Living and loving in Natal, Brazil

Where is your God?

2011-11-08T17:39:00.000-02:00

One thing I particularly love and admire about Brazilian culture is how little emphasis is placed on age. Our largest demographic at church is young people, and that group consists of members from 13-30. We gather for weekly Bible studies, hang out and eat pizza on Fridays, and no one blinks at the fact that a 17 year old is really great friends with a 28 year old. I don't even really know how old my roommate is. I think she's 21, and I'm 26, but I always have to ask her. It just doesn't matter.

Because of the wide age range, we are always looking for ways to keep our weekly gatherings on Saturday nights interesting and fun. This semester our group of 25 young people divided into three subgroups. Each group would be responsible for one gathering a month, from September to December. The first group would be responsible for Bible study, the second group would be responsible for "communion," or a gathering focused on creating community among the group, and the third group would be responsible for outreach. It was an exciting way to get our young people involved in their own events!

My group was responsible for outreach. Because of my ties to all of our LST readers, it was a natural placement for me in that we already have a very large pool to which we could direct our efforts. :) Our first meeting was a beach luau with games and a moonlight devotional, our second event was a movie night where we showed the movie Fireproof, and our third event was this past Saturday.

Our group wanted to have an evangelistic event at our church to which we could invite our friends, coworkers, and families. Although I led the group, I can honestly say that this was their baby from start to finish. They had the idea, they planned the activities, they planned the skit, they planned the food, they planned the praise time, and they did the inviting. After all the time, energy, and prayer that was poured into this event, when all was said and done, it turned out to be the most successful event of its kind that our church has ever seen!

The theme was "Where is Your God?" and we were blessed to get to hear Thalita share her testimony. Before the event was even over, some of our guests had already begun sharing with us how God has used the skit and Thalita's testimony to impact their lives! We had over 80 people present, with over 30 of them being visitors, many of which had previously never participated in any of our activities. I was so proud of our little group of five, and so proud of our church for getting behind us, helping us, serving the hot dogs, and inviting friends and neighbors.

I want to share with you the skit that our young people performed. It is based on the song Everything by Lifehouse. Apparently the skit has become pretty well-known since its original performance was put on YouTube several years ago. This is the second time our young people have performed this skit, and once you watch the video you will understand why we wanted to use it again! It gives powerful testimony to the influence Satan has over us, and, ultimately, Jesus's sacrifice that overcomes that influence.

(For those of you familiar with our church family, Caio is playing Jesus, Catherine is his creation, Franciney represents lust, Jonathan represents greed, Fernanda represents addiction, Rejane represents vanity, and Talis plays the part of death.)

A Tribute to Someone I Never Met

2011-10-03T18:06:00.000-03:00

I'm pretty sure I never actually met Sunday. It's possible that I did, though from what I can tell, I would definitely remember such an encounter. It might not matter. He was the kind of person whom everyone on the ACU campus knew, even if we didn't have the privilege to actually know him. Is it strange to write a tribute to someone whom I actually never met?

A week ago Facebook was blowing up with urgent pleas for prayer for Sunday Ibok. At the age of 31 he had suffered a brain aneurysm and was laying in a hospital room, surrounded by family and a multitude of family-like friends, all begging God for mercy and a miracle. People like me, who weren't even Facebook-friends with Sunday, were frequently checking for updates, drawn in to what seemed like, and surely was, a worldwide prayer campaign for his life. I already knew Sunday was a special person, but it was in reading all of the memories and assurances that made me realize that Sunday was one of a kind. It made me wonder what God's purpose could be in taking such a person from this Earth at such a young age, someone who influenced so many with his kindness, genuineness, love, gift of encouragement, and Christ-likeness. If someone who influenced so many for so much good and in so doing pointed them to the joy of life in Christ, why would he be taken?

No one will ever know the answer, and I'm sure the pain of that question will remain with his family for a long time. But I know that many are already seeing a glimpse of the good that came from this tragedy less than a week after his family removed Sunday from life support. So many described him as a light in this dark world, and that his passing from this life makes them want to shine their light brighter. A friend of mine wrote, "thank you for making me feel like I was the most interesting person in the room every time we were together." I wonder if she's now doing just the same.

Tomorrow hundreds (thousands?) will gather to celebrate Sunday's life. Another friend of mine wrote today that he is actually excited about it! Someone who brought so much joy to others in this life has managed to bring a small glimmer of joy in his death! Maybe that's why I felt the need to write something. Because, although I didn't know Sunday, I'm one of the hundreds (thousands?) who has been changed.

My prayer is that God will comfort Sunday's family, friends, and acquaintances. I also pray that He will teach all of us to learn from Sunday's example, to be so in love with Jesus that we can't help but to love others the way He would.

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Go here to see a beautiful art print that was made in Sunday's memory. All profit goes to help his family with medical costs. It is a beautiful reminder of God's faithfulness in times of darkness and joy.

Adding to Our Number

2011-09-12T13:43:00.001-03:00

Growing up in a faith tradition that embraced the book of Acts as a blueprint for just about everything, I always found the last verse of chapter 2 to be curious. To read in verse 41 that three thousand people were baptized was pretty astonishing, imagining simultaneously the logistical nightmare yet overwhelmingly beautiful scene that must have been. But then to read, a few verses later, in 47 that "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved," was the part that caught me off guard. No "the apostles were baptizing people daily," or "the apostles were studying the Bible with new contacts," or "the disciples had 50 baptisms as a result of their School of the Bible." Just "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

In my last post I told you about Thalita, a fabulous girl whom we met through LST and whom we had the privilege of watching dedicate her life to Christ. I did not, however, tell you about Max, Eline, Volmir, Sandro, Neide, Valeria, Isis, Clayton, or Mateus. Nor did I mention Alessandra, Toinho, Ivete, or Ricardo. Did I mention Dona Ivonete? I don't think so. Those are the names of all the people the Lord has added to our number since the beginning of July!

Clayton

Thalita, Clayton, and Mateus are three people whom God brought to us through Let's Start Talking and gave us the honor of being witnesses to their baptisms. Ivete and Ricardo are Mateus's parents, who have been dedicated Christians for a long time in a different church but chose to join our church family because of their son.

Alessandra, baby Daniel, and Max

Max and Alessandra are a young married couple who God brought to us through the mentoring relationship of one of our missionary couples.

Eline, Volmir, Sandro, Neide, Valeria, Roberto, Max

Volmir is a taxi driver who accepted the invitation of a client to church one Sunday, took his wife, Eline, with him, and both were baptized a few months later. Sandro, Valeria, and Neide are the siblings of one of our longtime church members and whose lives have changed so drastically that word has spread in their neighborhood and they are adding an extra room to their house to fit all of the people interested in coming to the Bible study held every Monday afternoon. Toinho was a member at Comunidade de Cristo long before I ever arrived in Natal, but had been away from God and His body for a long time and recently recommitted his life, and his family, to the Lord. Isis is the sister of one of our longtime church members, Robson. One of our missionaries has been going to her house for a weekly Bible study for over two years, and Isis came to church for the first time three months ago.

Ricardo, Dona Ivonete, Osmildo

And Dona Ivonete is Mateus's grandma, also a longtime believer, who was baptized yesterday because she had been told a long time ago that her legal marriage license wasn't enough; she had to be married in a religious ceremony in order to be welcome in the Kingdom of God. Maybe God sent her to us because he knew how desperately she needed to hear that she was welcome in His Kingdom through baptism whether or not she'd ever been married in a church. Her tears and overwhelming joy confirmed that her need had been met.

And we praise Him for adding to our number.

Good Ends and Beginnings

2011-08-07T22:38:00.008-03:00

It's the same story every year. We begin our advertising for LST about four weeks before the initial information meeting. We have flyers printed and posted all over the city, with the biggest concentration on the university campuses. We depend a lot on word of mouth. We have never not had enough readers. Another way to say that would be we always get more than enough readers. So it's pretty silly of me to tell you that every single year, without fail, I panic. About two weeks before the information meeting I panic because we haven't gotten enough calls or emails. "This is the year," I think. "Someone who knows what we are doing and doesn't support it is ripping down our advertisements," I actually thought this time around. It's now part of the pre-LST routine for me to panic. It just wouldn't be the same without it. Except this year, God used my pre-LST panic to work in a fantastic way.

The week before the information meeting, in my pre-LST panic, I decided to put an ad in the newspaper. It would run for 7 days straight, up until the day of the information meeting. I got several calls from people who had seen our ad, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally became satisfied with the number of people confirmed for the info meeting. One of these people who had seen our ad was a woman named Thalita. When I talked to her on the phone, she had more questions than usual. She wanted to know why we were offering free English conversation with native speakers, what the connection was with the church, if it was a philanthropic effort, etc. Usually we try to not say too much over the phone before they come to the info meeting, so I assumed she would be one of those who "figured us out" before she ever got a chance to come see what LST was really about. I didn't have high hopes that I would ever actually meet Thalita.

The night of the information meeting I was finally able to put faces to names I had been hearing for weeks on the phone. The meeting had a great turnout, even after having been postponed 24-hours at the last minute due to the team's flight delays. At the end of the meeting someone brought me the phone and said "it's a reader, she's lost." Thalita had been wandering around our neighborhood, looking for our building for 40 minutes. It turned out she was on a street perpendicular to ours and wasn't very close. It was getting late, and I felt terrible for her having spent such a long time trying to find us, so I told her to just go home and I'd guarantee a spot in the program for her if she called me the next day. "No," she said, "tell me how to get there from here. I really want to go." So I did.

Thalita walked in a few minutes later, just as the last readers were getting ready to leave. I took her to a table with an LST worker and sat down, explaining how the program works. She stopped me and said, "before you go on, may I say something?" "Um...sure..." I said. She went on to explain that she had been a Christian many years ago, but had spent the last several years of her life far from God and dabbling in other religions and spiritualities. She had begun to see the bad effect these practices were having on her life, and had made a decision that if God still wanted her she would consider going back to him. According to Thalita, when she called about the ad in the newspaper and I told her that LST operated out of a church, she knew this was God giving her a second chance. "So," she finished, "I just want you to know that I'm here for God, I'm not here for English." I sat there, probably with my mouth hanging open, looking back and forth between Thalita and Kalie, the LST worker. "Did you know you would be studying the Bible in these classes?" I asked. A big smile came across her face, "No."

What transpired over the next few days can only be attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit. I invited her to church, she actually came. Some very evident evil influences in her life disappeared. I watched her transform emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. Whereas on the first night I met her, her eyes seemed empty and hollow, days later they were full of joy and life. She would come early and stay late after her reading sessions and we began to form a fantastic friendship.

A week or so later she and I sat down to study the Bible together. Because of her background in Christianity she already knew that she wanted to be baptized, and knew exactly why, what for, etc. (Basically our Bible studies were her telling me things and me confirming them...haha.) But she didn't want to be baptized just yet. "I see baptism like a marriage," she told me. "I think I want to date a little more." So we continued to study together and talk for hours before and after her reading sessions.

The week before FriendsCamp, Thalita's LST worker, Aimee, and I had decided we were going to talk to her more directly about her baptism. After 6 weeks of thinking and praying about it, we wanted to ask what she was waiting for. So the day we were all geared up to both approach her about it in our next conversations, Thalita walked into her reading session with Aimee and said "Do you think it would be ok if I was baptized at FriendsCamp this weekend?" Um...YEAH!!!!

FriendsCamp walking to the lake

So there we had it. The perfect activity for our Saturday afternoon at FriendsCamp. The rain, that did not let up the entire weekend, let up just enough for all 50 of us to make the 5-minute trek to the lake for Thalita's baptism.

Thalita and one of the LST workers

Fifteen other LST readers witnessed Thalita making this expression of faith, and many of them asked questions afterward about her decision. It was The. Best. Day.

Roberto and Osmildo with Thalita

Thalita has been very vocal about all of the many ways she has seen God working in her life, starting with the day she saw the newspaper advertisement. She is an elementary school teacher but been unemployed for a while. She attributes her new job and the many other opportunities coming her way to God's faithfulness. As soon as she was baptized, she commented on the fact that she had just been baptized in the lake called Bonfim. In Portuguese, Bonfim means "good end." "This is definitely a good end," she said. I'd say it's a pretty good beginning, too.

May, June, and July in a Bulletpoint Nutshell

2011-08-02T17:34:00.003-03:00

How many times in the last 3 months have I thought "Oh, I should blog about that!" About fifteen thousand times, that's how many. Now I'm here to tell you about why those poor little thoughts never got to come out to play on this here blog.

At the end of May we received our first LST team. A team of six wonderful women from Michigan. Three weeks later, we received our second LST team, a team of four wonderful people from Oklahoma Christian University, which so happened to include my parents. Three weeks later, as we dropped that team off at the airport, we picked up our third LST team, a team of nine individuals from Texas, and of those nine, four were boys aged eight and under. Then, because we not only like to keep things interesting around here but we like to really see how far past the limit we can push ourselves, while that team was here we also had a team of seven (five adults, two kids) arrive to host a FriendsCamp (weekend retreat for readers and church members, focused on building relationships with a little Bible study thrown in.) Did I mention my parents also stayed on for two weeks of vacation?

Since there is no possible way I could sum up two months of Let's Start Talking on a blog in such a way that many would want to read it, I've decided to give you an overview in my favorite writing style: bullet points.

I say this every year, but every year it's true: this has been, BY FAR, the best year of LST we've ever had.
Our teams have met and read with over 100 people this year. That's 100 people learning about Jesus, talking about Jesus, and making new friends from a far away land.
I would never say I've had more than my fill of brownie mix brownies, but this year I've come close. The LST parties this year have been stellar and the food has been to die for. After having participated in so many parties it's unusual that I would see something that hasn't been done before, but the Texas team served rice krispie treats at their party, and they were a HIT! All of the Brazilians looked at the trays with a weird expression and I told them "It's delicious, trust me." Good thing they trusted me. I think someone stayed behind to lick the pan.
This was our first year hosting a FriendsCamp so it was uncharted territory for all involved. (Except the FC team, obviously.) The highlights from the organizational side include our location falling through a month ahead of time, God providing the most fantastic location via Google search two weeks ahead of time, and rain the entire weekend. The highlights from the FC experience include fifty participants, a baptism, and people not really even noticing it was raining/half of the activities getting cancelled because they were having so much fun!
We told the FriendsCamp team that if they did nothing else at FriendsCamp, they had to make s'mores. Actually, Roberto, my co-planner, told them that. So bless their hearts, they all came with endless packages of graham crackers and marshmallows packed in their suitcases to give the Brazilians the s'mores experience. We tried to build a bonfire but the wood was soaked from the rain, so we had a piddly little fire that we quickly roasted the marshmallows on before it fizzled out. It was mayhem getting all the s'mores put together and teaching Brazilians how to roast marshmallows enough without catching them on fire, but it was all worth it when one of our Brazilian church members said to me, "Cris, all of us are realizing a dream right now. This is something we've only ever seen in movies. We never imagined we'd have the chance to make s'mores." Rumor has it they roasted the rest of the marshmallows that night over the gas stove in the kitchen.
Our LST workers and readers this year have been cream of the crop. I've been so impressed with our workers from the US and how committed they have been to befriending their readers. They came here to do a job, yes, but they have also continued to do that job via Facebook and Skype even after returning home.
Speaking of impressive LST workers, I have been blessed by their example this year and know that the readers and church members have, as well. They have been so loving, giving, generous, interested in Brazilian culture, and prepared for the curveballs that inevitably are thrown their way during a missions experience in another culture. The strongest example of this to me, that will stick with me for a long time, was during FriendsCamp. The LST team that was already here, as well as the FC team, came prepared to camp out for the weekend. This means they brought tents, sleeping bags, etc in their luggage. The rain was not expected and really threw things off, especially when the "waterproof" cover on one of the tents turned out to not be waterproof at all. One of the families walked into their tent the first night to see all of their belongings standing in 2 inches of water. Their bags and clothes were soaked the whole weekend, and got soaked again when they happened to store their things in a corner where a shower was leaking. I did not hear a single complaint the entire weekend from them. They had great attitudes, participated 100% in every aspect of camp, and did not let this extremely frustrating challenge get them down in any visible way. I'd be surprised if any of the campers even knew this was going on. I learned a big, BIG, lesson about complaining at FriendsCamp. :)
Oh, did I mention we still have an LST team here? It's the last one for the year. And they are every bit as wonderful as all the other ones. I couldn't ask for a better group to close out this experience.

Later I will blog about the baptism we had at FriendsCamp, because it deserves its own post. I will also hopefully tell you about the other exciting things that have been going on here at the church in Natal. I say "hopefully" because, well, let's be honest. I'm not very good at keeping my promises. But I'll try. I'll really, really try.

The Second Church

2011-04-11T12:55:00.006-03:00

For the first year and half that I lived in Natal, I was told on many occasions by American visitors that I "lived like a college student." You can infer what that does and does not mean, but I can tell you that it was accurate. I had a cute little apartment, but it had the bare minimum of mixed and matched furniture, a tiny kitchen, one bathroom with a hot shower and one whose door did not close all the way when you sat down to, um, take care of business. And it was HOT. Finding that apartment was so exciting for me because it was just the right size, right in front of my favorite bakery, on the 8th floor, and half a block from the church building. I documented my excitement in one of my favorite blog posts to date, a classic from the "I-LIVE-IN-BRAZIL-AND-WANT-TO-BLOG-ABOUT-EVERY-SECOND-OF-MY-LIFE!!!" phase. That apartment served me well for a while, but when I returned to Natal as a full-time missionary in early 2009 (and with more "resources") it was apparent that finding a new place to live would be necessary if I wanted to serve the church here in the ways I had dreamed.

So I made a deal with God. I told him that I wanted an apartment with a big living room (not easy to find in my price range) and easy bus access. Although I planned on having a car, I wanted it to be easy and safe for church members to get to and from my apartment. I told him that, if he provided such a place, the apartment would be his. His for ministry, his for hospitality, his for honing my cooking skills, and his for anything else he might dream up. I found some pretty great apartments (with ocean views) that I really tried to fit into that deal, but thankfully none of them worked out. Because he had something bigger in store.

I've referenced many times on this blog how much I love where I live. I love the size, I love the location, I love the view, I LOVE THE BREEZE, I love the kitchen and how it has inspired me to start cooking, I love how pretty it is, I love that it's on the 6th floor. I love that, even though I was dumb and naive enough to try and strike a deal with God rather than trust that he had something great in store without my having to orient him to the fact, he still provided me with exactly what I had asked for: a GIGANTIC living room and a location right on one of Natal's main thoroughfares.

One of the things I also wanted in this new apartment was a second bedroom for guests. I never used it much, but I knew it was there. Then, in November of last year, God put another opportunity in front of me that tested just how committed I was to making sure this apartment was his. A good friend of mine from the church was in a tough family situation with little stability. She had asked to stay here with me one night, and in explaining to me what was going on I kind of just blurted out, "if you need to, you can come live here with me." In that moment I realized that I was actually serious, but she told me later that she didn't even think twice about it at the time, sure that her situation would blow over. After a couple more rough weeks and giving the idea some thought, she called and asked if my offer still stood. She moved in a few days later. She is grateful to have a stable place to live and I am grateful to have a companion. It was getting lonely around here!

So, even though my deal was stupid, I held up my end of the bargain. I have lost count of how many sleepovers, wedding showers, Bible studies, movie nights, lunches and dinners I've hosted here. The young people from church have gotten so used to coming here that, yesterday, when it was announced that our weekly young adults Bible study would be held at my apartment for the second week in a row, someone made the comment that Cris's house is "the second church." I got a little emotional when I heard that, because that's exactly what I had always hoped for.

This apartment is much more than just a beautiful, well ventilated place to live.

It's a second church.

My PRK Surgery & Recovery Experience

2011-03-19T22:15:00.002-03:00

The week before my PRK (laser eye surgery) procedure I felt very unprepared. I didn't know what the recovery was going to look like, all I had been told was I would feel a grainy feeling in my eyes and I needed to stay out of the sun as much as possible for 3 months. I had no idea what my vision would be like during those three months, how soon after surgery I would be able to drive/take a shower/return to the gym, etc. So I got online and started trying to find some answers. What I found were lots of people who had chronicled their PRK recovery on their blog, some in one big post and others with daily/weekly/monthly posts. These blogs helped put me at ease and feel better prepared for what I would undergo. My intention in writing this is to provide just one more account to hang out on the interwebs and maybe help a nervous and unprepared PRK candidate to feel a little less nervous. If you don't care about my surgery, feel free to stop reading and wait for the next post about Brazil. I promise this will be the only one of this nature.

I had my PRK surgery done in Natal, Brazil, so my experience might be very different than the experience of someone having the surgery in the US. I chose to have it in Brazil because my health insurance covered the cost. My doctor recommended PRK over Lasik because of the thickness (or thinness, actually) of my corneas. My doctor in the US confirmed that Lasik would not even be possible because my corneas are so thin.

My Brazilian doctor does all of his surgeries one eye at a time with a week in between. He did my left eye first, the one with 6.5 near-sightedness. My only preparation for surgery was to take my contacts out and use Vigamox eye drops 3x per day 3 days ahead of surgery. The morning of the surgery they wrapped a hospital gown over my clothes, had me pull my hair back in a cap and put booties over my feet. The nurse put several antiseptic eye drops in both eyes and had me wait about 10 minutes. Once in the "operating room" the doctor checked something in my vision (the machine where the little farmhouse or car comes in an out of focus...does anyone know what that one does?) then had me lay down on the chair.

