Paul's Sweet-Awesome Updates

A little report about Japan

Paul Hrubik — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:55:34 +0000

those "I'm in Japan" moments

Wow, just realized my last blog was from our first week in Japan! What an amazing trip, and I wanted to just share a little of what God did through your prayers and giving and our lives there in Japan.

First of all, our plans changed a lot from what we thought we would be doing. Instead of staying in Iwaki for 5 weeks straight, we ended up going back to Noborito every weekend to be with the PAZ churches, participating, learning, sharing, teaching, and encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ. Micah & I worked a lot with the FUSE, a church for young adults led by Pastors Mark & Yuiko. We participated in the street evangelisms, church services including set up and tear down, life groups, even a beach camp!

FUSE worship team

During that time I was given several opportunities to share at the church and lifegroup which was really cool…I think it was my first time to share with translation (usually I’m the translator :)

During our weeks in Iwaki, Fukushima, many times our Brazil group was split up, so I got to do several different jobs. First we worked with Mr Sato cleaning out his brother’s house next door. The name of the game was throw pretty much everything away but you’re in Japan, so you have to sort all the trash to burnables, glass, metal, etc. The sorting was one of the hardest and longest parts, not to mention taking the trash by small truck-loads to the appropriate places, about 45min drive each way.

Joaquim, Mr Sato, and me

Our second job was cleaning a hotel and helping the owners get it back into working condition. The work wasn’t so heavy, but there was a lot of it, washing dishes, cleaning tatami, putting paper on windows (a real art, we learned it but didn’t master it, had to undo a whole day’s work one time :)

the hotel where we worked

But that was a long on-going job that we would skip every once in a while to work on a short, heavy job, then go back to the hotel. The whole hotel job was an amazing experience as it was during that job that I think our team felt the most culture shock, but through that the Lord taught us so much about serving cheerfully, lovingly, and whole-heartedly, even if it isn’t the kind of job we expected or hoped to be doing. Through that job I think we really touched the life of Abe-san, our driver/volunteer leader. At the end of our trip, when he was in Tokyo, he and his wife visited our church and participated in one of our Brazilian lunches. We believe if he hasn’t already that he soon will make his decision to follow the Lord.

you can see where their house was b/f the tsunami...

My third job with some other guys from our team was to tear down part of a factory of a family who we found out over lunch with them that the owner’s wife and sister died in the tsunami. We also were asked to clean a public location one day which we did while praying the entire time. Our last different job in Iwaki was to load and unload water and rice…the first day was a decent size truck with only 5 tons of water not counting the rice, but the second day was a semi of water! But the good thing about working at unloading with Brazilians is that in assembly lines we toss things instead of hand them off which I think is much easier :)

Finally our last place of working with disaster relief was near Sendai, the worst hit part of Japan. There we saw destruction like I’ve never seen before. We worked with Samaritan’s Purse in tearing out the destroyed floors and walls of houses so that the Samaritan’s Purse carpenters could

the ocean is on the opposite side of the building...

come in and replace them…of course that was only for the houses that weren’t completely destroyed, because the government wasn’t even allowing any new buildings to go up. We also took donated blankets from a church in the US to the temporary housing for displaced families. There we experienced some cold in the mornings around 4 degrees Celcius (39 degrees Farenheit) which was very nice just before coming back to warm Brazil.

The whole experience was amazing and I would definitely do it again. But I realize that what they need

integrating new people into the life of the church through fellowship

the most there are more full-time missionaries, not just the 2-month boosts. The harvest there is so ripe and so large, being one of the least evanglized countries in the world. And truthfully, the part I enjoyed the most wasn’t the hard work (which I loved) or the experience of a new country (and driving on the left side of the road, I was the only one with an international license so I drove a lot :), but the times I was with the FUSE, reaching out to the youth of Japan and sharing the vision of discipleship. Who knows, maybe God is calling me to Japan…let’s pray and see…and until then, let’s continue to grow and reach out where God has placed us now!

All my love,
Paul

1st week in Japan!

