On Friday Brin and I hosted a party for the leadership team that helped with the event I described in my last post. After just mentioned that we'd like to host a party for the group, in typical Brazilian fashion, it took on a life of it's own. Soon we learned that it was going to have a "Hawaiian" theme and each person was to bring a white elephant gift. We had a great time with the group. I really have been impressed by their servant's heart and dedication. I hope you enjoy the pictures from our luau/Christmas party:
A few weeks ago I made a street advertisement that promoted an evangelistic event that our church was doing here in Altamira. I have been helping with the planning of this event, often feeling both impressed and a little bit cynical about the grandeur of the project. Well, I'm here to report on the outcome. First, an update on my growing position as an advertising agent:
I was told 3 days before the event that we would be given some free airtime on the local TV stations and they wanted me to put together a commercial. I threw something together and the guys seemed impressed. I never saw it on TV (we don't own a TV). I imagine it probably ran at 3:00 am, sandwiched between an ad for a 900 number and the latest exercise equipment that will revolutionize your life.
The day we were to begin setting up at a local gymnasium I realized very little was going to be ready by the advertised 7:00 start time. Literally, at 6:45 I was in my truck driving around the city picking up instruments for the band. As we arrived back at the venue at 7:15, some of our band members were just leaving to go home and take a shower! There was a part of me freaking out. But when I looked around at all the workers, no one was acting like I was feeling. No one had one bit of urgency in what they were doing. Even the crowd, who had just been trickling in up to this point didn't look one bit incensed that we were obviously not going to start on time. I think things finally started at 8:30, an hour and a half later than advertised (in my commercials, mind you). By then I had resigned myself to not caring.
The event itself is not easy for me to explain. It was an evangelistic event, but seemed not too seeker-friendly, in my American evangelical mind. The theme was "miracles", or "Jesus is alive", depending on who you ask. The program included dance performances, a drama, worship music and a talk. Following the talk there was a ministry time where people came forward to receive prayer for healing.
What impressed me the most about this whole undertaking was the way it was planned entirely by the youth group leadership team (comprised mostly of college and young adults). I love working with this group and they truly put many hours into planning the event (although not enough effort went into the details, but that's just my opinion).
My role was kind of like a consultant, they would ask my opinion and sometimes they would do it, other times I think they probably laughed at me when I left. I was also in charge of the video and photography team (I'm telling you, they were serious about this). I have been commissioned to make a DVD of the event, including a "making-of" segment. For some reason unknown to me they seem to be more excited about the "making-of" than they do about the actual video. I can't tell you how many times someone has come up to me and told me "can you film this and put it in the making-of"? And that's how they say it too "making-of", I guess DVD's don't bother translating that description so they have grown to include the English phrase in their language, except it sounds more like "moking oov", so it took me awhile to understand what they were saying.
Anyway, I'm having grave reservations about this DVD. I'm not sure how it's going to live up to the expectations. And is it OK to have a DVD with a "making-of" segment that is longer than the actually video? I'm so confused. But I better get going because I have several hours of video and about 1,000 pictures to weed through. The video and photography team that I was in charge of was not lacking enthusiasm, fortunately they eventually ran out of storage space.
I really did not consider the recital essential to my daughters upbringing.
I had a language mishap the other day. Not a funny one either. I was having a short conversation with a young women, she was 20 or even younger. I asked her how she was and she did not give me the quick, standard, "all well" response. Instead she told me that she is pregnant and left her boyfriend because he hits her. But here is what stinks, I didn't undertand. So I asked her to repeat it. I think she used some slang, sorta like "he slapped me around" or something. I didn't get it so again, she repeated and again I didn't undertand. On the third time, I understood and felt like garbage that I made her repeat something so horrible 3 times. But here is what really stinks. I was so stunned about what I did and somewhat paralyzed in the awkward moment that I did nothing, said precious little, and even worse, didn't even ask to pray for her. I see know that I was preoccuped with my lack of language to allow God's power to work through me. This insight into myself is sobering. I have thought about it a lot since then. How I get so concerned about my lack of fill-in-the-blank that I miss out on being powered in the way God intended me to be. I hope I have a chance to run into that girl again.
