March 28, 2006 - Potpourri

*******************"Potpourri" cliffnote available at page bottom*****************************************************

We've been keeping a list for some time about some of the strange sights that we've seen on our street, Sao Joao. I suppose they wouldn't be strange for the Brazilians here, but they seemed a little strange to our foreign eyes. The horse drawn carts picking up recycling stuff or the people pushing the carts doing the same have become so common place even for us that they don't make the top 5.

So without further a due here are the top five funniest things we've seen driving down our street:
#5. A bicycle with a motorcycle ferrying, headlight, reflectors, windshield and saddle bags all (but the bicycle part) made from cardboard and completely covered in black duct tape.
#4. A muddy Baja, ATV, which by itself is out of place in our neighborhood. But as this one was driving we noticed about 5 or 6 guys all hanging on the back right corner of the car. As it got closer we noticed the weight of those guys propped the front left corner up just enough so the wheelless disk brakes would only scrape a little as it went by.
#3. An entire landscaping....bicycle. This guy was driving a bike with a tiny lawn mower on his bike rack, with a rake and other gardening utensils strapped on the frame
#2. We came out of church late on night to see two guys racing their horses in an all out sprint down the deserted street.
and the #1 funniest thing that we saw on our street was: two cowboys slowly riding their cows down the street. Full saddles, bridles, and all...just slowly trudging along.

Things here have been going very well. It was just the other day I sat pondering all the things I have left that I'd like to do in the church with the 2 months that we have remaining until we leave. And I caught myself thinking 2 months isn't enough time. God has been opening doors and letting us be involved more and more, and sometimes it kind a feels as if we are up against the deadline to get done all the things we'd like to do until May 25th, the day we leave. And I was thinking what a blessing it is to be feeling this way instead of counting down the days until we leave as if waiting for Christmas. God has blessed us a lot, and the weeks and months are just flying by.

In our last e-mail we requested prayer as we endeavored to make a video for the churchs' one year birthday party. It went well, and God was good. It was still a mountain of work, but I think it may have been one of my best projects to date. The celebration was fun and our little church was stuffed, every chair full, and people standing out where the cars park.

This past week we were visited by our supervisors from the US. They came to see how the work was going, to hold us accountable, to give some advice, to encourage us and in general...be a blessing. And they were. It was a little funny at the start because we didn't know each other very well. But it's amazing what 4 and a half days can do. We started off with a little 2 day retreat in a city about 1 hour away from Londrina. It was a beautiful city, and a new place to explore. We then came back to Londrina and for the last 2.5 days did our best to introduce them to not only the people and the work that we are involved in, but also the best places to eat in the city. I tell you it can be tough work, but fortunately for them they had a couple of good tour guides. It was also a time that Marla and I got to test our Portuguese as we served as translators for every occasion. Wow, it has been a long time since my head has hurt like that. But God as faithful and surely helped us when we asked for it. It was also encouraging to us because we could see how far our language skills have come. Sometimes when you are speaking with only Brazilians, you see only how far your language has to go, and sometimes it felt like we weren't making any progress at all.

My experiment in applying the principles of "Practicing the Presence of God" has been going well. There have been days or sometimes a week or so when events or a busy schedule take my mind from this new discipline. But indeed it is a discipline, and yet it is much more. It is a new mentality. And sometimes mentalities don't change overnight. It is a difficult task, to try to bring Christ into everything I do, and sometimes I have greater success than others. But there are moments of success. Moments when I can feel His joy and His peace within ANY situation and thus my resolve remains constant. And I look forward to seeing what this world will look like when I better learn how to see it through the lens of constant fellowship.

One thing that has been challenging me greatly this past month is how interconnected the spiritual world is with the physical world. To be honest, I guess it started when we started to read Frank Peritti's "This Present Darkness." For those of you not familiar with it, it is a fictional story about the principalities of this world, and the on going struggle between good and evil, and how much power is in prayer. The book is fictional, and if read strictly as a fiction, or fantasy can be a nice story. But the book really got me started thinking about how intertwined the two worlds are, and to be honest it's a little discomforting. It's not that I'm now going to change my focus from Christ to angels and demons, but if the battle isn't strictly against flesh and blood (as Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12) but against the spiritual hosts of wickedness are we not even pointing our swords in the right direction when we suppose people's problems are merely physical. I wish to be effective, and if that means recognizing problems as spiritual, I guess that means recognizing problems as spiritual.

