I have many reasons to be excited and thankful to God!

First: I am going to the USA in 12 days! I am going to spend some time around LA and San Francisco, go to Disneyland and to Las Vegas to go to NAPKIN CONFERENCE! How cool is that?!

Second: I am going to Brazil for a week to spend some time with my family and a few friends! It will be awesome… I love my Country and I am happy to spend some time over there!

Third: I finally got my Australian Driver License last Friday! I transferred my Brazilian license and after an annoying test I got an unrestricted Australian license (no need for P1, P2 or similar annoying thing).

Last one (because I need to sleep): tonight we had an AWESOME kids service and I know tomorrow will be just the same… can’t wait to be a blessing to more children and families! And that is why I need to stop writing now… I need to go to bed…

Be blessed and see you in Vegas! (or at Church tomorrow, if you live in Sydney…)
Cadu

I imagine all of you know about the massive earthquake that affected Haiti, specially the regions around Port-au-Prince. Lots of people died, and some people estimate that the number of deaths will be around 200,000…

I really encourage you to help! Either by praying for them, by going there (I wish I could), or by giving money to some good organisation that is helping the people in Haiti. I already did, and my choice was Compassion.

I chose Compassion because they are already there for years, they have many Children Development Centres in Haiti, and they are focused in helping children and families, in Jesus’ name. Many of their Children Development Centres were affected, and possibly many of the sponsored children were injured or died because of the earthquake. They have a webpage with updates about the situation of Compassion partners in Haiti: http://blog.compassion.com/haiti-earthquake-update/.

If you can, I also encourage you to sponsor a child from Haiti once their operations there are back to normal.

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

As someone that likes to listen to songs like “Year 3000“, national anthems of different countries (especially Brazil) and other songs I will not tell you so I don’t look too weird, I am not the best person to suggest music to normal people. But it is Christmas, and I would like to tell you about two Christmas albums that I really like: Have a Fancy Yancy Christmas and A pureNRG Christmas.

Have a Fancy Yancy Christmas

Yancy is a signer/songwriter and worship leader deeply involved in kids worship. I met her and listened to her songs for the first time at Kidshaper 09 in Melbourne, and really liked them!

Have a Fancy Yancy Christmas is Yancy’s new album, and it is all about Christmas! And if you are thinking that this is just another Christmas album, you are wrong! It doesn’t only include songs that everybody knows like “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “The First Noel”, but also exclusive songs written by her: “Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas” and “Christmastime”.

While I like the whole album, my favourites are “Christmastime”, “The Greatest Gift” and “O Come All Ye Faithful”. “Christmastime” is not only a Christmas song, but a powerful worship song that I can listen to over and over again…

You can buy Have a Fancy Yancy Christmas on Amazon, yancynotnancy.com or iTunes.

A pureNRG Christmas

pureNRG is an energetic band made up of three teenagers that are not only cool, but love Jesus for real! They were interviewed in the July/August issue of K! Magazine, and I highly recommend reading that interview.

A pureNRG Christmas is another Christmas album I love! Their album doesn’t include any original songs, but their versions of the well-known Christmas songs are awesome and full of NRG (energy)! I love listening to them, even when Christmas is far far away. “The 12 Days Of Christmas” is the first song my alarm plays in the morning to wake me up, and not only because it is loud, but also because it puts myself in a good mood…

Again, I like the whole album, and every day I have a different favourite song… today it would be “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Jingle Bell Rock”, but it changes according to my mood and the phases of the Moon…

You can buy A pureNRG Christmas on their website: http://purenrgonline.com/.

Cadu

The creator of the only blog to be read in the Moon, in the ISS and on Mars (thethursdayblog.com), Funny Man Dan, and more recently Funny Daddy Dan, wrote a great post on Kids Ministry and I am posting it here.

Performance skills – 101 Sharpening your skills to use in every aspect of your program.

One of my greatest frustrations is that only in the church world do people think that performing, preaching and mc’ing are a natural gift. This belief means that (1) those who believe that they don’t have this gift are excused from any of the aforementioned tasks and (2) those with the gifts just have to keep performing and they will get better and better.

This concept is absolutely ludicrous. It is the same as a man saying “I have always naturally been good with my hands, I am going to start practicing operating on people and I am sure I will get better”. Even in the world of fictional TV shows this would be too far of a stretch. Doogie Howser MD was a wizz kid and a doctor by 16 but he still did all of the study and training?

