Bridges To Life - Emmanuel Days

First grandson born in Portugal

Derlani left for Portugal on Feb 1st hoping to be there in time for Chris's delivery. Well, Andrew Fife Figueira decided to take his time and was born only today at 8:17am Portuguese time. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz (4kg), is 21 and a half inches (54cm) long, and looks a lot like Daniel when he was born. Mother (and father) and baby (and mammaw) are doing well. Thank you so much for all your prayers.

In one sense, this was perfect timing, at least for pappaw. In about 3 hours, I (Robert) will be driving to the airport for the Pastoral Renewal Pilgrimage to Israel. Please do remember to pray for our group of pilgrims during this time, especially after the violent clashes near the Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount last Friday.

Derlani and I will both be back in the U.S. on the 26th, Lord willing. As soon as we possibly can, we will post some pictures of the newest member of our growing clan. And some others, as well, Robert & Derlani

Perspectives

Most of this past weekend was spent preparing to lead a session of the Perspectives course (www.tricitiesperspectives.org) here at Emmanuel. Participants come from the larger community, including a variety of churches, Milligan College, and Emmanuel. I (Robert) was originally scheduled to teach on Dec 4th but, due to changes in our schedules, Mike Sweeney, Ray Giles, and I swapped around until it was finally my turn last night.

This excellent course focuses on Biblical, Historical, Cultural, and Strategic Perspectives on the World Christian Mission. And the lesson How Shall They Hear? was about "contextualizing the gospel to gain understanding among different cultures of the world" (Cultural Perspectives). Believe me, it was actually a lot of fun going through the material and relating our own experience growing up in Brazil and as cross-cultural missionaries in Portugal.

In addition, we had an opportunity to share about Bridges to Life and our plans to return to Portugal most likely in June this year to continue serving Christ there and seeking to cultivate a church-planting movement focused on fostering healthy families in healthy communities. Of course, we asked such a mission-minded group to commit themselves to praying for us, according to Romans 15:30 ("I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join [us] in earnest prayer to God on [our] behalf," NRSV).

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers as well. Derlani and I are really looking forward to everything God has in store for us these coming months and especially in February. What about you? We would love to hear about what God has been doing in your life, too.

Thankfully, Robert & Derlani

HUGE!!! Blessings

Learning about these last 2 weeks in our lives might very well knock you out of your socks! So please praise the Lord with us as you read on.

• First, Derlani's interview in Memphis (974-mile round trip) on Tuesday (Jan 23) went great! She passed and is supposed to be sworn in as an American citizen some time during the next 4 months. Our grandson Joshua and his parents came along to take care of Anna's immigration status so we had a lot of fun traveling with them.
• In December, I (Robert) applied and was accepted as a participant in the Renewing God's Call: A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land program. See details at www.pastoralpilgrimage.org. Due to a generous grant, the total cost for each participant will be the $ 200 registration fee. On Jan 15-17, participants from all over the country were gathered on Roan Mountain, TN, for a Pre-Departure Retreat and I have to tell you it was an awesome experience!
• Finally, Derlani had already registered to audit the Wintercession class at Emmanuel taught by Dr. Jim Street (www.jim-street.com) Christian Care and Counsel(ing) and the Missional Church. Due to my growing interest in the topic, I attended the class with her every day last week (Jan 22-26, from 8am to 5pm), except for Tuesday, of course, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

As you can imagine, several changes have been made to our already busy schedule to accommodate such HUGE!!! blessings but we would not dare miss out on such God-given opportunities. Please do continue to pray for us as we seek to make the best of each one so that God alone may receive all the glory. 

Praising God for your prayers and your participation in our lives,
Robert & Derlani

Busy November

Yesterday, I (Robert) returned from a retreat on Roan Mountain, TN, with 20 pastors. It was a great experience but, before I tell you about that, let us wrap up 2006 by sharing with you about our extremely busy though quite productive month of November. All but 5 days were spent on the road.

First of all, Derlani accompanied me to a Doctor of Ministry class in Naperville, Illinois (Nov 3-8). It was a blessing to find out that spouses could participate in the class for free because "Building an Effective Congregation" is something both of us intend to be involved in in Portugal. After class, we spent most of the month visiting supporters, friends, and family in Indiana and in Texas.

We also attended the National Missionary Convention (www.nmc-windows.org) in Indianapolis (Nov 15-19) and joined world-mission professor Valdecy DaSilva at Colegio Biblico (www.colegiobiblico.net), giving advice to mission candidates in Eagle Pass, TX, and in Piedras Negras, Mexico. During this trip to Indy and then south (2,700 miles), we were privileged to have Robert's parents, Tom & Libby along and to visit Dad's older brother Bill and his family in the Houston area. What a blessing it was to all of us!

Altogether, Derlani & I drove nearly 4,400 miles in November and were glad to not have such a busy schedule in December. However, it was in December that we found out that January and February were going to be much different from anything we had ever imagined (more about that in our next post, Lord willing).

Thank you so much for praying us through November and all through the year of 2006. We are more and more excited about returning to Portugal next June and looking forward to everything Christ has in store for us in the meantime. We'd love to hear about your plans, too, Robert & Derlani

The other 9,999 minutes

I (Robert) was supposed to tell you about the "good" 9,999 minutes or so during my last trip to Portugal (see post on Oct 23). So here's a quick run down:

• I preached on Sun morning and there was a great response from the congregation. All afternoon was spent with the leadership discipleship group we started in 2002, which includes our children Deborah (24) and Jon (22).
• Early on Mon and Tues, I picked up a total of 6 Brazilians who had planned to spend a few days in Portugal on their way to Mozambique. Missionary Kleber's sister, along with 5 church leaders then spent nearly a month working alongside Christian Church missionaries Kleber & Juracema from Brazil, who have been in Africa for over 10 years now.
• The best part of Mon was spent brainstorming with 2 leaders in Portugal about what it would take to plant reproducible externally-focused churches there.
• Tues and Wed were largely devoted to connecting the Brazilian group with local leaders and visiting historico-cultural sites of interest.
• Another highlight was the Wed night service organized so that the church in Carcavelos could learn more about and pray for the Brazilian mission to Mozambique.

