I’m preparing a sermon over I John 3 this week. A point John makes in this chapter is that we “should love one another” (I John 3:11).
In thinking about love I discovered this quote by Mother Teresa: “We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.”
May Christ’s love abound in us so that all that we do is filled with love.
Here’s a prayer I read the other day:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
This past Saturday we had an event at the church geared towards attracting people from the community. Taking advantage of the time of year we had a fair-like event that had many carnival games and lots of food. It was lots of fun and we had many people show up that have never come to one of our services. One of the highlights of the afternoon was watching the US vs. Ghana soccer game with the Brazilians. Many of our Brazilian church members were avidly cheering for the US and were visibly concerned when Ghana would create a scoring opportunity. I would imagine that some of these people have never cheered for the US before but because of our relationship they had become honorary Americans, cheering beside us and with us during the game.
Here is a quote I read from the book “Justification” by N.T. Wright
Knowing God for oneself, as opposed to merely knowing or thinking about him, is at the heart of Christian living. Discovering that God is gracious, rather than a distant bureaucrat or a dangerous tyrant, is the good news that constantly surprises and refreshes us. But we are not the center of the universe. God is not circling around us. We are circling around him. We are in orbit around God and his purposes.
Since the inaugural service things have stayed busy. It’s hard to believe that this coming Sunday will be our fourth service. So far we have had more than sixty people attend every service. This has surpassed my expectations for our first services. God has been blessing this work. It is exciting to see the people that He is bringing to our church on a weekly basis. Several of the visitors that came for the inaugural service have come back or have been present for all the services.
We are planting and watering the seed but God is the one who has provided the growth. And we are grateful for the things that He is continuing to do in our midst.
As today is our 1 year anniversary on the field, we’ve put together a special video newsletter retrospective, culminating with our inaugural Sunday. Hope you enjoy!
As many of you may have heard, last Friday Rio de Janeiro was named as the host city for the 2016 Olympic Games. (Check this link for a glimpse of things to come… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z00jjc-WtZI&feature=featured) This is particularly exciting for me as 1) I now live very close to Rio de Janeiro, and 2) I have always been a HUGE fan of the Olympics. Something I have learned over the last few weeks as I have anticipated this announcement is that each candidate host city chooses its own symbol and slogan to represent the Games as part of their campaign to win the decision. The symbol and slogan of the chosen host city becomes the slogan used for those Games.
During their bid for the 2016 Games, Rio chose the slogan “vive sua paixão,” which means “live your passion.” I actually really like this slogan, but I do think it’s funny. I mean, the last thing you have to tell an Olympic caliber athlete is to live their passion. They literally eat, breathe, and sleep their passion. Every aspect of their being is about their passion- the sport in which they participate. So much so that every person they come into contact with knows exactly what they are all about, be it swimming, gymnastics, diving, tennis, etc. Maybe not with curling. Or maybe so, I shouldn’t judge.
Thinking about this makes me wonder about all of the rest of us, and by “us,” I mean we that are not Olympic caliber athletes. Personally, it presents two questions. The first- do I have a passion? The second- am I living my passion? I know, I know. As you read this you are probably thinking that I, as a missionary, am of course living my passion. I live in Brasil for crying out loud. My entire purpose for being here is to tell people about the gospel story and start a church with the people who believe that story. But honestly, wasn’t that also my purpose when I lived in the States? Could you tell? Can the Brasilians I encounter now on a daily basis tell what my purpose is, what my passion is? Do I eat, breathe, and sleep the story of Christ? Am I as obvious in my Christianity as Michael Phelps is in his swimming, or Usain Bolt in his running? Are you?
In case you missed it, today Rio de Janeiro was selected to host the 2016 Olympics. When the selection happened I could hear several people down the street cheer. This was Rio’s four attempt to host an Olympics. So if you’d like to come visit our mission work and go to the Olympics at the same time you can start making your travel plans.
For more information about the selection you can go to: http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/news/story?id=4525513
A few weeks ago I was at a mall in Niteroi and was in the food court with a couple of guys on the team. While we were there we noticed that a restaurant had a promotional combo deal which included a pasta dish, a drink, and a US dollar bill! How random is that?! How many of you would like to go to Fazoli’s and get a Brazilian Real with you meal?
Just one more of the random/odd things we’ve encountered thus far in Niteroi …
