Sword & Trowel 2017: Issue 1
CHURCH NOW CONSTITUTED News from Pastor Ábner Araújo, São Paulo, Brazil
E REJOICE that the Lord has again visited us with salvation. A couple who attended services for about a year before moving away returned to São Paulo having found repentance and true faith in the Lord. We had all thought that they were Christians, though with many Pen- tecostal elements, but the Lord has used circumstances to bring them to a real understanding, blessing to them a number of evangelistic ser- mon recordings which we gave them when they left. Having found the Lord they were very eager to return and to be with the church. They were baptised, with fi ve oth- ers, at the second baptismal service that we have held. The entire congre- gation and some visitors gathered for an outing to the same location where we had used a swimming pool for baptisms in 2014. By the Lord’s grace, after fi ve years of pioneering work, we are now a
W
formally constituted and established church, having left the description Missão São Paulo (São Paulo Mis- sion) and adopted the name of Igreja Batista Reformada da Palavra (Re- formed Baptist Church of the Word). We remember, as if it were yester-
day, leaving London in October 2011 and arriving in São Paulo with much eagerness to start evangelising and preaching. The city looked grey and cold but within us was a living desire to plant a reformed, Bible-believing witness in this vast city of twenty million people. The Lord has been merciful to us all the way and has blessed and confi rmed this work thus far, with fruit for his praise and glory. At a special service on 18th
April
this year, seventeen brothers and sisters covenanted together into a formal membership. This was a moving occasion and we all felt the Lord’s smile upon the congregation.
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page 34 Church Now Constituted
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