Week 51

* The Sunday school  building has begun. At the link below you will see the outset of this major project. First we want to build the Sunday school classrooms, then the auditorium, Lord willing. Your prayers are appreciated regarding this major enterprise.

http://picasaweb.google.com.br/Bio.Zugzwang/ChurchBuildingConstruction#

* 2009 Christmas Campaign. This year we didn't collect as many food bags as last year, but enough to bless many families. There were altogether 81 bags. This morning (Saturday 19) we visited two elderly homes. One is run by the city and the second is at the back of lady's house, who on her own took the initiative to host elderly people left on the streets! None supports this second place.           There is rewarding feeling when we help others in need.

http://picasaweb.google.com.br/Bio.Zugzwang/NatalDaVida_2009#

* A Privileged View of Recife for those who like panoramic sightseeing.    Yesterday was our day off and we took advantage to visit these twin towers still under construction. Supposedly they are the tallest buildings in town and at the heart of the city, right by the sea. From there you can see all the limits of the metropolitan city of Recife. Beautiful! Dayse enjoyed it but with much fear. Check out her pictures at the edge of the top floor.

http://picasaweb.google.com.br/Bio.Zugzwang/TwinTowers_Recife#

Week 49

Two recent good news to those who ever read my blogs. At least these blogs serve as memoirs of my work in the Lord in Saint Lawrence for the future.

* Josemir was baptized last Sunday morning. We studied the Bible for more than three months. We waited
   for his response and it came in the right time with a strong "Yes!" Last Sunday he was circumcised in Christ  
   and had his old man buried.

* The Book of Proverbs class at the downtown "Escola da Bíblia" was the largest I ever had. It's fascinating
   how people have a deep thirst for the Wisdom of the OT sages these days.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Bio.Zugzwang/NovemberNews2009

God's shalom upon you, who visits my page.

Week 48


* Two weeks ago we had our Men's Seminar. The topic was "Serving God in the Working Place." The number of attendants decreased this year, but on the other hand the interaction and fellowship among the brethren was greater than before! Praise God.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Bio.Zugzwang/MenSSeminar2009#



* This last weekend Mozart, some brothers from São Lourenço, and I visited four churches in the interior of the state. It was a fantastic trip. It was so edifying visiting those brothers. In spite of their church sizes and challenges, they showed much hospitality and love towards us. 
May the Lord bless bless their efforts to grow and reach out.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Bio.Zugzwang/Missons_Interior_Nov09#


- QDBV -

Week 47


Yesterday I spoke at a funeral. but this time it was different. The deceased woman was the mother of one our brothers at São Lourenço. As soon as Dayse and I got at the cemetery, we noticed there were many children. I counted ten children one time. There were present four generations. We questioned to ourselves, should children attend funerals? Should we expose them to the concept of mortality at the age of 10? 
On one hand, we thought that was a too traumatic to see the corpse of a loved one that wouldn't ever come back. On the other hand, death as tragic at it is is part of life. Until when should we hide this reality from our children? At what age are they capable of assimilating that this beautiful life, full of beautiful people is yet not so beautiful, and it has an end for us all? Is this a healthy existential experience for such an early age? Too many questions, I know. I admit I don't an answer. I don't have a stance. The children though I saw yesterday screamed aloud. Their screams even left the adults disturbed and uneasy. The moments the casket was closed and finally when it covered with sand were so strong. They screamed, "Don't do it [throw sand]!" "Please, come back!" "Don't do this to her."   Of course their understanding of death was still so attached to the physical world. No conception of supernaturalism or spirituality. 
When it was all over, funeral and children's commotion, I noticed two boys who were so serene, standing next to me. Like angels. These were the boys of our brother in Christ. They faithfully attend church. 

Week 45

Dara is now allergy free!
Yesterday she drank her first cup of milk, a small portion though. Today she ate milk made cookies. All the tests showed her body overcame her allergy to milk protein and now she can start a slow process of milk intake diet.
We are all so jubilant! Please, thank our God for Dara, that she can now go to parties, eat cookies, have an ice cream, etc. just any other child. 

- Thank you for your prayers thorough these years. See Dara with her last special milk cans.

-----------------------------

We say we want to know everything, but we can't know everything. We can't, because first of all our senses are imperfect, second our storage capacity is limited. Of course, some people have sharper and keener senses than others, and a larger memory capacity; but we're still limited. 

I realized how this is true when I observed an architectonic feature of this church building below. It has been there for centuries, but only now I could observe the way it is designed in the back---it has three shaped triangles, see?. I lived in this neighborhood until I was 22, but never noticed this obvious feature.