In most of the accounts I've read online, the doctor talked the patient through every step of the procedure. Although my doctor talked to me the whole time, he didn't tell me much of what he was doing, just what I should expect to feel. I think I actually preferred that because had he talked me through every step I probably would have passed out. :) He told me at the beginning that I would feel no pain and he was right...except for one part. They covered my right eye and taped my eyelids open on my left eye. Then they clamped open my eye and that was the most discomfort I felt the entire time...but I'm sure I prefer that over feeling the laser penetrating my cornea! Some people think it must be weird to not be able to blink, but by that point the eye drops have already numbed the eyeball enough that you can't tell if you need to blink or not! He then spread all kinds of goo all over my eyeball and would tell me that my vision was going to start to blur. They turned the lights out and he pulled the machine over my face and I saw two colored spots. One was small and green, the other was red and looked like a fingerprint. He told me to focus on the "red dot" and I guess that's when the surgery started.

The ONLY thing that I REALLY wish I had been prepared for was the smell. No one told me that I would smell the laser burning my eyeball, and given that I already have a weak stomach when it comes to medical procedures being done on me, that really caught me off guard. Apparently I lost focus several times of the red dot, and looking back I think it's because every time I smelled the laser I got a little woozy. He had to stop the procedure several times because I stopped focusing on the dot...woops! He stopped and started about four times, and I'd say the procedure in itself lasted about 4 minutes. At the end he said "Ok, now we'll correct the astigmatism," and *zap* it was over. As soon as he turned the light on I saw everything perfectly. He put a protective contact in and sent me on my way with instructions to begin the 3 eye drops and antibiotic he had prescribed and apply a cold compress 3x a day. I've had bad vision since I was a child, so walking out of the operating room seeing clearly out of my left eye was a trip!

The surgery on my right eye was a week later and went much more smoothly. I did much better and only lost focus of the light once, making the surgery last about 30 seconds. :) The only real difference I noticed was that after the first surgery I felt NO pain. I actually thought it was weird how comfortable I was. I felt the grainy feeling several times, but I did not feel pain. After the second surgery I felt much more pain and my eye was red for the rest of the afternoon. After both surgeries I made a point to take it easy, stay in bed as much as possible the first few days and keep the windows closed and lights dimmed at night. My doctor told me that it is imperative after PRK to not let your eyes come in contact with the sun, because sunlight will impair the scarring of your corneas, which lasts 3 months. He said any time I go outside I need to wear sunglasses, which has not been a problem. I was able to drive during the day about a week after the first surgery, and I drove at night a week after the second surgery, although I was probably being extra cautious and could have driven sooner. I have been diligent about using the eye drops every day and I guess it paid off...when I went to get the contact removed 6 days after the second surgery he marveled at how "beautifully" my eyes are scarring. He said I can go back to the gym 2 weeks after the first surgery.

In terms of my vision, it is not perfect by any means, but my doctor had prepared me for that. He said as long as I am healing it can fluctuate, and will definitely fluctuate as long as I am using the Florate drops (30 days after surgery.) I am 2 weeks and a day out from my first surgery and 1 week and day out from my second, and I'd say my vision is about 80%. I can see well up close and decently far away, but by the end of the day most things are a little blurry. I am sitting about 7 feet from my TV right now and I can read most of what is coming across the CNN screen. Given that pre-surgery (without contacts/glasses) I wouldn't have been able to determine that there were even words on the screen, I'd say it's great progress! Typing this post I can read what I am writing but the edges of the letters are a little fuzzy. That fluctuates throughout the day, though, and is affected by light-sensitivity and how hard I've worked my eyes that day. I also noticed that lots of air conditioning (a factor that would make more of a difference here than in the US) makes my vision blurrier. Pulling the computer screen closer to my face makes no difference, which tells me that it's not a matter of near-sightedness but just my eyes healing.

I will have a 30-day appt with the doctor to check my vision, then a 60 day and 90-day. I am praying for 100% but can be happy with 95%. :) The very fact that I can see anything that is beyond 6 inches of my face is already a miracle, and I am so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to have this surgery and that he gave someone the idea to invent it. I think I lied in that first paragraph, I will probably post an update at the end of my recovery here in about 3 months just to report how my vision has improved.

If anyone is reading this for the same reasons I read these accounts online, good luck to you in your surgery and recovery process, and remember that that putrid burning smell is over as soon as he turns the laser off, so be SURE to stay focused on the green dot and you'll be done in about 30 seconds. :)

Disclaimer: If any of my details regarding near-sightedness or corneas or how the laser works are inaccurate, that's ok. I don't have to understand exactly how it worked to be happy with the result. Unless the error is so glaring that it MUST be addressed, feel free to comment with your own experience or any questions you might have.

3 month Recap...I know, I know

2011-03-16T10:40:00.005-03:00

I knew that when I came to my blog today I would cringe when I saw the last time I posted. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I did manage a post in December...I was expecting November...so I guess that's good, right? The few people who read this blog probably know why I've been MIA, but to ease my conscience I'm going to give you a big fat recap of the last 3ish months. Ready?

December was a whirlwind month, not just because my jasmine trees bloomed beautifully. We started it by changing our Sunday services at church to the morning time slot. Since the beginning of the church they had always met in the evenings, and due to a variety of factors we decided to move to the mornings. It's been a great transition and we've enjoyed having our afternoons free to continue the fellowship that started in the morning! Two of our members also got married in December and moved to China. That's the third wedding our church has had in just over a year, after no weddings for like 8 years, so that was exciting!

I spent the last two weeks of December and the whole month of January in the US for my furlough. Although I've been blessed to go back to the States at least once every year since I've been in Natal, this was the first official trip (I kept calling it my business trip) and it was GREAT! It was my first time to spend Christmas with my family in Oklahoma since 2006! I also got to spend two weekends visiting my two wonderful supporting congregations and report on the work here in Natal. I loved being with them again and getting to share about how things are going here. I spent a LOT of time driving, but it wasn't too bad because I got to rediscover the joy of driving an automatic and rest my left leg before coming back to my standard-transmission car in Natal. :)

Me with Tootie, one of the elder's wives at Springtown and a great friend!

As soon as I got back to Natal I started the process of scheduling my laser eye surgery. Had I known how long it would take (not because I had any trouble, but because they just had a lot of hoops for me to jump through) to get my insurance company to authorize the surgery, I would have started the process before I left. But, 3 weeks after I got back, I got the surgery scheduled and am now in my second week of recovery! I've worn glasses and/or contacts since I was 6 years old, and was blind as a bat, so this is a very new experience for me! I am so thankful for my Brazilian insurance that covered this type of surgery, something I would never have been able to do in the States without paying out of pocket. It's pretty remarkable that a 40 second procedure can correct 19 years of bad vision, but...I try not to think too much about that!

As soon as I got back I was also pumped to celebrate my friend Talis's graduation from college. College graduations here are week-long celebrations, with events every night and ending with a prom-like party on the weekend. Talis is one of our members who came through LST several years ago, and I am so proud of his accomplishments and where God is leading him in his life. It was an honor to be able to celebrate with him!

Talis's graduation prom :) (Talis is the one looking sharp in a tux)

Things are getting back to normal here now that the Carnaval (Mardi Gras times a million...) holiday is over. Brazil kind of waits for Carnaval to be over before anything serious gets done, so all of our classes are getting started up again and we're already gearing up for the LST season in just a couple months!

Now that I have the emotional burden of this recap post off my shoulders (seriously, I feel guilty about not blogging in a while. Does anyone even read this anymore?) I will really try to keep writing regular updates. but...I know that doesn't mean much since I've told you that many times before. I was reading a guy's blog yesterday who said he schedules his posts to be written on Mondays and Fridays, and actually has it built into his weekly agenda with a reminder that pops up telling him it's time to blog. Maybe I should try that? Ha. Here's to being a better blogger! Thanks for reading!

Jasmine

2010-12-07T00:26:00.003-02:00

I mentioned in my "Thankful" post that I have two big, beautiful jasmine trees, one of which was about to flower. Natal has these trees in giant form all over the city, and they flower all year long. If you have never smelled a jasmine flower you are seriously missing out. I never in my life saw a plant and thought "I have to have that," not until I saw/smelled jasmine, that is. Each day new buds have bloomed and I just love it so much I wanted to share my cheer with you! I'm no photographer, but I hope you can enjoy the pictures as much as I do!

Continent Care Connection

2010-11-27T18:00:00.000-02:00

Two years ago when I went to the Continent Connection Conference put on by Continent of Great Cities, I had such an uplifting, encouraging, refreshing week that I immediately began planning and saving for the next conference in 2010. At that point I didn't even know if I would still be in Brazil in 2010, but just in case, I made plans. It was that good. When the much-anticipated date of October 4th rolled around (one day after the elections I blogged about,) I was giddy with excitement to return to the beautiful beach town of Maresias and enjoy a week of worship, sharing, resting, and reconnecting with other missionary women from South America.

This year was everything I was expecting and more. We spent 5 days at a beachfront resort sharing in times of worship and prayer, classes on topics ranging from contemplative prayer to boundaries in relationships to the importance of female companionship, connection groups which served to connect us more intimately with each other and share about struggles in our work and personal lives, and lots of eating. :)

I reconnected with many old friends from the days when my family lived in Brasilia, some friends I made at the conference in 2008, some friends I had never met but had corresponded with through this blog, and was blessed to make many new friends. There were about 40 missionary participants and (I think) about 15 women who came from the US to spend time with us as small group facilitators, speakers, organizers, gift-givers, counselors, and friends.

On a personal level, I can say I returned to Natal a different person. Not only rested, but also confident that God used that week at CCC to show me many areas of my life where I was needing to make some changes, as well as showing me areas where I can be confident I am following His will. I came back to Natal determined to make these changes and live confidently, and in the weeks since the conference I have been blessed by the results.

In a week so centered on gratitude, I am reminded of how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to go to CCC for a second time. God blessed me with a great week of companionship and learning. I was blessed by the extreme generosity of the women who came to serve us for five whole days, and was blessed by the lessons they had to teach us and the way God used them in such perfect ways that we know only He could have orchestrated it. I am grateful for the generosity of the donors who made CCC financially possible-- because of them, all we had to do was get ourselves to Sao Paulo and the rest was taken care of. It was an unforgettable week.

My connection group: me, Amy, and Rachel

The beautiful food table on our final night. If you look closely, you can see that "Continent Care Connection" is carved into the watermelon.

Thankful

2010-11-25T17:40:00.002-02:00

Before I resume my blog blitz on the aforementioned activities of the past few months, I feel it is necessary to stop on this day and tell you all (or most) the things for which I am thankful. Although it is not Thanksgiving in Brazil, it is Thanksgiving in my heart. So here are just a few things that make my heart cheerful today.

the turkey breast sandwich I ordered from Subway today and the little laugh I had with me and myself over my private nod to the holiday
the blessing of having friends who feel like family who, all on their own, offered to put together a Thanksgiving meal and invite me out for a Thanksgiving celebration because they knew today I might be missing home
having a roommate who makes this big apartment feel less lonely (also a future blog topic)
having a big, beautiful apartment in which I have enough room to host friends for Thanksgiving tonight and a wedding shower tomorrow
the fact that rice is included in every Brazilian meal, including our Thanksgiving meal tonight :)
the testimony I heard in one of my classes today of a woman who is so obviously filled with the Holy Spirit. I found out she spent 35 years of her life as a "priestess" in one of Brazil's most prominent pagan religions
the music at my gym that motivates me to work out with a little more vigor and laugh at how stupid and uncreative the lyrics are
the fact that I have motivation to work out daily at the gym...I mean seriously...who ever would have guessed THAT day would come?
a washing machine that makes me not to have to hand-wash my clothes
fans
my two big, beautiful jasmine trees. One is about to flower and I just can't wait!
the daytime doorman who works at my building. I have never seen a person so eager to take out the trash (Sorry, Dad. Carlinos has you beat, but not by much!)
my new purple-handled flatware. It was on sale, totally clashes with my home decor, but it makes me laugh nonetheless!
the fact that I will eat turkey tonight
the fact that I will actually put to use 5 pipecleaners I received at a conference in October at the wedding shower tomorrow
the Skype webcam chat I am about to have with my parents and extended family in Arkansas. It will be my grandpa's first time to Skype. Should be fun!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

2 things

2010-11-17T14:20:00.002-02:00

1. It was brought to my attention that my third post in my recent blog blitz was out of order and dated as November 7. I figured out it was because I had written it early and published it later, so it was published on the original date. Make sure to check it out, it's about my friend's visit to Natal!

2. My friend Brent, who is a Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia, has done it again. He wrote a very poignant post on the role loneliness plays when you are living overseas, away from your home culture. He also beautifully explains how that place that, at first seemed so lonely, suddenly turns into home. If you would like to read it, click here.

The blogging blitz continues...

Classes

2010-11-16T17:03:00.002-02:00

As I mentioned before, coming out of LST season, as I like to call it, is like the crash after drinking one of those Monster energy drinks. I walk around dazed, not sure what to do during the hours of 9 to 9. I look at the food in my kitchen and wonder how I am supposed to cook it. The phone rings and I cringe, hoping it's not a reader canceling his reading session. And then I remember that the LST season has passed. I have my own classes to put together and begin. I take the food out of the refrigerator and remember that I have never cooked anything complicated, and just because I have been eating in a lot of restaurants doesn't mean I forgot all of my kitchen knowledge. And when the phone rings, I remember that it's most likely not for me. (And then I do a little dance.)

As fun as it is getting an average of 2 hours of sleep more each night in those weeks following the end of the LST season, the most fun part is most definitely getting to continue in the studies with the LST readers. Unfortunately, going from a team of workers with 5 members to my team which includes exactly 1 worker (me), not all of the readers can continue. I ask the opinion of the LST teams on who they think has the interest to continue, and who seemed the most open to talking and learning about the Bible.

This year I put a list together of about 25 readers. Most of them were put into group classes, and because of scheduling conflicts, two were put into individual reading sessions. The group classes have been using The Sycamore Series, a series of Bible studies published by Let's Start Talking. Since the intended audience of the series is native English speakers, the studies go deeper and use longer texts than the regular LST material aimed at those who are learning English. Since most of my students are very advanced English speakers, it has been an absolutely perfect fit. They have loved the texts, the new vocabulary, and the questions that really make them think. We have had great conversations about trust, baptism, Jesus' crucifixion, and what it means to live in a way that reflects we know those stories.

Not only do I love watching my students discover these stories and make real-life applications, it has also been encouraging to me to read these stories I've known for so long through fresh eyes. I am thankful for the way the Holy Spirit has moved in these studies and taught us all more about God's word. As always, I pray that they will gradually begin to care less and less about the English and more and more about God's message.

Friends are friends forever, especially when you live on the beach

2010-11-15T14:29:00.000-02:00

Since moving to Natal, I have invited so many friends to come visit me that I never even started counting. I invite everyone, hoping that one day someone might say "Hey...that sounds like a good idea!" and actually come. Never did I actually imagine that it would happen. Natal is hard to get to-- so hard that I assumed only the love of a family member would be enough to make someone actually make the trip. I have been blessed to host my parents here twice in the last three years and my sister and brother-in-law once. I was a pretty happy camper.

Enter: July. My friend Lezlie, whom I went to high school with, puts up a Facebook status saying she has some money, has some time before the semester starts, and would like to take an international trip. Did anyone have any suggestions? I, of course, jumped at the chance and was first to comment with "come to Natal!" Imagine my shock when she wrote back and basically said "Really? Ok." I never thought that would happen!

Mere weeks later I was picking up Lezlie and her friend, Jason, from the Natal airport for a week of Brazilian fun. The timing was perfect. I had just finished up the LST season and was in desperate need of some down time. What better way to spend down time than showing off my beautiful city to my friend?

The week she was here went quickly, but we had a blast! We stayed at a hotel on the beach for a couple nights, which means we had great Brazilian hotel breakfast for a couple mornings. We enjoyed the hotel's rooftop pool and its entrance right onto the beach. We got massages on the beach and spent a day on a dune buggy. Lezlie got to try all of the most important Brazilian foods and meet my church family. I'm so thankful she came!

Lezlie, Jason, and I on the dune buggy

Lezlie and I overlooking my future residence (yeah right)

The invitation is still open for anyone else who would like to come visit! I promise that Natal and I will partner together to show you a great time!

Brazilian Elections

2010-11-07T14:47:00.003-02:00

If I were to say "I'm so glad elections are over!" you would probably say "me too!" If I were to say "I'm so glad the bumper stickers are gone...and the TV ads...and the robocalls..." you would probably say "me too!" If I were to say "I'm so glad the streets are quiet..." you would probably say "huh?"

Some of you may remember two years ago my post about the local city elections. I was pretty excited because I got to (had to) vote and it was my first time voting in Brazil. This time around, it was still exciting because we were voting for president, but it lost its luster as soon as the dreaded political jingles started waking me up at inconvenient times and disrupting my quiet life.

The biggest way that political candidates advertise their candidacy is by BLASTING their campaign jingles. Here we vote by a candidate's election ID number, so the jingle has to be annoying enough to get stuck in your head and permanently burn the candidate's number into your brain so that you will remember it on election day. They start about two months ahead of the elections and drive around the city all day long, every day of the week. The richer the candidate, the more money he has to rent giant sound cars and, sometimes, trucks the size of a parade float. This year the elections were for governor, state reps, federal reps, federal senators, and the president. The good news is that, since those positions are a bit more prestigious than city councilman, there were fewer candidates and thus fewer jingles. The bad news is there were still jingles. And lots of 'em.

Election day was blissful. On election day the sound cars are silenced and the Brazilian people are allowed to go to the polling stations in peace. Due to Brazil's high-tech voting system, soon after polls closed at 5pm we knew who had won. Our state's new governor was announced, as were our reps and senators. Only the presidential election was sent into a runoff because none of the candidates got 50% of the vote. But the presidential runoff was still 3 weeks away, and so I began to dream of my life going back to normal. I live on one of the main thoroughfares through town, so my street had been heavily trafficked by ALL of the campaign cars.

The day after the election I was leaving for a trip to Sao Paulo at 3:30 am. I went to bed at midnight, planning on getting 3 hours of sleep before leaving for the airport. At approximately 1:58 am, I was jolted awake by the sound of a campaign jingle. "This isn't right," I thought. "The election is over. And it's 2am!" I looked out my window and saw a small group of people gathered on the corner, waving the new governor's flag and dancing to her jingle. I was pretty frustrated, knowing I would lose one full hour of sleep before going to the airport. I went back to bed, hoping that I would be sleepy enough to drown it out. Wrong. Minutes later, this happened:

That's right. That's the new governor's victory parade, which paraded by my apartment for at least half an hour. The crackling sounds are fireworks. The song is one of her campaign jingles, one of the many that I heard for two straight months. The people dancing in the street are probably drunk. All of this footage was taken from my bedroom window, where I was obviously not sleeping but thankfully lucid enough to grab my camera and document it as probably no one would believe me if I were to just tell the story. At some point the new governor rode by on one of the trucks, but I can't remember if it's on the video.

Oh yeah, and the female candidate won the presidential runoff last Sunday. I thought it was pretty cool that I got to witness and participate in Brazilians electing their first woman president!

Maybe NOW things will quiet down....

Well this is embarrassing...

2010-11-07T14:18:00.002-02:00

I came here today to see how long it had been since my last post. I was very ashamed to find a thin, blue "September 21" staring right back at me, and even more embarrassed that that post wasn't even legit, since I was sharing someone else's blog with you. I had some pretty great intentions to resume my regular blogging, especially after my 3-year anniversary, but apparently good intentions don't get me very far. Does anyone even read this blog anymore?

Coming out of LST season is like crashing after a sugar high. For two packed months I was going going going and then suddenly...I was going, resting, going some more, and then resting a little longer, and then thinking about going, and then definitely resting. The pace of my everyday life has definitely changed, but it has not been unexciting!

In order to not write one huge post that people might not even read, I am going to prepare several posts to publish throughout the next days/weeks for you to get caught up on what's happened since July. As a reminder to myself, and so that you can hold me accountable, there will be posts about the following things:

my first non-family visitor
Brazilian elections
Children's Day
my trip to Sao Paulo for the Continent Care Connection
my group classes
the continuation of the church's remodeling process (tentative)

You can be honest...I know you're excited. On Tuesday I'm going to Recife and won't be back until Sunday, so if you are actually interested in holding me accountable, please refrain from doing so until next week. I am going to Recife for an intensive Portuguese Bible study, and also to see if once and for all I can call a truce with that city. My guess is no, but I hope to at least get some good Bible-studying out of it. :)

This is where the missing starts

2010-09-21T12:02:00.003-03:00

I can think of two times in the past three years that I have used this blog to link to something else that I thought was worth your time. Once was to show a YouTube video of a cute baby who bites his older brother's finger then laughs about it, and the second was to share a link to my friend Brent's blog on how much he misses Mexican food while living in Armenia volunteering with the Peace Corps. So, it's safe to say pretty much never do I share external links. I guess I figure that those of you who read this blog are reading to hear how things are going here in Natal, and not to know what videos I think are funny (although that one of the baby is pretty funny...you should watch it) or what political commentaries I'm following as of late. That's what Facebook and Twitter are for. :)

So, in my reasoning, if a person almost never does something, then one day does that thing, there must be a reason. My aforementioned friend, Brent, has been in Armenia for 16 months. I've followed his blog since he arrived as we have had a lot of the same cross-cultural adjustment experiences. Recently, his mom got to be his first visitor. After 16 months of seeing his mom through a computer screen, he was able to spend a week with her, showing her off to Armenia and showing Armenia off to her.

