Thanks to all who gave, sent, mobilized, prayed, etc. to make this trip possible. You made an impact for the Kingdom of God! Here is the video recap from the trip:

We’ve been having a blast here! We had a great day of ministry yesterday and today started off with a bang as we had the privilege of worshiping this morning at Templo Batista Biblica here in Jacarei. Here’s a few shots of yesterday and today.

Sam Cirrincione sharing his testimony with translator Patrick McClure.

Our group singing in Portuguese and English at the favela (slums).

Our team doing the drama called “The Woman”, which is about finding hope and peace in Christ in the midst of a chaotic world.

This drama is called “King of Hearts”, which is about how we all hide beyond masks but Christ helps us realize who we can be in and through a relationship with Him.

I had the great honor of preaching at TBB, the first church I worshiped with in Brazil in 1998.

Our CPC team with some of the staff and members of TBB hanging out after church.

All in all, it has been an incredibly fruitful trip thus far! God has multiplied blessings here. The best highlight so far: our team leading 9 people to Christ last night… IN PORTUGUESE! It was awesome.

Keep praying for us. Hopefully the next update will be by Tuesday.

First of all, the rest of the team is on the way!!! We can’t wait to see them. We’ve done our best to help Russ and Diane Dean prepare for this week. Here is a shot of our team in the airport:

Today was pretty cool here in Brazil. Why? COPO DO MUNDO!!! For those of you who have no idea what that means, we’re talking about what Brazilians live and breathe — the World Cup! Things were crazy here: horns, fireworks, chants and cheers could be heard for miles. It was great to experience a game with the Brazilians. Here is a picture of Erin and April with some of the folks from IBABI (one of the churches we are ministering with this week) cheering on Brazil during the game against Portugal:

We ran some other errands today too. Preparations for food baskets for the impoverished neighborhoods are quite extensive, as well as preparing for 24 Americans who are staying for a week! Also, Diane and Russ took some extra time discussing missions and ministry with the early team. It was absolutely fantastic and very helpful to have their input. All in all it was a good day.

Blessings!

Our prep team leaves today for Brazil 2010! We’re so excited about what God is going to do in and through this group. We covet your prayers — below, I posted my email to my personal prayer support team. Feel free to use it as a guide if you choose to pray for us.

Here’s the team prayer card that a friend of ours from CPC made for us. It has each member’s picture and some general requests on it:

Here’s a copy of the email I sent to my prayer team:

Friends,

Thanks for your heart to be on my personal prayer team for this year’s Brazil missions trip! I am very excited — it’s my 6th time there! I attached our team prayer card.

This year, I have specific requests…

First, for the whole team. Please pray for:
– Safety for our team during ministry, work project, and travel
– Worship & ministry in two churches on Sunday
– Softened hearts that are ready to receive the gospel
– Powells & Deans – missionaries in Brazil that we will work with
– Growth for our team and each member’s walk with God
– For God to be glorified as a result of this team’s efforts in Brazil

Second, for me personally. Please pray each day for:
– My leadership and service. That I would be gracious and wise this week as I co-lead this trip (pray this for Tim Parsons as well)
– Personal health and safety
– Opportunities to share Christ with many Brazilians
– Translation where/when I can. While I am no pro by any means, I want to help our missionaries to the best of my ability and I have some experience
– Opportunities to pour into members of our team
– For spiritual growth and fellowship with God. I want God to break my heart for what breaks his.

Thank you again! I am praying that God does big things and I appreciate you joining with me…

Also – make sure to follow my twitter updates throughout the trip here.

Thanks in advance for your prayer support… God bless.

If I had to summarize this trip in one word, that word would be synergy:

syn⋅er⋅gy [sin-er-jee] – the working together of two (or more) things to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Our team had a little bit of everything thrown at them on this trip. On the ministry end, they had to sing, share testimonies, share the gospel in a language they didn’t know, do mime-skits that were pretty challenging to learn, and anything else that was asked of them, often at the drop of a hat.

On the work end, it was just as difficult and required as much flexibility. The guys had to haul cinder blocks, sand, cement bags, and tiles. Then they actually mixed the cement and hauled/poured it. The ladies had to strip old varnish, sand, and re-varnish doors. They also sanded and painted many other areas around Haven of Hope.

In addition to that, the art team that did the mural at the school entrance had to work very expeditiously to get it done. That included figuring out the dimensions, doing the scale drawings, and then doing the actual painting.

As I look back on this trip, the word synergy really sums it up. With everything thrown at us, and with 17 of 23 people getting sick, we could have whined and complained and taken it easy. But that is the opposite of what we did. Everyone put in 110% to get everything done. Our team realized that what we were doing in Brazil was much bigger than Haven of Hope or IBABI – it was about the Kingdom of God! Every aspect of the trip modeled a godly, Christ-centered synergy.

In our training: synergy.

In our work: synergy.

In our proclamation of the gospel: synergy.

In our worship and devotion: synergy.

I pray that future Center Point missions teams experience the level of camaraderie that we had.

Another aspect of our experience in Brazil was spending time with the children that came to Haven of Hope. Some of these children are regulars at Haven of Hope, while others were visiting on a field trip. Russ and Diane often host outside schools at the property for field trips, and we were blessed to help host one during our time there.

