Here are a few questions?:

1. What is our goal?

2. How will we know if we have done a good job?

3. When is our job done?

Here are a few responses:

1. We want a plant a church planting movement...plant churches that train leaders and plant churches.

2. We want to be careful not to create long-term dependency.

3. When it becomes a lot of fun, but we are not really needed, our job may be done. A few questions we can ask to find out are:

a) If I leave, what churches, events, organizations or momentum will die?

b) If I don't go to the meetings, what will really happen?

What is our plan?

1. Go where there is no church like the one we want to plant.

2. Make disciples of local people. Plant a church with sufficient leadership, finances and infrastructure to keep making disciples and planting churches when you are gone.

3. Give it away. Move on. Do it again.

Remember

1. Missionaries go where few invite them to come, and leave when few think they should leave.

2. The harvest field is still huge. (This is understated).

3. We need to find the people who God has called and help them get on the right path. They may be trapped in really bad lifestyles and patterns. God will train them, and they be far more effective than we could ever hope to be. Find them. Help them get to the right place. Move on.

4. Missions are really good at starting and equipping.

5. Missions need a local exit strategy. Work until the time is right. Then go and do it again.

6. The Harvest Field still has a tremendous need for many more missions and missionaries.

AND THE BIG QUESTION?

7. What in life could be a greater investment than starting a church-that-plants-churches-that-plant-churches? What if you could be part of a team that does more than one of these in a lifetime? How would you feel about that? What if together we could build a team that will plant a whole bunch of these, in several countries? How much time and money and effort would YOU be willing to pour into a project like this?

Hmmm...

“Authentic Christianity is not learning a set of doctrines and then stepping into cadence with people all marching the same way. It is not simply humanitarian service to the less fortunate. It is a walk—a supernatural walk with a living, dynamic, communicating God. Thus the heart and soul of the Christian life is learning to hear God’s voice and developing the courage to do what he tells us to do.”

"Authentic Christians are the persons who stand apart from others, even other Christians, as though listening to a different drummer. Their character seems deeper, their ideas fresher, their spirit softer, their courage greater, their leadership stronger, their concerns wider, their compassion more genuine, their convictions more concrete. They are joyful in spite of difficult circumstances and show wisdom beyond their years."

“Authentic Christians are full of surprises. You think you have them neatly boxed, but they turn out to be unpredictable. When you are around them, you feel slightly off balance because you don’t know what to expect next. Over time, though, you realize that their unexpected ideas and actions can be trusted.”

Bill Hybels – Too Busy Not To Pray, Intervarsity Press,  1988, page 99.

Sometimes I kind of joke with Anni, who is our oldest daughter of 14 years, "My but it must be nice to be a teenager and know everything." Recently I have been sensing that God wants to communicate with me more than I am hearing. It is so hard to listen for God's response when we are always jumping to conclusions.

What thoughts would come to mind if you saw a field of dry bones...backfill, hmm-interesting, death valley, grotesque...lots of snap judgements come to my mind. Yet when God asks Ezekiel whether these bones can live, rather than making a snap judgement he snaps into listening mode. After listening Ezekiel was asked to prophecy. And then again. And the miracle that followed, and then the second stage of that miracle, almost defies our imagination. Read the rest of the story sometime, imaging you were Ezekiel.

So where are all the signs and wonders that are to follow us? Are we listening? Or are we "realists?"  Know-it-alls?

Ezekiel 37:1-3

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ^2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ^3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

I went for a walk with the children this morning.

Steve and Elba are in Belem for a few days getting a bit of business done there...and celebrating three years of marriage!

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it,

when it is in your power to act.

Proverbs 3:27

• We can all give compliments. We can all encourage someone. So why don't we do this more often?
• I remember as a child when my father bought my mother a guitar. He doesn't play any musical instruments, but he always paid for us to take lessons. I remember some years later overhearing him tell someone that the music teacher said we had a "good" guitar. I remember thinking at the time how Dad felt good about this compliment. It was kind of unusual.
• Several years later when I was coming home from the Yukon for Christmas, I helped Dad load some bales of hay into the back of his pickup truck. It had a white corrugated steel bed, with about two inches of wet snow in it. While throwing the heavy bales around I slipped and twisted my ankle, ripping something. I hid the limp and never mentioned this because I really wanted Dad's approval. I wanted to be considered a hard worker, and not a whiner. A lot of people around us are trying to hard to do the right thing and we don't really notice.
• Just now a ministry team got back from a seven day river trip, I heard that one of the visitting pastors told Ross, in essence, "You did a great job as a worship leader." I thought, "I don't think I have ever told Ross I thought he did a good job as a worship leader." 
• There is a lot of people around us trying very hard to do a good job. The Bible exhorts us to be encouragers. We need to be continually encouraging our children. They will hear a lot of messages in a day, and in a year, and if we don't encourage them, who will? But it is more than our families. Look around and see how many people you can encourage today. It might be someone who appears totally confidant and self-sufficient.