Maybe this is a good argument and reminder that we need to read our Bible versions as often as we can.      Have you ever had one of those discovery verses reading your Bible? You wonder, "I have never noticed this verse here! I read this book several times." Well, it has been there for centuries.  We need to always reread our Bibles, in different versions, in different languages, and when we think we have known it all, read it again in the originals!

 

Week 44

- Last week the church in São Lourenço celebrated our Children's Day (Oct. 17). It was a fun afternoon with approximately 50 kids---most from the church and some from the neighborhood. While trying to take some pictures and give support to our teachers and entertainers, several times it crossed my head that those kids are our future, the church's future, if the Lord doesn't return before. Invest in them is to invest in a stronger church twenty years from now. 

Thinking of that we decided to build first the Sunday School complex with seven classrooms. Our kids deserve our best! Building is not all though. Giving them good, healthy memories and solid biblical foundation is far more important.

Check the link below to see pictures of our Children's Day:

http://picasaweb.google.com.br/Bio.Zugzwang/DiaDasCriancasSL_Out2009?feat=directlink

- You know, our girls are growing so fast! Check out latest pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com.br/Bio.Zugzwang/FamilyOctober2009?feat=directlink

- We are working to offer another Men's Seminar for the churches of Christ in Recife's metropolitan area. The theme for this year is "Serving God in the Working Place."   Please, pray we will offer an edifying moment to our brotherhood, a moment to form men in the imagine of our living Lord Jesus.

Week 42

Today is Children’s Day in Brazil and also Dara’s birthday! She is three years old and so full of life. Sometimes Dayse and I wonder whether we’re getting old for raising kids or Dara came with the energy of a boy.

Last Saturday (10) I performed a wedding for a dear couple of our congregation. I tried to make it romantic and with special wordings. After the ceremony, Yasmin came and said something that really touched my heart. She said, “Dad, when I get married, would you do my wedding?”  Hope this is a sign we’re in the right track.

Last week I participated in a men’s conference in São Paulo by Continent of Great Cities. Without a shadow of doubt, this was one of the best, if not the best, conference I ever attended. The main focus was on our emotions. Ministers and missionaries can, jus like everyone else, carry hurts for years. These hurts directly affect their ministry. There was also a strong focus on sexual sins at any degree and on practicing spiritual disciplines, which we hardly hear of in our midst. I congratulate the CGC organizers for their initiative and sponsoring. I congratulate even more for setting the path to an area we among churches of Christ have generally neglected. As a so rationalistic group and right-sided seekers, when is it we pay attention to health emotions that come from a walk with the Lord? Sure enough we need to find the equilibrium between the two God given aspects of our humanity—reason and feelings. 

Week 40

The number forty reminds me of the forty years the Hebrews wondered in the desert. It reminds me of the hot scorching sun they had to endure, I imagine.
It's summer here and it's very hot some days. At noon time during summer in the Northeast of Brazil, when you’re outdoors, all you long for is a shade. You want to park your car under a refreshing shade of a leafy tree. You want to wait for someone under a blessed breeze of a tall tree. God’s creations are multifunctional. A tree not only produces fruits and gives wood. It also refreshes you. But you can only learn to appreciate that purpose living under the scorching sun of a desert.

“Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree”
(Genesis 18:4)

Week 38

After months studying the Bible with Sergio, he told me he needs more time to think. Sergio became a follower of Christ while in his teenage years. The strong influence from peers and the tempting world life style led Sergio astray. After serving in the Army, he completed stopped attending church and confessing he was a Christian. After his son was born, Sergio and his wife Isabela realized they had a big responsibility in his hands---to raise his young son into a good man in a tough world. No better place than in the church and in God's ways.

Although Sergio hasn't professed yet his commitment to Christ and return to the church, we have started a new series of biblical studies. This time his wife Isabela is participating and we're studying the Book of Romans in family.
In the meantime, Sergio is making up his mind.

* Did you know that the first synagogue of all Americas was here in Recife?
Check out the links below:
http://www.archaeology.org/0203/newsbriefs/synagogue.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahal_Zur_Israel_Synagogue
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922773.html
http://images.google.com.br/images?hl=pt-BR&safe=active&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:pt-BR:official&hs=IhU&q=kahal%20zur%20israel&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Shalom Aleichem!

Week 36

Last Sunday 30, the church in Curado celebrated its seventh anniversary in a new building!
It made Dayse and I so jubilant to see a church we helped to plant growing and achieving new stages in her life. There were more than 200 people in this special "birthday party!"

Please, pray for the family in the last photo below. I'm studying the Bible with husband on the right side. He's almost ready to commit his life to follow Jesus. But God is doing his work.

