Retreat (Retiro)

     For many years God has given, and by His grace, I have received a hunger for the Word of God. I have read the entire Bible many times, and the New Testament alone many more, in three languages. He has given me some revelation, and I have tried to teach what He has given to me. I can tell you where the relevant verses and passages are on a number of themes and subjects. The difficulty has been in seeing the truth of the Bible play out in the church at large in the US. Granted that i have isues and problems; nonetheless over four decades of labor has seen too little fruit. But in Brazil I am seeing the pages of the New Testament come alive.
   On Friday night i was invited to the inaugural meeting of the Hebreus Moto Clube, a Brazilian Christian motorcycle club established to reach out to that portion of the community. There was joy, worship music with a blues beat, and quite a few attendees. But things got better.
   Saturday morning we went to a disciplemakers' retreat. Note that I wrote disciplemakers, not disciples. If a disciple of Jesus Christ is a whole hearted follower of His, teachable and humble as the underlying Greek word "mathetes" implies, and one who is by grace learning and obeying the commands of Jesus then i know very few disciples in the US. I know even fewer disciplemakers- those who are actively pouring their lives into someone else in a committed, relational, purposeful way- usually one on one.
Here were about two hundred people, young, middle aged and older, men and women, who have ben doing this for decades in some cases. They have been or are being discipled, and they in turn are discipling others. Perhaps the highlight of this time was sitting in on a group of about twenty (we had a number of groups of this size) and listening to their practical experience of discipleship. These were not pastors or elders but every day Christians who had received the vision of discipleship and were doing it in the midst of jobs, families and the usual stress of living. By the end of seession one i realized that I really had nothing to teach them. Their love for one another was strong. Now i lived through the "Shepherding Movement" of the 1980's, and all the resultant spiritual wounds. Because we did things wrong does not mean that we can throw away the principles and teaching of Jesus. He still commands His followers to make disciples.
    My new Portuguese phrase is, in English, every day, a little better (learning the language). I am hearing more words and phrases, and, depending on the speaker and how quickly they speak, catching more. After the retreat we came back to Vinci's house and about fifteen people descended to watch the Confederation Cup finals between Brazil and Spain. If one desires to swim in Brazilian culture, then one needs to accept "futebol." Brazil won 3-0 with players whose last names were Fred and Hulk and Julius Caesar (Julio Cesar). Rather humorous, and i found the audience more interesting than the game, which I really don't understand.