Here they have their main church service in the evening as they have bible classes in the morning. We did not attend the bible classes as we would not have understood anything so Sunday morning was free which is odd for me. I had actually thought of throwing a few messages in my backpack in case I was asked to preach but at the last minute I didn’t. When our host, Marcio said I was going to preach I started to prep on the fly in the spare moments we would have at the end of our day. This is not my normal way of preparing so when Saturday came I carved out a few hours of uninterrupted time to prepare but I still felt like I wasn’t ready like a normal Sunday.

It seems like no matter where you go there are drums and microphones in churches even in the poorer regions of our world. Marcio and I arrived earlier than the rest of our group so that I could meet the pastor. He was in a pre-service prayer meeting and so we waited in the hallway by his office. Marcio decided to use the men’s room leaving me alone in the Portuguese church with Portuguese speaking people and me not having an expansive Portuguese vocabulary. I just prayed that people would ignore the bald white North American guy with his Bible standing in the hallway. Good luck with that happening!

The Pastor came and still no Marcio so its about this time that you begin the great game of charades and hand gestures once you have the basic hello and handshake out of the way. (still no hugs at this time but wait…they’re coming) I have never mastered the art of feeling comfortable in those situations. Awkward, stilted, uncomfortable or nervous are all words that would aptly describe my feelings in those moments. The good news is almost everyone is kind and graceful when you are visiting their country as a guest and this proved to be true once again.

Marcio showed up and we were off and running with the formal introductions, swapping of pastoral information and the plan for the evening. The pastor impressed me as a young guy hungry for people to know Christ and follow Him passionately so I thought my message would fit perfectly.

The rest of our group had found their seats…white plastic patio chairs with four on each side of the aisle. the church was not wide but it was long. The music started and the musicians were practices and ready. The songs were sung loud and enthusiastically. The pastor shared what seemed to me to be a mini-sermon and Marcio started to translate for me. At he end of this little chat Marcio whispered in my ear “This is the meet and greet time. The pastor wants you to hug at least 12 different people.” Marcio, knowing my aversion to hugging people I don’t know, looked at me and simply said, “sorry brother” and he was off hugging anyone and everyone.

You’ve heard the sayings, “like a fish out of water” or “like a cat on a hot tin roof” well they properly address my feelings at that moment. Remember my best Portuguese sayings are good morning and thank you neither of which were appropriate at that time. Brazilians do not wait to be hugged, they hug and they laugh and dance as they make their way to hug you, a perfect stranger. They hug you with a simple joy and an expression of pure happiness on their faces. (at this point in my story the thought crossed my mind that Pastor Stephen may read this blog and get a whole new idea about our Sunday morning meet and greet time) Just for information purposes there were a lot of people in a fairly small space with a hot and humid temperature happening so most people were wet which adds to the whole let’s hug the stranger experience.

So let me say this I am still not a hugger but hugging in a Brazilian fishing village church service just seemed kind of right so I took the approach of “when in Rome do as the Romans do!” When I get back to Cornerstone I will not be in a Brazilian fishing village if you get what I’m saying!

When it came time for me to preach I was called to the front and the pastor hugged me. (he had a very nice shirt on…which was very wet!) I spoke and only made one small mistake which I learned about later. I essentially made a gesture which in our culture would be fine but in their culture in was quite similar to flipping them the bird. The adults were surprised but controlled and the teenagers were killing themselves laughing. Oh well, keep preaching which I did. The pastor gave an alter call and no one came forward but later we learned one young man talked to a leader and gave his life to Christ and another married man who had left his wife was there and was getting some things straightened out in his life.

So even with me offending many in the church service with my inappropriate gesture it seems God still decided to move. I am always humbled by the grace God shows me by speaking through me. I am totally aware of my limitations but God just shows up and moves powerfully. I am very thankful for a body of people working behind me in prayer without which I would be powerless.

We hung around for more hugs after the service and then back to our rooms where I sought out a hot shower before heading to bed. This privilege was something I was looking forward to all week. I thanked God for his goodness to me and prayed that He would continue to use the words of my message in the hearts of my new Brazilian friends.

Needless to say no one was grumpy as we headed out to our morning adventure. They had arranged for us to visit several homes that EMAF had built for people. It is important to note that EMAF will not build homes where there is a husband and wife situation. They will help them but not build for them. They target widows and single moms who cannot afford to build their own home. Often it is mission teams from North America who come down to do the building of these very simple homes.

Boipeba is a very interesting case study for EMAF. When they first arrived here 20 plus years ago it was a typical remote island fishing village. There was no gospel witness here at all and never had been. They shared Christ, established a church and a community center. The island is spectacular so it was discovered by enterprising businessmen who brought tourism to this pristine place. The economy picked up but that brought a whole new set of problems. Poverty left and then returned quickly as people went from having very little money to having quite a bit of money to losing their money to alcohol, drugs and prostitution.

EMAF established a children’s center here as they saw a great need for that in this now growing community. One of the leaders shared with us that it is crucial for them to have programs for the children all the way up through their teens. They found out the hard way that if there are any gaps in their programing, even one year, they lose the kids and have a hard time reconnecting with them as they get swallowed up in the negative aspects of the tourist industry. Now after they move from the children’s center programing they can start meeting at the sports center that EMAF built. It is a place where sports are taught and played while the message of Christ is being shared. The leaders from the sports center come to the children’s center and let the kids know what is available for them over at the sports center.

