Daphne and Jake

During the boys' baseball season kickoff at the YMCA, I was standing in line at one of those huge, inflatable toys waiting for Jonah to have a turn when I started talking to the girl behind me. It came up that she was looking for a church so I invited her to join our developing group. She (a single mom) and her eight-year-old son were the first ones to arrive that next Sunday morning. They have been meeting with us ever since.

I was bold in inquiring about her son's behavior because he reminded us so much of Jonah just a few years ago. Her son was hyperactive and impulsive among other things. Daphne told us about an abusive husband who is no longer part of their lives. From there she and Jake moved into another abusive relationship with family members. Not surprisingly, she told us Jake didn't have any friends and got into trouble at school. After spending just a matter of hours with him, John and I were impressed at how remarkable the similarities between our sons were. We told her about our experience and she said she was open to any suggestions. It quickly became apparent that God had orchestrated our meeting and Sunday morning meetings turned into lunches and dinners. Now we don't know what we ever did without them.

Daphne had just moved into her own place when we met her and she and Jake had begun to heal. Because she works full time as a manager in a medical records facility, she had enrolled Jake in a summer camp program. We offered to take him for a week at our house for a "behavior boot camp". Each day we set a strict schedule with clear boundaries for chore time, play time, and meal time. We demanded good manners and respect for people and property. In short, we were very hard on him. He was pretty hard on us too, and Jonah and Andy were less than thrilled to have him back the second and third day. They fought all day every day until about day four. Finally, we made a breakthrough and, by the end of the week, Jake wanted to stay and our boys wanted him to stay too.

School has started and Jake is doing better than ever. We don't presume that it's because of us, but we know that God has answered Daphne's many prayers for her son. We are so honored that she has entrusted her precious son to our care even for a short time and are thrilled to see what God has worked through it. Daphne tells us tearfully that she had searched for years for a church home and for a Christian family, and now she has both. She is a prayerful person who has remained faithful throughout years of isolation from the Christian community. On different occasions she visited local congregations only to end up feeling like a burden when she requested financial help or practical help with things like moving furniture.

Daphne is an aspiring writer who would like to be able to stay at home with Jake. We believe God can do that for her and ask you to join us in prayer for this beautiful woman and her son, that God will honor her request to be able to live out her passion for writing and spend more time with Jake. We also ask for prayers that she and Jake would heal completely from years of physical and emotional abuse. We are so impressed by the love and determination of this family, and we believe God will do great things through them.

Building a Community

To say the current economic crisis has affected many people would be a gross understatement that I dare say any rational individual would agree with. It didn't just happen, though. At its root is our moral decline, which has affected, not just many people, but everyone. Many have become so comfortable with a personalized, self-serve lifestyle that we have precious little community with each other and even less with God. Generation after generation has inched farther and farther from what our lives have been intended to be from the beginning of time - a relationship with our Creator and with each other. We've become comfortable but not satisfied. People are still seeking that community as we found out at a recent neighborhood barbecue we hosted. We invited some friends and neighbors we had just met. One of the men thanked us for getting everyone together and said he has lived here for twenty-eight years without knowing his neighbors. Another couple stayed well into the evening talking with us. These aren't people who don't care about community. They crave it.

Still, we had a much easier time finding interest in God among the people of Brazil. Based on the fact that we had travelled so far just to share the gospel won us the favor of many willing ears. In the U.S., however, most people have already heard some perverted version of the story of the life of Jesus and the chances are good they have also experienced some toxic religion. For this reason, being a minister of the gospel in the United States can be a daunting task. There is practically a church on every corner and people don't seem to be busting the doors down to get in. God knows this and has chosen us to expand the kingdom walls anyway. We submit to the fact that this is not possible for us and, to be successful, we must make ourselves wholly available to His will and remove ourselves from the equation as much as possible. It's very freeing to realize that our job is not to pursue anyone - that's God's job - but to love them with a selfless love that they won't find anywhere else and to create the potential for a community where people are otherwise segregated.

Since moving to Boca Raton in January, we now have a solid group of three families that meets several times a week in our home. One of the families that was part of the original group that called us here has moved on to a larger, more traditional church. We are sorry to see them go but understand that we have different callings and wish them well. At our last meeting together, the children recited the scriptures they had learned for their family.

