Hey,
I hope this newsletter finds you well. I am doing really good. The best is to know that I am at the right place!
Now more than half of my time has already passed and the days and weeks are flying by like a rocket.
I still haven’t made it to the beach, just because the time has been crazy and the days have been very full. When it would have been possible for me to go, the weather didn’t play along. Regardless of full days and a mix between rain and super hot, I have found my rhythm of ministry, preparing and also resting and refilling.
I am helping with a start up of a course (Missão Ekklesia). We do this with a local Church. The goal is to encourage the partakers to invest into their neighborhood. The first six weeks consisted of two lessons each week where I spent a lot of time teaching. The goal was to focus on the Love of God that encourages and enables us to step out of the church building. I got to cover topics like the Lordship of Jesus, God's voice and Identity. The second six weeks of the course are a practical part, on one hand they can come along with us and see how local ministry can work and what it can look like, to be inspired, and on the other hand we have the goal to let them start their own ministry where we come alongside them and support them to do something where they can regularly reach out to a certain people group.
It's amazing to see how the participants have taken in the lessons and how they are full of energy and excitement about the practical part. It’s a joy to see them, to encourage them and to spike them on to be creative.
Also I have been preaching a lot. It is a privilege to encourage the churches here and to walk forward with them. One time a guy came to me
and said that a sermon I had given over a year ago in his church had impacted his life. It's nice to know that the work is not for nothing but that it is helping people on their way with or to Jesus. As a “guest-preacher” I often don’t have the privilege to see how lives have been impacted and for that reason it is even nicer when some people come directly after the service and tell me that the messaged “delivered” by me has spoken something into their lives and moments and touched them. For me the only thing that is left in times like that is to pass on the Glory to my Daddy. After all it is not me working in the people, I am just the post man! And when I get to invest in people like that it is like having a front row seat and watching how God cares for the people he loves so much. What a privilege!
The situation here in the Vila has improved a lot! We also have been able to get a little motorbike which helps me to be more flexible and also to get out once in a while. That really helps keep my sanity ;)
I am always very happy to hear how you are doing. So please feel invited to tell me about it. I am loving to pray for you or also just to hear whats going on in your life at the moment and I am very happy that you are part of my life!
Please continue to pray for my ministry here.- That God continues speaking to me in all the preparations and through me
- Protection
- I woke up sick today so please pray that I get back on my feet quickly
- That in the midst of all those variables, every day God will be my constant
- For my friend Henrique who is one of the two leaders of the ministry here and who is passing a very rough time at home
Lots of Love from Rio,
Raphael
