Adventures in Brazil: Part 15

Several nights ago i had the privilege and pleasure to speak to a group of special people, the disciplemakers of a church in Brasilia. These people pour their lives into others, making sacrifices of time, energy, and money to help them to become more like Christ. Wagner,one of three pastors in this church, and my host for the week, and i had spoken about what was the most important message that God had given me. I responded, "The simple life." As I have blogged about this previously I will summarize by saying that we live simple lives following the example of Jesus (2 Corinthians 8:9) not being choked by the cares, riches and pleasures of this life ( Luke 8:14) using and purchasing only what we truly need even if we can afford more ( Luke 12:15). The reason is so we can fulfill the greatest commandment ( Mark 12:30, Luke 9:23) by giving the life that God has given us for others. The setting was a crumbling public school. My message was punctuated by a thunderous hammering of rain on a rather leaky roof which thwarted even a microphone and amplifier which several brothers set up. My translator, a brother who lived in the UK for seven or eight years is rather soft spoken but did a God honoring job of putting my words into Portuguese. Despite all the noise the brethren listened patiently, took notes, and asked good questions afterwards. My last day in Brasilia some friends took me to a restaurant for almoco- the largest meal of the day, sometime in the early afternoon. We had pleasant conversation. Later in the afternoon Diego came to take me to the airport and spent half an hour explaining how the message about the simple life had impacted him. Knowingly or not, many people have practiced the principle of Galatians 6:6 with me in Brazil. I have flown in and to Brazil many times now, and normally need only five to ten minutes to complete the process of giving the luggage, securing the boarding pass, and going through security. This time was different. Many hundreds of people were in lines that snaked around the interior of the airport, one of the largest in Brazil. Diego told me that the government workers in Brasilia, the capital of the country, normally take their vacation at this time of year. I have never seen such big crowds. The plane was half an hour late but finally was seated and had an uneventful flight to my final Brazilian destination of Vitoria.