by J. Randal Matheny RE: May 2003 BZeal report (31 May 2003)

SJC = Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. City of half a million in the state of Sao Paulo. Sits just inside the Tropic of Capricorn. Site of Brazil's airline and aerospace industry, as well as industries like General Motors, Kodak, Phillips, Johnson & Johnson. Happens to be our home, since 1995.

Here's a short wrap-up for the last several months for the church here in SJC and around the country.

Evangelism and Teaching

Vicki and I studied with Erisvaldo and Ana Paula in January and February, and they were baptized even before we finished all the studies. They continue faithful in their profession. You can see pictures of their baptism here: bzeal.antville.org

Erisvaldo worked with brother Benedito, who invited them to church and encouraged them to study. We keep telling Benedito, a 71-year-old, widowed brick-layer, that he's our best evangelist.

In the SJC congregation, Jorge preached during the month of May in Otavio's absence and did a terrific job. On May 25th, he preached and taught the adult Bible class, on the Spirit's fruit of patience.

I've been teaching the adult class this quarter on the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, from Galatians 5. Almost all our material has to be written from scratch, since there is precious little available by faithful brethren.

Next quarter for Bible class: the Minor Prophets, developed from material I wrote some years back.

Seminars

March 4-5 I went to Rio de Janeiro, during the Carnaval holiday, and taught the Total Transformation seminar. Though I was apprehensive about this wild period, the brethren there catered to me in every way. There had been shootings by drug gangs earlier in the week, but the military police came out in force and quieted things down.

About 45 people were present at the Ramos church's building, and various congregations, such as Madureira and Jacarepagua, were represented. Some pictures of the seminar are on our Portuguese-language site here: alcance.antville.org

It was the eighth time I taught this course. We have touched the Federal District and four states: Sao Paulo (four times), Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro. There are possibilities of teaching this course in Belo Horizonte and Urberlandia, in the state of Minas Gerais, this year.

June 28-29 I'll go to the northeast to Fortaleza to teach in a new congregation on the doctrine of the New Testament. It appears there are problems in that region, and they have asked me to teach on what the Bible says about truth and unity. Pray for them in this difficult situation and for me, that I might be able to strengthen them in the faith.

Building search

The saga of the building search continues. But it may soon reach an end. One of our first options didn't pan out, but now it looks as if we will sign the rental contract for that very building the first week of June. Pictures of the building may be seen at this link: bzeal.antville.org

It is near the beginning of the main street that runs from the Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro interstate highway (Via Dutra) to the center of town. Most city buses run down this avenue or by the street corner on which the building is located.

For what it's worth, the building is also about three blocks from the largest of our three shopping centers.

The contract would guarantee five years in that location.

National Workers Encounter

We men of the SJC congregation planned the Easter-weekend National Christian Workers Encounter at the Christian camp outside of Sao Paulo. Some 330 men from all over Brazil came to hear eight speeches on "Faithful and Capable Men."

Brazilian congregations are feeling many of the same unhealthy religious influences as American churches, so, for the first NCWE in several years, we emphasized the true doctrine of Christ's gospel. It was generally well received, but also caused something of a reaction in others.

I was busy emceeing the event, so I only got one picture, of six of the eight speakers. alcance.antville.org

We're trying to assemble all the speeches to publish in book format. Pray for that, too! We were able to do it in 2000, but haven't had much success in getting all the speakers to cooperate since then.

Family

Vicki's mother, Jean Cunningham, of Iuka, Miss., had a pacemaker implanted May 27. She must remain nearly immobile for two weeks following. Please keep her in your prayers.

Micah started studying the will of God May 24 with his friend Rafael. Pray the Lord may use him to bring this young man, age 20, to Christ.

Leila has started competition swim training. Keeps her winded. Her first competition, before she started the intensive training, got her fifth place. Check that out here: random.antville.org

June is a big family month. Leila will turn 11 on the 16th, and Joel notches number 17 on the 12th, Brazilian Valentine's Day. He's a sweetheart!

May was also a biggie. Vicki unsuccessfully tried to ignore one more added year on the 1st, and on the 5th Micah hit the big 2-0 with all-you-can-eat pizza. See him stuffing it here: random.antville.org

Looks like both Joel and Micah will have short articles published in the May edition of our Portuguese-language magazine, "Edification." The theme is "From Generation to Generation: Bringing Your Children to God." They take a look from the children's angle.

Forthright Magazine

Our online and email magazine has progressed well this year, especially with the addition of Tim Hall as a columnist. He joins people like Jimmy Jividen (on leave), Phil Sanders, Greg Tidwell, Emmett Smith III, Barry Newton, A. A. Neale, and yours truly.

We've also had a number of excellent submissions by other writers that have brought added variety to the publication.

Recent articles have included these titles:

• Whose Athlete?
• The Four Gospels Are Gospel
• Bible History and Iraq
• Wide and Narrow
• A Time to Remember
• Cocooning

One person commented recently, "Forthright is without a doubt one of the best things I've seen on the internet." We're glad to be of spiritual service for the truth and grace of the gospel.

If you're not a subscriber, you can do that by sending any email to: forthright-subscribe@associate.com

Unfortunately, we lost the .org address, but have a good one here: www.forthright.net

Wrap-up

On the BZeal site are a number of independent observations and articles. Among them:

• Two More Examples of the Internet for Good
• Are We Evangelicals?
• An Educational Institution's Mission ... or Lack of One
• A Time for Tears
• Brazil Has Largest Number of Fish Species

You can read them here: bzeal.antville.org

Please keep these people mentioned and situations in your prayers, so that through them and us the Lord may be glorified.

Let us hear from you.

Blessings, Randal, Vicki, Micah, Joel & Leila Matheny

Address: Caixa Postal 11 Sao Jose dos Campos, SP 12201-970 - Brazil

Email: bzeal@randal.fastmail.fm

Missions website: bzeal.antville.org Personal weblog: random.antville.org

Home telephone: (011-55-12) 3949-1246 Office phone: (011-55-12) 3942-7753