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This season of thanksgiving, we give thanks to you who support us in so many ways. As Jesus said, "...unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:23-26
Thank you each for being living examples of wheat that has produced beyond imagination!
Jon, Tathiana and family
Rafael and family with our family (my kids have “issues” with group pics).
The year of 2020 has been a strain on most relationships for most people; a dark year concerning depth of friendships. For me, the charge to continue firm in the midst of darkness in Phillipians 2 to "shine like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life," brought me alongside a new friend who has become one of my many "Band of Brothers". Rafael Santos, our local church's new pastor, despite all the challenges, maybe due to all the challenges, is a relationship that has been a blessing to me.
In March, I posted a quick blurb about Rafael officially being confirmed by our church as the new pastor on Instagram and Facebook. He had been serving as our interim pastor since July of 2019, so this was not a brand new relationship. However, beginning with his official calling to our church, Comunidade Horizonte, we began to relate closer and deeper, and even scheduled a weekly meeting to discuss a wide range of subjects from church, strategy, families and personal issues.
Our families took a short trip together in July, and it was great to sit down each night, the two couples, and talk for hours about life, ministry, faith and future! They have let us into their lives with no reservations, and it has been such a breath of fresh air.
I am currently the President of our church's Session of Elders; so our relationship is needed, strategic and purposeful as the Campus ministry and the Church have a direct relationship. But it is much more than that! It has been great to have a new friend, brother-in-Christ, and co-laborer with whom to walk along the challenging road of ministry.
On Saturday, September 26th, I had the privilege of leading the first of a series of video meetings via Zoom with our Campus Staff team and a group of student leaders to dig into a demanding subject - LEADERSHIP. I loved seeing these students excited to meet and talk about leadership on a Saturday morning. Remember, I work with college students, Saturday mornings are rarely the best option, but they themselves picked this time because they wanted to be sure there was no competition.
One student made it all worth it when she said, "I often think of a leader only as those who have a huge impact or someone far beyond my ability to influence, so I had all but given up on the idea of being a leader. But, seeing and hearing that God uses people differently, for larger or smaller impacts, and that a Christian's calling to follow Jesus is synonymous with influencing and leading others toward God has given me new hope in being a leader."
Just like so many others in the world, COVID-19 has not stopped life from marching on, but it has increased video meetings a gazillion-fold. We are no different!
In August, our team had a 10-session Training Course with our church pastor about a Christian Worldview.
Each throughout the month, I have meetings with our Campus team, Leadership team, entire COBH team, bible-studies, workshops and church Elder Session.
In September, our team met for a 4-session Evangelism Training workshop.
Our team has begun a type of group discussion for students who are really asking great questions about Jesus and how He is relevant to their spiritual reality via Zoom.
There is, also, the home dynamic of Isaac having school via Zoom 5 days a week!
And, not necessarily Zoom, but part of our team is taking an online course at the School of Biblical Counseling of CCEF, "Dynamics of Biblical Change." It involved several hours of lecture and reading per week.
Our personal connections have begun to increase as the situation normalizes here in Belo Horizonte, therefore, please continue to pray for us as we venture out, face Zoom fatigue and walk by faith and share the hope and the good news of Jesus.
Next week our Campus Outreach Belo Horizonte team will have our semester planning as we continue to try, try and try again to regroup, reinvent and re-up our efforts to do ministry in the conorovirus reality. At least now we know what to expect - sort of.
Belo Horizonte has had an up-and-down reality with COVID-19, and currently the situation is still far from stable. We are closing our dry, winter months here, so we are still in peak cold and flu season - aggravants in the midst of a viral pandemic. UFMG, our primary campus, was hit hard with uncertainty and limitations during the initial phases of quarantine as a public, federal university that offers free education to its students. Because not everyone in our context has access to online classes, UFMG was simply forced to interrupt activities until an inclusive plan could be put into place for all students. Therefore, since March, all undergraduate activities have been on hiatus. Next week, in August, the university will resume the first semester of 2020 via online and distance classes.
Up until now, the vast majority of our contacts and young Christians had a lot of free time, since UFMG abruptly halted activities. However, we now know that the rest of the year will be a crunch for them, since they will be cramming 1.5 semesters into the rest of this year and the beginning of 2021. Students' free time was a commodity of which we were able to take advantage, but that will soon be in short supply.
