04 February 2008

A Marriage of Catholicism & Spiritualism

Many of our dearest friends and family have expressed a lot of interest in the group of people God has called us to. So much to learn . . . . really Robert and I have much, much to learn in the next few years in following God's calling to become missionaries to a group of Italian Brazilians in South America. And I'm not just meaning language (Portuguese & Italian).

The IMB job description for the assignment we've chosen depicts a people who are Roman Catholic but very strong practices of spiritualism as well. The mind, at least mine anyway, has a hard time merging the two. But I read a post yesterday from blog by Jeff Dunson, who is missionary 3 hours south of where we're headed. The group of missionaries he represents on his blog are called "Team Gaucho". ('Gaucho', as I shared before, is the title given to the people who reside in the most southern state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul.) This post of his, while short, was very educational for me.

Jeff translated a newspaper article that gives a true picture of what this marriage of Catholicism & Spiritualism looks like. It is a quick read: "Just In Case There Was Any Doubt"

While Robert and I are working to build prayer support for us and the Gauchos of Caxias do Sul, I ask that you add the Dunson family, Team Gaucho and the Gauchos of Porte Alegre to your prayers as well. Links to their blogs are on my page (M is for Mud Guy & M is for Mommy) and you can keep up with them and their requests for prayer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the really interesting information, Kerri.

I'm not too surprised with that article. Family members on my wife's side are Roman Catholics, and they've done a few pagan things as well, like consulting mediums.

Over in Asia, and especially in the Philippines, Roman Catholicism has also taken on pretty much the same things as those Jeff observed.

I'd be honored to add the Dunson family, Team Gaucho and the Gauchos to my prayer list.

Thank you for bringing them to my attention.

The LORD bless you and yours.

Shalom!

Kerri said...

Sicarii,

Thanks for your comment. Robert and I are in the process of learning a little . . . with much, much more to learn.

Jeff has posted a part 2 to his original post that just reinforces the same. All new to me.

In His love,
k