Archive for February, 2011

  • 27 Feb

    Posted by
    emily


    Category

    What Makes it All Worth It

    0

    This past year has been a roller-coaster ride, and not always in a good, fun way!  Sometimes I’ve questioned God with a “Why would you have me do this or go through this?”  The answer, I believe, can only be found in retrospect.

    Why would God have me spend a few months working hard with the kids at a children’s home, only for things to go wrong there, and us needing to pull out due to the home’s administrative issues?  I poured my life into the kids, loved on them, got attached to them, and still wonder where they’ve ended up.  The last time I was there, I found that that a few kids had gone back to their parents, and they were happily living with mom and dad.  But what about the rest, I ask sometimes?  What about Luisa?  What about Gugu?  Gugu was to be adopted by the caretakers of the children’s home, but due to the administrative issues, they had to leave as well, and left their little boy at the home.

    Then, at church on Thursday night, as I was at the Motoculto (Motorcycle Church) to take photos and say goodbye to dear friends who are moving, I caught sight of a little boy who looked just like Gugu.  I didn’t think it actually was him because of his history.  He had no family to ever go back to and was, quite frankly, a difficult child, but he was still young enough to potentially be adopted.

    Gugu’s story was heartbreaking, his mom and her friends had burned him, as a little baby, with their cigarette butts and other drugs.  He had lived at the children’s home since the state took him away (rightly so…) from his mom.

    So at Motoculto, I saw him there, with a family, an older couple, who clearly were doting on him, the mom holding him tightly in her arms like a little baby, even though he’s nearly 3 years old.  And, to boot, a friend of mine went to the children’s home this weekend, and, sure enough, Gugu had been adopted!  Well, I already knew that, but it confirmed that I actually did see him!

    Sometimes God has us do things, and we’re not sure how they all work together, or how they will all work out, and its painful to love and then leave, yet its a part of life.  Sometimes I’ll still pray for kids I’ve worked with, all over the globe, not ever knowing where they are or what happened to them.  All I can hope for is that they are walking with Jesus and doing well.  But seeing this one kid adopted, really makes any work and any trials worth it.

    I’m not saying I had anything to do with the adoption, but just knowing that one of the kids I worked with had a very happy ending to his time at the children’s home makes the work there worth it.

  • 06 Feb

    Posted by
    emily


    Category

    Theology of the Miraculous

    0

    This whole Bethel debacle has spurred me and my husband on in several discussions regarding the theology of revivals, miracles, and truth.

    In the midst of all of our searching, we have come across comments which as a Christian, who believes the Truth and believes God is love, and that humility is an important part of the Christian walk, I found them to be disturbing, if not theologically incorrect.

    For example, people saying “Well, Praise God that someone wanted to give God the glory for it!”  even when we brought up proof that the entire story, was indeed false.  Would God want to be glorified for something that was an outright lie?  If God is Truth, and Satan is the father of lies, then why would making up a false story be giving glory to God?

    Another, equally as disturbing perspective we have asked my in-laws about, as my Father in law is a pastor with a ministry of signs, wonders, and healings.  The comment was along the lines of “I would rather believe that God did a miracle, whether fact or fiction, than require proof of it being true”.  If our faith is based on miracles that might be false, then what kind of faith is that?  The consensus from talking with my in-laws was that, no, you do not need to believe every miraculous sign to be true.  We need to have discernment and cannot base our beliefs on miracles and signs and wonders only.  Its not a lack of faith to question the validity of what we hear, its called discernment.

    God never calls us to “just believe” in something that might be false, its not a lack of faith if we ask for proof, or a firsthand account.  Jesus rose from the dead, and afterwards he presented himself to the disciples and to a crowd of people. Lazarus as well, was raised from the dead, and many people saw him alive after he was dead.  I don’t think that asking to see proof of a miracle is a lack of faith, if anything, if there is proof of the miracle (ie, a death certificate for someone who is now living, a doctor’s report of cancer being gone, or even the person who was healed to tell us personally what happened) then that will build faith more than just man’s words.

    What kind of faith is built solely on a pursuit of miracles?  What happens when a loved one is confined to a wheelchair at age six by a car accident?  What happens when she still is not healed, even in her 20s now?  Whose lack of faith or “other issue” is it that keeps her there?  I don’t sincerely believe that anyone can say it is lack of faith or some other error on her or her family, who are Christians.  What if it is God’s plan, God’s will, for someone to have to go through life in a wheelchair?  What if God allows these things to happen and doesn’t allow the person to be healed, because maybe their testimony will lead people to Christ?

    I don’t think that the Christian religion would have survived 2,000 years without a culture based upon truth and fact, as well as faith.  By following only the miraculous and saying “faith over proof”, basically that is discounting years of theological and historical research that has produced the likes of Josh McDowell’s “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” and Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ”.  We need Christian apologetics.  We need reason to believe, not just blind faith.

    I don’t think Jesus calls us to have blind faith.  When we hear of  a miracle that happened, we need discernment as to whether it was true or not.

