BZeal for July 2002
-------------------
by Randal Matheny, in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil
31 July 2002

Note: SJC is an abbreviation for the city where we live
and work, Sao Jose dos Campos.


Congregation plans national event
---------------------------------
During July the men of the SJC congregation met twice
to plan for the National Christian Workers Encounter
for next year. A good group of men met July 16 and 30
at my office and defined the theme and speeches for the
event.

This preaching event is held on Friday and Saturday of
Easter weekend each year at the Mt. of Olives Christian
Camp. It is the major event for Christian workers in
the Brazilian brotherhood.

Each year a different congregation is responsible for
the program. We have the privilege of planning it for
2003.

We'll meet again August 17 to consider speakers.


An hour with God
----------------
The adult Bible school class began studying "An Hour
with God" in the third quarter. My study is designed to
help people know what to do in their devotional time
with the Lord. Otavio Carvalho is using the same
material to teach the young people's class.

Once again, I'm working up the material pretty much
from scratch, since so little material is available in
Portuguese for the churches.


Sickness
--------
A young Christian wife and mother in the congregation
was diagnosed with breast cancer. Valeria da Silva
lives in Taubate, about 40 minutes from SJC. She and
her husband Clayton have two small children. Please
pray for her and the family as she undergoes further
tests and schedules surgery.


Transformation course in Sao Paulo
----------------------------------
Thirty people met early Saturday morning, July 13, at
the Hotel Estan Plaza on Funchal St., in Sao Paulo, for
an all-day marathon of the Total Transformation course.
The course began at 8 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m.

Because of the city-wide nature of the course, it was
not deemed feasible to hold the usual period on Friday
evening.

Christians attended from several congregations in the
city: Butantã, Itaquera, Jardim das Flores, Nove de
Julho, Vila Maria. The coastal city of Sao Vicente was
represented, others came from the city of Sorocaba, and
one couple, Carlos and Emmanuelle Prazeres travelled
six hours by bus from the city of Curitiba especially
for the course.

The course materials and lunch, held at a nearby
restaurant, were included in the registration fee,
which costed just over $5.00.

In this course, I invited Francisco to share the
teaching load. He developed well three of the thirteen
course modules. Francisco is Events and Promotions
Manager for the Rio-Sul Airlines and editor of
Edification Magazine, published by BZeal. He arranged
the hotel conference room and negotiated the restaurant
meal.

Five more courses have been scheduled for 2002 and one
for 2003.

Vicki and I stayed in Sao Paulo Friday and Saturday
night at the hotel, thanks again to Francisco's
contacts. Sunday morning I preached at the Jardim das
Flores congregation on our unity, basing the sermon on
Peter's exclusive use of the word "brotherhood" in 1
Peter 2.17 and 5.8-9.

A group of three families from that congregation and
the couple from Curitiba lunched with us, and we headed
home for our meeting with the church in SJC. There, I
taught the Bible class and lead singing. A great day,
in all.


Magazine on course
------------------
I traveled to Sao Paulo the 30th to meet with
Edification magazine editor Francisco Bezerra. We
lunched together and talked about the magazine.
Francisco has worked hard to get new writers and has
recruited people to help with news, ads, and promotion.

Since I'm online and he is also in his business, we've
both hooked up to the praize.com messenger and exchange
messages as needed. This has greatly facilited our
joint work with the magazine.

If you'd like to contact me during the day by
messenger, here are my IDs to various services:

Praize.com - randal
Yahoo - randalmatheny
ICQ - 162797959
AOL - randal32916
MSN - randal32916


Ripples of usefulness
---------------------
Many of our published materials are reprinted in
bulletins and media all over Brazil by the brotherhood.
Not only Edification Magazine, but even our church
bulletin articles, which we often post on the web.

On the 29th, missionary Larry Zinck from Rio de Janeiro
wrote, "Thanks for that info. I went to your site and
read what you wrote. I hope you won't mind if I use
your article as the basis for a radio message. I do
some three-minute spots for a community radio station
here in Jacarepagua."

The article he referred to is a brief response to a
report in a national magazine that purports to separate
truth from legend in the Bible.


New site coming
---------------
To be less dependent on freebie services and the
goodness of people who have granted us free space,
we've started the move to paid web hosting and a first-
level domain name for our sites in Portuguese. Except
that the name we chose had been taken by the time we
got our payment in. Now to think of a new name!


Visit
-----
On the 21st, we met and lunched with Don Ward, a
Christian from Sidney, Texas, who came to SJC for the
week to teach an course to engineers at Brazil's
aviation company, Embraer. The company is based in SJC.
We spent a pleasant afternoon together and took him
with us to church that evening.

Don had contacted us by email about the church's
meeting address and time.

Before retirement in 2000, Don was an elder at the
College Station church.


Family
------
Daughter Leila went to the first week of Christian
camp, for her age group (7-10), and Joel went the third
week (ages 14-17). At 19, Micah can't attend the
regular sessions.

Joel has been invited to play basketball at SJC's
Tennis Sports Club, which represents a move forward for
him, as does Micah's move to train with the Trianon
Sports Club in the neighboring city of Jacarei.


Wrap-up
-------
Please pray for these tidbits of news, that in each
moment and situation, the Lord may be glorified by our
work and lives.

Thanks for your prayers, support, and encouragement.
May our Lord bless your efforts.

---------------
Randal & family
You can read this newsletter and more on our website at
bzeal.cjb.net
E-mail: randalm@uol.com.br

Mailing Address:
Caixa Postal 11
Sao Jose dos Campos, SP
1220-970 - Brazil

Tel.: (11-55-12) 3942-7753

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