Meet Carlos. Meet Simone.

The longer we've been here, the better our Portuguese and understanding of the the culture has gotten.  With each day that passes we've been able to meet more of the locals and of course cover more territory.  These factors have led to a richer ministry than at the start and we're happy to announce that between the two of us we are currently conducting eleven studies weekly.  It's a blessing to have met our students and a sadness to to think about saying goodbye in a few weeks.  But before we do that, we want you to meet all of them too!  Let's start with Carlos and Simone...

Carlos is in his 50s and was left to Ben when our elder left, his former study conductor.  His brother is one of Jehovah's Witnesses in Bahia (a state about 5 hrs south of here) but no one in his immediate family supports him.  Carlos' wife and two grown sons all belong to Evangelical churches and give him a hard time.  They cling tightly to beliefs such as: God shows us his blessing by means of material riches and that we manifest we have the holy spirit by speaking in tongues and expelling demons, etc.  They also feel that God can be called "God", "Lord" "Jehovah" or "Jesus" it's all the same thing.  Every time we study with Carlos at his home, we are challenged on these points by his family members.  One of his sons has shown some interest, ascertained where we live and now regularly stops by to have conversations.  We've made some headway with him on a few points and he recently attended a meeting with his dad!  He said afterwards, "I agree with 95% of your teachings.  Many things I agree with more than at my own church."

Carlos lives deep in the rurals and doesn't have a car so getting into town for all the meetings is a challenge.  Every 14 days he leaves his village at noon and gets a bus into town.  His son mentioned above (Paulo) lives in town so he stops there for a bit then walks to the meeting.  After the meeting he spends the night at Paulo's house and on sunday gets a bus back home.  Carlos is witnessing at every opportunity and always comments at the meetings he attends.  He's well on his way to being a publisher :)

Ben and Carlos at his home

Of course no visit with Carlos is complete without some fresh coconut water from his backyard.

Three weeks ago we were working in a village not too far from Carlos'.  Ben and I knocked on a door and he did one of our standard presentations, "My name is Ben, this is my wife Meg, what's your name?"  A young woman replied, "Simone."  He continued, "Isn't it true that everyone has a name?  Have you ever met anyone without a name? (she giggles and says no) Even our pets have names!  But a question remains.  Do you think God has a name also?"  This presentation yields a WIDE variety of answers from God and Jesus to Michael, Joseph and once a woman even said Padre Cicero! - he's was a famous Catholic priest of which every Catholic around here has a statue.  On this particular day however, Simone replied, "Yes God has a name.  His name is Jehovah."

You can imagine our surprise!  It turns out just a few weeks prior, Simone moved here from Sao Paulo to live with her grandmother.  In Sao Paulo she lived with her mother who studied for several years when Simone was young and Simone would sit in on the studies!  She said that just a few days prior  she had visited the KH in Junqueiro (one of our neighboring congregations) asking for a study.  After saying where she lived, a sister there explained to her that she was in fact in Sao Sebastiao's territory and that the sister would work on arranging someone from our congregation to stop by.  A few days later we came knocking at her door.... coincidence?  We think not!  We've had two wonderful studies with her since.  

Simone and me.  And Grandma.