Josh had a great weekend. He spent a lot of time planning, organizing and working at a big event the central church put on. The weekend isn't over yet so check back soon for video, pictures and Josh's take on the whole weekend.
It is 3:30 am and I can’t sleep because I drank too much guarana. My friend who is a chemical engineer(and who works at the local guarana factory, informed me that a guarana bean has more caffeine than a coffee bean. I believe him.
I lay in bed tonight thinking about “what ifs.” We had a little one yesterday. Josh was out with Mia and was getting on his motorbike when he bumped a long, heavy piece of metal sitting against a pillar and it crashed down on Mia. She is a bit bruised but what saved her from potentially another trip to the hospital was that she already had her helmet on. Thank goodness. Close calls like that kind of prompt me to remember other close calls. About this time a year ago, we were moving from one place that we had been house sitting for 3 months to a different house. We pretty much had everything moved so that night Josh and the girls slept in the new place. I stayed back at the old house because I had neglected to find a house sitter earlier that day. Plus I was not thrilled about leaving that house for a lesser. Anyway, here in Altamira, when you leave your house for the night you almost always ask someone to house sit for security reasons. We have heard stories about people arriving home to see their washing machine being lowered over their wall or another story where a couple went to the hospital to deliver their baby and when the husband went back to the house, their valuables and clothing had been stolen. Theft is so common and all the security measures, like guard dogs and privacy walls that felt weird when we first moved here are quite normal to us now. So to guard the house I slept there one last night. It went fine and the next day I lined up a sitter.A day later I talked to the house sitter and discovered that someone had broken into the house that night. She had smartly put on the security alarm and when it was triggered she awoke just in time to witness a man running out the door empty handed. See the thing is, the night before I had slept there. And I often did not use the alarm because those were the days when I was not sleeping well and I didn’t want to risk tripping the alarm when I got up to pace the kitchen or get a drink. I am not sure what I would have done but I certainly thought about it. And a year later, that “what if” situation still crosses my mind.
Another more humorous “what if” occurred 9 months or so ago. We had taken a trip to the Brasil Novo waterfall. I love that place. A small group of us were hiking through a wet creek bed when someone called out to stop and pointed to ground. Peaking out of some jungle river debris was a poisonous Amazon dart frog! You know, the kind Indians use to tip their blow-darts with poison. They are so rare and I was ecstatic and immediately began calling for Emily and Ella to come see it. I must have gotten too close because Alison pulled me back and said, “Careful, that snake can kill you.” I really wanted it to be a dart frog and didn’t believe him until the creature came out a little farther and revealed it’s triangular, some might say frog-shaped, yellow-speckled head. At least 3 pair of bare feet had trampled over it. Again, thank goodness. So on the way home I thought about it. Josh and I were leading that little group of 11 people. I was the only one with any healthcare knowledge but really that is inconsequential since I have no schooling on poisonous snake bites. But I thought about what I would have done. Tourniquet and transport was all I could think of. It would still take an hour to get to a hospital and that would be with no rain and driving as if someone’s life depended on it.
Josh has an even better “what if” story of when he was living in Papua New Guinea. I will let him share it. But on the subject of close calls and “what if’s”, they do get you thinking, don’t they? Large occurrences, like 9/11 incited masses of “what if” testimonies. And those big occurrences prompt us to think and rethink our lives. It gives us a chance to refocus our lives if we let it. Surely, if you take a second you can think of your own “what if” account and how it reshaped you as a person. But the little “what ifs” can start to add up too. And it not properly dealt with they can become rather overwhelming. Don’t ask what I mean by “dealt with” because like I said I am still thinking about mine years later. But here are some thoughts my mind has mulled over. Was Mia protected yesterday because of the relentless prayers of her great-grandparents? Quite possibly, yes. Do you think that hint of an experience with a middle-of-the-night thief make me appreciate the safety I have thus far experienced. Absolutely. It is when we have a difficult illness that we appreciate our previous health or when we have experienced a lay-off when we understand how good that old job we used to complain about really was. Those moments provide perspective. And in those moments if we can change our perspective to worship God as the guide in our lives that is what changes the rethinking of our lives to actual transformation. But even better, if we worship God, again as the guide of our lives, when the “what if” actually occurs, it proves that our worship and dependence on Him is not based on current circumstances. God is always worthy of our acknowledgement and praise, no matter how lousy we might feel, how massive the mistake we made was or what close calls fearfully become realities. The choice to embrace God is ours to make.
