Brazilian Missionary Bernardo Craesmeyer

[0:00] while you were here for several days, and she was away, and she just turned her home over to them, and they enjoyed the comforts of that, and it worked out really well, and we got to meet a number of the children as well.

[0:13] So, unfortunately, they are not here today, but Papa is, and we are grateful for Bernardo's presence. As I mentioned earlier, we learned just recently that he was going to be in the area.

[0:27] He is here to fulfill a visa obligation with the U.S. government, and it requires him to be in the country for a certain period of time every so many years, and that's why he is here now.

[0:39] So we just learned of his presence, and we could not pass up the opportunity of his being with us and not have him address you this morning, because I know he has a number of things on his heart, and I know the needs in Brazil are very great as well, so we're going to ask him to come and relate to you what the Lord has given to him, and don't hesitate to move up closer if you want to see the pictures, get a clearer image of the pictures when he begins showing those.

[1:10] So, Bernardo, our time is yours. Thank you for being here, brother. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to start today singing a song in Portuguese that some of you may know.

[1:42] Not in Portuguese, of course. The thing is that Brazil is a big country in South America, and we speak Portuguese there.

[1:57] Many people think that we speak Spanish. This is true for all the other countries in South America, but not Brazil. Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese, and that's what the language is there.

[2:10] So, if you want to go to Brazil, don't even think. If you're going to speak Spanish there, people will understand, especially with an English accent, and they don't get anything.

[2:22] So, go prepared. But it's important for us to understand that once you go to a country that speaks Portuguese, we have to have everything in Portuguese there.

[2:35] So, most of the songs, beautiful songs you'll know in English here, I spent many, many hours translating and making new versions in Portuguese.

[2:47] This is not one. This one they already had. Somebody else did. The Peace of God. You recognize that.

[3:02] You recognize that song when I play. And the people really like that song down there. The Peace of God.

[3:37] The Peace of God.

[4:07] The Peace of God.

[4:37] The Peace of God. The Peace of God.

[5:07] Do you remember that song? Heavens came down. And that's true.

[5:18] And that's true. That's completely true. It's so wonderful to know that we have peace in our hearts. How wonderful. I do have several pictures to show you.

[5:29] I do have several pictures to show to you. Those people that are 100 miles away from me. I can barely see their faces.

[5:39] So I know you're not going to be able to see the pictures. So I know you're not going to be able to see the pictures. So there's a lot of room here in front that you can move over. Don't be shy. And I do have a book here.

[5:49] And I do have a book here. And I do have a book here that after the service, if you would like to pick. In this book, you can see pictures of the place where we live down there. It's a beautiful countryside.

[6:02] We live by the ocean. We have really wonderful, wonderful cities. Like, Jorge lives in this city here. It's called Cambodio.

[6:13] And we have beaches all over the place all the time. So if one of these days you are interested in going to visit Brazil, I'd like to encourage you to come and see and be with us.

[6:30] Spend some time down there. Some people always think that it costs many thousand dollars for going overseas. But Brazil is one of the countries that is still very low.

[6:42] Like, you can start with eight hundred fifty dollars for a round trip ticket down to Brazil. And once you are there, we will take care of you. The churches are very friendly, very hospitable.

[6:54] I promise you that I can take you and stay in a beach house for free. And with food in the refrigerator and everything. And you're going to enjoy.

[7:05] Because I know that people there are very, very friendly. And especially our people that are saved and understand the grace of God. They are very special for me.

[7:17] So they always say to me, If you meet anybody in the States that are willing to come down, just invite them or we will be glad to help them. So you just have to learn a little words in Portuguese.

[7:29] But we do have seven very good interpreters down there. My kids, my boys, and also some of the other people from the church that can work as interpreters. So I really like to start with that invitation.

[7:42] Maybe you like to see the mission field a little closer. And see what we are doing among the people in Brazil. And of course, like the pastor said, he wants me to share about our financial needs.

[7:55] And I hate to do that. Because one of the, my biggest concern when I came to work with the mission was to be, to live under offerings.

[8:06] That was pretty, I'm humiliating. And it was not easy for me to accept that. Especially because I can work with my arms and do several jobs.

[8:18] So I'm not handicapped or anything. So it's difficult to live under offerings. But we accept that. And I learned that this is, this is the reality of the body of Christ.

[8:32] Everybody working together. And this, and many times when I came to the States, I want to make sure that the church supply for their pastors.

[8:43] This is something very important. Because the pastor, he is the one who's being used by God to share the word with you.

[8:54] To bring the heavenly blessings to your life. And so God wants them to be also blessed with the physical blessings. After, when you were, you do well supplying for the needs of your church.

[9:07] And if you do have some still desire to be involved in the mission work, then you are open to do that. Because I usually don't like to accept offerings for people that participate in churches where they don't supply for their pastors.