Paul Hrubik — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:37:58 +0000

Micah (American/Korean MK to Brazil) pretending to explain this Japanese sign

So we made it and Japan is amazing! I’m very pleased to say even though everything is small here, I’m pleasantly surprised that it is not as small as I imagined :) Even though taking a shower sometimes is a challenge because if I open my arms, both my elbows hit the walls, I’m able to take nice warm showers, we have the nicest toilets in the world, and all beds fit me (since we sleep on the floor :)

Revival is coming to Japan!

One of the things I truly believe, and all the Christians here are saying the same thing, is that Japan is about to see a revival! It’s like you can feel it in the air, the people are getting to a point where they need something that is real, and as soon as they find it, they are going to take hold of it and never let go. I see so much joy in the lives of the Christians here, as if they just got saved yesterday! And their humility is humbling…I am learning so much from them!

Siteseeing w/ Brazil-Japan team

The first few days after we got here, because of a typhoon coming through, we stayed at U. Tim’s house and did some site-seeing and visiting some of the PAZ churches. Then early Monday morning we left for Iwaki from where we leave every morning to different areas to help with the disaster relief. The work has been hard, but we are all in great health and high spirits. Even though a lot has already been done, there is still a lot to go. There are still a lot of tractors at work, but we have focused more on individuals who have asked for help to go through their stuff to either throw away or wash and clean. We have had several opportunities to share the gospel and we believe God is working on people’s hearts.

Evangelism w adolescents after soccer game :)

This weekend we are going back to Noborito to spend more time with the PAZ church leaders and participating in the church services, and should be returning Monday or Tuesday. I’m excited to see what all the Lord has in store for us! Oh, and please be praying for me as I will be sharing at the Fuse (the new young adult church) this Sunday.

Love you all and am counting on your prayers! You are the best!
Paul
P.S. Just felt an earthquake as I was finishing this post :)

Please pray for Sato & family's salvation. We worked at his house a for the last 3 days.

Missions trip to Japan!

Paul Hrubik — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 12:01:25 +0000

Dear Friends and Family around the world,

Ever since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, my Uncle Tim and Aunt Christine who are church-planting in Japan have been asking for volunteers to help them as the Japanese people have opened up to the Gospel as never before! It has been on our hearts to send a team from Brazil to help the PAZ church in Japan as they are tirelessly reaching out, meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the Japanese people.

For the last several months, this team has been assembled, and I have been asked to be a part of this team. I am super excited for what the Lord has planned for this trip, as we plan on going to some of the more dangerous and unreached parts of the tsunami-hit region where there is still some radiation fallout. Our hope is to share the love of Jesus to the Japanese through our hard physical work and non-verbal communication, while our Japanese brothers and sisters witness through verbal communication and culturally effective strategies. Our Brazilian team consists of people who have lots of experience in cell groups and discipleship, and we will be sharing more of this vision to the church in Japan. I’ve also been asked personally to help develop the church’s media department which is the department I’m currently helping here in Fortaleza.

I will be leaving August 27th to meet up with the rest of the team in Santarém, and we will be leaving together on August 29th to Japan. We will be there until October 19th. The cost of this trip will be about US$5,000 per person and we want to be able to bless the church in Japan with another large offering as they have had lots of expenses with these relief efforts. I want to give you the opportunity to be a part of this team as well! My goal is to raise US$10,000 to cover the costs of my trip and to leave an offering of $5,000. I think this is the largest goal I’ve ever seen someone shoot for on a missions trip, but we have a BIG God and I am confident in Christ that this goal will be reached for His honor and glory!
Thank you for your prayers and partnership on this trip. Let us together help our family grow in Japan while these doors are wide open!

In Christ,
Paul
http://paulhrubik.wordpress.com

Tax-deductible donations designated to Japan Relief Team can be made through the PAZ website or by mail or phone at:

U.S.A.
Project AmaZon
P.O. Box 3253
Peoria, IL 61612
(309) 263-2299

Canada
Project AmaZon Canada Society
P.O. Box 601
Cranbrook, BC V1C4J2
(250) 919-4142

Vacation month with lots going on…

Paul Hrubik — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:34:17 +0000

Family Reunion in WV

Praise the Lord the time in the US was so special. Thanks to all who took some time out to meet while I was in Tulsa and Florida, it was great to catch up! The family reunions were so much fun as well! Happy 90th B-day Grandpa and 80th Grandma, you are the best grandparents in the world!

