June 3, 2011
One of Mike Hale’s WEI students in Brazil, Bene Ribeiro, is now our brother in Christ. Bene had been an elder in the Pentecostal church. Immediately, Bene started sharing with his family and friends what he had learned. He wrote, “I visited my dentist today, who is a Pentecostal, and after our appointment, I asked him for a few minutes of his time. I let him have what I had found. He got very interested and asked me to send him these studies by e-mail. I have translated the first nine lessons of the book, Introducing the Church of Christ, and I have been using them to talk to people who are in many denominations.”
On May 27, Bene wrote, “Some of my Pentecostal fellows have read the first four lessons that I translated into Portuguese, and they could find nothing written there that is not supported by the Bible. One of them has even mentioned quitting his pastor position at a big denomination and following what the New Testament tells us to do.”
On Sunday, May 29, Bryan and Jacquiline Bost, longtime missionaries in Brazil, visited the Rigeiros. Bene wrote, “My wife, Elza, and I had the chance to ask them some questions, and we also prayed and praised the Lord with some spiritual songs.”
On June 3, Bene told his Pentecostal pastor that he and his family were leaving the church in order to worship God according to the New Testament. Bene says, “Since then, I have been gathering with my family on Sundays. We praise the Lord with our voices in songs. We pray, and then we study, and we base everything on the scriptures. Then we pray again, and we partake of the bread and wine. Some people have been invited to join us. We have a room at home that we can use for gathering around 20 to 25 people. I think there will be 16 people there this Sunday. If the Church of Christ brothers from a small town nearby come, there will be around 20 to 23.”
God is at work in Brazil
