Last night we went to Geraldo's house.  He lives about twenty minutes outside of town in a very humble neighborhood.  Since his baptism a couple months ago, he has been trying to get all his neighbors to come to church with him.  Some of them have come but others are afraid of church because of past emotional or financial abuses they've witnessed in organized religion.  Others simply can't afford to take off work or pay the bus fare it would require for their families to make it into town.  So John had the idea to take church to them.

We scheduled to meet at five o'clock.  We picked up some bread, ham, cheese, and drinks and made it there at about 5:30.  The rest of the crew showed up at about six.  We actually got started closer to seven.  That's par for the course around here. 

There were about ten adults present, including Geraldo's wife Socorro and Francisco, who now lives with them.  John talked about the importance of community.  He explained to them that God comes to us in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He also made the point that we can best understand the Bible if we learn it as part of a community and not try to understand it all by ourselves.  He introduced the idea for a weekly study, in which we will read together through the book of Mark, that will start next Saturday.  The group seemed very receptive and welcomed us back.
The kids, who numbered about the same as the adults, played together in the house and watched a video while we talked on the porch.  Jonah and Andy had lots of Portuguese practice.
Afterwards, Geraldo fired up his popcorn machine and we all hung around talking for a while.  We're very excited at the prospect of sharing the hope we have in Jesus with people of Geraldo's neighborhood - people who, as he tells us - need the hope and purpose he now has.