Discipleship Conference

I got back to Brazil the day before our largest church conference of the year, and even though I was doing a lot of communication and preparations in the US, the entire conference was pure adrenaline, with long hours, little sleep, and a LOT of problem solving :) But the Lord is faithful, and there are still amazing reports coming in from the 100+ denominations represented, 800+ pastors and church leaders who attended. We have this conference once a year about discipleship and cell groups, and it seems like every year is a new record of attendance.

we took 2 boats to visit the river church

The

Scenario for Congresso (front row seats for our group :)

following weekend I led a group of 40 young adults from our church to participate in the huge evangelistic rally (Congresso) in Santarém, and of course gave them the whole tour, visiting our fresh-water beaches, church work in a river community, and behind the scenes look of the Congresso. We arrived Friday in Santarém and early Monday morning…talk about another adrenaline rush :)

after service @ pastor's house

Got back for a “normal” week, then off to a 10-hour drive Abreu e Lima in Pernambuco, where a group of 4 young adults and I ministered for a weekend about holiness at a youth conference. Now we are a week away from our adolescents’ camp, “Fuego“, where my sister and brother-in-law, Beth & Bruno, will be ministering and I’ll be a camp counselor :) Fun, fun…long days, little sleep…and as U. Abe always says, this is just the beginning!

Family reunion in the US coming up…

Paul Hrubik — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:13:55 +0000

intense worship at the young adults camp

Our young adults camp was amazing! The presence of God was bound to be manifest with all the difficulties we encountered before and until the first night of the camp. Just to get an idea, 2 days before the camp, the hotel calls us up and says that they had a problem and instead of the 45 rooms promised, they were only going to give us 31 rooms. But our speaker was a blessing and ministered openly about soul ties, spiritual ties, the effects of sexual impurity, and lots of other things. Her shortest message was 2h30m of straight speaking with no breaks! But she kept everyone’s attention the entire time!

Praise during the camp

The week immediately after the camp was PAZ’s National Presbytery Meeting, and I got to sit in on that to translate for one of our board members who also participated for the first time. It was a cool experience and I learned a lot about how to resolve different issues in ministry and challenged for the future in my personal ministry as well as where PAZ is going! It’s an exciting place to be!

So I’m going to be going to the US for a couple family reunions, and decided to take advantage of the trip to go to Tulsa and see friends and my sending church, Victory Christian Center. I can’t be long, so I’m thinking of staying in Tulsa a week, from May 27th-June 3rd, then two more weeks at the reunions until June 19th.

Night of the Nations - dressed according to a nation of your choice

As soon as I get back we’ll be having a Cell Group and Discipleship Conference where about 800+ pastors and leaders from across Brazil come to our church to learn more about the vision and strategies being used here to win people and take good care of them. So wanted to give you all the heads up, if you’re in Tulsa or will be there around those dates, I’d love to see you!

More later!
Paul

Carnival/FIRE coming up!

Paul Hrubik — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:03:41 +0000

stapling FIRE fliers to cell study guides

We have our young adults camp FIRE (standing for Internal Fire, External Revolution in Portuguese) coming up March 5-8, during carnival here in Brazil. It’s going to be the first one I’m part of here in Fortaleza, since last year we just had an event in the church during that time. And it’s going to be really different than the normal rustic camping I’m used to in Santarém where you have to take your own hammock, towel, plate, silverware, etc. Here we’re staying in a 4-star hotel and being catered by the hotel’s restaurant! Praise the Lord we got a great package deal for this.

I’m also training in 2 new people to be working with the church media as well, and hopefully I’ll be able to be more involved with cell groups and discipleships while just supervising the media department. It’s been quite the new experience heading up a lot of these events alongside my pastors.

a fun day of advertising for the camp; "Eu Vou!" means "I'm Going!"

