It was a hot sunny day that turned into a nice night last Friday on my way to Cajazeiras. A six and a half hour drive to visit the church and teach on contentment, giving, and personal finance. The class went really well. A lot of the Christians in Cajazeiras are teenagers or young adults, most of all, a result from the soccer program that the church uses to evangelize. There was one more baptized on this trip, Michelli. She is the first girl baptized in Cajazeiras that is not one of Café's daughters, he has four daughters.
Several unexpected things happened on this trip, of which the baptism was the best. Michelli was baptized on Friday night in a small foldable pool that was filled with water inside the church building. It is only used for baptisms so it is only filled when there is a baptism. Café left the water in the pool Friday night. He received a call early Saturday morning telling him that the water was leaking on a wood shop down below where the pool was left. Café, Francinaldo and I went to dump the water out of the pool and use the water to clean the floor of the church building. Well, you know what happens when you dump a lot of water on a tile floor? It is slick! I slipped and fell in the water and it was not on purpose, although, it was hot and not even 8 A.M. That afternoon I was sitting in a chair giving a Bible study to the church when the chair leg broke and I fell flat on my back in the floor. I'm not one to quit so easily. I got up and put one chair on top of another and sat down and continued to teach. In one of my illustrations from 2 Corinthians 8 & 9 I had fell flat on my stomach pleading and begging for the person to let me help. That was on purpose but one of the members standing outside the church building did not get the context of my fall and said she almost ran in to help me, thinking I was having some kind of attack. Later, on Saturday night, towards the end of the class I was illustrating how we should run from debt. I (debt) ran after Nicholas, my son (a person running from debt) to illustrate Proverbs 6:1-5. I chased Nicholas through the church building towards the front door; it is not a big building. Nicholas kept on running when he got to the door. I tried to stop and fell and kicked a bicycle and knocked it down, it was leaning against the wall. Around 1 A.M. on Sunday morning, I was awakened by Nicholas throwing up on me, almost. I rushed him to the bathroom and tripped and fell over one of the air mattresses on the floor.
Nicholas is fine, today he went to school. Everyone laughed at my expense but I think they understood God's message to us. The churches contribution was up by 100%. I know that the contribution usually never stays up after a lesson or class but I hope that what stayed from my class was not to up your contribution but to trust in God and seek to build a better and deeper relationship with Him. If that stuck, then the rest God will take care of.
Café just told me this morning that there is going to be another person baptized either today or tomorrow. (Photos for both baptisms, as soon as I get them.)
Please pray:
- · that God will keep working in His church
- · that the young Christians in Cajazeiras will grow in their relationship with Him
- that Michelli and Vitor (today or tomorrow) will be faithful until death.
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