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it,

when it is in your power to act.

Proverbs 3:27

This is my second test blog for the Writer program by Windows Live.

This looks like it will really help me to be a better blogger.

End. 

This was the young pet of the caretakers of the place we stayed at a few weeks ago.

• We are just moving into our office building. This involves using a "front" door that had little use before. Beside the door was a swarm of black bees, going in a out of some holes in the ground. Tim K told me he had sprayed this area with a bug spray daily for two weeks but this never diminished the activity. I got a shovel and dug down a foot or so. The earth was real soft and mixed with wax and a sour lemony smelling honey, and a small cloud of bees. I threw a rag with some alchool on it in the hole and lit it. After awhile it was kind of smouldering so I left it. I was not worried about the brick and cement building. That was Friday. Sunday a wind blew up and it flamed up. I guess the wax down underground burned smoked the whole time. It must have been a very big nest.
• Over the past months three swarms of honey bees have come to Clenildo's house. He learned how to make the box and moved them out to the training site one swarm at a time in his little car. I'm not sure how he did that. But he brought us 1/2 liter of honey the other day!
• Clenildo's friend saw some bees in an old tire the other day, in the bush. He harvested 21 liters of honey out of the old tire! It's worth about $10 per liter at the market so this was a real windfall.

End.

• Steve and Elba are on "Home Assignment" for three months
• Richie and Christie are on "Home Assignment" for three months
• Clyde and Kelsie have moved to Porto de Moz
• Kevin and Angie have moved to Porto de Moz
• Branco left for Christ For the Nations Bible School in Southern Brazil
• Keith and Marsha plan to move off the Mission Campus and into their home in Santa Anna this week.
• Tim and Betsy plan to leave for three months "Home Assignment" next week
• Rachel leaves for "Home Assignment in about two weeks
• Sirley (and Falcão) is pregnant

On a more constant note, the Brazilian leaders continue to work with their churches. As a mission one of our goals is to plant a Brazilian church planting movement.

Warmly,

Rick.

• Two families had not eaten for a whole day. Apparently this is not uncommon during certain seasons. At the end of the day they caught a small fish and gave it to their children. They were elated the next day to catch a fish that will feed them for about 40 days.
• A fellow came by in a hammock in a boat, at dusk. At ten that morning he was bitten by a very poisenous snake. They still had an all night boat ride to get him to town and the health post there. Richie gave him some anti-venom and painkilllers. He said if that did not work the fellows foot and leg would turn black and he would not be able to use it for about 40 days.
• Forty days! At our men's group we are studying 40 Days of Purpose.
• The river is rising and many expect their houses will go under water. Some have other houses on higher ground.
• A heavy pashiuba tree fell on a local fellow recently and really hurt him. It was the talk of the river.

All in all, it is a tough life out there, kind of like you would expect in a frontier. This makes for desperate prayers and a strong hope there is a creator God who watches and responds. It is a region ripe for the gospel.

Thank you for your prayers and participation.

Sincerely,

Rick.

1. How I think and sound like Job's friends.
2. How convinced Job is of his own innocence or righteousness before God.
3. How God is pleased by Job's attitude, and not Job's friend's attitudes.

I will show a short example from Eliphaz (considered bad council).

"Give in to God, come to terms with Him and everything will turn out just fine.

Let him tell you what to do; take His words to heart.

Come back to the Almighty and he'll rebuild your life.

Clean house of everything evil.

Relax your grip on money and abandon your gold-plated luxury.

God Almighty will be your treasure, more wealth than you can imagine.

You'll take delight in god, the Mighty One, and look to Him joyfully, boldly.

You'll pray to Him and He'll listen; he'll help you do what you've promised.

You'll decide what you want and it will happen; your life will be bathed in light.

To those who feel low you'll say, 'Chin up! Be brave!' and God will save them.

Yes, even the guilty will escape, escape through God's grace in your life."

Job 22: 21-30

Here is an example of Job's response (considered good by God).

"I'm not letting up--I'm standing my ground.

My complaint is legitimate.

God has no right to treat me like this--it isn't fair!

If I knew where on earth to find Him I would go straight to Him.

I'd lay my case before Him face-to-face, give Him all of my arguments firsthand.

I'd find out exactly what he's thinking, discover what is going on in His head.

Do you think He'd dismiss me or bully me?

No, He'd take me seriously.

He'd see a straight-living man standing before Him; my Judge would acquit me for good of all charges.

Job 23:2-7

Job had such an incredible conviction of his own righteousness before God. Job's friends seem more humble on the outside. It turns out Job was right.

Maybe the lesson here is that we should not be too quick to judge others or to put God "in a box", not to try too hard to figure everything out and why stuff happens. We should live righteous lives, help everyone we can, pray for forgiveness, walk on this earth in relationship with Jesus, and be absolutely convinced of our righteousness before God in Jesus. Faith and Works. 

PS These photos were taken in the Belem Mall.