United Church of God

Kingdom of God Seminars and Other Updates From Brazil

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Kingdom of God Seminars and Other Updates From Brazil

On Tuesday, April 10, at about lunch time, I left Dallas, Texas, with the goal to visit the brethren in Brazil, to conduct three Kingdom of God Bible Seminars and to fulfill a number of visit requests. God blessed the trip with spiritual growth of members, safety and health. Thanks are to be given to God for His blessing on this trip.

After flying from Dallas via Atlanta and Brasília, I finally arrived in Boa Vista at about 2 a.m. on Thursday morning the 12th. Giovane Macedo, a member in Brazil, joined me in Boa Vista to visit the indigenous brethren in the Wapixana village of Maloca de Moscow. Giovane and I finally got to the village at about 4 p.m., and we admired the lovely building, which they built with Good Works funds for their services. This building was inaugurated on Passover night, April 5, 2012.

We also admired the lovely new vegetable garden, which they planted at my request for their benefit, with “seed” funds donated by brethren. We delivered some toys, second hand clothing and bags of rice for their sustenance. In addition I carried from the United States a 32-inch flat screen television and a DVD player for them to play our video sermons in Portuguese. All this arrived there in perfect condition and was donated by various brethren. The video sermons will be placed on DVDs for them, as well as placed on the Web for other Portuguese members in Portugal and/or Brazil who have access to the Internet.

On Friday, the last day of Unleavened Bread, we had two services, and the attendance was 34 people for both services. On the following Sabbath, April 14, we had services in the morning with 32 brethren present and 8 visitors. In the afternoon we conducted the first series of the Kingdom of God Seminars, with a total attendance of 42, of which 16 were visitors.

On Sunday afternoon we conducted a wedding in the new church hall they built. However, before the wedding, in the morning, I conducted a Bible study about the marriage vow. I addressed God’s laws regarding marriage and the need to comply with the laws of the country. Subsequent to the Bible study, while the ladies prepared for the wedding, we did a leadership training session, reviewing previous instructions about preparing sermonettes and additional instructions about how to preach the Word of God effectively. We also had lessons on song leading and general procedures regarding services, how to handle announcements in church and the festival assistance program for them.

After the wedding, we discussed ways that we could proceed to further assist the local brethren, but no conclusion was reached on additional help after long discussions. I then suggested that they meet at another time and give me input on how we could help them.

Visit to São Paulo

Giovane and I left Sunday evening to Boa Vista to catch a 2:30 a.m. flight early Monday morning to Brasília and then to São Paulo. Giovane left to go home to Montes Claros at this juncture, and I proceeded to São Paulo. The municipality of São Paulo has well over 11 million people, and the greater São Paulo region has some 19 million people. After renting a car, I finally arrived that afternoon at the residence of prospective members, the Pellegrino family.

That same Monday evening I conducted a Kingdom of God Bible Seminar with 9 people attending. One of the new people that attended the seminar was a gentleman 83 years of age who used to attend Worldwide until 1995, and has remained faithful for all these years. This seminar in São Paulo ended up being a seminar with many questions, and we left the venue at about midnight. Due to long distances in São Paulo, by the time Robson Pellegrino and I got home it was nearly 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

On Tuesday I spent the day addressing many questions with the Pellegrino family, and on Wednesday I drove five hours to Ribeirão Preto with Robson to visit a prospective member. This young man showed a lot of interest in the church, and we are in contact over the Internet. On Thursday, Robson and I visited a lady in an outlying suburb of São Paulo who has many biblical questions and who is very desirous to worship God with us. In the same evening, we visited a man in downtown São Paulo, who also demonstrated interest to join United.

As we have had no presence in São Paulo before, not even in Worldwide days, we are breaking new ground thanks to God opening the minds of new people who are very interested in the truth. We need to pray that God protects these new ones from Satan’s deception and brings them along to the truth. We now have an urgent need to set up a more visible ministry via video sermons and the Internet to help these people along. We may even have to have a new Feast site to teach these new prospective members about God’s way. Let’s pray for God to bless this effort in the industrial hub of Brazil.

Change to the Feast in Brazil

On Friday I went to Montes Claros for the Sabbath to visit with the Macedo family, conduct a third seminar, to which only the Macedo family came, and wrapped up the Brazilian trip. During this leg of the trip, I learned the brethren in Maloca de Moscow preferred not to leave the village to attend the Feast in Boa Vista.

We decided to move the Feast site in the North of Brazil, from the town of Boa Vista, back to the village of Maloca, and to conduct it in their new hall. This in fact will be a lot more economical and practical to the local brethren, and they have all equipment necessary to view video sermons in the village.

Regrettably we have to mention to those that intended to travel to Boa Vista from overseas to the Feast, that this is no longer possible, as Maloca de Moscow does not have the facilities for overseas guests. It could accommodate one or another person that would want to camp and rough it, but we could not have a number of visitors. In the meantime, we will also investigate other options near São Paulo, as God is calling new people in that region and they need instruction about God’s way. The Feast is one of the ideal opportunities for teaching, which God created for that purpose.

After the visit to Montes Claros, I started my trip back early Sunday morning, April 22. I thank God once again for the doors that He is opening and for the health that he personally granted to me during this trip. Please continue praying that God may continue blessing God’s work in the Portuguese language, and for these scattered brethren. For your information, during this trip, we completed the printing of a new booklet in Portuguese, now making 18 booklets that we have available in Portuguese. For literature and sermons in Portuguese, please visit our members website at http://membros.revistaboanova.org.