A football team doesn’t just play games to get better but they run specific drills to improve specific skills that will help them with the game. This is what I believe we need to start doing.

In this episode we are going to look at one skill that is crucial in on-stage speaking. In fact if I could only tell you one thing that most help you it would be this:

Truth by Vibration!

The year was 2002 and I was in a theatre class. I was performing a piece from the “Dead Poets Society” with a girl in my class, and I had to confess my love for her. We got to the most crucial part where I said with all my acting skill – “I love you”

“CUT”

The teacher stopped me and told me he didn’t believe me and to try again.

“I love you”

“CUT”

The teacher tried to help. He told me to just say the line. I said with no effort “I love you” and he said “PERFECT – that is it” and told me to do it in the scene. I got to the part again, I said my perfect line and he said “CUT”

Over the next 30 mins it was really painful. He got me to stop and start 20 times speaking the line and getting it perfect, then performing it and failing. After the 30 mins I still didn’t get it. I had no idea what he was saying because to me they sounded exactly the same. It wasn’t until a few months later I found out a secret that has changed the way I have performed ever since.

I went to a voice training class and the speech specialist said during a routine exercise “Truth is communicated on Vibration”.

Every time you speak, sing or make a noise a vibration is made in your body. We generally talk with a bit of chest vibration and a bit of throat vibration but when we get on stage for some strange reason most people’s voice gets a little bit higher and it goes straight to the throat. This is the easiest way to tell the difference from a preacher that has been preaching for years and a rookie. The rookie’s voice is always a little bit higher than they normally speak.

When I perform my voice goes high, goes low, goes all over the place for the enjoyment of the crowd, but whenever I want to communicate a message I make sure my chest vibrates.

Professional performers are trained to speak on vibration (that meaning in the chest) because it sounds more confident, it is more relaxing, and you can speak for as long as you want and your throat will not tire. The other main reason is that if you don’t speak on vibration people will not believe you.

So give it some practice. It is a learnt skill that takes time. It is not speaking in a deep voice but it has certain feel that has to be learnt. The best way is to practice your message with your hand on your chest and focus on getting the vibrations lower.

If you look at all the great preachers, performers and mc’s, you will notice that they speak very similarly to when they are off-stage. They may not realise they are speaking on vibration but have just developed that over the years. If you adopt this specific training you will find that you advance a lot quicker than those who have gone before you.

Have Fun

Dan.

Last week I was busy studying for three maths final exams that I had at uni. Because the maths courses I took were really hard, I knew I had to study for them during the semester and not only a few days before the exam, but I didn’t… The result? I failed one of the tests. I know, it is terrible… and I could try to find many excuses to justify my failure, but I won’t… I decided I want to finally learn something from it.

The interesthing thing about it is that I knew I had to prepare earlier. Not only because they were hard, but also because the last time I studied maths was about 4 years ago in Brazil. In fact, I couldn’t understand the first 2 weeks of lectures, and I only started to understand some of the stuff they were teaching in the middle of the semester… I knew 3 final exams were coming, and that they would be really hard, but for some reason I still didn’t preapare for them very well…

Well, it is obvious that we need to prepare for the things that we know are coming, and there is no need for me to write about it. But what about the things that we don’t really know about our future? Can we prepared for them? Or, should prepare for them?

Hebrews 11:1 says “NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” (AMP)

Many times we want things to happen in our lives or ministries, we pray for them, we say we believe they will happen… but if we really have faith, if we are really convicted of their reality (even though they are not here yet), shouldn’t we get ready for them?

For example, if I want my ministry to grow, shouldn’t I get ready for it to happen? Or if I want to be a missionary in China, am I learning about their culture and language? The big question here is: if God gives me what I am asking for right now, am I ready for it? If the answer is no, then it is time to get prepared!

I was not born in a Christian family. In fact, I don’t know anyone from my extended family that is a Christian… and today, the only ones that follow Jesus are me, my mum and my sister. How did everything turn around?

Since I was 6 months old I had a baby sitter, Fátima. She was (and is) a Christian… a very strong Christian! She was a bit shy and didn’t really talked about Jesus with my mum or dad, but there was one thing she did: she prayed for us! She prayed for us in her bedroom, in her church, and while taking me and my sister for a walk… and she gave birth to me, my mum and my sister. We were born again! Because she prayed for us, today our lives are changed, and not only our lives, but the lives of everyone else me, my sister or my mum impacted and will still impact one day. Only God can count how many people this woman, my spiritual mother, blessed because of a simple and powerful thing: prayer.

