A Diamond In The Rough

[Sister Alvear]

He appeared at the 2 o'clock service. He slipped in and sat on the back pew. He left before the service was over. This became the routine. I wondered who he was, where he was from, and why he arrived late and left early, yet returned every Sunday.
The Word of God is like the fisherman's hook; once it is hooked in the prey, it seldom escapes. He was hooked! God would do the work. In time, I found out that he walked eighteen kilometers each way to service. He was very timid, yet very persistent. Someone told me where he lived, so I went to visit him. His wife disappeared when I arrived. She made it very plain she did not want my visit. I talked to him for a while, and then left.
I found out that his wife's family was from one of the strongest trinity groups in Brazil. They are a group that fellowships no other church, and are very rude to many people. No wonder she didn't want her husband going to a false church, if he was going to be a believer.
The church that his wife's folks went to was the nicest church building in our city. The little church we pastored was at the far end of a little, but dangerous village. The building was old, we had no singers or musicians and I spoke so little Portuguese. Why would he like that little church? I can only say, it had to be the power of God drawing him. After I would do my little thing, we would pray for hours, as I didn't know anything else to say in Portuguese at the time.
The man came faithfully, and God filled him with the Holy Ghost, soon after He was baptized. During this time, I got married and Brother Raul and I continued the work together. The man continued faithful, and our church grew, but his wife would not show any interest for a long time.
We were having a healing revival. God was performing signs, wonders, and miracles in our midst. We asked Brother Antonio why he didn't bring his sick boy for prayer. To ours and his surprise, his wife decided to come and see what kind of false church her husband had been attending for years.
She sat very reserved in service, but she watched all that went on. Their son, went up for prayer and I noticed tears in her eyes. She returned for another service and another.
One day I talked to her about getting baptized. "No, Missionary," she replied. "I've decided your church is not so bad, but I will never be baptized in Jesus Name, I was baptized in my church long ago." She and I became good friends, and over the years I would mention her need to be baptized in Jesus Name, but she would always say, "Missionary, I am already baptized." And no matter how much I tried to persuade her, she never seemed to show any desire for baptism in Jesus Name. She made visits with me, went to visit the sick, helped me in the ladies society, cooked special meals for us, we prayed together, and she even defended our church to her family.
Her husband progressed spiritually and by this time, he was a worker and a good preacher at that. I'll never forget the joy I felt the first time he preached. The day came when we were moving from that city to another city, Brother Antonio could take care of service in that city. We move away from that city, and still she had not been baptized in Jesus Name. "How long will we wait, Oh Lord? I prayed, "She is my friend." But there are so many others to be reached, so I left her in the hands of God.
It is not my nature to be content when souls are dying, so in the new city, where we moved, I started going to Shanty Town, a village when there was no running water, and it was full of bandits. I walked into a little "lean to". It was so dirty.
The lady lay on the soiled bed, drunk. Her children were crying. I took one of them on my lap and began to talk to it. It was so hot. Oh, how I wished for a cool drink of water. "I'll get you a drink of water, Missionary," the oldest girl said to me. I knew better than to drink water caught in dirty barrels, but I was so thirsty. Just a drink I thought.
After telling the children a Bible story and praying for their drunk mother, I felt oozy and dizzy. I can't remember driving home, I just remember walking in the house and saying, "I drank some contaminated water," and I collapsed. I was out cold! Brother Alvear went for a doctor and by the time he got there, the doctor couldn't find a pulse beat. I don't remember being taken to the hospital, neither do I know how long I was out, but when I did come to, they had IV's hooked up to me. Well, I don't belong here, I thought, but I was too weak to move.
Brother Alvear decided to call Brother Antonio and ask them to pray for me. It so happened that Sister Oivina answered the phone. He told her how sick I was. "Pastor, go quickly to the hospital and tell the Missionary that I am going to be baptized in Jesus Name. You see, last night I dreamed the Missionary died, and as we carried her casket to the cemetery, I wept and said, "the missionary was always so kind, and the only thing she asked me to do, I refused over and over again, and now she has died and will never see me baptized in Jesus Name." "Go now Pastor!" With these words, she hung up the phone.
Brother Raul came back to the hospital and stood by my bed. He said, "Janice, Sister Divina told me to tell you that she is going to be baptized in Jesus Name." Suddenly, I felt strength coming to me, and in no time I had recovered. The following weekend was convention time in the Itobi Church close to Sao Jose where Sister Divina lived.
Sure enough she was at convention and it was my privilege to see her baptized. That was the day I had long awaited. Today, this wonderful couple pastor two churches and Brother Antonio is a Regional Director of a group of our churches. To God be all the glory and praise!

[Sister Alvear]

Thought you might enjoy a "missionary story..."

