Welcome everyone, one and all!
Wow… what a day, what a day!!! After waking up a little late and having a little breakfast and a shower, it was off to go with little kids. We played with the Chuck Cheese balls for a while and danced. It was amazing!! I taught the kids about Saul/Paul, and how he was changed. The shadow question I then posed for the week was “How does your shadow change?” They seemed to understand pretty well, but they’re all between the ages of 4 and 8, so they could only understand so much…
Anyways, the pre-teens came and then we did the same thing. We danced for a while and I taught of Saul/Paul. We then went to the basketball court and we played a “game” called Mass Stance. Coach Davis, if you ever read this, I definitely won the “game”.
After lunch, we chilled at the house for about an hour until it was time to leave for the VQ. The 5 of us (Bill, Brian, Tami, Nate, and I) all packed into a 4x4 and were off. Most of the way there, I was “drifting in and drifting out, catching up on sleep.” After stopping at a gas station for a bathroom break and some Gatorade, we turned off the main road and traveled the final leg of the journey into the VQ.
After many bumps along the way, we arrived to see Dona Mosina (with all the following names, I will probably spell them wrong). Dona Mosina loved the Lord and it was very evident. We then traveled to the house of Dona Illmar and Haraldo. These two lost their daughter in a drowning accident a few years back. God used the tragedy for His glory, and through their daughters testimony many people in her family have come to know the Lord! When the ladies left to bathe in the river, Brian got to talk to Haraldo about God being the Good Shepherd, and this guy really understood. We also had the best Café de Leche I’ve ever had!
We then went to the house of an older couple named Fatehima and Edmilson. Edmilson was the picture-perfect gaucho. If you think gaucho, you think of what he looked like. Anyways, after some coffee, squeaky cheese (don’t worry about it), and cookies, Brian talked to each of them, asking what they respected about each other. Fatehima said her husband was a man of character, and Edmilson said that his wife is a good wife, a good mother, and obeys his authority. It was so amazing! These people don’t know the Bible well at all, and they are exactly obeying what God wants for them in their marriage! Brian then encouraged them that they will be the leaders and examples in the community as more and more people are saved.
Our next leg of the journey had us travel to a house of an old lady named Elisa. She has been a Christian for some time, and she was very happy to see us. She couldn’t get out of her chair because of the arthritis she’s suffering from, so she asked Brian to pull up a chair and hold her hands and pray with her. It was one of the most humbling experiences I’ve ever experienced. As Brian started praying and talking to God about Elisa’s glorified body, it made me cry a little bit realizing how much God loved her and how much she trusted in God. All she wanted to do was to be able to walk around her own house, and she was fully reliant on God for that to happen.
After Brian prayed, Nate, Bill, and I went to a man’s house that was located about 1 minute away. There, Bill and Dona Illmar (through her testimony about her daughter dying) led 3 people to Christ, including a young married couple. Yes indeed, at that moment, Francisco and his wife Aparecida, along with another man named Vitor, gave their lives to Christ! Also, Bill told us that Dona Illmar’s daughter, Jaine, decided to give her life to the Lord as well! Praise God!
Brian then gave a sermon which ended up basically becoming two sermons. His “first” sermon was about baptism and why we should do it. It was the best preached sermon on baptism I’ve heard to this day. The second sermon came from a question that one lady asked Brian. Brian then explained how we are justified by Christ, and how God doesn’t see our sin, but He sees Christ in our place. Many people understood, and several people made decisions to be baptized in a few weeks. After the service was over, a little girl named Maria said she was too shy to ask God into her heart earlier, but wanted to now, and right there and then, she did! 5 people in 1 night are now a part of God’s family!
After a dinner where Brian and I ate fish heads (yeah for real), we left. Before we left, we circled up in the living room and sang the Doxology. If you’d like to know anything about the car ride back from the VQ, please ask Tami Doden. I cannot say what happened, because it is her place to explain. Let’s just say that Tami wins the Rob Lauter Guarantee Award for the next two weeks, as voted by Brian and Bill… Anyways, God is seriously working here and it’s great that I can be a part of it. Hope to talk to you all soon!
-Rob
Gal. 2:20
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