[9:23] I always want to make that sure, clear. Why? Because we do have needs. We know that. And the Lord has been supplying our needs.

[9:34] But the situation in Brazil has been changing over the years. And now it's especially difficult for the missionaries. Because now we have to work many times full time in order to continue going to share the gospel.

[9:53] For you to have an idea, the gasoline prices in Brazil are high here, right? How much it costs? Over $350 again or something like that.

[10:04] What about paying $7 a gallon? You like that idea? Well, we don't like it either. But that's still in Brazil. That's about the much money we pay for a gallon of gas in Brazil.

[10:18] And even sometimes $8, depending on the area. So, well, but you have the ethanol. Yes, we have the ethanol. But that costs the same. Almost the same.

[10:29] So, that makes difference. So, then you also can say, well, you have the natural gas. I heard it in Brazil. They use the natural gas for the cars. That's also true. My car is a natural gas powered by.

[10:40] But they have been raising the natural gas prices, too. So, it doesn't. We're trying everything in order to save money. And Brazilian government, they really don't care about their people.

[10:53] So, I know that the Brazilian suffers. But because we have our, I mean, the money that comes down from us for our needs come from America.

[11:05] And the dollar exchange rate changed from 4 to 1.5. That means we used to have 4 units of our money from $1.

[11:16] Now, we only get 1.5, 1.5 for the same dollar. So, in the last years, our income reduced more than half.

[11:28] Our needs didn't change. So, we, Pastor asked me to share with you about our needs. The problem will happen that I have to go back to work.

[11:40] And I do construction jobs. And in Brazil, it's different than America that you work a lot with wood. And you have all those special tools for doing that.

[11:51] I have been seeing those people working in Brazil, working here in America in construction jobs. And they're not easy. It's hard work. And Brazil is even worse. Because we don't have air conditioning.

[12:02] We don't have, it's a hot country. It's a tropical country. And we have to work outside with, and very, very harsh, you know, high temperatures and sometimes very low in the winter.

[12:17] And we don't have heaters and things. I know that in Brazil, it's a little harder to work. And worst of all, the labor, they don't give much value to your labor.

[12:34] So, you work hard. Like a teacher in Brazil, they, in many places in Brazil, they, you get something like $200, $250 a month for leaving.

[12:46] Can you live in $250 a month? So, then the teachers, in order to get a little bit more money, so they get 40, 40, 50 hours a week of work in order to get a little bit more.

[13:01] And then they also have some extra job sometimes. So, it's not easy. So, if you go do labor, kind of like construction work, that's pay even less.

[13:12] So, even though I am, I'm having extra jobs, they don't pay much. So, we're still struggling. And Carol is also, Carol is teaching English almost the whole day and to help.

[13:25] And I'm working with construction besides going to the Bible studies every night. So, we have Bible studies every night in different cities, different places.

[13:36] And we have to move over there to go. And some of the churches, they start helping with the gas because they knew I couldn't make it. But that's not the only thing. When you ride a car, the car, you know, after using the car for so many miles, we can't buy new cars because in Brazil, the cars, they taxed the car over 70% of the value of the car's taxes.

[14:03] So, when you buy a car here in the States for $20,000, in Brazil, you're going to pay $50,000. If you buy a car here, $30,000, in Brazil, you're going to pay $60,000 to $70,000.

[14:15] For the same car. And so, in Brazil, they make cheaper cars than here with less things, you know, no air conditioning.

[14:27] And that's the kind of car we have. So, it's difficult. My car is a 1995. And Carol needs also a car.

[14:37] And she has a car. It's a 1998. I give the best to her. She deserves that. Yeah. And we, we, and those cars, being old, they give a lot of maintenance.

[14:49] So, that's, we, once we can't have, we can't buy a newer car, that's the way we do it. So, here, even here in the States, my car is a 1997.

[15:00] It's a Mercury Tracer. The air conditioner is broken. The speedometer is broken. And the two, two springs in the back are broken. And so, this is the way I ride, you know, by faith.

[15:12] You know, we never know what's going to happen. And just in, and I, not having the speedometer, the gears doesn't change in the right time sometimes, you know. So, you have to just kind of, kind of go wiggling a little bit sometimes.

[15:26] And, and then you have to go with the average, you know. You just look around to see, see what is the speed. You see the speed lid, but you don't have a speedometer. So, I have to look around and see the people.

[15:38] Well, everybody's going that, so I'll go a little slower. You know, just to make sure that I don't get a ticket. Because I'm not from the country, so if I get a ticket, this is too much problem for me.

[15:50] So, I thank the Lord all those years that I came to the States and I never got any ticket or anything. So, I'm fine. I'm clear. But, those needs, we really like to, if you do have something in your heart, you like to be part of our mission.

