What an experience to go on a trip like this. The trip was split into three sections, a youth camp, a mission field and a church. Each with its own challenges, trials, rewards and fruit. We met loads of people. We love the people, the language and the culture. We have come back with a new heart, a heart of love, a heart of joy, a heart of serving, a heart to host the nations in our own home. You may ask why? Why host the nations, why build relationships, why do all that, when there is so much to do right here on our doorstep. Well  we realised relationships are important, perspective is important, hosting is important for our growth. God does not want us to have all this fire in our hearts and not use it. He wants us to grow, he wants us to be strong, he wants to prepare us and use us where we find ourselves today. Now he has plans for us, as it says in Jeremiah, but those are his plans, for his glory. These plans come with a cost, he will chasten us: (to cause to change, or forcefully correct). Now the reason he does this is to prepare us, for his work. This sanctification is done through trials. As it says in James 1: 2, consider it pure joy when you face trials, not if, but when… When you go through trials, it is a Godly thing, the harder and the longer the suffering, the bigger the anointing on your life, and the bigger the glory for God. I was humbled on Sunday as Wayne and Mel stood in front, tired form a strong season of trials, but not broken, as God has grace for us and that family. We should be lifting them up in love. I draw strength and faith in God by the way that Craig and Heather draw strength from God, as they continue to worship our father, through this hard time.

I have been asking myself: if this life is not about me, then how should I be responding to the opportunities that are in my life every day? Going to the nations changed something in me, I have found myself asking and searching for opportunities to speak to people. I have so many opportunities to spread the word, I have so many opportunities to speak into peoples’ lives. What I realise is that we focus on our own lives, our marriages, our children, our problems and forget that God has a purpose for us. Now I am not saying we should neglect all these things, but if we realise that we are the people that make the difference, with God’s help. We as the church are the saints, we represent God in the way we live our lives.  He wants to use us today, and he is preparing us to do his will. There is no coincidence that he has put a bunch of people, that have so much talent and gifting together in a room each week. I would like to encourage us as housecoms,  to take the batten and run this race together, to see that God has a plan with us, to see that we are here to love each other, to train, to teach, to uplift, to encourage and inspire each other.  And then with fire in our hearts, go out and be vessels in the lives we live.

How do we do this? We can ask for God to prepare us, we can go to the nations, we can pray for others, we can even change some of our priorities, but we must not discount the fact that we are a part of Gods plan.  Can you imagine if you started to live into the plans that God has for your housecom, to go to the nations as a housecom, to host the nations and be a blessing to GCI, to grow as a family together and reach our community, to make a difference not only in our own lives but in the lives around us. What would this picture look like if we allowed God to shape and grow us for his plans and purposes, despite of the trials we face, or in spite of the trials we face?

Brazil was a life changing experience for Olivia and I. We are so grateful for God’s grace on our family and we thank you for your prayers. Our wish is to be a blessing to you, to encourage you into the plans that God has, and that together we can make a difference for Gods Glory.

Love Paul and Olivia

After breko in our “usual” lanchonette, we went to the park and prayed and engaged some of the locals, and found a group of school kids from CEP school – the largest in Latin America – 5,000 kids!! These kids were very proud of the school, and we talked about Curitiba, God and churches – our guys were in the zone by now, anyone who crossed their path got stopped and talked to!

We took a walk down to the University to try to meet with the language faculty, and talked to some students. We hadn’t noticed, but some other schoolkids had followed us from the park, fascinated with our English because they were doing English lessons. After we noticed and greeted them, they said they would try get us into their school.

After some negotiation with the security, we managed to get the director of the school to show us around – 2 hours of seeing the facilities, talking to various teachers, classes, heads of departments etc. At one point I thought “this tour is getting long, we’re supposed to be out on the streets evangelising” – and suddenly I remember God’s prophetic word over us in the early days of GCI: “schools, schools, schools” … could it be God would be wanting to use us in a school on a different _continent_?? Seems like something only God could do – and would be just like him to get us into the largest school in Latin America. As we walked into a beautiful theatre that can seat 1,000 people, I imagined it packed with kids listening to the gospel… God dropped a few ‘divine teases’ in the form of creative ideas as to how we could serve the school and connect with the kids in the future… time will tell!

I learned two things in the morning: one, everyone in this city is on a mission to improve it, to get a good education, to lift it up to a higher status – from schoolkids to adults – a good goal, but so easily an idol. Also, Brazilians feel like they’ve got a lot to offer, but that the world does not take them seriously – they were so proud showing us around this school today – we have a powerful tool in being able to show interest and affirming their value, they open up when we do.

