Pure JOY! Pura Alegria!

Hello friends and family:
James 1:2-4 (NIV) says that we are to consider our trials and those times when we go through situation that test our trust in God, as “pure joy”, because it will produce patience, and eventually we will be more Christ like.
Last week I shared a special prayer request to a group of close friends and relatives about a situation that we had here in Campinas, that situation really helped me trust God more.

During the month of November and December we have been through several experiences from which we have learned a little better who God really is. Everything began with a possible cancer in a close relative, after that, a very strong disagreement with a colleague, after that, one night at 3:00 am we experienced a really awkward spiritual atmosphere at home that kept me awake for the next three days. At the end of three days with out sleeping no more than two hours a day, on the 28th of November, a fellow missionary and I were robbed at gun point with a significant amount of money that a dear friend was paying me back, while our wives were watching. After that, problems with our insurance, they picked up about 14% of total amount. But that is not all, last Sunday we were eating a hotdog on a street stand, Abby was playing with a coin, she tossed the coin up in the air, and it landed right in her throe, thank God that she is not the first person that I helped in that situation, and she came out ok.
Anyhow, we are just thankful to God, for allowing us to go through situations in which we felt, inadequate, powerless, frustrated, desperate, afraid, and sad, because otherwise we will never be able to appreciate some of God’s more amazing attributes: His compassion, his mighty power, the joy that he brings to our lives, and the amazing peace and security feeling that goes way beyond our comprehension even in the mist of violence.
I can really put in words the incredible joy that this past situation have bring to our life when we think that, God himself has been teaching us who he really is. I can really tell you that this month I know Jesus, in a more personal and intimate way, I have seen the way he loves me and my family, I have seen that he is constantly protecting us, and I understood even more, that if it wasn’t for his mercy and compassion, we would not be here…
Thanks for the calls, emails, and prayers. We love you guys and we are privilege to have each and every one of you as friends and family.



Hola amigos y familia:
Santiago 1:2-4 dice que tenemos que considerar los tiempos en los cuales nuestra confianza en Dios esta siendo probada, como un motivo de mucha dicha, pues las pruebas producirán paciencia, y eventualmente seremos mas como Cristo es.
La semana pasada compartí con un grupo de amigos y familiares cercanos una experiencia que paso aquí en Campinas, que realmente me ayudo a confiar en Dios mas.
Durante el mes de Noviembre y Diciembre pasamos por algunas experiencias de las cuales aprendimos un poco mejor, quien es Dios realmente. Todo comenzó con un posible cáncer en un miembro de la familia inmediata, después, un argumento fuerte con un colega, después de eso, un día nos despertamos a las 3:00 AM con una situación muy extraña que dejo una atmósfera espiritual tensa y tres noches sin dormir mas de un par de horas por noche. Al final de tres días sin dormir, el día 28 de noviembre, yo y otro colega fuimos asaltados a mano armada con una cantidad grande de dinero que le había prestado a un amigo y me estaba pagando, todo esto mientras nuestras esposas observaban el asalto. Después de eso tuvimos problemas con la compañía de seguros que solo cubrió 14% del total del robo. Lo ultimo aconteció el domingo cuando estábamos comiendo hotdogs en la calle (¿qué raro, no?), Abby estaba jugando con una moneda, la lanzo al aire, y la moneda calló en su garganta directamente. Gracias a Dios que no es la primera vez que ayudo a alguien con algo atorado en la garganta, y ella esta bien.
Bueno, pues solo tengo que decir que estoy agradecido con Dios por permitirnos tener esas experiencias, en las cuales nos sentimos inadecuados, impotentes, vulnerables, frustrados, desesperados, amedrentados, y tristes, porque si no fuese por esas situaciones no seria posible apreciar algunos de los mas maravillosos atributos de Dios como por ejemplo: su compasión, su poder infinito, el gozo que trae a nuestras vidas, la paz y el sentimiento de seguridad que va mucho mas allá de nuestro entendimiento, aun en medio de la violencia.
De verdad que me es difícil expresar el gozo que estas situaciones traen a nuestras vidas cuando pensamos que, Dios mismo nos esta enseñando quien es El. De verdad puedo decir hoy que este mes conocí a Jesús en una manera mas personal e intima, he visto como me ama a mi y a mi familia, he visto su protección constante, y entendí aun mas, que si no fuera por su misericordia y compasión, nosotros ya no estuviéramos aquí.
Gracias por sus llamadas, emails y oraciones. Les amamos a cada uno, y de verdad que nos contamos como privilegiados de tener a cada uno de ustedes como amigos y familia.

