Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Long time no post

Been a while since I last blogged, but that does not mean we have not been busy. I usual, language studies have dominated my life. My Portuguese is certainly coming along, but not with out a struggle. These past few weeks, I seem to have climbed over one of the obstacles in my path: confidence. Feeling nervous and timid when speaking is only natural, but too much and it can keep you from conversing as much as you should. Lately, I have had a lot more confidence in my ability to converse with Brazilians and feel that I have advanced more in these past few weeks than in the several months before.


Another item:

We had our first monthly World Missions Prayer Breakfast this past Saturday and 30 people came. Most were between 10 and 25. Café Missões (or panquecas e missões, we're still deciding on the name) is a monthly gathering where we pray for World Missions. Anyone who has studies the history of missions knows that no new missions movement begun apart from prayer. From Luke 10:2 where Jesus instructs his followers to pray for more workers in the harvest field, to the "Cambridge 7" a group of college students whose prayers and passion for missions led to one of the largest missions mobilizations in American history, Prayer is the foundation for a strong missions movement.


We gathered together, ate pancakes and had fun talking. Later, we broke into three groups. I prepared material for the groups to pray over. We prayed for the continent of Africa, the country of Lebanon and a missionary from the church's denomination working in Thailand. It was the kind of group I enjoy working with ; informal, lively and full of potential. We look forward to hosting these every month and our pray is that these meetings would be a catalyst for a growing passion for the world in our church here in Bragança as well as Brazil as a whole.

Blessings
Jason