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