We went for a lunch in the mall, and some of the team noticed a lady crying, talking to another lady. They were nervous to go up and say “what’s wrong?” particularly with the language gap. A stroke of creativity from Olivia – nothing solves a girl’s problems like chocolate and icecream – and off she went with two chocolate Sundaes in hand, to give to the girls. It was amazing to sit watching as these girls’ expressions changed from confusion, to delight, as Olivia told the lady she was sorry she was sad, and wanted to do something to help. The lady was amazed, saying nobody had ever done something like that for her. Amazing how powerful a simple gesture of kindness can be, prompted in God!

We climbed on the bus again and went to check out a steel opera house, that can seat 1,600 people… again, an image flashed through my mind of the place packed for the preaching of the Gospel…. On the way there, we bumped into a bunch of students sitting drinking, playing guitar, our “in the zone” team engaged with them. Most were not interested, but what we’re finding on this trip is when you speak to a crowd, it is often clear that God is singling out one or two people who He is busy trying to get at, and one girl in particular just softened more and more and more as the team talked. When we climbed on the bus, I looked back, and could see her deep in thought, her raucous friends having faded into the background as she considered her life and Jesus’ love for her….

After the opera house, we caught 2 public buses and went back to the hotel before a final dinner together. A good night’s sleep, a cup of coffee together before saying goodbye to Ewen and Ofelia, who are spending 24 hours more in Curitiba before heading home. We caught a taxi to the bus, and got our very own luxury section on the bus to Floripa!

Hope you are all well, so looking forward to being back together with you all!

Love

the GCI’ers in Brazil

We got onto a tourist bus that does a circuit around the city, and were privileged to experience a city even more beautiful and interesting than we’d expected – art galleries, historic buildings, beautiful homes, parks, great views… We chatted with a family on the bus from Barcelona (ola, Ozzy!), who were in town for a wedding. Everyone seems very intruiged by why we’re here – ironically, we have more of an open door in engaging people in conversation than someone from Brazil, as people are very interested in why we’re here, and why we’d come…

We were upstairs on a bus, and there is a camera feed to the conductor downstairs, to make sure everything is ok. Ewen went downstairs and commandeered the microphone, and we all put on a bit of a show for the locals…

After some lunch and prayer in the beautiful botanical gardens, we took the next step and started to engage people and tell them about Jesus. The girls got off to a start with some teenagers playing cards (Ofelia’s Portuguese is amazing!), and Ewen and Paul got hold of two young guys, one of whom was backslidden – it was amazing how the conversation shifted from casual, to a place where these guys were experiencing conviction – I asked if we could pray a quick prayer with them, and they said “yes!” and put their arms around us, so there we were in the park praying for them. Amazing to see God bring conviction on people.

Zeca (our friend from Sao Paulo who has come to help us meet and talk to people) brought over 3 teenage girls to join the conversation – interesting the way God sometimes singles out a specific person, one of the girls, Bruna, has just started reading a Christian book, and that morning they were talking about finding a church etc, and at school they’ve just been learning about Christian influence in South Africa! She was very open and impacted, and insisted on getting hold of contact details. We have her a South African R1 coin, and told her there was accommodation waiting for her in Cape Town if she wanted to come stay.

After a stop at an art museum, and Kev and Paul engaging some muso’s over a guitar, we climbed on a bus to head to the Italian Gastronomical sector in town, and there were a whole lot of Brazilians from up north on the bus. Again, God opened doors, and soon we were finding out about them, asking questions about church, taking photos, exchanging contact details, and even singing Brazilian/South African songs! It was about a 45 minute trip, and we all had so much fun together, an had some good moments of making people from Mormon and Catholic backgrounds thing about Christianity in a different light. Here Zeca (our friend) is preaching to the guys…

After an amazing Italian dinner, we headed back to our hotel rooms, and spent a few moments in prayer, thanking God for small beginnings in a big city and massive nation, and asking for more favour and faith for the next day!

Thanks for all the prayers, we’ve experienced such grace and favour here, and we know it has a lot to do with faithful people teaming with us in prayer back home!

Love you guys,

The GCI Brasileiros

Bruce: Morning/afternoon GCI! (9am here, 2pm there) – so, after arriving in Curitiba yesterday, scouting for hotels for the afternoon, and taking on Devon’s Churrascaria in the evening, we got a good night’s sleep. Walked the city and prayed first thing this morning, the city’s starting to get “in our system” and we’re looking forward to the day ahead!

Ewen: Whew! Amazing city – Curitiba is alooooot more like home, great architecture and a very well planned city. Transport system is fantastic, it was fascinating to watch how people embark / disembark from buses. I’m really excited for today, we are about to grab a quick bite to eat for breakfast and then we’re going out into the streets of of the city – expectant that we’d hear God, feel his heart for the people. Missing our kids terribly !

