grace, and nothing more

This is New Life

2013-08-10T14:03:00.001-03:00

"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.""When I get baptized, I'm not going to wait until the weather warms up, I'm going right into the water, I don't care if its cold. When I think about everything that (Jesus) did for me, how could I not get into the water, no matter what temperature it is!""This is the first study I understand. I never understood any of the others like I understand is

You Heard it Here First (well, almost)

2013-05-18T10:54:00.001-03:00

As we say in Portuguese, there are a lot of novidades in the family, and several great news pieces worth sitting down and writing about. This however is one of the most noteworthy. Enjoy the family fotos:

Igreja Biblica Batista de Estancia Velha... 4 years in the making

2013-04-24T16:42:00.000-03:00

A Repost

2013-02-19T17:47:00.001-03:00

We have been "around the world" in the last month. Ok, so not really but sometimes we imagine that we might feel like it ever had been around the world. I think I'm getting older ... but long airline flights have not been kind to me in recent travels of ours. I have many possible subjects of which I could write but alas, not the time to sit down and develop something edifying or newsy. Perhaps

When Babies Disappear

2013-01-15T23:16:00.001-02:00

I ran across this article the other day and was frankly astounded by it. - Overwhelmed by the incredible cost of sin and its ugly and terrible head seeking to destroy us in the most innocent of ways. - Shocked by the genocide of infants in American life. And these are the ones we have a record of. 334,000 is as if the entire city of Novo Hamburgo just dissapeared, in one year. That is almost half

Jordana Stein

2013-01-01T17:16:00.001-02:00

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” Psalm 32:8 PENIEL BIBLE

A Plea for Help

2012-12-13T16:40:00.001-02:00

It is the kind of thing that makes mission work so exciting. It is something to think about the millions of people in this state who live impossible distances from a biblical church even if they know and understand the true gospel. Rio Grande do Sul is famished for biblical, healthy, faithful churches. We need church planters. Last Sunday started a series of Sunday school lessons on Christmas

E Dezembro Chegou

2012-12-05T10:06:00.001-02:00

As a pastor said on Sunday, "There are only 29 days left in 2012. Can you believe how quickly the year went by?" Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is different... Papai Noel hangs from a parachute on the neighbors porch or scales the outside wall of the churrasqueira. It is kind of hard for reign deer to land on rooftops in the tropics. The vendor in the park has his hammocks strung from

Thanksgiving...

2012-11-22T08:34:00.001-02:00

For the Unity of the Spirit of God in Christ. There is nothing more unifying than seeing my own need of the gospel as great (or greater!) as the one with whom I have a conflict or disagreement. I fall at the foot of the cross beside my brother. For my name, written in the Book of Life. What confidence, what security, what a place to dwell. For a Source of Joy that is not circumstantial, that is

November

2012-11-17T11:03:00.001-02:00

Springtime lasts a long time here in South Brazil. Actually, the spring and summer growing season is very long. It is a slow news day today and we are excited about these little fellas growing in the front yard. For those of you who haven't seen it, our green space is about the length of an American football first down and about six yards wide, most of it grass. We wanted to put down roots this

October

2012-10-19T17:39:00.001-03:00

Is quite probably the most beautiful month of the year in Brazil, rivaling September, March and April. For all intents and purposes, it is almost over. I have done a dangerous thing this afternoon and sat down to accomplish this task of a blog post without having a difinitive end in mind. So that means that you'll probably get whatever randomness comes to mind. Hope you like it. I should be

The End: Home Assignment Update 013

2012-09-06T16:28:00.000-03:00

And so we great you from Brazil for the first time in 2012. It is good to be here... I want to put our first furlough to rest by sharing with you a few joys in photo form of the events in the last three+ weeks in our lives. Many of these pics have been up on facebook already and the events well documented there. (I think that blogger is just a little bit more cumbersome of a way to instantly

The Final Week: Home Assignment Update 012

2012-08-24T15:09:00.002-03:00

Well, in all reality we are not trying to think about it that way though the reality of it all is evident in the 5 packed trunks we have sitting out in the garage ... Here are a few random thoughts as I sit this far out, thinking of all that God has done... We are basking in the greatness of our God who answered prayer and met our needs in wonderful and profound ways. We are rejoicing in God´s

For Sale: (Home Assignment Update 011)

2012-08-22T18:13:00.002-03:00

There are a lot of things I need to update ... it is on my list of priorities now. We are so grateful for the goodness of God in blessing us in so many ways. Yet... this is to be a quick little blurb and request that you all pray that we can quickly sell our camper. It is up on Craigslist and in a couple of newspapers. We´d like to have it sold before we return to Brazil in less than 9 days!!!

