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| Me and Nilson |
Well it has officially been about four months since my last post and a lot has gone on in this short time. I've been learning a lot about myself and also about people in general which is helping me grow. However one thing I've truly had to learn is how to trust in Jehovah. How so? Well pioneering in your home country does require trusting in Jehovah. Even serving in a foreign language congregation requires trust in Jehovah, especially if you know nothing of the language you are learning. However, moving to a foreign country with no plans of returning to serve in your former country will show you what it means to trust in Jehovah in completely different ways. For me, I feel I am learning to trust in him all over again. But at the same time it's been an awesome experience!
First as we all know time and unforeseen occurrences can befall anyone at anytime and Jehovah's servants are not shielded from these things. This has been true with being here in my assignment as well! For example, my job has gone through some changes and because of that the hours they were giving went down like crazy. For a couple weeks I almost got NO hours. This after coming from a preaching trip where I didn't work for over two weeks. So what do you do? Pray, pray, pray and make some phone calls... LOL Through the help (not
only talking about money but practical advise too) of family, friends, and Jehovah blessing your own efforts to do what you can, I've felt the realities of the 34th Psalm. Expressions like the following:
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Me and Morgan eating lunch with an
Italian call |
"This lowly one called, and Jehovah heard. He saved him from all his distresses"
"For those who fear him lack nothing"
"They cried out, and Jehovah heard; He rescued them from all their distresses"
"But those seeking Jehovah will lack nothing good."
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| CO, his wife (Br & Sis Knappen), Nilson, me |
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| with my friends from Belo Horizonte |
I can truly feel the reality of those inspired words even more so, even in other senses aside from material needs. As anyone who is has served away from home knows homesickness can be an issue. I never imagined I would get homesick but it happened. Also this is the first time I've been living by myself and it's been hard adjusting. And at times you don't want to tell the friends back home you're homesick all the time or they'll get worried and and also you don't want to burden people in your assignment either, especially since you are there to help. How did Jehovah provide? Well of course I cried out... literally at times. Also the friends in the congregation were extremely encouraging. Then when the circuit overseer came he shared his experiences which helped me to see that I wasn't alone in how I felt as well. It helped immensely. But everything came at the right time and when I needed it. Seeing how Jehovah takes care of your emotional needs as well has been downright amazing.
Of course the reason why he helps me aside from his love is the fact that I need to be focused on the ministry and helping the congregation. And believe me I have. I currently have one Bible study with a very nice man from Guinea-Bissau. Also I have some other return visits with some other people that I'm trying to talk to. It takes a lot more patience in this field but I love the challenge and it's cool seeing how Jehovah blesses out efforts.
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Celso, Marcia, Gabriel, Chris, Diorgea, Nilson,
Kevin, Morgan and Ariadne |
Another experience is being able to give talks in some awesome congregations. A couple months ago I gave a talk in Belo Horizone, Minas Gerais. It was amazing! The congregation is so loving and hospitable! Also it was nice to give a talk there where really there are NO native brothers in the congregation to give public talks. Also when I visited my girlfriend in Santo André, São Paulo I got to give a talk in an English congregation nearby. Interestingly it was in the first kingdom hall I ever went to in Brazil! How cool was that! And the friends really liked the discourse as well. At the local meetings I usually give at the minimum one part a week and there's lots of opportunities to comment. The friends are very kind and always let you know how much they appreciate having you in the congregation which is a big help and moral booster.
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| Gabriel, Renate, and me |
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Me, Matheus, and Morgan at the stone
fair |
Finally I want to talk about my Portuguese class. I've been taking it for nearly a year now and it's been a big help! Every once in I while I try to take advantage of small opportunities to give an incidental witness but an opportunity came just recently that was pretty cool. We had to give a presentation about a celebration or festival in our culture. Well, I was racking my brain as to what I should do because if I chose a holiday I would have to explain the pagan roots and I didn't want to be negative nor act like I was OK with the holiday in simply reporting about it. So I figured I'd talk about the memorial. We each had to do a small write up about it (one or two paragraphs) and then we pass it to the class and then we go ahead and talk about our celebration via PowerPoint presentation. On my sheet I had the website as well as a custom QR code that led directly to the "Why study the Bible" video. I then went into what the memorial was, our campaign to invite others, how it was different from Easter (Portuguese: Páscoa) and also why it should be important to others. I have links to the sheet and the presentation below if you want to see it. It's all in Portuguese. (No translation... sorry...) Of course it required complete trust in Jehovah because I was giving this presentation in Portuguese and I had to learn how to explain my understand of this Bible teaching in another language and be prepared for questions. One of the girls asked about whether this was like what she does in her church every week. Thank Jehovah I had looked at that information and holy spirit helped me remember how to say it.
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| At the assembly hall construction site |
But that's about it so far. Right now I'm preparing for my convention in September and also working on making some adjustments as respects my employment. I'm also trying hard to improve my ministry as well since I'm trying to make sure I'm more alert to when I see foreigners around and to move myself to talk to them. You'd think it's easy but sometimes the nervousness gets the best of me. But I'm working on it. However soon I'll be sending albums of photos of what I've been up to lately. Hopefully you will like them!
Oh maybe you wondered about the title of this post. Well it comes from Jeremiah 12:5 where it says:
If you get tired running with footmen,How can you run a race against horses?
Really one thing I've realized is that if I can't deal with these relatively smaller problems whether it be other people I serve with, financial problems, or whatever other situation it is how can I really hope deal with larger problems in life that are coming and especially the Great Tribulation that looms ahead all of us? Thus in everything I've been trying to stay one step ahead of the "footmen" (stressful but relatively lesser problems) with Jehovah's help knowing that the greater race is to come. Again it's been teaching me that nothing less than 100% reliance on Jehovah is essential for survival. However, I'm glad I'm able to learn this lesson while I'm still relatively young. (Lamentations 3:27)
OK! I've written enough so I'll write to you all again soon. I would appreciate your prayers for Jehovah's continued blessing on my service here since the English circuit here really needs help and needs native brothers in the congregations. I mention many of you in my prayers from time to time so none of you are forgotten! Hope to talk to you guys soon! Até mais pessoal! Tchau!
Grande abraço do seu querido irmão/primo/filho
Chris
Links to my report:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ZBfLAmefHpTmhHQTFEWE9qZGs/edit?usp=sharing
Presentation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ZBfLAmefHpZzJxaE8zYUJfeEk/edit?usp=sharing
