The Day at Poconé 6.11.08

Yesterday was an amazing day. I got the opportunity to go with my good friend Carlos to a small town called Poconé. It is about two hours away from Cuiabá. We got up early enough to catch the first bus at 6a.m. Carlos is an architect and he designed a church there so we went to visit to see how things are going and to help them build. The church is in its early stages of the building process but it is coming along. We helped them lay the framing in the ground. Around lunch time the Pastor of the church, Pastor Carlos, asked if I wanted to talk on the radio. He said that the church pays for an hour of broadcast everyday and wanted me to be the guest of honor for the hour. That was really cool. At the beginning I spent about 5 minutes to tell about myself and tell everyone why I was in Brazil. I stayed there the entire hour and periodically he would ask me a question or two. It was a very unique experience. After that a lady from the church came and picked us up and took us to her house for lunch. This lady served us all day long. She was true blessing to me yesterday. After lunch she took us to Pantanal, which is a local national park where there are a bunch of wild and animals that you don´t get to see everyday. I saw about 70 alligators and no exaggeration in that at all. I also got to see the Tuyuyu. The Tuyuyu is the second largest bird in the world and is absolutely an amazing creature. It´s head is black, neck is red, and the body is white. I got about 5 feet away from a bunch of alligators. It was an adrenaline rush for sure. But they didn´t want anything to do with us. When we got too close they would often swim off.

To top it all off, I got the opportunity to preach at the church that I had been helping build all day. I spoke out Haggai where the people are building a temple. I thought it was relavent since they are in the process of building a new church. The Pastor was a really nice and funny guy. He truly loved his church and the church loves him. He is very passionate about reaching the people of Poconé. We stayed the night at his house and then got up early to catch the 6a.m. bus back to Cuiabá. The day reminded me once again how much I love this place and look forward to serving this people as long as God calls me to.

This the group that I hung out with all day. Pastor Carlos is on the far right and my good friend Carlos is the one on the other side of me. I am thankful for the friendship that God has given to us.