{"id":2112,"date":"2011-08-11T09:31:30","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T13:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fbclafayette.org\/?p=2112"},"modified":"2011-12-12T09:26:33","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T14:26:33","slug":"reflections-on-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Many of our pastoral staff and congregation have grown accustom to foreign travel.\u00a0\u00a0Outside of eating dinner at the space needle, across from Niagara Falls in Canada, I have never set foot outside of the continental United States.\u00a0 So, last year, when I committed to go to Brazil, I knew the experience would be good (and challenging) for me.<\/p>\n

One of our congregational members, who apparently knows me too well said, \u201cBrent, you are not always comfortable with new experiences, so how did it go?!\u201d\u00a0 After getting over my pride (that she could read me like a book), I responded that I was thrilled to have gone.<\/p>\n

Steve Viars, David Selvey, Dan Wickert and I all traveled to the area of Sao Paulo, Brazil to teach at a Biblical Counseling Conference<\/strong> organized by the Association of Biblical Counselors in Brazil (ABCB).<\/p>\n

Through this experience, God worked in my heart to solidify these convictions:<\/p>\n

Language Exists in Order to Know Another Intimately<\/h2>\n

My first Saturday morning in Brazil, Sacha Mendes (FBS 2010 Graduate) gave me an opportunity to teach some Brazilian brothers in Christ.\u00a0 Afterwards, these brothers started to pray together. They were affirming each other in their prayers, but I could not understand nor unite my heart with theirs. Spontaneously my heart was filled with a profound sadness in not being able to share in their experience.\u00a0 My inability to enter their experience, through communication, formed\u00a0a barrier between believers.\u00a0\u00a0 For that moment, I felt isolated from my brothers in Christ\u2014separate, unable to partake in fellowship even though I wanted to. I longed for the day when the judgment rendered at the Tower of Babel would be reversed and there would be no barriers in knowing one another as we have been known by God.<\/p>\n

Language is the medium by which we gain an intimate knowledge of another. Think about it. Through accurate and vulnerable communication, we invite others to know us. Apart from communication, there is no intimate knowledge of one another. Those who can understand this blog post through its combination of symbols (i.e. letters) in a certain order (i.e. grammar & syntax) are obtaining a small piece of knowledge about me.<\/p>\n

Because God exists as a TRI-unity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) communication has always been an essential attribute of God.\u00a0 God is a God who communicates\u2014unlike idols that have mouths but cannot speak.\u00a0 When God created man in His image, He gave mankind the gift of language.\u00a0 Our communication is to be used to know one another in order to love and glorify God together.\u00a0 Remember, Christ is referred to, in John 1:1, as the “word” which communicates to us an\u00a0intimate knowledge of who God is (John 1:18). Through Christ we may know God intimately.<\/p>\n

Incarnational Ministry Shows Love<\/h2>\n

Feeling isolated, a natural response for me was to learn a little Portuguese.\u00a0 I learned the Brazilian phrase for “What is this?” Whenever I was with Sacha and Anna\u2019s two-year old son, Pedro, I would point to various items and say \u201cWhat is this?\u201d \u00a0I figured that my children used this form of questioning to learn English.\u00a0 So I employed the technique on Pedro to learn some Portuguese. I learned the words for \u201cpenguin\u201d (the easiest one\u2014it is just “penguin”), \u201cairplane,\u201d \u201cup,\u201d \u201cdown,\u201d \u201cshoe,\u201d \u201chand,\u201d \u201cmilk,\u201d \u201cjuice,\u201d \u201cwater\u201d and \u201ccup.\u201d So, I felt confident that if I ever needed a sippy cup of milk with a toy penguin in Brazil, I could obtain them.<\/p>\n

I should have asked Pedro about the Portuguese word for \u201cbathroom.\u201d\u00a0 On one of our team\u2019s two-hour walks through the city, we had to learn that word the hard way.\u00a0 I know it now, and I don\u2019t think I will forget it!\u00a0 Furthermore, \u201cThank you,\u201d \u201cyour welcome,\u201d \u201chello,\u201d \u201cgoodbye,\u201d \u201cgood morning\/evening,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cGrace to you and peace from God our Father,\u201d and \u201cI will give thanks to God on behalf of you\u201d formed my severely limited vocabulary.<\/p>\n

In each of my feeble attempts to communicate in Portuguese, the Brazilian people would light up in appreciation.\u00a0 I did not expect this response.\u00a0 However, they interpreted these efforts as attempts to enter their world and love them.\u00a0 These attempts at entering their world reminded me once again of the love of God.\u00a0 God demonstrated the ultimate incarnational ministry to us. The God of the universe cared enough, not just to learn a few snippets of my language, but to become one of us and dwell with us in Christ.<\/strong> Christ became like us in all respects except without sin.\u00a0 What an act of love that causes my heart to rejoice!\u00a0 Cross cultural, or across the street, how are you connecting with your neighbors to incarnate the love of our Christ to them?<\/p>\n

Equipping Godly Men = Investments In Heavenly Rewards<\/h2>\n

2007 was the year that Faith accepted the first group of pastoral interns.\u00a0 Faith took a risk by investing substantial resources for equipping men through a church-based seminary (Faith Bible Seminary<\/a>).\u00a0 In Heaven all of us will see what treasures (in terms of souls) resulted from this investment.\u00a0 Yet, we may not have to wait until heaven to get a small taste of the fruit from that investment.<\/p>\n

