First of Three - Aracruz, Espirito Santo

Hello once again from Rio de Janeiro. I wanted to give those of you who are praying for us a quick update on my trip to Aracruz, Espirito Santo.

A couple of months ago, Pr. Luciano (pastor of the First Baptist Church of Aracruz, Espirito Santo) asked Sharon and I to consider speaking at their first ever Semana Santa (Holy Week) retreat. I began creating, editing, refining and more refining a series of talks and PowerPoints for this event. Pr. Luciano gave broad strokes for guidelines. He wanted me to talk to the married couples about healthy marriages, utilizing some of the materials from Celebrate Recovery and to "preach" a couple of times.

Sharon was originally supposed to present a series of talks to the Young Adults, but this was later changed to working with the children. For those of you who know Sharon, you know that she has a gift with kids. However, for that past 6 weeks to two months, she has had some inflammation in her neck, been to two doctors (colleagues with each other), a couple of x-rays an MRI, they gave her two different sets of antibiotics. Needless to say, Sharon had to cancel her participation in this event. An update on her, no, she still is not completely better. We've contacted the ENT of this doctor team and he is out of town until after this week (we're in the midst of two holidays back to back, Tuesday and Thursday).

Back to the retreat. When I got there it was a great event. I spoke with all of the participants Friday evening (173 people), around 20/25 couples for two workshops (Saturday and Sunday mornings) and then to around 700 for the church's evening worship. There were several who gave indications of wanting to receive Christ into their lives and many rededications.

Thanks for your prayers. Please continue to pray for Sharon's health.