Telemarketing evangelism

Have you ever get a telemarketer call trying to sale you something? Annoying? I know it is annoying, I worked in sales myself, and I called some of you selling something. I think that lots of our evangelism methodologies are no more than a sales pitch. One thing that I don’t get it is why we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results? I am talking about evangelism and discipleship. I still don’t get it why the church o f Jesus keeps using and emphasizing methodologies of evangelism that the main objective is for the customer to agree with the vendor.
First of all, sharing the gospel is not a demonstration of knowledge, and just because someone says yes to all the questions on a track, it does not means that the Holy Spirit has transformed that life, and that that person is willing to not only take Jesus as the only way to go get to heaven, but to consider Jesus more important than family, friends, children, work, richness, and his own life. Sounds familiar?
Second, I really think that it should not be a division between evangelism and discipleship, because our main task as the church of Jesus is to make disciples, but some how we emphasis so much the “initiation rituals” of those who want to follow Jesus that we end up with a bunch of proselytes (Mathew 23), and few disciples. We celebrate the beginning of their new lives in Christ, but don’t care if they grow to maturity or not, don’t care if they ever reproduce other disciples, as long as they keep coming to church on Sunday, we think they are growing. Evangelism is the first step of discipleship, and our methodology, whatever it is, should lead people from day one to become followers of Jesus, and not so much become proselytes. We need to ask ourselves, are we making disciples, or making proselytes? What is the fruit of our evangelism? Disciples, or people who are more religious than us?

same thing, different results? yeah right!

By definition a catalyst is: A substance that changes the rate at which reaction equilibrium is attained, without itself being consumed. Catalysts can increase the rate of reaction (positive catalysts) or decrease them (negative catalysts or inhibitors).
Not all the catalyst work for every chemical reaction, as a mater of act, catalysts are specific agents for specific reactions. As missionaries we are some sort of catalyst, we are to influence and provoke a reaction.
One of my favorite philosophers, Napoleon Dynamite said: “I am pretty much the best that I know”, I want to echo those wise words with a small twist to my person, “I am pretty much the most negative missionary that I know”. What I mean by that is that one of my jobs is to point those practices, traditions, methodologies, that the church of Jesus Christ has, and try to change the course of things. I feel that the church is applying the same catalyst everywhere for every thing, and expecting different results. Of course the risk of doing that, is that among colleagues you will come across as the cocky, and the arrogant, just because you are not willing to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But that is ok.

The real jesus

Last week we were in our annual meeting with all the other people from our organization who work in our country. We meet lots of cool people, and make new friends, and had many interesting and constructive chats about Christianity. I learned a sad fact also, that according to the government more than 15% of the population are “evangelicals”, but evangelicals it’s a term to broad and of course, an I am sure that the census was not done from bible-based perspective. Anyhow, reality is that is the official count included sects such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses as part of evangelicals. Reality is that probably less than 6% of the population are true born again Christians followers of Jesus.
Please pray that the power of the gospel would be revealed to the people of this nation, and that the light of scripture would prevail over the darkness of syncretism, religion, idolatry and humanism

