When Has God Clearly Lead You Somewhere?

Last night we studied the story of how God lead Abraham’s servant to find Isaac a wife. We asked each other to share “about a time when God has clearly lead you”.

A story immediately came to me. Our mission team was praying about where to open our next base. We identified five cities as potentially strategic. Marabá was the fifth city I went to. The first three days we logged 1,000 kms (600 miles) here in the city as Tim Kubacki and I drove every backstreet we could find, talking to people, looking for the right place. I could not find anything that looked like a reasonable place to start a base, or even any place I would want to live. After several months I still felt Marabá was the right city, so I planned another three day survey trip. This time I went with two Brazilian friends. The motor seized up on the truck I was driving. We limped into the city and I found out it would take 15 days to rebuild the diesel motor. My Brazilian friends went back home. I got a room at a cheap hotel right beside the mechanic shop. Then I walked across the highway to the front of the Regional Hospital where some motorcycle taxis were waiting for customers. I asked the guy if we could work out an hourly rate deal, instead of the usual point to point rate.

I think I spent 60-80 hours riding around with Cleudo on his rented motorbike. Months later I came back to Marabá with our car. I could not remember where he lived. I stopped at a store in his general neighbourhood. They directed us to a house of his relatives. Adriana reluctantly squished into the back seat of our car, along with our four girls, to show us the way. When she realized we were all foreigners she was terrified. She could not understand our Portuguese, spoken with an accent. She was convinced we were talking about her in a foreign language. Adriana is now our worship team lead singer.

Every day we are glad God lead us to exactly where we live. We loved Altamira. Now we love Marabá.

Here is a photo of Cleudo, and his cousin, Adriana, at her 15th birthday party, which her family put on at our church last week-end. (Note: Cleudo has five small children. You can see one standing at his feet).