Here's an email sent today from Adriano:

"I would also like to thank you for the Total Transformation course here in Taguatinga. It was very edifying and we already felt its effect in Sunday's worship. It was a cheerful worship, different from previous weeks. We are fully certain that the Holy Spirit is using you, brother Randal, to communicate this precious message of the gospel that really does transform lives."

Taguatinga is a satellite city of Brasilia, the nation's capital. The body of Christ in that city has 35 or so Christians meeting together.

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.

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 Guilherme. The coastal city of Sao Vicente was represented, others came from the city of Sorocaba, and one couple, Carlos and Emmanuelle Prazeres (above) 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 (above) 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.

On July 13, I'll be teaching, together with Francisco Bezerra, the Total Transformation course in São Paulo. This time will be different since we'll be holding the course in a hotel which Francisco arranged for us.

We have invited all the area congregations to participate, but since we don't have a congregation that is promoting the course, it presents a special challenge. We hope it will work to our advantage, with the course being seen as not one congregation's event, but as a service to all. The downside of that could be that, since it's not any congregation's effort, none will feel the need to advertise it or encourage the brethren to participate.

So pray that the churches will support this effort and that the course will be a blessing to the São Paulo Christians.

This year I put together a new course to teach wherever I'm invited to speak. With Alvaro Pestana leaving SJC back in January, my plate got even fuller. So I couldn't afford to go whenever a congregation invited me and speak on whatever interested them at the moment. I've always done that gladly in the past, but just can't take out the time to do new preparation with each trip. Hence the course.

It's entitled Total Transformation and seeks to help people make the significant changes they desire in conforming themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. The course comes out of seeing people struggle with being holy and dedicated and often frustrated at their failure to grow.

if you know a bit of Portuguese, you can read more about it here.

The first course was taught April 12-13 in Ribeirao Preto, in the northern region of Sao Paulo state. About 53 people were present and the reception was enthusiastic. Though we spent two hours Friday night and twelve on Saturday, people remained attentive and interested. If anybody nodded off, they hid it well!

This weekend I go to southern Brazil to teach the course in the city of Porto Alegre. My months are full already through the end of the year. Soon, I'll have to think about opening up dates for 2003, if there is a demand for it.