South Africa appears more violent than Brazil. I don’t know about this statistically but I observed a whole different level of property protection. The Bible School where we had the AVLN conference was surrounded by two fences, about half a meter apart. The outside fence is chain-link with razor-wire at the top. The inside fence is 20 rows of electric wire that go right down to the ground.

I went for a walk down the road a couple of miles. Properties are all highly protected with double fences or high walls. Some also have a Neighborhood Watch type of service claiming a 5-minute armed-guard response to breakins. I asked a local about this and he said that the countryside used to be where wealthier people lived, but now they prefer gated communities because these acreages are too dangerous.

Dad had chest pains last Sunday morning. The ambulance showed up in 5 minutes, and he spent much of the week in the hospital. Thankfully he is home again and doing well.

Emma, Via, Anni, and Bella in church Sunday morning. My cousin sent me this candid photo.

Ghibeau is the editor of a peer-learning community of people who are launching Disciple Making Movements. They define a Disciple Making Movement as a group who are planting 100 new churches every 2-3 years, with groups starting groups down to at least 4 generations.

http://www.accelerateteams.org/index.php/our-guidebook

We met for lunch with Ghibeau while we were in Johannesburg. I asked Ghibeau if he meant 100 new groups, or 100 new churches, and he responded like this. “Sustainability is the key thing. It has to be a sustainable, growing movement. So what do you think would help your group be the most sustainable?”

This diagram can be found at

http://www.accelerateteams.org/index.php/our-guidebook

Jesus came as a mentor. Some of us are in mentor roles. We send out TEAMS of two to find People of Peace, to start GROUPS. These groups need to form into GATHERINGS to remain alive. The GROUPS themselves will fizzle out if they are not formed into GATHERINGS (churches). These GATHERINGS are groups of people who are obedient to God’s Word (instant obedience) and they tell their friends (rapid multiplication). The GATHERINGS become resource centers who send out TEAMS that start GROUPS. The process is not strictly circular. For examples, GATHERINGS can start GROUPS or GROUPS can send out TEAMS.

The important thing about this diagram is the importance of church-planting for long-term sustainability. This is our conviction in Brazil. Healthy churches transform communities and last for generations. Our best hope to help the underprivileged is to start healthy churches in their neighbourhoods.

The Mozambique and Angola churches have been asking Brazil for worship and learning resources. These countries all speak Portuguese. Milton and Elba were invited to be guest speakers at the African Vineyard Leadership Conference (AVLN) in Johannesburg with the hope that friendships and working relationships would form. Elba and Milton invited a few others, and soon 13 of us were signed up to go.

Anold from Tanzania gave one of the morning Bible talks. He loved Clenildo’s talk about rural church planting, and we enjoyed some meals together.

Elba spoke at one of the main evening sessions. Milton, from Brazil, spoke at a morning session and did a workshop on Urban Church Planting. Clenildo did a workshop on Rural Church Planting. These messages were well received, and some great connections were made between Brazilian and African churches.

I often dream about our Brazil churches sending out overseas missionaries. I don’t see this happening real soon, but dreams turn to words, and words turn to reality.

Scarcity Thinking suggests that if we used our limited resources on a faraway project like sending a missionary couple to Mozambique, this will take away from church planting in Brazil.

Abundance Thinking, on the other hand, believes that if a disadvantaged neighborhood is pooling collections to help a missionary to an even poorer country, this will spur that church on to do even more in their own neighborhoods. Can you imagine someone growing up in a high-risk Marabá neighborhood sending Facebook or Youtube updates back to their on-fire Christians friends and family.

CLICK HERE to learn about Scarcity Thinking and Abundance Thinking

^{Luke 6:38} “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

“I like this kind of Bible study. What religion are you again?” The guy beside me, who always admits that he killed someone, had a big smile on his face as he was looking at the Bible verses, and then at me. We were looking at John 3:16-18, and especially v.18a “The one who believes in him [Jesus] is not condemned [judged guilty].” The guys were discussing how or if this could be true. The majority of the 25 prisoners in the cell were participating.

One of the guys had a question. “What if someone decided they would like to sin their whole life and then repent and give their life to God right at the end? Would that work?” A lot of the guys thought that was a good question. Some thought that wouldn’t work. Others remembered the thief on the cross. I kept encouraging them to go back to the Bible text, rather than just base their beliefs on good ideas or opinions.

Finally I made an observation. “It sounds like you think a sinful life is better, and you would like to have fun now and then right at the end repent, and get into heaven. It seems like you think this would be the best of both worlds. Is that right?”

There were several cautious nods, and then smiles.

“Well, what sin would you like to do, if there were no consequences on Judgement Day?

For example, what if it was ok for us all to shoot each other when we don’t agree? Do you think this would be a better life? 

No, the group didn’t think that would better.

Or maybe you like to divorce several wives and have children scattered all over without you as their father? Is this your dream?

No. Nobody was thinking that would be ideal.

Or maybe we could all have anything for free. What if everyone could have guns, and everyone could demand that everyone else give them their stuff? Is this what you are talking about?

Or maybe you would like to hold a grudge if someone offended you, and never forgive them and never let it go? 

