Day 3-Carpenter's Way July 2012

Day 3:  Bom dia-which is "good morning" in Portuguese.  We had a fabulous day in Vila Nova! This village has approximately 39 families (about 195 people), only 18% are professed Christians.  Despite this, they were very welcoming, happy to have us there and receptive to what we wanted to share.  After Dja shared with us from Acts 2 & 3 we spent a lot of time in prayer during our morning devotion, praying that we would be the face of Jesus. 

 

I (Kristine) was able to serve on the street evangelism team today which also consisted of Sam T., Jacy, Pam, Toni, Rejane, and Josimar.  We were invited to enter 2 different homes & pray with the families there.  One of them did not have a Bible at all & we read some scripture with them.  I highlighted the passages and then prayed for their family to come to know Christ.  At the second home, we met three generations of men.  Only one of them can read & we gave him a new Bible to read to the family and Pam prayed for them.  

 

VBS had 55 children today with Ally, Teresa, Barbara, Cameron, & Evelyn.  The highlight was the skit that they put on about the birth of Jesus.  The children were really into the reenactment, bowing to baby Jesus.  The medical team reported 96 patients today!  Gigi, Chad & Sam H. played photographers today.  Amanda cut hair again today with Trey stepping in to give a mohawk to one young boy!

 

"God choses the right person for the right need."  The speed boat evangelism team, Vanderlei, Paige, Gilbert, & Trey visited a house with pet pigs, a new experience even for our veteran Paige. But while visiting with a local named Jackson who received Christ during their visit, the team was even more blessed by their time with him because he and Paige shared a common bond, the recent loss of a family member. 

 

I especially enjoyed hearing Pam share the gospel at the ladies meeting today, using comedy to warm up the crowd.  We had about 40 women in attendance.  Teresa, Melinda, Donna, and I got our fill of holding some beautiful babies too!  At the final village meeting, Chad & I sang an original song that he wrote, "There You Are", and Trey shared the story of Jesus & Lazarus.  The exclamation point at the end of this day was when the whole village headed to the soccer field to watch the athletes of our team take on the Brazilians.  There were so many on our team that wanted to play that a third team was created consisting of Americans & Brazilians.  The Americans held there own today and it was very fun to watch everyone play.

 

As I type everyone is heading for their hammocks, tired from a full day of serving and being blessed.  Please keep praying for the people we will encounter.  Tomorrow we will be serving another village consisting of mostly unbelievers.

 

Until all have heard,

Kristine Mize