New Mission Trip - Sao Paulo, Brazil

You are invited to go with e3 Partners Ministry as we spread God's glory in the country of Brazil through evangelism, discipleship and church planting.

August 6-15, 2010

Sao Paulo is the largest city in Brazil with over 11 million people and is the capital city of the State of Sao Paulo. The city is named after Saint Paul the Apostle.

While you are in Brazil:
Each day you will partner with local believers to share the gospel in the community in exciting and creative ways. You will be helping to start a brand new church.

Cost $2900 from Philadelphia contingent on airfare
$200 non-refundable deposit due with application
$1,350 due 5/6/2010
$1,350 due 6/6/2010
Cost includes leadership training, transportation, hotel,

meals, transfers, evangelistic materials and follow up materials and funds.

Click here to apply online

Christopher John Carol Wilson chris.john@e3partners.org carol.wilson@e3partners.org

e3 Partners Ministry
600 Development Dr Suite 120
Plano, Texas 75074
214.440.1101
fax: 800.516.2771
1.800.5.i.can.go

www.e3partners.org

It is our last day here in Foz after an amazing celebration service last night with our new Brazilian church family. Last night we celebrated the End and the Beginning, as Chris posted yesterday. We spent the day going back to the neighborhoods and visiting people we met earlier in the week. We spent time going through a bible lesson with them and talking more about their faith and what it means to be a Christian. Our team of 4 went to the house of a young boy we had met on the street when we were sharing the gospel bracelet. His mother was sick and told us he had cleaned the whole house that morning and was waiting for our arrival! He was excited to answer each question with us and excited to talk about what it meant to be a new Christian. He goes to a church in the area but did not seem to have read the bible before. When we were finished, I asked him if he had any questions. He said "Yes, would you like some water or coffee before you go?" Just another example of the gratitude and compassion of the people we have met this week. Although we may never see the people we met here, we know that we will one day meet them in heaven...

Today we took the day off and went to see the Cataratas, the Water Falls here in Foz. I think a picture is worth a thousand words and even they just don't do it justice. What a great way to end the week in seeing an amazing creation of God after seeing God transform so many lives.

Please pray for us as we travel back to our homes over the next 2 days. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support!

The End and The Beginning

It is hard to believe this trip is winding down to an end. Today was our last day with our churches and the last day on the mission field. God blessed us, our national church friends and our translators. Overall we presented the gospel 489 times and saw 269 professions of faith. One new church was planted and one was strengthened. There will be more stories and closing remarks when we've had some rest. It is late and we just returned from our final Victory worship services.

I think everyone had an incredible experience and grew so much in their faith. We ask you to continue to pray for all of these new believers, the Presbyterian and Baptist churches that now have the hard job of following up with all of them and us. Pray that we can come home and be the same bold witness back home that we were here. This is easy. We won't see any of these people ago until we are in heaven. Being bold at home can be a challenge but, it is the calling of all Christians to be a witness to the world with not only our lifestyle but, with our words.

Enjoy the pictures. Thanks to all of you who prayed and support us and enabled us to come to Foz do Iguacu to share the Good News!

Divine Appointments

It is late and we are all extremely tired. This is normal for this time of the week. We talk and pray a lot about divine appointments. These are situations where the right people are at the right place at the right time and it happens so often on these trips. I wanted to quickly share a story about a guy named Rafael that I met this afternoon. The day was ending and we had about 20 minutes before bus was going to pick us up on our work site and take us to pick up the other team. This site the Baptist church is working is people living in EXTREME poverty. These people live off of picking through trash and gathering things they can turn in for recycling. We stopped in to see 2 women who were going through garbage bags and invited them to the evening service tonight. They said we should talk to the guy in the house because he has problems with drugs. Our translator Sandro practically ran to the door to greet this guy. He engage Rafael like I have never seen. He shared the cube with such excitement and passion that I stood there in amazement. Keith Wilson and I stood there and silently prayed that God would brake this man's heart and help him to see his need for Jesus. As Sandro got to the point in the cube for a decision Rafael said he knew if he died tonight that he would go to hell. Sandro asked him if he would like to pray to ask Jesus into his life. Rafael paused, thinking about it. Sandro said in a loud, annomated voice, "This is the day, right now. Today is your day!" Rafael turned and looked at Sandro and said "Yes, I want to receive Jesus". Sandro out loud said "Praise the Lord". He led Rafael in prayer to ask Jesus into his life and we all stood there amazed at what God had just done. I don't think I've ever in 8 years of mission trips experienced anything like it! God is good! All the time!

Continue your prayers for these new believers. There is much oppression here and so many temptations. Pray these new believers become strong, committed Christians.