Our team put all their energy into making these days special for the kids. We performed songs and dramas, shared testimonies, did relay races and face painting. But the most important aspect of our ministry to the children was telling them about the love of Jesus Christ. Many of our team members were able to share individually with kids in Portuguese and lead them to faith in Christ.

In addition to the time with children, our team had the chance to visit a few English schools. These schools are comprised of teenagers and adults. Most of the students were on a beginner’s level of English, but there were many who could carry on deeper conversations. The school operated on a tutor-pupil structure rather than in a classroom format. This gave us the opportunity to get into gospel conversations with students and teachers one-on-one. God blessed this immensely, and we were able to lead many people to Christ.

Here are some photos of the ministry days (English school pictures coming soon):

Our team singing songs with the kids.

Sara Monroe cheering on the relay races.

Freddy, Zach, Chad, and Blake chased children around during a relay race.

Keri Monroe sharing the gospel with a young girl.

Sam Cirrincione and Freddy Salcido sharing Christ with children.

Jason Orr and Blake Medley hanging out with kids.

The Brazil team had to be multi-faceted this year. Not only did they have to sing, share the gospel, and preach and teach about Christ, they had to do a pretty challenging work project. Our Center Point Church family raised the money to do the work project to improve the Haven of Hope facilities. While the facilities are already in great shape, there is still much to be done to enhance it and keep it up-to-date. The team worked on the project on Monday through Thursday.

Our project was three-fold. First, there was an art team that worked on a mural for the children’s school entrance. This was spear-headed by Kurt Oetken, April Pilcher, Brian Oldham, and Serah Thomas. They didn’t have a ton of time to design and paint, but they did an incredible job with what they had. Here’s a few shots of the mural and the art team:

New mural at the entrance of Haven of Hope classrooms.

The mural art team: Serah, Kurt, Brian, April.

Second, there was a team that worked on painting and cleaning around the main room of the Haven of Hope dining room/kitchen/foyer. They had to strip rust and old paint and put a new coat on. It was tedious, trying work, but they kept going and sought to honor Christ in every minute of it. Here are some photos of the painting/cleaning team:

Marie getting the door ready for a fresh coat.

Susan, Kelli, and Erin putting on the first coat of paint at the dining room.

Zach Monroe plastering the stairway walls.

Sara and Kasey taking a much needed break after sanding and painting.

Heather, Susan, Serah, and Erin sanded the main door and then revarnished it.

The third tier of work on this missions trip had to do with a bunch of brutes and a ton of cement. The task was simple: fill in the columns on the security wall that surrounds Haven of Hope. The work was quite wearying, but it was worthwhile knowing that it was being done for the protection of these precious children. Just like the painting/cleaning crew, none of the guys complained, even at points of extreme exhaustion.

Brian Oldham jump-starting the cement mixer. Where did he learn how to do that???

The guys filling the columns in the wall.

Jason Orr wheeling sand to the cement mixer.

Chad Wiles tossing a cinder block to Jeremy Armstrong.

Cement team thanking God for a good day's work.

While the work was hard, it was very rewarding. God gave all of us at each project area the strength and energy to go on – in spite of 17 of our team members getting sick while in Brazil. It truly reminded us of one of the Bible verses we memorized:

“Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.” – 1 Corinthians 15:58

Updates on the ministry days is coming soon.

Now instead of updates, we’ll be posting some recaps of the trip so that all of our supporters and church members can know all about what God did on this trip. Since the previous post covered Friday-Sunday morning, let’s start with Sunday evening…

Sunday Evening
Brazilian church culture differs from what we are used to in the USA. Sunday morning is usually reserved for small groups and fellowship. Many churches don’t have Sunday morning services – Sunday night is when the big gathering of worship takes place. Our group was thrilled to take part in this service with the Brazilian church leaders.

We had the opportunity to participate in many ways on Sunday evening. Our drama team did a fantastic job with their wordless sketch called “The Woman”, which takes its audience through the life of a woman searching for satisfaction and approval in life, but doesn’t find it until she meets Jesus Christ. The message of this drama is cross-cultural and cross-generational, and it had a profound impact.

Zach Monroe and Ashley Oldham in 'The Woman'.

In addition to drama, we had the opportunity to serve on Sunday evening through music. I had the profound privilege of playing guitar with the IBABI worship team. Some of the band members have been friends of mine for more than 10 years now! Here is a shot of us jamming together:

Todd playing with the IBABI worship band.

Our team members learned three songs (some of which were very difficult) in English and Portuguese – We Fall Down, Be The Center, and From The Inside Out. There was a moment of comedy on Sunday night on stage when we sang Be The Center, because half of the team started the song in English and the other half in Portuguese. Actually, for a moment I wondered if somehow a third language slipped in there. Here is a nice look of confusion from the team:

CPC Brazil Team singing Be The Center at IBABI.

Tim Parsons, our Lead Pastor at CPC, preached on Sunday night from Revelation 3. Patrick McClure, long-time missionary in Brazil, translated for him. It was a fantastic message and the perfect way to end the night. God used Tim, whose name is pronounced “chin” by Brazilians, to challenge all of our hearts and our walks with Christ. Here is a picture of Tim, Patrick, and Pastor Joel of IBABI on stage together:

Joel, Patrick, and Tim together on stage at IBABI.

More to come soon… Keep an eye out this week for more recaps.