How simple is that… to bring our children (real or spiritual) before God… to stand in the gap for them when maybe no one else will… to profecy blessing over their lives! Sometimes we strive to make things happen in our kids’ lives, strive to change things by our own strength, strive to make them sit down and pay attention to whatever we are saying, and forget about praying for them… but there is nothing more powerful than just shutting up, calming down, and bringing their lives before God.

I had (and still have) problems remembering kids names… Sometimes I know a child for months, they all know my name, but I don’t know their names… it is terrible, yes. But since Hillsong Conference this year I decided to change: I started to write down the names of the kids I know, and the names of the kids I meet every weekend. After the service, I go through the list and check who was there and who wasn’t, how much time I spent with each kid and so on. Before the service I have a look and think about who I expect to be there. But the most powerful thing is what happens to this list during my week… sometimes when I am praying, I just go through the list, and pray for each child in that list… I think about them, remember the good and not so good things that are happening in their lives, and I just bring all that before God, and I know that if I care, God cares much much more! They are His children, and He actually wants them to be blessed, succeed, be empowered, be happy and transformed by Him.

As Fátima’s prayers changed my life, I know that my prayers are changing the lives of the kids I pray for. Most of the time, I have no idea what is happening because of my prayers, but I KNOW that God is moving, turning situations around and changing their lives forever! Only God can do this kind of stuff! I can’t change their lives… I can’t be with them while they are crying at night because of whatever problem they might have. But I can pray! And God will do everything to be with them, love them and impact their lives forever!

How about you? How often do you pray for your children?

WARNING! This post may contain stories that normal people would classify as unpleasant. You’ve been warned!

This past week I was forced to remember an interesting event that happened to me in one of the triathlons I did in Brazil. If you didn’t know yet, I trained triathlon for 2 years while in Brazil. I stopped when I came to Australia, but still have plans to restart training. Anyway, one of the competitions I did was a long distance triathlon, which included 1800m swimming, 66km cycling and then 18km running (Here is a photo of me finishing it). For some reason the start was just after lunch, which is unusual for a tritahlon. But that was not all. Everything was fine until the running…

As soon as I started running, I felt sick, wanting to vomit… but at the same time, I did NOT want to vomit, because it feels so bad to do it (you have to agree with me). Then I kept running, and running, and running… My legs were already tired after all the cycling, and I still had a lot of running to do. I tried to drink some water, but it didn’t help. My mind couldn’t work anymore, all I could do is keep running. I wanted to FINISH it! And more importantly, finish in front of my friend, who was 2 minutes behind me. But I was getting sick of being sick, and asked a friend for advice on how to get better. He said what I didn’t want to hear: “stop and vomit!”

After some fight with myself, I did. I stopped to vomit, but it didn’t work… nothing came out… and then I kept running. But not for long. After running for a little while, I needed to pee, but I didn’t want to stop… I was almost finishing. Then I had a great idea: “I can stop, open my legs and pee”. Since I was wearing skinners, I thought the pee would go straight on the ground. So I stopped and peed… but… for some reason the pee ended up inside my left shoe, and I couldn’t do anything other than laugh! When I started running again, the noise my left shoe made every step was very cool! I will never forget it…

Maybe you are wondering why am I telling you this terrible (and funny) story… well… the fact is our Christian life is like a long distance triathlon. In fact, the Bible compares it to a race many times (2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 12:1, 1 Corinthians 9:24, …). And it is true! It is long, and it is hard. We find difficulties along the way, sometimes we are tired and want to give up… sometimes things don’t go well and all we want is stop and rest. But in a race, if you stop, you lose…

Paul said: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, TNIV)

God gave us a race to run… He called us and every day He gives us oportunities to bless and impact other people’s lives! And our prize is not a medal or money… Our prize is to bring people into the Kingdom of God, and one day, to Heaven! Our prize will last FOREVER!

The big question is are we running our race in such a way as to get the prize? I’ve known stories of professional triathletes that defecate while riding so they don’t have to stop… it sounds terrible, but many of them won their prizes! And they did all this crazy stuff for a prize that will NOT last!

Our race is much more noble than a triathlon… and sometimes we don’t want to make a sacrifice and run it in such a way as to get the prize. Paul said in Hebrews 12:4 (still talking about the race): “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”. Are we resisting to the point of shedding our blood? To the point of having to pee in our shoes? To the point of having to defecate while riding? No, it doesn’t sound pleasant… but sometimes it is the only way to win the race.