Shalom to you all,
Bio and Dayse

Week 34

Last week I started another course at the "Escola da Bíblia," at the downtown church. This time I am teaching the Book of Psalms. Teaching the Pentateuch was a great experience.
The Torah teaches ethical values that instructs us how to live orderly and how to please God, whereas Psalms teach us how to cry, rejoice, and give thanks. The Psalter is a book of prayer and of tears before the Father, who understands so well our diversity of emotions.
There is a good number of students and some of them haven't found a church to worship.
-- Pray this course will be as fruitful as the past ones.

Week 33

We had a wonderful couple’s seminar tonight. A fellow missionary with training in family and marriage therapy gave us a good lesson on how respect and cope with the spouse’s differences. Afterwards we had some entertainment and a delicious meal. There were around 30 couples and some were unchurched.

It’s wonderful to see His church active and growing.

Shalom.

Week 31

This was our last week of vacation. We're missing dearly the church family in São Lourenço!

A couple months ago I participated in the incipient beginning of a small Bible group, that eventually would open for the neighborhood around one of our brother's house. But this time we started that group a little different. We mixed new strategies with old practices. The new strategy is to hand out interesting biblical fliers for eight weeks straight in the same streets by the same church members. At the end the families in those streets would be acquainted with our faces. Then, we would invite them to participate at a small Bible group. At this point we would no longer be strangers to them. That's somewhat the new strategy. It's simple and efficient. The old practice, however, was to have all the participating brothers to pray earnestly before we go out handing out fliers. We prayed for good health, good weather, fierce barking dogs, open doors, warmth responses, safety at night, and our own personal problems that could hinder the progress of the Kingdom. Unfortunately I had to leave the group. Last news I heard after the group started, there were 15 unchurched new guests attending the brother's house! 

New strategy accompanied by the old practice of intercessory prayer brings about efficiency and good fruits. Bet on it.

Week 28

Visiting friends and the Book of Isaiah

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Oliveira family in Belo Horizonte, Southeast of Brazil. Garibaldi Oliveira was one my best classmates while at ACU. We both discussed all sort of new ideas and perspectives. We debated about the way we've been doing churches in Brazil.                                                               We reverently

reflected about our God. Well, this week we met and for hours we did the same thing! His family 

among others was God's providence in supporting us while studying in US. During the same visit I had the chance to teach the book of Isaiah at a local training school for the Churches of Christ. Isaiah is such a rich book that it becomes hard to teach. Isaiah's artistic writing style and powerful message makes its teaching on the other hand a great pleasure.

(Tonight as the whole family was coming from a movie theater a young playboy threw his speeding car against us, hit us, and then ran. Thank the good Lord, I was able to regain control of the vehicle! There was only a sli

ght dent on the side.)

Ah, we're on vacation during the month of July.

Week 25

This week we had our VBS. Dayse and several other women from our church did a tremendous job. For the two last days we had 70 kids! The kids from church and neighborhood played, heard about Jesus, had snakes, and more for approximately three hours. Again, our women did fantastic jobs. We're so proud of them! Some men participated only to offer support.

Week 24

Thank you to each of you who prayed for my mother. This week she returned to her own apartment. Her staying at the Nursing Home was very good to stabilize her health, especially her high blood pressure. On the other hand, she was getting more and more depressed and forgetful there. She dearly missed her church friends, neighbors and closeness to our family. We thought it was wiser to have her back in order to keep her happy and in good spirits—and she is!
Keep her (Cenira is her name) in your prayers. She is still very forgetful.

“Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.”

Week 24

The green family.  

At a friend's house our family dressed green. It was our green day for Earth Day. Actually it was just Dayse's idea for the family to take a nice picture. But the idea reminded me of something I studied in the seminary. Theologians try to pinpoint what is the center of the Old Testament theology. Theology books also talk about peripheral theologies, one of many is called Ecotheology. It teaches that we are connected with the natural world and that our actions affects nature, in terms of blessings or curses. There are verses in the Old Testament that demonstrate this symbiotic relationship, for example: Dt 11.10-17; 22.6-7; 28.12a, 23-24; Os 4.1-3. The God of Israel is Lord over nature and over us. No wonder why nature and I are so connected. We have the same Lord that sustains both. In the movie, “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” Klaatu (Keenu Reeves) says he came to save the earth from mankind. If man dies, the whole earth survives. This is a very contemporary ecological thought. We are destroying the earth. It makes some sense. Remember however, Jesus came to save man instead. Our Klaatu came to save mankind, so that man could survive—and earth too. 