This led to a big story by one of the guys of a time (maybe that week?) he accidently bumped someone’s shirt, which was hanging up to dry near the shower, which is over the toilet area. Huge confusion. He let it go. “The other guy had issues. I apologized and let it go.” Can you imagine? Twenty-five criminals live in an area the size of your living room, with laundry lines hanging overhead full of damp clothes. It is hot and sweaty. They are there for an indefinite amount of time as they wait for their processes to come up, usually many, many months, and often well over a year. I think this is a crash course on not being easily offended.

My question remained: What is it about the sin life that most appeals to you?

Thoughtful pondering.

I asked a guy sitting out on the fringe. “Which sins would you choose, if you could do them and still get into heaven?”

“Yeah, you got me there. Just right at this moment I can’t think of any.”

Finally the first man, who was sitting right beside me, said, “Well, some guys just like doing bad stuff.”

Lots of thoughtful nods.

“Yes, I believe that is true . . . but is that the life you want?”

I left them with the question. I sensed everyone really enjoyed that hour and a half. I sensed God was present in the room with us.

Please keep praying for these guys.

Deanna and I got home from our honeymoon. That same week we went to our pastors and told them we were ready to be sent out as missionaries. “Wait a year. You just got married. Enjoy life and learn how to live as a married couple.” We appreciated the council and we thoroughly enjoyed those twelve months. The year was over on a Tuesday. We went to our pastors again. We felt called to Mozambique. They gave us the green light to start taking steps in that direction. Over the next weeks the Lord clearly told us in different ways we were not to go to Africa at this time. “Africa will not be what you think at this time.” I remembered a two-year-old issue of Equipping the Saints magazine. It talked about Vineyard churches in the Amazon. I knew the people of Mozambique and the Brazilian Amazon both spoke Portuguese. I talked to Luke Huber and he agreed to train Deanna and I to learn to plant Portuguese-speaking churches in a tropical developing-nation environment. After 10 years Luke said he would help us lead a team of church-planters to Mozambique. That was our plan, but life turned out differently. Luke died in an airplane accident nine months after we arrived in Brazil.

• 1991 – We (Rick and Deanna) were married. We wanted to be missionaries in Africa.
• 1992 – We (Rick and Deanna) went to Perspectives, in Pasadena CA, and felt called to Mozambique.
• 1993 – The Lord clearly called us (Rick and Deanna) to Brazil. We planned to go for 10 years.
• 1995 – Elba came to work for us while she went to Grade 11 high school.
• 1996 – Elba moved 500 kilometers with Clenildo, Angelita, and us to the Xingu River Basin.
• 1996 – We started the Xingu Mission, and we started planting Vineyard churches in Altamira. Our goal was to start a church-planting movement that would grow to 1,000 churches as a first step, and then to pray about next steps.
• 1996 – We gave our Mozambique dream back to God, trusting that He would show us when the time was right to move on. We did this because we were a new, untested, start-up mission, and we wanted to send the message that we were committed to starting a mission in Brazil, and to starting a church-planting movement that would outlast us.
• 2008 – We moved to Marabá to start a new sending center.
• 2017 – “Yesterday we (the Brazil Vineyard churches) became family with the Mozambique Vineyards!” Elba spoke these powerful words as she opened her speech to the General Assembly at the African Vineyard Leadership Network (AVLN, pronounced Avalon) Conference.
• 2017 – We (Rick and Deanna) are still working towards our goal of helping Brazilians start 1,000 churches. There are now 42 Vineyard churches, 55 Vineyard church plants, and 6 churches in the adoption process in Brazil, counting all the churches in Southern Brazil. The movement is growing. Deanna and I are starting to travel more within Brazil to equip church-planters.

Who could have guessed how this would unfold? Prophecy is like a winding trail on a steep mountain range. If you try to go straight from Point A to Point B, you cannot. But if you stay on the winding trail, when you get to Point B you will recognize is as a marker that you are on the right path.

We also connected with the Angola Vineyards during the AVLN conference. Both Mozambique and Angola speak Portuguese as their main language which makes sharing resources easy. Brazilian worship music and our translated and written material will be a valuable resources these African nations, and they will also share resources. Bernardo from Mozambique, for example, is helping to develop a free App for smartphones that has Bible translations, and allows pastors to upload their sermons so people out of town can listen to them.

Church leaders from Mozambique meet with leaders from the Brazil churches. Savimbi (far left) has been very instrumental in planting many of the 60 Mozambique Vineyard churches. His own church of about 200 people does not have electricity yet.

Angelita (Clenildo’s wife) listens to Katarina (Savimbe’s wife) tell about their church of 200 members that does not have any electricity yet.

Leaders / Partners from Vineyards in Mozambique, Angola, Brazil, and the USA (and Deanna and I from Canada) get to know each other. It is much easier to work together as you develop personal friendships.

The Marabá Church had a training event about Discovery Groups. This group is wiser now. They have tried some things that worked a bit, and other things that didn’t work out as they hoped.

Two things I especially love about Discovery Group training:

1. It is easier for the trainer, because rather than prepare lessons, you ask the group to study a certain Bible text.

* What does it say?
* What does it mean?
* How will I respond?
* Who will I talk to about this?

2. It is easier for the group. When someone talks too long (yawn) the group gets restless. Soon there are several secret conversations going on in the background and their social media friends continue to lure them away. When individuals are engaged discovering truth from the Bible with a few friends, the study is much more enjoyable. And there is life-giving energy in the room.

Win / Win.

It is Springtime in Southern Brazil.