Chico - The Brazilian

Lot´s of things are happening among us right now. Good and difficult things.

TO pastor a community is not easy; it takes so much from me. I am feeling now that to follow up many members, to walk with my team, to help solve conflicts, to walk in the truth with them, be transparent, make the right decisions, raise support, deal with the devil attacks, to receive their forgiveness (feel free from guilty), to give forgiveness is not easy.

I am being challenged in so many ways. I can´t be the leader I want to be. I can´t be the husband I want to be. I can´t live in harmony with all people. There is a burden in my back, the burden of trying to do all this things. It is not working, I can´t no more try. I am feeling so 2 CO 4.

Please pray that I will persevere and give all this matters to Christ. Pray that I could live the freedom as Jesus said: I will set you free!!! I want this to be true in my life. Free from every pressure of controlling people, free from pressure to perform, free from the burden to ministry or it will never happen (trusting me and my work more than in God), free from my fear of being accepted.

Please pray.

5-6Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we're proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.

read 2 Co 4
If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!

So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.