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God at Work

February 19, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Ethan is an 11 year old, who has been sponsoring a child through Compassion International, for three years. He works to send his $40 per month to help a little boy named Luciano, and his family, who live 2 hours from here, in the next state over.
Last Tuesday we travelled to Paraíba, with Ethan and his dad, Andrew, who are visiting from Ontario.
We were excited to have the opportunity to get to know the Compassion-assisted project, in the town where Luciano lives.
Compassion had arranged for a translator to be there, so we met Renato and spent the day at a school in Luciano’s village, that a local church runs, and Compassion sponsors.

The facility was bright and cheerful. The children love their school and the activities and lessons there that teach them about God’s Word and growing up to please and honor Him.

So many times during this visit, Mark and I just looked at each other and Mark said, “Someday.”
We feel anxious to start building God’s home for children here, and find it difficult to wait patiently.
We talked to Renato about the plans we have, and were surprised when he called us later in the week to say that he knew a lawyer that wanted to meet with us.

Yesterday we went back to Paraíba. We met with Vladimir, the lawyer. He is counsel for a huge project in João Pessoa that is currently doing street work and has a drug rehab center and many other outreaches, all with the goal of bringing the Gospel to the lost.
Vladimir is willing to help move this bureaucracy along; he’s done it before and has all the right contacts. Beyond that, he’s a Christian and has motives that only God can put in the heart. Before we left to drive back to Natal, I was struck, once again, by how God uses the most unlikely of us. If not for the heart of love of an 11 year old boy, we never would have met Renato and Vladimir.

How like our God to use a child from so far away, to be the catalyst for building His home for children, here in Aningas. How encouraging it is to know that three years ago, God connected Ethan with a little boy in Brazil, and this connection would bring him here to stay with us. And how like God to let me be here to see Him work.

We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose. (Romans 8:28 AMP)

Filed Under: Prayer

Nova Aliança Rehabilitation Center

September 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

It’s a place where God can come in to break the chains of their addictions and break the chains that bind them in sin.

Mark speaks about discovering Murillo’s rehab center and helping those with drug addictions.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1axtkACN9aY]

 

Filed Under: Rehab

Have you read the latest- Vá Livré Newsletter

May 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In case you missed the notice the latest issue of the Vá Livre Newsletter is now available for download: VaLivre 2013 Newsletter. This eight-page update details the latest work from Natal, Brazil and includes stories, photographs of the Lord’s work, and many things for prayer, supplication and thanksgiving.

 

cover of the new 2013 newsletter
cover of the new 2013 newsletter

 

This is a PDF file that can be read in iBooks on your iPhone, iPad or computer. Click this link to view in your browser VaLivre 2013 Newsletter or you may right-click and select, “Save link as…”  to save the newsletter to your computer or iOS device.

Filed Under: Vá Livre Update

Vá Livre Newsletter!

March 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The latest issue of the Vá Livre Newsletter is now available for download: VaLivre 2013 Newsletter. This eight-page update details the latest work from Natal, Brazil and includes stories, photographs of the Lord’s work, and many things for prayer, supplication and thanksgiving.

 

cover of the new 2013 newsletter

cover of the new 2013 newsletter

 

This is a PDF file that can be read in iBooks on your iPhone, iPad or computer. Click this link to view in your browser VaLivre 2013 Newsletter or you may right-click and select, “Save link as…”  to save the newsletter to your computer or iOS device.

Filed Under: Vá Livre Update

Without God I wouldn’t be here today

June 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

“I was using crack daily when Mark and Lori brought me to the Nova Aliança rehab center. Without God I wouldn’t be here today,” said Clessio.

Saturday afternoon after all the Gospels of John and tracts were passed out and the market had closed we headed to the Nova Aliança rehab center to meet with Clessio. He spoke of the love of Christ and the need to meditate daily on the cross and the love that was displayed there. How that love sets free and liberates from the bondage of sin. We talked of how the Lord Jesus holds us secure and will never leave us or take away His love. Clessio is a bright light in the rehab center and a joy to speak to. When you hear him talk of the old life and the wreckage of sin and then the glorious transformation you stand amazed at the marvelous grace of God.

There are 70 people there at the center. It costs R$400.00 (200.00 dollars) to bring someone there. If you do not have the money they will not turn you away. Once in the center it costs R$300.00 (150.00) a month to keep them there. Clessio’s family is hours away and cannot help so he has come to depend on Mark and Lori to provide for him. The rehab center provides them with a busy daily schedule that includes work- gardening, cleaning, kitchen duties, caring for the animals, or chores- and bible study, gospel messages and a new state run funded program to educate them to the 11th grade level.

He gave us a tour of the center and stood proudly beside his bed. I thought of all the “beds” I had seen by the roadsides, nothing more than a piece of cardboard or a threadbare blanket in a median along the road, but here he was in a simple center with a bunk bed yet in his right mind and praising God… what a miracle salvation truly is. I know he will appreciate your prayers for him.

