Lemme tell ya how cool God is / Jiu Jitsu is a blessing

So today I woke up sometime around late morning like normal, if I don't have anything intensely pressing that needs doing early, and heated up a frozen pizza for my breakfast and eric's lunch (he'd been up for a while editing some video for the baptist convention on saturday night). I'd told him yesterday that I was going to try to help and stay out of the way as much as possible today so he could get stuff done without me holding him back any.

Post brunch I worked on a "under contruction" page for the portuguese version of our mission's website and later got out of the house with our missionary coordinator Aaron. Not a very busy day but rather typical for the most part. Let me clarify something tho real quick: it may not sound like that's very much for a "missionary" to do, but the way I see it if these websites and videos that we're doing are used by God for even so much as 1 person to come here to teach the Gospel to lost folks then I'm pretty sure we've got a job well done on our hands. Our job is to advertise that "the field is ready" so the sowers of seeds and the reapers of the harvest will know where to do their planting and such (read the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, the part just after the disciples get back to Jesus to know what i'm talking about)

All that aside, at some point in the day I remember praying and asking God to surprise me today. I'm pretty sure it was while i was asking the blessing for the brunch pizza. My collegiate minister Randy, got me into asking God to surprise me, and I can honestly say that every single day I have prayed that God has showed up and done exactly what I've asked. Lemme tell you about my surprise today.

The pre- 7 o'clock pm part of my day was none too exciting and almost a little lazy compared to all the stuff we've been doing lately, but Eric stayed home from jiu jitsu training tonight to try to work on the video for saturday some more, and I decided to go anyway. So, Aaron picked me up down the street from our house and I rode over there with him just in time to meet one of my normal mestre's (Master/Teacher) at the door. He informed me after a minute or two that I would be training sao zinho (pronounced "saow zeen-yuu" meaning alone or with no one else) and that he could call the owner of the gym he was going to work out at to see if I could come work out with him tonight. That sounded great cause I've lost about 20 lbs since i've been here in brazil (i'm down to about 165 lbs) and a lot of it has been upper body muscle, with a good bit of it being lost belly mass. I'll tell yall my secret later :D Anyway I was all set to do that and my mestre Gustavo went inside to call the guy and to change clothes . Well right when he got out another man came into the fenced porch/garage area that I was waiting in and Gustavo introduced me to him as "Mestre Tom" and as the former mestre of the famous Jiu Jitsu fighter Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (a Jacare is like a mini alligator but extremely ferocious). Then they offered for me to train 1 on 1 with him, or I could go work out at the gym... It took about two seconds for me to decide what to do, and I definitely opted to train with a world famous Jiu Jitsu trainer.

So, we head upstairs to our training area which is a room with a metal roof and waist high walls that is padded all over the floor and covers the waist high walls as well. Above the walls are tarps on rollers like they have in classrooms that hold the projection screens except they are about 15 feet long a piece and there are 2 of them on each side of the room. Needless to say it's a sizeable training area and when we get there around 6:45 to 7 PM we normally catch the tail end of a brilliant sunset over the city of Manaus. It's awesome and pictures are coming soon.

We get set up, I borrow someone's Gi, or Kimono as they call them here, we stretch and then God showed up. I realize i'm being trained 1 on 1 by a WORLD FAMOUS COACH. I realize i've already said this and I don't mean to brag, but it hit me in all caps in my head just like that. God was surprising me with one of my most favorite activities. What a blessing. He ended up showing me how to pull arm locks and choke submissions I'd never even thought were possible, new guards like "aranha guarda or spider guard," and so much more for about 2 hours. Then it was time to spar.

This 41 year old beast of a man put a whooping on me like I have never received. It was like Joe Gibboni , Robo Cop, Arnold Guvenator, Michael Phelps, and "insert name" Gracie all rolled into one. The dude is a 6ft 3inch 230 + pounds of muscle, meat grinder bent on the destruction of Winston Christopher Edmonds. I have never been tapped so fast or so many times as I was tonight. I swear there was 5 minutes that went by that he tapped me out once every 6 seconds, and I defended and held off everything as hard as I could.

