This week we spoke in the school EMEF Flores da Cunha, located in the Jd. Grimaldi area of Sao Paulo. This is a poor area in the East Zone of the city. We worked with Pastor Enio and his church Igreja Batista Vila Primavera, and they will try to continue to work with the school to help the students and their families, and to try to help the new believers to grow in their new relationship with the Lord. This week was a tiring week, as we spoke in 18 classes on Monday morning, in 16 more on Tuesday afternoon, and in 5 classes for adults last night. We and our team saw God move in a mighty way this week, and almost 1000 people accepted Christ, including 21 of the teachers. The students and teachers gladly recieved the Good News of God's love for them and salvation, and they very much appreciated our being there to help them. Please pray that they will continue to seek to grow closer to the Lord.
Some of the students in one of the classes
Some of the students in one of the classes
Nancy and interpreter Juninho sharing Christ in a class
Interpreter Eduardo and I sharing Christ in a class
Pr. Enio (3rd from left), interpreters Juninho & Andre, and our team
We had a great time with the students in the school
Nancy and interprter Alessandro speaking in a night class for adults
4 comments:
I am so glad that a pastor and his church are willing to disciple the new converts, May God give them wisdom, energy, time and the fulfillment of His plans for their lives. The battle is the Lord's . . . .
Thanks for the comment Elizabeth. The churches here are the center of God's vision and plan that He gave us for our ministry. We are here to help and teach the churches to share Christ with as many people as possible, and not to do this ourselves. We do not have a church ourselves and are not able to do the follow-up and discipleship work afterwards, and thus the churches are an important part of God's plan. Because many people here are very open to the Gospel and the things of God, the big challenge is not to reach them for Christ but to teach and disciple them after they accept Christ. We are constantly praying for the new believers and for the churches.
You have said, "The big challenge is not to reach them for Christ but to teach and disciple them after they accept Christ."
Just be careful that your teaching and speech were not with persuasive words of your own wisdom.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Ely, my comment about it being a bigger challenge to disciple the new believers than to reach people for Christ here does not come at all from our being confident in ourselves for this work or in our speech. It comes from the fact that it takes a much bigger commitment from the churches and many more people from the churches to do the follow-up work and the work of teaching and discipling the new believers. This takes alot of work and commitment, and it is a challenge for the pastors of the churches to get their people to make such a commitment.
We are keenly aware that we are ordinary people, and that apart from Christ we can do absolutely nothing (John 15:5), and that only the Holy Spirit can convict people of their sin and convince them of their separation from God and their need for Christ. We do have much confidence, but it not in ourselves, it is in our Almighty and All-Powerful God, and in His Holy Spirit. He is the One who is mightily at work helping people to have a reconciled personal relationship with Him.
2 Corinthians 3:4-6
4- Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5- Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6- He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
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