But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear… I Peter 3:15
As much as I like to focus on service being a wonderful way to share the gospel and do missions, I must say it is important to be willing to talk about one’s faith and what the Lord has done. Our river trip in the amazons certainly taught me that.
While I’ve served Jesus for many years, I don’t think I ever shared the gospel with anyone. I helped teach in our church Bible school and kids club, but I never shared about God in front of a crowd of people. On the river this changed.
One of the first days we were traveling on the river we stopped in a village and then split up to visit different houses. Since I don’t know Portuguese I couldn’t talk, so I just listened to the conversations. At the third house our hostess asked me to say something and use Google translate to tell them what I was saying.
This was a difficult moment for me because I had no clue what to say. When my mission partners talked it looked so easy, but I couldn’t think of anything. So I told my mission partners and someone else shared instead.
The rest of the day I struggled within myself, “why am a missionary if I can’t even talk about God?” “I shouldn’t even be here” “what will my friends think?” I talked with my team and prayed and told God if He gave me another opportunity I would share.
A couple of nights later I was asked to share my testimony at the evening service. That evening I felt God give me words to say and courage to say them. And during the next two weeks he gave me other opportunities to share about him and his love in the homes that we visited. I’m still not super comfortable sharing about my faith, but I feel that God is working on giving me confidence and if He wants me to speak, I’ll speak.
The mission we were serving with on the river was called Missão Seara. Missão Seara was started to help reach the villages along the rivers in the amazons. Along with a music school, missionaries serving in different villages and kids clubs they have a boat called the Semeador(Sower) in which they visit close to 30 villages every month. Over the years they have made many friends, triumphs have come, and there have been disappointments, but still they continue faithfully spreading the good news of Jesus month after month, year after year. Let’s pray for the workers in Brazil. For strength and energy, for joy and perseverance to keep going even when things are difficult. And also that the people who they visit would see God through them and desire a personal relationship with him.
If you want to learn more about Missão Seara click the link above. Hopefully the results are not Portuguese but if they are you can change the language.
Facts about Brazil:
☕️ coffee and bread is a common breakfast
Portuguese is the official language
Brazil is the largest country in South America
There are four standard time zones in Brazil
Over 60% of Brazilians are Catholic
Manaus is the largest city in the state of Amazonas
You can see pink dolphins in the rivers
People eat a lot of fish 🎣
You can swim with piranhas.
I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord
O’er mountain or land or sea
I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord
I’ll be what you want me to be…
Mary Brown
Sources:
Wikipedia
www.celsiummobility.com
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