At one point he said something to me along the lines of "you are the first student I've had that can take a beating like this while smiling." And it was true too! I was grinning ear to ear the ENTIRE time because I was so blown away by the guy's skill both with a gi and later when we did no-gi sparring. It was like if you met DaVinci and instead of him painting you a picture, he painted your face, like they do at the fair, and it was a masterpiece.

God surprised me with so much today that i couldn't sleep until I had written about it. Oh and by the way, I still don't speak very much portuguese, but my entire training session (all 3 hours and 30 minutes of it) was ALL in portuguese and I spoke plenty enough to understand direction, ask questions, and even joke around some. It was like Pentecost meets the Royal Rumble!! Man o man what a good night! I even got to share a bit of what our ministry is doing and told him about my prayer for God to surprise me today, and that him (mestre tom) showing up to teach me was my gift from God. He liked that a lot. God is good yall, God is so amazingly good. ok maybe now i'll be able to go to sleep. G'nite!

Rain can't dampen The Holy Spirit

Right now in this part of Manaus it is absolutely pouring rain.  We're talking cats, dogs, and all of the critters of the Amazon, so since we're probably not going anywhere for a bit I'm taking the time to update my slightly neglected blog.  

I know somewhere there is an old addage that if you pray for rain you better prepare for "something," I think it may be prepare to bail water or prepare for dust, I dunno... Either way my prayers lately have been centrally focused on "doing" more and being more active in the ministry field, not only active with online ministry that I have been doing with some people other than just yall that read this blog.  I've been praying that God really start to open up doors now that I'm getting used to the culture and language a bit more, and since I was "praying for rain" this time I should have been "prepared to bail water!" 

God has absolutely "swamped" our little boat mission with opportunities and things to "go and do" in the community and with the people here.  Let me list some examples: Within the past 5 days Eric and I have met a group of 20 year old breakdancers, "breaky-boys" as they call them here in Brazil, who dance as the Holy Spirit moves them and want us to hang out with them, we've ridden hibeatas (think a 4 seater canoe with an outboard motor) and fished with Riberhinos (river people of the Amazon), we've begun Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school at a local gym and have made friends there, and we're having a LOT of stuff on our plates to do to where we're busy every day with something.  It has been GREAT to see God answering our prayers in such a real and personal way.  

Lately, God has also been giving me the words to speak and teaching me what to say like I wrote about in my last post, but not necessarily words to say to people to make them new believers, rather to chalenge those who already believe and have accepted Christ as their closest friend and personal savior.  I'm not going to get into it now, but I will give a glimpse into where my head is at. Click here -> Romans 10:14-15 and read that real quick.  That was a part of my Bible study the other morning and since then I have been given a sense of urgency to spread that message.

So to recap and your (that means you, reader) prayer assignment: Pray for the Breaky-Boys, opportunities to minister at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, for more interactions with people to teach and fulfill our purpose as "Missionarios."  God is good! and I'm praising Him as the rain is now lifting, with blue sky just off in the distance... Gotta love Him! 

Boas Novas! (Good News!)

Hey all!

I'm gonna make this a pretty short update (relative term with my writing if you haven't been able to tell already).  Tonight we went to the night service at Igresia Batista Boas Novas (Good News Baptist Church)  and it was a really cool time both experience-wise and me growing closer to God in faith...-wise.  Haha 

First off these churches in Brazil are not lavishly decorated or outfitted with particularly comfortable pews, although these had a slight recline to them which was nice.  But the things they feel they NEED for worship are 1) an awesome blow you away sound system 2) a digital projector and screen for lyrics for the "worship" portion of service (ie: singing songs for those of you who are used to hearing it refered to it as something else).  The projector is nice, so atleast I can read how I'm praising God and try to comprehend between verses haha.  

Speaking of music... that's how I knew tonight was going to be a great night.  The moment we walked in to Boas Novas I could here a song that I thought I recognized and, me being the musically inclined person that I am, it was both soothing and exhilerating all at once!  They were singing "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord" which is a commonly heard praise and worship song in most of today's American Baptist churches.  It was GREAT!! Finally, something I could sing in Portuguese that I knew what my words meant as I was praising God, instead of just trusting that He wouldn't let me sing anything that wasn't honoring Him.  Don't get me wrong I like trusting God to do His thing, but I like to know what I'm saying to Him as I'm saying it... does that make sense?  

