Brazil 2010 - Speaking Well of God

Speaking Well of God—in Brazil

We have just concluded a really wonderful trip to Brazil. Thanks to many friends, particularly Agnes and Jansen, we were able to share the great good news about God and his true character. The meetings were held in Barra da Tijuca (Rio de Janeiro) and in Bauru (Sao Paulo state) with presentations on the following topics listed below.

The whole series was recorded in audio and video with simultaneous translation into Portuguese. Audio will be available shortly, and video at a later stage. It’s also hoped that the presentations will be transcribed and edited so that the main concepts can be shared in written form.

So much happened that it’s hard to give a full report. In addition to the main meetings we met with many other groups, especially young people, who had many questions about God and how he is presented in religious teachings. It was a delight to be able to talk openly and freely with thinking people who had a real desire to get to know God better, and to leave behind the all-too-common misrepresentations of God that have been taught. In Bauru the local town paper came to interview us, and then we were guests on regional TV for a program that is syndicated over the whole of Brazil.

The was a truly humbling trip since we saw all that God had been doing “behind our backs” (!) and discovered so many who had become God’s friends through listening online. Now we have many projects in process, including book translations, the production of Portuguese language materials, new websites in Portuguese and so on. It will be exciting to see how all this develops!

So thanks to all who helped in this—the local church ministers, our translators Robert Conrad and Jorge Fabbro, good supportive young friends like Marzi, Marcus, Bernardo, Juliana, Crystal, Luiza, Eduardo, Izabella, Billy, Yuri, Amanda, the “elder generation” like Edgard and Ilse, Aluisio and Silvia, and others too many to mention. Our grateful thanks particularly to Jansen for inviting us in the first place, and how could it even have happened without all your support, Agnes? We are so delighted to have so many new friends in the Lord, and pray it will not be long before we meet again and continue our “free, conversational studies of the Scriptures” together.

Transcripts of presentations for the “Speaking Well of God” series:

The Radical Face of God

Speaking for God to the World

The God who Makes Sense

God and Sin: Is He a Legalist?

The God of Sacrifice and Blood

Why did God go to the Cross?

God and Atonement

The God who Heals

What God Really Wants

In the End, God

Here are some pictures from the series of meetings held at Barra de Tijuca church in Rio de Janeiro, and Bauru church in Sao Paulo state... Thanks to Jansen Pinto et. al. for the pictures, and to all who made this wonderful visit possible! Newspaper report from the Bauru meetings here:

http://www.jcnet.com.br/detalhe_geral.php?codigo=180054

(Run through Google translator to get a rough idea of what was said!)