First few weeks in Curitiba

Back in the middle of 2010 we began to feel like our time in João Pessoa was coming to end. We were not sure when or where we were to go, but we definitely had this sense that we were supposed to move on. Fast forward to this past November when we finalized everything in JP, we decided to go back down to Curitiba to visit friends and family for about a month and hoped to gained some insight and perspective on our futures. But when we arrived, we still had virtually no direction as to where we would settle down and live for the next season of our lives. Moreover, when all our friends and family questioned us as to where we would be moving to, we had no answer.

Well, after about a month in Curitiba we headed back to the US for Christmas and for the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in January. Still unsure of what God had in store for us, we went back with open hearts hoping to hear from the Lord. Then the answer came. Right before Christmas, I got an email from one of the pastors here in Curitiba. He told me that he just learned that his dad had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the doctors were only giving 3 months to live, maybe 6 at best. As an only child, he felt like he really needed to move back to the states during this time to help his parents with everything that was happening. Therefore, he needed someone to come take care of his church for him while he was back in the states, someone to shepherd the flock; he asked me to be that guy for him.

Almost immediately I knew that this was what I needed to do, but I did not want to jump into anything too quickly. I wrote him back telling him that I would take the next day or two to pray about it, but I felt like I was going to be able to do it. After a few days of prayer about this issue, I felt total peace about stepping in to take over this church. I finally called the pastor and let him know that I would be more than happy to help him out by being pastor of his church for as long as he needed.

We returned in February here to Curitiba to start work at Calvary Chapel International Fellowship. The plan is to be here for all of 2011, and then we’ll see how things are going at that point. So far the church has been great; people seem genuinely excited to have us here and they seem ready to help out in anyway necessary. Our first two Sundays have gone pretty smoothly with not so much as a hick-up to cause a problem. Plus we already know several people who go to church; in fact some of our closest friends and family are members here. So we could not be more pleased with how God worked things out for us. It seems that He prepared us to leave JP at just the right time to come down to Curitiba to fill this need. Thus far it has been a blessing for us, for this pastor and hopefully for the church as a whole. Praise the Lord!