We do not expect to be back on campus this year, and we understand our students will have many academic demands.
We are trying to seek God's direction and continue to be faithful in personal relationships via social distancing and virtual options. It really has us depending on God for any and all fruit - but it is still happening! New conversions, Bible studies starting, discipleship groups having the best quality time they ever have had, and young leaders being trained. As you can see in the group pic above, there are blessings in the madness. God is still sovereign.
Video update during continued quarantine about us, Brazil and BH dealing with COVID-19 and distance ministry.
The title is just because what nobody can stand is another "coronavirus update." Truthfully, I've eaten a lot of mangos recently, and I wear long socks everyday because there are mosquitoes under my desk in my office - so there you go.
The new coronavirus has made life and ministry much different than planned the past month. Our reality in Belo Horizonte is much like everyone else's. BH is a large metropolis; therefore, measures have been implemented to make sure the health system is not overloaded. No school, non-essential commerce extremely limited, social distancing - the whole 9 yards.
Personally, it is a challenge with A LOT of time in the house all together. It has been such a blessing to live in a house now, with outside options. The kids are still at ages where they desire a lot of interaction and dynamic changes of what is going on. That's not a bad thing, it's good quality time - but it is a change. Tension can grow, patience can wear thin, and bedtime, sometimes, cannot come soon enough! Our family style and being in ministry give to a very fluid structure, but the current reality has given way to a whole new form of fluidity. It's hard to prioritize urgent demands from the team, online meetings, time with kids, time with God, personal time - some days we don't do it well - and we are thankful for the joy that comes every new morning (Psalm 30:5).
Ministry has been a complete change of routine. It's been a whirlwind of figuring out how to do social distance with a team ministry that is based on face-to-face relationships on a closed college campus. My role is primarily in leading staff and the macro-ministry on campus. That is a challenge when nothing macro is really feasible! But as a team we have had a lot to interact together - because this is just hard. Our team is young, several non-Brazilians, and it's a lot to deal with. We continue to press hard in personal ministries, going deeper with discipleship groups and with students who are already engaged in a personal search for God.
One specific element that has been on my plate is that our local church is on the tail end of a pastor-search process and, currently, I am the church Session President. I am leading the search process and also am responsible for our Session meetings and decisions - and let's just say we have had many uncommon decisions to make recently. There is no game plan to rely on. It is a new way of practicing what a local church body looks like. It has been refreshing, but has also required a significant investment of time and energy.
Lastly, I want to be honest. I am not a fan of online meetings, conference calls and remote interaction. It is ok when needed, but using this as the foundation of almost every interaction I have outside my immediate family is not my cup of tea. But we press on!
Thank you for all the messages of encouragement. Please send more messages and prayers, it helps immensely!
The new year has already been with us for a month. In Brazil, the new year is smack in the middle of summer, so it has a slower pace. We spent January in the US for our vacation time and Tathiana and I spent a week at a “Marriage Intensive” in Rome, GA (ask me more and I’ll tell you all about it). We took our long voyage through multiple flights, airports and exhaustion to get home just in time to see February make it’s appearance.
We are back to our life, poised at the 2020 starting block, ready to start the next yearly race!
We surpassed our Multiples of 40 1-Time Campaign goal! The goal was $10k and we ended the last quarter of 2019 with a total of $11,100. Thank you so much to all who donated and prayed.
The city of Belo Horizonte has been pounded by record-setting rains this month(estimated at 1000mm - 40 inches). The city has regions that suffered from floods, landslides and structural damage that all together lead to over 50 deaths. Everyone is still talking about it.
The kids started back to school already, their school supplies and materials still slowly coming in as we find out what we forgot to purchase or gather.
Classes at UFMG do not start until March, so this month we will have our annual planning meetings, extra time with students who live in the city and special projects that different staff groups are working on (support raising, language classes, leadership team meetings to discuss the year and upcoming changes).
2020 will be the transition year for Pedro Albuquerque to take on the Regional Director role, and I want to help facilitate this transition between Demps, our veteran Regional Director, and Pedro as much as possible.
Our local church will be continue the process of searching for a new lead pastor/elder. I will be involved in helping facilitate this process with a small commission from our church.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we get geared up for the race of 2020.
I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:23-24)