La semana pasada estuvimos en nuestra reunión anual junto con todas las demás personas de nuestra organización, que trabajan en Brasil. Conocimos muchas personas Buena onda, e hicimos nuevos amigos, y tuvimos muchas charlas interesantes y constructivas acerca de nuestra fe. Me di cuenta de un dato triste e interesante, de acuerdo con el censo del gobierno mas del 15% de la población son evangélicos, pero desafortunadamente el termino evangélico es muy amplio, y estoy seguro que el censo no fue echo desde una perspectiva bíblica. La realidad es que el conteo oficial incluye sectas como los testigos de Jehová y Mormones como evangélicos, probablemente menos del 6% de la población en Brasil son verdaderos creyentes nacidos de nuevo.
Por favor oren para que el poder del evangelio sea revelado a la gente de esta nación, y que la luz de las escrituras prevalezca sobre la oscuridad del sincretismo, la religión, la idolatría y el humanismo

The real Jesus

Hello family and friends, and friends that are like family. After two months in Brazil, we are finally doing some ministry. We are learning the language, making friends with many nationals, and little by little we are getting closer to our people group. There are several challenges that I would like for you to pray and considered when you think of us, and pray for us:
1. What is worse, to never have heard the name of Jesus, or to have a heard of another Jesus? In one hand, the majority of people here have a distorted perception of Jesus and salvation. For 70+% of the population Jesus is a wimp, a Jesus who needs his mama to approve what he does, a Jesus who can’t really save anybody because people here are trying to save themselves, and he is cool about it. On the other hand, some of the “evangelical” influence portraits Jesus as a big genie who will do anything for you, if you say the right things; by the way, you can find the magic words to say inside his magic lamp (the Bible). According to this perception, He would make you rich, give you power, and take away the pain, if you find the right combination of words and have enough faith, in your faith. I was wondering, what’s worst, to have a totally wrong idea of who Jesus is, or to have never heard the name of Jesus? For the majority of people here, the Jesus that they have heard about, is a false Jesus, and is not the Jesus of the Bible. Please pray that God may reveal himself to our people group through the light of scripture who Jesus really is, and how He alone is able to save by faith alone. Pray that He may use our lives to communicated both verbally, and with our life style who He really is. Pray that people around us may always see Him. Pray for a mighty harvest.

Making new friends/ Haciendo nuevos amigos

The last couple of weeks have been really good, we are making new friends everyday (non Japanese yet), and we are really exited because most of our new friends are not believers yet. This week, one of the guys we met invited us to his house, and this coming Sunday we are going to begin a weekly bible study, with the possibility to start a church. God is really showing Himself n an amazing way, and we can only praise Him for that. We know that our primary task here right now is to learn Portuguese, but God is opening doors everyday with people n need of salvation. Please pray not only for this possible new church, but also for an amazing harvest that results in many disciples.

Las ultimas dos semanas han sido muy emocionantes, estamos haciendo nuevos amigos casi todos los días (ningún Japonés aun), y estamos bien emocionados por que la mayoría de nuestros nuevos amigos no son creyentes aun. Esta semana uno de ellos nos invito a su casa, y este Domingo vamos a iniciar un estudio bíblico en su casa con la posibilidad de que iniciar una iglesia. Dios se ha estado manifestando en nuestras vidas de una manera asombrosa, y solo nos queda darle la Gloria por eso. Sabemos que nuestra tarea principal por el momento es aprender portugués, pero Dios ha estado abriendo puertas todos los días con gente que necesita de salvación. Por favor oren por esta posible nueva iglesia, pero aun mas oren por una cosecha abundante que resulte en muchos discípulos y nuevas iglesias.

Portugues vs. Español

Hello from Campinas!