  • 05 Feb

    Posted by
    emily


    Category

    Re: Bethel’s “Statement” concerning the Brazil “Miracle” Hoax

    1

    If anyone is still following this story, you probably already know by now that Bethel has issued an “appeasement” statement, basically to cover their backs so that they will never have to tell the truth about this whole story/hoax.

    I am sending Bethel one last letter/email, and then I am done.  However, this is an Open Letter, for anyone who wants to see it.  Email has been sent to a Donna on staff at Bethel, Pastor on Call, as well as to Bill Johnson ministries.

    To Donna and the Bethel staff,
    I did read your statement about the miracles in Brazil which you erroneously reported.

    First of all, I would like to make myself clear, I do believe in miracles such as the dead being raised.  So the dead being raised is not “staggering—and we know—hard to believe” nor is it “wonderfully uncomfortable and ‘out of the box.’”  I was trained at the Iris Ministries missions school in Mozambique.  The miracles I saw there were verifiable, there were neighbors and family members all around to witness the deaf’s ears being opened and the blind eyes being opened.  When possible, we noted their names and locations.  If someone was to question their testimony, we would be able to find them and their family and neighbors again to testify they were healed.  For example, Selma, a teenager, was healed from deafness in both ears, on the outskirts of the village of Namapa.  I have her photo and I would be able to find her again if I went back to Namapa.  Her entire family was there and witnessed her healing.

    Yes, the world is a big place, and though it seems Brazil is a land far, far away, it is my home, and it is not “another part of the world”.  I don’t think anyone at Bethel realizes what the nation of Brazil has been going through, nor what the residents of Teresopolis have been going through.  Over 800 people are dead, in Teresopolis and surrounding region, while another 600+ are missing, and 30,000 people have been left homeless.

    An apology, not an excuse, is still in order from the Bethel staff. The miracle has no eyewitnesses because it never happened.  Bethel should send a team to Brazil, ready to work hard in humanitarian relief, and to try to find those eyewitnesses, if it plans to maintain that the story is true.

    Some local missionaries went to Teresopolis to find eyewitnesses.  There were none.  “We are learning, the hard way, what it is like to report such a dramatic miracle prematurely, with the possibility of it not being true and/or the difficulty of documenting it to everybody’s satisfaction if it is true”, however, what if it is not true?

    What amount of evidence does Bethel need for Bethel Church to report that it was not true?

    And I quote from the eyewitness account: “We made contact with the National Security Force, who are patroling the area, and they took us to the school from where the community support is being administered. Talking to the coordinator of the operation, we confirmed that no foreign teams were in Caleme during or after the disaster, thus debunking once and for all the story of the supposed ressurections”.

    If there was no foreign team there, then how would there be any resurrections done by a foreign team?

    I don’t believe that anyone at Bethel will ever respond to this email, and I don’t believe that anyone at Bethel has the grace, dignity, nor humility to ever state that the story, in its entirety, not just the faux newspaper article, was false.  However, I guarantee, that Bethel will never hear the end of this faux pas.  There are too many Bible-believing, Holy Spirit-filled Christians who are hurt and saddened by Bethel’s response and perpetuation of a hoax.

    The church in Brazil is reporting on this as well, however, they are reporting the truth.  Christian blogs, church websites, and Christian (as well as secular) news agencies are reporting with headlines such as:
    “Resurrection in the Serra of Rio de Janeiro is False”
    “News about Resurrections in Teresopolis reverberate outside of Brazil through a Christian Site”
    “News about Resurrections in Teresopolis reverberate outside of Brazil through a Christian Site: The news is not true and the source was not revealed”
    “American Christian Site Spreads False News of Resurrection in Teresopolis”

    Bethel’s ambiguous response and “washing of hands” of the issue, has not suddenly made Brazilians believe that this ever happened.  Why?  Because those who live in this country, who love this country, and serve God in this country, know the real, hard truth of what has really happened in Teresopolis, and also, the truth that not only was the newspaper altered, but that the entire story is not true.

    I find it sad that Bethel will believe the “friend” of two second-year Bethel school students that said it happened, over the EYEWITNESS accounts of two long-term missionaries serving with a reputable Bethel-friendly organization.

    You may be asking yourselves, if anyone is at all is indeed reading this message, why am I spending so much time researching this?  Brazil is a nation that God put on my heart when I was seven years old.  It is now my home, and God has given me this nation to live my life poured out among the fatherless, abused, and impoverished here.  I find it a personal matter, as well as a national matter, when un-truths are reported about a land I love so deeply.

    I believe that, Bethel, as a church, has a responsibility to the people of God in Brazil to repent, to acknowledge that they perpetuated a hurtful hoax about a nation that is currently suffering from the greatest natural disaster in its history.

    Thank you, to anyone who has read this.
    -Emily Vieira

    *This post has been edited 15:30 (Brasilia time) on February 5, 2011.  Our heart is not to hurt or to divide, we just really want people who stand for the truth and will believe the truth, no matter how hard it is.  With much respect to those who are doing relief work in the area, I have edited this post so as to protect them.  Thank you all for understanding this.