Poverty, Pizza and Pirolitos (lollipops)

Depending on the rain, either Monday or Tuesday afternoon, we’re going to have a party on the main square of Ubaúna that is going to have the town talking.

The guests of honor are going to be the poorest kids in the city.

We’re going to treat them like royalty.

Pizza will be the main course; we’ll make them smile with bags of candy; we’ll give them a sugar high with cake; we’ll serve them like they are children of the King. We’ll line up a long table with a bright red table cloth and sit them at it like they should be the center attraction of the town.

This is going to be good…

Old Timey Prayer Meeting

One of the really interesting things about Ubaúna is its ability to heighten spiritual awareness. It doesn’t matter what you bring to the table, you can rest assured that you are going to get more than you bargained for.

Last night, thirty minutes before the beginning of the evening service, all the pastors and workers, both Brazilian and American, got together to pray “for a few minutes.”

An hour later, they surfaced, slightly dazed, definitely in awe and buzzing with excitement. Yes, they were thirty minutes late to the service. Yes, they felt bad that they left people waiting. No, they were not repentant at what happened.

In a proverbial “upper room,” the Spirit decided to show up with a couple of gifts. People were healed, spiritual gifts were transferred, a spiritual whirlwind burst into the room and everyone, eyes wet, minds reeling and legs wobbly, was caught by surprise.

Even today, most of us are wondering what took place. The awe is still in place.

We’re going back for a second helping tonight.

We ARE starting an hour before service this time…

Into the valley of the shadow…

Sometimes the best way to confront what appears to be a bad situation is head on.

A certain individual associated with the Catholic church in Ubaúna has taken it upon himself to put an end to this infernal Gospel for Brazil movement. A want-to-be priest, this 26 year old fellow is the primary lead of the local Catholic church. It would be proper to call him fanatical.

He has seen many of his flock, especially the children and teenagers, “abandon ship” for the more exciting activity that takes place at the GFB church a few block away. He has watched the community begin to embrace the pastor and his wife of this church and has seen his own influence begin to wane.

He took it upon himself to stop this dastardly “cult” with a simple campaign: tell the parents that if they allowed their children to continue to frequent “that” church that they would burn in hell for all eternity. They would not have the benefit of purgatory where the parents might have a chance to pray them out. The parents’ souls may even be in danger of the same punishment. And, to make the offering sufficiently “enticing,” the children would be excommunicated from the church and would never be allowed to return.

You’ve got to admit, that is pretty convincing in a society that sees the church as having that kind of authority.

The numbers say he’s been quite successful in his campaign — almost 40 children and teenagers have stopped attending.

So, how do you respond?

The Joe school of public relations says you go knock on his door and have a sitdown heart to heart. That is exactly what was done on Sunday.

But he wasn’t home.

So we’ll try again on Monday.

Fellowship of the Mystery

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ (Ephesian 3:8-9).

This passage jumped out like me like a clown out of a jack in the box.

Wow!

As I shared a word from John 10:10 last night during the service, a spirit of the Evil One tried to disrupt what was happening by attacking a sweet lady who has been horribly treated over the last year and a half. As I took control of the environment, Arimar and Jeff jumped into the fray and this woman became the object of a tug of war in the middle of a church service. Soon Audrey was involved while I held down authority over the room.

Intense.

The lady was liberated, the church was infused with energy and Jesus went one more step forward to becoming famous in Ubaúna.

Today, reading this passage, the expression “the fellowship of the mystery” shouted out to me. We, the least of the saints, are empowered by by Jesus to do the impossible.

And this binds us together in the fellowship of the mystery.

Membership is wide open; want to join?

A day in Ubaúna

Saturday was a day in Ubaúna. Really.

We drove around the town to check out places we’ve not looked at before. And we found them.

We spent time in Paxólas with a passel of little, dirty kids playing in rain water runoff. We hugged on them, had them sitting in our laps, made them smile and went with them into their slowly melting mud “homes” (the intense rain is washing away the mud walls that make up their houses). We going to throw them a party in a few days. THAT is going to be fun.

We visited with some folks who did not feel like they were “worthy” of being in church. They showed up in the service tonight.

We prayed over folks with some serious illness and health problems. Some of them were healed.

We had people telling us stories of victory over the Evil One. They thanked us profusely.

Humbling.

It was a day in Ubaúna. Really.

Viewing the past from the present

Sometimes the best laid plans just don’t work out.

My plan to blog consistently while in Ubaúna was an absolute flop. The internet connect was less than borderline; that means, it sucked! The backup plan of using Facebook and Twitter also failed; the type of signal just wouldn’t allow a more active connection to take place.

The only thing I could do “consistently” (and I put that between quotes because it wasn’t) was send text messages. Even that was marginal. I keep losing signal and the “No Service” indicator was lite more often than not. If I tried sending a text with more than just a few recepients, it would not work.

Oh, well.

I’ve bored you with all of this to state that I’m going to post the blogs I wrote on a daily basis in the order I wrote them. I hope they will still be of interest to you. Sitting here in an air conditioned room in Fortaleza it feels somewhat surreal, but I think it was surreal in real time!

Stay tuned. More details in blogs, and in photos, are in the process of being created.

Enjoy!