Please take 5 minutes to read the post he wrote about that time. He beautifully, eloquently captures the love, joy, and excitement that I believe all of us who live away from our loved ones feel that first time we are reunited with them away from "home." You won't regret it. And you might cry a little.

Read Brent's post by clicking here.

3 years

2010-09-04T15:11:00.002-03:00

Today marks 3 years since the day I arrived in Natal. Coincidentally, I was just tackling an email inbox clean-up and went to the very beginning. I found a lot of emails from that time. It's pretty cool to read how excited I was...how clueless I was...how anxious I was...how bad my Portuguese was.

It's amazing that it's been 3 years. I'm reading these emails as though it were a completely different person who wrote them. And in a way, it was. Usually on these anniversaries I blog something sentimental, showing you pictures of the past 12 months or whatever. But today I don't feel like doing that. I think maybe the past two anniversaries I felt like it was momentous, I felt like looking back. Not today. Today feels like a normal day, just like any other. I don't feel sentimental, nor do I feel like I accomplished something huge.

Maybe it's because now Natal is home. My life here is my life. It's not a vacation, it's not a trip, it's not an adventure anymore. It's not something I feel like blogging about all the time like that first year, because now I think it's normal to buy eggs one at a time.

So how have I celebrated this non-momentous momentous occasion? Last night 5 of my friends from church came over. We watched a movie, ate some pasta, played some Uno, and laughed with our friend as she tried to catch a slipping 2-liter Sprite and inadvertently sprayed it ALL OVER my dining room wall. It has been so, so long since I laughed that hard. I told them about this special day and we all kind of just sat there staring at each other. "Wow," one said, "has it really been three years?" And then we went back to laughing about the wall.

Like I said, this is home. This feels normal. And that's exactly how I think it should be.

2010-07-31T22:14:00.004-03:00

I was driving home tonight and thought to myself "I feel like blogging." I decided to go ahead and take full advantage of that feeling, given that I haven't felt this way since, oh, maybe 2008? :)

After 9 weeks of constant reader and American traffic, our LST season is finally over. I say finally only because it lasted a long time, not because I'm happy about it. In the 4 years I have participated in LST in Natal, this year we had the most top-notch, cream of the crop readers that I've seen. They were a joy to be around and to host in our building. They were reliable and highly intelligent. They were kind and welcoming to our American workers. They took full advantage of the free English conversation sessions and expressed their gratitude. They came to the parties and had a blast. They showered our American guests with beautiful, authentic Brazilian gifts. They studied the Bible.

We hosted 4 different LST teams, 18 people total, from Tennessee, Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma. They rode dune buggies and played in the ocean. They accumulated hundreds of hours studying the gospel of Luke in English. They made friendships, many of which will last a lifetime. Each of them took a small piece of our hearts with them as they went home, and I'm sure they feel as though they left a piece of theirs with us. Each of them promised they'd be back...and given the track record of LST teams in Natal, I believe them!

I often say I have the best job in the world. If it's not the best, (one of our LST workers is an elementary school PE teacher...it's possible her job is the best in the world!) it's up there. Hosting American visitors, connecting them with Brazilians, and watching them develop relationships while reading the Bible is a privilege and blessing I don't take for granted. I've learned the pattern well of an LST project, especially when the workers are newbies. They are usually nervous to get started, and come out of their first session with a giant sigh of relief. They usually express surprise at how easy it was. For about the first two days they share with me about each and every reader, each and every conversation. I eat it up. I love watching them relax into their role as soon as they realize it is to relate rather than "teach." I love hearing about the reader who barely will say "hi" to me at the door, but shares his life as soon as he sits down at the table with his new, English-speaking friend. I get goosebumps as they tell me about the reader who "finally got it," and the one who got emotional as they prayed for the first time together.

A few months ago, as we were starting our advertising for LST, I shared with you about how I bargain with God regarding the response to our advertising, as if it somehow depended on me and what we do. Once again, I am humbled not only by the sheer number of people He brought to us, (over 100) but also by the way He worked in each of their lives. As of right now we have two readers who will begin studying the Bible in Portuguese with one of our ministers, and about 30 who will continue studying the Bible in English with me in group classes. I received a beautiful email last week from one of the readers who will begin a Portuguese Bible study, in which he said "I'd like to keep studying the Bible no matter what language."

Please remember us in your prayers. We are praying prayers of thanksgiving for the blessings that God gave us through LST, and we are praying prayers of petition for the lives of our new friends. We want to be used as instruments in God's hand, however He may choose to do that.

And since no blog post is complete without a picture, here are two shots I took on two different days this past week of my city at night. Enjoy!

Quick Update Round 2

2010-07-05T22:01:00.002-03:00

Hello again. Remember me? I don't. I think I may have forgotten my own name in the last 36 hours. Although I'm a sucker for superlatives, I really do think that yesterday might have been one of the most tiring days I've ever experienced in my short 25 years on this earth!

LST team #2 from Westover Hills in Austin finished up their project on Friday and got a day and a half to relax, hang out, and see some sights. They had a great project and a great experience with their readers. We (the other missionaries and I) always feel so blessed when members of our supporting churches come to visit, and getting to serve alongside them is an added bonus. The Westover team just "happened" (thanks, God) to be here on a very important Sunday on which the church was presented with a financial plan for the congregation to start participating in the payment of the missionaries' salaries. That we had three real, live Westover members here to participate in the meeting, witness the response, and be able to go back with a good report to Westover was pretty remarkable. We were pleased!

On Sunday, as I dropped LST team #2 off at the airport, I got them checked-in and sent upstairs to board while I stayed downstairs to meet LST team #3 from Springtown. In addition to Westover, Springtown is my other supporting church and so we had a sweet reunion in the arrivals area of the Natal airport. We got all five of them and their bags (plus Paul Reding from one of last year's teams) into the cars, to the apartment at church, upstairs, settled, fed, and downstairs in time for worship. :) To call it a giant whirlwind for all involved would be a huge understatement, but this morning they all seemed to be well rested and ready to go, which I am thankful for. They already began reading sessions this evening and are very, very excited. Once again, it is such an ENORMOUS blessing to be able to serve alongside visitors from my supporting congregations. I love that they not only get to see the work they have invested in, but they get to participate and make eternal impacts, as well! I can't stress enough how encouraged I am by these visits.

So that's what's going on now...my parents made it back safely to the United States and I think I miss them, but I haven't had much time to think about it. (Just kidding, Mom and Dad. I cried all alone in the car like I promised I wouldn't as I left the airport from dropping you off.) This is without a doubt the busiest time of year for me...but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

Please be praying for this team and for the readers with whom they are studying. Many of these readers are transitioning from the Gospel of Luke to the book of Acts, and our prayer is that as they begin to study about the teachings of Jesus being played out in the church, that they will continue to examine their own lives and how they can fit into that story.

Until next time....adios!

When Brazil scores...

2010-06-25T10:43:00.001-03:00

...this happens:

Leonardo's Update

2010-06-24T14:48:00.008-03:00

One of our readers found my blog when he started reading with the first LST team. He told me, and I kind of forgot, until he walked in last week and said "You really need to update your blog, Cris." So this one's for you, Leonardo!

Since my last post, we have:

Reconnected with old friends

Taught Brazilians how to play an intense game of Spoons

Taught babies how to stand

Taught Brazilians how to play baseball (turn your head)

Had some down time to enjoy the beauty of Natal

Cheered Brazil on to victory (twice!) in the World Cup

Dressed up in traditional Natal clothes (ha)

Said goodbye to new friends at the airport

Visited our old stomping grounds in Brazil's capital, Brasilia

Revisiting famous landmarks in Brasilia, such as this cathedral

Not being able to enter said cathedrals because of our inadequate dress :)

So...there you have it. We've stayed busy. The new (second) LST team arrived on Sunday from Westover Hills in Austin and is already in the full swing of things, staying extra busy with an extremely full reading schedule. We're having lots of fun, and, of course, looking forward to Brazil's third game in the world cup tomorrow morning!

Quick Update

2010-05-26T21:59:00.003-03:00

Just wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going. The first LST team arrived without any glitches on Monday afternoon (other than the glitch of me being late to the airport and they were standing on the sidewalk waiting for me when I walked up...lame, Cris.) and hit the ground running. They are a very enthusiastic bunch and are already doing a great job of jumping into the culture, church, and reading sessions.

Last night they had their information meeting, which is The Event that we had been so heavily advertising for. In years past there have usually been about 30-40 people show up to the information meeting and we add several readers after the fact. Yesterday it started raining around lunch time and I started getting worried....rain keeps a lot of people home. It's hard to get around on public transportation in the rain, and so I started preparing myself and the team that we might get a lower turnout than we had hoped for.

According to the sign-in sheet at the information meeting, we had SIXTY people show up! What does that mean? It means that sixty people have signed up for LST reading sessions and will begin their studies this week or next. That means that of the 60, 54 were brand new readers who have never participated in LST before, and the other 6 were very special former readers who have come back to continue. That means that sixty people were interested enough in the program to brave the rain and come out anyway...and it means that several others who had confirmed they would come weren't able to, and called today to schedule reading sessions anyway.

The group is in high spirits and enjoyed their first day of reading. Please be praying for all of us...the team as they get into the groove of the very, very intense reading schedule and me as I try to keep my sanity playing secretary for 6 workers and 70ish readers. :) Don't be mistaken, however...I am having an absolute blast. I have the best job in the world and am overwhelmed by the blessings God is already showering on us.

Here are some pictures of the information meeting...

I love my job

2010-05-17T14:50:00.003-03:00

For those of you who have never participated in any kind of English-as-a-second-language experience, I highly recommend that you figure out a way to do it at least once. LST provides an excellent opportunity for me on a daily basis. Not only is it rewarding to help others learn and master another language, it's also really fun.

And you're always guaranteed a good laugh, especially when they decide to try out the latest slang or idiomatic expressions they've been learning.

I got this email today from a guy who saw our advertisement and wanted to know more about LST. I replied to his email, telling him about the information meeting next Tuesday. Usually they write to me in Portuguese, I respond in English, and then if they reply again it's usually in English. That's when it gets funny. This email made my day!

Hey Cris,
I'm sure I'll be there and save a seat for me, alright?
hehe
I'm looking foward for it! I'm definetely in.

See you buddy.

I don't know this guy, but I do look forward to becoming his buddy. Or...I guess I already am. :)

For those of you who have been praying....

2010-05-12T16:18:00.002-03:00

....THANK YOU!

(Read my previous post if you don't know what you were supposed to be praying for.)

This happens every year. In March-ish I get so excited, because this is going to be the best LST year yet. We are gonna have the best turnout we've ever had!

And then April-ish I start thinking "Ohmygooness. What if no one calls? No, they're going to call. God has gone before us and is preparing the people who are going to come this year."

And then comes May. Oh, May. May is when we can start doing T-minus countdowns to The Start Date. It's when we do our advertising campaign, and this year it was a MEGA advertising campaign. And May is when I start bargaining with God. "Ok, God. Please don't make all of our efforts be in vain. Please send us people. If you don't send us new people to study the Bible with, I'll just call some old readers. Old readers who never showed interest in learning more about the Bible but at least they showed up. I will. If you don't send us readers that's what I'll do."

And then I start thinking more clearly, like this morning at the gym while I was on the treadmill, (it's where I do some of my best praying) and I pray "God, thank you for giving me and the LST workers the privilege to serve you by helping others practice their English and study the Bible at the same time. Please send us people with open hearts, and help us to show your love to them. We know that you know so much more than we do, and you are working in the hearts of each and every person we will meet with. That's enough. We are here to serve you."

And whaddya know? The phone started ringing. And the phone hasn't stopped ringing. It's rung so many times that I have my little speech down pat.

Please keep praying. I know you have been, and I know you will continue to.

It works!

Special Prayer Request

2010-04-28T23:27:00.002-03:00

I know that many of you who keep up with this blog are great prayer warriors for me, my ministry in Natal, and the church here. I decided to take advantage of that and give you something specific to pray for!

We are entering into LST season here in Natal. The first team arrives on May 24th and has six members, two of whom just so happen to be my parents. Their project will last three weeks, and after their project ends, we will receive three more teams between June and July.

My prayer request is that you will pray specifically for readers to respond to our advertising and come study in the LST program with these teams. We are beginning our advertising this week, and are hoping to distribute 1000 fliers between now and the end of May. With six workers on the first team, and a limit of 15 readers per worker, we have the capacity to accommodate a whopping NINETY readers in the first project alone. Please pray that God has prepared/is preparing/will prepare these people to take interest in free English conversation classes and come find out what LST is about. This means our first team could potentially be studying the Bible with 90 people a month from now....can you imagine?

So please pray. This is a very active and essential way for you to be personally involved in our work. God has shown me very, very clearly over the last 2.5 years that He LISTENS to your prayers and has no reservations about showering blessings upon our ministry. I have faith that this year will be no different!

Thank you! Happy praying!

Beach Day Fun

2010-04-22T20:10:00.008-03:00

Yesterday was a national holiday, so rather than do what we usually do on middle-of-the-week holidays (sleep in, stay home, etc) we planned a church-wide picnic. Enjoy a glimpse into our midweek escape to the beach!

About 25 of us gathered here...

...at about 10 in the morning. Does anyone want to play "where's the American"?
(Hint: I'm the glowing one down front.)

We made sure to apply sunscreen throughout the day...

...so that we could play a little futebol...

....and a little volleyball....

...and even some father-son paddle ball!

We made sure to take a few naps...

...to rest up for great fellowship and conversation.

Then we ate. We do that well.

We stayed until 4 in the afternoon, just as rain clouds rolled in. It was a wonderful day, and we are already looking forward to the next peeky-neeky!

THE END

P.S. We also tried to make 5-month old babies crawl...

Because they're cute!

Easy Peach Cobbler

2010-04-09T17:23:00.004-03:00

I'm reluctant to write this post because it's so trendy to put recipes on blogs, and I am no Pioneer Woman. However, I feel like I am justified in doing this because I don't cook. Well, I do cook, but I can't cook. Well, obviously I can cook, but I am most definitely not gifted at it. Nor do I particularly enjoy it, although that is changing. And so here is my justification for this blog: this recipe is one of the easiest, if not the easiest, things I make, and it's delicious and a huge hit. People here always, always ask me to make this dessert for showers or events at church. Just this week I hosted our team meeting at my house on Wednesday morning, and when I woke up an hour before everyone arrived, I realized I only had water to serve. I whipped this baby up in exactly 6 minutes and popped it in the oven. So, when I realized I had timed myself to see just how fast it was, I decided it was blog-worthy. I owe a big thanks to my Aunt Nell for sharing this recipe. It's definitely a hit in Natal!

(Easy) Peach Cobbler

Mix in 9 x 13 pan:
1 stick melted butter
3/4 C flour
3/4 C sugar
1/2 t salt
2 t baking powder
3/4 C milk

Pour one big can sliced peaches over mix. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until brown.

You can also cut the recipe in half, use a 16 oz can of peaches, and put it in a 9x9 pan.

My mom suggests cutting the sugar back to 1/2 cup because the peach syrup makes it too sweet, but I think that's a really sad idea. If you're averse to sweet things, though, that might be a good suggestion for you. I never do that, but sometimes I keep out some of the syrup.

It's really hard to mess this up, and that might be the #1 reason I make it all the time.

I bet this will be the only time you will ever see a recipe on this blog, so I hope you enjoy it!

The Church Without a Name

2010-04-05T17:22:00.004-03:00

Over the past 5 months I've participated in a lot of phone conversations on the church's phone line that went a bit like this:

Me: Comunidade de Cristo, may I help you?
Caller: Yeah, I'm calling about ______ that I heard about from _______. Where are you located?
(Note: The _____ can represent English classes, church events, worship services, a delivery, etc.)
Me: On the corner of X Avenue and Y Street, in between B Boulevard and C Avenue.
Caller: Ok, and what's the name of your church?
Me: Comunidade de Cristo....
Caller: Ok, well, thanks...
Me: But wait. Our name is not on the front of the building....
Caller: What do you mean?
Me: Well, you see, we've been remodeling our church building and...well...the name hasn't gone up yet.
Caller: So...how do I know where it is?
Me: Well, it's next door to the aluminum store. It's a big white building with a green front.
Caller: Ok, green front.
Me: But don't come in through the front, come in through the side. The front is the auditorium, and during the week there is no one at that door. Come to the side gate.
Caller: Ok, is there a sign over the side gate?
Me: No.
Caller: Ok, well hopefully I'll find it anyway.
Me: Me too. (Hang up with my head hung in shame.)

For months we've been called "The Church Without a Name".

For weeks our members have been asking (read: bugging) us about how weird it is that our church doesn't have a name--and they don't even spend the day answering phone calls like I do! And we reply like this: "Well, we'd be happy to accept your donation for R$X to cover the cost of the letters. We'll have them up by Tuesday." You see, these things cost money, people!

Of course our church has a name. And anyone who knows the 10-year history of this church in this neighborhood knows we have a name, and that name is "Comunidade de Cristo".

But what about those who don't know our history? What about the newcomers, the parents of a teenage girl who came to pick up their daughter who was visiting a Bible study on a Saturday and started getting worried when they could not find this mysterious church, not to mention their daughter who was supposed to be inside?

Have I dramatized it enough for you???????????????

Well, my dear readers, you know me. And you know I am no bad news bear. So this post will likely end with some exciting news. I present to you:

The Building Formerly Known as the Church Without a Name

Igreja Comunidade de Cristo

And just a little reminder as to why this is all so exciting and blog-worthy (to me, anyway...)
You may call this BEFORE. I call this YIKES.

Special thanks to a handful of generous contributors who helped make the naming process possible. The money came from a few individual church members, as well as brothers and sisters from other congregations in Brazil who stayed in our building while on vacation and left behind some cash to help us out. Hooray!

Coming soon...

2010-04-05T13:51:00.003-03:00

It's been a month since my last post, and that depresses me. Sometimes I go a month without posting because there's not much to blog about, but that's not the case this time around. There's been lots going on, including my getting my very first foreign stamp in my Brazilian passport on a quick little journey to Paraguay a couple of weeks ago. As well as some freaky little Paraguayan bug that bit me on my toe and prevented me from walking correctly for about a week. And the completion of an exciting new phase in the church building's remodeling process.

See? Lots been goin' on. I'll be back later this week to share (I hope). Just going to acquire some photographic evidence so that those of you who prefer looking at pictures to reading narratives can stay updated, too. :)

Carnaval

2010-03-05T12:06:00.004-03:00

I just realized that I never blogged about the Carnaval retreat...so here we go.

Imagine a world where your yearly calendar functions around Mardi Gras. Imagine a world where Mardi Gras celebrations are not just confined to one major city, but is evenly represented in all major cities throughout the country. And, best of all, imagine a world where, whether or not you are the Mardi Gras celebrating type, you still get 5 days off work to do whatever you want.

Enter Brazil, and the famous celebration known as Carnaval. Although the "official" Carnaval holiday is on what American culture calls "Fat Tuesday," the day before Ash Wednesday, here we start the commemorations the Friday or Saturday before and party hard until Tuesday or Wednesday. And by "party hard" I mean we go on a church retreat. :)

This year's retreat theme was "Renewed Hearts" and its theme passage was the parable of the sower from Matthew 13. We dissected the parable each day and focused on each element of the story: the sower, the seed, and the different kinds of soil. I really enjoyed such an in-depth study of the same passage over the course of the retreat.

Of course, in between the worship, studying, and prayer times, we also had a lot of play time! The retreat was held at the house in Genipabu where we often hold our church events. We had daily access to a pool, a soccer field, and a sand volleyball court. Each night we also had special theme nights, including Gala night (dress in nice clothes), and costume night with a talent show. The Brazilians love to go all out and make these events really special, and it showed. The retreat planning committee did an excellent job, and everyone had a great time!

Worship time.

Costume night, obviously. We had a hippie, a Baihana (the girl dressed in white, Google it) a diver, a girl with blue hair, and Little Osmildo...

The best costume of the night BY FAR: Little Osmildo posing next to Big Osmildo. I laughed so hard at this.

Osmildo teaching the wrap-up lesson on the parable of the sower.

I look pretty rough in this picture, but I guess it's an accurate reflection of Retreat Cris. Anyway, the real subject of the photo is my precious kind-of nephew, Filipe, showing off his I heart NY onesie I gave him for Christmas. :) He's happy, don't let the "kill me now" look fool you.

Playing in a Bible Bowl competition where the loser....

...gets an egg white pie to the face. Poor Isabel.

The whole group.

Nice reminder

2010-03-01T19:46:00.004-03:00

Many of you have probably never heard the full, extended-version story of how I ended up in Natal. It all started back in 2005, when I was in my sophomore year of college at ACU and decided that I was so tired of school that I would take time off after graduating to do something other than graduate school. At the time I flippantly decided that I would take a year or two to do short-term mission work before returning to get a Master's degree.

Today one of the church members asked me "Cris, how did you become a missionary?" I told him the story, starting in 2005, (actually, starting long before when I said I would never be a missionary) and how it all led to me being in Natal today.