Christmas cookies are not necessarily a tradition in our house, but I was kind of grasping at whatever holiday tradition I could get my hands on. After deciding on a cheese ball and Christmas cookies, Ella and I went looking for cookie cutters (more on the cheese ball later).
We seemed to have lost our cookie cutters somewhere in one of our many moves. After visiting several stores, and chasing down countless leads, we found something that looked like cookie cutters at an office supply store (of course). It was actually a set of 3 different stars, and we also found a flower shape that we thought might pass as a wreath. Not wanting to try my luck with St. Nick, I decided to make a snowman shape out of one of the stars. After much bending and re-bending, we had a very realistic snowman (and by realistic, I mean what an actual snowman looks like, not an actual snowman cookie cutter). We were in business, our collection of two stars, a pseudo-wreath and a realistic snowman made us feel very festive.
About the cheese ball. Brin had been very excited recently because of a new item at our local grocery store: Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I thought it would make a good cheese ball. It was not quite as firm as I remembered a cheese ball to be, and the Brazilnut covering gave it a unique taste. It was tasted by all and enjoyed by none.
Some of you may remember from a previous post (see #5 of the Brazil Top Ten List) I described an obtrusive, yet popular, method of advertising here is large trucks driving around with huge speakers blaring music and advertisements. Well, it seems I've succumbed to the culture.
Our youth group is planning an outreach event at a local gymnasium and they asked me to help them record an advertisement so they could hire a guy to "take it to the streets". I said sure I'd help, but soon after I felt like I had sold my soul.
As I helped a few of my friends with the editing of this masterpiece, I began to recognize the format we were putting together. The advertisements are always about 30 seconds, starting with a background music track - as an announcer's voice (think cheesy DJ voice) begins to vomit the information at you, at the end the music comes up and plays loudly for a few seconds - and then it starts over again. An interesting effect we added, that I often hear, is an echo on the first couple of words and last couple of words the announcer says.
You may find all of this boring. I think I just had to get it off my chest. I'm not sure what my reaction will be if I ever encounter the poor chap driving around blaring our advertisement. I may just start weeping.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
In a room of ten people, I'd rank pretty close to the bottom 10% when it comes to sentimentality. So it may surprise some of you to learn that I'm missing being home for Thanksgiving this year. I'm not sure what I miss. Oh sure, the people. But it's more than that, living here we miss people all the time.
Maybe it's the food. I would really enjoy bellying up to the smorgasbord that is Thanksgiving Day. But I've learned my yearning for food is a bit of a mirage. I remember before we went home for furlough Brin and I would talk about what food we missed, what restaurants we looked forward to visiting, even what dish we would order (OK, as I write this I realize how lame that sounds...). The reality was, we had built it up a bit too much, even the goodness that is a crispy creme doughnut could not live up to the expectations of that first bite.
So it can't be the food. For me, the holidays is more than just the event, it's the collective feeling of being part of something big, something communal. I see it a lot here, Brazilians really know how to party, and have more national holidays than you would care to know (would anyone like to celebrate the birthday of your town?). But for all the celebrating that I see here, I feel like an observer. It feels a bit like an inside joke that I just don't get, no matter how many times I ask for an explanation, it's still not funny.
Anyway, I know somewhere, far away, everyone's laughing at my inside joke, but I'm just not there to enjoy it. Laugh away... oh yeah, and eat a huge slice of strawberry rhubarb pie for me.
