Meet A Missionary: Lucas Andrade
Hello, my name is Lucas Andrade, and I am a member of the Renovo do Senhor Baptist Church in the Tracajá region. I am married and have two children, a seven-year-old girl named Lara and Lemuel, who is one year old today. We praise God for their lives. My wife's name is Shirley. We help here in the congregation, both in the praise ministry and as teachers of children's Bible study, and we are also developing a new project in the community, at the Baptist Church in Santo Antônio.
Well, I also work in the area of studies and messages. Lately, I have been giving more messages in the community of Santo Antônio. Here at the church, I have been working more in Sunday School, and our pastor, Wanderley, takes care of the messages here. It has been very rewarding to be used in the Lord's work, both for me and my wife, because we both make things flow.
Alone, I couldn't do or develop the activities I do with the children, because they have skills that I don't have, and together we join forces for the work, for the purpose of praising the Lord. Amazon Vida seminary program has given me many tools in my life, opened my mind, and provided me with materials that I can study and apply to help me develop.
And it has been wonderful to have these meetings at the main church campus in Parintins. Well, working on the Lord's mission is also something wonderful, because it means caring for others, sharing what you have learned about Jesus with other people who don't know Him yet.
Because Jesus is the reason for all of this. Jesus is our center, it is for Him that we live, it is to Him that we must give all honor and glory. So, life without Jesus makes no sense. So that's what we must bring to people, make Christ known, whether here at the end of the tributary, or there in a larger community, or even in Parintins, where we participate in the “Jesus Water of Life” evangelism campaign each year.
The intention will always be to let the Lord be greater in our lives and for us to diminish more and more. My life Before accepting Jesus, like every life, was a life that was all wrong. In youth, everyone who goes through this phase knows that it is a very difficult time. You have to keep a cool head. And I, at the time, did not know Jesus, but I praise God, because even though I knew nothing about Jesus, my parents gave me an education that I thank God for every day, of not being able to acquire certain habits that the world offers.
I didn't live a life of vice or anything like that, but I didn't have Jesus as the most important thing in my life. We were Catholics, my father was a leader in the Catholic Church, and we were taught idolatry from a very young age. The biggest mistake of all in my life was not knowing Christ and practicing the habits that idolaters practice. And after I accepted Jesus into my life, not only my life, but my family was transformed. It transformed and changed everything.
Today we are children of God. We became children of God when we believed in the Lord Jesus, confessed with our mouths, and believed in our hearts. That made all the difference in our lives. Today I am happy, I can say that I am happy, I raise my children in this way, because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And so, I try to share my experience with people, even though I am young. But God is everything in our lives.
He is the reason that keeps us going, makes us believe. And Jesus is the joy that completes our lives.