What an Honor

Yesterday was a great day. I was invited to speak to the pastors of the Baptist Convention that’s in Curitiba, Brazil. What an honor. If you would’ve told me last year, at this time, that we would be standing in the Headquarters of the Baptist Convention in Curitiba, casting vision in front of all the pastors about the ministry that God has us doing here, I wouldn’t have believed you for a second. What are the chances that we (American missionaries), that are only in the beginning stages of ministry in this country (and that still don’t speak Portuguese), would be asked to come and tell all these pastors about the vision God has laid on our hearts so that they could partner together with us in ministry? I’ll go ahead and answer that for you... the chances are about 0%! (a.k.a., slim to none). Unless, of course, God is the one orchestrating it all: )

It just blows my mind to think of all the things that God has done (and is doing) to allow us to get the Gospel to the children and teenagers in this part of Brazil. There’s no possible way that any of us could orchestrate any of this. And that’s what makes this so amazing to me. To see the hand of God opening doors that nobody else could possibly open. He gets all the glory and all the credit because it’s definitely not us that are doing all this stuff. He’s just allowing us to be involved in His activity... that’s what’s so cool. And that’s not some type of “false humility” either. It’s straight-up all God.

I was able to share with them (the pastors) what we’re doing and also explained how we wanted to partner with them to help make disciples of the teenagers and children in their villages. (If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, click HERE) They were excited to hear what we’re doing and even began booking dates with us (for camps). At the end of the meeting, the President of the Baptist Convention asked if we could schedule a time for all of the pastors to come out to the camp (for a day) to see and hear more about the camp and the ministry we have going on. Of course we said, “yes!” So, we’ll let you know when this happens. Just think of how many hundreds and thousands of kids live in all of these favelas, cities, villages and towns. And just think of what an impact that the Gospel is going to have in their lives. I’m humbled to think that we’re a part of this whole thing. For real.

And if you’re someone who supports us financially and in prayer... thank you. We wouldn’t (and couldn’t) be here without you partnering with us.

Amazed,

Jim and MJ

PS- the pics up top are in front of the Baptist Convention Center. One of the guys I’m standing with is one of the translators that helps us. His name is Higor and he speaks awesome English. His father was a pastor in Miami for several years (whatup Caines! That’s a shout-out to all my Miami homeboys, haha!) and is a youth pastor in Curitiba. The other guy is Pastor Bart. He’s a close friend of ours that’s been pastoring in Villa Zumbi for the last 4-5 years and has recently been made an overseer of all the church plants of Bachacheri Church in Curitiba. We’ve been partnering with him for the last 3 years with all of our missions work and have seen God do amazing things through him and his family. Both of these guys are huge blessings to us and to the Kingdom. And I also told them I needed to find some bigger friends because they were making me look too fat in my pictures: )