Just wanted to let you all know that our God is an awesome God who is in the business of redeeming sinners like you and I.
We have been in Campinas, Brazil for a little bit over a month, and so far so good. We are able to understand about 70-80% of the conversations in Portuguese, but speaking efficiently is a different business. Right now we have two very capable teachers who are working with us with the grammar and pronunciation. Changing gears, Abby was struggling a little bit about two weeks ago, because she was missing “Chupe” (My Mom) a lot, so we had to find a couple of activities during the weeks that she enjoys, and a puppy dog to ease the pain. So, part of our ministry right now is to take our daughter to a farm with horses two times a week, and to a swimming pool once a week. Please pray that we may find a family with kids Abby’s age so we can kill two birds with one stone, share the news, and find friends for Abby.
We are very thankful to God and to you for your prayers and support. Please pray for the salvation of our first Brazilian contacts in Campinas, Sergio, Thomas, Diana and “C”. We are meeting with them individually during the next few weeks to share our faith, and invited them to become followers of Jesus Christ. Last, pray for my beautiful wife, she suffers form a permanent condition called PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), and she had surgery for that, to fix part of it, but since it is permanent it will never go away. But we have an amazing God that still does miracles; please pray for her healing, please pray that if God chooses not to heal her (Daniel 3:17), that Patty may learn to live with PCOS, and to glorify God through this illness. I am asking you ladies to give Patty a call or write her a line. She is doing great, but will love to hear from you. Her email is Patty@loslopez.org.

Please visit our web page www.loslopez.org for pics and other stuff. Please write us an email if you want to know details or specific info about our ministry or life in Brazil.
Well, talk to you all later.



Hola desde Campinas,

Solamente quería decirles que tenemos un Dios maravilloso, que esta en el negocio de redimir pecadores como tu y yo.
Hemos estado en campinas un poco mas de un mes, y hasta ahora todo va muy bien. Creo que entendemos como un 70-80% de las conversaciones en Portugués, mas hablar es un negocio totalmente diferente. Tenemos dos profesoras muy capaces con las cuales estamos trabajando en la pronunciación y gramática. Cambiando de tema, Abby estuvo un poco triste las semanas anteriores por que extrañaba a Chupe, (Mi Mamá) entonces tuvimos que buscarle un par de actividades durante la semana que a ella le gusten para aliviar el dolor un poco. Parte de nuestro ministerio por ahora es velar para que Abby este bien, y por eso la estamos llevando dos veces por semana a una granja donde hay caballos, y cuando podemos la llevamos a la piscina. Por favor oren para que pronto podamos encontrar una familia que tenga niños de la edad de Abby, y así matar dos pájaros de una pedrada, hablarles de Jesús, y que Abby tenga nuevos amiguitos.
Estamos bien agradecidos con ustedes por su constante apoyo y sus oraciones, les pido que oren por la salvación de nuestros primeros contactos Brasileños, Sergio, Thomas, Diana y “C”. Durante las siguientes semanas nos vamos a reunir con cada uno de ellos individualmente para hablarles de Jesús y compartirles nuestra esperanza.
Por ultimo, por mi Hermosa esposa Patty, como algunos de ustedes saben, ella tuvo cirugía el mes pasado por una enfermedad permanente que se abrevia PCOS (Síndrome de Ovario Poli cístico) la cual le causa algunos síntomas y sufrimientos diarios. A pesar de que es incurable, sabemos que tenemos un Dios mas grande que cualquier dolencia, y les pido que oren por su salud; mas si Dios decide no sanarle (no es falta de fe, mas bien sumisión al plan de Dios, Daniel 3:17), oren para que ella pueda aprender a vivir todos los días con su condición, y poder glorificar a Dios a través de su enfermedad. Les pido de favor que si tienen tiempo le escriban a Patty un correo, o le den una llamadita, ella se esta acoplando muy bien a la vida aquí, mas aun así le encantaría escuchar la voz o saber de alguna de ustedes.

Por favor visiten nuestra pagina: www.loslopez.org para ver algunas fotos y algunas otras cosas. SI quieren saber cosas especificas de la vida aquí o de nosotros, o que les gustaría ver en ese sitio escríbanme y con gusto les contesto.

Hasta luego.