Tag Archives: Move

Only in Brazil

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It never ceases to amaze me how God is in control of every single aspect of our lives. We do not understand His ways, His motives, His thoughts, or His methods of getting things done. We always look at life from a selfish perspective. However, God is always looking from a heavenly perspective.

Here is our situation. Because these kind of things do not normally happen in this way I thought it would be interesting for many of you to read this and better understand our lives as missionaries.

Here is the situation with our move to Porto Velho…

1. About a week ago we purchased tickets for flying to Porto Velho tomorrow morning. We were not sure when our moving truck was going to show up and so we had to wait until then to purchase tickets. We were told that the truck would arrive on Wednesday. Having complete peace about the situation, we went ahead and purchased the tickets.

2. The truck we are getting is not a normal truck for a move. It is a meat truck. What does that mean? That means we decided to get an air conditioned truck for our move! The inside will probably be a little different than the regular truck you might expect. So we will be sending a different herd on this truck. We will be sending a herd of boxes and furniture on this ride! The reason we chose this ride is because it is nearly $5000.00 cheaper than any other moving truck we could find.

3. The truck was supposed to be here yesterday. It is already getting late in the day and we still have no word on the truck. It wouldn’t be a very bad situation if we were not leaving at 7:30am tomorrow. Other than the truck not being available yet, there are restrictions on trucks and when they can be on certain streets. Remember we are in Brazil. To get to the house we are loading from, the truck will probably need to wait until late in the evening. The roads that block the entrance cannot be accessed by trucks between 5am and 9pm.

4. We have not yet sold our car. We are planning to take it on the truck with us. The problem is that we are not sure that it will fit on the truck with all of our belongings. We have a 40′ truck coming. However, we have our move, the Kokenzies’ belongings and a few other things for another missionary up in the area. The other issue is, “How do you load a car into the back of a meat truck?” My first thought would be to back it up to a dock, right? Well, I have not to this moment been able to find a dock. So, my next thought was we get it onto a hydraulic lift at a mechanic shop or something like that. Being in São Paulo, there are not many truck stops around. The closest ones I can find are not anywhere within reasonable range. So we have finally found a solution that will work. I will call a tow truck to lift my car. Then I will drive the car off the back of the tow truck and onto the meat truck!!!

5. Because of our move we decided that we would go to church on Wednesday evening if the truck did not come. We usually go to church on Thursday evening. We decided to go to a church that we have been to several times before. The pastor is a friend of mine and when we prayed together during the service, he asked me to give a testimony about our move to Porto Velho. There were probably about 20 people there including my family and my parents. One of the 20 was a young man who was just visiting the church. He had been doing some business in the area and when church time came he decided to make a visit. After church, the young man came to me and explained that his father was a missionary in Porto Velho for 8-10 years. He explained how he had grown up in that town and remembered many things from his youth there. His father worked with the missionary who will be picking us up at the airport. What a blessing! Looking back, we can see how God orchestrated all of this.

With all of these things in play, what will be the result? Will our truck come today? Will we be forced to load the truck all night before leaving at 7:30 in the morning? Will the car fit on the truck? Will we need to leave anything behind? Will the Lord come back before morning?

With many questions on our mind, we are looking to the Lord and encouraged about all of it. We have placed our confidence in the promises of God and we KNOW that He is in control of all of it. I will post next week on the outcome of all of these things. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures of this truck and move.

“Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.”

Proverbs 16:3

— Jeremy
Posted in Ministry, Old Blog

The Big “Phase Two”

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What is God doing in our lives at this point? God is leading us to His side! We are trying to be sensitive to His leading. Please pray for us. Our future is in the hands of the Lord.

Here is what we know of our near future:

1. We move out of our present house here in São Paulo by the 7th of July. By this time, all of our belongings will need to be stored for the next six months. A month ago we thought we had until September, but the Lord has chosen to move us before then.

2. We will be moving into the house of some of our friends who will be traveling for a few months. This relieves us from rent for a few months and helps them at the same time.

3. In September we will be going to the US until December. We will be scheduling meetings during most of that time. We have been in Brazil for over two years, but because of the timing, we believe it is the Lord’s will for us to return to the US and report to churches before our next move.

4. Upon our return to Brazil around the new year, we will gather all of our belongings and place them in a truck that will move our things to Rondônia. Our plans are to arrive in Rondônia in February. This is a 2,000 mile move across the country. We are not sure about all the details of our arrival there, however, we are trusting the Lord to work everything out.

We are looking forward to being with all our loved ones and family here in the near future. Although this may seem strange, Brazil has become our home and we are even a bit nervous about returning to the US. Many questions arise in our minds… Will people still be the same? Have churches changed? How will we be treated? Yet, these questions are not the largest part of our concern. We wonder how we can help people and encourage them to follow the Lord during this short time that we are back in the US.

During the last two and a half years living out of the US, we have changed quite a bit. The Lord has taught us the importance of leaning on Him. When no one else is around and when no one else knows what we are going through, God is all we need. We can be steadfast and unmoveable because the Lord is with us. He has not put us out here all alone. He has accompanied us. Amen!

We are very excited about our future. I like to call our work in Rondônia “phase two” in our ministry. We have many second phases in our ministry, but this one is the big second phase. We will soon be moving into church planting and using all the resources we have been able to gather over the last few years. So far everything has been preparation.

Please continue to pray that the Lord would lead us, supply the necessary resources for the tasks ahead, and help us to trust Him every step of the way.

— Jeremy

Posted in Furlough, Ministry, Old Blog