Adventures in Brazil: Part 10

     Normally I am rather serious, somewhat reserved, and have regular habits with regard to my eating and sleeping schedule. Give me enough time with Brazilians and I turn into a wild and crazy guy. Readers may recall that last Sunday two other brothers and myself visited a small church in a neighboring city. On our way back to Samir's home I was burdened for this group and felt the Holy Spirit wanted a larger group to return. During the week Samir and I invited a number of people after we had checked with the leaders involved. Most of the invitees had previous plans so i ended up praying for even six or seven. Hopefully several women would be a part of this group to pray for the women there.
   As i am writing I am reminded of Ephesians 3:20 that begins "Now unto him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think..." God provided a team of not just ten or even twenty but thirty-four people to visit this little church. They worshipped, fellowshipped, prayed  and encouraged. I was seated in the fourth row. Two chairs away was a very sad younger woman who was not worshipping with us but had her arms folded in front of her. We had prayed for this same woman the week before. On her right was a young woman who had expressed some concern and hesitation about visiting this church as she did not know anyone there and was unaccustomed to this type of ministry. She began to talk to the afflicted woman. Then another young woman on our team who had been seated with her brothers on the other side of the church slipped into the empty seat beside me and began to minister to the same woman. They "tag teamed" together beautifully in the compassion of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to minister to this sister.
    Our worship was facilitated by a young couple with a powerful worship gifting aided by another couple on vocals and guitars, and a brother i had not previously met who played flute, saxophone and harmonica. In addition we had a drummer (always my favorite). The place was rocking for Jesus.
   Samir preached powerfully. I am always amazed at the attention spans of the Brazilian believers because he spoke for quite awhile but except for trips for water  (it is summer here and blazing hot) the people paid close attention. He invited those who wanted prayer to come to the front, and at least ten did. I think normally someone in a pastoral role would pray for these people but Ephesians 4 shows that the saints are to be equipped for the work of ministry. ( 4:12) All I did was to invite members of the team to come up (pointing because it was so noisy) two by two to pray. ( 2 women to pray for a woman, and 2 men to pray for a man. This worked beautifully) I believe the true leader is more like a coach who directs a team but the players play the game/do most of the ministry.
     Spoke briefly in Portuguese, asked for a final song as it was already late, and began dancing. ( This is a scary thought, I know) Soon there was a conga line with adults and children. Afterwards an older woman whom had been particularly afflicted the week before came up (we had prayed for her and her husband earlier in the evening) with two female friends to ask for prayer. She had a totally different demeanor with joy unspeakable and full of glory. (  1 Peter 1:8) We prayed for both of her friends.
    Finally as the team assembled to return to P. A. one of the young sisters on our team wanted to get ice cream. Samir asked me if this was OK? Understand that normally I do not eat after 7 and I am asleep by 10:30, about the time of this question but how could I spoil their fun? They all wanted to go to McDonalds (pronounced  mackie donalds in Portuguese). They joked about introducing me to this restaurant. Mcdonalds and Coke may be subject to scorn in the US but in Brazil they are incredibly popular. So we drove a long ways to a McD's. I have never seen so many cars and people at one. At least forty cars clogged the drivethrough and there was a line of at least fifty people inside. Wisdom prevailed and we went to another Brazilian restaurant. However, I think that we traveled every street in P. A. to get there.
     We were caravaning with about four vehicles as our original team had dwindled to about fifteen people but every time we came to a stoplight all the windows came down, the music blared, the Brazilians are singing (they like to sing along) and dancing as best they could in a car. Meanwhile, me Mr. Serious, was doing this with them. We finally came to the restaurant around midnight, changed tables several times waiting for rather slow service and ate the Brazilian version of a cheeseburger. Many did have ice cream or milkshakes. Arrived at the house around 1:15 totally wired and got up at six with a charley horse. That will teach me, or maybe not.