To the Jew first....

...and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

Not many Jews around to preach to here in Madeira. We've met a few, but only one of those we know/knew is still living here. There was once a synagogue (now occupied at the street level by a dry cleaners), and the Star of David can be seen in the panes of glass of the window on the top floor.

Not many Greeks, either. (None as far as we know.) A news report a couple of months ago, however, suggested a dramatic increase in the population of Greeks on the island: 7 crew members of a ship passing by the island were arrested in the island's territorial waters when 1.5 tons of hard drugs (cocaine? heroin? I don't remember) were found on board. Madeira lies on one of the drug routes between South America and Europe, and law enforcement agencies say that cargo is transferred from one ship to another on the high seas, so that the ships arriving in Europe with the drugs are not the ones that left South America with them.

A month or so ago, one of the prisoners who attends the weekly Bible study gave me a slip of paper with three numbers on it to add to the list I update from time to time as some men leave the prison and others arrive, listing the prisoners that are to be called for the meeting. Although no names were given, I was told that these three are Greeks, and that they speak no English (and of course, no Portuguese), although one of them "speaks a little Spanish".

Ever since then, I have included a Bible in modern Greek and a bi-lingual (NT koiné Greek/modern Greek) New Testament in the assortment of Bibles I carry with me. Monday, Georgos showed up, and he is apparently the one who "speaks a little Spanish". My knowledge of modern Greek is limited to a few phrases, but at least I could help him find the Bible readings as we went through the lesson--just as I help the others find the readings in their Ukrainian, Russian, English, and Portuguese Bibles. There's also an Argentinian with a Spanish Bible, who wasn't present this week, so it's normal to have 5 (now 6) different languages on the table, and communicating even the simplest spiritual truths to men with such a broad range of cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds is something that can only be achieved with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. As a minister of the gospel, like Paul, I am a debtor to announce the gospel of salvation to all peoples, the Portuguese, the Brazilian, the Argentine, the Colombian, the Nigerian, the Russian, the Ukrainian, ...and also to the Greek.

The Week That Was and the Week That May Be

It's officially Monday in this part of the world. Now I can go to bed. By waiting until after midnight, I avoid going to bed twice on Sunday. 24 hours ago, I was still preparing for the messages...and after being away from home 12 hours, we feel like we put in a day's work.

In both morning (English) and evening (Portuguese) services, we were surprised by families who showed up that had not been in services for 4 years or so, in one case, and 2 in the other. They gave every indication of planning to be back next week. Why today? We haven't a clue. God has ways of keeping track of people and speaking to them, when we don't even know where they are!

I have several other things to post, but it won't be tonight. Last week was filled with a bit of everything: a surprise visit by the Consul-general from Lisbon that occupied a day; plumbing problems in the office building where the consulate is--another day gone; various translation jobs that occupied all the in-between moments until Friday afternoon; a nomadic sinus infection that moved from one side of my head to the other and then back again. It may be in transit again tonight.

This coming week should be different: the plumbing will surely stay fixed a while, and I can't see the CG turning around and coming back this week. Of course, there are still translations and sinusitis to deal with. Maybe it won't be that much different after all.

I am a missionary, and today my mission was...

We left home at 10:00 this morning with a mission. Isn't that what missionaries do? My mission for today, however, doesn't read like a seminary to-do list. Right after breakfast I started packing up my toolboxes, checking my supplies, and making the list of materials I would need to complete my mission: 1) Go to Kristjan and Andrea's house to replace a faulty electrical outlet, substitute two desintegrating light fixtures with two new ones, and configure the wireless DSL router they bought two weeks ago, but were never able to get to work properly with their desktop and laptop computers. 2) Stop by the church and reattach the end of the church sign that had broken loose in the recent storms we had. When we discovered the problem a couple of weeks ago, I had no tools with me, so I stood up on the property wall and was able to temporarily wire the sign so it would not flap too much in the wind and break. As long as I had all the tools with me, I would also put a safety chain on one of the windows upstairs where the children have Sunday School. When wide open, the window left a gap large enough for a young child with a small body and an even smaller awareness of danger to lean out of.

Abbie used the time to talk with Andrea and discuss plans for the nursery that is becoming necessary at the church because of all the babies (10 under the age of 3), and plan the music program. At the church, she made the preparations for tomorrow's services, making sure all the furniture and supplies were in the proper place.

Twelve hours later, we arrived home, all phases of the mission successfully accomplished. Now to get all my other tools packed for tomorrow's 12-hour mission: Bibles in four languages, sermon notes for three messages, and assorted supplementary material, musical and otherwise. After all, we are missionaries...every day.

That Night in November

For reasons too complex to go into here, our experiences with co-workers on the mission field between 1976 and 1985 were traumatic. ... I stopped asking God to send anyone to work with us. I told the Lord that He could send someone if He wanted,... but I was not going to ask Him.

It was November 2005 at a Wednesday night prayer meeting... (full article)

(Originally posted with time stamp of March 26, but should be April 1.)