The other cool thing that happens is that for every child who signs up to be in the children’s programing mom has to sign up to help. There are moms who help in the kitchen or cleaning the building or assisting the teachers. If your child is in the program you volunteer at the program or the building. It was pretty cool to hear the moms talk about the impact this has had on their families and on them as moms. We had the chance to hear several stories first hand when we did a walk through the village this morning in a typical winter rainforest downpour. I have been soaked several times on this trip but you just keep going because you are in the rainforest. (on a side note it is humorous to educate the Brazilians on the fact that yes Canada does have mosquitoes. They are currently quite bad here! They keep telling us Canada is too cold to have mosquitoes)

The ministry here will continue to face challenges as tourism will only grow. They have adapted and will continue to adapt to the cultural shifts in this place. EMAF is a great ministry with great leaders. They are not locked into just one way of doing things. Yes this is a remote fishing village but it has changed and so has how EMAF does ministry. There is a lesson there for the North American church I think.

We made our way through the Mangroves (google them…rainforest stuff) to the first hut/house. The people came out and I don’t have words to describe what I saw. This place is so remote as to be forgotten by time. Nothing modern here at all. No electricity, no running water (but oddly enough you could get internet satellite reception. A lady in our group sent her husband an email from there) no modern conveniences of any kind. It is simple yet elegant. Plain but beautiful. Old but refreshingly current. The people are happy there. they don’t want to move. They make their living fishing just as their families have done for generations. They eat today and tomorrow they go fishing so they can eat again. They are poor but not in their own eyes. The area we were in was designated by the Brazilian government years ago as a violent and dangerous area for people to venture into due to the alcoholism and physical violence that happened there regularly.

A few years ago EMAF sent a missionary/pastor in to visit the people. He just kept going back until he was able to lead one person to the Lord. Now he is welcome in the village and the drinking and fighting has ceased. Each week he comes to town and holds a church service for the people. Almost everyone attends and it is a weekly highlight for the village. I asked what the long term game plan was and they said to train a local to become the pastor and release the work over to the locals at which time the missionary moves on to the next place without a gospel witness.

Along the Atlantic coast of Brazil they know there are still at least 300 fishing villages that have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. The missionary/pastor we traveled with today wants to move on as soon as he can to one of those 300 villages. He currently has planted a church that is growing in a coastal town of 250 people but his area leader told me the town is too big for that missionary. He feels uncomfortable in big towns like that…..its 250 people!

The people we are meeting are rock stars in the Christian faith. There should be books written about these men and women who have gone and are going where no one has ever talked about Jesus. There are miracles and drug lords and voodoo witch doctors as well as the dangers of the sea and jungle. It is like reading a modern day version of the book of Acts.

I said goodbye to a new friend tonight. His name is Abrao and he is the area leader for this part of the work of EMAF. The distance this man has to travel and the number of missionaries he has under his care is staggering but get this…its not his only job! He is also the Lead Pastor of the Metropolitan Church of Salvador which only has 2,000 people attending every weekend. When he started his ministry there 13 years ago there were 180 people attending church on a Sunday. Now over 2,000 come through the doors each week. I will get to visit with him some more on Monday when we head back to Salvador and visit his church and family.

During these days I have been in the humble presence of spiritual greatness. It has been a privilege so far. Tomorrow more visiting of homes and off to a sports ministry in the afternoon here in Boipeba.

We arrived at a village that EMAF reached about 23 years ago. Two men arrive by boat and begin walking through the town visiting with people. As they are getting ready to leave two young girls stop them and ask if they are Jehovah’s Witnesses. They tell her that no they are not.

They then ask if they are believers and the mean reply that they are believers in Jesus Christ to which the girls tell them they have been waiting for someone to come and tell them how to become Christians. They men go to one of the girl’s homes and there they meet her mother who had heard about Jesus from a relative in another fishing village but that’s all she knew. That afternoon they led the mother and daughter to Jesus Christ.

Every time I hear Marcio tell one of these stories I just get goose bumps. These men are legends in the hall of fame of faith. They have been willing to go just about anywhere and do just about anything to get the message of Jesus Christ to people who have not yet heard. This village where the gospel was first preached some 23 years ago is very poor. The leader of the Children’s Center took us on a walk around the village and told us that their 3 big problems are alcoholism, pedophilia and abuse of women. Their culture has no ceremony for marriage so men just get whatever woman they want pregnant and then so often just move on leaving the woman in a state of poverty.

We walked past a small run down bar and we were told that children as young as ten come there to dance and drink each evening. The children have no money for booze so you can just imagine what they do to get the money for booze.

We visited two homes of people who attend church in the village. (there is only one church) At the second home my traveling companion Keith had to leave because it was just all too overwhelming. The lady in the home had shared how EMAF had built the home for her and it had changed her life dramatically but she wanted us to know that it wasn’t as significant as giving her life to Christ which had just happened a few months ago. Keith saw in action the truth that we help people and need and share Christ with them as the formula for taking the love of Christ to the world.

Another day of travel tomorrow and then we stay on the island of Boipeba for several days looking at the work there. It is supposed to be a drop dead gorgeous island…can’t wait.