Today I also started a new Bible study plan that the whole congregation will (hopefully) participate in to read the New Testament in 3 months. Today's chapters were Matthew 1-4. I read them in my favorite Bible, the one I received from the MRCC elders when I graduated from high school. I used it throughout college and then it got replaced by a smaller, cooler, hipper, more colorful Bible that I got for college graduation. I accidentally left Bible #1 behind at my parent's house when I moved to Natal in 2007. Over Christmas in NYC, my mom brought it to me and we had a very happy reunion. After reading the first four chapters of Matthew, I began to thumb through its pages, looking at all of my old notes and sermon outlines with a hint of nostalgia. Imagine my very happy, blessed surprise when I saw this Post-It, carefully placed under the passage about storing up treasures in heaven, on the very day I told my story:

I remember that day in my dorm room, when I had given my flippant idea a little more thought, and was convicted by this passage in Matthew. I decided to make myself a Post-It reminder to see if I would follow through with the commitment I made to myself.

Well, 5 years later, and I believe that moment was a bit more than school fatigue and much more divine appointment.

I am thankful that God put me here, and I am thankful that little "coincidences" like this remind me of that fact.

Missionaries for a day

2010-02-27T21:05:00.005-03:00

For those of you who grew up going to church, you might remember that Sunday every few years when The Missionary came to give his report about how the work was going in Brazil, or Africa, or Mexico, you can fill in the blank. Along with this report usually came a "we are all missionaries" charge, one in which you were encouraged to be your own missionary at school, or at work, or on the basketball court, etc, that it wasn't necessary to move overseas to be a missionary. That is true, but so many times people are left with the question "how?"

Today I had the opportunity to see my friends at Comunidade de Cristo be missionaries for the day. Geraldo is a name I've mentioned several times on this blog. He was baptized in September of 2008 and has since brought his wife and four kids to church. His family has been a great encouragement to all of us because they are excited for God. Just talking to Geraldo makes you excited to do something to share the love of Christ with others. So it was no surprise that soon after he was baptized, Geraldo had tons of ideas for how we could share the love of Christ with his neighborhood. Today we had an "evangelistic campaign" in his neighborhood, where we split up into groups and went door-knocking, inviting anyone who would answer the door to a Bible study at Geraldo's house later in the evening.

I was so proud of the young people of our congregation. Door-knocking, especially with an invitation to learn about the Bible, can be a risky feat. You run the risk of getting the door slammed in your face, people assuming you're asking for money, or people just being mean. (And, in my case, you run the risk of running into dogs. Lots and lots of BIG, scary, barking dogs.) However, they all arrived at Geraldo's house ready to get their knock on, and after everyone finished I even heard stories of people fighting over who would get to talk at the next house! It was an exciting day for all of us, and we were thrilled when 16 people that we invited showed up to the study! Praise God for those 16, and we pray that God will continue to work on their hearts as well as the hearts of those who answered their doors, listened to the invitation, but for whatever reason decided not to accept it. We know that God knows each of their names, each of their hearts, and maybe allowed a small seed to be planted today.

Ok, enough for narratives. Here's proof!

Osmildo giving last-minute instructions before we split up

The troops setting out to start knocking on doors

The sign hanging outside Geraldo's house. It says "Evangelistic Campaign. Theme: Come to Me" with an arrow pointing down that says "Here". The "Come to Me" theme was based off of Matthew 11:28, a pretty good theme verse for an outreach campaign, if you ask me!

Getting everything set up in Geraldo's garage

Chatting and getting the snacks ready

We had an uninvited guest crash our party.

Full house!

This lady wanted to share that today she was down in the dumps when Fernanda and Geraldo knocked on her door and offered to pray with her. She had her bags packed to move out and leave her husband, because he told her he didn't want her anymore. She cried and cried and cried, but said that after hearing the message from God's Word tonight that she's going to go home, unpack her bags, and show her husband that she's not giving up on 30 years of marriage.

Most of our door-knocking group after the Bible study (and after the tasty snacks they served!)

My Sister is Pretty

2010-02-09T14:54:00.004-02:00

A certain party who closely monitors this blog expressed distaste and, really, disgust, at the unflattering picture displayed in the post below. This party felt that the photo did not accurately portray the beauty of her offspring. So, since I willingly chose to publish that photo of myself, and you probably know what I look like, here are some pictures to show you that my sister does not even closely resemble the wide-eyed pale weirdo that was just nervous about being in a cable car.

Posing with Sergio and I in front of the Thanksgiving tree on her visit to Natal in 2008

Posing with her husband and I in front of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center on my visit to NYC in 2009

Posing in front of the fantastic light show at Columbus Circle during my visit to NYC in 2009

There you have it, Mom. Better?

The One Where Cris Eats Mexican Food in Brazil

2010-01-23T22:55:00.008-02:00

This is what I look like when I haven't had Mexican food in a while.

Ok, really, that's a lie. This is what I look like when I am in a cable car hanging over a ravine at night moving at a very rapid pace toward a giant cliff just to see a view of Rio de Janeiro from a mountain shaped like a loaf of sugar. Or is it a sugarloaf? Does anyone really know the answer to that question? I wasn't the only scared one. Look:

(Ok, so actually this is one my favorite pictures of all time, mostly because of my sister, and I will find any excuse to re-use it and publish it on my blog, like in this case, when we're talking about how I look when I haven't had Mexican food in a while.)

Imagine my INTENSE, INEXPLICABLE JOY, when I found these babies for sale in the supermarket.

(Some BIMBO tortillas. The name of the brand might be 15% of my joy. Those of you who have ever lived/cooked in Brazil with an appreciation for the cuisine from south of the Texas border, you know this is a big deal.)

And my continued joy when Samantha Jewell gave me this when she moved out of the country (and would have tasty Latin foods of all kinds at her fingertips living in Miami, FL)

H&H Brand 30 Second Salsa, Burns Your Buns Hot.

The instructions said to add a little scoop of the mix to a can of diced tomatoes. Problem is, we don't have canned, diced tomatoes. So I was going to follow Sam's advice and just "chop up some tomatoes and pour in a little tomato sauce." But that sounded an awful lot like "improvise" and I don't do well "improvising" in the kitchen. I do better with measuring cups and scales. So imagine my second round of joy when I found these babies at Sam's Club:

NAKED TOMATOES! (Translation: whole canned tomatoes.)

So I diced 'em up real nice and mixed in a little scoop of the salsa mix, and it made this. My mouth started watering.

But what am I gonna do, eat it with a spoon? (Don't tempt me.)

So then I cut up 3 tortillas into triangles and fried them in oil. Yes, I fried them in oil. GASP. Does frying them in SOY oil make it any healthier???? I'm considering disabling comments on this post just so you can't answer that question.

And they loved each other instantly.

As. Did. I. (Previous and following photos taken approximately 13 minutes apart.)

H&H Brand, I don't know who you are, but knowing that I have you in my cupboard will make me sleep better tonight.

Bliss.

(And yes, my buns are burning.)

The Obvious One

2010-01-15T11:55:00.003-02:00

So here is the group picture from the conference in Salvador. Yesterday when I was choosing pictures, this would have been an obvious pick, but sometimes I guess I overlook the obvious. Enjoy!

Jet Setting, unfortunately

2010-01-14T15:16:00.007-02:00

I just saw that in 2009 I posted just a few more times than in 2007, and in 2007 I started this blog in August. What does that mean? Failure, dear readers. Failure. I hope you can find it in your blog-reading hearts to forgive me.

The last you heard from me, I was posting pictures of strangers sitting on each other's laps in the spirit of church retreats. Since then, I've pretty much been keeping TAM airlines in business with some unexpected -but very lovely- holiday travel. In October my parents invited me to join them for family Christmas in New York City. Christmas of 09 would have been my third Christmas in a row away from family, and I had no plans to join them, but who would say no to that kind of offer? Because it was a last minute plan, and apparently half of Brazil tries to fly to NYC for the holidays, I flew in about a week before Christmas and flew back to Natal on New Year's Eve. It was a wonderful (and BITTERLY COLD) two weeks, and Christmas in NYC is just as magical as I had always dreamed.

Exploring in Central Park on my first full day, not adequately clothed AT ALL. I was surprised to find legs under my jeans when I got home, given that I hadn't been feeling them for about 3 hours.

Mom (and Dad and Aunt Lynette, NOT pictured here) braving the cold to wait in line for our discount Broadway show tickets. It was really so, so cold, but they said it was worth it. (After seeing the show, of course. They weren't so sure at the point this picture was taken, despite the cute babushka look Mom had going on.)

Carpenter/Barneche family in front of the Rockefeller Center tree and skating rink. The tree is kind of hard to see...I'll post another one.
There you go.

On our way to church my first Sunday in NYC. It snowed a LOT the night before. This is Columbia's library.

My first time (of many) in Time's Square. I really wanted to see The Lion King, but wasn't going to be able to, so I took a picture in front of the sign instead. Kelly was cold.

The Carpenters/Barneches again, this time in front of the United Nations. (And I fancy the cool reflection in the windows, don't you?)

As I said, I flew home on New Year's Eve, which made me arrive in Natal at 1 am on January 1st. Thankfully Roberto pulled himself away from the rockin' NYE party at the church (I'm pretty sure he got out of washing dishes) to pick me up at the airport. I spent the next 3 days doing unpacking, doing laundry, and RE-packing, because Monday morning at 6 am I flew out AGAIN, only this time to Salvador for the annual missionary conference. I had made these plans long before NYC came along, so I made sacrifice to do something I don't like to do (back-to-back trips) and had the time of my life. This was my first time to the conference as an adult and not as one of my parents' +2 children, in other words this was my first time to the conference where I actually participated in the conference rather than childcare.

It was excellent, absolutely excellent. I was blessed to connect with several old friends (mine and my parents') and make several new friends. Jim and Susan Clark from Abilene were the speakers, and they did a wonderful job and made us all feel very loved and appreciated. :) We were in a hotel that looked out on the beautiful Bahian ocean (Bahia is the state, famous for pretty beaches. It was actually Bahia's section of the Atlantic Ocean. Don't worry, I didn't just invent a body of water,) and I enjoyed sleeping in an air conditioned room for four nights. After I got back, I told my parents that it was exactly what I needed without even knowing that I was needing it. Sometimes it's just nice to be with people who get what you're doing, how you got there, and who have the same kinds of joys and disappointments that you do. I regret not going the past two years, and will make this conference a priority in years to come.

Also, I don't think they do, but in case anyone on the Salvador team reads this post, you all did a WONDERFUL job planning the conference. I would have had big shoes to fill had the conference actually fallen on me next year. :)

My good friend Carrie Gotcher, who I met when she was my youth group intern about 10 years ago. She and her husband moved to Niteroi, Brazil last year and now we are missionary friends. Small world.

One of the sessions with Jim Clark

I hope you all had fun, safe, and happy holiday celebrations. If it gets too cold where you are...well...I'm wearing shorts and a tank top right now and sitting in front of a fan. Need I be more clear?

Carnatal, continued

2009-12-09T14:46:00.004-02:00

The Carnatal retreat was a lot of fun. Last year I missed it due to my trip to Rio de Janeiro with my sister and brother-in-law, so I was happy to be around for it. This year's theme was "In the Master's Steps," and you can probably guess what we studied. :) We were warned before the retreat started that there would be very little, if any, running water in the house. That meant disposable plates, little chance for showering, and we chose to stop there and try to not think about the bathroom situation! The young people at CDC decided to proceed with the retreat anyway and "rough it" for a few days, as this retreat is one we all look forward to all year. Boy are we glad we did! Turns out the water problem wasn't as big of a problem as we were anticipating, and by Saturday everyone was bathed and smelling fresh! We enjoyed time studying about what we must do to follow Jesus (decide to follow him, deny ourselves, love others, etc) as well as time to just hang out and play a lot of really silly games. They had great Bible-based activities planned (Bingo, a Bible-bowl competition, "find the verse and read it faster than anyone else," Bible character charades) as well as games like musical chairs, etc. Just another weekend that reminded me of how much I love my church family, and why I enjoy living alone! Ha! Enjoy the pictures:

Playing musical chairs where, if you didn't have a chair to sit in, you just sat in someone's lap. We had some visitors at the retreat and..well..I guess this served as a nice way to get to know each other fast. :)

We had lots of free time to spend time together, and the weather was so nice we spent a lot of time on the front porch. Since we didn't have access to a pool this year (no water, remember?) this was a very common scene.

This night we had to turn our clothes inside out in order to be served dinner. It was fine for people like me who were wearing clothes that look the same on the inside as the outside. There were some people who were not so fortunate...like the girl wearing a dress with a polyester lining and the boy wearing swim trunks with netting on the inside. :)

Bible character charades, Marta is acting out Joseph. Took us a while to get what she was doing. But she kept doing this over and over and over and over AND OVER until we understood that she was pulling on her own coat to resemble Potiphar's wife.

NEW BLOG DESIGN!

2009-12-07T18:12:00.002-02:00

I know that all the time I recommend Google Reader for all you blog readers out there, but that was when my blog was ugly and the content was more important than the layout. Well, the tables have turned and now I don't really care what I write about, I just want you to see the pretty new design!! For a while now I had been looking for someone talented enough to commandeer the task of redesigning "Living and Loving," and I finally found just the right person. Her name is Kelly Mann, and I think she's a genius, don't you? I told her basically nothing about what I wanted (i.e. I don't like cutesy, I don't like polka dots, and I want the colors of the Brazilian flag) and TA-DA! She got it right on the first try. Then after she came up with this, I was able to come up with a few tiny details that I wanted (like the flower by my signature and the Bible verse under the header. Really. That's the only thing I added.) But really she did all of it. That's an artist, if you ask me.

So take me off your Reader and put me on your bookmarks, because I want you to enjoy this as much as I obviously do.

Thank you, Kelly! (Click on either of these links to see more of her excellent work.)

I'll be back later to report on the rest of the Carnatal retreat. Happy Monday!

Day 1 Carnatal

2009-12-03T23:40:00.005-02:00

Two posts in one day? THREE posts in 24 hours? What is this, 2007?

Since I'm not sleeping at the Carnatal retreat this year, but instead coming home to sleep in my scary-bug-less house and non-foam mattress, I decided to give you a report on Day 1.

Day 1 of the Carnatal retreat was a success...a success for everyone but Talissa the Car.

Baby's first time getting stuck in sand.

It doesn't look bad...but if you'll notice the color of the front tires, that happened from them spinning helplessly, trying to get out. And no, I'm not an idiot, I was driving on packed sand when a car came around the corner and I had no choice but to veer right. Turns out that was not a wise choice.

Proud to be out of the sand.

Today I am thankful that it worked out that I just so happened to give a ride to three male church members rather than female church members. Had it worked out to be a car full of girls, I'm pretty I'd be getting ready for bed in my car right now rather than blogging.

Food

2009-12-03T10:14:00.002-02:00

I have a friend who is a few months in to a 24-month stint in Armenia as a Peace Corps volunteer. This morning I read this post on his blog about missing American food, and I must say it's spot-on. For those of you who have never lived overseas and think it's weird how many times I've talked about Mexican food on this blog, feel free to read his post so that you'll see that I'm not alone.

And don't miss my post below this one, I published it last last night and you probably haven't seen it yet...

Still feeling thankful

2009-12-03T01:56:00.007-02:00

Yikes. I've done a much better job about posting lately but the comments aren't reflecting readership. Is it A) because the reader ship is sinking? B) because the readership is shy about commenting? or C) because my posts are too lame to be comment-worthy?

A whole week after I wrote my Thanksgiving thankfulness post, I've thought of a bevy of other things to be thankful for, so since this is my blog and I can't sleep I decided to continue. Here goes...

I am also thankful for:

my apartment. I could easily describe this apartment as a dream come true. It sounds like I'm making this up, but not a week goes by that at some point as I'm flicking off a light switch or closing the windows for the night I don't think "I LOVE MY HOUSE." It's true. I dreamed for 1.5 years of living in a place big enough to host church gatherings (like the one pictured below) and church sleepovers and have a kitchen big and efficient enough to actually enjoy cooking in it. God provided all of those things, and I feel BLESSED.

(Lacy, you might be interested to see the blackout curtains, the new couches, and the painting on the wall, the only real additions since you left. Everyone else, there were 27 people in my living room that night. And only two fans. This is a group REALLLLY committed to praising God.)

my students/readers. They really bring a lot of joy to my life, not only because of the funny things they say, but because of the conversations we get to have about Jesus. The help me to see His story with a fresh perspective.
Mexican food. I feel it deserves to be on the list again. I especially am thankful for the avocados that make guacamole, the tortillas that make chips, and the tomatoes and spices that make salsa.
fruit. Living in Brazil makes you appreciate fruit, because there is just so much of it, and so many different kinds that don't seem to exist anywhere else. And the fruit juices...oh the fruit juices. That's a whole other item...
fruit juices. There.
the beach. I've never been much of a beach lover, because I always found it a bit too sandy for my taste, but I've learned to appreciate it since living in a city with some of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. Here's my favorite, Ponta Negra: (This is where I spent Thanksgiving, by the way. And this is not a professional photo. It's just that pretty.)
the book of Philippians. I really love that epistle. Not sure how to make this not be blue and underlined.
pictures like this one (Mom please don't kill me.):This photo was taken on one of my last days in the US in April. My mom and I had a twice-daily battle with the family cat, Scout, to squirt medicine into her mouth. This was the only way she couldn't get away. We liked to sing "Magnificat" (just now realized the 'cat' in there...we sang it because it's Mary's song) while holding Scout this way. She did not find it as amusing as we did.
special friends in Natal whom I have gotten to know by just being a part of the neighborhood. I mentioned my doormen in the last post, but I am also thankful for Neide and Meyre, my two favorite bakery cashiers, Rosa, the girl who does my nails, Percy, the guy who cuts my hair, Chagas, the guy who sells me drinking water, and Souza, the best dune buggy driver in the world (pictured below.)

Well, that about sums it up...for tonight, anyway. I'm getting sleepy. Happy Carnatal everyone! (10 points to you if you remember what Carnatal is. It starts tomorrow, which means the church retreat starts tomorrow as well.)

Thankful for...

2009-11-26T00:37:00.003-02:00

On this Thanksgiving's eve, I am going to be totally cliche and list the things I am thankful for. I spent the day feeling sorry for myself because not only am I not with my family in the US for my FAVORITE holiday of the year, but this is my first year in Natal that we are not celebrating it here, either. Since Thanksgiving is more about thanksgiving than turkeys and pretzel jello salad, I thought it might help me to make this list. As always, if I feel that is is publishable, then I feel as though it will be entertaining to you. That's my rule, you know...

I am thankful:

that I live in a city that is sunny, like, 360 days a year. A lot of people in the northern hemisphere get SADD, and that is not a concern when you live close to the equator. Also makes for a nice tan.
that I have a handful of people in my life who really love me, even though they know me really well. It's nice to be loved in spite of your shortcomings.
to have family here in Natal. Not every young, single missionary is blessed to find a place and family in which he or she just naturally fits the way I do with the Signorettis. I am thankful for that.
to have a car. But not just any car. A CUTE car. Even though Talissa (my car) got keyed two weeks ago, she took it like a champ. But mostly I am thankful to just have a car. I feel much safer and more efficient not having to ride (and wait for) buses.
to be bilingual. That's pretty awesome if you ask me. And makes living in another country a whole lot easier.
that I get to spend Christmas in New York City with my family. Christmas away from family the last two years has been hard, and I anticipated it would be extra hard this year for some reasons that you'll probably find pretty boring. Long story short, I get to meet up with them in NYC. Never been there before. Pretty excited about it.
for Mexican food. You don't have to be one of the handful to know the role Mexican food plays in my life. I truly am thankful for it.
for laughter. I LOVE LAUGHING. And I love thinking I'm funny. Call it vain, that's ok. I make myself laugh a lot, and I believe it will add a few years to my life.
for crying. Helps create a healthy balance.
that God put me in this city, doing this job, at this time in my life. He is the ONLY explanation for why I am here doing what I do, and I figure He's the best reason there is.
for garbage disposals. Not having one in Natal makes me appreciate them all the more. When you go to dispose of your Thanksgiving scraps (although I encourage you not to perform such an atrocity) think of those of us who have to scrape our plates into the trash *GASP* and constantly clean out the sink's drain.
for the doormen who work at my current building and previous building. Their friendly faces make coming home feel homey.
for Surf laundry detergent. Buy some, take a big whiff, and you'll know what I'm talking about.
for free internet phone calls.
that I got to celebrate Thanksgiving two years in a row here in Natal, and was a part of the beginning of a fantastic Thanksgiving tradition: the Thanksgiving tree. You could say that this list is my Thanksgiving Tree 2009.

I could go on...and on...and on...and I will, tonight in my prayers. Because if we are being thankful, aren't we supposed to be thanking God? You better believe I'll be thanking God for garbage disposals tonight...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Advanced Group Class

2009-11-17T14:49:00.002-02:00

Here is my Thursday night advanced group class. This is the class in which we study/debate controversial topics related to Christianity. We are obviously not having class in this photo, but eating ice cream and acai. Camila, the girl in the middle in red, left for a three-year master's program in Belgium last week, so we went out for ice cream for her last class session.

They all look sweet in the photo...just bring up predestination, abortion, ethics, or any other hot-button issue and you'll see these sweet angelic smiles change very quickly! Just kidding, I love my students!

Lessons Learned from an Amateur Missionary

2009-11-12T15:48:00.002-02:00

I've been thinking lately about the things I have learned since being here in Natal. September 4th marked my 2-year anniversary, and I think in 2 years I've learned quite a bit of what to do- and what not to do, when arriving on the mission field. I have a few friends who are in the same boat as I am, and a few who are getting ready to go onto the field, so I thought maybe writing these things down would be of value. It's also good for me to write these things down, lest I get too cocky and I forget. :)

1. An effective missionary goes on the mission field for TWO reasons: love for God, which is the most important, and love for the people whom he or she will be ministering to. One without the other causes a lot of pain and reduces the effectiveness of ministry.