Week 23

I don’t know if Herbert Spencer’s axiom “The Survival of the Fittest” is true to evolution in the animal kingdom. Yet, it sounds so true in the city jungle. It’s the urban survival of the fittest. In the city of Recife there is a hierarchical kingdom on the roads—the massive trucks don’t respect the buses, the buses don’t respect the cars, the cars don’t care about the motorcycles, the motorcycles don’t respect the bicycles. If you’re the pedestrian, watch out, you’re the weakest! It’s different in other countries, I know. Some are very orderly, others are totally chaotic. It’s mean and stressful. It’s dangerous and cunning. Here we are more toward anarchy. How’s the Christian to survive in such jungles?
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Week 22

The 2014 Soccer World Cup will be in Brazil!
Unlike baseball or football, soccer moves nations. It’s an international sport. Among the many cities where teams will play, Recife was selected. São Lourenço (Saint Lawrence) is part of the metropolitan area of Recife and it’s where we serve the Lord’s Kingdom. But guess what? São Lourenço (SL) will host some of the games. The city will even build its own stadium and a village to accommodate the players. It’s great for the city and I pray will be great for the growth of the Church. Nevertheless, the irony of all this is that SL has some of the most undeveloped places in the metropolitan area. The city’s hospital is less than a clinic. The schools are in bad shape and students miss classes because there are no teachers. Many are the roads unpaved and areas of danger during the raining season. Yet, we will host world soccer games! Politicians want sudden development. Last Sunday there was a huge party to announce the news—“Bread and Circuses” (panem et circenses).
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Week 21

When the humane enters the divine. Rob Bell makes an excellent and true point that “Everything is Spiritual.” He points out that behind everything big and small science has discovered the finger of God. Science has discovered the complexity of a Big Mind. Science is starting to think outside the box. It’s a very good movie/lecture to watch. In my readings of the Book of Daniel I have somehow noticed the opposite—the material and mundane can’t meet the spiritual and divine. Every time Daniel had a spiritual contact he collapsed and fell sick. For example: “The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now." And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it” (8:26-27; see also Dn 8.17-18, 27; 9.21; 10.7-11, 15-18). It seems to be the opposite of Rob Bell’s point, as if the divine and the humane are two realities that can’t meet. Human beings can’t see the Holy and survive the OT states: Is 6.5; Ex 33.20; Jd 6.22; 13.22; Job 42.5. I think then it is no surprise that we can’t see the spirituality behind the material and mundane. We have to learn to transcend the body to be able to “see” the spiritual world. For some of us it will only be possible when we put on the new body. For some others will faint, like Daniel. And for a few others, they will be able to see and live. Very few ones.

Week 20

A week ago, my mother fell in her apartment. Hours later the neighbors noticed she didn’t open the door that morning and called me. I ran there expecting the worst. She is 80 years old. She was alive but had been on the floor for almost 10 hours—there were angels guarding her along those hours. She was fine, no broken bones and no internal traumas. We had to find a new home for her, an elderly home, where people would take care of her 24/7. That was a hard decision to take; Dayse was taking such a good care of her. The good Lord led me to very good elderly home. Today her blood pressure is stable, she walks better and her emotional attitude is positive. Throughout this week I couldn’t help to stop thinking about the meaning and implications of “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Thank you ever so much to all those who prayed for us. And, may the Lord bless our parents.

Still in the same week, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of local servant-leaders about the many different translations we have in Portuguese. Our “João Ferreira de Almeida” translation (1654) is as old and traditional as the English KJV. Yet, I explained about the different philosophies behind translations we have now and the advantages of using these new Portuguese translations.

Week 19

What's more important in ministry, your family's salvation or people's salvation? Ha! I wish that could be one of those easy answers with a "both." Is it worth saving the whole world and then having your wife and kids gone astray into the world? (“Nenhum sucesso na vida compensa o fracasso do lar.”) Last week I met a missionary couple in their 50’s, I guess. They always had a passion for missionary work but decided to postpone it. Their first priority was raising their children in the ways of the Lord. When the empty nest came, they started missionary work in several missionary fields. Was it worth missing the prior of their years at home and living a regular life? Family is a mission field, too.

Week 18

I spent the past two weeks with my Christian “extended” family in Texas. My days were busy with visits, many visits---hours of talking about all sorts of subjects. It was edifying after all.

I could visit people I planed to and people I really wished to visit but ended up missing (sorry!). A paragraph couldn’t describe the many good experiences during this furlough, which went by way too fast. Praises to our God!
Nevertheless, visiting my second spiritual home (ACU),

I came to a new place on campus called The Labyrinth, a Christian Labyrinth. It was a cold, raining afternoon, and by myself. This labyrinth was very well designed to teach the idea that our Christian walk is complex, sometimes puzzling and disorienting, but surely it has a beginning and should have an end, if one does not turn astray by missing the Christian virtues along the path. If you have a chance to stop by Abilene, go to ACU Labyrinth and walk on it! Then at the end stop, contemplate, and learn.
http://www.acu.edu/news/2009/090108_labyrinth.html