GO. So I do the same to all you college students at Faith Baptist Church. Give up a spring break or summer to missions. Better yet give your entire life to missions. Jesus promises you a hundred fold of what you give up in rewards in Heaven. That is one darn good trade off. I miss all of you in the college ministry. I am praying for you and thank you for praying for me. Your prayers and reminders of encouragement mean the world to me. Thank you.

I miss my family the most! Don´t worry mom! Love you!

Until He Returns!

7.8.08

There´s not much new on this side of the world. I have been sitting in the house all day today and haven´t gone anywhere or done anything. My allergies have been driving me crazy for about two weeks and today was probably the worst. I have been taking some medicines for my allergies but nothing has really taken care of the problem until today. I have no clue what I took but I took two of them and they knocked me out all day. I have slept all day and finally got up around 6 tonight. Now it is 11p.m. here and I am not one bit tired, so I figured I would update yall on the last couple of days. Sometime on Friday night half the electricity in the house went out. So half the house doesn´t have power. It just so happens that the computer and phone is on the half of the house that hasn´t had power. So now we have extension chords run all throughout the house so that we could get on the computer and use the phone.
All week we are demolishing houses nearby trying to take anything from the houses that might be able to be reused on another house. There is a big Witcliffe Bible Translators compound right around the corner and they sold the property. Well the man that bought the property is going to bulldoze the whole property. So there are some 20 or 30 houses that will be torn down, so what we are doing is going into these houses and taking anything we can find that can reused. Things like toilets, windows, outlets, doors, etc. It is hard and very tiring work. We are doing that the rest of the week and as soon as we are done I will move out to the village. I´m in the process of trying to finish my house that I will be living in so some of these things that we are getting this week will go into my house. That saves us a lot of money, because money is the whole reason my house isn´t finished yet. We will finish it as the money comes in.
I also got news today that I will be doing my first basketball clinic at the very beginning of August. The pastor from the church in Poconé asked me if I would be willing to come do a one day clinic. Basketball clinics is a vision of mine for here in Brasil. I have been praying that God would allow me to use the game of basketball here in Brasil and he has just opened that door. I´m hoping that it will go well and that because of this clinic other doors will open up allowing me to go into other schools to share the gospel. Please keep praying for me and please beg God to continue to use me to change this huge country of Brasil. Love you and miss you!

Until He Returns.

One Month Reflection 7.5.08

Hello to all. Everything here is great. I hope yesterday everyone had a great 4th of July. Last night we went out to celebrate the 4th here in Brazil by going to my favorite pizza place, Duca´s 7. We also celebrated my one month anniversary here in Brazil. It has been one great month! God has changed my life, taught me new things, and blessed me with an absolute great time. He has made this place my earthly home for at least the next 5 months. In the last month, God has called me to this place. To make this my place of missions. He has opened and closed doors here. He has allowed me to stay, he has given me a house to stay in, friends that have been great to me, meet people from all over the world (Nienke from the Netherlands and hundreds here in Brazil), allowed me to see his beauty like never before, and has matured more than I knew possible. I feel that these six months will be the defining time of what type of man I will become. I pray that during this time God will make me the man He wants me to be. No matter the cost! Once I move into the village next week I will cook every meal I eat, buy and shop for everything I need. I will do all the dishes and wash all my clothes by hand. No momma here! My mom used to always get on to me about leaving stuff out and would say to me, "I´m not your maid that comes and cleans up after you!" To be honest though, if I left it out long enough she would be that maid that came behind me and cleaned up after me. Here that isn´t true though. I will be responsible for paying the little bills that I do have. I have to clean my house, even the bathroom. Hopefully your starting to see where I am going with this. I´m becoming independent! That may be hard for my momma to grasp, but it is true and it is good. Parents raise their children up the best they can to become servants for Christ. Thank you mom and dad for doing just that. You have raised me into a man that wants to do nothing else except serve God will all my heart. You have taught me to fear Him more than you. Now I am following His will for my life. He has called me to be a missionary, someone who travels the globe sharing the Gospel. To tell the greatest story ever told.
This month God has taught me to truly fear Him and to realize that He is not a safe God, but a God that has the power over all and can do anything He wants. There is nothing safe about that. A safe god is a timid god and that isn´t the god I serve. I serve a God that calls me to unsafe places and promises me nothing except that He will always be with me. He doesn´t promise me safety in the village where I will be living. I fear God enough that I dare not be out of His will. I more afraid of being out of His will than being in a will of His that many say is crazy. Many people have told me that they wouldn´t do what I´m doing because of the danger that might be involved. People who live a life looking for safety in God´s will, will never have the adventure that I am having, see the things that I have scene, and see the miraculous sovereignty of God. They will only see a god that is timid and safe, which is what most people in the American church see God as. Sadly it took me coming to Brazil to see that that was me. Someone who doubted what God could do, instead of trusting in what He has done. What has he done? He has saved me. He has saved nearly thousands the month that I have been here. He changed families. He has given people refuge here in Brazil. He has conquered the world. A God that has conquered the world isn´t timid at all. Although He isn´t safe, He does offer refuge to all who call upon Him. Matthew 11:28 tells us that.
In Philippians 3 we see Paul talking about living a life that glorifies God in every breathe we take. He says that he considers everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. That´s the cry of my heart. That I would live a life that glorifies Christ with every breathe I take. That is a man that is fully consecrated to Him. I aim to be that man! But I can´t leave out the other half that Paul talks about in that passage. He says that he not only wants to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, but he also wants to know the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. The call of a man fully consecrated to Him is an adventure, but is also a calling of suffering like Jesus suffered. Jesus is the King of kings and yet He followed His father even when it meant suffering for Him. So who am I, or who is anyone else, to say that they will serve God only if it promises safety. I don´t serve a safe God. There is no safe god. So don´t worry about me here in Brazil, because I am following my God. No matter what! Don´t be like me and have to go to another country to realize who Jesus really is. He is not who we make Him out to be. He is who He is, we only change what we view Him as. So change who you view Him as. If you do He will take you on the greatest adventure of your life. You will begin to live a life of reckless abandonement. And you will rejoice in His sufferings as well! Living a life that is fully consecrated to Him is a calling to all Christians, but hardly any accept, because they are afraid of what might happen to them. Many Christians are comfortable in their safe god and don´t want to venture out into the world of the unknown. Living a life that is fully consecrated to Him is the difference between a Godly man and a Christian man. Accept the calling to be a Godly man or woman and let God use you to change to the world. Warning: you just might see his power and suffering for Him just might be something you enjoy! My God is not Safe!

