Friday July 10 - Start of VCF Piratininga Conference

On Friday July 10th our plans were to go to the local hot springs (Aguas Quench) right after breakfast and then attend the start of the conference in Piratininga in the evening. Every day here in Piratininga and Bauru so far had been sunny and warm, but Friday was rainy and cold.......most of the team still decided to go over to the hot springs anyway! The hot springs were discovered many years ago while drilling for oil; what they found was a natural geo-thermal mineral hot springs, with no sulfur! Over the years it has been developed into a resort that people come from all over to visit.

At 8pm the conference at VCF Piratininga started. The conference in Portuguese is called:

"Paixon Compaixao Acao
Conferencia Maos a Obra 2009"

The English translation is:

"Passion Compassion Action
Doing the stuff Conference 2009"

There are three main conference speakers, each taking a different part of the conference message:

- Milton Lucas: Passion (Friday night)
- Bebeto: Compassion (Saturday night)
- Beau Watkins: Action (Sunday night)

There are also workshops planned for Saturday and Sunday mornings and out-reaches in the afternoons.

Just as background, Bebeto is a Vineyard pastor from one of the poorest cities in all of Brazil; his church and ministry is focused toward social justice and the poor. Bebeto was a successful engineer that gave up his career to pursue God and making a real impact on the world. Their church is impacting the community in a very large way and has been in the national news several times; the church has significantly raised the standard of living and provides job training and employment for many.

The Pastor of VCF Piratininga, Milton Lucas, spoke on Friday night on Passion after a sweet time of worship. His message was walking thru 5 pillars of Vineyard Brazil Values. During Milton's talk, he showed a video of the Piratininga church working in the community, cleaning up the park and serving the people of Piratininga. One of the people in the video (with a huge smile) working with the Vineyard was Daniela, a precious 14 year old from the park that our teams have been praying for and loving on for over 4 years....Daniela's little brother Daniel was baptised this year and her older sister is now coming to church too; it makes me cry to think about!

Please pray with us that the conference accomplishes all of God's purposes!

Thanks for your prayers,
VCF Brazil Team 2009