2. Don't arrive to the new culture and begin criticizing things. Never utter the phrase "Well, in America we do things this way." You are not in "America" and no one probably cares. If you want to share the way things are done where you come from, humbly say "At home we do it this way," or "where I come from we do it that way," but never use those phrases to belittle the way natives do things. Use them to share about yourself, and that's it. I've learned that your new friends usually welcome knowing those interesting tidbits about yourself and your home culture if you share them in a way that is not condescending.

3. Embrace the culture from day 1. Will you go through culture shock? Absolutely. Will you be homesick? Of course. Will embracing the culture help you get through all of those things more quickly? YOU BETCHA. If your family always celebrated Christmas on Christmas morning, but your new culture celebrates it on Christmas Eve, spend your first Christmas on the field celebrating it on Christmas Eve. You will have a new cultural experience, learn new customs, have something to share in with new friends, and help you not feel soooo homesick. Feel free to celebrate privately on Christmas morning, but don't expect the natives to join you or change their plans for you. Maybe over the next few years you can share your traditions with them. If the biggest meal of the day in the new culture is lunch, rather than dinner, start eating a big lunch and small dinner on day 1. This will help your adjustment, your health, and cause you to not feel "inconvenienced" when you have to switch things up.

4. Be graceful. Do the people in your new culture have a tendency to always be running late? Are you a stickler for punctuality? Don't expect to change their customs with rage. Learn to expect what you know will probably happen, and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't. Show grace to those who need it, because sharing the Gospel is not as bound to hours and minutes as it is to relationships.

5. Don't assume people love the United States. There is a lot of anti-American sentiment overseas, and arriving to a new country assuming that people will be impressed by you will only add to that. A lot of times the sentiments are unfounded, but a lot of times they are totally valid. Either way, don't try to argue your point. Show them with your behavior, your speech, and, most importantly, YOUR WILLINGNESS TO LEARN, that you represent an exception to what they think is the rule. Over time, you will become the rule (so be careful!)

That's all I can think of for right now, but I'm sure there's more. If you read this and find it helpful, please let me know and I'll share more as it comes to mind. Deanna, I'm specifically thinking about you and your team. Your message to me the other day got me thinking about this!

Have a good weekend!

I'm proud of my students when they use English idiomatic phrases appropriately...but....

2009-11-09T17:43:00.002-02:00

So today I was in one of my group classes with two students, reading about The Triumphal Entry/Palm Sunday. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story where Jesus rides in on a donkey and people wave palm branches and give him a King's welcome, you can read the story here.)

I asked my reader why the people were so excited to welcome Jesus, and he said: "The people knew there was coming someone to be the Son of God, blah blah blah..."

So...he gets who Jesus was...

Where does one go from here?

I always say life in Brazil is never dull...but along with that I should include that Bible study in Brazil is never dull, either.

AT LAST!

2009-10-28T22:29:00.005-02:00

For those of you who don't use a blog reader (I recommend Google Reader, personally) and frequently check my blog for an update and are met with that sad photo displayed in my previous post, you can rest easy because the construction is over! There was a wedding, the FIRST EVER wedding from our church held in that building, on Saturday, and that was the deadline for all of the construction to be completed. Since a picture says a thousand words...here are like 10,000. Enjoy. :)

Wow...good thing OUR church building doesn't look like that!! How embarrassing! (Or...another appropriate title would be BEFORE.)

Tearing off all the grodiness

Tearing down the three columns...that represented The Trinity. They were left over by the Nazarene church from whom we bought this building.

Ok...so it doesn't have an angled roof anymore...interesting. What will it look like?

Gluing long skinny rocks horizontally...one by one...I feel it was probably a task as tedious as laying a cobblestone street.

Hmm...lookin' good!

This title of this photo is "Sneak Peek" because here comes...

THE REAL THING! THE FINISHED PRODUCT! FINALLY!!!

And without the nasty dumpster in front...the dumpster that spent 2 months uglifying our building. This photo was taken this past Sunday, the first Sunday we had worship with the construction (at least on the auditorium...) FINISHED!

So some of you may be wondering why this is so exciting, why I would dedicate two whole blog posts to show you a simple building remodeling project. Well, my friends, because this project was paid for all on our own. Those of you familiar with missions know that many times a mission team will raise funds to build a building, or buy a building. Many times those funds are supplied almost entirely by an American congregation(s). Our congregation is VERY blessed in that it already owns its own building, and has for a long time. (Graciously purchased by the Westover Hills congregation many years ago.) However, when you purchase a 30 year old building, sooner or later some major updates and adjustments will have to be made- not only aesthetic, but structural and legal! (You may or may not notice that the new doors are SIGNIFICANTLY larger than the previous ones. The new ones are up to code.) The new changes were 100% funded by special contributions, the fees paid by our English class students, costs cut in energy conservation (leaving things unplugged, etc.) and a few generous donations by outside visitors. We are blessed to have a church building on a main avenue, in the single largest and most populated neighborhood of Natal, and now we feel like its pretty new face lives up to the wonderful reputation it already has about what goes on inside. May God be glorified through this project! Rejoice with us!

If this were your church building...

2009-10-17T01:12:00.003-03:00

If this were (was?) the facade of your church building, what would you think? Let's play a free-association type game.

*Look at picture*
*Say what comes to mind*

"Yikes."
"Yowza."
"Yuck."
"Ewww."
"Pewwww-eeeeee!"
"Grody!"
"What is that?"
"Church building? I don't see a church building."
"I didn't know 'Dirt' was an actual paint color..."
"Those 3 columns...what are they for?"
"Oh...that used to be white?"
"May I use the side entrance please?"
"Aww...what a sweet logo..."
"Hmm...is that a two-foot band of red clay tile going up the base of the wall? What in the world?"
"Hmm...maybe they should plant another giant palm tree to cover up the right side, too."

Well, thanks for being so honest....

That picture, which, at one point, to me, was just that...a picture of an actual thing, has now become a portal into the past. Because HALLELUJAH, Glory be to God, were I to stand in the same median at the same time of day and take that exact same picture, the only similarity you would see is a structure with a door in the middle and the same black iron fence surrounding that structure. I'm pretty sure the tree isn't even there anymore, but I'm not really one to pay attention to those kinds of details.*

The remodeling process at CDC has been quite a feat, and a very dusty one, at that, and I have tried my best to document the process with photos. When the final paint coat gets painted and the scaffolding gets taken apart, I will be oh so proud to show you the finished product. Until then...you may go ahead and begin trying to erase thise icky image from your brain.

Like the old adage says, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." My new, church-remodel version goes like this: "You don't know how ugly your building is 'til you make it nicer." Amen.

*Just checked my in-between process photos, and yes, the tree is still there, but there is no need to plant another one. Phew.

Busy Weekend

2009-10-04T22:58:00.004-03:00

I got word that I have two very faithful readers who check my blog every single morning, so since I'm working on this "not being verbose so that I blog more frequently" thing, I figured I should try to give them something to read today!

On Saturday I took on every mother-with-junior-high-aged-children's nightmare and invited 14 girls over to spend the night at my house. Granted, none of them were junior-high aged, but if you know Brazilians, you know that sometimes the decibel level reaches that of classic middle-school heights! Kelly, one of the oldest members of our church, will be getting married at the end of this month. Saturday afternoon we had her personal shower, and Saturday night was her "goodbye to singleness" (aka bachelorette) sleepover at my house! We had a lot of fun staying up until the wee hours of the morning chatting and being girly. I felt blessed to be able to offer my apartment for them to use, as it is exactly for this type of reason that I rented this place. The girls really had a great time and Kelly thanked me about 20 times. Andressa, Roberto and Marisa's daughter, always jokes and calls my house "Grandma's house" because anything goes. :) It's true, and I think that the girls were happy to have a place to relax, be able to be silly, and not have any parents coming out and saying "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" (Although I bet my neighbors probably wished they could...oops.)

Sunday we had another English worship service. John and Samantha Jewell, my only American teammates, have decided to return to the United States to work with a church in Miami, FL, so yesterday was one of the last English services that John will lead. It was a great service, and we had some new faces there that have never come before. I always look forward to worshiping in English, although lately it seems like I've been singing a lot of solos! (Have you ever noticed how many songs there are where the women have to echo or sing differently or something? Did you know that I am the one who has to teach those things? Yeah...bummer...)

During the regular Portuguese service we had a special collection for our church building project. We are very blessed to have a really great, spacious building that is ours and we don't have to pay rent on. However, that blessing of a building is about 35 years old and is in need of some serious "reformation," as they say in Portuguese! This was the second special contribution that we have had this year for this purpose, and although our church is small and full of university students (meaning no steady income,) I am always encouraged to see everyone who makes a sacrificial effort to contribute. Our building is used 6 days a week for community outreach, English classes, and church gatherings, so we trust that God will bless our efforts to not only make it prettier but also make the necessary improvements. I'm proud of what our little church has accomplished thus far, and I think you will be, too, when I show you the finished product!

2009-09-30T16:35:00.002-03:00

Maybe if my posts were to be shorter I would be inclined to blog more frequently. I, obviously, love to be verbose, and I assume that since I think I'm hilarious and hang on my every word, that everyone else will, too. Well, I guess it's time to face the music and realize that no, people don't think I'm as hilarious as I do, nor do they hang on to my every word. Here's to shorter (and hopefully more frequent!) blogs.

I told you a month or so ago about my advanced debate class on the eve of the first meeting. Well, it was everything I had hoped for an more. I have enjoyed every minute of each class and can see the development in thought and language in each of my students. We have covered topics ranging from "Does Christianity have the highest standard of ethics?" (depends on who you ask) to "Is faith just a big leap in the dark?" (yes, on a certain level) to "What will happen to those who have never heard the Gospel?" (jury's still out on that one...pretty sure it will be out until judgment day) to "Should Christians have to suffer?" (yes, was the consensus that day.)

One of my students in particular, let's call him Thomas, started studying with LST this year and was full of questions about faith and religion. He has had a confusing religious upbringing, and having just turned 18 is stepping out on his own to see where he fits. He never misses a class and usually sits in silence for a long time until I have to draw him out. Once he gets going, though, it's hard to get him to stop! It's been a blessing for me to see his wheels turning and him asking deep questions about how he can have faith in his life. Thomas shared with the LST teams who were here this month how much he enjoys the class, and how he has gotten many answers to his MANY questions through our discussions.

Please pray for these classes and the way that God will use them to water seeds that have already been planted and continue planting more!

(Ok..was that short enough?)

TWO YEARS

2009-09-04T18:21:00.005-03:00

Although I'm guilty sometimes of trying to make a big deal out of something that's really a little deal, I don't know that this counts as one of those times. Today is my 2-year anniversary of that fateful day I arrived in Natal and my life, so to speak, changed forever. :)

More later...but until then, here is a collection of some of my favorite pictures from the past year in no particular order...

A fancy graduation party in September celebrating two of our friends' college graduations. It was fancyyyyyyy and the party started at midnight...

LST Costume party in October. A mummy, a flower, and Luigi. Poor Luigi was baptized a couple months later and to this day is still called "Luigi" more often than by his real name, Jefferson. Oh well...I think he likes it...

At the Continent of Great Cities conference in November, with my dear family friend Rachel McClure.

At my birthday dinner in May. The least-ugly candid photo I have ever taken. Clearly I do not have a future in candid photos...

My sister and brother in law visiting Natal in November...one of the highlights of 2008 for me.

At the Festa Junina party in June. Fishing for a paper cup with a number on it so that I could answer a corresponding Bible question and maybe win a tiny piece of chocolate. :)

At the top of the water slide with the ladies from Comunidade de Cristo at the women's retreat in Joao Pessoa, Brazil.

At Sarah's birthday barbecue 2 days before my trip to the US in January

In Abilene, Texas in April at Joe's Italian with Whitney Mann Davis, one of my most favorite friends in the world.

Celebrating my birthday with a cheesecake a bit early before returning to Brazil in April .

2009-08-10T10:01:00.003-03:00

For those of you who are longtime readers of this blog, you may remember a post from about a year and half ago where I talked about the way Brazilians mispronounce English words yet continue to use them in everyday speech. My example at the time was about a conversation I had about "Weel Smeetch" (Will Smith) movies. I've had a great time telling that story over and over again, and the Brazilians really get a kick out of the fact that I think it's so weird.

Well, my friends, I have a new one. There is a certain home entertainment system that goes by its English name in this fine country. If you want one, you will have to go into a store and ask for a "homey cheech."

"What on earth is that?" you ask?

To which I say "It's in English, how do you not know?" Except I don't say that. Because I was just as puzzled as you are.

A homey cheech. Known by the common man as a home theater. And yes, if I were to walk into a store and ask for a home theater I would be received with blank stares (and probably a few salesman running in the other direction...although that tends to happen to me before I even open my mouth...they can just SENSE that what I say will be scary.) But if I walk into a store and ask for a "homey cheech," they will direct me to the area of the store over which there will probably be a sign that reads "Home Theater."

Really, you should come visit. Life in Brazil is never dull.

Work

2009-08-08T02:07:00.002-03:00

Since I got back to Natal in April, most of my time has been dedicated to either A) getting my life in order (i.e. moving to a new apartment, buying a car) or B) hosting the two LST projects we had in June and July. These tasks can keep a young missionary pretty busy, so my own English conversation classes and reading sessions were kind of put on the back burner until things settled down. Then I had the task of figuring out how one young missionary was going to arrange follow-up with three people's worth of readers PLUS leftover readers from the previous year. Thank goodness July is vacation month, because after the second LST project I had a couple of free weeks to get organized and work some magic to find the answer to the above equation. (3 workers x 12 readers each + 15 leftovers=Cris's 40 hour workweek..nearly impossible...but with God all things are possible, right?)

Thankfully, I was able to start up quite a few group classes last week, (my solution to that nasty equation) two of which are made up entirely of students from the English school where I taught for a month! By the time all is said and done, I expect to have about 10 group classes of varying levels. Any class up until the advanced level will study out of the LST reading materials, beginning with the Gospel of Luke. And the advanced class...oh the advanced class. That is what I am here to tell you about tonight.

The advance class is really the greatest English conversation class in the history of English conversation classes. When I first arrived in Natal, I began an advanced conversation class that consisted of readers with advanced conversation levels but who were also Christians. The class kind of turned into a debate class, and was so successful that the readers all became really close friends and have been asking (ok, bugging) me ever since to start it up again. (We had to stop due to scheduling conflicts.) As I went through all of the paperwork on this year's readers, I was thrilled to see that there were enough readers to not only put together one advanced group class, but THREE!

On Monday mornings, Monday afternoons, and Thursday evenings, I now have three separate groups who meet to "discuss" (ahem, argue) about controversial issues that relate to Christianity. Some of the students are Christians, some are very much not. Our text is "The Top 100 Questions," a book written by a British journalist that has one-page answers to what he considers to be the top 100 questions outsiders have about the Christian faith. The questions range from "Does Christianity have the highest standard of ethics?" to "What are the rights of the unborn?" to "Who is the Antichrist?" to "Is Jesus really the only way?" As I have glanced through the book, a few topics have made me cringe and think "Oh, I really hope the readers don't choose to debate that one..." but I know that it will be an extremely constructive experience for us all. I have even already warned the readers that since the book is written by a British author, we are all in for a new vocabulary learning experience. :) (New vocab words this week: dogged, aggregated, ceased, coined, shallow, deadlines.)

As each group met this week for the first time to look through the topics and get to know each other a bit, I introduced them to a chapter entitled "Who are we? What are we?" and we consequently got into our first debate about whether or not humans are born with the innate ability to distinguish right from wrong. It was a nice way to introduce them to the format of the class, and they all got a nice taste of the ride they are in for this semester.

Please keep these classes in your prayers. I pray that as I facilitate (and mediate) the discussions, God will guide me with a spirit of wisdom and truth. I know that these classes are going to open up some tremendous opportunities for me to share the message of Christ, and I pray that I will take those opportunities boldly yet sensitively.

I hope to periodically update you on the progress of these classes, because I think that they will provide you with excellent insight into my day to day work in Natal, as well as thought-provoking ideas to think about. And if you have always wondered if Christianity does, in fact, have the highest standard of ethics, check back with me on Monday. I expect to have an answer for you!

Viruses...

2009-08-05T23:27:00.003-03:00

I've talked about John and Samantha Jewell before on this blog and have even linked to their blog a couple of times. For those of you who read this blog and are the praying kind, I want to ask for your prayers on the Jewell family. You can read the story in Samantha's words here, but my version is that they just got back from a 2-month furlough to the US and brought swine flu back with them. They have 3 boys under the age of 8 and all three have had it. Andy, the 4-year old, has it the worst and today was diagnosed with the beginning stages of pneumonia. Due to the swine flu diagnosis he is not allowed to be hospitalized, so they are trying to treat him at home under quarantine. This is a very serious and heartbreaking situation, so please say a prayer for the Jewells tonight.

As we were all mindful of this situation at our midweek Bible study tonight, Roberto led us in some thoughts from the book of James. At the end, he left us with these parting thoughts in regard to sharing the Gospel: "So, we need to be like the swine flu: attack everyone."

Way to put a positive spin on it...

You Can't Make This Stuff Up Part 2

2009-07-29T14:29:00.002-03:00

In this week's edition of "Only in Brazil," I take you to a Brazilian shopping mall typically known for its higher-end customers. Like most malls you and I are familiar with, there is a central plaza area where, depending on the season of the year, there is some traditional display. It's the area where Santa and his elves sit at Christmas time and the area where the "Made in China" market set itself up a few months ago...wait, what? Anyway, it's THAT area, the one that you can look down upon no matter which floor of the mall you are on, and the one surrounded by the escalators and elevators and McDonald's ice cream stand.

Imagine my surprise today when I walked past this area to see a pool. A rather large pool. A very large pool in terms of circumference, but only about a foot deep. "Strange," I thought. So I bought my McDonald's ice cream cone and decided to check it out. Then I see a child, about 8 years old, inside of a large plastic bubble that is being filled with air from one of those giant firetruck-like hoses, the same kind used to fill a bounce house. "Strange," I thought again, considering more than once how unsafe it probably is to put a child inside a giant plastic bubble and fill it with air from a bounce house hose.

And then it all came together.

For a mere R$10, about 5 dollars, you can pay for your child to become a human gerbil. As soon as the bubble, which ended up being a huge ball about 6 feet in diameter, was full, the employee shoved the kid and his bubble onto the water, and for a good 10 minutes the poor thing climbed around the plastic bubble as it floated and bounced on the water. He tried endlessly to stand up inside the bubble, but all of his efforts were in vain as he just continued to fall down. Again and again. It actually seemed like a cool idea at first, as bounce-house-like environments are ALWAYS cool, until I saw what it actually was. It was uber lame.

And then, as though it weren't torturous enough, the parents decided it was the little brother's turn. The kid, probably about 3 or 4, went and climbed into a different plastic bubble and crouched down, just as his brother had, as it was filled with air. I'm sure the parents were thinking "this is great, our two boys will be out there together on the water, in giant plastic bubbles, and really just have the time of their lives." Except something went seriously wrong. Upon realizing that he was inside a giant plastic bubble, the 3 year old panicked. He started crying hysterically as the bubble grew to be 3 times his height. And then I found myself, still enjoying my McDonald's ice cream cone, watching a 3 year old absolutely flip out inside of a 6-foot-tall plastic bubble. His parents decided it would be a good idea to leave him inside the bubble and try to console him by pointing at his brother and how much "fun" he was having. The kid, probably terrified by the HUGE LOUD hose blowing air into the bubble, was not buying it and began the "stand in one spot, put your hand in your mouth, and make the most pitiful open-mouth cry you are capable of" tactic, the most convincing of all pleas for help, if you ask me. The parents continued to watch and point to his brother until the employee finally was sensible enough to turn off the air, open the bubble, and take the poor guy out. By the time I left the pitiful scene, big brother was gathering quite a large crowd of onlookers and he continued to tumble around his floating bubble.

I only wish I had had my camera with me.

Only in Brazil.

Out With the Old....

2009-07-24T16:00:00.006-03:00

And in with the new!!

After almost two years of using a refrigerator with no freezer and a stove with one and a half available burners and an oven that worked sometimes, I finally splurged to buy these two beauties. You can be sure that I will now have a permanent stock of ice cream and frozen fruit pulp (to make juice) as well as actually making a meal in less than an hour every once in a while! (The "every once in a while" is in reference to the "making a meal," not the "less than an hour." Don't worry, I'm not kidding myself. I still don't enjoy cooking for one, and it's very unlikely that new appliances will change that.)

And, in keeping with the "out with the old, in with the new" theme, I present you with these photos:This is Old Relter

This is New Relter

Praying after his baptism

As you can tell, Relter has raised the average height of our church family by about 6 inches.

This is Relter (pronounced "Helter.") Relter has been coming to our church off and on for a few months. From what I understand about his story, he met a girl through the internet a while ago (a few years maybe?) and began a relationship with her. She is a member of the church of Christ in Maceio, a capital city about 8 hours south of Natal. Through their relationship, she shared the Gospel as well her faith with Relter. About a year ago, while she was here visiting him, she found our church and brought him there on a Sunday. Ever since, Relter maintained a low profile but showed up every so often to our church gatherings, including participating in one of Lacy's basic conversation classes. A few months ago Relter began to study the Bible with Osmildo. This week he made the decision to follow Christ through baptism! We had a small group present for a Thursday afternoon, but it was a celebration nonetheless! Please be praying for Relter in his new walk with Christ!