[16:10] To be part in the, reaching the gospel, reaching to Brazilian to the gospel. It's, this is a good time. This is a good opportunity for you to be part of our ministry.

[16:20] And, of course, I have been visiting a couple churches and they have been excited about the things that are happening in Brazil.

[16:31] And, I'm very excited too. Because, right now, we are starting our fifth church in Brazil. We have been working in the past and we established three churches.

[16:42] Terry, our third son, he is the pastor of the, one of the churches down there. Paul is working as a missionary also in northern part, not northern part of Brazil.

[16:55] It's still... ... ... ... ...

[17:06] ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

[17:30] сам ... When I met Carol, I met the Lord.

[17:46] She was saved, and she doesn't want to have anything to do with a man that didn't know the Lord. So she made that plain, nice and clear. So I went to talk to her dad, and her dad led me to the Lord.

[18:00] But she still doesn't want to do anything with me, because she wants to make sure that I was not just going after her. So as the years went by, I started going toward, and then she finally said yes.

[18:15] And then we married, and then we have seven boys from that relationship. And we are very happy with those boys. And we are very happy because many years later we found a parenting course.

[18:30] It's called Grandkids God's Way. And we went through, and that really improved the way we parent. And our boys became very, very special, and they are all involved in the ministry that we have.

[18:45] If they are not playing, you know, we use guitars in church. So we love to have pianos, but they cost too much for us. So we just use the guitars to play in church.

[18:56] So you're going to see some of the pictures with the boys playing. So they help a lot in the music. We sing together along. And when I saw this group of people singing here in front, this reminds me, that's me and my boys.

[19:12] We always do that. We get together and we sing to help everybody sing. And so Joaj has a powerful voice. Also Kevin.

[19:23] Kevin is very strong in his voice. He helps a lot with our ministry. So Paul is completely involved with the mission, but he doesn't get any support.

[19:35] Because he was not able to go to a deputation when he was here in the States. And he wants to come after he was married, and he was never able to get a visa from Mariana.

[19:45] He tried three times now. And the last time was now in March, and he tried to get a visa for her. And they didn't give it. So he can't come, and he doesn't want to come by himself.

[19:57] He wants the people to know his family. And he's doing a ministry in Brazil, and most of his support comes from what you call the brownie ministry. Did you ever think that brownie will give somebody a way to leave?

[20:13] So Paul is making brownies home. And he goes sell the brownies in different places in town. And people buy the brownies. They love brownies. And they're in Brazil.

[20:23] And so they buy. And Paul makes several batches, or what do you call it, and cut it in, put it together in a very nice little thing.

[20:34] And it's a lot of work. But he goes out and sells everything. So he said, since he began that, it was a couple months ago, he began with that. He was able to improve his gain.

[20:49] And also, we call brownie ministry because he gets in contact with people as he sells. And he's a good evangelist. So he starts talking to people, and pretty soon he's talking about the Lord.

[21:02] And he already got many families to the Lord through this brownie ministry. And we like that. So we like that so much that Terry started a different ministry now.

[21:14] He started the banana bread ministry. Yeah, he's making banana bread to sell. And also zucchini bread. You know, those bread are so good. And people in Brazil, they like that.

[21:26] So they're buying. Terry's helping his ministry with making banana bread and zucchini bread. So that's, you know, that's a way. But I wish I had time to start those kind of ministry too.

[21:41] We may reconsider that and leave the construction work and start making some goodies home. And Carol is very gifted in that, so that's not going to be a problem.

[21:52] But she teaches English a lot of times, so I don't know. But anyway, let's talk about Terry a little bit. Terry is our third son, and he is a pastor of one of our churches in Brazil.

[22:07] His wife is pregnant right now, and they already have a little boy called David. I'm going to go to the pictures right now, so I have to speak louder maybe.

[22:23] Everything started. Can you see? Can everybody see? I know you guys coming back, you can't see that. You have to move. Come on.

[22:34] Come on. Do we have seats numbers here in this room? Come on down. You are free.

[22:44] You are free to come. Come in front for a box of cheap seats back there. Oh, the cheap seats back there? Okay. Well, if anybody needs to pay for the seat, I'm paying for the seats in front today.

[22:58] You can come. People here don't. Are you listening to me? Yes. Maybe you have, what are you called, eagle eyes?

[23:10] Maybe you have eagle eyes. So can you see me here? Can you see Carol? You better look to her. She looks really nice. This is when I met Carol many, many years ago.

[23:21] And then I made a bicycle so we could ride together. After having seven sons, I decided I couldn't make that bicycle that big. So we got married.

[23:33] And then we had our first bunch. That's George, Paul, Terry, and Jason. Jason was born here in the States in 1987.

[23:46] And so we went back to Brazil back then to be missionaries now in Santa Catarina. And that's that bridge. Remember that bridge I was showing in the picture? That's that bridge here.

