November 12, 2007

Greetings to our Family and Friends,

As may be true for you, our year has trekked!  We take this time now to share with you our lives and work here. 

The apostle Paul asked a question one time:

“And who is adequate for these things?”
(2 Corinthians 2:16 NNAS)

I sometimes ask myself this question because I face some tough situations or feel overwhelmed with responsibility.  I realize that my own resources are inadequate.  Who am I to be looked up to and trusted?  Do I have what it takes to make it?  Am I the one who should be doing this?

Paul also said: “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 
(2 Corinthians 3:5,6 NNAS)

You see, I am propelled into a leadership position in our group of churches.  I would feel more comfortable just following someone else, but here I am and they are looking to me for leadership.  Some examples:

Every Tuesday morning in the nearby city of Caxias do Sul, full-time workers and trainees meet for what they call a forum.  It is a time to work on issues that we face as leaders and churches and to support one another in our common spiritual struggles. They look to me for leadership.  Not only to me, but my presence is significant.  When I put out the idea of studying Colossians together because I thought it addressed some issues that are culturally relevant, they listened and asked me to organize this time.

I am part of a council of four leaders who coordinate joint activities and projects among the churches.

These and other responsibilities I did not have two years ago.  But God has given me these.  And I can do them.  I am able to lead good discussions and teach the Bible well by His grace.  I feel like the ministry I have fits very well with my gifting and calling.  I am comfortable expressing myself in Portuguese with these men and women. (That does not mean that my Portuguese is perfect.)  But without the power of the Spirit all of my own adequacy means nothing.  That is why your prayers for me, and us, are important.  Maybe you don’t feel like you pray as you should for us, but that is not important.  You can take a moment and pray now. That is significant.  The Spirit gives life.

I am so grateful for the many opportunities that I have had so far this year to contribute to the well being of churches and leaders here. I wish we could sit down and have time to share with each of you. But these are some things we are grateful for and see God doing:

Training in How to Study the Bible

Teaching inductive Bible study to people of this education level and culture is different from my experience in the US. We have learned much and adapted much.  Last year we gave a course we developed based on the book of Jude.  This year we adapted it to focus on chapter 5 of Romans and gave it in a one-day module to the folks with the church in Farroupilha.  I am just finishing this course in a five-week format for 18 cell leaders and assistants from the church in the city of Bento Gonçalves.  What a privilege to give skills and confidence to leaders so that they feel adequate to study the Bible for themselves.

Progress in Training Leaders

Please pray for our continuing work to develop a common leadership-training program among the churches. The primary goal of our team is the coordination of this effort among the churches.  Our teammates, Lowell and Kathy, are to dedicate themselves to this project in 2008.

Challenges in Conflicts

I put down in my plans for 2007 that I wanted to grow in handling conflicts well.  So opportunities to handle conflicts have come my way.  It is nice that the conflicts haven’t been with me this time, but I have had opportunities to help full-time workers work through conflicts with one another.  But frank feedback can also strain friendships. Some of the most gifted leaders have the most problems in this area.  However, God uses the weak things of this world and I am one of them.  The Spirit gives life.

Sharing the Faith in an Idolatrous Community

To help you understand the challenges for the gospel in these Latin/European cities, I share a visit to a lady in our city.  I will call her Barbara.  She was involved with a member of our cell group who is a widower with two children about the age of Keely and Caleb.  He had recently broken off a relationship with Barbara because he wanted to follow Jesus with us.  She is very insistent in her religious practices and asked to speak to his leader to argue her case and the case to continue her relationship with this man. As we arrived at her apartment, she gave us a tour.  She paints as a hobby and has made many wonderful paintings; most of them have saints or images of Mary as a part of them.  She also paints little statues of Catholic saints for people to use in worship in their homes.  In her living room, the central piece is a glass altar with a picture of Mary’s face encircled with flowers she has painted.  Mary has a real, not painted, gold jeweled crown placed upon her head.  Many view Jesus and God as distant and uninvolved in our lives.  They believe it is Mary who has the caring heart of a mother who listens to prayers and acts to help. I gently communicated that her beliefs and his are in conflict with each other and this is why their relationship would not work.

We had a good visit and she enjoyed our time and discussion as she later shared in a phone conversation with me.  But she wanted to defend her use of the images.  She said that she did not worship the images but only used them to help her pray to Mary…  Barbara is struggling.  She likes our group, sees life and community there, and wanted to come to one of our meetings but the family pressure against us is so great, especially from Barbara’s mother, that she didn’t come.  

I recently led a discussion group in a full-time worker meeting that was on the topic of how to promote church multiplication.  One of the leaders asked: “Why are we so slow in growing?”  Although there are churches that have grown, overall we face a lot of resistance like that of Barbara, and we have our own problems that keep us back.  We are wrestling before God with this question.  Please pray for us and our movement as we seek to see the churches multiply.  The Spirit gives life.

We long for the Spirit to open people’s hearts to their need and the error of seeking God’s (or a spirit’s) favor through empty human efforts.   Jesus did it all.  May the transformation of this widower’s life be a testimony to others.

Can you believe that the dollar is still decreasing in its value not only in Brazil but around the world?  We have been shocked.  It is now at its lowest point in seven years and continues to drop.  But through God’s provision and your generosity we have had everything we need.  Thank you and thanks to our God who makes us adequate to serve Him.

Love and grace to you in our Lord,

Mickey and Cherie Counter