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

2009-07-23T20:39:00.003-03:00

Question: What do these three images have in common?

Answer: What I saw during lunch hour traffic today.

As I drove through an extremely busy intersection, I saw a very normal looking gentleman standing in the median holding a phonograph with a "For Sale" sign. If only I had been able to take a picture...

Only in Brazil.

Women's Conference

2009-07-20T20:07:00.004-03:00

With the flurry of activity we have had lately at Comunidade de Cristo (CDC), blogging has kind of been on the back burner. The two LST teams held very successful projects, six extremely fun parties, and spent well over 200 hours in individual Bible study sessions! If you are interested in looking at pictures, click here and/or here.

Last Thursday, I along with five other ladies from CDC, loaded up into a very tiny mini van to head to Joao Pessoa, the capital city of our neighboring state to the south. We spent 3 days at a hotel on the beach (rough life, I know!) participating in the 19th annual Northeastern Women's Seminar. There were about 200 women in attendance, from all over the northeastern region of Brazil, and we had a wonderful 3 days spending time together and studying under the theme of "Sweet Faith." The seminar (really, it was a retreat/conference, but in Portuguese we called it a seminar so I will, too) was entirely "sweets"-themed, and I must say that whoever thought of having a ladies' retreat centered around sweets is an absolute GENIUS! Each of the talks had a sugary title, and the best part was that we got to snack on sweets all weekend long!

The highlight of the weekend for me was my small group class on dealing with difficult church members. It had a good balance of lighthearted fun with Biblical teaching on dealing with difficult people, and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to participate. It was an excellent class and I intend on sharing the class outline with pretty much everyone I know! It served well to teach how to handle difficult sisters as well as how to avoid being a difficult sister! There were three hilarious skits on "Sister Picture Frame," "Sister Campout," and "Bad News Sister." Sister Picture Frame was the sister who doesn't want to/have time to help out with any church ministries but claims to already have started a "Decorations ministry" by being just a pretty face. :) Sister Campout was the sister who comes to your house early in the morning but then stays all day, expecting to be waited on hand and foot without lifting a finger. Bad News Sister is the sister who calls just to share bad news and negative opinions...and more bad news and negative opinions...and more bad news and negative opinions. The skits were hysterical, but I tend to think that we found them so funny because we either know someone who fit the profile or have fit the profile ourselves at one time or another. :)

Much like in the US, these types of events are held at retreat centers or camps, but I have to say that staying at a beachfront hotel was pretty decent! We were well-fed, well-rested, and well-bathed, which isn't something you can always count on at retreats! All in all it was a delightful weekend, and I came back to Natal just a bit pudgier in my faith as well as my waistline. Enjoy the pictures! Click here if you want to see more!

Tania, Monica, Marta and I on our way to Joao Pessoa EARLY Thursday morning

This sign was hanging on the wall in the hotel lobby. It reads "It's great to do nothing and then rest afterward." I loved it!

The small group session I signed up to participate in. The theme was "Jawbreakers: Dealing with Difficult Sisters." The teacher was a hoot, as you can probably tell by her chef's attire, but she did an excellent job presenting the subject matter. It was one of the best classes in which I have ever participated.

Our group was asked to perform skits before three of the keynote talks. This skit was about a waiting room at the doctor's office, with the patients chatting with each other about life's difficulties. The skits were absolutely hysterical and were a huge hit at the seminar!

The view of the ocean from our balcony

Marta teaching a small group class on Unity

Monica, Tania, and I waiting on one of the keynote talks to begin

View from the back of the main meeting area

Blessed

2009-07-04T23:35:00.003-03:00

Today I was joking with the LST team that is currently in Natal (ok...maybe not joking...I was pretty serious) that I have the best job ever because among my other duties, I am the one who takes them to the beach, shopping, to eat good food, and see anything and everything that may be of interest to them on their days off. Don't get me wrong, we definitely work hard during the week, but after working hard it's always nice to have a day or two to play hard and regroup.

Tonight at dinner they were asking me a little bit about how I ended up here, and I had the privilege of telling them the story of how God led me to work in Natal. I mentioned the part about how I never in a million years would have dreamed that I would be working as a full-time missionary with a semi-long commitment (for my age, a total of 5 years is a long time!) as well as the part about how God so graciously gave me this opportunity and I am well aware that He could just as quickly take it away. I'm ok with that. I'm along for the ride, and as long as He allows me to be here I will work as hard as I can to help lead others to His kingdom.

It's always nice to have a chance to tell that story, because I never want to forget it or get too distracted by the day to day details that I forget just how faithfully God has provided for me since Day 1. I know it sounds trite, but in all honesty I feel honored and humbled to know that God chose me for His work in Natal and to pour out His generous blessings. The past year and a half has been the most exciting, challenging, happy, joyful, incredible, and growing experience that I have ever had. I hope that I continue to have opportunities to tell the story of how I ended up here, because it is my testimony of how when we surrender our own will and desires to the Lord, He can do amazing things.

Please forgive my bad grammar and stream-of-consciousness writing. I have no excuse for it, I just ask for mercy. Goodnight!

Changes

2009-06-19T00:42:00.004-03:00

For us in Natal, this time of year is heavily associated with chaos. While you northern hemispherers are getting into the groove of summer, with air conditioners turned on high and sunscreen slathered on, we southern hemispherers are...well...turning the air conditioners on high and slathering on the sunscreen, as well. Hmmm.

This time of year gets really busy for us, especially for me, because of all the LST activity at the church building. This year I must have decided that last year got a bit too boring because I gave myself an extra challenge and moved, purchased a car, and welcomed the first LST team of the season all within a week of each other, not to mention the bonus round of learning to drive the very car I purchased after purchasing it. Since pictures are way more fun to look at than reading what I have to say, here is a photo journal of the past month. Enjoy!

Cris moves from previous, inferno-esque apartment with a matchbox vibe to new paradise-esque abode with a chique accent wall. Living room of new apartment is size of entire former apartment. Cris wakes up with a smile every single day knowing that she is paying less in rent to live in a place triple the size, quadruple the air flow, and infinity times more pleasant with respect to neighbor friendliness. Only things she misses are the nice doormen from previous building. She gets over that small detail quickly.

Comunidade de Cristo hosts two weeks in a row of English worship services. JB, oldest son of well-known former Brazilian missionary family, leads the service and teaches two excellent lessons on love. Draws quite a crowd. Cris is thrilled.

Cris purchases a 2010 Chevrolet Prisma and names her Black Betty in English and Talissa in Portuguese. Neither name has anything to do with the other. Cris is too lazy to rotate the photo, but knows her readers will get an accurate idea of how cute Talissa is. Cris begins to put on a few extra pounds and fade a few shades lighter due to the lack of exercise and sun exposure that come with private transportation.

One day before car purchase, an LST team from Park Plaza church of Christ in Tulsa, OK arrives to spend one month in Natal. Cris is sure they are the most organized team in the history of LST and makes a mental note to always request teams made up of school teachers in the future. She is impressed with their quick adaptation to and flexibility with life in Natal. Said team makes BFF with Brazilian missionaries, despite a rather large language barrier. Team does not care and continues to force missionaries to speak English anyway. Lots of comedy ensues.

LSTPP team hosts first party on a holiday. Cris warns team that there will probably be an extremely low turnout and to not be discouraged, Brazilians just love their holidays. Cris is completely wrong and the party has the best turnout in recent years at an LST Natal party, with 20 church members and 45 visitors present. BUNKO is a raging success. Missionaries scheme as to how they can always hold parties on holidays in the future.

So there you have it, my last month in pictures. Tomorrow is a big day, as we are going to have to say goodbye to Lacy, my roommate and co-LST intern for the past year. She has done a fantastic job in Natal and has been a shining light for Christ. We are going to miss her, and she is going to leave a giant gaping hole in our CDC family (not to mention my apartment.)

Thank you for your prayers, and thank you for your support. It's easier to get through the chaos and changes knowing that we have people praying for us and cheering us on!

New place, new ride

2009-06-11T16:20:00.002-03:00

Due to the fact that today is a holiday and I have been able to sluggishly lounge around, I finally snapped some pictures of our new apartment and my new ride. Enjoy! (Click here.)

2009-05-26T10:24:00.004-03:00

Once before I've blogged specifically about my church here in Natal. I talked about all of the qualities about it that I love so much, and one of those is that it really feels like a family. There's a lot to be said for large churches: good Bible classes, lots of resources, large missions budget (I particularly appreciate that one...) but if you've ever been a part of a small church, you know there is a big difference. Sometimes a small church can be frustrating...you know everyone's business, and, worse, everyone knows YOUR business. But sometimes that's the very thing that makes a small church a close-knit family. Everyone does know your business, so you can't hide your struggles. Everyone knows your business, so you have support whether you want it or not! Last night I witnessed yet another reason why I love my church family in Natal, and yet another example of their commitment to Christ and sharing the Gospel.

Meet Caio. For those of of you who have been to Natal, you surely remember Caio. Caio is one of the most energetic human beings I have ever known. He is upbeat and has a huge heart. He has the greatest intentions in the world, and is always looking for opportunities to learn and serve. Yesterday Caio turned 22. Like most 22 year old young men, Caio had a birthday party and asked that all of his guests bring him a present: a Bible verse. Wait...what? A 22 year old man voluntarily chose that his birthday party be a Bible study? Ok...so that's what we did. We all gathered at the church building, sat in a circle, and one by one shared a Bible verse that is significant to us and that we wish to bless Caio. Caio, being the intelligent person that he is, used the opportunity to invite his family to join us. The majority of his immediate and extended family are not committed Christians, but in Brazil, a surefire way to get your nonChristian family members to participate in a Bible-based activity is to hold it on your birthday. :) We had about 25 people in the circle, ages 8 to about 50, and each person shared scripture with Caio. By the time it got around to his family members, they were searching through the Bible as well, looking for something they could share, and what they shared was beautiful. It was an incredibly powerful evening, and you could not have asked for a bigger smile from Caio. It was all he wanted.

As I sat in the circle listening to the variety of subjects that were touched upon (wisdom, love, friendship, maturity, faith) I couldn't help but wonder how unique this gathering was. How many birthday parties have you been to where the sole purpose is to share scripture with the birthday boy? How many birthday parties have you been to where you were asked to bring a verse from the Bible as your gift? Caio's party made a huge impression on me, and made me fall in love with my little church all over again. We are not perfect, and as we try to imitate Christ each day we fail, but yesterday I was reassured in a special way that at least we're heading in the right direction.

Oh, and we had cake and the most delicious party foods afterward. That never hurts!

Pictshas

2009-05-20T17:15:00.006-03:00

I enjoyed blogging so much last night that I decided to return today with an illustrative post.

This was my birthday celebration in Oklahoma before I came back to Natal. There are many reasons why I love this picture. #1, I am wearing a t-shirt. I don't wear t-shirts in Natal, it's too hot. #2, I am with my parents. My parents were funny on this day. Very very funny... #3, I have in front of me a plain cheesecake with freshly-made strawberry sauce on top. One of the best birthday cakes I've ever had, and I'm not even a big fan of cheesecake. I just had a hankerin' and Cheesecake Factory had the product. And Mom had the strawberries. YUM!

I took this photo sometime last week from my apartment. I'm excited about moving, but I'm going to miss the 8th-story sunset view. However, I'm sure I will grow to love the breeze even more and quickly forget about the sunset. Or I can just look at this picture.

This was at the church's Mother's Day tea the Saturday before Mother's Day. It was a beautiful event and we had a great turnout. My job was to take photos of each mom and her kids when they walked in the door. Here's Marisa and her children. :)

The rest are pictures from my actual birthday. Some of my friends planned for us to go out for pizza at my favorite pizza place. The pizza on that particular night was extremely disappointing, but I had eaten Mexican food at lunch so I didn't leave too hungry...

This is the prettiest candid photo I have ever taken. Which is why I really hate candid photos. If I ever see a camera pointed at me to take a candid photo, I try to pose and smile. If this is the best...you sure don't want to see the worst... (I'm eating a slice of chocolate pizza, by the way.)

In these photos you will notice how long my hair is. I finally went yesterday to get a few inches cut off and made the terrible mistake of NOT telling the stylist to NOT cut it in the shape of a V. Some of you may remember the U-haircut. Let me tell you, my friends. It's a very pretty V, but still a V. I learned my lesson and will not be so negligent in the future. Cris-0, Alphabetical haircuts-2.

Snapshots

2009-05-19T23:50:00.002-03:00

I've been back in Natal for just over a month and it feels so good to be home again. I get awkward about these kinds of things sometimes (like the first weekend my freshman year at ACU that I spent away from my roommate, I was worried it would be awkward when I got back. Um...weird) and was worried that I might feel like I was out of the loop and had missed a lot. Well, I totally did feel out of the loop and it was amazing just how much happened in the 2 short months I was gone, but Natal is still home, and it's always good to be home.

Since being back I've been on the hunt for a new apartment, one that preferably has good air flow, safe localization, and space to entertain, three major qualities which my current apartment does not have. Renting is a complicated process in Brazil, you basically have to prove you are of royal bloodline to be allowed to rent property, and even then your royal bloodline has to pay a hefty security deposit. Since I moved here a year ago (no credit) and work for an American entity (no proof of salary, not the way they want it, anyway,) they did not accept my royal bloodline papers and I was left to pray really hard that God would just open the right door. Well, open the right door He did. Not only did I find my dream apartment, but the owner has been extremely cool so far and has offered to write a private contract. What does this mean? Not having to deal with "the middle man," aka real estate agencies, not having to deal with hefty security deposit, and, hopefully, lower rent. Please say a quick prayer that this is, in fact, a door God has opened and not a really terrible scam. Unfortunately, that happens sometimes. But I choose to believe God has opened the door. He has been so unbelievably faithful (and extremely HELPFUL!) until this point, how could I start doubting now?

There is a mouse in my apartment, yes, my 8th floor apartment. He is a baby and the first time we saw him he moved around like a sprinter with a bum leg. Poor thing just hobbled his way as fast as he could under the couch, along the countertops, and across the stove. Yes, I did indeed see GusGus (thanks for the name, Lacy. Personalizing him will not make his death any easier...) ON TOP of my stove one day as I went to clean up my lunch dishes. The next day, Lacy found him INSIDE the oven, cowering in the corner, paralyzed with fear. Lucky for him, Lacy and I are both paralyzed with...disgustedness...each time we see him, and it prevents us from killing said mouse with broom. Poor GusGus. We're growing to like the little guy.

Speaking of unwelcome creatures, I have officially been inducted into the "Brazilian with Street Cred" hall of fame upon having to take worm medicine. Medicine for what kind of worms, you ask? Who knows. The kind that most Brazilians recommend taking medicine for every 6 months because that's how common it is here. If you eat fruit, vegetables, or just anything, actually, you run the risk of joining the hall of fame as well. I managed to get by a year and a half without ever having wormy symptoms, but I guess since they knew that I'm now here for a while the joke was on me. I had been feeling weird for about a week, and last night Marisa looked at me and said "Cris, I think you have worms." I bought the chewable tablet at the pharmacy today (that cost me all of $1.50, thank you subsidized and efficient prescription drug system) and have been told I'm in the clear. Until 6 months from now, that is. Eew.

I turned 24 last week and I feel old. I'm now in my mid-20s rather than early 20s. For some reason that's been rough on me. And by "been rough" I mean I thought "Wow...24. How did I get here that fast?" and then got distracted by something else (probably GusGus. Or the worms.) My birthday was really nice and I felt very loved by my Brazilian family. I had Mexican food for lunch (a rare treat!) and pizza for dinner, all shared with people I love. (Um...perhaps we're getting to the bottom of the worm problem...)

I'm really excited because two weeks from yesterday we will receive our first LST team of 2009. Since the primary reason I returned to Natal was to coordinate the ebb and flow of year-round LST projects at our church, I am really, really, REALLY excited to kick off the LST year. We'll have a team of 2 women from Park Plaza church in Tulsa spend 4 weeks with us, then another team of 2 women from the DFW area spend 2 weeks. Then in August we'll host two more teams from the Westover Hills church in Austin. I am so excited to meet all of these new people and introduce them to the work in Natal. It is such a fun, beautiful, encouraging place to be, and I really pray that the teams who come will be blessed by their time. I KNOW God is going to bless their efforts, so please be praying for the readers who will come to study with them!

I don't know who is out there reading, but I really hope to get back to blogging more regularly as things start picking up around here. The last month has been overwhelmed with apartment hunting, car contemplating, refrigerator shopping, etc, and I couldn't think of anything interesting to tell you. Thanks to my birthday and GusGus, we have a blog post!

Have a wonderful week!

By the Numbers

2009-04-13T15:00:00.002-03:00

I've racked my brain to think of a concise way to sum up my two months in the United States. With so much exciting news to report and so many Mexican dinners to count, I decided to attempt to condense my thoughts into a "By the Numbers"-style list. Let's hope this works...

Cris's Trip to the US, By the Numbers

2: Number of eye infections with which I arrived in the United States on February 4
0: Number of eye infections with which I left Natal on February 3

16: Number of times I ate at a Mexican restaurant
2: Number of times out of the 16 that I was by myself at Taco Bueno

3: Number of weeks it took for me to find churches to cover my salary, work fund, and oversight
2: Number of churches that are overseeing my work, paying my work fund, and paying my salary (shout out to the Westover Hills Church of Christ in Austin, TX, and the Springtown Church of Christ in Springtown, TX.)

3: Number of roadtrips I made to Texas
1: Number of times I redeemed frequent flyer miles to go to California

5: Number of days a week, on average, I slept in
6: Number of days a week my sweet mom let me sleep in if I wanted to

2: Number of times I saw snow
1: Number of times the snow was deep enough to play in it and build a snowman

20: Number of dollars I spent one day at Old Navy to buy 6 shirts...which leads me to:
6: Number of shirts I bought at Old Navy for a total of 20 dollars!!!!!

4: Number of former roommates I got to see and play with
1: Number of former honorary roommates I got to see and play with (shout out Jeff Duncan, thanks for sharing your wife with us!)

30+: Number of fundraising letters I sent out
10: Number of contributors who responded to said letters and made generous contributions (up until this point)

2: Number of times I paid money to eat a cupcake at "Cuppies & Joe"
2: Number of cupcakes I bought the second time I went to C&J, they were that good

3: Number of times I attempted to drive a standard
0: Number of times I felt good about my attempts

5: Number of times I went to Wal-Mart
2: Number of times I went to Wal-Mart in the last 24 hours of my time in the US

8?: Number of times I went to the eye doctor trying to get my prescription just right
1.5: Number of years for which I now have a supply of contacts

2: Number of times I went to a nail salon to get a manicure OR pedicure "just because"
0: Number of times I had ever done that before when I lived in the US...(Disclaimer: Brazil has totally ruined me on this. In Natal I can get weekly mani/pedis for less than US$10. You would too...)

3: Number of episodes of "Dancing with the Stars" that I watched
3: Number of times I was embarrassed about that

3: Number of aunts with whom I watched "Mamma Mia"
2: Number of days it took me to get songs like "Take a Chance on Me," "Dancing Queen," and, the worst, "Super Trooper," out of my head after said watching

5: Number of times a week, on average, that I talked to people in Natal
5: Number of times a week, on average, I wished I was still in Natal

3: Number of years I have committed to stay working with the church in Natal
?: Number of years God has planned to keep me here

So there we have it. My 2 months and 1 week summed up into a catchy little list. I got back to Natal on Friday and have loved every minute of being back. For the next couple of weeks I will be doing some re-settling things, and then will be getting in gear to start hosting our LST teams for the summer.

Speaking of summer, the whole time I was gone everyone in Natal kept telling me that it was the hottest it had ever been. People who have lived here for years had never experienced such heat. I, of course, was dreading coming back to the heat after having such a pleasantly cool time in the US. However, God smiled down on me (and showed mercy to those who have endured it this whole time) and has sent cool, rainy days our way since I arrived. I'm hoping since summer went long, rainy season will come early? A girl can dream...

Homesick

2009-03-30T03:54:00.003-03:00

I've been feeling pretty homesick for Natal lately. I know I'll be back soon, but until then I can't help but keep looking at this picture and missing my family. :(

This is the church picture from Impacto Jovem, the event the church held last weekend that I mentioned in my previous post. Recently, each church member was given a t-shirt with the church logo monogrammed on it and they all wore them during the event. Aren't they a good lookin' bunch? I have my shirt and I'm all ready to take a complete family photo as soon as I return.

(Thanks for the pic, Lancy.)

Bad Blogger's Anonymous round 5

2009-03-24T15:08:00.003-03:00

I'm having blogger's block. I have so many great things to say but don't have the creativity to express them in an interesting way, so for now I'll cop-out and give you a link to someone else's blog. :)

My teammates, the Jewells, just had their third baby boy a couple weeks ago, but they were still able to attend and blog about (wow...I feel so inadequate...) Impacto Jovem, the big event the church in Natal hosted last Saturday. From what I've been hearing, it went extremely well and they had over thirty visitors! Just another reason why I'm so anxious to get back to Natal. Until I do (on April 10th) please join me in reading about it on the internet.

Way Cool Wednesday

2009-02-19T16:08:00.003-03:00

In 2008 we rejoiced in Natal as, throughout the course of the year, 7 different people gave their lives to Christ through baptism. I've blogged about most of them, names you may now be familiar with, such as Francisco, Geraldo, Talis, Jefferson, and Tiago. (Those took place between August and December.) Then I told you about how in 2009 we had 3 baptisms on the same day in January, and I hadn't even told you yet about the baptism we had the first Sunday in February, my last Sunday in Natal before I left for the United States.

