Thoughts About the Rainy Season
Having recently moved to this part of the world, we are yet to get the full effect of the rainy season. When we arrived in Northwest Brazil over six months ago, we were at the end of the rainy season. We experienced the rain every day and the mud that was caused by it. We lived on a dirt road with a dirt yard and had mud on our feet almost every time we entered the house.
Within a few months, the dry season came and we started fighting the dust. You can clean, wash, wipe, rinse, dust, or mop, but when all is said and done there will be a red layer on everything you have just finished cleaning within a couple of hours.
Slowly, things begin to change. Our grass was all brown from no rain. I had not cut the grass in two months. Then just about two weeks ago we started getting rain. Several places around us had received some rain, so we knew it was on the way.
It has rained about three or four times in the last two weeks. The grass is all green, the weeds are high, the mud is back, but there were a few things we did not expect. These things come by surprise because of being in a different house.
The Storm
When the first storm hit, it hit between 3-4 in the morning. We were sleeping quite well until the wind woke us up. Then all of a sudden, we got out of bed to see the rain. I walked into the kitchen and stepped in a puddle of water, as I was trying to get that mopped up, Amanda called from the bedroom and said there was water in there! Wow! Our bedroom became a small swimming pool!
Though it did not rain very long, it took us nearly an hour or an hour and a half to mop up all the rain. We were able to get back to sleep just before needing to wake up and begin our day.
Yesterday, we received another BIG storm. This one we were ready for. We placed rags under all the doors that would let water in. We closed the windows and got out the rags. The wind was once again very strong and blew the rain right against the bedroom window. We were prepared for water to come in, but a little more than expected came in. When we pulled the curtains back, here is what we saw…
THE WATERFALL
The good thing about this last storm is that I found where the problem is in order to try and seal it up. When the storm hit in the middle of the night, I was not awake enough to figure out what needed to be fixed.
Spiritually speaking, we are in a dry season here in Brazil. Yes, we get a few drops here and there, but we are looking for the rain. All over Brazil, in the large cities and in the remote scattered places, the story is the same.
It is amazing to me that we live in such a remote place, but at the same time, we have so many modern conveniences. We have indoor plumbing, electricity, high-speed internet, cars, microwaves, online shopping, and much more. Yet, at the same time, within just a few minutes I could take you to places that have absolutely none of these modern conveniences. There are places near here that you could not get to in a car during the rainy season. They have no internet. They still use they use outhouses and may or may not have electricity.
Yet in all of this, God is to be praised! It is by His grace that any of us lives another day. With or without the modern conveniences of the hour, our Lord is the one who holds the world in His hands. We will either see His hand working around us, or we will face this world on our own and get frustrated, confused, and materialistic about it all.
My heart breaks when I stop to ponder the reality of our situation today. In this day and age when we have the most modern conveniences of any period of time in history, there are more people out there who have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel than ever before.
Truth is, the statistics are even more warped by the fact that religion obscures the Gospel. You can be a part of an evangelical “Christian” church for many many years and never hear the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Many statistics now reflect Brazil as a Christian nation. Just because it is a very religious country, the second largest missionary sending country in the world, most everyone you meet seems calls themselves a “believer”, and a good part of the population holds a copy of God’s Word in their hands, does not mean that they have heard a clear presentation of the Gospel.
“Christianity” and religion have become some of the largest hindrances to the Gospel here in Brazil. In almost every city in Brazil, we are not winning the “heathen” to Christ. We are simply reaching out to nominal Christians who have never been saved. They use the same Bible we do, they use the same language we do, and some even have higher standards of dress than we do. Yet, they do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
The good news in all of this is the Gospel!!!! God’s Word is able to divide asunder between soul and spirit. It can also discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Bringing this back to the story related above, we are praying for rain!!! I personally am praying for revival in Brazil. It seems as though we are in a dry season where many are discouraged about serving the Lord and few are true disciples of Jesus Christ. Yet, if we are still serving and believing in the God of the Bible, then we have hope that the drought will end and the rainy season is on the way!
Please join us in praying that souls would be saved, that people would be baptized, but don’t stop praying for true disciples of Jesus Christ. Pray for truth to be spread and false religions to be revealed.
Pray for us as we seek to reach people here in this part of Brazil with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
— Jeremy