“What’s your name?”

“Júnior”

“So, how do you say it in English?”

“Junior”

And with that began our relationship with our artist-painter-teacher who would go to Ubaúna with us to help the children express themselves artistically.

Júnior, who had no idea who we were before this encounter, had volunteered to go somewhere he’d never gone before, with people he’d never met and to do something that he didn’t even understand. He’d be sleeping in a hammock, in the heat, braving the elements and having to hang around foreigners who didn’t speak his language.

But he was game… because of the children.

What he didn’t realize was that he was going to the Brazilian desert to meet Jesus.

The two of them had an encounter and he became a follower. Just like that. When we got back to Fortaleza, we had the privilege of baptizing him into the Kingdom.

The weather was perfect, the ocean like a lake and we even had the token drunk who came up and asked what was going on.

When he came up on the beach, he simply asked, “What’s next?”

My response: “Interesting that you should bring that up…”