Streets

Hey Everybody,
This week I have been working with a team from Tennessee doing door-to-door evangelism. It has been a neat opportunity. The majority of the team are high-schoolers who have never done something like this before. Yesterday we went out and the people were very receptive and we were able to share the gospel and pray with everyone. Someone told me Brazilians will say yes to anything, and that is probably true. Both of the men I shared with asked to become Christians and I can only pray that they were sincere. Today, we went down the street in the other direction and we had a totally different experience. Almost everyone was blase and didn't really care what we had too say. There were are also many distractions, like cars, teenagers, dogs, and loud music (Try to share the Gospel with barbi girl blaring in the background). We had one man mumble the sinners prayer and everyone else said they were fine. It was a tough reminder that nothing I can do or say, saves people. God calls everyone to himself and we might have the privilege of seeing the manifestation of God's handiwork and sometimes we might plant or water a seed. It was also a reminder of how much prayer is needed when ministering to people. There is an extremely strong catholic presence and most people believe that they can lose their salvation and they believe in works-based salvation. We go out everyday from 1:00 to 6:00 and witness in the neighborhood of Centanario. We are working at the same church that we did a medical clinic in 2 weeks ago, so it is cool to be apart of the follow-up. Pray for the people here, they are having a hard time understanding that Jesus died once, they are saved once and it doesn't matter how good or bad you are. Also pray that there would not be any distractions as we try and share with these people.
I did get the chance to talk with one of our church member guides today. He had a really cool story of how God changed him. He was in drugs and drug dealing with the rest of his family (In a lot of these communities, drugs are for money and not necessarily for habits). 3 of his family have been killed because of drugs, one was arrested and "released" by the police (he hasn't been seen in 6 years). God used a friend to save him and has done miraculous work in him, changing and protecting him. We were able to share with some of his family, but they are still undecided. Everyone has a story.

Random moment: We were walking to the grocery store today in a busy part of the city and we were stopped at a light. A older lady came up to me and said something in Portuguese and I told her that I didn't speak Portuguese. She then just stood there and motioned with her arm, that was holding a crutch, and I realized she wanted me to walk her across the street. I felt kind of bad because I kind of brushed her off initially. But, I've never walked an old lady across the street before either, cool.

I also found out they like to shoot off fireworks randomly after soccer games.