Movie Madness

OK. Just a warning. I’ve been sitting on this blog for almost a year now and have wavered back and forth on whether or not to post it. It has no ‘spiritual' point to it and it actually has no real meaning other than to be a reminder to us (years from now) when we’re no longer on the mission field and all our kids are grown-up, off to college and have families of their own. This is the type of stuff that happens on a regular basis here and would be easily forgotten if I didn’t write it down- so here it goes: )

Question:

When you think of getting an education and the things that ‘getting an education’ entails- what are some of the things that come to mind? Reading? Math? Science? Studying intently? Well, that’s what comes to my mind. But there’s another thing that they incorporate into our children’s education here in Terra Boa, Brazil (other than an exorbitant amount of soccer classes- for real, haha!). And that thing is movies. That’s right, movies. And I’m not talking about educational movies either. I’m talking about regular movies that are at the theater or on DVD. 

For the last 3 1/2 years our kids have had classes where, rather than actually teaching my kids something, the teacher puts a DVD on and that’s the class for the day! “Seriously,” you say? Yes, seriously. Now that wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it was a special day or a day where the teacher wanted to reward the kids for some type of educational accomplishment they had all reached or something- but no. It’s just a constant flow of movies for no apparent reason. And what makes it worse is that they’re showing rated R movies with questionable content. 

Last year, Robert’s 1st grade teacher decided to show Rambo- First Blood pt. 2 to a bunch of 7 and 8 year old kids. Now, it’s been a while but, if I recall correctly, doesn’t Sylvester Stallone shoot an exploding arrow into someones head that shows (in slow motion) a camera shot of their head as it is blown clean-off their body in that movie? Call me crazy- but I don’t think that’s appropriate for little kids. What do you think?

We’re by no means prudes when it comes to movies but we are very selective with what our children watch at home. Because we’re trying to help them- not harm them by filling their head with graphically violent images and sexually graphic images. Gabriel (our 11 year old) has a problem with nightmares so we really try filter out any kind of scary TV or movies so that he can sleep peacefully at night. But here they’re showing scary films at school (like the revenge of Chuckie, for real- they did) and so we have to deal with the aftermath at night(i.e., nightmares). Thanks guys!

We’re only about a month into the new school year and so far 2 of the 4 kids in school have already watched at least 1 movie in class. Last year they probably watched at least 20 movies in class. The sad part (besides that they’re watching movies at school) is that they’re only in school 4 hrs per day. So if they watch one movie then at least half of the school day is gone! It’s so frustrating. 

But it gets even better. All the movies here are bootleg movies. So not only are they showing movies, they’re showing ones that are illegal copies. lol!

But wait, it gets better yet... Robert said that when the movie is over, the teacher sells it (the bootleg DVD) to whatever kid in the class wants to buys it... haha! It’s movie madness!

Waitin’ for the Popcorn,

Jim

Now That’s the Church

Most of you who read this blog know that MJ and I are missionaries here in Brazil. And most of you know about our ministry to orphans and to the children in the local favelas (slums) in and around Curitiba. And most of you know about all the camps we do each year for hundreds of kids who desperately need Jesus. Our life is non-stop but we love doing what we do: )

But, what some of you may not be aware of is that, for a little over 2 years now, we've also been the lead pastors of an English speaking church in Curitiba as well. We meet in one of the largest Baptist churches in the city (Igreja Batista do Bacacheri) and have services at the same time as the mother church is having their main portuguese service.

We started out with about 12 people and have grown to a solid 50+ people each Sunday Morning. Since we’re an international church, that meets inside of another church, it's a different dynamic than you see at most churches. Even though we only have, on average, around 50 people each service- we see a lot of different people each month. Actually, we probably have 150 different people that come each month to one of our services. Some people are only in town for a few weeks or even just for the weekend (for their jobs). Some people only show-up once a month (or so) because they’re wanting to improve their English. So it’s difficult trying to actually ‘pastor’ in this kind of environment. 

The i3C Worship Team at a special Night of Worship

But Me and MJ have been extremely grateful for the opportunity to be able to minister in our own language in a foreign country each week. Actually, I truly believe it’s a gift from God since I still struggle with portuguese (actually struggle is an understatement, haha) and it’s helped keep me sane since teaching The Bible and pastoring are such a HUGE part of who we are.

