Archive for the ‘Truth’ Category

Kidsong World 2011

14th of July, 2011, by Cadu.

Since 2009, when I’ve been taking Kidsong World seriously, God has used it to teach me amazing things. And I’m loving it! Last week was the 25th Hillsong Conference. As usual, I was serving as a kids leader in our kids conference Kidsong World.

This year was different because I was a tribal leader instead of a group leader and didn’t have a specific group of kids allocated to me, but a group of about 7 leaders who were leading a group of 100+ kids. And I had two electives to present. In addition, my friend and leader Dave had a great idea during conference and needed my help to execute it. As a result, I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted with the kids.

However, this lack of time didn’t stop God from using me to impact the lives of a few children, which made me happy. I love when God does that! I love when I see the smiles of children after conference, and how much fun they had, and how sad they are to leave (ok, this part is not fun, I also feel sad when conference ends and I have to say good bye to the kids who live far away and whom I might never see again).

After Conference, when I stopped to thank God for everything, He reminded me that even though I feel good when He uses me to change children’s lives, He is the one who makes it happen, and it is all for His glory. He also reminded me of the great honour and privilege that it is to be trusted as a leader to the little ones whom God loves. And He reminded me of the impact my life has in these kids.

While being a children’s leader with influence is amazing and is a blessing, it is also a great (and I cannot stress this enough) responsibility, because the kids watch every step I take, and my decisions can have a positive or negative impact in their lives. As it is written:

“But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.” – Mark 9:42 (NLT)

Now, I definitely don’t want to be thrown into the sea, or, even worse, make the kids I lead to fall into sin, or stumble. Of course, that doesn’t mean I have to be paranoid about everything I do, but I must live a life that honours God and leads people to God. And it is not supposed to be very hard, because the Holy Spirit lives in me, and all I have to do is listen to Him and do what He tells me.

And this is one of the great things about God: when He reminds you of something, He already has all the tools you will need ready to go! What an amazing God! :)

Cadu

PS: By the way, you should watch the video Dave, FMD and I made during conference (this was Dave’s great idea):

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Posted in Bible, Children, Deep, English, Hillsong, Ministry, Truth | No Comments » --------

Evaluating our Ministry

25th of October, 2010, by Cadu.

We all know that having vision is important. But not evaluating our ministry according to our vision is like not having vision at all. Some obvious questions we should be asking ourselves are “is my ministry going where I want it to go?” and “what do I think of it?”.

However, there are other important questions we should be asking ourselves, and in this post I will talk about some of them. In my case, I am in charge of one of our kid’s services, and the questions reflect that, but you can change them to whatever you want.

1. What does God think of my service?

The first thing we have to do is stop and listen to God. Often He has things to say and is just waiting for us to stop and listen to Him. After all, we are doing everything for Him, right? (If you are not, then stop!)

2. What do my leaders think of my service?

Sometimes our leaders won’t be present during our service, but we must know their vision well enough to be able to answer this question. Are we following their vision? Is anything happening that they wouldn’t like? Is anything missing? Can we do anything better? Don’t wait until they come and tell you what is wrong, fix it before that happens; and don’t bother them with trivial problems that you can fix yourself.

3. What do my kids think of my service?

What would a new kid think/feel/experience once they arrive in the room? Will they feel welcomed, or lost? Are the kids having fun? Is your team focusing on the kids? The service is for the kids, and if they are not experiencing God, having fun and enjoying the friendship of their leaders and other kids, something is wrong.

Cadu

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Posted in Children, English, Ministry, Truth | 1 Comment » --------

Te Amo Oh Deus! :)

13th of October, 2010, by Cadu.

Instead of sleeping I decided to sing a song to God. Since I have an awesome new microphone I decided to record it and now I am sharing it with you. I didn’t sing to put it here, but to worship God. Therefore it might be long and possibly boring (not to me or to God) and it is mostly in Portuguese (with some parts in English), but feel free to listen to it or download. It was not edited and it has clear errors, but I don’t really care… ;)

My free translation of the words is as follows:

Oh I love you God

I love you God
God of my Salvation
Neither on Earth or in Heaven
is there a King greater than mine.

I love you God
Prince of my peace
Lord of my life

How I love you, how I love you,
How I love you, how I love you God

I will look in your eyes
I will jump on your arms
Like a child spin me around
This is the moment I am longing for
This is the moment I want more
The moment I will meet with You

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download: flac ogg mp3

Enjoy,
Cadu

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Posted in Deep, English, Music, Poetry, Portuguese, Truth | 1 Comment » --------

From My Journal #1

13th of April, 2010, by Cadu.