Maybe things are not going well in your life, in your ministy, in your race… maybe you feel like sitting down and waiting until the pain goes away… maybe all you want to do right now is to give up… well… don’t give up! There are good news: God is running this race with us! He is there to help! And with Him, we will all win the race!

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)

Months ago I had to write an essay for one of the courses I was doing at Uni (Introduction to Educational Psychology), and I wrote about how to maximise learning in a kids service based on what I’ve learned about cognitive psychology. The text is a bit long to be copied here, so I put a link for you to download the PDF if you are interested in reading it. It is also very short to be considered a good paper, but I think it has some good points in it.

Here is the first paragraph: “This paper describes the Modal Model theory which explains the structures and processes of cognitive psychology, and, based on the theories explained, discusses methods to maximise learning in the environment of a church service for children.”

Full text: maximising_learning_in_a_church_service_for_children.pdf

“For me to live is Christ [His life in me], and to die is gain [the gain of the glory of eternity].” – Philippians 1:21 (AMP)

I love the whole book of Philippians, specially the verses 20-26 of chapter 1. In these verses Paul is talking about a hard and important decision he can make: either to die and be with Christ, or to be alive.

When I was younger I was fascinated by the idea of dying for Christ. I used to say that I am going to die anyway so why not die as a martyr, for the cause of God’s Kingdom? I even used to think “maybe I will be a missionary in the Middle East and one day they will bury me alive” and crazy things like that. But lately God has been showing me another idea about life and death.

Imagine someone you really love, perhaps your child or a brother or sister… I think most of us would die to save this person. Maybe jump in front of a bus to save him or her or do some other fantastic act from a Hollywood movie.  It doesn’t even sound too hard or too painful… it will happen in one second, no pain, and we will be forever with God. Now imagine this loved person did something really bad and deserves to go to jail for the rest of his or her life. Would you go to jail in this person’s place? Would you give up your whole life to give this person the oportunity to live freely? It is easier to die for a cause than to live for it.

When Paul wrote this letter he was living a life in which he could actually choose if he wanted to die or not. He was often in prison or persecuted for preaching the Gospel, and a simple “mistake” could define his death sentence. His choices were clear: “But I am hard pressed between the two. My yearning desire is to depart (to be free of this world, to set forth) and be with Christ, for that is far, far better; But to remain in my body is more needful and essential for your sake.” (v. 23-24)

While our situation in Australia and in many other free countries is different in regards to dying or not, we can choose if our life is Christ or not. Paul knew that the best choice was to leave this horrible world and be with God forever in His Glory, but he also knew that it was necessary for his disciples and for the Kingdom of God that he remained alive. To him being alive meant only one thing: “fruitful service” (v. 22). To him it meant persecution and prison. But he knew that he was living his life not for his own sake, but for the sake of the Church of Jesus Christ.

I don’t know about you, but while there are a few cool things in this world, I HATE this world. It is full of sin, full of rubbish, full of stupid things. I would rather be with Jesus right now. And, in fact, if my heart stops now, I will be with Him, and it will be the happiest day of my life (and this day will never EVER end!). But I am not dead, I am alive, and there is only one reason why God didn’t take me with Him as soon as I received Jesus as my Lord and Saviour (considering that living with Him eternally is much better than living here). And the reason is not for me to enjoy my life (I think there is more to enjoy with Him), learn something, or suffer, or anything like that. No no no! The reason is you!

Yes! The reason is you! And by you I mean you and all the other people that God gives me the oportunity to bless. My family. The people that study or work with me. My brothers and sisters in Christ. And the children I have the oportunity to love and bless every weekend at Church.

I am not saying I hate my life. No, of course not! I love my life and I thank God for being alive. I thank God for my job, for the oportunity to be studying at UNSW, for my friends and family… I thank God for many things. But I do NOT live to work and be a succesful engineer or the first in my class. I do NOT live to have a great house, lots of money and many cars. Job, house, car, money and study are NOT reasons for me to be alive. They are all tools that God gives me so I can use them to live for the only reason that matters.

For this reason I exist: to know God and to make Him known. To be His hands, His feet, His heart, His eyes, His LOVE and His presence on Earth! To give everything I can for His Kingdom and for the people He loves. For this reason I say: While I am alive, I will give my everything for the sake of one child.

Cadu