But, even though we’re able to minister in English each week, it’s always been a concern of ours that that’s all we’re doing- ministering in English each week and that’s it. There’s been no way to actually measure our effectiveness (with the people) because we live 45 minutes away, in the middle of the jungle, and we don’t get the opportunity to walk with any of the people we pastor during the week (to actually see if there's any fruit being produced in their lives). And this is always at the forefront of our minds. 

Because, to me, the thing about being a pastor that I have zero interest in- is trying to pastor people who just want to be at church on Sunday and then they just check-out for the rest of the week until the next Sunday without actually following Jesus every day. That doesn't interest me at all- English or no English. But we’ve remained steady and have just trusted that God was actually using us in the people’s lives.

Some of the i3C crew at a recent outreach

Since we do a lot of outreach in the orphanages and favelas as missionaries, over the last 2 years, we’ve invited the church to partner with us any time we do and the response is usually pretty good. But still- we know that even that (having people show up for an outreach) doesn’t prove that someone is actually the real deal, right?

In Villa Zumbi at an outreach we did last month

Well, after this past Sunday’s service, Me and MJ were driving home and she began to tell me a story about a precious couple that are members of our church. She was telling me how that last week they were having some financial difficulties (due to a job situation) and didn't even have money to buy toilet paper.

Then MJ told me about how, when someone else in the church found out about it, they  gave them R$500. And then another person who’d found out about their situation gave them some money. And then someone else found out about it and showed-up at their house with 5 big boxes of groceries! 

This all happened last week and they didn't come to Me and MJ asking for help (which we would have), no. They didn't need to. Because the Church, the Body, aka- the Members took care of each other like they're suppose to. And that’s the way that I believe God designed it (the Church) to operate from the beginning (Acts 2:42-47). 

As a pastor that makes me so proud of our church and it helps us know that we’re actually pastoring people who are living out their faith and not just showing up on Sundays and then clocking-out until the next week: )

James says (in James 2:14-16), that one of the proofs (or one of the things that gives evidence) that your faith is actually alive is when you see a brother or sister in need and you do something about it. And Jesus says (in Matthew 25:31-46) that one of the things that'll differentiate the true disciple from the false disciple on Judgement Day will be the fact that they met someones needs when they were made aware of it. So, to me, what these brothers and sisters did for this couple was a proof of something that’s real.

We don’t work for our salvation but our works prove that our salvation is real. 

And, because of this, I'm feeling pretty happy today to be honest with you. Because for over 2 years now, as we’ve been pastoring the i3C, we’ve been looking for true signs that what we’re doing really matters. So I’m writing this blog to brag on our church and to thank God for allowing us to see some fruit in our people’s lives that shows that we’re on the right track: )

Feeling Proud (in a good way),

Jim and MJ

Staying Focused Isn't Always Easy

We’ve been in full-time ministry for a little over 18 years now and have served as associate pastors, youth pastors, in supportive ministry and now as lead pastors and missionaries. So, over the years, we’ve done a lot of good things but we’ve also made a lot of mistakes along the way as well. 

One of the biggest struggles has always been staying focused. For some reason staying focused on what God’s called us to do has always been a serious challenge. There’s always a temptation to lose sight of our call- even with supposedly good things. Here, let me explain:

When we founded Hope and Life Brazil we had a clear vision of what we felt like God wanted us to do- "Reach the people of Brazil with the Gospel." And particularly the children and teenagers of Brazil. And, as it goes with any vision/mission/purpose statement, sometimes it’s easy to become distracted and even get off track when ministry actually begins. 

On paper mission statements always look good. But once ‘real life' kicks-in it’s easy to lose focus and get away from what you initially set out to accomplish. And that’s especially the case when you see so many things that need to be addressed. Whether it's something morally, educationally, economically, physically or most important of all-  spiritually. We can’t meet every need or be the catalyst for change in every circumstance (even though we’d like to). 

I think that sometimes, as christians who want to truly follow Jesus, we have a tendency to try and do too much by trying to meet too many needs. Not that ministering to people and meeting needs is a bad thing by any means. No, it’s actually quite the opposite. We do need to minister to people and we do need to meet needs. But first we need to determine which needs are the ones that God is specifically calling us as individuals (or as a church/ministry) to meet. And then once we know where God wants us to focus our attention (from a ministry standpoint) we need to run 100mph in that direction fulfilling what God’s called us to do. 

One thing I’ve noticed in almost 2 decades of ministry now- "if the enemy can’t get you to do nothing, he’ll try to get you to do everything.” I know that sounds weird at first but think about it… "If he can’t get you to do nothing (i.e., just sitting around twiddling your thumbs while people all around you are in need and some are even dying and going to Hell without Jesus), he’ll try to get you to do everything- which eventually leads to burnout."

