Reflections on our "Pilgrimage" to Brazil

It is perhaps fitting that I am finally getting to put this down here on the blog, six months after the fact. Gives us time to reflect from more of a "distance."

 Again, since it has been so long... there was a lot that went into this at the beginning of the year.
Some of those thoughts were:

• Ever since being in Brazil in 2008, I had always felt my heart drawn back to spend more concentrated time in seeking God in a couple of particular places where His presence was so real to me, and I wanted to take Marilou with me so she could experience those same things.
• We wanted, as a couple, to spend an extended amount of time praying and seeking God's face, and this was a place we knew we would encounter Him.
• In the 36 years of our ministry/marriage, we had never had that kind of extended time together seeking Him.
• Even though we could not afford it financially, we felt like... "what the heck, we are not getting any younger! Why not? What better way to use our time and finances than seeking the face and the voice of our God?"

Observations:

1. Obedience is sometimes it's own reward - For us, one of the primary rewards of the trip was the fact that we did what we felt God was telling us to do. Looking back now, we both remember the ways God touched us and drew us together toward Him in that time.... and it is like a lode stone that draws us over and over again to Him and one another
2. Our God is a lover... He showed us His love in many different ways, but most often it was through His people. The variety of expressions of God's love is really as infinitely varied as the number of people who He calls His own. There is never a point in God's economy for us to compare ourselves to anyone else. He is able to express Himself through us in a very unique way.
3. God is BIG! It was great to see the ways in which God expressed His greatness to us, whether it was in a quiet moment on top of the hillside seeking Him, or among the people of God as they worship Him. We should never get "used to" the greatness, the "bigness" of our mighty God.
4. Finding Him is satisfying and at the same time... it makes us hungry for more! What a paradox, but it is true. 
5. Something happened in our hearts that makes this that benchmark for us, and we both want Him more and more because of what He called us to do in this "pilgrimage."

Well, that will do for now....neither of us will ever regret making this trip. It brought us closer to Him, to one another, and to those we connected with there. It was a "win-win" deal all the way.