Flashback

From the archives, this article was a part of our prayer letter from one year ago (March '06):

Brazil. How do you spell Brazil? Mangos, pineapples, the smell of a bustling metropolis where millions of people live on top of each other. Ocean breezes, cashews and soccer, a sweating sticky humidity that leaves you constantly feeling like you just got out of the shower. Refreshing joy on the faces of Brazilian believers. Needs. Camps, schools, and sandy beaches. Darkness, sin and desperate behavior. It can seem at times to be a dream.

Please pray with us concerning this needy nation that wants so hard to become a player on the world stage. If you are observant you will soon discover that more and more trends find their origins in the largest Portuguese speaking nation in the world. In everything from entertainment to economics, from politics to religion, and technology in between, Brazil continues to flex its muscle and force the world to notice. Sadly, Brazilian culture is steeped in a worldview that leaves mankind at the center of this universe and good works as it's means of reconciling man with God.

We want to impact that culture. We want to be involved in people’s lives in Brazil, to offer them the Blessed Hope of Christianity and the joy of walking with God day by day. Sadly, these are things we too so often take for granted.

“What would we have,” we find ourselves asking, “if we held on to our lives and lived them for what we could get for ourselves?” It would be foolish to grasp for that which we cannot keep. Rather, we will give up what is not even ours to possess and find in this the joy of serving our God.