Sharing the Gospel with 5 Small Beads

Sharon here...Today was a great day for all of us! We woke up to the sun and enjoyed the climbing temperatures here while we began our day in the neighborhoods.

Over the past year, members of our church family at Concord Liberty spent their spare time making "gospel bracelets" for our trip. A gospel bracelet is a simple beaded bracelet with 5 colored beads on them that tell the Gospel story in a simple manner. The story can be easily shared and the colors can be remembered. The children here love the bracelets, so we were very excited when we were given 1,ooo bracelets to share in Brazil! We were also given over a 100 "Book Without Words" that the children at Vacation Bible School made. They are almost gone! Although we were discouraged that the schools were closed this week, we found many children in their homes and in the neighborhoods. Today we were met by children on the streets who were looking for the "bracelet people!" Word had quickly spread that there were people sharing the story of Jesus and giving out a "present" of a bracelet. Children who had a bracelet brought their friends and neighbors to us to show their friends. One child said "Tell the story, tell the story!" to Beth before it was even on their friend's arm. We are humbled once again at how God uses this week and these circumstances to touch the people here, as well as ourselves.

Tomorrow we are going to return to some of the homes and begin discipleship with them. We also have an opportunity to show the neighborhood kids how to play Wiffleball! We hope that the crowd of North Americans hitting a ball around a field will draw people to come and find out more of why we are there. We will use this time as an outreach to those around us. And our kids are looking forward to sharing this "foreign sport" with their new found friends! It is funny to watch them try to explain the rules of the game with a translator.

Thanks for your prayers. We covet them and ask that you continue to pray for our team and the churches that we are working here with. We are getting tired but still very excited to continue the work that we started...

Gras y pas,

Sharon

Day 1 of Evangelism - God Washes Us Clean

It is very late on Monday night but, it was such an incredible first day at both church locations. So many great stories and so many people were able to hear the gospel message and many of them responded by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior! Just a few highlights from today:

- I got to witness to a woman who had been recently diagnosed with the Swine Flu. She greeted us with a mask on but, we very gracious in spending time with us. As we share the gospel and she accepted Jesus she said she felt a great sense of peace. We then prayed over her for healing. She has 3 young children and I'm sure is scared seeing that 10 people in Foz have recently died from the Swine Flu.

- Ian and Aidan were both active in share the Evangecube out in the field today. Not bad for the first day. It great to see two young boys excited about sharing their faith. The young Brazilian girls have taken to them as well.

- Pastor John again wowed the congregation at the Presbyterian church with his gorilla story. It's been a big hit in Brazil now for 3 years running.

- The Baptist church is working in a very poor favella (slum). It has been such a great experience though meeting these people who pick through the garbage and hand in recyclables to make a living. I'm amazed at the children and how incredibly happy they are to talk and interact with us.

- At an alter call this evening a man from this poor neighborhood came up to process his new faith in Jesus. He was covered in dirt and hadn't bathed in a very long time. This man in rags and dirt has now been washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. We ended the service by washing this man's dirty feet. Emotional and Powerful!

Enjoy some of the pictures of today and continue to pray for our team and the work we will be doing the next three days. God is Good! All the time!

God Can Even Overcome the Swine Flu

Today was our day to do evangelism and discipleship training with the Brazilian church members and our translators. We split our team into two teams; one to work with the Presbyterian church in a neighborhood called Morumbi and the other team will be working with a Baptist church in Jargim de Flores. The team from Concord Liberty is working at with our Presbyterian brothers and sisters and the Wilsons, Shelleys, Jennifer Allen, Auzelio Santini and our friend George from Colombia are working with the Baptist church.

Today was a day of firsts. We got to witness our first Baptism in Brazil at this mornings service and take our first communion in Brazil! Both churches are excited about hosting us and to start the evangelism work tomorrow.

When we got down here we discovered that this part of Brazil is experiencing outbreaks of the Swine Flu and so schools have been closed for the last couple of weeks and they are discouraging groups from congregating. This has presented both challenges and opportunities for us. For instance, many churches have not been meeting because of the recommendation that groups not congregate so we are not able to hold as many evening worship services as we normally would. Since the kids are not in school we will not be able to go into the schools as we have in years past and present the gospel to the kids. These are challenges to our normal mission trips but, they have presented us with new opportunities to try some different things. Instead of doing 4 worship services Mon - Thurs we will be spending Tues and Wed meeting in small cell groups in peoples' homes. This is a great time of fellowship and discipleship with people who have made new professions of faith. Also, because of a generous donation we have a whole large bag full of whiffle ball bats and kick balls, etc... to help engage the kids in the neighborhoods we will be working in.

Tomorrow we evangelize in the neighborhoods with our teams. Please be praying that God will be working in the hearts of the people and that many will come to follow Jesus as their Savior!