Back to Recife

In June of 2018 I spent two weeks in Recife, Brazil at the invitation of Joe Campos. Joe was one of my pastoral students when I taught at Grace Bible College and now serves in Recife planting and replanting churches there and helping to guide several others both in that city and in Aracaju to the south.

I taught two seminars, one on my first book, Understanding Your Bible, an Introduction to Dispensationalism, and a second on the basics of church leadership. I had a great time, the seminars were well attended and well received, and I quickly got attached to those good people. Before I'd left Recife there was already talk of a return visit to do more teaching.

That return trip is now on the calendar for two weeks this August. Once again the seminars will be hosted by the church Joe is re-planting (Igreja Biblica da Graça Boa Viagem) with people from the other churches also attending.

This trip I'll be teaching two one-week seminars. The first will be Old Testament Survey followed by New Testament Survey. These classes will be very similar to the OT and NT survey courses I taught to freshmen at the college and will give these people a good overview of their Bible. We'll cover the historical timeline of each Testament and learn the basic content of each book. If you think that sounds like a lot of material to cover in two weeks you're right.

Seminar sessions will be three hours every week night and all day on Saturday, I'll preach Sunday morning and teach an adult Sunday School class both Sundays I'm there. That's an aggressive schedule for the teacher but I learned last year that these are eager and receptive learners who quickly soak up everything they are given. We're also discussing the possibility of doing some leadership development sessions with the pastors during the day.

You know me, so you're aware that my favorite thing is teaching the Bible and helping Christians better understand one of our greatest resources for spiritual growth. Over the last three years I've had great fun doing that in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Tanzania, and then Brazil last spring.

The reason for telling you all of this is to solicit any support you might be willing to contribute to cover the costs of this trip. The budget is modest - $1,700, most of which is for travel expenses. I stay with Joe and Michelle who are very gracious hosts and take good care of this gringo. Joe also translates for me, so we're both exhausted by the time the trip is done, but what better way to spend one's energy?!

If you're inclined to help with the costs you can do it one of two ways.
A check can be mailed to:
Things To Come Mission
PO Box 127
Beech Grove IN 46107

Or you can find a link for giving online on this page.
http://www.tcmusa.org/contact.htm
Click on the yellow "Donate" button.

Note: in either case make sure to designate your gift for "MacDonald trip."

Thank you for taking the time to read this! You can be sure I'll keep you updated on plans and preparations and then on the trip as it takes place.