A family who meets with us faithfully is a single mother and her nine-year-old son. I met her at the YMCA during the kids' baseball season. They have come out of a very dysfunctional background and her son is troubled and acting out. He is staying at our house this week for a tough-love boot camp. Another single mom that I recently met in the YMCA parking lot lost her husband just six months ago and is raising a four-year-old daughter alone. She has been attending a local church but said a few days ago she believes she has found her true family and wants to begin meeting with us on a regular basis. Brick by brick Jesus is building his foundation for a revival in this part of the world. We pray that He will bring about a movement of people who wish to return to a simpler, better way of life and an eternal relationship with Him.

"Not My Will But Yours Be Done."

Adding that little phrase to the end of a prayer can be like inviting chaos to rule your life. John and I are good at dreaming up grand ideas about what our lives should be but, ultimately, we want to know that we are useful to God in whatever way He sees fit. For example, we believe God has brought us to this part of the world for a reason, but we're beginning to realize that it may not be the reason we first thought it to be. What began as a mission to grow a congregation among the Brazilian people of southern Florida has become a house church among a group of people who don't all speak Portuguese.



We've been meeting every Sunday with a group of about fifteen people -not all Christians. My job on Sundays has been to teach the children who, I'm proud to say, have learned eight key Scriptures by heart. There have been some occasional attendees but the core group has obviously been long established. They invited us here to act as full time ministers and continue what they have had going for many years. They also want their congregation to grow. We were immediately concerned about those among their group who have not made a decision to follow Christ and thought it necessary to address them before looking outward for new converts. For this reason, John has done his best to encourage a fresh perspective among the members through intense Bible study. He also has begun facilitating individual Bible studies among the non Christians to encourage an intentional decision to follow Christ and make that decision public through baptism. I think it's fair to say that there has been little interest on that front but that God is showing His faithfulness in other areas.



Some in the church are having financial difficulties so we decided to save the rent we were paying and meet in our own living room instead. There are also some serious familial and marital issues that we have been addressing through one on one counseling. On a happier note, the parents in the group get our children together for playdates, the women get together for afternoons of crafting, and we have all gotten together for barbecues and bowling at different times. Some in the church have even been so kind as to babysit our boys so we could have a much needed night out. In short, we are getting to know each other and the direction for this church is becoming clearer.



While the members grow in maturity and relationship with Christ, John and I have been putting out feelers for other Brazilians to invite into our midst. John met the owner of the Brazilian bakery and got his permission to advertise free English classes using the Bible. A recent sting on illegal immigrants, however, has put a serious damper on an outreach like that being effective. We've gone out of our way to meet other Brazilians by, for example, seeing a Brazilian doctor and dentist. All this has been at the expense of potential relationships with English speakers even though two of the husbands in our church are American and don't even speak Portuguese. We have been holding all of our studies, worship services, and other meetings in English while projecting that one day it would all be in Portuguese. That has been the collective idea of this church for years but, by their own confession, it hasn't been working.



When I met a single mom at the ballpark before the kids' baseball games one Saturday, I knew she didn't speak Portuguese but invited her to our church anyway. That day I didn't see someone who was not Brazilian. I only saw a lady who was raising her son alone and searching for some support. I offered it to her by inviting her into our group. I'm happy to report that she was well received and that it may well have shifted our focus from Brazilian people to just people. She's a new Christian who quickly became disenchanted with the church when her requests for practical help were denied by several churches. Now she and her son spend lots of time with our family and she has even begun to encourage other single moms she knows to come be a part of our times together and get to know Jesus.



We recognize that our living room won't hold even one more family comfortably so we have begun to talk about the near future. It makes sense to start meeting in two groups on a weekly basis and come together as one group less frequently to worship together on a larger scale. We hope that freeing up some physical space in our homes will also free up some space in our hearts and minds for a greater desire to receive whatever people God puts in our paths. John and I have six families in mind that we plan to invite to our house for dinner over the coming weeks. Though this is not what we had envisioned and at times seems a bit chaotic, we trust God to work a better plan than we could have ever imagined and are anxious to see it unfold.

Update From the Boca Church

Since I last reported to you about the church meeting in our home, we have rented a room in the local middle school each Sunday.

Space wise, it's been a great move, but it's been a lot less intimate and, at the tune of $800 per month, maybe a bit unnecessary. We have about the same number each week - kind of crowded in our living room but not enough to warrant the financial burden on our small group. Besides, there is a family among us who is struggling financially and may be facing foreclosure. We would like to be in a position to help rather than cut it close each month on our budget.

For now, we're back at home for Sunday morning worship and Friday night Bible study. We rotate weekly among the houses that are large enough to host the entire group.

Perhaps the most important meetings we hold are the spontaneous ones where we simply get together and have some fun. The girls have come over twice to drink cappuccino and scrapbook.

