Christians from the Bonocô and Itinga churches in Salvador came together at the former's building August 9-10 for the Total Transformation course. Friday night 65 people heard the introduction and first two modules, and 110 participants met together Saturday for the main part of the course.

In the picture above, the group is doing one of the exercises in the booklet.

On Friday the hours were from 7:00-9:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Lunch was served at the building and provided by the Bonocô congregation.

In the evaluation afterwards, one sister wrote to "compliment the content of the course, the theme, and the simplicity of the speaker."

Another wrote that, in the course, "you evaluate yourself and only yourself and your relationship with God. This is very important."

Still another noted that the course "took care of questions I had that I'd not had opportunity to resolve."

On Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m., I met with friends Petterson and Sandra, who were looking for words of counsel and encouragement for their upcoming wedding in December. Vicki and I have known Sandra many years from our time in Belo Horizonte. She was transferred in her job to Salvador two years ago. There she met Petterson. He and I have formed a good friendship over the past several years as we've met at different brotherhood events across the country.

The evangelist Nilton Barretto Jr. (above with his wife Rosilene and daughter Priscila), invited me to preach Sunday morning, and I spoke on "The Man and Woman of God," before running to catch my 11:20 a.m. flight back to Sao Paulo.

Nilton and family received me warmly in their home.

I did not see much of the city -- mostly through the windows of the plane, car, or city bus -- but it was a pleasure to finally get to know the church in Salvador. This was my first trip to the city.

Though my plane was late, I made it back to Sao Jose dos Campos and to the hotel where the church meets 10 minutes before our Bible study, where I taught the fifth lesson on "An Hour with God."

Finally made it home at 10 p.m., where I crashed for the night.