Some prayer requests I’d like to share, first being everything that everything will go smoothly with this camp. No accidents, finances will all come in, sound equipment work well, no rain, etc.
Secondly, my last cell leaders meeting I had went really well, but not everyone who said they were going went, and my next one is coming up so just that the Lord would be able to use me to encourage the cell leaders and that it would be a great time of fellowship, unity, and growth.
Thirdly, that I would have wisdom in my time usage, knowing what responsibilities to accept and turn down. I’ve been asked a lot already this year to minister to young adults at different churches across Brazil, and even though I really enjoy doing that, I need to know when those trips will hurt my growth in cells and discipleship, and when it will be a blessing for them to grow more.

This is getting long, so I’ll save some other praise reports for the next blog, but God is doing great things and right here right now is a super exciting place to be! Thank you again for your love and support!

Serving joyfully with a permanent smile,
Paul :)

Rain, challenges, growth!

Paul Hrubik — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:48:00 +0000

a little discipleship on the beach :)

Hey everyone, I wanted to wish you all a happy new year, but it’s already almost February, so I don’t think it counts anymore :) I got back to Fortaleza on Dec 30th just in time for working day and night to get a live transmission of the New Years Eve service from our two church locations in the city. The hardest thing was not transmitting it live from one location to the next, it was that our pastor wanted to be able to “chat” with the pastor at the other location. Praise the Lord it worked!

Sunrise of Jan 01, 2011

But that was just to start the night, the young adults from our church planned a New Years party at the beach, where we prayed, ate, played Uno, made new friends, then watched the sunrise on January 1st.

So what’s with the rain? It just rained for about 3 days straight here, and the last day, we woke up to our house flooded…the water was seeping in from the wall! Just to get an idea, Herbert couldn’t squeegee the water faster than it was coming in. But thankfully that day it stopped raining, so everything is about back to normal again :)

fun with friends from a cell group

So something cool that happened now in January is that since the majority of our pastors are on vacation, they asked me to preach one Sunday at our satellite church! How it works here is that whoever preaches at the satellite church gets the sermon outline that’s going to be preached at the main church, watches the service be preached twice at the first two services, then studies it over lunch until he preaches it that evening and night (yeah, I preached the same service 2x in a row b/c there are 2 services at our satellite church, 5pm and 7pm). Not going to lie, the first service I was really nervous, stuttering, shaking, losing my place in the notes. But praise the Lord both went well and hopefully I’ll be a lot more calm next time :)

I'm serious, it doesn't hurt, it's awesome!

belly flopping on balloons doesn't hurt!

It’s exciting to learn and experience so many new things! I’m learning a lot about cell groups, discipleship, planning meetings (didn’t know that could be so hard :), dealing with bigger problems, delegating, training, etc. Something I always say is that I like to always be learning, and usually that comes with challenges. Right now I have two main focuses:

1. Sector Meeting – a meeting I’m hoping to have about once a month with the cell leaders under my supervision. I’m hoping to be able to invest more and more in them to see them become stronger Christians, disciplers, cell leaders, and soul winners. A lot of them have come back from Christmas vacation excited and thirsty for more and I’m right there with them. Our first meeting will be this Saturday night. Please be praying.

2. Young Adult Camp during Carnival – we are having a 4 day Spirit-filled intensive camp for the young adults this March during carnival. And again, I’m right next to Pr Sandro, our youth pastor, helping to plan and coordinate this event. Even though our focus is our church here, there already are people from across Brazil signed up to come and participate with us.

Gonna sign out for now, but thanks again for all your prayers and support! And like I always say, come and visit me sometime and see the work you are a part of here in Brazil!

Much love!
Paul

Merry Christmas!

Paul Hrubik — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:14:56 +0000

Merry Christmas! What a special time of the year! This year all my immediate family is together in Santarém, Debbie from the US, Beth & Bruno from São Paulo, and me from Fortaleza, with Mom & Dad, Ruth & Nate and the twins, Becca & Anna. It’s been super special and fun and a great time to relax and catch up on some sleep :)

But let me just say that my time in Londrina was such a blessing! Praise the Lord I had a lot of good feedback and I didn’t feel so nervous when I went to speak. I even learned to play rugby from the guys there.

