Still about Brazil

"In simple terms, prophecy is 'hearing' from God and speaking what you hear in order to build, comfort, or encourage someone. To prophesy is to hear from God and speak to men." - from "You May All Prophesy" by Steve Thompson

So, this is a picture of me praying for a young man in the, previously mentioned, red light district of Belo Horizonte. I've been trying to grow in praying prophetically for people. Try not to be freaked out by the term. Like the quote says, its really just hearing from the Lord for a specific person or group and then communicating that properly to them. And, yes, it seems to take practice.

I can't claim to specifically remember what I prayed for this young man, however I do remember a young woman who was very encouraged by the Lord through my praying. I met her one day at a park and had a short conversation with her, but her English was very limited. I remember praying but there was no translator around at the time. I later found out that she was with YWAM, whom we were working with. Once we made it back to the church later that afternoon, we were able to talk using a translator.

I felt like maybe I should initiate the conversation but wasn't sure. It was my intention to explain to her some of the things that I prayed because it felt like there was something specifically from the Lord. I was encouraged when she found the translator and initiated the conversation with me. She told me a few things and when I told her what I felt the Lord had me pray, she was amazed and grateful because it helped to confirm her next steps in life. Praise God!

ps - my strange clothing was due to playing Jesus in a drama just before the pic

As I was saying

Brazil was a good trip. We flew in to Sao Paulo from JFK and then took a short flight to the third largest city in Brazil, Belo Horizonte (in English it translates to Beautiful Horizon). Mostly, we ministered in this city but a few times we took trips out to smaller towns. Since the national language is Portuguese, we needed to use translators often. We worked closely with some YWAMers that we have a good relationship with.

The trip was a busy two weeks with one day off in the middle. Much of what we did was simply minister to the Lord and to people. We were intentional about being in the streets a lot but one Sunday we did a church service as well. One of our favorite places to go was the red light district of the city. It's a blessing to take the light of who Jesus is to the dark places of this world, and to see people change and desire good things from the Lord.

Home from Brazil

So, I'm back in the states from another good trip to Brazil with Street Life. Once again, we encountered a people who were ready to receive the gospel. We did a lot of worship, prayer, and drama on the streets. God is certainly a good God and I'll try to post some more about the trip later, but here's a few pics.

The last pic is a team picture, I think all of us were from NY, NJ, NH, and OH. There are more pics on my Facebook page.