Second

My time in Sao Paulo is drawing to an end. One more week in this community. We'll be wrapping up all the ministries here that we have here and saying our good-byes to the friends we've made here. Crazy stuff as I remember the Lord's faithfulness to us and me. He worked in crazy ways. Last posted I mentioned the team went on a fast and walked out Isaiah 58 or 48... But it was nuts. We saw hearts healed as we walked around with a sign with a cheesy statement saying, "free prayer."A lady invited us to come and the girls stayed with her for at least half an hour sharing with her the gospel and seeing her heart and life restored. The boys and I wandered off and four hungry women in a hairdresser asked us to come and we prayed to and prophesied over them. The next day, we visited this guy's house who used to come to the church we were a part of. He was disabled from the waist down as he got into a bad accident when he was dancing. He basically gave up on life and refused to eat. As we entered the house, our team had no doubt in our hearts that we were going to see his guy restored and even walk out of the room. He didn't walk out of the room, but it didn't matter. Well, to me it didn't. I realised the results didn't matter to me anymore and the only thing that mattered was that I had the faith and that I loved Jesus. We broke the fast and it was glorious.

The Lord has also led half of the team to go to a Dutch community. They're there right now and probably blowing it up. While they were gone, we've been meeting up with a demon-possessed guy. Doctors would say he's a schizophrenic. As soon as we met him, we felt the Lord was going to free this man. We're fasting and praying, and going tomorrow to set him free. Oh yeah.

Man, I just love the Lord. In the past few days, he's really put intercession on my heart. I guess it was an area, I lacked in almost? I rarely prayed for other things. But as we press in as a team and intercede for things like the youth and missionaries in Brazil, other outreach teams, I just FEEL it. Jesus just gives me a crazy heart for the things I pray for. Cool! Smith Wigglesworth said that, "I rarely pray longer than a half hour at a time - but I never go a half hour without praying."Challenged me.

Basically, Jesus has radically increased my faith and I just love Him!

First

So, this new. Currently in Brazil. Five weeks in on my outreach phase. Ready to see even more. The Lord's been teaching me about leadership and following Him more and more every single day. I've noticed that He's blessed me with an incredible and simple knowledge that He is good. Regardless of whether I have a bad day or good, I just KNOW that He's good, so I don't really have bad days. I've been noticing a recurring pattern in the team where they always seemed to repent of self-focus and selfishness. I asked the Lord, "how do I lead these guys into personal sacrifice everyday and cease having to stop the entire team to deal with this?" He took me back to the scriptures when Jesus offered the young rich man to sell all of his possessions. Jesus offered the road to sacrifice, or to the world. So he said to me, "give them the choice of sacrifice or self." That's what I'm going to do.

The team is embarking on a three day fast to gain a greater heart for Brazil and to really ask the Lord why we're here. I love it. I usually don't like saying things like this but today we had an amazing time with the Lord. I don't like to say it because every time really is amazing, but we just had a crazy encounter. Ashley, a friend on the team couldn't speak in English and could only speak in tongues for a couple of hours. In the midst of this, I'm dealing with frustrations and things that are occupying my mind. I found it hard to engage and really focus in. But the Lord remained good as usual. He reminded me that the main thing is Jesus. Again. Seriously, I wonder how many times I can be reminded of that and still get rocked. Crazy.

The past week the team has started men and women ministries focused on the members of the church we work with and seeing them discipled into following Jesus. It's been amazing. Seeing the men realise the importance of the act of confessing sins to one another and bringing to light the things in their lives they're ashamed of. They were saying things like, "what if you guys hate me after I confess?" I was overjoyed at the new and daring hearts they were possessing as they stepped out and we saw freedom overcome them. So much so, that their faces and appearance seemed to be lifted. He is worthy.

As we're fasting the Lord led us to Isaiah 58. I'm excited to see how real the gospel really is and do the things in that passage. True fasting.