Unity Through The Word

Thank you all for your prayers for the PORMISSOES meeting last month.  It was a great blessing.  We sat and studied God's Word together for the entire day.  There were some differences of understanding on some passages, but we worked our way through them.  In the end, everyone was saying how the meeting was edifying. 

          It started around 9:30 am.  We broke for lunch at 1 pm.  We started back around 2:30 and went until 6 pm.  They wanted to keep going, but the SEARA class started at 7 pm.  If every meeting could be as encouraging as this one, we would be in heaven.

          My goal with these meetings is to teach the church workers throughout the state how to listen to someone who has a different belief about God's Word, try to understand their logic, their thought processes and share their own understanding from the Bible.  My hope is that God's Word is heard above their personal wants, desires, or traditions. 

          This is not an easy thing to discuss.  Some subjects that we will discuss in the future will be more difficult than in this last meeting but I believe the door is now open for greater and clearer communication among the brethren.  

          We will continue to meet and strengthen our unity.  Please continue to pray that God's Word will be what is guiding us.

Teaching and Training

     The last Sunday in May, my son, Nicholas preached his second sermon.  He preached from John chapter 5.  It was his first time to preach without sharing the pulpit with another young preacher on the same day.  He preached for 16 minutes.  He did a good job.  While he was preaching, I was in Patos teaching another course to the church.  I taught the books of 1 & 2 Kings and the 2 Chronicles or "The Divided Kingdom". 

     I did not get to see Nicholas preach on that day but Monica filmed it, so I heard and saw his sermon when I got back.  I did not have a lot of time to help Nicholas prepare.  I got him started, David continued for a while and Joseph finished up the help he needed.  He took something from all three of us and was able to make a sermon out of it.  

     I want to thank God for His blessing Nicholas with a desire to preach and tell others about Christ.  It is a great blessing to see your sons walking in God's Will.

Thank you all for your prayers and support towards God's Kingdom.

Great News

There was another baptism in the city of Cajazeiras.  Amaro, 16 years old.  He has been in the soccer program (The Right Step) for three years.   Please pray:       * That Amaro will grow to be a mature Christian who will train others;       * That Café, the evangelist in Cajazeiras, will be able to involve other men in              the maturation of the church in Cajazeiras. Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android Shared files from Dropbox: jpg2015-06 Amaro Cjzrs.jpg

Fw: Júnior's trip to São Paulo

Júnior, became a Christian in 2001, here in João Pessoa.  He married Kátia in 2004, who became a Christian in 2000 also, here in João Pessoa.  They have lived and worked in Campina Grande for the last five years as missionaries.  Before moving to Campina Grande they went the the (Servants Sent to Announce the Kingdom of Love – SEARA) training course.  They travelled a lot with me to the interior during their training.

Both Júnior and Kátia are very dedicated, loving and faithful Christians.  I have been privileged to see them grow spiritually and as a family.  I am proud to call them my brother and sister in Christ.  Below is a report from Júnior where he travelled to São Paulo to receive training along with seven others from Paraíba.  They were able to go because of funds given from the Goodlettsville Church in Goodlettsville, TN. 

            Beloved brothers and sisters, I had the opportunity to travel in the month of April.  My trip included national events of the Church of Christ (National Encounter of Christian Workers – ENOC e Correct, Reprimand and Exhort – CRE) in the state of São Paulo.  I visited two congregations (São Bernardo do Campo – SP e Bauru – SP), besides taking part in an intensive class on the Pentateuch in Bauru – SP.  I was away from home for 17 days and spent more than 100 hours in Bible studies, Sermons and other teachings.  I am very thankful to God for this opportunity, to Kátia, my wife, for holding down the house in my absence and to everyone who contributed to this purpose.

            The objective of this trip is to be better prepared to serve our Lord and our brothers in Christ and to edify the brotherhood with what God has done in our midst, here in Campina Grande.  Thank you for your prayers and all of the help we received.

            When I arrived home, I had a lot to share with the brotherhood, I am very excited to continue our Christian journey together.

May God bless you all,

In Christ,

Júnior

Amados irmãos e irmãs, tive a oportunidade de viajar no mês de abril, minha viagem incluiu a participação em dois eventos nacionais da igreja de Cristo (Encontro Nacional de Obreiros Cristãos – ENOC e Corrige, Repreende e Exorta – CRE) no Estado de São Paulo, visitei duas congregações (São Bernardo do Campo – SP e Baurú – SP), além de participar de um intensivo sobre o Pentateuco também em Baurú – SP. Foram 17 dias fora de casa e mais de 100 horas de Estudos, Palestras e outras instruções. Sou muito agradecido a Deus por mais esta oportunidade, a Kátia, minha esposa, por segurar a barra na minha ausência e a todos que contribuíram para este propósito.

