Tuesday, May 10, 2005
We haven't posted here for a while, and would value your prayers regarding a number of issues.
IBE – Instituto Batista de Educação
The IBE semester is going very well, albeit high pressure. Involvement with students is at a new high, with the beginning of a level of social interaction out of the classroom. The Mark course on Mondays has drawn a number of students who only come on that night, and there has been an atmosphere of great reverence and awe at times as we have looked at the person of Jesus. Pray for an accelerated pace though – so many questions are threatening the time-keeping of the course.
Hermeneutics on Tuesday is more of a struggle, with the class containing students at all levels, for many of whom the teaching is at odds with their own Bible-interpretation practice, and that of their churches. So there is a degree of stress, and I have found it a struggle. But it is now going well.
Greek for Cora on Thursdays has been going well. She is finding that relearning all her Greek vocabulary, but now with Portuguese definitions, has enriched both her Greek and her Portuguese. It has not been easy: it doesn’t take too much imagination to see that teaching a third, classical, language while using your second, modern language, and avoiding your own language, (in which you learned the classical language!) is quite a challenge. But the students are very positive, and Cora is enjoying the contact. Her teaching at IBE has put us as a couple much more in the heart of what is happening in the school, and this has been a good development.
Vida Nova Church
As a result of the repentance of an ex-leader of the church with regard to the teaching and practice of leadership and especially of the way the leaders treated us, there has been a flurry of contact with members of the church we left two years ago. This has not been viewed positively by the current leadership, and they have brought the matter to a church meeting. The repercussions of all this are very painful, but we are thankful that one effect has been the drawing together of our own fellowship, which seems to be steadily gaining a sense of identity and purpose as a church. We do not wish to go into more detail, but value people’s prayers on this matter.
Aracaju
This Wednesday, 11.5.2005, I will travel alone to Aracaju, to preach at the anniversary of the 13th May Presbyterian Church while Cora remains at home to finish some assignments from the Evangelical Theological College of Wales. The 13 May Church was one of those included in the programme for the Reformation Week last year, and it seems that the pastor, who had been taking the church in rather a different direction, has been returning to Presbyterian roots. For this reason we felt it to be important that I go, although it is a journey above the quota. The period will be intense, and I am already tired from the schedule in Florianópolis. On the other hand, I love Aracaju and the folks there, and it will be a good break, away from IBE and the Vida Nova miseries. I have been asked to speak in the evenings in the church, and to take a symposium for pastors on the Saturday. In order to spare my brain cells, I will preach a sequence from Mark 1-8 in the evenings, as I did recently in Boa Vista. The Symposium is on “Evangelism and Missions in the Light of Calvinism,” and I still need to do a lot of work on the preparation. (We are thankful for the recent purchase of laptop computers that make such preparation on the hoof much easier.) Please pray for stamina and grace. The programme is as follows:
Wednesday 12 May 4 p.m. Flight from Florianópolis, to arrive
in Aracaju 11.15 p.m.
Thursday 12 May 7.30 p.m. Mark 1 and 2
Friday 13 May 7.30 p.m. Mark 4 and 5
Saturday 14 May 9 – 11 a.m. Pastors’ Symposium – Evangelism and Calvinism
2 – 5 p.m. Pastors’ Symposium – Evangelism and Calvinism
7.30 p.m. Mark 6
Sunday 15 May 9 – 11 a.m. All age Sunday School, Combined Class
7.30 p.m. Mark 7 and 8
Monday 16 May 7.10 Flight back to Florianópolis, via Brasília and São
Paulo, ready to take my Mark class at IBE in the
evening.
On the Sunday while I am in Aracaju, Renato, one of my final year students at IBE, will preach for the first time in our church. He and his wife Mineia have been coming along for about 3 months now, and we feel it is time that the group had the chance to hear him speak. Please pray for him.
We have been studying Romans on Sundays – what a letter! What a gospel!
IBE – Instituto Batista de Educação
The IBE semester is going very well, albeit high pressure. Involvement with students is at a new high, with the beginning of a level of social interaction out of the classroom. The Mark course on Mondays has drawn a number of students who only come on that night, and there has been an atmosphere of great reverence and awe at times as we have looked at the person of Jesus. Pray for an accelerated pace though – so many questions are threatening the time-keeping of the course.
Hermeneutics on Tuesday is more of a struggle, with the class containing students at all levels, for many of whom the teaching is at odds with their own Bible-interpretation practice, and that of their churches. So there is a degree of stress, and I have found it a struggle. But it is now going well.
Greek for Cora on Thursdays has been going well. She is finding that relearning all her Greek vocabulary, but now with Portuguese definitions, has enriched both her Greek and her Portuguese. It has not been easy: it doesn’t take too much imagination to see that teaching a third, classical, language while using your second, modern language, and avoiding your own language, (in which you learned the classical language!) is quite a challenge. But the students are very positive, and Cora is enjoying the contact. Her teaching at IBE has put us as a couple much more in the heart of what is happening in the school, and this has been a good development.
Vida Nova Church
As a result of the repentance of an ex-leader of the church with regard to the teaching and practice of leadership and especially of the way the leaders treated us, there has been a flurry of contact with members of the church we left two years ago. This has not been viewed positively by the current leadership, and they have brought the matter to a church meeting. The repercussions of all this are very painful, but we are thankful that one effect has been the drawing together of our own fellowship, which seems to be steadily gaining a sense of identity and purpose as a church. We do not wish to go into more detail, but value people’s prayers on this matter.
Aracaju
This Wednesday, 11.5.2005, I will travel alone to Aracaju, to preach at the anniversary of the 13th May Presbyterian Church while Cora remains at home to finish some assignments from the Evangelical Theological College of Wales. The 13 May Church was one of those included in the programme for the Reformation Week last year, and it seems that the pastor, who had been taking the church in rather a different direction, has been returning to Presbyterian roots. For this reason we felt it to be important that I go, although it is a journey above the quota. The period will be intense, and I am already tired from the schedule in Florianópolis. On the other hand, I love Aracaju and the folks there, and it will be a good break, away from IBE and the Vida Nova miseries. I have been asked to speak in the evenings in the church, and to take a symposium for pastors on the Saturday. In order to spare my brain cells, I will preach a sequence from Mark 1-8 in the evenings, as I did recently in Boa Vista. The Symposium is on “Evangelism and Missions in the Light of Calvinism,” and I still need to do a lot of work on the preparation. (We are thankful for the recent purchase of laptop computers that make such preparation on the hoof much easier.) Please pray for stamina and grace. The programme is as follows:
Wednesday 12 May 4 p.m. Flight from Florianópolis, to arrive
in Aracaju 11.15 p.m.
Thursday 12 May 7.30 p.m. Mark 1 and 2
Friday 13 May 7.30 p.m. Mark 4 and 5
Saturday 14 May 9 – 11 a.m. Pastors’ Symposium – Evangelism and Calvinism
2 – 5 p.m. Pastors’ Symposium – Evangelism and Calvinism
7.30 p.m. Mark 6
Sunday 15 May 9 – 11 a.m. All age Sunday School, Combined Class
7.30 p.m. Mark 7 and 8
Monday 16 May 7.10 Flight back to Florianópolis, via Brasília and São
Paulo, ready to take my Mark class at IBE in the
evening.
On the Sunday while I am in Aracaju, Renato, one of my final year students at IBE, will preach for the first time in our church. He and his wife Mineia have been coming along for about 3 months now, and we feel it is time that the group had the chance to hear him speak. Please pray for him.
We have been studying Romans on Sundays – what a letter! What a gospel!