Well, I'm back to report more good news, my friends. Last night we celebrated once more (mine was a remote celebration, but I can celebrate in Oklahoma just as well as in Natal!) as ONE MORE sister gave her life to Christ through baptism!!!!!!!!!!!! Can I get a 'YAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!'? Thanks. :)

I'll be honest when I tell you that I didn't even know our new sister's name until I just asked a friend in Natal (thank goodness for instant messenger! I just knew her as "Jackeline's mom.") But I will tell you how she came to join our family. Back during the summer when my parents were on their LST project in Natal, my mom read with a sweet, sweet young man named Andre. Andre was already a very faithful Christian, but really loved our program and what we were doing in the community. He invited his friend, Jackeline, to visit the church and check out the basic English classes. Andre eventually disappeared, but Jackeline kept coming. She has been coming off and on, more on than off, since July, and has gotten involved with the English program, our LST parties, our women's Bible studies, VBS, the young people's group, and Sunday worship services. She has been studying the Bible with Marisa for quite some time, and after she began her studies, she started to bring her mom to church with her, as well. Her mom had not been coming for very long before she decided that it was time she made a decision...before her daughter even reached that point! I look forward to getting to know her better when I get back to Natal.

Please pray that Noemia will continue to grow in her faith, and that she will be an example to her daughter of what a life transformed by Christ looks like. This is a tremendous blessing for Jackeline, and my prayer is that they are an encouragement to one another. And, one more time, YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(If you haven't yet, please make sure to check out the post just below this one that I wrote yesterday about reverse culture shock. Those of you who don't use Google Reader really should. It's quite the miracle program. :) )

Reverse Culture Shock

2009-02-18T18:15:00.002-03:00

Many of you are familiar with the idea of culture shock. You go to a new place (foreign country or foreign state) and are quite literally "shocked" by the culture. Everything seems backwards and you begin to develop irrational hatreds toward obscure parts of the new culture. (Real examples that I have seen: anger about produce in Brazil, tears over the lack of forks in Japan, a refusal to speak anything but English to foreigners because everyone should know it, etc.) Culture shock can come about in a trip that lasts a week or in a move that lasts years. It usually rears its ugly head toward the end of the beginning (month 3 of 12, week 2 of 6) as soon as the honeymoon phase wears off. It's very real, very ugly, and, in hindsight, very humorous. (It was me who cried over the lack of forks in Japan, I'll admit it...)

Few of you, however, may be familiar with the concept of reverse culture shock. It seems backwards, and it is! The idea is that, once you travel to said foreign land and become accustomed to their way of doing things, you go through culture shock AGAIN when you return to your home county/state/city/etc. Whereas you became accustomed to eating with large toothpicks in Japan, you find Americans lazy that they use knives, forks, and spoons. (Ok, bad example.) A better example may be that you (I) become so used to attending a church with 50 members in, oh, say, Natal, Brazil, that you (I) go to visit your (my) home church for the first time, and the 2,500 members make you (I) want to crawl into a corner and hide. Whereas the sheer enormity of the congregation never bothered you before your cross-cultural experience, now it seems impractical, superficial, unnecessary, and impersonal. The feelings of reverse culture shock can be just as ridiculous as those of culture shock, but in my case, more often than not, they act as a spotlight to the ways I've grown and changed since my cross-cultural experience began. Some of it comes out in the form of judgmentalism, and although that is not appropriate, either, it also acts as a spotlight to the ways that your views and opinions have changed.

In a way, you return to your "home" and it really may not feel like home at all. The friends, acquaintances, trends, technology, worship songs, popular artists, TV shows, and maybe even family have all continued living life- without you! This can be the most shocking part of it all. You don't know where you fit anymore, or even IF you fit, in the scheme of "home."

To give you a true example of how I am adjusting to life in the States and perhaps going through a little reverse culture shock, allow me to pose a few questions and make a few statements, some of which may show that I am becoming an old lady:

-WHO are the Jonas Brothers?
-Is it safe for me to be out driving alone after dark? (In Edmond, Oklahoma!)
-Why is everyone at church in such a rush to get to the next thing instead of taking time to actually have conversations with each other?
-Why do some people spend more time texting and answering phone calls during a face to face conversation than paying attention to the physical person they are talking to?
-Dollar value menu? You can get food for ONE DOLLAR?
-Jaywalking? There are designated places to cross the street?
-You paid how much for that iPhone?
-Cupcakes? The latest trend is cupcakes?
-What language am I supposed to be speaking?/How do I say that in English?

And, finally, I implore:

-WHAT IN THE WORLD IS TWITTER?????????????????

As you read those, please don't take offense or assume I was talking about you. In all honesty, these questions have essentially been playing on repeat in my head for the last two weeks, as I looked wide-eyed at to this fast-paced, bright lights, text messaging world we call America. I wrote this more to give you, my readers, an insight into what it's like coming "home." Part of culture shock, and reverse culture shock, I think, is heaven-sent. From what I understand, we aren't supposed to be getting tooooo comfortable in any one place, right? Aren't we just a'passin through, anyway?

I love being here, and I love seeing my family, friends, and eating out very cheaply. But if you happen to see me looking wide-eyed and completely lost, I'm probably just needing to see a friendly face or hear some friendly words of encouragement. Anything along the lines of "I'm happy to see you," or "Cris, want me to take you out for some Mexican food?" will do just fine. ;)

I'm here!

2009-02-14T19:39:00.003-02:00

In case anyone was wondering, I did make it back to the US just fine. Upon my arrival (or departure, no one really knows) I caught an eye infection in both eyes that had me out of my contacts and squinting for over a week. Thankfully, it cleared up quickly and I was able to make it to my first meeting with a missions committee in Austin, Texas last weekend. Everything went well and they agreed to be my overseeing church and pay my working fund. Praise God! That is a tremendous answer to prayer and I am looking forward to meeting with other congregations so that I can get back to Natal as soon as possible!

I have gotten a good dose of Mexican food, but have nowhere reached my limit. I still have quite a few restaurants on my list to be checked off, but thankfully Mexican has been well-represented thus far. I'm enjoying spending time with my family, old friends, and wearing jackets and close-toed shoes. I'm looking forward to a trip to Abilene in a few weeks to see college friends. Stay tuned for my next post about reverse culture shock. I intend for it to be informative, and, as always, I also hope it's entertaining. :)

The best news so far...

2009-01-27T20:04:00.001-02:00

You didn't know it, but I've been owing you some really great pictures of some really great events. Since the start of 2009 we have witnessed three people give their life to Christ in baptism, and since August of 2008 we have seen a total of eight!!! You knew about Francisco and Geraldo back in August, and then at the beginning of December we had two more, Talis and Jefferson. So that's the latest I had you caught up on...little did I know jsut a few weeks later I would be uploading pictures of four more!

This is Tiago. Tiago was invited to church by his girlfriend, Kelly, a longtime member at our congregation. We all fell in love with Tiago the first time we met him, how could we not with that smile? From day one we could see he was a genuine, caring person, and from day one he was excited to become a part of a church family. With just a few weeks of Bible study, he knew that a life in Christ was the right choice for him. We welcomed him into our family the last Sunday in December. Hoorayyyyy Tiago!

This is Ingrid. You have heard about Ingrid before, indirectly, when I blogged about her little sister, Isabel. Ingrid is 12 years old and the oldest of three children in an amazing, servant-hearted family. Ingrid has served God her whole life, but recently decided she wanted to study about baptism. She studied with John and Samantha and decided she was ready to commit her life to God. We are so happy for her decision!

This is Rosendo, the oldest of Geraldo's four kids. Since his dad was baptized, he has come to church faithfully and even gotten involved with the teenagers. The whole family is in the popcorn business, selling popcorn on the streets when they are not in school. They are great salesmen, which is good news for us! Since Geraldo's baptism they have brought more neighbors and friends to church than we ever could have imagined! John began studying with Rosendo a few weeks ago and he made the decision to follow in his dad's footsteps and give his life to Christ!

This is Socorro, Geraldo's wife and Rosendo's mom. You know where this is going... Geraldo is such a good salesman that he was able to convince his wife to join him for church each Sunday (although he gave his kids no choice. Ha!) She is a beautiful woman, as you can tell, but also so kind, sweet, with a very gentle demeanor. Though she always has a smile on her face, I could tell she was skeptical of the whole church thing, and was probably there more to support Geraldo than to make any changes herself. Well, that all started to change when she saw the church being the church, serving her family in ways I would imagine they had probably never been served before. As John studied with her and then began to study with Rosendo, mom and son decided to be baptized on the same day. It was a REALLY GREAT day!!
Please be praying for these new brothers and sisters, as well as for the other four I mentioned at the top of this post. We are so excited to see our church family growing, but we also know that they are especially prone to Satan's attacks. God is so good, and so faithful, and we pray that He continues to bless our little congregation with days like this!

*Special thanks to John Jewell for all of the fantastic facial expressions in the above photos

I might be addicted to Mexican food. It's possible.

2009-01-19T15:16:00.003-02:00

For those of you who know my plans for oh...the next three weeks of my life...you may be wondering why I am only now writing this post to update my blogging audience on what is about to go down. The answer to that is: not really sure. The last few months have been a bit topsy turvy, with my health problems (hey, I got an MRI and the results came back all clear. I diagnosed myself as overworked and since Brazil is on vacation right now, I am underworked and feeling great!) and with Christmas and with plan-making, I guess I just kept putting it off. Ok, that's a lie. The real reason is that this is news that I prefer not to talk about, as it makes me feel a bit queasy/shakey, so in true Cris fashion I guess I thought if I ignored it, it would either A) go away or B) announce itself to you. Neither A nor B happened, so I am left with option C: spill the beans.

Exactly two weeks from today, to the minute, actually, I will be leaving Natal and concluding my internship with Let's Start Talking. I will be going back to the States to spend 1-2-3 months visiting family, friends, and every Mexican restaurant within driving distance that serves free queso. My primary objective in this trip, however, (besides the Mexican food, of course) is to meet with churches who may be willing to sponsor and/or support me financially in order that I may return to Natal and continue working with Comunidade de Cristo as a full-time missionary. The plans for me to stay on after the conclusion of my internship have been in the works for a while, but only recently did we add a trip back to the US into the mix. I had intended to stay here in Natal with LST through March, but God has a funny way of opening doors and shoving me through them, and so back to the northern America I will go. Only temporarily, I hope.

I am excited/scared/nervous/giddy/craving Mexican food/queasy/happy/restless all at the same time about this. The negative emotions come from the doubting Thomas side of me, who tends to focus on the idea that I have no return ticket (yet) and my future in Natal is going to be determined by missions committees. The positive emotions come from the believing, risk-taking, get-out-of-the-boat Peter side of me who tends to occasionally think about the fact that God is actually who is in control here, and with full confidence I can say that I believe He wants me to continue serving in Natal, and then I start to Dream Big about what three more years working in this amazing ministry could do for the Kingdom, and then I get so excited about it that I actually stop thinking about Mexican food for a second and I just think about how there is nowhere in the world I would rather be at this stage in my life than Natal, Brazil, despite the lizards.

So there you go, a very accurate glimpse into my current mental and emotional state. The missionaries here have known for a while, the church as a whole found out about two weeks ago, and I just emailed the readers to let them know, too. In case your first response was to think "Gee, I wonder how I can help her..." I would like to say that the BEST way you can help me here it to PRAY. The uncertainty of it all is really nerve-wracking for this self-professed perfectionist control-freak, and I could use some heavenly peace to calm my nerves.

I ask that you please pray for wisdom in the hearts of those whom I will be meeting with, that you pray for wisdom in my heart to respond appropriately to whatever answers I may receive, that you pray for safe travels, that you pray for the church here in Natal that is day by day trying to reach Natal for Christ, that you pray for my readers who are searching for answers, and that you pray for my health as I am about to eat an obscene amount of Mexican food. (Ok, totally kidding on that last one...but seriously...can you tell what I'm looking forward to? I need help.)

So, there you have it. I will be spending the next two weeks hanging out with readers, church members, friends, the beach, and conducting a few last reading sessions with the readers who stuck around during vacation. I will spend the week after that packing, crying a bit, flying, preparing powerpoint presentations, and, you guessed it, eating Mexican food. :) I'll keep you updated as I get updated. Thanks for your support, prayers, and hopefully a laugh or two at my neurotic, but brutally honest, writing style.

Sleeping will not be an option tonight...

2009-01-01T02:34:00.003-02:00

It's 1:54 in the am and the street noise outside my apartment building is worse than your average lunch-hour traffic jam. The upper-80s weather keeps closing my window from being a real option, so here I am, blogging in the early hours of January 1, 2009, rather than doing what the old lady in me would like to be doing: sleeping.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Brazilians know how to party. I would venture to say that, second to the famous Carnaval celebration, New Year's Eve is the biggest holiday celebration in Brazilian culture. Christmas isn't even that big of a deal, usually varying from family to family, but everyone does something for New Year's. I've always commemorated New Year's more out of necessity than anything, but here it becomes much more than just a change in the final digit of a four-digit number, with fireworks all day long (ok...so I guess that doesn't set it apart yet from any other Brazilian holiday...or day, for that matter...), wardrobe to match the occasion (you wear the color that represents what you're looking for in the new year...white represents peace, red represents love, I guess, and I don't know the rest of the colors because, as I mentioned, new years to me is a change in number. But I digress...), fancy hair and make-up for the ladies, New Year's eve services for the churches, and empty streets for the pedestrian (me.) I waited in a ten-minute line tonight to buy a single egg at my friendly neighborhood bakery, but then walked home and didn't see a single other person or even a car, for that matter, on the street. Holidays are bizarre here.

The church members spent the evening together, sharing a delicious meal and reflecting on blessings from the past year and dreams for the next. I didn't have the guts to take the microphone and speak in front of everyone, but I did sit in my chair and think of my own blessings and dreams. I have so many, too many to count, and could not be more thankful to God for making 2008 a great year. It has been a challenging one, challenging in ways I never could have anticipated, but that has given me opportunities to see God being faithful in ways I had never seen before, as well as opportunities to see God working in me in ways I had never experienced before.

I know 2009 will be filled with lots of new adventures, new words in Portuguese, new relationships, new mistakes, and new experiences for growth, but I am grateful for the old adventures, old relationships, old mistakes, and old growth experiences that got me to this point. May your 2009 be a year of growth, adventure, relationships, and even, sometimes, mistakes. And, through it all, may God accompany you and hold you and carry you and guide you.

Feliz Ano Novo!!!

Christmas LST-style

2008-12-24T12:58:00.003-02:00

Each month I send out a mass email to all of our LST readers, past and present, inviting them to our monthly English worship service. I sent one out this last Monday, inviting them to the service this coming Sunday, but completely forgot to include any Christmas well-wishes. I immediately did a reply-all and sent an additional Merry Christmas! message. To me it was an afterthought, more of a cultural thing (Brazilians are big on mass holiday greetings,) but I have been surprised and touched by the messages I have received back. I thought I would share some of them with you so that you can see what sweet things our readers had to say:

Hiiiiiiii Criss, VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS Cris, You always remember your friends. God bless you...
Merry Christmas to Community [the name of our church]. You are in my heart. I am in Recife, despite the distance, but my heart is with you.
(I translated this one from Portuguese) I received an unanticipated gift for Christmas. The opportunity to participate in LST was very important to me. I thank you, because you coordinate this project here in Natal, I thank Community of Christ for the opportunity, I thank my friend who invited me to participate, and Cyndi for the wonderful classes, and God who has given me life and the opportunity to enjoy it. Merry Christmas to all of you!
I want you to know I wish all you from Comunidade de Cristo a very Merry Cristmas! You are all very important to me and you all made my 2008 happier than any other year. Hope to see you soon, when I am back! Enjoy the celebrations and Be with God!
(also translated from Portuguese, but it came in all caps) MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING: FOR GOD'S WORD, FOR GETTING TO KNOW A CULTURE THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM MINE, AND FOR MAKING SO MANY NICE FRIENDS. JESUS BLESS YOU.

Aren't those precious? Receiving those has made my week. Also something that made my week was when a reader and I were having a conversation about snow and winter in the US. He said that on movies he sees lots of ice dolls. I had no idea what he was talking about until he drew a picture of a snowman. :) I have now heard them referred to as ice dolls and boy snows. What else might come up??

Have a very merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve!

2008-12-22T17:51:00.004-02:00

Fun fact: did you know that "Natal" means "Christmas"? I live in Christmas, Brazil, and the city takes that very seriously, leaving up wise men statues and giant Christmas trees all year round for your viewing pleasure.

I have blogger's block. I've sat down several times over the last week or so to type out a wildly compelling and profound post, filled with pictures and stories and a beautiful farewell paragraph for Greg and Cyndi, but all I end up with is verbosity and boring. Maybe it's the upper-80 degree weather and sun so intense that even with 50 SPF sunblock I'm getting a wicked tan. Yes, maybe that's why.

So...until the creative juices begin flowing again from these fingertips, I want to wish you a very feliz Natal and próspero ano novo! (Happy Christmas and prosperous new year!)

And for those of you who are keeping track, word on the street is that Christmas 2008 will now be spent at the beach rather than the pool. Yes, I am jealous of all of you who don't have to dream of a white Christmas because you actually will have one, but I guess my situation isn't so bad either. :)

At the Copa, Copacabana...

2008-12-16T21:23:00.006-02:00

When I say "Rio de Janeiro," what comes to your mind?

The famous Christ the Redeemer statue? The almost equally-as-famous Sugarloaf mountain? Copacabana beach? Favelas? Danger?
(Much to just about everyone's suprise, I felt very safe in Rio and did not see a single dangerous situation...other than the insane Carioca drivers, of course! But there is no photo documentation. Rio is a safe place. Don't believe the media. And don't go to favelas. I'm sure that helped.)

When Mark and Kelly bought their tickets to come visit, they scheduled a two day stop in Rio on their way back to the States. They invited me to come along with them and partake in the adventures any gigantic city is sure to provide, and perhaps act as their default Portuguese-speaker. Since we had planned their visit to coincide with Thanksgiving, a selfish move on my part (hey, my sister is a good cook, and I didn't know how much help I was going to have with the LST Thanksgiving feast!) this put the stay in Rio at the beginning of December. I took advantage of the expected s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s that December brings in Brazil and accepted their offer. Oh man…am I sure glad I did!

We got into Rio on Sunday evening and woke up slightly early Monday morning to get out and be as touristy as possible, as fast as possible. We stayed with good friends of our family, Carlos and Elaine Castilho, who are serving as missionaries in Rio, and were honored that Carlos took two days off in order to drive us around and accompany us to all the traditional Rio tourist attractions.

The Castilho family

First stop was the Christ statue. It gave us (Mark the Photographer in particular) quite a scare as we approached Corcovado, the mountain, as there was one, singular, lingering cloud covering everything but the base of the statue.

When we finally got up there, I was freezing because we were literally inside of a cloud. I thought Mark was going to cry. But the cloud did not keep the tourists away, no it did not. I heard more English spoken in public that day than Portuguese, and people were not shy to imitate the pose in front of the statue for photo ops, even if it was covered by a cloud. After we had a few juices and snacks the clouds finally cleared and we went up to take pictures…and OH MY GOODNESS. It was beautiful. We had a panoramic view of the city, and after spending the rest of the rainy, gloomy week in Rio, I realized how LUCKY we were to have been there on such a clear, beautiful day. (Yes Mom, I finally realized.)

Please look at all the people who imitated his pose for pictures. It was really weird.

Overlooking Copacabana beach

While Mark ran around taking pictures, we got creative with how to get ourselves in pictures with the full statue. This was my favorite. That's Carlos.

Another, single, lingering cloud over Sugarloaf.

After Corcovado we drove around for a while and took some fun, but perhaps disrespectful? pictures from a lookout point.

Holding his hand, thanks to Mark's photography brilliance.

We then had lunch along Copacabana beach in order to make it to Sugarloaf by sunset. Carlos had done this before and said it was the best way to see Sugarloaf. So we took his word for it and were not disappointed. The sunset was incredible and we had another incredible view of the city. The cable car ride was NOT my favorite, and I will now show you a picture to prove that. (Sorry Kelly.)

All in all it was an amazing, unforgettable day, and I am so happy I was able to share it with Mark and Kelly.

Mark and Kelly left on Tuesday night, but I stayed through the week in order to spend more time with the Castilhos, see how missionary life in Rio differs from missionary life in Natal (quite a bit, actually), and visit another friend in a nearby city. Oh yeah, and to get my money's worth for making a trip I had previously attempted to plan four different times in the last four years.

Life is back to normal now in Natal. We've had an eventful last couple of weeks, which I will also be blogging about soon, but I'm guessing it will slow down a bit next week with Christmas. I'm excited to spend my second Christmas in Natal, and even more excited for the possibility that it might involve a pool. Natal is so absolutely, unbearably hot. All I want for Christmas is a pool.

Until next time...happy shopping!

(Note: About half of the pictures above were taken by my brother-in-law, Mark. The ones that are good are his, the ones that are not are mine. Thanks Mark!)

What are you thankful for?

