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 Attentive listener |
 Children's choir |
 Coordinator (driver) and wife |
 Baptism |
 Future baptismal candidates |
Many Dedicate Lives to Jesus
October 10 2008 / ShareHim in Brazil, Sep. 12 - Sep. 27 '08 #326by Charles Haller
Campaign Site Narrative from Aquiraz, Fortaleza in Brazil. The speaker assigned to this site was Charles Haller.
We flew from Cincinnati to Fortaleza on an overnight flight with stops in Chicago, Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Recife. From the time we got up on September 9 until we got to bed late September 10, we had been up for 41 hours. We were so tired that we slept well on the thin mattress on the top of concrete. Our orientation took place on Thursday, September 11 at the Pousada do Sol (Inn of the Sun) near the small fishing village of Iguape.
Thursday night we got in cars and vans and went to see several of the meeting sites. There were 12 scheduled sites but one of our speakers was turned away because of an issue with his VISA. We gave up our support team member, Chuck Austin, who then spoke at the 12th site. But that was short-lived for him because one of our speakers had a stroke and then Chuck finished up his series. The 12th site had to be abandoned. That site was chosen because it was the most remote site.
Our Aquiraz meetings took place in the common area for assemblies at a four-room elementary school. There was a soccer arena right next door to our location. That was somewhat disturbing on occasion. Our sponsoring church is a beautiful structure that was built by volunteers and initiated by MissionServe International. We were helped by ShareHim, The Quiet Hour, and MissionServe International. Our average attendance was 95 with an average non-Adventist attendance of 77. We varied from a low of 33 to a high of 150. We had many children each night, and Mary had a special program for them.
During the last week of the meetings, we had a baptism of five people. Twenty-five were then taking Bible studies three or four times a week. We had thirty-two others who took their stand for Jesus and for baptism. There are two more baptisms scheduled. The first one is scheduled for later in October and the second one right after the first of the year.
We saw the Lord work in marvelous ways. A lady came to me after the meeting on the first Monday night and said she had eaten no food for two days. One of our helpers had brought us two bags of Jambo fruit that night so I shared a large bag with her. The next night we were able to give her some staples purchased from a local market. On Wednesday night, the local church gave away two parcels of food to two people who had attended every meeting. Her name was selected from the basket for the largest parcel of food. She wanted to be baptized at the first baptism but they asked her to wait until the next baptism. She was fine with that.
The first Saturday night, there was a teenage girl who was causing a disturbance during the song service. She kept hitting the boy in front of her. He was egging her on by what he said to her, but she was hitting him hard. I finally reached up and pulled her chair back so far that she could not reach him. Just before going up for the sermon, I indicated to her that she could slide her chair up again and she did right away. But she left the boy alone after that. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she attentively listened during the sermons. She responded to every call whether it was raising her hand, standing, or coming to the front. She filled out all the response cards and took frequent Bible studies during the weeks of our meetings. She was baptized on the final Wednesday night and appeared to be totally converted. Her behavior was so improved and she seemed very serious about her new faith. She dressed like a fine Christian young lady without any of the adornment that she had at the first.
One of greatest problems was to get adequate translators for our meetings. We had seven different ones with three of them totally inadequate. We had three very good translators and one that was average. Our most faithful translator, Eddie, is an engineer and employed by NASA. He is a fine Adventist Christian and is planning on preaching a complete evangelistic series at his church in Fortaleza soon.
Thursday night we got in cars and vans and went to see several of the meeting sites. There were 12 scheduled sites but one of our speakers was turned away because of an issue with his VISA. We gave up our support team member, Chuck Austin, who then spoke at the 12th site. But that was short-lived for him because one of our speakers had a stroke and then Chuck finished up his series. The 12th site had to be abandoned. That site was chosen because it was the most remote site.
Our Aquiraz meetings took place in the common area for assemblies at a four-room elementary school. There was a soccer arena right next door to our location. That was somewhat disturbing on occasion. Our sponsoring church is a beautiful structure that was built by volunteers and initiated by MissionServe International. We were helped by ShareHim, The Quiet Hour, and MissionServe International. Our average attendance was 95 with an average non-Adventist attendance of 77. We varied from a low of 33 to a high of 150. We had many children each night, and Mary had a special program for them.
During the last week of the meetings, we had a baptism of five people. Twenty-five were then taking Bible studies three or four times a week. We had thirty-two others who took their stand for Jesus and for baptism. There are two more baptisms scheduled. The first one is scheduled for later in October and the second one right after the first of the year.
We saw the Lord work in marvelous ways. A lady came to me after the meeting on the first Monday night and said she had eaten no food for two days. One of our helpers had brought us two bags of Jambo fruit that night so I shared a large bag with her. The next night we were able to give her some staples purchased from a local market. On Wednesday night, the local church gave away two parcels of food to two people who had attended every meeting. Her name was selected from the basket for the largest parcel of food. She wanted to be baptized at the first baptism but they asked her to wait until the next baptism. She was fine with that.
The first Saturday night, there was a teenage girl who was causing a disturbance during the song service. She kept hitting the boy in front of her. He was egging her on by what he said to her, but she was hitting him hard. I finally reached up and pulled her chair back so far that she could not reach him. Just before going up for the sermon, I indicated to her that she could slide her chair up again and she did right away. But she left the boy alone after that. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she attentively listened during the sermons. She responded to every call whether it was raising her hand, standing, or coming to the front. She filled out all the response cards and took frequent Bible studies during the weeks of our meetings. She was baptized on the final Wednesday night and appeared to be totally converted. Her behavior was so improved and she seemed very serious about her new faith. She dressed like a fine Christian young lady without any of the adornment that she had at the first.
One of greatest problems was to get adequate translators for our meetings. We had seven different ones with three of them totally inadequate. We had three very good translators and one that was average. Our most faithful translator, Eddie, is an engineer and employed by NASA. He is a fine Adventist Christian and is planning on preaching a complete evangelistic series at his church in Fortaleza soon.