Back in Villa Zoombie

Well today we we spent the first part of the day at Betania preparing for Easter services in Villa Zoombie tomorrow. Worship, Drama, Children's teaching, games, etc. (Revolution will be in Villa Zoombie and we will be ministering there in their Easter service and Crossroads will be ministering at Crossroads Curitiba.) After lunch we went to Villa Zoombie and handed out flyers door to door inviting people to church tomorrow. Daniel was able to lead a boy to Christ right in the middle of the dusty dirt road just a few blocks from the church. When I heard the story I knew that Daniel needed to be the one who blogged tonight so here's Daniel:

Well, my name is Daniel and I guess I will start by saying it's great to be down here in Brazil doing God's work. So I guess I'll start my story. We were actually walking back towards the church, at the end of our rounds (handing out flyers), when one of the Brazilian boys traveling with us, Joab, said that he wanted to accept Jesus Christ as his lord and savior. This came out of nowhere and I was quite shocked. Our translator asked which one of us wanted to lead him in the sinners prayer. I didn't want to do it at first because I was nervous and thought someone else in the group would do it. We all reasoned among ourselves and even though I was nervous I was the one who said I would do it. It wasn't a matter overcoming my nervousness and saying I would do it, my mouth more or less opened itself. I'm still not that good at discerning when the Holy Spirit moves but I'd have to say this was one of those times. When I finished leading him to Christ I didn't feel any different but I knew it was right, so it was good. I was happy for Joab and I'll keep him in my prayers. Bye.

Daniel

Hey Guys, it's Jim again. The thing that's really blesses me about that story is that Daniel had never done that before. He's a great guy, very reliable, real sweet spirit but very quiet. That's not really his nature to be the one in a group to step up and be the one who volunteers to be the spokesman. He's content with serving behind the scenes and never being noticed... he's fine with that. But today, he was in a group of other people, most of which are very outspoken, and he volunteered to be the one to lead this boy to Christ (you can see the picture of the 2 of them at the top of the blog). That's what this mission trip is about... "to allow Jesus to stretch us and use us in ways we would have never imagined." I've said it from the beginning, "we're all going to come back changed after this trip." So keep believing with me, okay?

We'll be in Villa Zoombie tomorrow putting on an "Easter Eggstravaganza" type event. We're expecting close to 300 children there in the afternoon. It's gonna be a great opportunity to try and develop relationships with these kids.

Please pray for us tonight and tomorrow. The two churches, and the pastors that we're working with, have been so gracious to us by giving us the biggest service of the year... Easter. I was shocked that they wanted us to do the services on this important day. Please pray that God will minister through our students as they lead worship, perform dramas, and give testimonies in these services. Also, please pray for Me and Jono as we'll be delivering the messages at these 2 churches. Pray that God will move in a mighty way through all of us and that the the kingdom of darkness will be crushed as the Kingdom of God is exalted! God is so good to us.

Happy Easter!

Jim