You Heard it Here First

2012-07-19T21:25:00.000-03:00

Well, almost first. (Home Assignment Update 010) I didn't want this news to get buried in the details of the last post. We were given the green light to purchase our return tickets and now have flight itineraries reserved for August 30th from Minneapolis. Yeah!!! We have had a remarkable home assignment and enjoyed some really wonderful meetings and reunions. We have been blessed. We came back to

July is Hot, and other News

2012-07-19T19:44:00.001-03:00

Home Assignment Update 009 If there are any readers left out there, it seems that June has become my annual month of fasting from blogger, for whatever reason. It is not as if there were not enough memorable events over the last two weeks to keep us hopping with news, they were full and fruitful months. It is amazing how fast the time goes by. I will not upload a bunch of fotos... but only for

Mother's Day 2012

2012-05-14T15:52:00.002-03:00

This post is a day late, but I wanted to get it up anyway. What follows are some nice videos of Denielle singing with the kiddos. They are blessed to have such a great, godly woman for a mother. Sometimes they just don't know it. If you have been looking for some indication as to the growth and development of our children, these might help wet the appetite. And, I must say in this forum a

The Good Life ... (Home Assignment Update, 008)

2012-04-25T17:22:00.000-03:00

Ten Days in Nebraska, in phrases and no particular order: Remembering the beauty of the Sandhills 7 cousins, most of them giggling Three beautiful buffs Fresh, homemade tacos from a taco stand being a part of a minority population forgetting the computer´s power cord at the last church (the first time that has happened) a panic as we figured out how we could show the slide

The Greatest of Days

2012-04-06T13:52:00.001-03:00

This is one of my all time favorite Resurrection Songs. It is by Andrew Peterson, entitled: "High Noon" High noon in the valley of the shadow When the deep of the valley was bright When the mouth of the tomb Shouted, "Glory, the Groom is alive" So long, you wages of sin Go on, don't you come back again I've been raised and redeemed

Home Assignment 007, Hot Springs Edition

2012-03-31T16:26:00.000-03:00

This is my driving pose! In March we traveled almost 3800 miles, 3,200+ of those miles were furlough related. We visited in seven (7!) different churches, many, though not all, of those included a presentation of some sort. My wife is still married to me. Our children still come to us and love us. We are normal . . . kind of. . . not really. Happy Birthday Grandpa Scott!! More odd facts

Home Assignment 006

2012-03-06T23:38:00.000-03:00

So, I am not sure exactly which update number I should be using tonight, are we on 006 or 007? I guess a quick look would solve the problem. I am trying to get some online work up to date this evening as the next time I will be able to blog is probably a couple of weeks away. We just wrapped up a great month of February and we have a lot of things to be thankful for. See the previous post for a

Wisconsin Rural Bible Crusade

2012-02-17T07:00:00.000-02:00

We spent the last two and a half weeks with Denielle´s sister and brother-in-law smack in the heart of cheese country Wisconsin. We were only a few miles south of Colby, Wisconsin. We managed to visit a couple of cheese factories, though mostly their markets for selling their wares. A highlight: 12 year aged cheddar. The purpose for our stay was their Winter Retreat at Living Waters Bible

Home Assignment Update 005

2012-02-15T16:59:00.000-02:00

12,000. I popped on blogger today to work on this post and noticed that we had reached this milestone number of page-views. OK, so it doesn´t really mean a lot, especially when you take into account the 5 (!!) years and 280 + posts of varying interest I/we have put into this blog. I´m not sure it is what I thought it would be when we started. But, I think it still serves as a useful

2011 Rehash

2012-01-17T00:28:00.000-02:00

Back by popular demand, here is the much anticipated 2011 Rehash in quotes and notables. Ok, so no one demanded it. Or requested it but I´ll go ahead and give it to you anyway. Gratis. 2011 held many things, notable and mundane. Moments of victory and moments of failure. Hardships and bounty and of course way too many fleshly moments of self addiction. It was a notable year for us in that we

Home Assignment 004

2012-01-11T18:53:00.000-02:00

Some things are obvious, others are not so obvious. It is finally snowing in Minnesota. . . Nebraska and Kansas were as golden brown and dry as ever. God has given us wonderful role models in our family. Holidays with the family have been fantastic. We generally debated college football and theology, played games, watched football, and drank too much coffee. Mom