Monstrous Murder Mystery by mechanicalrobotpower and scottishjen is up for scoring in our Plain White T’s design challenge!
We’ve asked artists to get creative with UV and glow-in-the-dark inks for this challenge, and there are some really exciting submissions up for scoring! Check ‘em out!
Back in Dallas
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Grow a Pair by murraymullet has manned up for scoring on Threadless!
Score some submissions, we dare ya!
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My Dribbble Debut
my full dribbble shot
(http://dribbble.com/shots/937308-Hola-Dribbble?list=following)
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Office grass update
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Day 7: Tasted
We had a VBS today with kids out at the church we visited on Day 1. We sang some songs and did a skit that illustrated the Salvation bracelet (the one with all the colored beads) and gave some out. I left with Rebecca in the middle of it to meet up with Max.
Soup
We got a big bucket of soup from the church kitchen along with copies of John/Romans and walked to the hospital nearby. When we got there, we set the bucket down and went to the rooms to see if anyone was around. It was just a dark room with six old hospital beds.
There was a man sitting with an emaciated woman under a thin blanket. She was his wife and needed a blood transfusion. He offered his own, but he didn’t have the right blood type. It would cost 40 American dollars to buy blood, but he didn’t have the money. All he could do was sit by her bed and wait.
Max would ask what the patient’s name was and what they were suffering with. He involved us in the process by translating for us as we shared verses, encouragement and prayers for the people. Max would also pray and give them a copy of John/Romans to read.
Rosa was laying in bed with one of her relatives (her mother?) and Max asked what her name was and what she was suffering from. It was quiet for what felt like a long time. He didn’t say. His eyes wet, he just asked one of us to pray.
Beatrice was laying in the bed in the corner. She had just been admitted today and she didn’t seem as sick as the others. Max asked if she believed in Jesus on the spot- and she said no. He shared the Gospel with her and asked if she wanted to receive salvation. She said yes.
We went to another room and we did the same thing. There was a man who could barely speak; all he wanted was a small bucket, so that he could bathe. There was another church group there, and they said that they were there to do the same thing as us. We joined forces and prayed for everyone in the room. We poured soup into cups and gave them to all of the patients.
There are no pictures of the people I met. I had no camera to hide behind and it broke my heart.
Food Pantry
A ton of widows who are part of Project Life came to the church to get cooking oil and beans. All I knew was that we were going to hand out food to everyone. What I didn’t know was that there was going to be a crazy worship service before.
The energy in that room was amazing. I can’t wait to show you the video of it. They sang at the top of their lungs and danced with all their strength with such joy, you could tell they were genuinely thankful. Remember the ladies that we visited yesterday? It’s the same ladies, but it was from all the different villages nearby. It was cool that the majority of what I thought would be a food handout was actually an intensely rich worship service.
Arcylio’s Future House
Now all he needs is a wife. Anyone? :)
Sermon at Vangana
It felt very familiar, because it was a youth service. We even sang ‘Come, Now is the Time to Worship’ in Portuguese.
I preached on John 15. I think I said ‘Abide’ about 60 times. I’m pretty sure I could’ve ended the sermon at the halfway point. I have a lot to learn about preaching.
The End
Today I probably cried 2-3 times. The reality of death was so close I could taste it. The injustice of these situations messed me up a bit. I’m not angry, but the reality of what I claim to believe about God and who he is has just been put to the test. I suddenly see that the stakes have always been high and that the depth of what I’ve been believing goes much deeper.
We’re done for the week. I’m not considering the trip to be over until Sunday night, so I’ll try to write a little more, or at least put up some video when I get some decent internet.
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So far, I’ve been reporting on what we’ve done, but there’s so much more to it. Maybe I’ll write about it here. Maybe I’ll get coffee with you and tell you about it all.
All I want to do now is see my wife.
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Day 6: Walking
We started out the day digging a bug out of a teammates’ foot. These flea-ish bugs lay eggs in the foot when you walk in a lot of sand.
Tessa Grace
Tessa Grace is the baby nutrition center. It was packed with moms and grandmas with babies. It’s a pretty small building run by three passionate people.
In the waiting room, two of my teammates prayed for each of the women and their babies along with a translator. Then, the women were called into the main office where forms were filled out and nutrition supplements and baby clothes were gifted to them.
Activista
Me and Rebecca met up with Max, one of the guys in the Sparks ministry. He’s also a Project Life Activista (‘Activist’ in Portuguese). Activistas go around to widows’ homes(usually with AIDS) who are part of the Project Life program.
It’s really an awesome thing. Based on where the Activistas live, they are sent out in pairs to visit widows in their own communities. They encourage, sing together, pray for the widows, and teach them the Bible. Max told me that they visit widows from 6am to 5pm sometimes, and don’t finish meeting up with all of the them until one month has passed.
We walked around and through town to get to two widows’ homes.
They’ve already gone through the entire New Testament with all of the widows in all of the Activista zones.
This is Max. He is only 21 years old, and he is an Activista. Blows my mind
I was going to make a connection about how I walked a ton today with ‘walking by faith’, but I do not have the energy or wit to do so tastefully. So I’m just saying that I thought it hahahah
Tomorrow is our last day here. We’ll be doing a VBS, food pantry and going to ‘Vangana’, the youth service at church where I’ll be preaching again. Pray for us, that we’ll finish strong!
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Day 5: Fire and Water
Beira
Today we hit up Beira. We bought some sweet wooden merch off the side of the street and then went to the beach. Something weird we saw were these resorts being built… by Chinese people. It was this dynastic looking thing with a ton of broken english all over it. So ashamed. I wish I had a picture.
Anyways, we walked around on the beach and ate some big ol’ prawns.
The restaurant also had a pen with rabbits and turtles in it.
We also saw a crazy rusty, wrecked, steampunk ship.
The Big Game
I forgot if I mentioned this, but the ministry is called Sparks and they are a handball team right now. They made it to the finals for the first time ever, so today was a big day for them. The energy in the place was pretty awesome.The Sparks lost.
The Fire
We had a bonfire where we sang worship songs with the Sparks guys and girls. I didn’t actually know, but it was a goodbye thing for us. I finally put down my camera and I got to just sing/dance/pray/connect.
Ercylio read the passage about Jesus washing his disciples feet, and shared about how we ought to live by that example, and told everyone that we (the team) had left the comfort of our homes to serve. I think we all knew it was coming after he said that but everyone was crying as we saw them pull out the water basins.
The Water
I’ve both washed and been washed before, but this time it was different. Usually, things like foot-washing tend to be something like special bonus challenges for super-Christians or a missions-specific exercise.
I’m realizing that foot-washing is strange to me because I don’t really view myself as a servant, so it feels like this radical gesture. But these guys are living out the gospel with a servant posture day to day- so it didn’t seem strange that they were washing our feet. It made sense because they are servants. Like Jesus demonstrated.
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I danced in a congo line and rapped a freestyle. I got some facebook names, we said our goodbyes and they headed off into the night to walk home.
I think I’m figuring out how to connect- even if I’m behind a lens all day.
Theme: Linear by Peter Vidani
