June 28, 2009

Thoughts on Today's Game

Today, Brazil beat the US in a soccer match. Nothing new there. What is new is that the US had Brazil 2 to 0 at the first half, thus providing their fans with the hope that they might actually pull it off.

This was not to be. Brazil showed up in the second half and showed their true colors, and the US team folded like a styrofoam cup in a microwave. Final score, 3 to 2, Brazil.

A few random thoughts:

Random thought #1: In all truth, it should have been 4 to 2. The ref missed what was clearly a goal by Brazil. I was super impressed with the way Brazilians kept their momentum after that.

Random thought #2: Kudos to Brazilian coach Dunga for not putting any "celebrity players" on the roster. One could argue that Kaká is a celebrity player, but as the announcer said during the game, he doesn't act like one.

Random thought #3: Those horns the South Aficans play make the stadium sound like a swarm of flies. Hope that doesn't catch on worldwide.

Random thought #4: If the US team keeps developing the way they have been over the last couple of years, they will be a serious force to be reckoned with come World Cup time.

Random thought #5: God forbid that the US should meet up with Brazil in the World Cup. I don't know if I can handle that kind of stress.

Random thought #6: The most beautiful of all goals scored game was the second one made by the Americans during the first half. It was a work of art. Don't believe me? Check it out:

Random thought #7: I am constantly told by Brazilians "you have to cheer for Brazil, because you are in Brazil". A quick scanning of the statuses of my Brazilian friends who live in the US reveals that they were, without exception cheering for Brazil. Anybody care to explain?

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June 24, 2009

The Difference One Letter Makes...

Last night I was going perusing my student's blogs, and came upon this post. I know he meant to say "encarnação", which would have meant "incarnation". But he left out the letter "r", and so it became "encanação"--plumbing. Thus, the title of the article reads "The Plumbing of Christ".

Upon hearing of this, one of the guys in the class quipped "I knew Joseph was a carpenter, but had no idea that Jesus was a plummer."

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June 15, 2009

Come Help Us: An Appeal for Northeast Brazil

The following is the transcript of a recording made in 1955 by pioneer missionary Jim Willson. It was transcribed by our colleague Jim Leonard. It is surprising to see how much of the information is still quite relevant to the field today. I am posting it in its entirety, along with a few footnotes.

We are coming to you from the Baptist Bible Institute of Juazeiro,CE. I am Jim Willson, I personally would like to give my greetings to the folks at Everett, WA. For a long time we have had an interest in the Calvary Baptist Church of Everett, WA.

In this photo of the early pioneers of our field, Jim Willson is third from the right.

I’ve been asked to say a few words about Brazil and the need that we have here. If you will bear with me a bit, I would like to tell you a little bit about this country. First of all, Brazil is quite a country. It’s larger than the United States. 1 In 1950 the population was about 52 million people, and at present time it might be around 57 million people.2 Each year the population increases a million. In this country we have about 3 1/3 % Protestants; so you see that we have a challenge before us. 3 Actually we have one of the most open doors that there is in South America. Brazil is half of South America both in size and in population. We speak Portuguese here instead of Spanish, and it is the key country of all of Latin America. And it is a country in which we have the opportunity of preaching the gospel.

The Evangelical cause has grown more in Brazil during the last 50 years than in any other large country in the world. And so you see we have an open door. Our work is progressing constantly. I have been in this state for over 14 years and I’ve seen a great deal of progress during that time. And yet even with all of this progress we have a real challenge before us. Actually here in the state of Ceará which is about the size of Illinois, and has a population of about 3 million people, but here the percentage of Protestants is less than 1%. There are about 54 cities in this state of over 2000 people, and I would say that perhaps we do not have the Gospel in 10% of them.

So, we have a real challenge before us. But it isn’t an easy challenge. Our work here in Brazil is much like that in the United States. We do not need specialized missions so much as we need young people who have the courage and the ability and the stability to stay with a job that’s very difficult. The job that we have is this: you go into a town where there are no believers more than not, and that is a town in which you are to bring an evangelical church into existence. And that isn’t easy. You live alone, you speak a foreign language, you live with a foreign people, you have to become accustomed to foreign customs. And the job of winning Roman Catholics is not exactly an easy job; although it is not as difficult as many people think, because the Roman Catholic accepts the Bible, and yet he’s a long ways from the Bible. And if he can be introduced to the Bible, in time he either becomes an indifferent Catholic, or a convert to the Gospel. Many times we find that missionaries have a very difficult time here. It isn’t the case of the climate. You can find any climate you want in Brazil. As far as I’m concerned, the climate is better than what you’d find in the United States. Here in Ceará we have what I would consider almost an ideal climate. So it isn’t the case of climate. But it’s the case of a past that’s difficult. I would say that the characteristic that a missionary should have would be that which would make of him a good pastor in the United States. Because much of his work is that type of work, of bringing churches into existence and making grown and prosper. Let’s remember this one thing about this vast country: that it receives very little emphasis from the evangelical cause. 4 We, our missionaries of Mid-Missions, outside of the possible exception of Japan, Brazil is the most important and the largest mission field that Mid-Missions has today. We are not the only missionaries in Brazil. But nevertheless we have here close to 60 million people, and yet we receive relatively few missionaries; very few, in fact. And we need missionaries. It isn’t that the church here doesn’t have a certain amount of power. But it’s that the time is short. We never know how much time we’re going to have. And when the door is open we should make use of an open door. And the country is so vast that the national church needs help in this expansion program and that is the thing that we can offer them.

