somethings's brewing

~post by Brin

Josh arrived home from the exploratory trip to Amazonas and stayed in town for 15 hours before he left again on a boat trip up the Xingu.  That was 15 hours to get caught up on emails, consume 2 healthy meals, sleep in his own bed, have a clean shower, pack and then he was off for another outing. This time the whole family traveled together on a boat trip led by Agostinho and his boys, Emerson and Allison.  The trip went quite well, with 2 church meetings under the mango tree (Is there a better place for church? I think not.), a childrens program, and plenty of conversation while butchering a cow for a neighborhood barbecue.  And by neighborhood I mean “neighbors”10 km away that canoed/boated in for the afternoon.

 A riverside barbecue with fresh beef. Everyone, including the dogs, got into the act.

 Afternoon meeting with all the neighbors in the shade of a mango tree.

Go here for more pictures of the boat trip to Marituba.

Those few hours we had in Altamira were not sufficient to hear about all that Josh encountered in Amazonas, so Josh and I used our boating time to relax in our hammocks, spill out everything that happened for each of us the previous 9 days, and experience some soul-deep companionship. Sometimes the immensity of all going on with us, both in our physical lives and spiritual as well, can sometimes overwhelm us and leave us saying things like, “I am not sure what that means.” Or “I can’t say for certain what I think about that.” It is a weird place to be in, this reality filled with unknowns. It being mixed with anticipation, mystery, adventure and, I am pleased to say, a peace that doesn’t make sense in light of the undecided state of our futures.

While on the boat, Mia celebrated her 6th birthday. The girls love it when their birthday fall on boat trips because it makes for a memorable event.  A tradition has even begun; we blow up some balloons and float them out on the river in front of a home for a child to find. It is really quite delightful. The most challenging part is decorating the cake on a moving boat with choppy waters. 

Mia the new 6 year old posed by her cake.

Go here for more pics of Mia's birthday on the boat.

We returned from our 3 day boat trip at 3pm on Monday afternoon. Just in time for Josh to take a shower, check some emails, and pack.  Seven hours later he was heading for Belem to participate in some meeting with Xingu Mission leaders. He comes home on Friday and I just want to smother him with my feelings, thoughts and random ideas of everything whirling around me. But if there is anything Josh has been lacking, it would be space.

Before we left on the boat trip, the Friday night of Josh’s arrival I had CDR’s first Alpha Circle meeting. A large attendance caught me off guard and we will see where God takes the group this year. I was mostly pleased to see some of the regulars from last year come again and enthused to jump in with activities. Most of my effort this semester will be put into a select few Brazilians who I will train up to take over leadership next semester. This involves turning over responsibility, letting them make mistakes or go a different direction. This can be arduous. It would be much easier if I did it all myself, mostly because I love it and also because it requires much less effort on my part. I constantly have to remind myself of my decision because my default nature would just plow ahead and wait for everyone to follow.

Our goal for the month of March, or what is left for it, is to wait. The wait will involve quieter days where we will lean in and strain our hearts to hear His whispers. It will involve centering of our spirits to be sensitive, open and employed on the task of responding to His promptings. For my heart personally, the waiting time will be used to concentrate on each day itself, instead of letting my delicate heart meander through the myriad of possibilities of our future.

So, I close out this post with something that happened to me yesterday. I went to make a cup of afternoon coffee, I do not usually do this, but then again, I am not usually running a household by myself for 2 weeks.  I broke the carafe. Now, mind you, this carafe is a Mr. Coffee from Walmart, pretty dang special. I berated myself like I am good at doing. I told God, that it would have been nice to have been spared an agonizing (and very likely, unprofitable) day of searching Altamira for a replacement carafe. And my mind hastily took inventory of my options; give up coffee (yeah right), order on-line and wait forever for its arrival, or make coffee stovetop with a sock filter. Sarcastically I lamented, if I have to make coffee in a sock the Brazilian way, well then I am jumping in all the way and I am gonna bath in the river with just my bra on. It was a bummer. Options were incredibly slim, probably costly and I was grieved (and tired, which was why I wanted coffee in the first place). Not but 10 minutes later, a veteran missionary, Marsha, stops by my house. I use the drop-in to ask about where I should head first to find a replacement. A first she shakes her head sympathetically, “not likely to find one here,” the shake said.  But then she perked up. She just might have a spare and an hour later we were standing in my kitchen admiring my new stainless steel (read: much prettier and less likely to break) carafe that perfectly fit my 8-12 cup coffee maker.  I realized I was experiencing God’s provision in a situation that had originally deemed a big headache (literally if I gave up coffee; that is a whole other issue.) God has me covered in the big picture of my life and the little details.  And later at Kinship we read that God has our futures already prepared, immeasurably more than we can ask. I joked that I was immeasurably blessed with my perfectly measured pot of coffee. And to add to my awestruck provision, Marsha doesn’t even drink coffee. When her husband makes a pot, he usually uses a sock.