We’ve had to learn that lesson the hard way. But over the last couple of years we’ve really endeavoured to try and stay on course. When we first moved to Brazil, as rookie missionaries, back in 2011’ it was really hard to do that too. There are so many needs here that it can be overwhelming.  And trying to stay focused has been difficult at times because there’s always something or someone who has a need that needs to be met. 

So, to avoid getting off course, one of the things we've tried to do is run everything we do through two filters before we even consider doing them (concerning ministry). Because if you don’t have filters in place it’s easy to become distracted and get off course. 

The first filter is the same for anyone who is a follower of Jesus (or at least it should be):

Filter #1 (And the most important filter)

Does it allow us to proclaim the Gospel?

Some of the kids at one of the outreaches we did last month 

There’s a quote that's usually attributed to St Francis of Assisi. You’ve probably heard it before. It’s, “Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words.” While I understand what he was trying to say it still doesn't change the fact that he was 100% wrong! You can’t preach the Gospel without words. It’s impossible. Read Romans 10:13-15. It says,

“For everyone who calls on the name of The Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him in whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” 

You see- Buddhists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hindus, Muslims, Scientologists- you name it… they can all feed the hungry, help the poor, drill a well, etc. but they don’t proclaim the Gospel. They don’t have the Spirit of the living God dwelling within them that brings real life- the life that’s only attained through the hearing of and the responding to the Gospel. That’s what separates us from every other religion in the world.

The proclamation of the Gospel has always got to be the end goal. It’s got to be, period. So, for us, if there’s not going to be an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel we have to pass. That may sound strange but it’s just what we feel like we have to do. 

To just swoop in somewhere and give someone food without also offering them ‘the Bread of Life’ wouldn't be right. To only give someone a bottle of water without telling them about ‘the Living Water’ that’ll quench their real thirst would only be offering them the temporary and not the eternal- and that’s just not right. 

I can remember, several years ago, organising an outreach in a local park for our church during the Summer. It was super-hot that year. So we decided to go and hand out bottled water to the people in the park for free. We had a special label on the bottle that had our church name and logo on it. I think that it may have had a scripture on it but I don’t think so… I can’t remember. But, in retrospect, the one thing that I do remember is that there was no intentionality in sharing the Gospel that day. There was intentionality in promoting our church in the community that day but not Jesus. It’s like we did a good thing but we neglected the best thing.

If you look throughout the Gospels you’ll see Jesus doing a lot of good things for people but it was always in conjunction with the proclamation of the Gospel. He was always teaching and pointing people toward God and the good deeds (i.e., the healing, the deliverances, the provision of food, etc.) were just an extension of His proclamation of the good news of Kingdom of God.

But it’s difficult sometimes. When there are so many needs out there you have to make the decision beforehand or it’ll be easy to get off course. We even did a few ‘good things’ early-on here in Brazil, that, although were great things, they weren’t Gospel-centered. They didn’t allow for the proclamation of the life-changing Gospel that people so desperately need to hear.

Filter #2

Does it fall in line with our mission/purpose statement?

The kids we're trying to reach in Villa Zumbi live in conditions that break your heart

The next filter that we run things through is “does it line up with our mission/purpose statement.” That may sound elementary but it’s harder than you think. For us it’s reaching the children and teenagers of Brazil with the Gospel. Although we haven't been perfect at staying on course we’ve actually remained pretty steady.

And that’s only because we’re constantly looking through the lens of our mission/purpose statement and asking ourself the question, “are we reaching people (children and teenagers in particular) with the Gospel” by ____________ ?” If we’re able to further the Gospel by fulfilling a particular need or if ministering in a certain way furthers our mission/purpose (reaching the children/teenagers here with the Gospel) then we do it . If it doesn’t then we don’t. It’s pretty simple. 

And we’re constantly critiquing ourself and our ministry to make sure we’re doing what God has called us to do. How about you? If you took a hard look at all the activity in your life and in your ministry, how precise are you in your mission? Are you proclaiming the Gospel (which is the mandate given by Jesus to every follower of His) and are you staying within the parameters of what your mission from God (i.e., your purpose) actually is? If not, the time is short. So get back on course: )

Trying to Stay On Course,

Jim and MJ

“If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross (i.e., his assignment from God), and follow Me.” 

                                            Jesus- in Matthew 16:24