Scouting out the Land

Two weeks ago Luciana and I took a scouting trip up to the Northeast of Brazil, to a city called João Pessoa.  This is the city that we are planning on moving to at the beginning of next year to start a church.  We first went there on our honeymoon and really liked the city as a whole; the laid-back vibe and beach atmosphere really made us feel at home.  Plus the strategic location seemed to be the ideal spot to start to plant churches throughout the Northeast, because it is on the coast in the middle of the region.  So, with a few contacts we had there, our goal was to see the whole city, meet with our contacts and pray.  The trip turned out to be a total success because we did all we wanted to and had a fantastic time while there.  The weather also turned out to be gorgeous, so we had a great day at the beach to go along with our accomplished goals, which is always a blessing! 

The majority of our trip was spent with our friend Hércules and his fiance.  Hércules is from Curitiba and was a part of our church there.  But he is a missionary here in Brazil (working mostly with YWAM) and travels all over the country.  But now he has officially moved to João Pessoa and is really excited about us coming to start a church.  He and his fiance gave us a personal tour of the whole city, taking us to see all the sights.  We had a great time and are looking forward to doing evangelism with them, since Hércules is an evangelist through and through.   Our mutual hope is that we can go do tons of evangelism and then plug people into our church to be fed the teaching of the Word.  We are excited about what seems like a great fit for ministry together with Hércules.  Please pray for all the plans and preparation that needs to take place!