The busy month of May, Part II

So while Pastor David and I were at the Pastor’s Conference in Campo Mourão, a YWAM team from Australia arrived here in Curitiba to do their outreach. The team, doing a DTS in Newcastle, Australia, just finished their schooling part of the DTS and were coming to do their practical portion in South America. They stopped in Chile for about three weeks and then hoped over the Andes to come work with our church here in Curitiba. After being held up trying to get their visas, their arrival landed exactly in the middle of our three day conference! It was a bit crazy, but it worked out. When we arrived at home, we found the team rested and ready for anything we could throw at them. As leaders we were stoked to see their willing, positive attitudes to serve the church.

So for three weeks we took to the streets and to local schools doing evangelism almost every day of the week. The team responded tremendously trying to talk to people despite the language barrier, performing music & dramas, and sharing the gospel with the crowds that gathered to watch.  The amazing thing about Brazil is that people on the street actually stop and watch what you are doing and will even talk with you most of the time.  You can hand people tracts about Jesus and they will stand there and read it, not just throw it away.  This is by far the best country I have ever been to for evangelism!  Not only that, but a local TV station saw the team on the street and gave them the opportunity to play a few songs, tell about the church, and explain why they were here in Brazil!  It was such a cool thing that the Lord opened up for us all!

We also put together a free English course that the team taught while they were here.  We thought of it as a way to invite people to our church, a way to build relationships and a way to bless the community since English is an extremely valuable skill to have in Brazil.  We were not sure how many people would come out, but people came out by the dozens!  The first Friday night we had the entire church full of people and were bring up more chairs from down stairs to accommodate everyone who came.  We must have had close to 50 visitors here!  I’ll be honest, I was shocked!  I never thought that there would be so many people.   But it was very cool to see and we are hoping that many of these people will believe in Jesus and find a home in our church.