So I was typing up a post two days in an Internet café in Rio when the computer restarted. A bit frustrating, so I’m back.

Rio was fantastic. If there was one word to sum up our time in Rio de Janeiro, it would be encouragement. It truly was a fantastic destination to start our trip. We worked with Abel Azevedo, a man dedicated to planting churches in Rio.

Abel is the son of a man from Mozambique and a woman from South Africa, he lived in Mozambique for much of his early years, then moved to Portugal in service to the military, then to Canada to work (but it was too cold for his taste), so he moved to Brazil and that’s where we find him. He helped us the last time we were in Rio working with a congregation in Ramos (a neighborhood of Rio) and last year I emailed him to see if he would, again, be interested in working with us. He told me “Of course.”

The two churches we worked with are located in far west Rio de Janeiro. They are Jabour and Cosmos. They’re not large congregations but are filled with people who love God and serve each other and their communities. Abel informed me that we are the only group that has ever visited these churches and what a blessing of encouragement it is.

The encouragement was reciprocal. We had an amazing time in Rio and can not to return in the future.

Leaving Miami, Frank is out	Abel squatting
Abel speaking to the confluence	Dancing in the favela
Group atop Pão de Açúcar	Amanda and I above Rio
I was out of it	My friend Lucas and I at Barra
Carol with David	Abel being Abel