My Public Speaking Debut

Today was a great opportunity and growing experience for me. Cassia, our Portuguese teacher, invited us to go to church with her today. When we got there, Pastor Rubens welcomed us really warmly, showing us around the church and introducing us to some of the members. After a few minutes, he said that he would like to give us a few minutes of time during the service to share our story of why we are in Brazil and to also share what our experience was in Mozambique. Normally I hate these things, especially when it is spontaneous like this and requires talking in front of a group of strangers. But, it was something that I did not seek out, but was given to me and really was an awesome opportunity. So, Todd and I got up and were able to share through a translator a little of what we had been doing so far. We spoke for about 10 minutes and then the congregation prayed for us and blessed us. We were also able to speak to a few people afterwards. There was also a visiting pastor today from another church in Brazil and who is interested in going to Mozambique!! The church is going to follow us as we go and said they would like to send a youth mission team for two weeks to Mozambique to assist the project there. It's probably best that this first happened unexpectedly or I would likely never have done it. We will refine our presentation though, as we were asked to speak at another church in a few weeks. This is another way God is really stretching me. I feel like a real missionary, especially when we were treated to lunch after the service!