dia, 4 ... Day FOUR

Today we participated in the fada in Santa Brigida.  This is a "market day" where people come to town to sell goods.  People line the streets with booths selling everything from fresh vegetables to auto parts.  We have seen things like old ladies carrying live chickens by their feet, old ladies carrying watermelons on their heads with no hands and we even saw a cow stuffed in the back of a station wagon (last year).  

We like to take advantage of the excitement and activity.  There are hundreds of people in the street so if you want to share Jesus with a bunch of people, this is the place to be.  

Today we got to our booth and quickly sorted all the items we had brought to give away.  Steve and Ermeson went to a local hardware store to buy the big prizes.  They came back with a bicycle, a panini maker and an electric fan.  These don't sound like big prizes but in Santa Brigida, it might take a months salary to buy a bicycle.  

At the booth we set up a prize wheel which the people got to spin to see what prize they would get.  This game is very popular because it is free and we give away pretty good stuff.  To win the big prizes, they have to fill out a card with their name and address which the church uses to follow up. 

While a few members manned the booth, the rest of us worked in teams sharing the Gospel using the 10 commandment card and the Evangecube.  I worked with Ed Martin and Mathias, our interpreter.   The first person we approached was leaning up against the wall at a store near our booth.  We introduced ourselves, made small talk and then asked if he knew about the 10 commandments.  This went well and we presented the Evangecube. Unfortunately he just would not accept the fact that Jesus is all we need for salvation.  He insisted that you must have Jesus as Lord and also keep all the commandments.  We gave him some information about the church and moved on.

The next guy was walking down the street and we stopped to talk to him.  We found out he was a brick mason and we told him about ourselves.  We then asked him if he knew of the 10 commandments and he said no.  I was kind of surprised but we then asked if he knew about the Bible.  He said he believes in God but that he knew nothing about the Bible.  We told him about God's law, and how no one can keep them.  We explained the Evangecube and he said he wanted Jesus as Lord.  He prayed to receive Christ and we talked to him about his next steps.  

At noon we stopped for the drama and the big drawing.  The drama team presented the drama on the street in front of the booth.  Steve explained the drama to the spectators and told them to come to the church if they had questions. He explained that we would be in town tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday doing evangelism and discipleship training.  

We had lunch at the church and then went back into the street to share.  Steve joined our group at this time and we walked down to the store where he had purchased the bicycle. There were 3 boys there who looked around 18 or so and we stopped to talk.  They listened attentively as we talked to them about the 10 commandments and agreed that they had sinned and deserved death as prescribed by God.  We presented the Evangecube and even though they paid very close attention, they said they were not ready to turn to Christ.  They may have been intimidated because by the time we had finished we had drawn a rather large group. We told them about the church and we hope that they will continue to think about what we told them and will contact the church.

We returned to Paulo Afonso, had dinner and then broke up into groups and went to 3 schools.  We were able to go into the classrooms and share about the 10 commandments and the Evangecube.  I am still amazed that we are free to present the Gospel in public school classrooms here and we can't even mention God in our schools at home.  

I missed the trips to Paulo Afonso the last two years and it is very good to get back here and re-connect with Pastor Genilson and all my friends here.  Emerson and the Vida Nova team are as awesome as ever.  There is no way we could have this level of activity without them.  Their heart for missions and love of Jesus is inspiring and challenging to our team.  

Thank you for your prayers, things are going well.

Love in Jesus, 

Brazil Team 2009     >> Click to see more picts <<