We had the whole team contribute to today’s recap… Quite a humorous operation.
Category Archives: Brazil
This is the place to keep up with our team. We’ll try to update this blog at least 4-5 times between now and July 3rd. Hopefully with some different voices contributing to it.
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 BrazilSecond, 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.
Here is the recap video from the trip. It is set to a wonderful song by Brazilian worship leader Heloisa Rosa called “Clamarei Teu Santo Nome”, which means “I will proclaim Your holy name”… A very fitting song to recap this trip.
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.
Ministry Recap
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.