So, as you can see, it was a VERY fruitful and productive trip! Thank you very much for your prayers, Robert & Derlani

10 days into 2007!

Christmas and New Year have passed and it is hard to believe we are already 10 days into 2007! Although we are still playing catch-up after the computer accident last year, we have decided to write this post to let you in on some of the latest news.

We are very grateful to God and to each of our prayer warriors for:

• a brand new Toshiba Satellite laptop, thanks to the donation of a generous supporter and to Seth Frank's good coaching concerning what to buy specifically - we love it!
• a great time spent with family members during the Christmas season: cabin in the Smokies with grandson Joshua, Jeff & Anna, and Jeff's family; Mom & Dad's on Christmas day; 35 of us at cousin Bob Dean's; and breakfast at Perkins with cousin Steve Hamilton's family, Aunt Helen, and my brother Chico's family (from Brasil), plus Dad and another brother Fifo.
  
• a good trip and visit, this past weekend, with a dear and long-time friend, who lived in Portugal years back - our daughter Anna and 10-month-old Joshua traveled with us to visit Robert & Catherine and their daughter Natalie, who Anna helped babysit when they were both much younger.

We'll try to come back with more updates soon. Keep on praying, please. We believe God is answering in more ways than we can possibly know, Robert & Derlani

Great flights!

Originally, this post was written just before the plane landed in Lisbon, Portugal. Then my (Robert's) computer fell out of its case in the parking lot at the airport. Trying to be positive about it, I have been telling people that among the nearly 10,000 minutes during the whole trip, that was the only really bad one. Believe me, it has still been very hard to swallow! So now I have rewritten this to include the flight back and my plan is to tell you more about the time in between during the next few days, Lord willing!

Truly, I cannot remember any smoother flights (and I have done a lot of travelling)! Both international flights took off and landed on time. Service was very good. Bags and customs without a problem. I had 3 seats just for myself both ways. And, as a result, I got around 3 hours sleep each time. Not sound sleep--which is not really expected of a person my age on a plane--but sleep, nonetheless. That also helped me to follow the Chiropractor's instructions in order to deal with my mild sciatica condition (caught early enough not to become very painful): "lie on your back or on your left side and do not sit upright during the evening."

Grandson Daniel and daughters Chris and Deborah met me at the airport where I drank a Portuguese expresso coffee as soon as I had the opportunity. Perfect! (If it weren't for that one minute in the parking lot. . .)

Tell you more later about the other 9,999 minutes or so of my VERY fruitful and productive field trip to Portugal. Thank you very much for your prayers, Robert & Derlani

Busy week!

Besides keeping up with our regular schedule, getting ready for my (Robert's) trip and some unexpected events have made our week a bit busier than usual. Among other things, it has been quite an experience to participate in the Mission of the Church Lectures with Dr. George Bebawi here at Emmanuel. Of Egyptian descent, Dr. Bebawi was raised as a Jew and became a Christian in 1957, joining the Coptic Church. In relation to the theme "Christianity & Islam," he is lecturing this week on:

• The Bible and the Qur'an: Two Different Visions (Tuesday)
• God and Humanity: United and Divided (Wednesday)
• Sacrificial Love and Sacrificing Humanity to the Demands of the Law (Thursday)
• Christian Spirituality vs. Muslim Sufism and Outreach (Friday)

In order to make it to Knoxville in time for my flight to Philadelphia and then to Portugal, Derlani and I will have to miss today's lecture. The lectures have been so insightful that we have ordered both the CDs and photocopies. So if you are interested, just let us know and we will see what we can do, ok?

Please do remember to pray for this field trip to Portugal. Time is already looking pretty short but we just want to be sure to do everything God has planned for us during this time. I will try to write a post or two while I am there. Thank you so much for hanging in there with us, Robert & Derlani

Many thanks!

Thank you so much for your prayers these last 2 days. Intro to Christian World Mission classes at Emmanuel (www.esr.edu) went very well. Actually, I (Robert) had a whole lot of fun! Don't know exactly when there will be another opportunity of the kind but we do hope and pray it is not because the professor is too ill to teach. We also praise God that Dr. Sweeney is pretty much over the pneumonia and on the recovery side this weekend.

It looks like Derlani and I will have a pretty calm weekend ourselves before getting ready for me to travel to Portugal next Friday. Besides trying to catch up with our correspondence and readings for our classes, etc, we plan to enjoy at least a little bit of the world-famous Story-Telling Weekend in nearby Jonesborough, where we also attend church whenever possible.

Wishing you a restful weekend, serving the Lord, Robert & Derlani

World Mission professor and classes

Dr. Mike Sweeney, World Mission professor here at Emmanuel, has been diagnosed with pneumonia. Please pray with us for his speedy recovery. Pray also for me and for his students as I (Robert) will be teaching his Intro to Christian World Mission classes this week.

As we often do, borrowing the words of the apostle Paul to the Romans, we "appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join [us] in earnest prayer to God on [our] behalf" (Romans 15:30, NRSV).

Thank you and God bless, Robert & Derlani