5/5/09 – Redfern

Isaiah 40

“All people are like grass, and all human faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of MY GOD endures forever.”
- Isaiah 40:6b-8

“WHO can fathom the Spirit of the LORD (YHWH),
or instruct the LORD as his counselor?
WHOM did the LORD consult to enlightem him,
and who taught him the right way?
WHO was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?”
- Isaiah 40:25

“‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the HOLY ONE.”
- Isaiah 40:25

“He, the LORD, gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
[...] those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faint.”
- Isaiah 40:29,31

WHO can compare himself to God?
Nothing in the universe is comparable to God.
Idols are made of wood, metal, plastic…
they have eyes but don’t see,
they have ears but don’t hear,
they have hands but can’t move.
Not even flies are scared of them;
Flies come and sh*t on their faces,
but the idols can’t even clean themselves.
They are useless like a fly’s sh*t.
But GOD, THE LORD OF HOSTS, created the flies.
And with His word He can kill them.
The LORD is Almighty, Holy and Glorious.
His word will remain forever.
His enemies fear Him,
they run away like a scared rabbit.
Before the LORD they can’t do anything other than surrender,
for the LORD of HOSTS is powerful.
People are like ants to Him,
He can kill them with His pinky finger.
One little breath and they fly away like sand in face of a hurricane.
Compared to the LORD, they are NOTHING.
He is GOD. He is what He is.
He is because He is.
He is Almighty God.
He is the alpha and the omega;
Everlasting, Beginning and End.
Creator of the Universe, King of Kings,
Lord of Lords, Perfect and Eternal.
He is the Righteous Judge,
the LORD of HOSTS,
the ONE that never lies and keeps all his promises.
He is also MY GOD.
He came to Earth, became an ant like me,
layed down His life for me and died on the cross.
His death was not an accident, He died for me.
That cross was mine, the punishment for my sin, but He took it!
He died and rose again.
He is victorious over death!
And all His power is now mine, through His Son Jesus Christ!
Even though He is so HUGE and powerful, He calls me “son”.
And I call Him “Daddy”.
And if anyone wants to harm me, I can call my Dad.
He is scared of no one.
I am victorious, because of Him.
And because of Him, I fear nothing.
Daddy, all I am is yours,
every moment of my life is an offering to YOU.
Please take it and use me as it pleases you.
You are mine, and I am yours.
And I love you…
even when I don’t understand anything.
Even when it looks like the world is falling apart, I trust in you completely.
I just love you forever.

Amen.

Cadu

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Posted in Bible, Deep, English, Journal, Poetry, Truth | No Comments » --------

Impacting Moments…

13th of December, 2009, by Cadu.

A number of weeks ago there was a leadership event for all the volunteers at our Church, and I served in the kids program. It was a Thursday evening, and not many kids came to the program. I ended up hanging out with a kid I didn’t know before… he likes soccer and I am from Brazil, we played for a while, talked for a bit and at some point of the program we prayed for each other. That was basically it. I serve at Voltage (for kids on Year 5 and 6 at school), and he is on Year 4, and that is the reason why I didn’t know him before.

A few weeks later I saw him at Church with his family and stopped to say hi. It turned out his mum already knew me as “the soccer player”, and she said that he talked about me for ages since that evening when we met.

I have to say I was very surprised that his mum heard about me, and that he talked about me for a while, since we hung out for only one evening, a couple of hours… it made me think about the impact we can have in a child’s life if we stop for just some moments and show interest in their lives.

If you stop to do the maths, if a child comes to church every week, he or she will spend about 110 hours at church in a whole year. That is 1.25% of the year, and it is almost 7 times less than the time this child will spend eating (about 8.5% of the year) and almost the same time this child will spend in the toilet (about 1.5% of the year)…

One of the things that God is teaching me this year is the art of being available so He can use me to make a difference in a child’s life. When I am serving in the kids program, if there is at least one child in the room, there I am, talking to them. The last thing you will see me doing during the kids program is hanging out with other leaders or doing something by myself.

We don’t have much time, but we can make the most out of the time we have. If we let God use us during those couple of hours that we have every weekend, we can be powerful instruments in His hands to make a huge difference in the lives of the children that come to our kids program. It is a simple choice that can change their lives forever!

Cadu

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Posted in Children, Deep, English, Truth | 2 Comments » --------

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