[23:57] So we lived in that city and we started evangelizing there. But it was too expensive to live there. So we were removed away because we didn't have the money to pay the rent.

[24:08] So we moved to a different place and we started a church there. So many, many years went by. And now George is a parent, too. He's a father of Eva Maria.

[24:19] And this was taken when my father-in-law was still alive. I don't know if all of you know, but my father-in-law, Warren Kuyper, he passed away last year. So he went to be with the Lord after struggling a lot with some illness.

[24:35] And this is Carol and George. Carol looks so young here. And I know that many times when she's walking in the street with George, the people ask, is that your sister?

[24:49] Yeah, it's amazing. I like that. I don't look that nice. But anyway, so that's Carol. And George with Eva Maria, it's her name.

[25:02] So that's pictures of George and Eva Maria. And that's Marina. Marina is George's wife. To remember her name, remember the place where you keep the boats.

[25:14] The Marina. So that same word in Portuguese, Marina, it's the name of a woman. Okay? So that's George and Marina's daughter.

[25:24] And Marina is pregnant too. So they're very glad they're expecting another one. Not too long ago, Marina lost. Lost. She was pregnant of twins.

[25:36] And she lost. She had a miscarriage. But now, George is very happy that more are coming. Because George wants to have a big family just like us. So that's good.

[25:48] You know, I like, I think Christians should have big families. You know why? Think about it. More Christians to this world.

[26:00] And if you bring those kids in the way the Lord wants you to bring them, then you're going to have a whole family of believers and a whole family of evangelists evangelizing the world.

[26:15] So don't let the Muslims get over. That's what they are doing. They are growing a lot of kids and they're taking over. So I like a lot of kids.

[26:27] So my boys got the idea. And that's Eva Maria. Isn't that sweet? I love that. Look at that. Eva Maria.

[26:41] And this is Paul and Mariana, our second son. And Paul and Mariana, they are also missionaries in the Araraquara area. And Mariana had a baby.

[26:53] The baby is Matthias. And he has been growing and growing and growing. Well, now this is Eva Maria here with Matthias.

[27:05] They live far away from us, about 600 miles. So when I can, I like to go up north. It's not north of Brazil, but it's north of us. Just to spend some time with Paul and encourage him in his ministry.

[27:20] And the last time I went to Araraquara, I went there to fix Paul's car. Paul has a 1994 Renault Twingo.

[27:31] It's a ugly, very ugly car. And because the painting, the painting of the car was really bad. Mariana was even ashamed of riding that car in town.

[27:43] So I went up there and I fixed it and I painted the whole car and got it nice and fixed it again. So I went to help in that way. And we also spent that time together ministering in the town.

[27:54] And I reached that. Those days I reached three families to the Lord while I was there. It was really good. So this is Paul's church where he ministered there. That's the little group that Paul, it's growing.

[28:07] And this is Terry. Terry, our third son. And he's married to Priscilla. Remember? Priscilla and Aquila. So that's hard to forget.

[28:20] And interesting about our boys that it doesn't seem to have many women available in Brazil. Because Terry married Priscilla. And Jason married Priscilla's sister, Regina.

[28:31] Jorge married Marina. Then is married Gabriela's sister with Marina. Everything in family. But they are all saved.

[28:43] They are from our churches. So this is Terry's little boy David. And Priscilla is also pregnant. And that's their baby.

[28:56] So Terry, he's a pastor in the church of Araraqua. A church of Tijucas. Tijucas, that's our second church that we established in Brazil. And he is the pastor there.

[29:09] This is pictures of the building and the church that we have there. Terry is a very special man. He's a man of faith.

[29:19] He's very special. I really enjoy having fellowship with him. So there you see myself and my boys playing the guitars. And that's the twin girls.

[29:32] Not the twin girls. But the girls that Terry is married to Priscilla. And Jason is married to Regina. And they have another extra there maybe for Joseph. I'm kidding.

[29:46] So this is when Jason got married to Regina. And that's Regina's parents here. And then also their baby.

[30:00] And he has been growing. He's a very nice fellow. Very good. All my kids, they went through grandkids God's way before I even got married.

[30:12] So they have been developing an excellent way of parenting their children. So they are very obedient, very nice, and love the Lord. They learned the Bible since they were very little.

[30:23] So it's very special. So that's Zach. Arthur, Zach. That's Jason's boy. And that's Arthur, Zach, and Eva Maria in our house.

[30:36] They were both having a bottle section. And he's trying to play more marimba, you know. And this is Dennis.

[30:50] Dennis is the next one. And Dennis like horses. So he was able to tame this horse. And that horse do everything that he wants. It's a really nice horse.

[31:00] And Dennis is also married now to Gabriela. That's Gabriela over her. And then she is sister with Marina, George's wife. And that's Gabriela and Dennis.