And the kids don't really care where we meet. They can enjoy themselves in any setting.

The Kickoff

Today we had our first Portuguese worship service in our new home. We scheduled it to begin at 10:00 am but, in true Brazilian fashion, it didn't actually start until 11:20. We packed our living room with sixteen adults and six children. We sang some Brazilian worship songs then John preached a sermon about the purpose of the church while I peeled off with the kids for Sunday school.

Just after the service we ate lunch together. Everyone brought a little something to add up to a Brazilian feast. We were happy to have the group linger until after 6:30 pm.
It was a great day and we hope to have many more like it in the weeks and months to come. Next Sunday we will be meeting in a building we have rented for the church. We anticipate that as time goes on our numbers will increase and our small house will not accommodate our group. We want to be ready for the great things God has in store for us.

Gearing Up for Success

We did finally get into the house we showed you in our last entry. After spending December with John's family in Colorado and half of January with our more-than-gracious hosts here in Florida (one of the couples that invited us to be part of this ministry), we moved in. We've spent the better part of our first days and weeks shopping Craigslist and thrift stores for furniture and household items. It's finally beginning to feel a bit more like home, and now we are setting our sights on the ministry.

We were asked to come here by a small group of Christians (pictured below)

who have been trying for years to get a Brazilian church established. It's a mixed group - some Brazilian, some Hispanic, and some American. Due in part to lack of resources, i.e., workers, it has yet to get off the ground. They have not had a full-time minister until now. What once was a group of about 30 Brazilians has dwindled to about ten. The group has been meeting with a Hispanic church for some time, but, because Brazilian culture is different, that hasn't been an ideal situation. Brazilians speak Portuguese, not Spanish, and they have different traditions and customs. It is an independent culture that deserves its own congregation. The Spanish-speaking church has been very generous and hospitable towards the Brazilians - even singing some songs in Portuguese during worship. John has become friends with their minister, Carlos. There is not a hint of jealously as we suggest that the two cultures may be better suited to separate from one another. On the contrary, Carlos is eager to see the Brazilians become independent and strong in their own right.

There is no Brazilian Church of Christ anywhere south of Orlando that we know of. There are also very few Churches of Christ of any persuasion in the area. After being here for this short time, we can already see that this is not like any part of the United States we have ever known. It is much more ethnic and international - like Brazil and the US wrapped up in one package. There is no local church support for what we are about to do - plant a Brazilian church. That means that your role - to pray, encourage, and generally support in any way possible - is the same where this ministry is concerned as when we were overseas, even though we are technically on the same continent now. We need your help to see that this forgotten group of Brazilians may be reached with the good news of Christ so that they may grow and expand the borders of the Kingdom.

We plan to meet in our house this Sunday for a church service involving the Brazilians who have remained part of the group which has met with the Hispanic church and those that have stopped coming to those services. We hope to re-energize the base that has been holding this group together and encourage them to work with us in once and for all establishing Christ's church among their people here in southern Florida. It's been estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of Brazilians in southern Florida and we know that we will need all the manpower we can get to reach even a portion of them. Please pray for success in this mission.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

"I have some money I wanna give but I don't know who to give it to." That's what someone told my sister-in-law in Colorado while she was working her customer service job in the grocery store. It made me think, "I bet there are people all over the country who feel that way." Then I started to wonder how many people sit down to pray and realize they don't know what to pray for. You're probably used to missionaries soliciting money, but I would like to solicit some of your prayer time instead.

We spent December in Colorado with John's family and are now back in Florida where we were scheduled to close on a house (the one in the picture) on the seventh of this month. Everything was going as planned until the underwriter decided on the morning of closing to call our church in Texas for verbal confirmation of our employment. She didn't like the words she heard to describe the missionary/sponsoring church relationship so she denied the loan on the spot. Our agent is still working on our behalf to somehow close the deal, whether it be with a different mortgage lender or to convince the current one to reconsider. Our dilemma is in the facts that the seller has refused an extension of the contract, we are currently staying in someone else's house, we stand to lose several thousand dollars in earnest money, and we may not be able to afford to rent an apartment in this part of the country.

We are beginning to understand why God may have felt it necessary to reassure us with the skywriting before we left for Colorado. We also recognize that the focus of the disciples' biblical accounts never centers around homes and possessions but always around expanding the kingdom borders. We have not forgotten why we came here or what we are about - to introduce Jesus to those who don't know him. Please join us in praying for God to use us to that end. If that means more time being uprooted, so be it. If it means settling into a home here so that we can become members of the community, even better.