In October, after being in Brasil for almost 8 weeks, we, the team were invited to minister at a local Assembly of God. Now, you have to know that the Assemblies there in Brasil are very “old school”. In other words they are still in the day where ladies where dresses and have long hair, does that tell you anything?
The pastor was aware that we would perform a Drama. He was also aware of the plan for Anderson and Michelle to be dressed as “street kids”, just to see how they would be accepted by this congregation. It was fascinating on how these people handled the “street kids”. Now if you are like me, before coming to Brasil, I had no concept of “street kids”. I knew about homeless people, but they usually were adults, not children. By children I mean kids ages 5 to 18, yes, you heard me right, can you even imagine a 5 year old fending for him or herself in the dangerous streets of Brasil? Makes one sick to their stomach doesn’t it? Anderson, himself was a street kid, having been on the streets at the tender age of 8 years old, he knew how to act the part, with all that goes with it. The ripped clothes, sniffing, whatever it was they sniffed and Michelle was begging for food and blankets as it was a cold night.
The congregation treated these “street kids” with love and respect, with tears and hugs, even tried to give them money, but at that point they had to refuse. Imagine their shock when Anderson came in to preach still in his “street kids” attire. It was powerful!
Back to the drama:
Now, I must interject here that neither Pauline or myself had ever acted before. The dramas I have seen performed were always done by very young MC(Master Commission)people, not by middle aged women(Pauline)or senior citizens(myself). That being said, the team had faith that we could do it and do it we did!! I was concerned about forgetting lines or tripping or some foolish thing that would detract from the whole meaning of the drama and cause uproarious laughter, but none of that happened, God had our backs as He always did.
After all this I spoke a little while about how Pauline and I had come to Brasil. The people were all very taken that Pauline and I had actually sold stuff and given stuff away to come to Brasil to bring the Gospel message to a lost and dying world. They were truly humbled.
At the end of the message, and after the drama, we had 6 bowls of water and plenty of towels that we washed the congregants hands, we would have done feet but there were way too many people and not enough bowls so we did washing of hands to signify washing away sins, and cleansing of “old ways”.
This is only one of many times we would minister in such a powerful way.
There is only two things we ask when we minister to churches, number one that they provide us with a ride to and from the church and number two that they would feed us J. They never had a problem with either and sometimes they would offer us money, which we took gladly, but we never, ever charged for ministry.
So, this will be the first of many “ministry” stories we have to tell, some a little more exciting than others, stay tuned,,,,,,,,
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