My heart delighted in watching Sacha and Anna Mendes minister in their native Brazilian culture.\u00a0 Sacha and Anna displayed an amplified confidence, boldness, and effectiveness in their natural setting. We all came to love our interns and appreciated their skills used among us.\u00a0 But for most of them, God did not call them to stay here.\u00a0 Seeing first-hand the ministry for which God had prepared Sacha and Anna, reassured me that Faith\u2019s invested resources are faithfully being stewarded.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unstoppable Progress of God\u2019s Word to Call Out His People<\/h2>\n

Of all the \u201ccharacters\u201d in the book of Acts whom Luke develops, one remains constant throughout his narrative\u2014the \u201cword of God.\u201d\u00a0 Luke summarizes sections of the book of Acts with the phrase, \u201cthe word of God increased\/multiplied\u201d (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:7; 8:4, 14; 11:1; 12:24; 13:49; 19:20).\u00a0 In these instances, the word of God about the Christ of God spreads throughout the known world.\u00a0 The word of God transcended cultural boundaries to communicate God\u2019s good news to all nations.<\/strong> The word of God established growing communities of God\u2019s representatives throughout the world.<\/p>\n

In Brazil, I witnessed the progress of God\u2019s Word first hand.\u00a0 God\u2019s Word was alive and powerful among the Brazilian believers.\u00a0 His word stirred responses and transformed lives. God\u2019s word provoked questions and reassured doubting hearts.\u00a0 One young man came to me and confessed a past of homosexuality and desired to handle his current relationship in a godly fashion.\u00a0 Furthermore, a contagious enthusiasm existed among the believers there.\u00a0 Shortly after my return home, Sacha informed me of a new church that now wants to be a part of the ministry of God\u2019s word through Biblical Counseling.\u00a0 Sacha will present Biblical counseling to that new church partner in September. \u00a0Isaiah 40:8 states, \u201cThe grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our god stands forever.\u201d <\/em>AMEN<\/p>\n

So, Faith family, thank you for allowing me to go to Brazil to be blessed by God through this experience!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of our pastoral staff and congregation have grown accustom to foreign travel.\u00a0\u00a0Outside of eating dinner at the space needle, across from Niagara Falls in Canada, I have never set foot outside of the continental United States.\u00a0 So, last year, when I committed to go to Brazil, I knew the experience would be good (and… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[95],"tags":[184,4316,4273,112],"yoast_head":"\nReflections on Brazil - Faith Church Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reflections on Brazil - Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many of our pastoral staff and congregation have grown accustom to foreign travel.\u00a0\u00a0Outside of eating dinner at the space needle, across from Niagara Falls in Canada, I have never set foot outside of the continental United States.\u00a0 So, last year, when I committed to go to Brazil, I knew the experience would be good (and... read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-11T13:31:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-12T14:26:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/files\/2011\/08\/Reflections-on-Brazil-e1313069251798.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brent Aucoin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brent Aucoin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/\",\"name\":\"Reflections on Brazil - Faith Church Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-11T13:31:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-12T14:26:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/05b28a5b78c722884ce2c38fdbc64ebf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Reflections on Brazil\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/\",\"name\":\"Faith Church Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/05b28a5b78c722884ce2c38fdbc64ebf\",\"name\":\"Brent Aucoin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20210309150430\/AucoinBrent2020.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20210309150430\/AucoinBrent2020.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Brent Aucoin\"},\"description\":\"Pastor Brent Aucoin serves as the Pastor of Seminary and Counseling Ministries at Faith Church. He is the president of Faith Bible Seminary, and is a counselor and instructor for Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/author\/baucoin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reflections on Brazil - Faith Church Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reflections on Brazil - Faith Church Blog","og_description":"Many of our pastoral staff and congregation have grown accustom to foreign travel.\u00a0\u00a0Outside of eating dinner at the space needle, across from Niagara Falls in Canada, I have never set foot outside of the continental United States.\u00a0 So, last year, when I committed to go to Brazil, I knew the experience would be good (and... read more","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/","og_site_name":"Faith Church Blog","article_published_time":"2011-08-11T13:31:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-12-12T14:26:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/files\/2011\/08\/Reflections-on-Brazil-e1313069251798.jpg"}],"author":"Brent Aucoin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brent Aucoin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/","name":"Reflections on Brazil - Faith Church Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-11T13:31:30+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-12T14:26:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/05b28a5b78c722884ce2c38fdbc64ebf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/reflections-on-brazil\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reflections on Brazil"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/","name":"Faith Church Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/05b28a5b78c722884ce2c38fdbc64ebf","name":"Brent Aucoin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20210309150430\/AucoinBrent2020.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20210309150430\/AucoinBrent2020.jpg","caption":"Brent Aucoin"},"description":"Pastor Brent Aucoin serves as the Pastor of Seminary and Counseling Ministries at Faith Church. He is the president of Faith Bible Seminary, and is a counselor and instructor for Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries.","url":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/author\/baucoin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2112"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2801,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions\/2801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}