Planting a Church

It's crazy to think that my time at training is already a fourth of the way over. I overheard someone saying this the other day, and thought it to be very true: I came here thinking I was ready for the mission field, once I got here I realized how unprepared I really was. This last week was wonderful. We started the week talking about different cultures and the real importance of learning the culture and the language in order to communicate within their context. So please be praying that I can pick up Portuguese and a Brazilian lifestyle quickly. Toward the end of the week we focused on the actual process of church planting. My view of my position as a missionary totally changed these past couple of days.

At first I thought I would be doing a ton of evangelizing, I mean, that's what missionaries do, right? And I will be doing evangelism, but the real goal is to plant a healthy, self-supporting and self-governed church that then reaches out to the community around it. We looked a lot this last week at the book of Acts and studied how Paul and his partners went into cities and associated with the people. My job will be to find people interested in the Gospel and teach them the stories of the Bible. Assuming they believe and become Christians we start a church. Then my job will be focused more on equipping them to go out and spread the Gospel to their neighboring comunities who then will go out and spread the Gospel to their neighboring communities and so on. So pray not just for people in my future community to become Christians, but to become Disciples of Christ. Pray that they would take ownership, and that by the end of my two years in Brazil they would be a church with no need of an outsider from the USA. Sounds a bit ambitious, and really, really big, God big.

Which is why prayer is absolutely needed in every little bit of where I'm going and what I'll be doing. Just as God went before the Israelites and won all of their battles if they'd obey, so I need Him to go before me and prepare hearts and win spiritual battles for any of the river community people to know Him. Here is a verse where Paul has the same mindset, "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledfe of him everywhere." (2 Corinthians 2:14)

So please do pray that God would open the eyes of the people to whom I am going. Pray that God would raise up men and women to take the Gospel to the surrounding communities. Pray that I would be an obedient messenger accurately proclaiming the truth that they need to hear. Pray that I would be able to teach these men and women about the character of God, and pray that I would be able to equip them and prepare them to do ministry of their own. But pray most of all that God's hand would be in this. He alone can bring people unto Himself, and He alone can send people out with their faith on a solid foundation. So pray, beg (like the persistent widow of Luke 18) that He would already begin preparing people for His Gospel. Thanks.