O objetivo desta viagem é estar mais preparado para servir ao Senhor e aos irmãos em Cristo, assim como edificar a irmandade com o que Deus tem feito em nosso meio, aqui em Campina Grande. Obrigado por suas orações e todo tipo de ajuda que recebemos.

Ao chegar de volta, tenho muito a compartilhar com a irmandade, estou muito animado para juntos continuarmos nossa jornada cristã.

Que Deus abençoe a todos vocês,

Em Cristo,

Júnior

Breathing The Gospel

            Raniere Vieira came to his first church meeting in the year 2000.  He came because he was dating Fabiana.  They have been married now for 12 years.  Raniere has been a faithful Christian for 14 years, teaching all over Brazil in big and small, national and local church events. 

            Raniere and I traveled to Cajazeiras, where the soccer school is going strong.  Some 40 boys were at the practice on Saturday morning.  It was a Mother's Day weekend so some did not show.  Not all of these boys are Christians, in fact most are not.  I gave a short talk to them before practice about being humble and grateful.  That was not the only reason we traveled to this city.  We went to teach the book of Colossians to the church.  It is such a rich and deep book, yet we had only six hours to go through the book with the church.

            Leila, Café's wife, said something that we have known for a while.  Café is great at evangelism but he is not very good at maturing the members after they become Christians and several have fallen away for this reason.  I have been to Cajazeiras the last two months teaching different books of the Bible and plan to continue to travel to teach and help the church mature, but it is very hard to mature someone from a distance.  They need a personal presence so that they can see how you live your day-to-day life up close and how the Gospel is your very breath. 

Please pray:

·         That God will raise up men and women who will be mature and help others to mature in Cajazeiras;

·         That God will continue to use Café and Leila in the evangelism of the boys in the soccer school;

A Breath of Fresh Air

            I first traveled to Alagoinha, over 15 years ago.  I have been going back every once in a while to visit the church that began in the year 2001.  Antônio Germano is a very zealous man for God's Word and His Will.  His zeal for others to do God's Will causes him to overreact in some situations and ends up pushing people away.  He is a very decent and good person that has a hard time getting along with others.  He is also 75 years old and has Parkinson's disease. 

            I went to visit the church again last night.  This was the first time that I remember meeting with the church without Antônio.  Antônio was in João Pessoa taking care of his sister who had surgery.  I was able to see the church in a new light.  I do not believe that it is a good thing for Antônio not to be at the worship but it did allow me to talk with the members in a way that I had not been able to before.  I saw the other man in the congregation, Zezito, stepping up for the first time and taking on responsibility, not just in the worship service but being active over the last couple of weeks and planning for the future of the church.

            

Please pray:

·         That Antônio and the church will be able to get along better with one another;

·         That God may continue to work with Zezito, who some of us have been praying for off and on for years, to assume more responsibilities;

·         That God will mature all five members of this congregation, who at one time had 15 and growing, years ago.

Room To Grow

The church of Christ in Mangabeira does not have its own building.  We have saved up around BRL 25000 (about $8340), but it is still too little to buy our own meeting place.  Nevertheless, we continue to save money and pray.

Until we get our own location, we will continue to look for the best places for us to meet.

We were meeting in a well-located building, but it became too small for us to meet.

The picture below shows the old building.  We had an average of 48 to 55 on Sundays and that was the maximum number chairs that fit.  In six months, we were already overflowing.

This place served us well, but we needed to make a decision.  We needed to move but we would incur a fee of BRL 4500 (about $1500) for breaching the contract because we still had six months left of rent.  It was a large amount for us.  We prayed to our Lord and decided to talk to the owner; he said he would forgive the debt.  We moved out of the building without having to pay anything.

We found another place that is also well located, cheaper and bigger for us to meet.

Now, in our worship services we can receive double the amount of people we could in the old building.

We have 41 Christians and 12 visitors on average for Sunday worship services.

I hope that in six months we will have "the good problem": of this building being too small for the number of people meeting in the name of our Lord.

New address:

Rua Rita Xavier de Oliveira, 160 - sala 2

Mangabeira - João Pessoa/PB, Brazil.

 

Cordially,

Raniere Vieira