Embracing the Unexpected
The Family Diocese, Anglican Church in Brazil
We often expect to share Jesus in grand moments. Acts 2:41 moments, where 3000 souls are added to the family of Christ. Acts 6:7 moments where disciples are multiplying greatly, even opposing priests becoming obedient to the faith. Acts 10:46 moments, where the Holy Spirit descends in visible form, and everybody begins speaking in tongues and extolling God, or Acts 16:26 moments, where all the doors of an entire prison are opened simultaneously.
All of those moments are important, wonderful, and real. God truly does work in those ways.
But what about an Uber? What about a dinner? What about the person at the front of the grocery store? What about when our numbers are more like one instead of 3000? What about when even that one isn't an instant convert, but you can tell you've just planted the seed?
Brazil is a country of about 230 million people, the vast majority of whom ostensibly believe in the Christian God. However, the reality on the ground is much different. Many believe that Jesus is just one of many ways to say the same thing, rather than the exclusive Way, Truth, and Life.
Many are influenced by other religions, many are worn out and fazed by religion in general, many are more concerned with the worries of their own lives and the world than they are by that "religião" thing. The reality of mission is often much more like Matthew 13 than it is Acts 2.
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Some fell on rocky ground, where there was not much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings. Still other seed fell on good soil and produced a crop — a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold."
What this parable reveals is that it is not the seed that makes the difference, but the soil; when the seed falls on good soil, it produces a crop. And not just any crop, but a "hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold". The Kingdom of God is not about numbers but about the Spirit and His impact. And the Spirit is not limited in the ways we are. And the Spirit is just as likely to work in an Uber heading to the grocery store as He is in huge gatherings in colosseums.
Many of my best experiences in Brazil have been the least expected ones. The people most eager to receive Jesus have not been those who outwardly appear studious, the obviously desperate, the "ears to hear" type folk. People willing to listen have often been those caught up in sin, those already involved with other religions, those who at first seem totally opposed and by the end seem totally wrecked in the heart.
When I started discerning a call to mission, God started opening doors all around me. One of my first opportunities to share the Gospel after embracing this call was with a self-declared satanist who specifically requested to talk to me. I shared the Gospel with her and she was incredibly interested to hear about the kind of kingdom God desires. Unfortunately, I have no clue whether she converted since, and it's likely she didn't yet. But a seed was certainly planted, and God worked somewhere people would absolutely least expect it.
Since then, God has put everyone in my path. Literally people from all sorts of walks of life: as Brazil as it gets. Rich people, poor people, religious people, irreligious people, people of every color, every creed, and every background. And the one thing I've learned is that the world changes and has its many accents but God remains God.
And His love works in all of those places. Our God is a god who calls the rich. He calls the poor. He calls the religious. He calls the irreligious. He calls people of every color, every creed, and every background to come and be willing to leave everything else behind to come and know Him. "I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith." God calls people of every strata to this. To this knowing. And it's there where God has worked in me in Brazil.
Those who know me know I'm a person of structure. Of crossed t's and dotted i's. And that's wonderful, in a sense. God designed me intricately, and that is one of the gifts He gave. But I've learned I have to hold that loosely. Because often somebody isn't ready for everything all at once, but I've seen the impact that the seed, carefully watered and prepared by our God who gives the growth, can have, even when it doesn't grow instantly.
And so my mission, starting a while back, had a paradigm shift. I'm still interested in seeing people's lives change right on the spot. I'm still interested in seeing Zacchaeuses instantly turn, repent, and pay back four times the amount they've cheated. I'm still interested in seeing Lazaruses rise from the dead and realize the power of the God who holds authority over both life and death. I'm still interested in seeing thousands come to Christ at once and be completely transformed instantly by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within them, where once there was emptiness.
But I'm also interested in Nicodemuses. I'm interested in soldiers who pierced Christ's side, and centurions who come to find that truly the one they saw pierced was the Son of God. I'm interested in those who were too caught up with the worries of this world, but who had their veils lifted when others would have said that was impossible. I'm interested in the one who has heard the message a hundred times, and yet on that hundredth time, has had their heart softened because God has been constantly pursuing them since before they were born. Because that's me.
And so here in Brazil, my mission has been transformed by this understanding. If God so wills, there will certainly be victorious moments where thousands convert at once and come to know Jesus for the first time, perhaps never having truly heard of Him before. But there will also be people I run into again and again, and it may be several times of having met them before I start to see that there's something different going on in them now. A seed, growing. Sprouting.
