Reaching the Guanano with the Gospel and discipleship is Barry and Denise Spor’s focus. At the beginning of April they visited the Missionary Training Centre in central Brazil. Barry taught a five week module in Portuguese on ‘Church Planting and Development’ to the fourteen missionaries in training. One of the trainees is Colombian!
It was a very fulfilling time as the students were all eager to take in the many principles Barry laid out for them to consider when they would get the chance to practice them! Pray with them that these men and women would have high impact in each area Father God sends them.
Now they have returned to the USA to see Denise’s dear folks and their kids and grandkids. They plan to stay a month, Lord willing, and look forward to this time reconnecting with family.
Two Guanano believers recently travelled on consecutive weekends to where eight new believers live. They have started teaching through the book of Acts for the new believers and others as a part of discipleship. They know that the Lord gave us much more to do than lead people to faith in Christ for salvation. His command was to “make disciples,” life-long followers of Christ. This requires much teaching, explaining, modelling, exhorting and sometimes rebuking. Will you pray for the effort on behalf of the Guanano church to obey the Great Commission?
Barry and Denise share a recent update from their co-workers. “The believers are expressing their encouragement from the teaching they are receiving in church. We are teaching a series of lessons adapted from the book The Saving Life of Christ, by Major W. Ian Thomas. Among the verses, which have had the greatest impact on our group is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Following the book, we have used an empty glove to illustrate what God wants from us. An empty glove cannot do anything on its own, but when I put my hand in it, the glove is capable of doing anything my hand can do. This is an illustration of how Christ wants to live his life in us, and when we agree to become like an empty glove for him (a living sacrifice) we become capable of accomplishing anything the Lord wants to do in us and through us. H……, who helped me in putting these lessons together has expressed great relief. He has grown weary of railing on his kids for their bad behaviour and trying to get them to turn their hearts toward Christ. Now he is giving himself up to the Lord living in him, living Christ’s life in front of his wife and kids, depending on Him to change the direction of their lives. He has seen progress, and he is pumped. He says, “This teaching is like sharpening our machetes on both sides. This is how God works!”
Pray that others will appropriate this truth in the same way.