Climbing São Jeronimo 6.30.08

    Yesterday was awesome. We got up around 6a.m. and left to climb São Jeronimo. It is the highest point in the state of Monte Grosso. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. It was harder than any cross country or basketball workout that I have ever done. We hiked up the side of two other mountains just to get to the foot of São Jeronimo. It took us 2 hours of hiking just to get to the mountain. The hike up to the mountain was the hardest. It was harder than actually climbing the mountain. It didn´t help that it was really hot out. Climbing the mountain wasn´t really hard but it was just about the scariest thing I have ever done. Before we started the climb, Jr. looked at Nienke and me and told us to be very careful with every decision we make from here on out, because if we weren´t careful it would be the last decision we ever made. That statement was very true. It took us about an hour to climb this mountain. There were many times where I was less than one foot from the edge and having to walk or climb the rocks. We were very careful though and made it just fine. Once we got to the top it was flat and absolutely amazing. One of the best views I have ever scene. Pictures just don´t capture the beauty of it, but I took pictures so at least you will have an idea. We spent some time up there just enjoying it all. The climb down was a bit more tricky, but it was all part of the thrill and adrenaline rush. We finally got back to the truck after about 6 hours. We were exhausted. We found a swimming hole on the way back and cooled off and found a few things to jump off. The day was one of the coolest days of my life. God showed me the beauty of his creation like never before. God is changing my life here and I am very thankful for it. Please live life day by day and not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow is tomorrow and always will be tomorrow, but today is today and today is the only day that you live in. Be thankful every morning that you wake up that you get to have another day to serve the Lord and Saviour of the universe. If you live life like that, you will have the greatest life you could ever imagine. I have never had more fun in my life than I am having right now. I love and miss everyone! Please keep praying for me!

Me on top of Sao Jeronimo

Nienke and me

A picture from on the side of the mountain of the climb up

Another picture from the side of the mountain

One of my favorite views

The Beast from about 300 meters away

Me at the foot of the mountain before we started up it

Jr. and me at the top

Having some fun with the Toyota

Hiking in Chapada

     Yesterday I went with Jr., Nienke, and Grace hiking in Chapada.  We had a blast.  We hiked about 12km total.  Between the four of us we had been to 45 different countries and spoke 6 different languages (English, Portuguese, Dutch, German, French, and a tribal Ethiopian language).  We started out by going where the sign told us not to go.  The park was closed do to landslides so we parked at a nearby restaurant and then went in the back way.  Don't tell my mom, please.  It took us over an hour to get to the first of seven  waterfalls (we only got to visit 3 of the seven due to time).  We got to the first one and Jr. and I climbed down into it.  It was pretty easy to get down but it wasn't so easy to get back up because you had to go up the way the water was coming down.  It is a hard obstacle to get around.  The third waterfall was the best.  Translated it meant waterfall of the jump and was named that for a reason.  That is exactly what we did.  On the way to the waterfalls we found some rocks to climb.  At first we decided that we better not attempt it but after a reconsideration by Jr. we climbed up it.  It was scary but a thrill and the day was an absolute blast.  We were exhausted when it was all said and done.  This week is our vacation week so we have a fun and exciting week ahead.  I'll keep you updated on how things are going this week.  Today we are headed to the movies and then to church.  Tomorrow we are going to hike and climb a mountain here in Cuiaba.  It will be an all day adventure.  We will get up early in the morning and head out there.  Tuesday we are going to go to Pantanal where I had went a couple of weeks ago and put pictures up, but this time we are going to take a boat ride and horseback ride through the whole thing.  Last time we just went where we could drive.  Wednesday and Thursday we are going to the village to give out supplies to the people there and then a water park is calling my name on Friday.  Thanks for the prayers.  I love and miss everyone.  Here are pictures from the hike yesterday.

Americans are all Gone 6.28.08

     The last couple of weeks were amazing.  God performed miracles and changed peoples lives.  I'm so thankful that I got to be apart of it all.  Yesterday I watched all my friends get on a plane and leave me behind.  There were plenty of tears shed.  Once I saw them get on the plane, it hit me!  I'm really not going home anytime soon.  It scared me a little, but it was also an exhiliration that I can't explain.  I officially changed my ticket.  I cancelled my ticket home on July 1, and I haven't bought a new one home yet.  I didn't buy a new one yet because the travel agents told me it would be cheaper if I bought a ticket closer to the time I wanted to go home.  So I'm not sure when I am coming home yet, but I will be before Dec. 4.  Please pray for me.  I need it right now.  I'm headed hiking with Jr. and he is calling my name telling me it's time to go so I will finish later.   Today will be a blast.  I love and miss everyone!