BELOW: Clessio in the chicken coop…..

BELOW: Kitchen of the center
BELOW: Clessio beside his bunk

Filed Under: Gospel, Street Work Tagged With: , , ,

Living in Fear

June 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
It is hard to image living every day in so much fear. And hard to stand in front of young ones as they are shaking and crying out for help. They point to bruises and scars from nights before. Young ones are being beaten or shot by both drug dealers and civil police. Every stop (we make 10 stops every day to pass out tracts, food and juice) is spent praying for the Lord to protect these young lives and to make them aware there is a God who loves, cares and watches over them and longs to save them. You leave these stops whispering to God to preserve and protect and knowing that some of these young ones will never be seen again. It is heartbreaking to me.

The last stop yesterday found 2 very young- eight year olds- whose parents had told them they did not want them any more. They are living under the cardboard boxes on the corner where we pass out bibles and tracts. One of the vendors told us that the drug dealers would soon give them “Free” drugs to get them started on a path there is little chance of return. I asked Lori is there no-one we can have help these two little ones and she said no. I wept as I watched them. Lori said that is why we are here, because there truly is no one to help them. The local drug dealers have reduced the price of their drugs to $2.00 R / $1.00 US per package. They are hoping to get more people hooked before raising it again.

The young children on the streets are everywhere. And the need is so far beyond what WE can ever meet. It makes you realize again and again that this is God’s work- and HIS alone.

TOP PHOTO: Praying for their safety and salvation…



BOTTOM PHOTO: Andrew, William and Stephanie passing out tracts

Filed Under: Gospel, Street Work Tagged With: ,

Happy at Work!

June 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Appreciate your continued prayers. First day in the streets brought rice and beans and juice that they had prepared the night before to the street children. In the back of the pickup- Stephanie is serving rice, Andrew handles the beans and on the ground-Katie tops the dish with Farofa (think grated cheese) and distributes to the street kids.
Andrew commented on the ages of the kids getting food… thinking that they were much older than he had thought. What he discovered was they appeared to look older but most were in the their early teens…. The life they are living has added many years to their faces.

The respect for the word of God, tracts, and prayer is an encouragement. And we are praying that His word will be blessed !!!!




Filed Under: Gospel, Street Work Tagged With: , , ,

For All to See!

June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

We put a clean shirt on every morning and think nothing of it. What if you had one shirt or no shirt? As we visited the street corners and the young children that live on mats on the corners where they work, you notice how many have little or no clothes. Its not because they are looking for a tan, or like walking barefoot on the hot tar until their feet bleed, they simply don’t have.

“Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
And that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?
 When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him”
Isaiah 58

Yesterday we spent the day passing out shirts / and tracts to the young ones that have been a regular part of the work. A Brazilian green / yellow shirt with Romans 5:6 printed on the back. 75 shirts were passed out and it was amazing to see the kids so thrilled to have a new shirt of their own. Along the way there were mothers (some as young as 13) with children and we were able to give them clothes that had been brought from home.
10 major intersections now have groups of kids wearing Romans 5:6 as billboards for all to see.





Filed Under: Gospel, Street Work Tagged With:

42 A Minute??

June 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
He held out his hand and reached. The Alecrim marketplace was busy on Saturday morning- shops closed promptly at noon. We had prepared the juice for the coolers and loaded the truck with 2,500 Gospels of John. The month of June has a national holiday called St John’s day, which we originally thought was on the 3rd, but we found out that it is celebrated through the month and culminates on the 24th of the month. We didn’t know that when we ordered 5,000 Gospels of John, but God always has this way of arranging things!
People ran after us asking for copies of the Gospel. As the buses pulled up, Mark held out his hand and hundreds of people took a copy of John for their own. The bus stops were filled with hundreds of people and new people arrived and left every few minutes. Stephanie and Katie walked the streets and shops, and Andrew manned the juice station that the Police had given us permission to set up on the square. Lori and Caroline worked the groups of people passing thru the square.
In the center of the square, an evangelical preacher. with a microphone and large amplifiers, was preaching with fervor. I grabbed William and walked up to the preacher, waiting for him to come up for air. I handed him the gospel of John and had William tell him that we had arrived with 2,500 gospels of John – living water- and that they were FREE to anyone in the sound of his voice. I smiled and walked away. He began immediately in Brazilian Portuguese to announce that a blessing had arrived and like the gospel it was free to whosoever will. People began streaming towards us arms out! It was very hot but we barely noticed.
After 1 hour all the copies of John’s Gospel were gone. Andrew calculated we had given out 42 a minute! God’s word is living and He promised it would not return void- so we leave it there. And pray for the souls that hold that precious word in their hands.

PaulT




TOP PHOTO: Andrew, Katie and Steph at the station in the square
BOTTOM PHOTO: Stephanie and Katie at the shops on the sidewalk








 

 

Filed Under: Gospel, Street Work Tagged With: ,