May 21, 2010

More School Outreaches

This past week we finished speaking in 2 schools in Santos as part of our Quality Of Life project to help students, teachers, and families to have a better quality of life and a better future. We speak in all of the classrooms of the school to all of the students & teachers, and we talk about how to have a better quality of life and a good future. We talk about 3 important parts of our lives: the body, the soul, and the spiritual life. We talk about how they need to take good care of their bodies to have a good life and future, and not to use drugs or alcohol or anything that would harm their bodies. In the soul part, we talk about the mind and how they need to study alot and get the very best education they can get, in order to have a good future and a good quality of life. Then we talk about making plans and dreams for their lives, and about how God has a wonderful plan for their lives, and with His plan and with His help they can have hope for the future. Then in the last part about our spiritual life we give a clear and direct presentation of the Gospel of Jesus. After sharing the Gospel we have a prayer time in which the students and teachers can pray to invite and receive Jesus as their Lord & Savior and to commit their lives to Him. After that we talk about how they need to have a good church that teaches the Bible and about Jesus to help them to grow in their relationship with the Lord, and to learn God's plan for their lives and futures. We are not allowed to talk about a specific church or denomination in the classroom, but we do say that they can talk to the people from the church that is helping us outside of the classroom if they need help to find a good church. Then after this we pass out the "Livro Da Vida" (Book of Life) to all students and teachers, which is an excellent tool to start discipling the new believers (it has many Bible verses and principals about many topics & values for life). Then we usually end up asking questions about English, and we encourage them to learn English so they can have more opportunities in the future. Nancy and I both speak in different classes at the same time, and we speak in English and have interpreters that translate into Portuguese. Even though we can speak well in Portuguese, it works really well when we speak in English and the students & teachers enjoy it alot.

This week we finished up speaking in EE Azevedo Junior school in Santos on Mon. and Tue. nights, and then in EE Gracinda school on Wed. night. At night the schools have some high school classes and also classes for adults who are trying to finish school at night. We are praising God for what He did in these schools ... in 6 days at EE Azevedo Junior 954 students and 18 teachers trusted & received Christ as their Lord and Savior, and on Wed. night 85 students and 2 teachers trusted and received Christ. Now we are praying that the churches that we worked with in these school (Igreja Batita Marape and Igreja Batista Areia Branca) will be able to continue to work with the schools and the new believers and their families. We always try to facilitate an ongoing relationship between the church and the school, with hopes that the church can continue to help the new believers to grow. One of the teachers at EE Azevedo Jr. (she is a Catholic) told us that she and a group of other teachers have been praying and asking God to send someone to help them with some problems they are having with some students, and then we came. They are open to receive more help, and we are urging the church to be the ones to step up and help the new believers and their families.




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