[Sister Alvear]

How Beautiful Are The Feet

Soul winning is largely a matter of consecrated feet! Walking comes before talking in God’s plan. How can one preach except he goes first? Of what use is a mouth with a message so dear, unless the feet carry it? How beautiful are the feet of the soul winner?
It’s hard to imagine beautiful feet could be so painful, I thought as I lay down in the hammock. It had been a long day, and we were tired to the bone. We had been up since before daylight. We had traveled by bus, ferryboat, and walked all day. Night found us at a little village in the jungle of North Brazil. They did not know that we were coming, but word spreads fast, and soon we would have a service for them.
We were hot, thirsty, and tired. Brother Anisio, Brother Jose Roberto, Brother Nathaniel, and a trinity pastor and his wife that I had met on the journey, were with me. The trinity pastor, Brother Joao and his wife, Sister Raimunda had pastured a four-square church in an interior city along the sea coast. I had met them on my arrival in the north, and had preached at their church, and they received the Jesus Name revelation. So, they were coming along to be with us, and learn more of our doctrine, and to be baptized.
We walked out to little lean-to to see what we could buy to eat. There were dried fish covered with flies, sweet, unwrapped bread in a counter full of roach bugs and whatever, and there were eggs on the counter, that was all. So we bought sweet bread and eggs. The lady where we would spend the night took it home with her to prepare for us after church.
By this time it was getting dark, "Are you not going to baptize us?" Pastor Joao asked. "Well," I said more to myself than anyone, "I don't know where a stream is." A bright eyed little boy looked at me and said: "I'll take you all, follow me."
We did not have flashlights or candles or anything to light the way. The cover-growth from the jungle covered us from the moon. It was so dark I shuddered. "Don't be afraid, Missionary." The little boy said. "There are not many snakes crawling at night, they're lazy." I hope they are all lazy tonight. I thought. A huge lizard fell from a tree on Brother Jose's back; from there it dropped to the ground.
We arrived at the edge of the water. "Go ahead and baptize them." I said to Brother Anisio. "Oh no," the trinity pastor spoke up. "You won us, missionary, and we want you to baptize us." As I stepped into the unknown water, I whispered to the little boy that had become my friend, "Are there any alligators in the water?" "Just a few." He replied. I then remembered the words often sung by missionaries. "Oh, Jesus if I die upon a foreign field for thee, could be no lesser sacrifice, no more than love demands. No greater love hath mortal man than for a friend to die, and the I him say so tenderly."
Suddenly I felt objects swim past me. I wondered if they were fish or alligators. Brother Alvear was in the States. I imagined him eating a nice steak in some restaurant and here I was about to become steak for an alligator! If he only knew where I was. No, I thought, it is better that he does not know for the time being.
Those on the bank had finished their song, and quickly I baptized Brother Joao, Sister Raimunda and two more from the village that had asked to be baptized. We walked back to the village in our dripping wet clothes, and conducted a service with over one hundred people present, all standing in the open air.
When the service was over, we started our journey to Sister Maria's little bamboo hut where we would stay. It was so hot. It seemed to be over one hundred degrees. We walked through high grass to get there.
There was no electricity at her house, and the only light she had was a tin can made into a tiny lantern (sometimes that can be a blessing!). The light was on her little table. Beside it was a plate of eggs that she had scrambled for us. Water bugs were crawling on the eggs. The bread was dirty and grimy from the start. Since things are blessed in Jesus Name, we blessed it and began to eat.
We hung up our hammocks, the men on one side of the banana leaves, and the women on the other. I sat down on my hammock; the tiny lantern was still burning on the table. In the small area that was lit up on the wall, I noticed a huge spider. "Oh, Vita get up and kill that spider." She jumped up from her hammock and went to kill it. Sister Marie tried to shoo it away. "Kill it, Vita!" I said. Sister Maria didn't say anything, but her look said, Oh, how cruel. "Get the light and see if there are any more." I said. That was a mistake. Vita ended up killing several huge spiders, a scorpion and several other bugs. I was almost asleep when Brother Anisio cried out, "Missionary, are you covered up?" "Covered up," I said, "I'm about to melt." "Missionary, you must cover up, there are vampire bats flying around."
Vita had never been in North Brazil, so she had brought a small wool blanket. She jumped from her hammock and got the blanket from her backpack and gave it to me. I covered up and thought: Well, I escaped from the alligators, the spiders haven't bitten me yet, but I will suffocate under this blanket. Sweat pored down my face. Mercifully, I drifted off to sleep.
"Just wait until the Missionary wakes up." Were the first words I heard at sunrise. They laughed as they stood over my hammock. Slowly, I uncovered my head. Hanging over my hammock was a larger spider in her web, right above my head. I don't know how lady-like it was, but I quickly made a descent from my hammock.
As I looked around at our surroundings in the daylight, I saw why the lady thought it was useless to kill the spiders the night before. The hovel was infested by spiders! Spiders on the grass roof, the bamboo walls, crawling across the floor. I quickly suggested that we pray with the people of that home, so we could go on our way. That was one time that I took the scripture literally that says: "Watch and pray."
There wasn't much to do to get ready to leave a village like that. There was no running water, no bathrooms. We slept in our clothes. So, after we had some dry cassava flour and a banana for breakfast, we were on our way. A great victory had been accomplished; four precious souls had been baptized, and a preaching point strengthened. Sometimes people were ask: Are those sacrifices worth it?" Jesus answered that by saying, "One soul is worth all the riches of the world." How rich we felt that day