Comments from 2010 ABCB Conference in Brazil

Here are some unsolicited comments from folks who attended the 2010 Association of Biblical Counselors of Brazil Conference in August 2010.

As we attended your lecture, I and my wife were amazed because, although we are old believers, we had never heard how to handle anger under a solid process of watchfulness in order not to sin. Your lecture has provided us to build a secure base and we thank to you and to our Lord for your life.
- Marcos Freitas


I enjoyed the lecture on anger, I am treating this matter in a church with all our people on Wednesdays.
- Pastor Ademir Santana


David's lecture at the ABCB conference was very uplifting for us. God bless you richly.
- Rosana Santana


I want to thank you! Your sessions and classes, the examples, the church ministry ... this kind of ministry and vision really impacted me! Since the congress [conference], I feel that God has changed something in me and in my ministry vision. Thank you!
- Rev. Jonotas Abdias de Macedo

Aug 15, 2010 Brazil Update

Saturday night we attended the first meeting of about 16 of the key leaders in biblical counseling in Brazil. A second meeting is scheduled for Oct 16. The meeting was productive, good and encouraging. Pray for the biblical counseling leadership of Brazil as they seek to increase the momentum of the movement for the glory of God.

We had a wonderful time in the church where Sacha and Ana minister in San Jose dos Campos, Brazil. Steve taught a two hour ABF class from Matthew 5:13-16 regarding the responsibility of believers to reach out into the community and live in such a way that we are salt and light in the world. Afterward, we enjoyed the wonderful experience of eating at a churrascaria, a Brazilian barbecue place. The food was great and we enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship with dozens of the church family.

Sacha took us to the airport Sunday evening so we could catch our overnight flight to JFK. We arrived in JFK about 5:30am, went through customs and are now scheduled to depart at 8:45 arriving in Indianapolis around 10:30am, so we should be home around noon. We appreciate all your prayers for us while we have been gone.

Aug 12, 2010 Brazil Update

We are making many contacts within the Biblical Counseling movement of Brazil. We had a good meeting with several leaders yesterday regarding a meeting that we will attend Saturday in the city of Sao Paulo. God is working among churches here in Brazil in the area of biblical counseling and it is exciting to obeserve and participate in His work here.

The people are responding with good questions and comments regarding the conference. Many of the classes are being taught by Brazilians. We love teaching and having fellowship with these dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

Pray for Steve as he has a busy teaching schedule tonight and then again all morning tomorrow. Please pray also for our meeting to discuss the 2011 conference and then our journey back to Sao Jose dos Campos.

Aug 10, 2010 Brazil Update

As you can see, we are suffering immensely in the food department. It's a shame they don't have any desserts for us. LOL!!!!

Seriously, the food is really good. Hope we don't gain to much weight while we are here.

It was a long day. We started teaching at 8am and finished at 10:50pm. Just got back to the room at 11:25pm to update the blog. Fortunately we had a 4 hour break in the afternoon. The people are responding very well to the teaching and the Q&A went well tonight. Most of the questions were related to medical issues. That made it easy for me, because Dr. Wickert answered those!

Steve Viars should arrive sometime in the middle of the night tonight. Dan teaches in the morning and makes the 3.5 hour trek to Sao Paulo tomorrow afternoon to catch a 9pm flight to the US. Pray for him as he travels back and drives from the Indy airport to Lafayette. Steve has a very full teaching schedule starting Wed night and going through lunch Friday.

Aug 9, 2010 Brazil Update

ABCB Biblical Counseling Conference

We, Dan Wickert and David Selvey arrived in Aguas de Lindoia, Brazil today after a 3 hour drive from San Jose dos Campos. We had a wonderful supper, including one of my (David) favorite deserts, flan ... not the kind we usually get in the US but the really good kind!

There are two tracks in the conference and there were two classes

tonight. Sessions were 7:20-10:40pm. Pray for Pastor Viars as his flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo was cancelled so he got stuck in Brazil. Pray with us that he will arrive in time to teach his scheduled sessions and that he will be rested sufficiently before he arrives.

It's midnight and we have breakfast at 7am and begin teaching at 8am. We appreciate your prayers for us as we seek to serve the church here in Brazil.

Pastor Viars was scheduled to fly out of Atlanta tonight and join us Tuesday. His flight went from delayed to cancelled. We are praying he can get out in the morning.

FGM Team Celebrates Father's Day in Brazil

Today, Aug 8, is Father's Day in Brazil. We (Dan Wickert & David Selvey) enjoyed a special time with the congregation of the Faith Baptist Church of San Jose dos Campos in Brazil. David preached on unity from Romans 14 and Dan taught on the benefits of illness. In between the two sessions there was a special 45 minute breakfast fellowship in honor of Father's Day.

During the fellowship time God gave me, David, the opportunity to converse with Carlos. Carlos' wife and children are Christians but he says he does not believe in God. He likes the Christian way of living because it is "a good way to live." Carlos allowed me to have a conversation of about 10 minutes with him as I challenged him to consider several questions. As we returned to the service, he agreed to think about the questions I posed to him. Pray for Carlos that God might reveal Himself to him.

Tonight we worshipped with a church near our hotel, Templo Batista Biblico. David preached on Unity in the Church from Romans 14. We had a wonderful time of worship and fellowship. The music was lively and the people were actively engaged with the preaching. The service lasted about 2 hours. We got back to our hotel about 9:40pm. Tomorrow we drive to Aguas de Lindoia,about 3 hours away.

Team Arrives in Brazil

Dan Wickert and David Selvey departed Lafayette at 2pm Friday and arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil at 8:30am Saturday. At the airport in Sao Paulo, we had a brief discussion with Brother Jayro, one of the leaders of the Biblical Counseling movement in Brazil. He was waiting to pick up someone else. Brother Flavio and his oldest daughter, Thifani, picked us up and drove us about an hour away to the city of Sao Jose dos Campos.

Flavio's other daughter, Liviana, met the rest of us for a delicious Brazilian breakfast. Then we exchanged our US$ for Brazilian Reais (pronounced "hay-ice") and checked into our hotel. Dan and I went for a long walk around the area and observed a very nice community. It was pretty easy to pick out the favorite community hang-outs. After all, it was a beautiful sunny winter afternoon ... that's right, I said, "fall." Remember, Brazil is in the southern hemisphere so the seasons are opposite the United States. The temp was around 72 degrees, about perfect.

Flavio and his wife, Ingrid, picked us up at the hotel around 7 to go out for pizza. Brazilian pizza is yummy, especially the chocolate dessert pizza. The restaurant was pretty empty upon our arrival, but was full when we left around 9pm. David preaches in the morning and Dan is teaching the ABF lesson in Flavio's church. Thanks for your prayers.