Ministry Blog

Anniversary Month Starts Off with Baptism

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 May 2012
Published on Tuesday, 08 May 2012

Baptizing LibinhaMay is always anniversary month at IBABI. This year we celebrated eight years since senior pastor Joel started the church with only eleven people in a garage. As with most anniversary months, this month will have a special sermon series, a musical (at the end of the month), special events, and a baptismal service.

This year we baptized eight people, each with their own special story.

Luis Gustavo and his wife, Denise, were saved as a result of friends inviting them to attend services at IBABI.

Two young men, Juliano and Henrique, had no prior contact with the church, but were invited to this year's youth camp, and God used that to radically change their lives. Our youth group had been faltering since our youth pastor and his wife left to start preparing to be missionaries in Africa. The salvation of these young men, and their presence has infused new life into in the youth group.

I had the privilege of baptizing the remaining four: Libinha, Eliane and their two teen-age sons. They are fruit of our fellowship groups. When we started hosting a group in our home, we inherited a young couple, Mauricio and Debora. He is a skilled musician, she is a wedding coordinator. They began inviting their friends, Libinha and Eliane (also musicians) to church and to our group. Before long, this family was attending both very faithfully. It has been awesome to watch them grow and understand that at IBABI they weren't being offered another religion, but were being invited to accept Jesus Christ by grace, through faith, and to develop a close relationship with God. It was great to see them come to know Him and take this step of being baptized.

In typical Baptist fashion, we celebrated the event with food; in typical Brazilian fashion, it was churrasco—the Brazilian term for steaks and sausages cooked over an open fire. More than fifteen friends and family members of the candidates were there, witnessing as these men and women professed their faith in Christ, and publicly declared this faith through baptism. At night, two more couples joined the church by letter. Both of these couples are already finding ministries in which to serve at IBABI.

What a great day!

All the baptismal candidates and others joining by letter.

Second "Café Metamorfose"

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Published on Wednesday, 25 April 2012

We have had a few rocky months in our Children's Ministry—Ann Janel has been so sick with this pregnancy, and some key people have decided to step down from their teams. Still, we held our second team breakfast, and the response shows that the ministry is growing stronger!

"Small Fry's" Ultrasound

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 May 2012
Published on Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Just a little video I put together from our baby's first ultrasound today. The images make him/her seem huge, but at the time of the ultrasound, he/she wasn't any longer than a Hot Wheels car (6.5 cm). Isn't God amazing?

"Small Fry"

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 May 2012
Published on Wednesday, 25 April 2012

A comic I made to announce our latest addition.

We are pleased to announce that we're expecting! The due date is in mid-October. As with our other children, we will not be finding out the gender till this child is born, nor will we be sharing the names we have picked out until then. Call us old-fashioned, but we like the mystery!

Carnival Camp 2012

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Published on Wednesday, 22 February 2012

I thought my run as Carnival Camp speaker had come to an end. 2011 was winding down, and I hadn't received any invitations to speak. Rental properties for the Carnival weekend fill up quickly, so even the procrastinators usually have their camp plans locked in by November, which includes inviting a speaker. Robson, the youth pastor from a church plant in Campinas, also thought I would have plans by that point in the year. His church was experiencing a boom of young people, and while he hadn't planned for youth camp, he found himself planning one in a hurry.

He wasn't just facing a tight deadline, his church has been through some pretty tough times. In October, the pastor's wife, Maria, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The cancer spread quickly, and she passed away on New Year's Eve. As her husband, Vanderlei, did all he could to get her the best healthcare, he discovered that he, too, has cancer, and would be needing surgery. The responsibility for leading the church was suddenly thrust into the hands of two young couples: Daniel is a graduate of the Campinas Bible Institute that has been working alongside Vanderlei since the church plant started a few years back. He and his wife, Rosana, had just taken the big step of starting their own business. With all their pastor has been going through, he has become acting pastor, trying to juggle all the responsibilities of his business and the ministry. Robson, Daniel's brother-in-law, and his wife Carol, have been working with the youth since the church started. Both of these couples are a blessing to watch. They have the energy and enthusiasm of youth, and a great love for the people they work with. Would that every pastor had such quality young couples to fall back on in tough times!

Robson told me that when he emailed me an invitation to speak at their camp, he was sure I would tell him I was already booked somewhere. Since this was his first time planning a camp, he was concerned about all the details. I was happy to accept, and was very happy to hear that the camp theme would be "Idols." I have had to adapt to all kinds of crazy camp themes. Sometimes teens come up with "cool" sounding themes with little thought of how that might actually reflect a biblical truth. Idolatry, though, that was something both biblical and relevant.

This was one of the more rustic camps I have attended—small property, few bathrooms, tent dwelling—and yet it was one of the most organized and well executed camps I've attended. The twenty-five campers were younger than at other camps I have spoken for, with ages ranging from 12 to 17, but they were well-behaved, attentive to instruction and correction by their leaders, and things ran really smoothly. Better than smoothly sometimes: this was the first camp I have attended in Campinas that things actually ran on schedule...or—gasp—ahead of schedule.

God blessed the Bible study, and the majority of the teens both identified and purposed to deal with heart idolatry in their lives. As I have asked in previous years, pray for the youth of Brazil. They are living in a time of economic boom. Their lives are improving financially, their chances at good education are increasing, they have more access to all the good, bad, and the ugly via the internet and social media. Without a strong biblical foundation, without Jesus in their hearts, they will be swallowed up by all the world has to offer. There is a growing apathy towards God's Word. I know the quality of teaching the Vanderlei, Daniel, and Robson are giving these kids, and yet they sit there in the meetings, unable to answer me about basic Bible knowledge, like what Romans 3:10 says, or who Gideon was. Pray that our leaders can reach the heart of these young Brazilians before another generation is lost to immorality or the prevalent false doctrines that plague our country.

Brazilian Outreach Gets More Facebook-Friendly

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 February 2012
Published on Wednesday, 01 February 2012

As some of you know, I use Joomla! to run my website. I thought I was up to date with the 1.5 version of my web software...Would you believe it? They are already on version 2.5! The good thing is that these upgrades are free, and the newer versions are getting easier to work with and update. Most of the changes that happened are behind the scenes, so the occasional reader will not even notice a big difference.

One big difference you might notice, however, is I've added Facebook "Like" and "Share" buttons to several places around the site. You can "Recommend" the entire site on Facebook, or "Like" or "Share" and individual article using the buttons at the top of each article.

The change to 2.5 brings some exciting possibilities for further future changes to the site, so keep visiting to see what's new!

 

More Articles...

  1. Annual Brasília Trip was Bittersweet This Year
  2. Closing Out the Year
  3. "The Complete Husband" in Portuguese
  4. Things Continue to Grow in Metamorfose

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