I am at a school in Brazil where they teach English. The students are the ages of 17 to 19 I would guess and in their first serious year of English. I came with Lucas and Ariede who are two excellent Christians (ages 17 and 18) at the church in Sao Carlos.

A variety of activities were used to teach reading comprehension, listening skills, and ability to converse. What was particularly interesting was the subject used - peoples fears. In the final segment of class the following questions were asked: (1) Do you believe in life after death? (2) Do you know anyone with psychic powers or extra sensory perception (3) Have you ever experienced something you can't explain? (4) Have you ever attended a seance? If not, would you like to? (5) If life is a journey what is our journey? (6) Is there such a thing as fate?

Interesting huh? Not too surprising actually. Macuba (voodoo) and other branches of spiritualism are quite common in Brazil. The answers from students also not too surprising. For some they did not know if there was a God. One said he believed in God. But when asked what that means, he did not know. One believed in reincarnation. Another said when we die we just become energy not matter. The Christians (Lucas and Ariede) had opportunity to respond and as best as possible in English conveyed what the Bible teaches.

At the end of class we heard a audio file telling the story of a girl whose father had died, she recounted leaving college to return home to care for her mother. One night the dogs were barking outside and the room where she was filled with the smell of her fathers cologne. After looking out the window to see why the dogs were barking she observed a man running away from her house. She said she had never believed in life after death before, but now she thinks the man running from her house was a burglar and that her father had been in her room watching over her and her mother, he scared off the burglar. So now she believes in paranormal phenomena. (No one in the class comprehended the story - the teacher had to go through it slowly to help them get the sense of what happened).

Wow! How would you like it folks if your kids got this stuff in school? Well, the class had a test so I took a minute to write you. Who knows, maybe this is an open door to discuss the Bible with them - I will try to write more next opportunity.

So, young people how would you have answered these questions if you had the chance? Would you use this as an opportunity to get a discussion going after the class. Let's see what happens.

Mike