[31:13] And this is a picture of our... The second bunch. We call it the second bunch. Because first we have George, Paul, Tara, and Jason.

[31:26] And then after five years, we open the factory again. And we start to make some more. And we are wondering about trying to... Again, sometime. But this is Dennis, Kevin, and Joseph.

[31:41] Kevin is the one that I think is... He's going to be the tallest. He's really getting short. Close to me now. At least he is wearing the same size I wore.

[31:53] 13. So he already has the structure to grow. So he may reach there. So those are pictures of the area there. We are having Paul.

[32:05] We went to visit Paul this time. And we were having some fellowship with some families. And playing guitars, playing some songs. This is four of us.

[32:16] No, four of the boys playing at church in Tijoukis. And that's Joseph. He's the youngest one. Is there any girl here that's interested? He's available. No. He's 16 and a half now.

[32:29] But if there's anybody available here, I want to look for the girls there that are at least four years younger. We don't like this kind of...

[32:40] I think the girls always have to be much younger. So that's Joseph. And this is by our house at the land.

[32:52] And Joseph is helping with the work there. Joseph with Eva Maria. With a friend. And that's Kevin.

[33:06] Kevin. Kevin and Eva Maria. And this is a picture of the area where we are. We live just about here somewhere.

[33:17] Over there. This is the Tijoukis Bay over there. And we live over there. And those areas here are very famous beaches in our state. That's a nice place you like to go there.

[33:29] So if you go to Brazil, I'll be pleased to take you there. Of course, you have to pay the gas. Nothing will be that free. Okay.

[33:40] Okay. So those are some of the pictures from our beaches there. We... I usually don't have time for going to the beaches because, you know, it's just very busy working.

[33:53] But when people come around, we ask the boys to take them around. So they're beautiful places there. And this is our house. We built that house with the same offering that we got from Ed Patton.

[34:08] And we're able to build. We couldn't finish because that was exactly that time when the dollar went down. So we couldn't really finish the house. And from that time on, we have been waiting and waiting and waiting.

[34:21] Maybe the dollar will go up. And it never happened. So we're just waiting to see if later we can build places for the camp, cabins and things like that, so we could have this place as a campground.

[34:38] But we already have been doing camps, retreats, with a lot of those people from the Catholic Church that I was sharing with you this morning.

[34:49] So those are pictures that you see from our land. This is all from our area there. And then it's a lot of work to do.

[35:04] We have to keep the place clean and fix the fences and all kinds of work. So if you go down there, be prepared to bring your gloves and let's work together. Fix some fences.

[35:15] So this is our watchdog. And this is our... We built three ponds when we first bought the property. And this is one of them.

[35:26] And we like this place for swimming. And so Joseph was taken care of for a ride. He's the motorboat. So that's...

[35:38] We have beautiful views from there. It's a beautiful place. That's Joseph taking care of Eva. This is several people from the church came to enjoy our big swimming pool.

[35:55] And this is in our kitchen. In the church in Biguasu. The first church as we started. And Rogério is the leader. He's the pastor there right now.

[36:07] And this is a picture of the people from the church. And this is some more. And we have a Bible study in Florianopolis every Friday night.

[36:19] And that's at Rogério's house. And this is our Bible study there. We have Bible studies every day. And sometimes twice a day. And this is a ministry I have with...

[36:32] Rogério works at a hospital. A cancer hospital. And there's a doctor there. She's a believer. And she asked me to bring comfort to those terminal patients.

[36:46] Terminal cancer patients. And this man, I led him to the Lord. It was the first patients that I had contact with.

[36:57] And I led him to the Lord. And also, I had a chance to share the gospel with some of his family members. But this is a difficult ministry. Because you share the gospel with people.

[37:09] And they start enjoying the word. And they die. Because it's about the last weeks. So, it's not very easy. It hurts. But it's much better to know that they're going to be with the Lord.

[37:22] And we're going to have fellowship in eternity then. So, this is Erivelto. Erivelto is the family that we start the church in Canelinha.

[37:33] Canelinha. That's the Bible study at Canelinha. And we have several pictures of them together. And Erivelto, the first day that I shared the gospel with him.

[37:45] The first night, after the Bible study, he came to me and he said. Well, he asked about how the church works and things like that. My ministry and things. And he said to me, I want you to start a church in my house.

[37:59] I want to open my house. I have Bible studies. I will invite all kinds of people. And you come here. And we started. And then now, Erivelto, he built a new place for this motorcycle shop.

[38:12] And the old place he is remodeling to have the church there. So, he provided a house for Bible studies. And now, he's going to provide a building for the church.

[38:23] And so, that's very special. So, as soon as I come back to Brazil, we're going to start meeting this new place. I'm excited about that. It's really nice. And this is our third church, the church in San Juan Batista.

