Yesterday was our vacation day in Brazil after speaking 21 times in four conferences in the last two weeks (and Mary five times). I caught up on 100+ emails, and then we drove in three cars with our old and new friends from the conference in Governador Valadares the 6 miles up an incredibly stony, bumpy, steep road to the top of a huge mountain called Ibituruna that overlooks the city of 350,000 people. The scenery overlooking the city is breathtaking–God’s creation is amazing! We arrived just as the sun was setting (photo 1–note the island in the center that has a beautiful 3-mile walking trail around it), and stayed for a while as all the city lights turned on (photo 2). Many people go parasailing off of this ramp in photo 3, not a few of which get seriously injured in one way or another. Before returning to the city to enjoy 2.5 more hours of fellowship over dinner with these lovely Christian friends, we took a group picture just as it was getting dark on top of the mountain (photo 4).
Today we’re taking two flights to get to Sao Paulo, and then driving four hours from there to reach Franca, the location of our fifth and last conference which begins tomorrow. About 1000 are expected to attend, with tens of thousands listening online. Please pray for God’s benediction as I preach four sermons there, D.V., on the theme of “Experiencing Intimacy with God.”