I was asked to go on a trip to the Asurini, only a day before we would be leaving. I said I would, then kind of regretted it as the day got crazier and crazier. First, I found out my new truck needs it's engine rebuilt, the price tag for this truck just went up a few thousand dollars. Then the comparatively minor annoyance of our ceiling fan suddenly not working (try spending the night in the Amazon with out any air moving). Brin had a full plate herself when she got word that she needed to go to the hospital and coordinate between the Canadian and Brazilian doctors for Dan's evacuation flight to Canada. This fell to her because Ritchie, the missionary who has been helping care for Dan was in the hospital with his wife who was having a baby. Oh yeah, and later that day Brin was going to be watching Ritchie's 2 other kids.
In the midst of the chaos Brin and I decided I should go, mainly to provide the transportation for the film equipment needed. So I left Friday morning at 6:30 to catch the 7:00 barge across the Xingu River. After only traveling 2 miles on the other side of the river, the clutch cable broke and there we sat on the side of the road. I was ready to tell our group "I don't think this trip is going to happen", but Poli, the church worker I was going with, suggested we call Pastor Clenildo and have him buy the part and sending it over by speedboat (waiting for the barge would have meant at least another couple of hours). Surprisingly, we had the right part about a half hour later, 10 more minutes and we were on the road.
Poli sharing under the lights from our generator
That evening as Poli shared the gospel with the group of about 30, my mind wandered to last weeks service at the training center. Pastor Clenildo had shared how some guy asked him "What happened to Warner? What happened to Poli? What happened to several other guys? I used to know them. They were vagabonds. They were mean. They were not nice people. Now they are upright citizens and nice to be around." Warner, Poli and the other "vagabonds" he was referring to now go to our church and Christ has changed them. And there was listening to Poli, a faithful servant coming to this area once a month to share Christ. I never new him before he was a Christian, but some guys you can just tell they used to mean, you know what I mean?
Teresa is another Poli. Not that she was mean, but she drank... a lot. Teresa shared a testimony after Poli. She and her husband Orlando own a farm a few miles down the road. They spend a lot of time in Altamira and go to our church when they're in town. There's a church on their farm that they helped start and now they are reaching out farther down the road. Teresa shared how God took away her craving for alcohol. Then she asked anybody who wanted prayer for God to help them turn away from alcohol to stand up. When nobody stood she told 5 of the guys there to stand up. I'm not sure how God is going to answer that prayer, I felt there was a little bit of coerciongoing on. But you could see her heart for those people.
In the end the trip seemed well worth the effort. I was able to fix the ceiling fan before I left. Brin did fine with the extra kids while I was gone. And as for my truck, they say it'll be 3 days... I'll plan for more like 6.
A burned out tree stump on land cleared for cattle
"Waterfall" (no joke, that's his name) works at making Farinha, staple food made from the manioc root.
I awoke to this scene from my hammock which I had strung between 2 trees.
This past week has found us running in many different directions. Here are a few of the activities that have been occupying some of our time...
Starting on a serious note, a week or so ago a man who was visiting on a team from Canada was in a serious motorcycle accident. He suffered several broken bones and is still recuperating in a hospital here in Altamira. His team was here visiting our missionaries at our other base in Porto de Moz, so we didn't know him. The team he came with has since left and several of the missionaries have been helping to stay with him in the hospital (and translate when needed). Brin has been using her nursing experience and has spent several hours at his bedside.
Dan has been recovering nicely, but still needs surgery on his broken jaw. The family has been trying to get him evacuated to Canada, but the insurance company has been dragging it's feet. Please pray that he will be evacuated soon, if not, his wife will be coming to help out (for probably another 2 weeks in the hospital).
The bar-b-que pit at the training center.
This past weekend we had a celebration with all of our Altamira churches commemorating 10 years of work here. A couple hundred people stayed overnight at the training center and we butchered 2 cows. The service was a powerful time of agknowledging God's hand in the work here. I didn't get too many pictures, but you can see more on Bud's blog.
Last night a group of us missionaries got together and watched the election results (pictured above). We finally turned in around 11:30 when OH was called for Obama and it looked to be mostly over. It's interesting to watch politics from abroad, especially the attention that so many here give to American politics.
Brin voting by absentee ballot
Ending on a lighter note, one of the girls caught a butterfly and they had fun trying to get it to cooperate for a photo shoot...