[38:38] And Valdenazio is the leader of that church. I started studying with Valdenazio many years ago. And he's a very short man. You can see there. He's very short.

[38:49] He's about this high. And we always call. We play jokes with each other. And I say, he's the minimum wage. And I am the inflation rate.

[39:00] So, we play with each other all the time. And he's a very good evangelist. But he's not a very good pastor. So, he's struggling with this little church for years.

[39:12] And now, I started a new group in the same town. And later on, we're going to merge those two groups. And I will be leading and training more leaders to these churches.

[39:23] So, this is Gabriel. This is the reason I'm here today. Gabriel, he was a Baptist. And he came to me because he has an employee that is part of our group.

[39:39] And he was trying to convince his employee to go to his church. But this man, he knows the grace message now. And he said, well, there is something wrong with your doctrine, you know.

[39:54] And they started discussing about doctrines. And they came up to the tithing, you know, the tidings. And then, he was able to tell Gabriel to come ask me about that.

[40:07] So, he came. And after I shared with him what the Bible shows about that. And he said, well, once I'm here, I want to ask you about baptism, too.

[40:18] So, he started about baptism. Oh, he was excited to hear. And then, he's not a Baptist anymore. He joined our ministry there. And he's a very good man.

[40:30] So, he's the owner of a big shoe, a shoe, no, it's not a factory. It's a place where you sell shoes. A shoe store, big shoe store.

[40:44] And he has a lot of money. So, he came to me and he said, Bernardo, when you are in the States, I want to pay you for the trip to go to Baltimore.

[40:54] And share the gospel with a friend that I had there years ago. And when I came back to Brazil and I accepted the Lord, I always think about him. And I want you to go there and share the gospel with him.

[41:07] So, that's the reason I went to Baltimore. And this is my way back now. And so, I went to Baltimore. And he paid me for doing that. He paid all the expenses. And he wants me to share the gospel with Brian.

[41:22] And I went to see Brian in Baltimore. It took two days to find him. But I finally found him. And that man, he was destroyed. You know, his life was in a big mess.

[41:34] He lost his wife. His wife divorced him. And he became a drunk. And he drank for years and years. And finally, he looked for a treatment. And he left.

[41:46] He left that life. Now, he doesn't drink anymore. But he was pretty bad when I found him. He was about the same age of me.

[41:56] But he was just a filthy rag when I found him. And so, I was able to let him to the Lord. And that was great. When I called Gabriel after that, Gabriel said, wow, that's great.

[42:12] I'm very satisfied. But, you know, Brian, he believed before he believed that there was a higher power. But he didn't believe in a personal God.

[42:23] And I spent the whole day talking to him about our personal Savior. And how God loves us. And how much he wanted to reconcile with him.

[42:35] So, I shared with him many, many things. And at the end, he gave me big, big hugs. And he said, oh, that was wonderful. So, I want you to pray for Brian.

[42:46] Because it's a lot of things you have to go through yet. So, let's keep praying for him. So, and then, this is the new Bible study we have in Brazil now.

[42:58] This is the, 11 years ago, I shared a gospel with a man, a Catholic man. And he wants me to have a Bible study with him. And after the Bible study, he decided to remain in the Catholic Church.

[43:12] And invite other Catholics to have Bible study at his house. And he invited me to teach there. So, I did. After many years, we have several men and women grounded in the Word.

[43:23] And they start spreading the gospel inside the Catholic Church. And I call that an underground ministry in the Catholic Church. The priests didn't know what that was going on.

[43:35] So, a lot of people were coming to know the Lord and learning from the Bible. And when finally the priests started noticing something was wrong, so he started asking the people that were teaching in the church, like the catechism teachers, what are you teaching over there, you know, and you are not using the catechism anymore.

[43:55] And they said, well, we decided to use the Bible. It's much better. And the priest said, well, but I want you to use the catechism. Well, then you teach them. Well, well, but I don't want you to teach, you know, what you're going to teach from the Bible.

[44:11] And he was, the priest didn't know the Bible. So, he didn't know how. But the people keep insisting. So, they are still working. But last year, the end of last year, the bishop found out.

[44:23] And he sent two new priests to that Catholic parish. And now those two priests are fighting our group there. But we have a big-sized group inside the Catholic church there.

[44:36] And that now is the second generation already, a lot of young people. And they also, they always organize all the retreats and everything. And they invite me to teach at their Catholic retreats.

[44:48] And so, instead of having, you know, repeating prayers and all that stuff, we go right to the Bible. And the last one we did was, we went through the book of Revelation with this positional view.

[45:03] It was really interesting. And we have, those people are growing. And this group here, they are interested in becoming more and more involved in the sense of becoming ministers of the work.

[45:15] So, they are doing a great job. This is pictures of the Bible studies with those people. They are mostly college-level people. And they do have a very good understanding from the Bible because their parents, they are the second generation now.