We have a school here in Juazeiro; really we have three schools. We have a primary school, a prep school, and a Bible School. We have in the 3 schools between 40 and 50 young people. And our job is that of preparing young people for His ministry. And we’ve had many a blessing in this work, and we have seen that consolidate the work that missionaries have done in this state. And so here in the State of Ceará we have seen the work of the Lord go ahead. At the present time we are opening up churches in five different cities. We have churches in four different cities. And we have a few more missionaries to come, perhaps even this year to open up work in this state, and yet, it isn’t only this state in which we find interest. We would like to have some older missionaries that we could take from this state and open up work in neighboring states.

Because here in Brazil we are starting a new movement, that of the General Baptist of Brazil, a movement that would compare to the General Association of Regular Baptists in the United States. And so we would ask your prayers and your help, and we’d ask the interest of you young people here in this cause.

Editor´s Note:

If you are a young person interested in meeting this new-old challenge, please contact me. You can also join a Facebook group that we have set up specifically for those interested in serving with us here in northeast Brazil.

1. Brazil is larger than the "lower 48".
2. Now around 180 million.
3. For the current numbers, see here.
4. While there was an upswing in missions after this, the pendulum has swung back the other way in the last decade. If anything, Jim Willson's appeal is much more urgent today than it was in 1955.

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June 8, 2009

A Little Time Travel

By my calculations, Itacyara and I are part of the third generations of BMM missionaries to serve in this part of Brazil. It is always helpful to me--especially when I am tempted to think that times are tough--to go back and look at how the first generation lived and worked.

Recently Philip McLain--son of Guy McLain, one of those first-generation pioneers--posted some great pictures of those days on his Facebook page. He has graciously granted me permission to reproduce them here.

Let's start with this picture of the Fortaleza Academy as it looked in the 1960s. This was a school started by our missionaries to meet the educational needs of their children. Missionaries from all over Brazil would send their kids (even elementary-age!) to Fortaleza so they could get a good education.

With the development of home-schooling materials and the evolution of the Brazilian school system--not to mention the diminishing number of missionary families with school-age children--Fortaleza Academy has gradually outgrown it's usefulness. It is currently holding it's last semester of classes.

What amazes me about the picture of FA is how much the area has changed. The picture above shows how that neighborhood looks now.

Speaking of schools, this is a Christian school started by the first missionaries who came to this region. One of it's main purposes at that point was to complete the primary education of young men who came from the interior to study at the seminary.

And this is the Colégio Batista as it looks now.

While most of our churches now have baptistries, we still have the occasional outdoor baptism, like the early one shown here. One of the nice things about Brazil is that baptisms like this can be conducted year-round.

And here is a "baptism" of another kind. According to Philip, this was his father's Chevy Carry-all, on the way to Varzea Alegre. This trip now takes a little more than an hour. I wonder how long that one took?

I am going to stop for now, but there are more pictures on their way, and I will be sure to post them here from time to time.

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May 27, 2009

Pacifist vs. Peaceful

A few days ago one of our missionaries was driving to the church where she works, when she heard two loud explosions close by. At first she thought they were fireworks, but then she noticed that all the pedestrians were quickly clearing the street. A lady on the sidewalk grabbed her baby from its stroller and ducked into the nearest house, leaving the stroller on the curb. Suddenly, our missionary colleague noticed a man running in her direction. She had to swerve to miss him, and as he went by she saw that he was carrying a pistol. Later she found out that what she had witnessed was the robbery of a gas station, during which there was at least one fatality.

In the Grangeiro neighborhood of Crato--our city--the husband of one of the members of our congregation was walking home at night. Without warning a man jumped out of the shadows behind him and hacked at his head with a short sickle, nearly decapitating him.

Every week we hear accounts like the ones above. Things like this make me look askance when Brazilians insist that they are a "pacifist" nation. While this may be true in terms of external policy, it has not translated into Brazil being a peaceful nation.

I have been thinking much about this recently, ever since speaking at a conference where the theme was decidedly military (and, to be fair, the ones who came up with the theme and invested heavily in making it work were the Brazilian young people of the church). There is a decided hesitation on the part of Brazilian believers to use military analogies or speak of Christian warfare.

As I told the young people, you can be pacifist in your politics if you want, but you cannot afford to be pacifist in your spiritual life. Our enemy is not pacifist (I Peter 5:8), and neither is our Commander. The Old Testament--which is for our example and edification--is full of accounts of God's people going to war against His enemies. Christ said that he came to bring not peace but a sword (Matt. 10:34). In these New Testament times we no longer take up the sword against God's earthly foes, but that does not mean the war is over. If anything, it has intensified, because now our fight is against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Eph. 6:12), and against our own flesh (I Pet. 2:11). We also know that true peace will only come once Christ has won the final victory over His enemies--peace through superior firepower, if you will.

Mark Driscoll once said "If you are a pacifist, that's ok. Those of us who aren't have got your back." That pretty much sums up my politics. It is interesting to see how a pacifist philosophy has wreaked havoc on Brazilian society. Take, for example, the local supermarket (think Wal Mart) which, upon catching a shoplifter, politely asks them to return the items and then lets them go their merry way. This is because if they were to prosecute they would risk reprisals from the criminal element. So they are reduced to negotiating with the bandidos.

The result of this philosophy is not peace. Rather, it is a population that lives in fear of the criminal element.

I am much more concerned, however, that we as Western Christians (not just Brazilians) have lost our battle-mentality. It is time for us to stand up, suit up (referring to Ephesians 6, not suits and ties), and step up to the front lines. The only peace in this war comes through victory, and there can be no negotiation with the enemy.

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