Olivia : This is a beautiful place! We very exited for what today will bring. We going to let God map our way through Curitiba, and just let God work through us today… Love the real showers again! Please pray for us…

Paul: “words from the orange man” having loads of fun with the team, Kevin said last night as we were having a humble serving of all you can eat prime steak and meat :” there is no coincidence that we are here in Curitiba”. Thank you for your prayers…

Ofelia: Wow! ladies this is every womens dream!! but the guys have had more of an influence on our weight than our luggage, so there is a balance in everything. We have really been blessed with wonderful friendship and great food!!! we will definitely try it when we return…

Our journey of discovery so far …

When we left South Africa last Monday – the reality of this journey we´d embarked started to bite as we boarded the first plane for Jhb. The 25 hour haul from Jhb to Rio via Madrid wasn´t anywhere near as bad as I was expecting it to be.

Check-in & customs were a breeze. Our baggage had been booked straight through to Rio de Janeiro as we were not going to go through customs in Spain to claim it again.

Madrid airport is “craysey” (famous words of Nacho Livre , with 4 terminals – it´s apparently twice the size of OR Tambo which already is a monster of an airport in itself!

The sights of the city from the air when we landed gave us an appreciation for what Ozzy & Nats felt for this nation. There is alot of work to be done there and I felt an air of great expectation for them as we spent 6 hours in their country.

12h30 beckoned and we boarded the Iberia flight destined Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Seeing the name of the city as we baorded the plane @ gate A3 – we felt “wow, we are actually on our way to Brazil!”

The goose bumps we felt when the pilot annouced we were in Brazilian airspace were heightened further when we saw the city lights of Rio on our approach to landing.

The anxiety we felt – wondering whether our baggage had made the trip with us thankfully ended in relief as they finally came through on the conveyer belt in Rio about an hour after we had landed.

The rush for terminal 2 for our connecting flight to Belo ensued and after a 20 minute sprint across the airport, we checked-in. We were warned time and time again (especially by Kevin & Bruce who are seasoned travellers) that this last leg would be the most unbearable – we just wanted to get there now!!

We landed in Belo @ approximately 11pm Tuesday evening (4am Wednesday in SA), both Ofelia & I were absolutely knackered! It was awesome to see a familiar face as our good friend Carlos was there to meet us.

Belo Horizonte far exceeded our expectations, the 30 minute drive back to his house gave us an opportunity to appreciate the size of the city which is home to roughly 5 million people!

Upon arrival at the house, Angela his wife and his 2 daughters Clara & Louisa were wide awate to meet us. Were were in Brazil ! The love, simplicity, humility & hospitality of the people here have left us with alot to reflect on. Projeckto 412 was a tremendous success, as couples – Paul & Olivia, Ofelia & I had some amazing opportunities to connect with alot of the young men & women, mostly varsity students from Belo & Florionopolis who really & truly love the Lord and were there to soak up as much as they could.

To see how the young people have responded during this period has been the biggest highlight for us. Looking back, we realise that making this trip has enriched and blessed all of us in ways that we could never have imagined!

We miss our family terribly but take comfort in that we´ll see them soon.

Tomorrow we leave for Curitiba with Paul & Olivia, Kevin & Bruce and if our time in Belo is anything to go on – we are excited for what awaits us in Curutiba!

After all the flights over here going really well (you know its been a long day when your cell phone alarm goes off and you realise its because it is 24 hours since you woke up, and you still have 2-3 hours ahead before you will be in bed) we spent a night with our various host families – Kevin and I managed to sneak in a Churrascaria (“eat as much steak as you can” restaurant) to get into the Brazil vibe.

Then we headed into the mountains to the campsite, and actually managed to get an early night and rest up a bit – the first day was filled with meeting young people from all over Brazil – passionate, in love with Jesus, and hungry for direction: easy crowd to preach to!

Our team has done GCI SO proud – they have been amazing – I am inspired as I have watched them meeting new friends, laughing together, trying out their Portuguese (Paul tried to introduce himself as “spiderman” and he said “I am Orange Man”) – they have been a delight and are impacting many young people – in the hall, on the soccer (“footchyball”) field, around the dinner table. What a delight.

Kev led worship tonight, and did a great job amidst the challenges of working with a totally Portuguese team. Hilarious sidenote: some of the Brazilians pronounce Ewen’s name “urine” – try keep a straight face when they do that!!

Tomorrow we finish off the camp and will head off to various local churches – rumour has it that Paul will preach his first sermon, in the biggest church we relate to in Brazil! Amazing what God does as people trust Him and allow themselves to be stretched… Beautiful.

