Before the Throne of God Above
Above Make Haste to Heal These Hearts of Pain
Lift High the Cross

Before the Throne of God Above

Prayer is an incredible privilege and responsibility of the Christian life. You will be hearing much more about our Brazil Mission Trip, but before all the other stories, is the reality of answered prayer. We know that many of you “prayed us through” our 78-hour trip to Brazil and we believe that prayer saw us safely through the entire trip – including our 17 lost bags on the trip home (they’ve been found and should be delivered to us today!).

In particular, though, I think of the story of Junio Bessa, the 19-year old who had been snared by the traficantes and was falling away from family, church and faith and into the hopeless world of drugs and violence. Last week the prayers of many people in Beaver (and Senders from Oregon, California, Michigan, Virginia and elsewhere) were added to the prayers of Junio’s parents, João and Silvia, and the faith community in Jardim América. If you read our dispatches from Brazil, you know that Junio has returned to his home, his church and his faith. He still has a long journey ahead. Yes, he returned to see his American friends, but it was much more than that. I believe that our prayers were answered, that the “hound of heaven”  found Junio’s scent because of those faithful prayers. Indeed, prayer is an incredible privilege and responsibility of the Christian life. With that in mind, please keep Junio and his family in your prayers (give thanks for Silvia’s abiding love for Junio. João told me that last week was the first time in three months that Silvia did not cry herself to sleep).

Make Haste to Heal These Hearts of Pain

Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life is a hymn we don’t often sing anymore, but its words still speak a deep truth. This is the fifth verse in the version printed in our Presbyterian Hymnal:

O Master, from the mountainside
Make haste to heal these hearts of pain;
Among these restless throngs abide;
tread the city’s streets again.

Of course, an incarnational theology that understands the church to be the Body of Christ, does not look for some kind Galilean to suddenly appear, once again living among us and carrying our burdens. It is now the church, the Body, the community of faith, the company of the elect, who are called to tread the city’s streets and heal these hearts of pain. In so many ways that is what our Brazil mission is all about. It is what we do when we are in Brazil. Literally and figuratively we walk the streets of Favela da Ventosa in the name and for the sake of Christ.
The fourth verse of the old hymn is this:

The cup of water given for Thee
Still holds the freshness of Thy grace;
Yet long these multitudes to see
The sweet compassion of Thy face.

I believe that during the last two weeks of July, warms hugs and gentle touches, plentiful meals and trips outside the dreary city, Sunday School lessons and EBF crafts, all given for Christ, still hold the freshness of his grace. I believe that in the eyes and smiles of the members of a rag-tag band of Christians from Beaver, PA, who bear the names Nancy, Kurt, Alanna, Chris, Annabelle, Gerrit, Cindy, Jeff, Emma and Bill, many in Jardim América and Favela da Ventosa saw the sweet compassion of Christ’s face.

That is why a 78-hour trip and 17 lost bags, lost sleep and dirty streets, the strain to understand a different language and to enter a different culture, mean so little. They are, at worst, slight inconveniences for the sake of the Kingdom. Who can complain?

And, of course, God is hardly done working when he has found ways to use the efforts of our little team. In the deep smiles that break the hold of the sometimes profoundly sad circumstances of our Brazilian partners, we Americans also see the sweet compassion of Jesus’ face – Jesus in the face of those with names like Jessica, Karina, Edvan, Ademar, Vera, Margarita, Serginho, Leonardo, Ednalva, Miguel and a hundred others.

What is our Brazil Mission all about? God making haste to heal hearts of pain. American hearts and Brazilian hearts.

Lift High the Cross

You may remember that one of the tasks given each of our Brazil Team members was to find the person to whom God was leading them to give the purple heartwood cross presented at our commissioning service on July 15. All the crosses were given – in God’s time and to the person of God’s leading. On Sunday we will hear some of the stories of the crosses and more.

We will gather beneath the wondrous cross to share the Lord’s Supper and sing of a love that demands our souls, our lives, our all. Our good friend Robert McDermitt will be guest organist and a couples choir will bring the special music.

I’m eager to see you Sunday!