Changing. From the inside out.
I've learned that the world is my mission field. The farmer planted plenty of seed, and that which is on good soil will produce a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold. The important part for me is to plant the seed, because God gives the growth. And so that's what I've come to do.
In grocery stores. In classrooms. In the bars. In the cars. On the streets. On the beach. At the waterfalls. At the malls. In the line waiting to use the bathroom. In the store, as you're buying picture frames. Wherever you are, there is an opportunity to share. And never underestimate the impact one mustard seed can have because we have a God who works all things together.
I remember a girl our youth group had invited to join in its hangouts, but who had turned down multiple times. She always had a reason she couldn't come, and honestly, I had kind of given up on trying to tell her about Christ. One day her mom invited me over to dinner with her entire family: grandparents, aunts, cousins, the whole like. At the dinner, she explained what she believed about Jesus and explained she didn't really believe in a "Good News" style Jesus who comes in and shapes everything, and she just wasn't really interested in that. Her dad was lovingly quick to give her his thoughts, but I did my best to simply sit and listen. I heard her concerns. I heard her doubts. And then God opened the door. We spent hours speaking about who Jesus is, about Greek manuscripts, about what it really means that God has "Good News" for us. About how they are about what God has done for us, rather than the list of things we can do for Him. She asked me where she could find out more, about where to start, and went from saying all religions are equal and she doesn't really like reading the Bible to asking me where she could download the Bible and where she could get started finding out about this Jesus. I left there having seen a look in her eyes I had never seen in them before. She finally actually "heard” the Gospel.
I remember another time I was praying on the streets with a bunch of people who were likely routine drug addicts and convicts, who had likely already heard the Gospel again and again, but who it may or may not have ever touched inside. People who, at this point in their path, might not really "want help". Still, I felt called to go and share with them. I saw some hope come back to their eyes, but none of them confessed any issues with sin, and I didn't push them to. I simply prayed with them. Out of nowhere, another man came up to us and joined us of his own accord. Eyes full of tears, he begged me to pray for him. Uniquely out of the group, he came up front and mentioned his exhaustion with his struggle with drugs and that he needed freedom. That he needed God. I never would have had the conversation with him had I not been praying with those around him first, those who many had even once advised me: "Leave them, they don't want help".
I remember getting in an Uber and the driver, out of the blue, both sharing with me about Jesus and telling me about how he had cheated on his wife multiple times, though she still didn't know. An interesting mix. He had recently started going to church again and started turning his life around, and he stated that being out of church was directly related to the lifestyle he had fallen into in the time in between. I was given an opportunity not to condemn, but to remind him of the men we truly are in Jesus Christ. We were able to point each other to the same Jesus, the same one who comes to us in our brokenness but doesn't leave us there. A God who comes to the rescue even of a man who does not deserve it. A God who can forgive. And I reminded Him how God turns us into men who don't have to hide in the shadows anymore, but can repent and make amends. Who may suffer, but who no longer suffer alone. Men who are no longer the same.
As I write this, I am sitting next to a group of people I hear conversing, pondering whether marriage is a scam. They mention how nowadays marriage doesn't last, but "antigamente" marriage was truly for life. And I see the opportunity. To talk about what marriage really is. To talk about a marriage that really does last. A God who makes a promise with us. A God who never leaves us. The one who doesn't cheat, even when cheated. The one who doesn't take His ring off. The one who pursues us. The one who dies for us. The one who rises for us. The one who is unlike any other, and yet who calls us to be able to do the same through Him. Who changes the whole world, using the weak to transform the strong. And I see some seeds waiting to be planted.
Later, coming back to this writing, I see some of the same people, drinking beers and smoking around a table, talking about whether Christ really ever came as a person or whether He actually was just a Spirit and a higher level of consciousness we can tap into. And I see some seeds waiting to be planted.
Perhaps someone will transform on the spot. Perhaps not. I have no doubt that the world is ready to speak through many imperfect people. But God is, too. And I'm simply here to sow.
—Jonathan in Brazil
Jonathan, RoleCall Apprentice
Jonathan is an evangelist and musician in Latin America, helping people come to know their Creator personally and make Him known. He realized the greatest impact he can have is helping people personally know and see love for God and love for others! Jonathan is currently serving as a RoleCall apprentice.
