Fiel Conference Overview

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Fiel Conference, hosted in Aguas de Lindóia, São Paulo by Christian publisher Editora Fiel. Along with top-notch Brazilian expositors, this year’s conference was blessed with the presence of Mark Dever and D.A. Carson. Their preaching on the subject of Justification by Faith was simply outstanding, and, as they spoke in English through an interpreter, I got to hear the messages twice.

Here are some pictures:

The setting for the conference was the beautiful town of Aguas de Lindóia, in the interior of the state of São Paulo. This is a very different part of Brazil from where we live–culturally, climatically, and topographically.

We were housed in the lovely Monte Real hotel. The meetings were held in the conference center of the hotel, big enough for the 1,500 people in attendance.

The Editora Fiel ministers to people throughout the Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) world. This family is from Angola, and they treated us to some singing at it is done in their church–complete with motions!

A fringe benefit for me was the discovery of this used-book store about half a mile from the hotel.

On the last night the song-leader and his son put on an informal concert in the hotel lounge. The repertoire included sacred and secular numbers.

I made it a point to sit at each meal with someone I did not know–not very hard to accomplish. In doing so I made many new friends, including this couple from southern Brazil…

…and this guy from Cuba.

After the conference I spent some time with friends who were part of the youth group in Campos Sales, Ceará, when I worked there in 1995. They are examples of the rapid urbanization of Brazil.

While visiting them, we passed an Indian Village that sits on the outskirts of São Paulo. Talk about extremes!

Looking down over the city of São Paulo, or actually, a fraction thereof. Vast numbers of people in need of Christ. The “evangelical” movement here is dominated by prosperity “health and wealth” churches. The spiritual famine here is great.

I would be remiss in this post if I did not especially thank my home church, Fellowship Baptist in Lakeland, FL, which provided the offering that allowed me to attend this conference.

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