Getting back to Fortaleza, I had just a short time to get caught up with my responsibilities and try to get things ready for my trip here to Santarém. I’ll be returning December 30th and on the 31st, I’ll be responsible for the live simultaneous transmission of the services at our church’s two locations in Fortaleza. Plus, Lord willing, I’ll be going with the young adults to celebrate New Years Day at a place with a swimming pool with a special time of fellowship, prayer, and fun…and usually that responsibility is put on me as well :)

Thanks again for your prayers! Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!!
Paul

Quick update: Off to Londrina

Paul Hrubik — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 18:57:46 +0000

Ruth, Dad, and me at the Cell Group Celebration in Santarém (has nothing to do with this blog update :)

Wanted to send out a quick update letting you know I’m off to Londrina, Paraná, tomorrow to minister at a youth/young adult camp. I’m excited and super nervous about this opportunity God put in my life. It’s totally out of my comfort zone, but I know God will use it to help me grow and I’m trusting in Him that through my life many in Londrina will also be strengthened in the Lord and grow to a new level in Him.

I’ll be speaking 3 times during the camp, and then once at the cell leader training meeting on Tuesday. The church there follows the same discipleship method we do, so at least we have a lot in common. Please keep me in your prayers as I’m very very nervous. Thanks so much! Will let you know how it went when I get back!

It’s all about Jesus!
Paul

More experience

Paul Hrubik — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:50:52 +0000

"pizza & pop" brought a ton of people to my b-day party that started after 10pm!

My birthday was almost a month ago and I had a “little” party at my house after our leadership training meeting at church, meaning it started at about 10pm. The new house I’m in with Isaiah and Erin is big, but not near big enough! It was packed out, and incredibly, no one ended up in our little pool :) But it was special and thank-you to all of you who sent me b-day wishes from around the world!

Turning 26 really made me realize how time flies and how much we need to make the most of every opportunity, even if it’s way out of our comfort zone. So I started accepting more invites and opportunities to speak publicly, like I got to minister offering for the first time at our church and accepted an invitation to be the main speaker at a youth camp in Londrina, Paraná, in December. Got to start prepping those sermons…

Satelite church in Parangaba that just opened Sept 5, but already needs a 2nd service.

Now as I supervise 6 cell groups with a goal of 8 until the end of the year, I was asked to help a church-plant PAZ has in a beach-town called Taíba, with plans that my sector (all the cells under me) would soon be in charge of the entire church-plant and all the cells there! The pastor who started there is now also supervising another church plant in Serra do Félix, not to mention he’s over all the adolescent cell groups in our church, so he’s a little overloaded and needing help. Taíba is about a 2 hour drive from Fortaleza, so it’s going to be a challenge, but this is a huge opportunity because there we’ll be leading the church service and everything that’s involved! Very, very exciting!

A note about Taíba, kids there learn to surf like American kids learn to play basketball.

special event at church start in Serra do Felix...very exciting new church!

So God is blessing and we are super excited!
Prayer requests: 1. reach our goal of 8 cell groups until the end of the year
2. wisdom and revelation as I prepare for ministering more in church and youth camps
3. faster and deeper growth in the discipleships…we urgently need more leaders and disciplers

Praise Reports: 1. strong multiplications of the cell groups!
2. protection, I haven’t even been near an accident or armed assault in a long time! (though I did lose my wallet after a discipleship at the mall…not sure if my pocket was picked or it just fell out, but it still hasn’t shown up, so I have to start the difficult process here to get my documents re-issued)
3. growth – people being saved and discipled, new opportunities mentioned above, personal growth in the Lord and ministerially

Much love to you all! Thanks again for your continued prayers! The Lord is moving in amazing ways!
Paul
P.S. a teaser and video clip (I filmed & edited) of the inauguration of the satellite church in the Parangaba neighborhood…in Portuguese :)