[45:34] So, they are coming for more. And we are having a great time. And when I told them that I have to come to the States and say, no, you can't go.

[45:45] So, how I have to. So, then I made Adriano be the leader of that group. And George is helping with the preaching and helping with the teaching there. So, there, they keep calling me.

[45:58] Sometimes I get emails and telephone calls. Why are you coming back? We want you back. You know, it's really difficult to be away. But we are having a great time with this new group.

[46:12] And the needs are always the same. We need transportation. You need to be able to go back and forth more time. And the thing I really like to have is to be free from the construction job again.

[46:30] Because it takes a lot of energy. And I have been, I'm not, I haven't been able to visit so many people as I did before because of the job. So, I'm really praying that the Lord may help us to get away from that.

[46:45] So, we can have more time to be dedicating to the ministry. So, those are pictures of the different groups we have there.

[46:58] Okay. So, now, let's see. I still have some time. Let's get into the word. I would like you to open Ephesians. Should I use this now?

[47:12] What? Ephesians. I would like you to open in Ephesians chapter 5. I would like you to challenge with the passage that the Apostle Paul directed to the church of Ephesus.

[47:33] In chapter 5. And the verse. 32 and 33.

[47:44] This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you, in particular, so, love his wife even as himself.

[47:57] And the wife see that he reverence her husband. This is a beautiful illustration. The whole chapter 5.

[48:08] When the Apostle Paul makes a connection, a relation between Christ and the church and the marriage relationship. So, I know I see people sitting, hugging your wife around you.

[48:24] And I know some of you are not married. But those that are married here, I challenge you to think a little more about this.

[48:37] Because the relationship that God established in the earth. That today is so much persecuted. The marriage. And a lot of people don't want to get married anymore.

[48:51] A lot of people are, you know, not interested in those things. But I think this relationship is so important. That God used that relationship to compare with the relationship with Christ the head and us as a body.

[49:14] And since the beginning of the Bible, when God established a marriage. He established a marriage so man and woman become one. Right?

[49:25] Say one flesh. It's not just one flesh. It's not just the physical relationship. Even though the physical relationship in marriage is one of the most important aspects of the marriage life.

[49:41] There are many very important things the man and woman needs to know about relationship. That kind of relationship. The body relationship. It's very important for you to have a very good understanding of 1 Corinthians 7.

[49:55] When the apostles say that a man needs to supply the needs of his wife. And the same thing.

[50:06] The woman should supply the needs of a man. And so, it's so important. Because this is what the body of Christ is all about.

[50:16] When we look for somebody else's needs. This is love. When we start doing to the other people what they need.

[50:30] And then, in the church, in order to the church to become one with Christ. It's important for each one of us to know Christ more deeply.

[50:43] And I just, I don't get tired of showing this to our people in Brazil. That we need to be united. We need to be together.

[50:55] We need to zeal for each one. As they are our, the same part of us. In the marriage relationship, I remember when I first got married.

[51:09] I didn't have the same ideas of marriage back then. As I grew in my understanding of the Bible, I found out that I was very selfish.

[51:20] In the beginning. Very selfish. But now, I see that we want to become one.

[51:34] And as we develop our relationship to become one. Karen, myself, we become so close, so close. And sometimes I go to the supermarket and I pick up some things.

[51:46] And when I got home, she looked at things. I pick it up and said, You got exactly what I need. How did you know? So, I don't know. We start thinking about the same thing.

[51:58] Sometimes I write to her about things and she said, How did you know I have the same idea? You know. Because we start thinking together. We start living so close.

[52:10] And the intimacy grows so much. That we become one. More and more. And that was God's design for marriage.

[52:23] Of course, the children come as a blessing from the marriage. And many people, when they start getting children, they forget about their marriage.

[52:35] And they became parents. Not lovers anymore. More. And I want to make sure that I want to love my wife all the time. And so, my children, you guys go play.

[52:46] Now, I have to be together here. And when I get home, of course, I have to give, to show love to my boys. And I do. But first, Carol. She has to be the first.

[52:58] And you guys go to the living room. Go over there. Go do something. And you have to talk. And then we spend time together. Because I need to share my life with her.

[53:10] She needs to share her life with me. Her day. What happened into her day. So, as we grow together, I understand. That's what the Lord wants for the church.

[53:23] For us to share the same things. Have the same thinking. Open your Bibles in 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1.

[53:38] And verse 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

[54:01] It's easy for a couple to have that. Is that easy for the church? I teach the Sunday school message this morning.

[54:16] And maybe there are some of you that didn't agree with what I said. You know what? Because both of us needs to grow more in order to get the same thinking.

[54:32] As we approach Christ, I like to use that illustration in our Bible studies in Brazil, because many times we don't have chairs in that kind of way here.

