Intense rest and intense ministry

Passion Play Cast 2014

Many times life on the mission field with all the activities and all the people coming and going is just a matter of doing the next thing and keeping the right attitude. When our house is full of people (more often than not) there are many routine things that just need to get done – food prep, dishes, clothes-washing, visiting with people who are in the house, answering e-mails, making phone calls, planning the next program…. sandwiched in between our regular ministry responsibilities. It’s a blessing to learn to “do all things without grumbling or complaining” (Phil. 2) so that we might be a good example to those around us and point them to Jesus.

Putting on a big production like our Passion Play requires a lot of work each year – some of that work includes re-writing the script, recording new voices, making sets, preparing costumes, designing publicity, contacting participants, raising money to cover costs, finding volunteers to help with parking and canteen and set-up and tear-down, and the list goes on. The whole production is surrounded by prayer and dedication with the goal of reaching people with the overwhelmingly Good News that God’s Son Jesus became a man and victoriously lived, died and rose again to give us new life. We praise God for not regarding the weather report and blessing us with three beautiful nights to present the story of God’s love and grace. Over 1000 people made their way to the ARCA grounds to take in the awesome outdoor production. We were thrilled to have son Andrew and his wife Alexi with us to help with all the sound and light production. Our two granddaughters were very excited to be a part of the cast this year. Many people responded to the altar call at the end, and we hope these people will seek to know the Lord and have their lives changed for now and for eternity. Thanks to those of you who prayed for this outreach.

ARCA Family Chalet

Besides working hard on the set-building for the play Paul has also spent hours working on the construction of the new room for couples and families at the ARCA. He has overseen the whole project and purchased materials in addition to helping with the roof construction and painting. Everything is looking great! We are thankful for friends who have donated financially to make this project possible. The room was first used over Easter by a Brazilian pastor and family who were involved in the play. Our house was filled to capacity so it was nice to have another special place to house people. The remodeling project continues as we work towards having housing for about 15 more people in this "ARCA Family Chalet."

Sharing the Word 
Paul has also had the opportunity to do many hospital visits and lead people to Christ in the past months. Two of these people passed away recently, but they had the opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel. Pastor Joel’s mother-in-law also passed away last week. Death is a reality that every person alive must face. Sometimes we avoid talking about it, because it is uncomfortable and sad and sometimes fearful. The Bible says that death is the last enemy to be conquered (I Cor. 5:26). It is our job as Christians to help people prepare themselves for death. He who is prepared to die is prepared to live. We are so thankful for the assurance that God has given us in His Word in I John 5:11-13 – “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Paul has been discipling a new family in the basics of the Christian faith. He loves doing one-on-one work

and helping people understand God’s plan for their lives. Both of us participate in another weekly Bible Study led by Christina’s in-laws. This study has been a blessing to us and has been an opportunity to involve the two couples we have been trying to reach for Jesus. Pray for John and Maria, Levir and Rose.

Get-away
After months of non-stop people and activities we were blessed by our friends from Chicago, Ken and Carla, who took us on a trip to spend a couple of days in a beautiful hotel in Iguaçu Falls as we showed them the sights. Unfortunately, it rained like crazy so they didn’t get the full benefit of appreciating God’s stupendous handiwork in this place. We joked about having a real “rain forest experience.”After they flew back to the U.S., the sun came out in its glory, and we spent a few more days ministering at our churches in Falls.

What's Next?

At the end of the month we will travel once again, this time to participate in our churches in Vitória, ES. Since we came back from furlough last October we hadn’t had time to travel to the churches outside of our area so we are trying to schedule several trips for the coming months. We are also planning a weekend retreat for couples at the ARCA in June. July and August will be devoted to hosting two large short-term teams. You will hear more about that in future letters. We await the arrival of two MN girls in May who will spend almost three months in Brazil. In June a couple of college students will arrive to spend a couple of months. Two seminarians continue to come once a month for ten days. And we have two Brazilian teenagers who spend the weekends at our place. So, you can well imagine that we haven’t struggled a lot with the “empty nest syndrome” although we do really miss having our own kids at home.

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