Then, 2 days in Belo Horizonte, exploring the city and enjoying some of our friendships, and doing some Leaders Training on Tuesday night. Then Curitiba beckons us into the unknown – to walk the streets and trust for God’s leading. Lastly, 36 hours in Florianopolis, one of the most beautiful cities in Brazil, and we’ve just been asked to preach in a local church there.

We’re having the time of our lives – missing you all, but delighting in the adventure of it all.

Love
Bruce, Kevin, Ewen, Ofelia, Paul and Olivia

Our first trip to the nations, literally four days to go before we take to the skies and as things build-up to Brazil.

Going to the nations was a dream that we have desired for many, many years;

It all started in early January – just after the new year had begun.

As a couple we felt an overwhelming & compelling sense that this would be the year , more so than any other that has gone by;

During a mid-week house.com (home group meeting) in January, the theme for that evening was “in what area do you want to experience a breakthrough in your life for 2010”.

At that stage, as much as we both desired to go – we felt that practically (according to what we were able to commit to), only one of us could only go …

The house.com prayed and prophesied that :-

1. We will go to Brazil as a couple
2. We were to commit it to the Lord and he would do the rest

From this point and at various stages during the build-up to the trip, we recall the hesitation and anxious thoughts that went through our minds, where clear decisions had to be made:-

• “are we doing the right thing?”
• “We really can’t afford this, where are we going to get the money to cover it?”
• “We’ve never been away from our kids for longer than a weekend, how are we going to cope for 2 weeks?”
• and so on and so on …

As a couple we felt compelled by the prophetic word shared at house.com a few nights earlier -

• that we were both to go
• that God would enable us both to go on this journey of discovery in him, each other and ourselves

When God calls you to do something, he enables you to do it.
– Robert Schuller

God did something else in us over the past few weeks, we’d been wondering where the money would come from for this nations trip?

The answer, was as clear and practical as can be – parked in the driveway with 4 wheels…

Here was one of those moments of hesitation …one that literally changes the course of how we were going to travel too!

Numerous online bookings later – clicking the final okay button, prompting the bank to confirm the transaction shortly afterward … the tickets were paid.

A surreal “whew, we actually doing this!?” followed J.

But wait, there’s more ….

There was a car to sell, challenges aplenty get it sold too;

We’re emerging from a recession, car dealers are struggling to sell vehicles – private sellers being far worse off having to resort to accepting way below market values for their cars.

Just over a month ago we had taking a bold step of faith and advertised our car after having paid for our nations trip to Brazil.

“God is in control”, that was our resolve –

Through well known advertising media, we received numerous telephone calls, two appointments with potential buyers…

Today, 4 days before we’re due to depart & against all odds – the car has been sold to a cash buyer who made the one the only hit on a relatively unknown website;

• the full asking price was paid
• above market value
• our economy is still emerging from a recession
• in a time where it has been literally impossible for the private guys to sell their car

God is Big ! We’re still pinching ourselves and it doesn’t hurt !

Thanks for subscribing to the Brazil Blog – if you didn’t get a chance to read the first entries, check out: here

Anyone managed to get up and running on twitter? Check out here

We’re leaving in a week’s time, and the excitement is building – with a family camp and a home move between now and then, it still feels a little “out there”. Carol’s sister Paty (pronounced “Patchy”) and a team have done a great job in terms of the camp, and it looks like we’ll have around 100 young people away with us for the Easter weekend.

Our Curitiba adventure is looking exciting too – we’ve got 2 Brazilians who are going to be coming from Belo and Sao Paulo to join us on the streets, in the malls, in the restaurants etc to help us engage with the locals and do good to peopl in that city.

Hope you have a great week, looking forward to our time away together on the camp!

Love

Bruce

The most important factor in having a useful Twitter experience is to have a ‘client’ to use it from. A client is just a program, or means of being able to access Twitter conveniently for the following purposes:
- posting something new on Twitter
- checking what your friends have posted on Twitter.

You can do this by going to www.twitter.com each time, but there are far more convenient ways – from your browser, gmail, or your phone for example. Here are some web sites that should be of some use:

Explanation Video of Twitter for New Users: http://bit.ly/22b0e8

Tweetdeck – A decent Twitter Client for your PC: http://bit.ly/Uud33

Ubertwitter – Twitter on Blackberry: http://bit.ly/b7SDF

Tweetdeck – Twitter on iPhone: http://bit.ly/28xio

How to read and update twitter in Gmail: http://bit.ly/938LfQ

How to read and update Twitter in Google Chrome: http://bit.ly/7i74lr

How to read and update Twitter in Firefox: http://bit.ly/HMDfK

How to update your Facebook Status through Twitter: http://bit.ly/6699q

Hope some of that helps, see you in the Twittersphere!
Bruce