Anyway we followed up that song with a song that I think is called "Firm Foundation" that I've known since the summer of the year I became a Christian (I was 11, for the curious minds :)  ).

We also sang "At the Cross" (possibly right name for the song?) and Eric recognized the tune and I think I may have heard it but I'm not sure.  It was so great to see these people worshiping the same God we do, singing about Jesus, and just letting the Holy Spirit move them... and none of it was in English! Man, God is soooo BIG and awesome that He's touching lives here on another continent from where most of us experience Him. Think about that for awhile. 

Next came the sermon, which during the first part I decided I was going to just pray for this church, these people, our mission, and my family and friends.  Well God had bigger plans and He moved the Pasto (yes there is no "R" in the pronunciation) to introduce us as "Missionarios dos Estados Unidos" (Missionaries from the the United States).  He had us stand up where we were as he talked about us for a minute and then we sat back down and then got to meet the church during a "meet and greet" portion a few minutes later.  

So, once everything settled back down into the real sermon I decided just to read instead of praying so it wouldn't appear I was asleep and felt a tug to check out Exodus chapter 4 where Moses is hanging out with God via the burning bush.  It was perfect because eventually I found myself reading Exodus 4:11-12 over and over and over.  I had been thinking about how Moses had said that he wasn't a very good speaker and he wouldn't have the words to talk to the people, and God showed me why He had me think about this section tonight; I truely had my own burning bush moment... sans flames.  I want you to look it up and read it for yourself (RightClick this and open in new tab or window) but this is my version, how I felt God spoke to me:

"CHRIS!! Who gave you your mouth?! Who allows you to hear or could make you deaf?! 

Who gives you your sight or could blind you?! ME!! GOD!! (VERSE 12) I have already sent you to Brazil! You're there! I will help you speak and teach you what to say!!! (flip to Matthew 6:25-34 "Do Not Worry" haha)

I could practically feel God shaking me by the neck like they do in the cartoons when somebody is being rediculous.  The language barrier thing is still rough on me but it's been picking up a little recently.  On with the story: Our translator friends Sarah and Rosiene invite us to come eat Acai with them after church and it was great!  Eric and I both took full advantage of learning as much portuguese as possible from them and we had a great time of mixing and matching portuguese and English to make sentences.  So it was decidedly a great night.... and then...

When we got home to Aaron's house that we've been house sitting, our security guard friends were hanging out in front of our driveway.  I guess they were wondering where we were since we weren't playing Futeball (soccer) on the court tonight haha just kidding.  Anyway we said our "hey, how ya doing" 's  and "good night" and went inside.  I had remembered Bill (the other missionary friend) telling us that bringing security guards a coke or something was a great way to make friends and make sure they look out for you as well, so I decided since they were so close by I'd bring them a glass of water each and low and behold it happened; God showed up with what He had promised. Eric threw me a couple of last second pointers as I walked out the door about how to offer someone something (literally last second) and God directed the whole conversation ranging in content of everything from the weather, to where we are from, to whether or not we're pastors or what (Nao Pastos, nos estamos Missionarios: Not Pastors, we are Missionaries) and a couple of other things that I can't remember right now.  IT WAS AWESOME!  God totally had everything exactly how He wanted it and it was great! I had my own little Pentacost tonight right there on the sidewalk infront of the house!!! 

I feel like I've been quiet for the most part this past month cause I've not really been able to speak to anyone that doesn't speak English.  I took this time to listen (which I don't do enough of back home) and mentally take in the people around me, what was being said, culture, customs, places, and most of all with what God needed to say to me.  Now I feel like I've been given the formal go-ahead to talk with people and to really begin to move and do the great things that He's had in store for me.

Two last small praises and then I'm done; tonight we took communion and it was my first time in a long time.  I didn't do it right, if you look at how everyone around me did it, but I'm pretty sure I did it right with God.  

Also, I witnessed about 20+ people acknowledge that they have recently recieved Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  God is so good and it is so great to see Him moving.  My prayer last night was from the song beg by Shane and Shane: "Lord, I beg for you to move. I beg for you to break through."

God said, "I can do that!" and BAM! Prayer Answered.

G'nite!

-Chris