Day 8 in Rio

One of my favorite things that we do here, is we sing on the way to clinic. Beth put together booklets full of lyrics. Then, she'll pull our her iPhone and take requests, playing it over the bus's sound system.

By beginning the day off with worship, it ensures that we begin with the right perspective. It is a weird paradox, though: singing about hope, as we drive through traffic, surrounded by people without hope. If only they knew.

Once we got to site, Whitney led us in a rap devotional. She definitely wins in creativity.

Today, was a half day at clinic.

The medical team. (L to R) Joan, Interpeter, Janel, Kathy, Kevin, Paul, Kathy, Mandy, and Rebecca.

Some of our interpreters.

Evangelism team. (L to R) Tony, Roger, Ilce (interpreter), Betty, Kelly, and Jonathan (interpreter)

We saw as many people as we could in the few hours that were open. I had the opportunity to sit in with the evangelism team. It was so neat to hear Betty present the Gospel. It's amazing to me how simple and yet complex the message of the Gospel is. If you strip out theology and religion, it's simple = BELIEVE!

This is one of the evangelism groups that I sit in on. The man on the left and the little 13 year old boy made a decision. The lady on the right, was already a believer, had been to clinic earlier in the week, but wanted to hear the message again.

As I said before, we have never been about numbers, but it is exciting to celebrate and quantify our efforts: We had 157 decisions this week!

Then, we handed out our gift bags and tried to tangibly express our gratitude toward the church, their volunteers, and our interpreters.

The church provided our final meal and then we worshipped together, one last time.

Pastor Wellington read Philippians 1 over us. Never before has that passage seemed more real, sounding just as Paul intended it:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Many left this afternoon with tears in their eyes, leaving a piece of our hearts, forever changed.