Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Tuesday Morning


Bom Dia!

Hello from our team to everyone back in the states! We are so overjoyed to be in Recife with our brothers and sisters in Christ!  Praise God that we arrived safely and with no troubles when traveling all the way from the US to Brazil.

God has been so faithful to us during these first days in the city.  We arrived at the Recife airport and immediately met our friends from the Volunteers for Christ ministry here in Brazil.  They picked us up and took us to Kids Place where we will be spending the majority of our week, teaching Vacation Bible School and sharing Christ with the Brazilian people.  Once arriving on Sunday, we began prepping our rooms for teaching the children and then organized all of the supplies we brought along.

Yesterday, however, was our first full day of ministry with the children and their families.  God greatly worked through us and at the end of the day we could already see fruit from His labor.  I would equate it to an analogy of seeing a shepherd calling out to his sheep who are out in a nearby pasture.  Some of them turn their ears towards him and begin to walk forward, while others are still looking towards him and slowly but surely beginning to inch their way to him.  This is the way that we see God working in the lives of each man, woman and child that hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  You can see their hearts changing, their curiosity rising, as they hear the Good News and respond.  It is an immense feeling of joy to see this taking place and a privilege to be a part of it.

The afternoon yesterday was spent playing soccer and engaging in other craft activities for a few hours until dinner time.  This gave an opportunity for many from Coque to come out to see us, and in turn, hear the Gospel.  There were some that heard the Gospel and responded immediately, while others had already heard the message before and had trusted Christ as their Savior.  We praise God and give Him the glory for those that already know Him!

However, one particular part of the day was incredibly encouraging for me.  A young boy, about 11 years old, came up to me as I was sharing Christ and asked me, "I already know Jesus, and I want to tell my friends about Him, but how can I do that?  Do I have to have a Bible? Do I have to be a missionary?" And my heart leapt for joy, seeing this reaction from him.  I could see direct results from God as He has been working through this ministry and in the hearts of each Brazilian.  Not only was this boy interested in knowing more about God, but he wanted to share Him with his peers!  I told him that we are ALL commanded by Jesus in the Gospels to go and share the Good News, no matter who we are, our background or where we live.  And that he can do that right here and now, with or without his Bible.

My prayer is that I hope this example of a life bearing fruit in The Lord would continue amongst the favela. That lives would continue to be changed by God for years to come, and like a spreading fire, the faith would ignite and continue to move through each heart and each life.

Today is day two, and your prayers are greatly desired.  Thank you for reading and following our efforts as we faithfully go each day.  I pray more will come to faith in Christ today and more seeds of faith would continue to be planted.

Blessings!
Tchau!

Michael Truss

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