Ok, so it's been a little while since I last updated my blog; it's time. In my last post I mentioned how a drug dealer from the community had given his heart to the Lord. A group of us went to the community (Oitao Preto) with the group of young people from Acampamento (the 3 day camp focusing on missions).  We went to the community to spend some time praying at the prayer house as well as to do some house visits and talk with people. We were upstairs in the prayer house and Novinho (a former drug dealer who has given his life to Christ), took me to the window and pointed to a man who was working down below. Novinho told me that this guy was a drug dealer and that it would be good if I spoke with him. Novinho went down to talk with him and he consented to come up to the prayer house with Novinho. We asked him if we could pray for him and he consented. We all laid hands on him and prayed for him. I really felt that God was doing something in his heart and so I told him that I felt today was a very important day for him. I briefly explained the gospel to him and told him that he had two paths in front of him that he could take. He could either take the easy, broad road or he could take the narrow, difficult one. He said that he was ready to follow Christ and so we prayed together with him and he committed to follow Jesus! We were excited! Pray that we would be able to follow up with him as it is understandably difficult to find him in the community. Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to work in his heart and that he would grow in love for Jesus.
     One thing that I am also involved in is a discipleship/lunch at the prayer house on Thursday afternoons. We invite people to come and have lunch and then those who are interested stay for a short teaching. One of my responsibilities is teaching at this lunch and we will be going through the book of Luke together. This last Thursday was the first time that I taught and I have to say that it was a bit chaotic! People were talking with one another loudly while I was trying to speak and I was wondering if anyone was listening. After the teaching, I asked if anyone would like prayer for anything and there were a few people who wanted prayer. We prayed for an older lady named Maria and she had a lot of questions. It seemed as thought the conversation was going in circles. We were trying to explain the gospel to her but she didn't seem to be understanding. We decided that we needed to pray for her and so that's what we did; we prayed that the Holy Spirit would make things clear to her and He did! After we prayed for her, she was able to understand what we were telling her and she said that she wanted to follow Christ! Pray for Maria. Pray that she would grow in understanding of God and in her love for Him. Pray that she would continue to come to the discipleship meetings on Thursdays. I've posted a link to my friend's blog. http://kingdomcomebrasil.tumblr.com/post/49482620783/maria-the-one-in-the-red-hat-gave-her-life-to