Excellence and Exercise

Every Monday morning, Asas has a devotional time. We went last week too. It seems to be a little different each time. Last time there was some worship and then a word given (that is so Christianese, but for all of you non-Christians...that is like a little mini-sermon in this context). Today, we got there late, but there were much more people there today and there were several visitors. One guy was from Wycliffe. There is a Wycliffe base here in Brasil in Brasilia (not far from here), but they will be moving their headquarters here to Anapolis next year sometime. There was a representative at the meeting this morning that was just telling us a little about the present work they are doing. I may not get his story completely accurate, but from what Joel translated for me, I think the jist is this...Wycliffe is known for Bible translation. The guy was saying that God has them doing a little something different these days. Apparently in this one tribe they visited there was a little boy who had something wrong with his brain. It is treatable, but there are strict laws about certain tribes and not "messing with" the indigenous peoples' culture/customs. Unfortunately, that law does not bend, even when a life is in danger. Well, the people of Wycliffe fought for this little boy and have now been asked to basically re-write the laws and make a proposal of it. He was just talking about how God is always so faithful and knows exactly what He is doing. Although Wycliffe is not doing the work that they normally do and feel God has called them to do (translation), He appoints His people to do whatever He asks them to do in each different season. He may ask us to do something one day and we are obedient to do that with all we have. Then a couple of weeks later He might ask you to do something else altogether and it doesn't make sense at all to us, but His plan is perfect, His ways are higher. He is faithful. Because of this one little boy and the heart God gave the Wycliffe people for him, even though they never dreamed it would come to this, they are now re-writing laws for the whole country. It is really incredible and such an encouragement.

There were also 2 other men there with the Wycliffe representative. One was a pastor from one of the tribes here in Brasil. Wycliffe has a goal of raising up 10 Moseses (that spelling looks weird doesn't it?) to send back to their tribes to lead them. That pastor there today is their first Moses. Very exciting. The other guy was from another tribe...a tribe that has always been unreachable. This tribe wouldn't let anyone in or anyone out. But, for whatever reason (of course we know it's all God's doing, but I mean whatever natural reason), he has come out and is being trained and discipled by Wycliffe. Amazing...even better than being able to go to the tribe themselves...they will be sending back one of their own.

The main speaker today was the pastor of the church we went to last night. He was speaking on Daniel and how nobody could find any holes in his integrity...they couldn't find any fault with him. He was excellent in all he did and was extremely blessed for that...and saved a whole nation for heaven's sake. The dadgum king made it law that God would be served from then on out. Anyhoo, it was just a great encouragement to do everything with excellence.

After the meeting, since we don't own a car, we walked to the grocery store and then back home. While we were in the grocery store, Joel heard a lady speaking English to her children. We started talking to them and they just moved here from Florida in March. Her husband is Brazilian and they are Christians. They came here to start a printing press ministry and will be focusing mainly on Bible printing (apparently there is no printing company that prints Bibles here). It was neat...and always good to find someone speaking English. I got a double dose of that today actually. At the meeting at Asas, a girl from New Jersey was there. She is engaged to one of the guys at the flight school, so is down to see him and go through the candidacy. They will be married in December and then come back here in January.

Grocery stores here have a great service. Since many people don't have cars, grocery stores deliver...at no extra charge. Hello. Given all the walking we did, it was really only about a mile probably. Considering our work at Asas and grocery store needs only, we could really do without a car. But, then you throw in language classes and church (and anything else), I guess we still need one. It looks like a decision will be made soon and we will probably have a car by the end of this week. So, keep praying. Thanks so much.