| Bro. Calvin G. Gardner |
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23 January 2012
Dear Praying Brethren, Greetings in Our Lord Jesus Christ! Tuesday morning, since school-age children have not yet begun their school year yet, I invited 14-year-old Fabio over to play a game or two of chess with me. He enjoys the game, and being a mathematician, he loves the game too. As providence would have it, Mr. Severino called and asked if he could spray our weeds in the lot next door. When he came over he brought Fernando and Emily, two of his grandchildren with him. They are school-age children and from out of town, so they were visiting grandparents. Since grandma’s health is not good, they accompanied him on his daily activities. Well, Fernando does not play chess, but he caught on to Ping-Pong pretty quickly. David helped him and Fabio and Emily make a foursome and soon the game room sounded quite festive. An hour or so passed quickly and Mr. Severino was soon on his way with his grandchildren. Although Fernando was not much of a reader he chose a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress from my book shelves and said he would look into reading it. As you remember him, please pray for his and Emily’s souls. Soon enough Fabio and I were set down to some serious games of chess. Unfortunately for Fabio, I won them all. However, it was a struggle to do so. Soon we stopped for lunch and then it was time to take him home. While driving him home the Lord gave me utterance to speak Christ to him and to show him his immediate responsibility to repent and trust Christ by faith. As the Lord brings him to your memory, please pray for him too. Since school-age children are still not in school, this month is great for vacationing. Since Pr. Eduardo Cadete was still on vacation in close-by Mirante, we invited his family to come over on Tuesday to go out with us for pizza. It was a grand time. He chose five books from my book shelves and Ivonne, his wife, chose three others for herself. Juliana, their daughter seemed to desire one by Dave Harvey, so Peggy gave her that one. They really enjoyed the time together. By the way, these books are given to them freely because of special offerings towards the book ministry. Thank you who participate in these blessings through your offerings. Wednesday I discovered that the HSBC Bank in town, through whose ATMs I exchange my money, can help me save more money. Since they do not charge me to use their ATMs for this operation, I save $6.00 every time I exchange. However, my bank in Wooster charges me $2.00 when I use an ATM here in Brazil. They also charge me 3% of every dollar I exchange here. But HSBC does not charge anything if I am their Premier client in the States and here and exchange dollars between the two accounts. So I spent Wednesday morning opening up an account here. In three months I will Lord willing open an account Stateside. When both accounts are operative I will pay a monthly fee of about $30 to have the Premier account here. However, exchanging my money through these two accounts will save us from $70 to $120 a month in Bank fees. Bet you never realized that missionaries have such expenses. Now you know. Here’s another story of street sweepers. Those of you who have received these e-mail update letters through the years know that we have a number of beggars come by our home. You also know that in most of these cases we offer them work, usually to sweep our front gutter and sidewalk. Then we pay them for their work and teach them the biblical principle of working for what they get. You also know that many of them do not desire to work and go on their way. But, some do work, and some of these return weekly for months to keep working. We always witness to these folks and through the years we have seen some fruit. As I mentioned, we have another story. Julio and his wife came by on New Year’s Day. He has a drug problem but the two were ready to work, and they did a very good job. I think the extra good job was due to his wife being part of the team. I invited them back but they did not come again. At least not together. Julio came back one afternoon with a friend when I was not at home, and Peggy gave them both the same kind of work, which they did not do very well. Julio came back this last Thursday morning to work again. He was obviously under the effects of drink, or drugs, so he was not very sociable. I had to ask him to re-do part of his job and this was met with grumpiness on a large scale. Yet he did what was necessary to get paid. I invited him back, but he said he would not work for such an unfair boss ever again. We had studied Proverbs 17.4 a couple of nights before. It says: “A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.” In contrast, wicked doers do not give ear to wise lips nor to an honorable tongue. He was a sad example of this verse. Almost four years ago I had a misunderstanding with a dear colleague when he preached for me. I believe he did not rightly divide the Word of God and he would not listen when I tried to talk to him about it. Also, I believed that his practice of church doctrine was less than New Testament. Another colleague preached recently a message that the Lord used to bring me to face this problem that was beginning to become a root of bitterness in my heart. I called the pastor with whom I had the problem and he graciously came over so I could talk with him. The Lord blessed our time together, I made sure my friend, and that which I felt was wrong practice was seen in a better light. He was in fact zealous to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. Thank the Lord with me for this wonderful victory in my own heart! Yours in Our Lord, Bro. Calvin G. Gardner 330 439-6151 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.PalavraPrudente.com.br Missionary to Brazil through Wooster Baptist Temple PO Box 433 Wooster, OH 44691 Pastor Floyd Koenig 330 345-7291 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. http://www.woosterbaptisttemple.org He that can pray can never be much uncomfortable – Richard Sibbes
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