I would say this. Planning a church is like going to war. When you go to war, you need
to have all the right tools and you need to be trained because we're starting to enter
in on Satan's territory. And his purpose, principally, is to stop what God is doing,
wherever it is all over the world. Several years ago, I visited Brazil for the first
time and I really felt like on the plane on the way back, the Lord was just saying, I'm
calling you to come and get engaged in Brazilian culture. And before I knew it, I found myself
visiting Brazil several times a year, two or three times a year, and I got set up with
my wife. And before we knew it, we were married. And so this only grew my heart for Brazil.
In 2009, we took a sabbatical for six weeks, really praying about God's direction. And
we wrote down in the sand, WWH, which stood for wherever, whatever, however God, whatever
you want us to do with our lives. And he said to us clearly during that sabbatical, I want
you to move to Rio and I want you to begin a ministry called Restore Brazil and ultimately
in the future to plant a church. So what we're doing is we're planting a church in Rio de
Janeiro. We have been living here for a couple of years and we decided to plant a new church
because we want to see people reach for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there's not necessarily
a lot of healthy churches. As a matter of fact, we're just getting started and it's
a really exciting time for us. Rio is a city that's really moving to be on the global stage.
In 2014, we're going to have the World Cup. In 2016, we're going to have the Summer Olympics.
And so the world is coming to this city. And so we need people from all over the world
serving here to reach people from all over the world that are here. And so there's just
countless amounts of people that need to hear the gospel. And so we just want to be one
of many churches that is making a difference in the city for Christ. God has been awesome
in just providing what we've needed. His provision is something that enables me to wake up every
day and see the sun and have a smile on my face. It doesn't mean it's not difficult,
of course. I mean, there are times where we don't feel like we have all the resources
to accomplish what God has called us to do. But He's been faithful. It's been just a little
bit of a slow dying to self in various areas of my life. And that's been one of the best
things in the world because it enables me to see better Jesus in all the circumstances.
In terms of the church, God has brought a great group of people together. A group of
people who are excited about the gospel that want to see the city change. We don't have
a large group of people right now, but it's a good starting place. And we feel like we
have some couples that just really want to see the mission of God accomplished through
the church. And everyone is Brazilian, with the exception of one American in our group.
And so we really want the church to have a Brazilian face, Brazilian songs, Brazilian
culture, because we feel like in order to contextualize to the culture well, we need
to be a Brazilian church.
What I'd like to see with a Gudejo de Hida tour, which is technically Church of the Redeemer
in English, is I would like to see a church that lives out the gospel. I'd like to see
a church that people are passionate for the things of God, where they're pursuing God,
where they're living in community. I know all these things seem a little bit idealistic,
but I really believe that by God's grace, we can experience at least some of this here.
And so my dream for a Gudejo de Hida tour is that we'd be a church that's for all different
classes of people, whether they're poor, whether they're rich, a multi-racial, multi-cultural,
multi-generational church that really reflects the church at large. Our vision is to be a
movement of churches, because we want to plant several churches in the city of Rio, centered
on the gospel that will transform and restore the city, ultimately for the glory of Christ.
We want to adore Christ in everything that we do. We want to be a church that is making
disciples. We want to annunciar as the gov'z nobis, which basically means we want to share
the good news, because we believe that the gospel is good news. It's not good advice.
And the last part is we want to serve the world. And all of these are things that we
find in the Great Commission in Matthew 28. The Holy Spirit makes a huge difference because
He's our Comforter. The Holy Spirit is the one that actually does the work. The Holy
Spirit is the one that brings people, that gives them a heart for the gospel. And so,
yes, we have techniques, we have programs, we have ways to try to grow our church, but
ultimately it's the Holy Spirit's work. It's the Spirit of Christ that grows this church.
And so we want to cooperate with what God's doing, and we don't want to hinder what the
Lord is doing here. So we just want to testify of God's grace. We want to testify that God
has been faithful. Despite the difficulties, despite the trials, we've been able to overcome
those by God's grace. And we believe that He will continue to be faithful to us. And
His faithfulness is not something that's dependent on Him giving us what we want. He is faithful
because of what He did on the cross for us. And so because of that, we have every intention
to plant this church in Rio de Janeiro and by God's grace to see it grow.
God's grace is not something that's dependent on Him giving us what we want.
God's grace is not something that's dependent on Him giving us what we want.
