The Multiplication of Service

Hello all! Sorry that the updates have been lacking for the past few days. We have been either busy, tired, or lacking in wireless signals at the church and have thus been unable to post any updates since Tuesday. I feel some guilt about this, but I am sure I will be forgiven.

Things have been going well! The three of us are pretty much maxed out on readers. We have run out of our Luke workbooks, so we cannot take any more readers. We are certainly much busier now than we were at the beginning, but in a good way! It is nice to have a full schedule of readers. We had another party this past Thursday, and it went well. On Friday, Natasha spent time with her host family while Chase and Kavan went to help Rick at the church camp nearby. They are preparing to host a mission group from Mississippi this next week. On Saturday, Chase decided to work again at the camp while Natasha and Kavan went with Jarbas, a church member here, to Inhotim, a beautiful park/botanical garden/sculpture garden/nature preserve/contemporary art museum. It was quite lovely. Pictures will hopefully follow soon. Tomorrow the plan is to sleep in and get some much needed rest before having lunch at a restaurant and then watching Holland and Spain duke it out in the World Cup final. After that, we will go to church and then we will start a new week!

Time is going quickly. We are already done with two thirds of our mission trip here! We are starting to put together the pieces of how to end everything. It is somewhat difficult because there are so many people that want to spend time with us, but not enough time to do that. Still, it is a great experience for us. The three of us are learning so much on so many levels. As for our readers, it is hard to say what is happening with them because they are all so different, but we know that we are doing the work that God sent us here to do and that He will work in their hearts, whether it is now or in decades down the road. We may not see the fruits of our labor, but we know that at the very least, seeds are being planted.

One thing that has struck us here has been the concept of service. We came here to serve God by helping to serve this church community and to reach out to others. We also help people with their English skills. We knew before we came that this would be the came. What we did not know was the ways in which we ourselves would be served. Since we have arrived here, we have been served in incredible ways. Rosileia and Ronaldo took Natasha into their home and have been so gracious and generous towards her. It has been amazing to see what servants they are. In addition, they have had Kavan and Chase (among others) over for wonderful meals. Rick has also served us in several ways, from housing and feeding Chase and Kavan to driving them all over the place to making sure our random needs are met . . . he has been incredibly helpful. Other members of the church have also helped out to get us local cell phones, translate random things, show us around, entertain us, take us places, and more. Our readers have served us. They have given us gifts, brought us to dinner,  invited us to parties, and more. It seems that service has a tendency to multiply. The three of us had a chance to serve for six weeks. This in turn gave the church members and readers the chance to serve us. We also know that the service will continue later. One of our readers is coming to the sessions so that she can improve her English so that she can be a translator for a mission team coming in Orlando next August. The church has connected with new people as a result of the English classes and will then help to serve them in a variety of ways. Service is not a singular event. It is a tremendous chain reaction that involves so many people, including some of you who helped to support us financially and with prayer. If that is you, thank you. You are a part of this service.

That´s about all I have time for tonight. If you have any questions that you would like to know, please let us know via email or in the comments. We will try to answer in the blog. Have a great day!