Day 14

Day 14 (Thursday)

Hello Everyone,

“Then he appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons” Mark 3:14,15

Effective leadership selects, models, and releases people into specific assignments. They develop others to reach their potential. No one did this better than Jesus.

Tonight, I saw a 21^st century example of this in Pastor Sammy.

After leading Valcir to the Jesus in 1999, Sammy selected Valcir and Evaldo to begin a church plant in Novo Hamburgo (pop. 150,000) in 2004 . Each week, for one year, Sammy drove one hour away to this city, to form, nurture and develop the leadership base.

I taught in this church plant this evening. What a joy to see that what began in a living room has expanded to a church family of 100 followers of Jesus. It continues to grow under the solid pastoral leadership of Valcir & Claudete and Evaldo & Louvane.

After the service, I particularly wanted to meet the Sunday School Director and take note of the children’s ministry facilities. I discovered that 25-30 school-aged children (those who can read) meet in a big room. This room is divided into a smaller room by a partition to accommodate an additional 10-15 babies & children (up to 6 years old).

The sight of their facility reminded me of the early 1980s days when we began Hope Chapel, and the challenging conditions of our nursery and children’s ministry facilities.

These childrens’ workers in Novo Hamburgo are soldiers for Jesus. They labor in obscurity inculcating the values of Jesus into the little lives with which they have been entrusted.

After we returned home at midnight and enjoyed coffee and conversation with Joel, we were about to wind down. However, around 2:00am, we discovered the live broadcast of Kit’s memorial service, and like all of you, Sammy, Christen and I were more than inspired over the honor Kit gave to Jesus and the impact his life had for the Kingdom.

Jesus multiplied His influence through His disciples; likewise, the lives of Sammy, the childrens’ workers, and Kit are an example to each of us as well.

On behalf of the team,

Jason