We had just finished reading the book a couple weeks ago, and the idea's were still fresh in my head when one of the guys I've been discipling showed up at our gate. As we stood and talked he relayed the following story:

A week prior I remembered him coming to the Tuesday night prayer service to request prayer for his teenage niece as she was battling depression. She was not a Christian, in fact nobody in her family (except my friend) was a believer. Her dad (my friend's brother-in-law), had dabbled in spiritism stuff and was very against Christianity. My friend has been praying for all of his family to come to know Christ for a long time. Anyway, after asking for prayer for her at our prayer service on Tuesday, my friend went over to her house Sunday night after church. She was crazy (actually 'crazy' is a safe word I'm more comfortable with, a more accurate word would be 'possed'). Yelling a screaming. My friend asked if he could pray for her, and she flew off the handle, saying all kinds of stuff. Moments of lucidity would come and go, and in these moments she would say "he's trying to kill me, he's trying to kill me." My friend started praying against this spirit in the name of Jesus, and then he was inspired to go get help. He went to my pastors house, to get backup and recruited both my pastor and his roommate. While he was gone his niece became lucid and said "where's my uncle (calling him by name), I need my uncle." When they returned to the house they prayed over this girl for 4 or 5 minutes and then she became calm enough for people to talk to her. Her family wanted to rush her to the hospital, but before she left our pastor asked her "do you believe Jesus is stronger?" and she said "yes."

The next night my friend and the pastor's roommate passed by the house again, just to checking in on things. And that night; the girl, her mom, her dad and a good friend of hers all accepted Christ!!

It was all just like the pages of the book we had just finished reading. I know this kind of stuff happens in books, and happened in the Bible...but in real life....in my neighborhood? And as you read these words now, you'd be foolish to think these events, that these type of spirits are confined to Brazil or "other" places. As uncomfortable as it might make us, it's time to get our swords pointed in the right direction. As I write this I would request prayer not only for this family of new believers, but for those who prayed for their freedom. I spoke wish one of these guys a couple days ago, and he said since that night his level of temptation has picked up exponentially.

I would also like to thank you for all of your prayers for us since we arrived. As we sat in our missionary prayer meeting yesterday, I was again shocked at the number of illnesses and serious medical complication that exist among missionaries. And we are certain that your prayers for our heath and safety have protected us more than we even know. Marla has had some kind of weird rash on her chin for the last two months. She's been to the doctor, and gotten many different types of medicines. It doesn't hurt, or itch and nobody seems to really know what it is. She would appreciate prayers for that as well. I would also request prayer for me on Sunday the 9th. Diogo has asked me to preach that night, and I'm a bit nervous. As I begin to prepare, pray that God would give me His message, and that I'd be faithful in delivering it how He wants it delivered.

in Him,
Micah and Marla

The attached picture is of Marla and I with our shepherds Jack and Tabby
**************Cliffnotes for "Potpourri"**************************************************************
This email was a little bit all "over the place," but sometimes life is like that.
We started this email with listing a few of the funny things that we've seen driving down the street that we live on.
We then commented on how fast time is going for us here, and that we're feeling a bit of a time crunch to do all the things we want to do untill we leave (as opposed to counting down the days untill we get back to the US).
We thanked you all for your prayers for helping us make the video for our churches birthday party. It went well.
We then talked about our shepherds who came to visit us this past week and our time with them.
I wrote a little about my ongoing expiriement of "Practicing the Presence of God."
Then we spoke about spiritual warfare, and the reality that it truely is, not just here, but there too.
We closed thanking you for your prayers, and new prayer requests. They are as follows:
Continued good health and protection, for a 2-month old mystery rash on Marla's chin, for me as a prepare and preach a sermon on April 9th.
Thanks as always for your involvement.
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