June 2, 2009

Spiritual Warfare This Week

When we have an opportunity to share Christ with alot of people, or when we speak in a large school where there are many students and teachers that accept Christ and we have a great victory, we normally experience a good bit of spiritual warfare, either right before the event or just after it. This week we are speaking in a school called EE Manuela in the Sao Joao Climaco area of Sao Paulo, and the spiritual warfare has been unbelievably strong leading up to and during these days. We spoke in the school on Monday morning and today in the afternoon, and we have seen many people accept Christ (almost 900 in 2 days), and we have 15 more classes to speak in tommorrow night.

What are some of the things we experience in this spiritual battle ? A few days before the event in the school we had some family problems and conflicts. And we have experienced a strong feeling of oppression at times. Also, we have had some more problems in the classes with some of the students than normal. And there have been many complications and problems with our interpreters and with some of the people from the church we are working with this week in the school, Primeira Igreja Batista Sao Joao Climaco. We always use 2 interpreters each day we speak, because we have 2 teams and we speak in 2 classes at once. One of our interpreters for Monday morning, Priscila, is pregnant and on Sunday night/ Monday morning she got very ill and she nearly lost her baby. Fortunately she is better now and the baby is fine, and fortunately our good friend Junior, who is not working now, was able to help us with only 25 minutes notice.

Then today some other crazy things happened: as we were speaking in the school today our interpreter Joana's Mom was taken to the hospital in an ambulance with extreme high blood pressure and other problems. Joana was able to finish today and then she found out her Mom was ill. Also Pastor Carlos from the church was going to help us, but this morning he felt pains in his chest and he had to go to the hospital to get checked on. Also, one of our interpreters for today cancelled out on us late last week, and fortunately we were able to get a replacement in short time. And we have had an unusually hard time finding 2 interpreters for tommorrow night. It is usually easier to get interpreters at night than for the morning or the afternoon. We had 2 scheduled a month ago, then one cancelled last week. Then we had a hard time getting another one, but we finally got one on Saturday. Then yesterday her car broke down and now she cannot help on Wednesday night. So finally we got another one last night.

Also, there have been some problems at the school lately with fights and other problems, and just last week 2 students were playing around on the steps in the school and one pushed the other accidentally down the steps and the boy died. But through all of this God is doing a very special work in the school, and we feel that He is going to continue to do some very special things in the lives of the people from this school. The school leaders are very open to recieving our help, and they also asked us if the church and the pastor could continue to work with the students and teachers and families after this week to help them in their lives. So please continue to pray for us, and for the people that help us, and for the people we are reaching out to in God's love. Believe me when I say that we all need the prayers.

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