[54:43] We have a big circle. You probably saw in some of the pictures. We have a big circle. And then as I teach them, I like to choose someone.

[54:56] Go right in the center of that circle. And now everybody standing comes together to everybody in the direction of the center. So everybody stands together and they start walking in the direction of the center.

[55:10] And I said, you see, if we make Christ the center of our life, and we all are looking for to know Christ deeper and deeper, we get closer together.

[55:25] As we study deeper with a humble heart, that's the mind of Christ. That's the way He was. He was humble. And with the same love in mind, with the humbleness, we walk toward Christ, we are going to walk closer to each other.

[55:43] And it's the same thing in the marriage. We should be closer and closer and have more and more intimacy. Some people, they like to be independent.

[55:55] The Bible says, in the marriage, we are not independent. We are dependent of each one. 1 Corinthians 11, 11.

[56:06] It says, Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so the man also by the woman, but all things of God.

[56:21] So, there is no independence. Some people are like, well, I'm going to work for my money, you work for your money. Oh, come on. This is baloney. This is not marriage.

[56:32] Marriage is people become one in everything. Completely. Yeah, romance. Beautiful. I love that. It's a beautiful thing.

[56:44] That's the highest level of relationship that anybody can ever reach when you get married. Because two people, they can have a spiritual relationship, a soul relationship, a body relationship.

[56:57] Complete. And we have to develop the three of them more and more each day. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful when you know the different needs of a man and a woman and the different way and we try to fulfill those needs even though they are not our needs, but they are our partner needs.

[57:22] So, I know my time is over now, but I really want to challenge you to become one with your partner, to your wife, your husband, to become one.

[57:37] And as you become one, closely, you teach your kids to do the same way. If they are, look for someone to be married, look for someone that is in the Lord because that's the first thing.

[57:50] I remember when I approached Carol, I want to be my girlfriend and she looked at me and started talking about the Bible and said, what does that have to do? You know, for her, everything. So, she started there and then she asked me to go talk to her father-in-law.

[58:05] He was a missionary in Brazil. And that's when I came to know the Lord. And that was a big change in my life. But she was not content with that. She wants me, wants to make sure that I was really, really involved.

[58:20] And when she finally found out that I was really involved so then she accepted me. And I like that. And I think all the girls should do like that. All the boys should do like that. Look for people that are in the Lord together because that's the great beginning for starting a life in the Lord.

[58:38] Join it together with the same faith. And then grow from there. Grow to know each other and to know the Lord more and more. nothing can be better than that.

[58:49] And I know nothing is more important than that. So, it's not a matter of religion. It's a relationship. Relationship with our Lord. He's the God of the relationships.

[59:00] And that's what you want us to be. Let's have our word of prayer. Let's stand. Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord.

[59:16] for giving us so much. Giving us such a wonderful relationship with you. And we can, as we study the scriptures, as we study the Paul's epistles, we come to understand the deepness of your love for us.

[59:37] And how much you want to be part of our lives. And how much you want us to know you. and become closer and closer to you. Lord, we thank you so much for the marriage relationship.

[59:52] Because this is a wonderful way you design for us to reach the highest level of happiness and joy in this earth.

[60:02] and at the same time, it's just the beginning of what's going to happen in the eternity when we are going to be together, join it in union, complete union, the whole body of Christ together in heavenly places.

[60:17] Lord, we know that down here on earth there are so many divorces, there are so many separations, there are many fightings among those couples and also among the churches, so many divisions.

[60:31] But you know, Lord, that you designed the church to be one body. We thank you, Lord. We pray, Lord, that our hearts may be willing to be desiring that unity.

[60:48] We pray that we may make decisions in order to look for that unity, not to look for divisions. We should always rightly divide the Bible but not divide the body.

[61:06] We should search, Lord, for that wonderful message of unity that comes from the scripture so loud. Thank you, Lord, for giving us such a focus, such a beautiful goal to reach.

[61:28] And we pray that your Holy Spirit work in our lives and give us this view of life. Not a world, not a world view, but a godly view so we can see things in the same perspective you see.

[61:48] But help us, help us to grow in our relationship with you, help us to grow in our relationship, our marriage relationships, our family relationships, and understand more deeply what is this mystery that you gave to us to know.

[62:08] You understand, Lord, that the Apostle Paul received the unsearchable riches of Christ. Christ, and I know, we know that some of those truths we will never be able to comprehend until we get to eternity.

[62:23] But help us, Lord, to be together, to join our efforts together, to search for that unity, search for that wonderful goal.

[62:34] Thank you, Lord, for being so good for us, for the eternal life we have in Christ Jesus, for the wonderful sacrifice, for that blood that paid for our sins, for that resurrection that gave us a new life, new creation we are.

[62:51] We thank you, Lord, for everything you have. In Christ Jesus' name, we give you thanks and pray. Amen.