2024 Annual Banquet Recap

It was encouraging to hear and pray for what the Lord is doing around the world. Our main speaker was Diego Rosa, director of The Way (Semear) in Brazil. Here are a recap of his presentation and prayer requests for The Way.

Diego Rosa is the founder and director of The Way and Semear in São Paulo, Brazil. He was born in Brazil, came to the US to pursue an undergrad business degree and master’s in sports management, and then went home. He currently lives in São Paulo with his wife and two children.

In 2013, Diego went on a mission trip to Mozambique, which he says changed his life. His group helped in a community center and played sports with local kids. He was helping the cook prepare meals of rice and kale for the kids. As they served the plates, they neared the bottom of the pot of rice. The cook looked at how many kids were still in line and returned to tell Diego they could not feed everyone that day. He asked why, and she answered that because he and his team were there, all the local kids from the village had come, and they didn’t have enough food to give to them. Not fully understanding the situation, he proposed that they run to the store for more supplies or send the kids home to eat lunch and return for the games afterward. The cook responded that there were no stores for them to run to, and the kids had no food at home; this was their only meal of the day. He asked what they should do, and she told him to tell the kids to go play.

To Diego, it was a devastating thought to tell some of the kids to come in and eat while telling others to go out and play, and he prayed to the Lord for help. They continued filling plates with the remaining food, and the cook went out a bit later and came back to tell Diego that God had answered his prayers. He asked what she meant, and she responded that there were only 11 more kids in line and 11 plates of food on the counter. This wasn’t the miracle, though. According to Diego, the miracle is that the pot of rice he had been scooping from still had the same amount of rice that had been there the first time the cook went out to count the kids. They had continued to fill plates with full portions, and the Lord had made the rice hold out so that there was enough to feed everyone and still have some left over!

Diego says he had often heard of and read about miracles in the Bible, but seeing one happen was life changing. It showed him that the Lord still works, and the reason we often do not see it is because we are not trusting in Him, not because He isn’t doing them. He realized that he needed to trust the Lord and be ready to obey when the Lord told him to go, that “yes” was the only answer that he could give to the Lord.