One of the benefits of getting older is being able to see how God works in His time. I was reminded of this on a distant trip in July which Rena and I made to Northeast Brazil where we worked in the eighties and nineties. At that time there seemed to be so little fruit in proportion to the time and money that was invested and in the seed that was sown. One older lady in the town of Santana de Mangueira told me, “I was very hard back then, but you first brought the gospel here and later I became a believer.” Her daughter also became a baptized believer about 25 years after she began attending our services back in the eighties. Pastor Paulo and the church have developed their own outreach ministries through the years in Santana, including camp and a weekly radio program. The Apostle Paul said, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (I Cor.3:5). May God be praised Who uses whom He will in the way He designs to save souls and edify His church in the world for His glory.
It was also encouraging in the city of Patos to see children of the second and third-generations in church from some of those who were in our youth group back in the eighties. Benedito, a son in the faith from 1983, provided us with transportation for several hundred miles as we visited believers and old friends in four different towns. One old friend was John Baptist, affectionately known by our children as “John Beard” a brick mason who helped us significantly in the construction of two church buildings in the eighties. I asked John about the Bible I gave him years ago, but he said he had left it with his first wife and he no longer had a Bible. John, at 63 years old, now has a second family and young children who are being raised without a Bible or any Bible instruction. I have since sent a Bible and a children’s Bible story book for Benedito to deliver to John. May God grant that one day this seed will also sprout into new life!
This month we have resumed our normal ministries at the Bible College and at our church. Pr Flavio and his wife are adjusting well after their arrival in April and hopefully will be able to assume pastoral leadership at the church within a few months. Our services have been blessed with a good number of visitors recently and the spirit among us is sweet, but we still look for a harvest of souls. We intend to keep preaching, sowing the seed and trusting the Word that says that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together in the fruit that is gathered unto life eternal ( John 4:36). Thank you so much for your part towards making our ministry possible here.
Sincerely in Christ,
Johnny & Rena Nunley