2008-12-09T00:10:00.005-02:00

Thanksgiving 2008 came as close to perfect as it possibly could, just short of actually spending it with my extended family, eating my aunt Glenda's homemade apple pies and aunt Nell's strawberry pretzel Jell-o salad and Sister Schubert's rolls. (Sister Schubert is not a member of the family…unfortunately.) When it was my turn to answer the above question, my answer was simple, and probably obvious: I'm thankful that my entire family was able to visit me in Natal this year. It was especially meaningful to actually have Mark and Kelly here with me on Thanksgiving day, sharing in our celebration and being thankful for the beach. :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the actual day with the other Americans living in Natal plus some of our special Brazilian friends. We had all the fixins, including a tropical turkey, rolls, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, pies galore, and Fanta and Coke to drink, of course! We spent the day at John and Samantha's, and ended the afternoon by playing a fun (and new to me) word/card game. It really felt just like Thanksgiving in the States, complete with sleepiness and thankfulness.

The "What are you thankful for?" circle at John and Samantha's house

The following Saturday we had our second annual Thanksgiving celebration for the LST readers. You may remember that last year it was called a Thanksgiving Party and had a lot of Brazilian elements. Well, this year, thanks to Cyndi the Thanksgiving Genius, we had a 100% American Thanksgiving feast. We included some of the fun elements from last year, including the Thanksgiving tree (an absolutely fantastic Thanksgiving tradition, if you ask me) and added some more high-tech ones, thanks to Lacy's powerpoint presentation on the history of Thanksgiving.

Visitors and church members working on their leaves

We closed out the opening activities by getting in a big circle and singing "For All that You've Done I will Thank You" and "Give Thanks," then the food was served and everyone DUG IN. I am quick to admit that traditional Thanksgiving food is a little weird, particularly since I didn't begin to appreciate it until about 8 years ago, but the Brazilians were very receptive to the break from their usual rice and beans and embraced our weird food with a smile and a line for seconds. One reader came up to me and said "Cris, American food is AWESOME!" I said "Why thank you, Lucas, I'm glad you liked it. But you know that this isn't what we eat every day, right?" "What?!" He was so disappointed. :)

The dessert table! YUM!

We had a great turnout with our readers and some other special guests, with about fifty participants total. We even had food leftover, including pumpkin pie, much to Sergio's unrestrained excitement. (I'm pretty sure he took a whole pie home…we're just spreading the Thanksgiving cheer around, one pie at a time.)

Kelly, Sergio, and I in front of the Thanksgiving tree

Thanksgiving is the American tradition I am most PROUD to share with my Brazilian friends, because the purpose of the holiday is so meaningful. The Brazilians were very receptive to the idea of taking a special day out of the year to give thanks, and did a great job of expressing themselves on the leaves we hung on the Thanksgiving tree. Some of the things they wrote were:
-All of the bad things that didn't happened (Hey, come to think of it, I'm thankful for that, too!)
-God (Written and illustrated by the youngest Thanksgiving Feast guest, Andy Jewell, age 4.)
-My divorce (We placed no rules on the Thanksgiving tree leaves…clearly.)
-My master's degree (If I was at the point some of these readers are in their graduate degrees I would be thanking God, too! Several of them have had to revise their master's dissertations seven or eight times and then go through the defense process…wow.)

Lacy chatting with a group of readers

The whole group!

Thanksgiving week culminated with the greatest celebration of all: the following Sunday we celebrated two more baptisms and two more additions into our church family! Talis, an LST reader, and Jefferson, one of Talis's friends, gave their lives to the Lord on the same day. Talis started the LST program with my dad in June and continues to study with Lacy, and Jefferson's first contact with the church was at our LST Costume Party at the end of October. Both are fantastic guys who will have a great impact on God's kingdom. Welcome to the family, guys!

Well, Mom, thanks for making it all the way to the end of this post. As I write, I am on a trans-continental flight back to Natal from Rio de Janeiro…another entirely-too-long post within itself. I predict it will be even more photo-ful than this one! Thanks for reading, and happy December!

November in a Nutshell

2008-11-30T00:19:00.005-02:00

Well November flew past like it was only about a week long. Where have I been since the Costume party at the end of October?

Well, first I spent a fantastic week at a women's conference in Sao Paulo. The Continent Connections Conference was hosted by a team of facilitators put together by Continent of Great Cities and included an all expenses paid, week-long stay at a beachside resort. Fifty missionary women attended and the conference included classes on prayer, worship, ministry, and lots of small group discussion. It was an uplifting week as well as a very insightful time for me to reflect on my ministry here in Natal. I came back feeling refreshed and part of a community (hence the name Continent Connections) of incredible women throughout South America. I also had the chance to meet up with many people who had known and worked alongside my parents during their time in Brasilia, and even two women who worked with my mom when she was a two-year apprentice just out of college! It was a wonderful week and if I'm still around I look forward to the next conference in 2010!

The hotel where we stayed for the conference

All of the single gals holding up our framed Bible verses. The CCC team gave us gifts at every single session, and this gift was really special. They had printed out and framed our favorite Bible verses!

Rachel McClure, a dear family friend who worked on my parents' team in Brasilia. Thanks for leading singing at the conference, Rachel!

Around the same time of the conference I was dealing with some pretty scary health problems. The story is pretty detailed, but it had to do with a series of headaches that led up to a migraine that caused me to lose the ability to speak coherently. That only lasted for a few hours, but then I had a strong reaction to the migraine medicine. For about three days my pulse was racing and I was really low on energy. I didn't find out that the two were related until I went to see a cardiologist (the best doctor I have ever seen, by the way) and she told me that it was all part of a really weird big picture. I have been feeling much better this last week, finally like I'm back to normal, and I'm happy to have some answers or be heading in the direction of some answers. I will be going to see a neurologist next week to see what the deal is with the headaches and migraines. I have always taken my health for granted and this has all taught me how blessed I really am. God has been faithful and led the way to doctors who know what they are talking about and people who are willing to take care of me. It reminds me, once again, of how God takes care of me even in the details I don't think about. He is so good!

So...that brings us to this past week. Last Friday my sister and Mark arrived to spend a week with me in Natal! They took advantage of Thanksgiving and took some vacation time to come and see what the buzz is all about in this beautiful city! I have had so much fun taking them around to my favorite places, introducing them to my church family and readers, stuffing our faces with delicious Brazilian cuisine, and just hanging out and catching up on life. Kelly has been having a blast filling up on all her favorite treats from when we were kids, and making sure Mark fills up on them, too. (The poor guy was already tired of pao de queijo after their layover in the Sao Paulo airport.) It was wonderful to have family here on Thanksgiving, and we had a really fun celebration on Thursday with the other Americans and some of our Brazilian friends. The time has flown quickly but we are already planning their next visit to hit up all the spots we didn't get to this time around! Mark has also had a lot of fun taking pictures to put in my newsletters, since apparently I'm a bit lazy to take the ones he is interested in. And I have gladly allowed him to do so. :)

English Worship Service on Sunday. Mark taught a great lesson and we had a big turnout!

Natal is famous for beautiful beaches and beautiful sand dunes.

At Parque das Dunas having a picnic. The monkeys apparently had the day off, which made Kelly really happy.

You may remember from this time last year that we had a big Thanksgiving feast for our readers. It went so well we decided to do it again, and it was a huge success! However, that is an entirely separate blog post, so please check back soon to find out more about what Brazilians think about dressing and to see pictures!

I hope all of you have a great week. Happy Carnatal! (You get points if you remember what that is.)

Costume Party

2008-11-02T01:58:00.002-02:00

For nothing more than a lack of desire to blog, I encourage you to go here, here, or here to read about what happens when you throw a costume party and tell Brazilians to get creative, and here to see my photo documentation of it all.

In other news, if you ever need to see an ophthalmologist in Brazil and you wear contact lenses, make sure to take out your lenses 24 hours before your appointment. Otherwise, you will go, get embarrassed when the receptionist loudly proclaims to the waiting room that you did not, in fact, follow this protocol, and then have to go back the next day after 24 hours of not wearing your contacts. Not that I'm speaking from experience of anything...

Happy November!

Not Your Average Sunday

2008-10-26T22:00:00.004-02:00

Today was one of the best days I have had in a long time. Everything about today was out of the ordinary, which is probably one of the reasons it was so fun.

For starters, our church had the weekly service during the morning rather than late afternoon. Usually the church meets for Bible class at 5 and then worship at 6, but every once in a while, when there is a special guest in town, the church will meet in the morning either to allow for the special guest time to travel back home or in order to have a big lunch together afterward.

This weekend Randy Short, a missionary from Recife, joined us to put on a mini-seminar about personal ministry. He focused on the example of the church in Ephesians, and also talked quite a bit about spiritual gifts, encouraging the church to explore our own spiritual gifts in order to serve the body better. The class was great and I pray that it will have a positive impact on our church. We had worship in the morning so that Randy and his wife, Kathy, could be with us before going home, then a big group of us went out to lunch at a restaurant. All twenty of us sat around one table, and I felt like I was in college again. (Except we didn't get the dirty looks my friends and I got in college when we went out in groups of twenty. I guess a group of twenty adults is different from a group of twenty college freshmen. Go figure.)

After lunch, Lacy, Cyndi, Greg and I went with one of Cyndi's readers to the state park here in Natal. They were as shocked as I was that I had never been there before today, and once I got there I understood why. It is now my FAVORITE place in Natal. Parque das Dunas, or Dunes Park, is a park built at the base of the giant sand dune that follows Natal's coastline. I was always curious to know how they made a park out of a dune, but today I saw that it is not unlike your average giant park in the States, except more awesome because it had live music and MONKEYS! Every Sunday, the city sponsors a free concert in the park, and every day there are monkeys. :) For the R$1 we each paid to get in, it was the cheapest but also the most FUN entertainment I have encountered in Natal. Sundays are family days, so today the park was crawling with parents and very cute kids riding bikes and playing in the dirt. I could have spent the whole day there, spending half of it sitting at the base of the cashew tree with the monkeys.

If any of you ever come to visit me (ahem, sister and brother-in-law, ahem parents again, ahem anyone who wants to!) I am definitely adding Parque das Dunas to the list of tourist attractions. For those of you who know me well or have seen all of my pictures, PDD has now replaced Ponta Negra as my favorite place in Natal. YEAH. I liked it THAT much. Now...pictures of the monkeys. :)Monkeys #1, #2, and #3: Lacy, Cyndi and I, in front of a very inconspicuous statue upon entering the park. :)

Real monkey #1 with a baby on her back. CUTEST THING EVER. She jumped around the whole tree (cashew tree, in case you were wondering) with that little monkey clinging to its mom for dear life.

Just another monkey. There were probably about seven climbing around the whole time, and a few even did a balancing act crossing the power lines to hang out at the top of a light post.

Andre the reader, Cyndi, Greg, and Lacy during the concert

The band, Diogo Guanabara e Macaxeira Jazz. They played really great music, all instrumental, no vocals, and even did a few Beatles covers with a jazzy twist. They have toured in Europe and Japan and are worth checking out if you can fine them online. In this picture we noticed that their frontman only plays tiny instruments. Beginning with the mandolin-type thing...

...and finishing with a tiny electric guitar. Compare it to the size of the normal guitar behind him and you'll see what I mean.

A Day in the Life of a Brazilian: Elections

2008-10-16T22:38:00.005-03:00

When I first arrived in Natal, Brazilian passport in hand, I knew that to become a legal person recognized and protected by the government I was going to have to get official documents. You know, ID, social security #, voter registration card...what? Come again? Voter registration card? No, you did not read that incorrectly. In fact, before I was even allowed to apply for all those other documents (including a certified copy of my birth certificate) I had to register as a voting citizen of Brazil. Voting here is allowed at the age of 16, and becomes mandatory at the age of 18. I even had to pay a fine (a whole dollar!) because I hadn't registered when I turned 18. Oops! I guess I was too busy living on a different continent to remember that.

Fast forward to the first Sunday in October, national election day. This year was just a local election year, so I had the great task ahead of me to decide for whom I would cast my vote for mayor and for whom I would cast my vote for city council. (To answer your question, if I had decided to just not vote I would have had to pay a fine, again, which didn't seem so bad. However, running around town to a bunch of different places to actually pay the fine would have been five times more complicated than just going to vote, so I went with the latter and decided to fulfill my civic duty as a Brazilian citizen.)

Now, if you think election season is a mess in the United States, think again! In the States your TV is flooded with campaign ads, your mailbox is flooded with campaign propoganda, and your front yards are littered with campaign posters of your choosing. You can choose to turn on the TV, choose to throw away all unsolicited mail, and choose whether or not to put up yard signs. In Brazil, you have no such choice. The preferred, and, apparently, most effective method for campaigning in Brazil is the campaign jingle. The campaign jingle is blasted from car speakers all over the city at all hours of the day for like two months ahead of election day. In fact, I came to choose my candidates based on whose campaign jingle did NOT wake me up early on a Saturday morning, or whose campaign jingle I did NOT have stuck in my head for a solid two months. Think BC Clark's anniversary sale song, and multiply it by like five thousand. Yeah. THAT.

So in the actual voting process the candidates are all assigned a 5-digit number that is associated with their name. When you go to vote on the electronic voting machine, you must punch in the candidate's number, his picture shows up, and you confirm. So, imagine what the campaign jingles are all made up of: numbers! I don't know who candidate 40.888 was, his name, his party, his platform, NOTHING, but I sure did have his jingle memorized and I sure did know that there was no chance on earth that he was going to get my vote. However, I did like 15.444's campaign jingle, it was catchy, tasteful, and didn't ever wake me up on a Saturday, so I had all intentions of voting for him for a spot on city council. (However, I found out later, I misunderstood his jingle and punched in the wrong number, 20.444, therefore I voted null and no one got my vote. But he still won. As did 40.888...) You may find my method of choosing candidates slightly lame and politically ignorant, but I had no business voting in this election as I have not paid attention to city politics and the Brazilians promise that anyone who actually wins is corrupt anyway.

So voting day arrived and I went to my indicated voting location (a public school) and punched in my numbers (albeit incorrect) and got my little confirmation ticket (the size of a raffle ticket) that apparently I must guard with my life because it is what validates me as a law-abiding citizen in the Brazilian government. According to my friends, if I ever want to be in the running for a government job or take a college entrance exam I must first prove that I have voted in recent elections by showing my raffle ticket to the powers that be.

We forgot to document the momentous occasion, as it was rather uneventful, but I will leave you with a photo I took from my balcony a couple days before election day. I have no idea which candidate this was for, but it is an illustration of the campaign parades that take place all over the city leading up to the elections.

So, on November 4th when you go to your local voting establishment and fill in the bubble or push the button or punch the card (make sure your chad goes all the way through) next to the candidate's name and not a number, take a minute to enjoy the moment, that it's not a likely problem that you will confuse the names John McCain or Barack Obama with other candidates, and that you don't have a single jingle running through your head, trying to influence your vote.

Another reader story...

2008-10-09T16:01:00.002-03:00

Yesterday in one of my sessions my reader was telling me about how he views the world: sin is relative, he is who decides what is sin and what is not, and as long as he is helping people and being a "good person" he is right with God. He prefers not to read the Bible because he knows that he'll fnd things in there that he doesn't like. He talked for a long time about this, his life philosophy, and I just listened. After it was all over, he asked if I thought he was wrong. This is the conversation that ensued:

Reader: Cris, do you think I'm wrong?
Me: Look, Reader, I can't judge if you are right or wrong. That's God's job and God's job only. But from what I understand from His word and from the way I try to live my life to please God, yes, I think you are wrong.
Reader: Me too.

I was dumbfounded. This is a reader whom I never, ever, EVER would have expected to make an admission like that. Praise God that His holy words are penetrating my reader's heart, and pray to God that it won't stop here. These conversations are never easy, and the process is a long one. But I have faith that what God has started He will finish. And I can't wait to be along for the ride!

Readers

2008-10-02T18:42:00.003-03:00

It's been a while since I have told you any reader stories, so I thought it was about time I let you back in on my day to day conversations and friendships. We're lucky, because this week was a particularly great week in terms of my studies. Every once in a while I (well, really, we) have one of those "yes!" weeks, where so many readers have an aha moment. Even when it's not an aha moment, sometimes they say some really great stuff that's worth sharing.

Since August I have been studying twice a week with a reader who we will call Marcos. Marcos began the LST program because one of my other readers invited him. This other reader, who we will call Carlos, is a reader I have told you about before. I read with him in 2006 when I first came to Natal, and at that point I was 100% sure that Carlos would never, ever, EVER, have an interest in the Biblical content. Well let's all be thankful that Cris is really good at being wrong, because last month Carlos began a Portuguese Bible study with one of the missionaries! Our studies are going so well, and they are only reinforced by his studies with John. But wait...I started out this story about Marcos. So Marcos has believed in and even followed God for a long time but credits his LST Bible studies with completely revolutionizing his faith. He now talks about his life in two segments, before he knew Jesus and after he knew Jesus. He says that reading the Bible in English has turned everything upside down and he understands Jesus in a way that was never clear to him before. He has begun praying more, evangelizing more, and reading the Word more, all in search of his role in God's kingdom. Marcos is an absolute joy to read with. In each session, I read the text first so that he can listen to my pronunciation. After I am done, he always compliments my reading and says "Very good, Cris." Thank you, Marcos. It's always nice to be recognized for something that comes so naturally. :) Earlier this week I asked Marcos to tell me the definition of the word "remember." He looked at me like I must be joking and matter-of-factly said "It means to member again!" When I asked him to tell me what "to member" means, because I sure didn't know, he got a little confused and we went over what the word remember actually means.

This morning I had a fantastic session with one of my new readers, Cinthia. Cinthia comes from a very strong Baptist family, and so her knowledge of the stories we read together provides for some really interesting conversations that go quite a bit deeper than with most other readers. This morning as we read the story of the temptation of Jesus in the desert (not dessert, which is a mistake I hear often!) I asked Cinthia what we learn from Jesus in that particular story, expecting the seed-thought answer "Jesus was as human as we are." But Cinthia will not conform to pre-determined seed thoughts, no she will not. She replied "Jesus was trying to show us that the spirit is stronger than the body. The devil could only tempt Jesus's body, but Jesus knows that his spirit is bigger." And that, my dear readers, is the best explanation I have heard to date on fighting against temptation.

Go here to see pictures of our fun get-together last weekend for a few select readers and church members. It was a fun, relaxing day, and was very meaningful for the readers who participated. Please continue to pray for the readers and for our studies with them. Some of them are approaching critical points in their studies where they will have to ask some tough questions. Pray that the Lord will use us to guide them to Biblical truths and that their eyes will be opened!

Next entry: my first Brazilian election. (It's obligatory.)

Just some unrelated stories....

2008-09-27T22:58:00.003-03:00

Last week I was in a small fender-bender (or the Brazilian equivalent...) with one of my friends. Fortunately no one was hurt other than the car, and I got to spend a good, quality, four hour period sitting on the sidewalk with my friends as we waited for the highly efficient police force to arrive and write the report. When they did, one of the officers in particular was a really nice guy who tried to lighten the mood by joking around with us as he took our statements about what had happened. When he figured out I was American he got really excited and started speaking English, so, naturally, per LST/missionary protocol, I invited him to come study with me, never actually dreaming that he would ever do it. Imagine my surprise when a few days later he called my cell phone and said "Hi, I'm the police man who was after your friend, I'm calling about the English classes," and I laughed at him because I thought it was Roberto playing a joke on me. :) I'm really excited, though, because of all the taxi drivers, waiters, salespeople, etc I've blindly invited to participate in LST, Felix the Cop might acutally be the first one to ever have followed through. Paul encourages us in Colossians to make the most of every opportunity, does he not? Even your routine fender bender can be an opportunity for evangelism. Who knew?

Tonight we had the third and final night of a three-week-long competition among the young people at church. The competition has involved Bible trivia, sports, skits, jokes, impersonations, silly tasks, music, etc. When Roberto and Osmildo were first planning the competition, I playfully whined that they needed to include a category for English so that Lacy and I could fully participate. Then they actually did. So tonight was my shining moment, I had the chance to go up there in front of everyone, in the final event of the competition, and answer computer-generated questions about English. Questions so easy that the non-English speakers were getting some of them right. English so not hard that the Brazilian guy who competed in the English category for the other team scored 50,000 points by getting like 10 questions in a row right. So there I am, headphones on, heart pounding because I can hear my team cheering for me, and feeling a bit like I'm in the hotseat facing Regis on Millionaire. So then it comes, the 5000-point question. And I totally got it wrong. Yes, that's right. I got the fifth question wrong and won my team a measely 500 points. It was not one of my prouder moments...

More Good News

2008-09-15T12:59:00.003-03:00

Remember Francisco? This guy? I told you about him about a month ago. He walked in to the church building off the street one day when he saw the sign for Let's Start Talking. He began to study with my dad, then he began a Bible study in Portuguese with one of the missionaries, then he was baptized. He has had a rough life and although it's getting better, there's still a long road ahead.

However, part of that "getting better" is what I'm here to tell you about today. The day after Francisco's baptism, he went to tell his friend, Geraldo. Geraldo has been a friend to Francisco when no one else would, often times taking him into his home to give him a roof to sleep under and food to eat. He has let Francisco work with him, selling peanuts on the street, to make a decent living. Francisco couldn't contain his joy following his own baptism and wanted to share it with the one person that had always been there for him. Geraldo began studying the Bible with John and was baptized last night! His whole family was there, including his wife and five or six kids (I haven't been able to get an accurate count...they're pretty active and look very similar.) He is excited about his new life and we pray that as he continues to grow he follows Francisco's example and shares the Gospel with those around him!

John baptizing Geraldo

Up out of the water

Francisco serving communion to Geraldo after his baptism. :)

Out of Touch

2008-09-09T11:44:00.004-03:00

Something pretty funny happened last night. I try to stay connected with the news via internet. I have been following the presidential election very closely since the middle of 2007 when the first debates began. For the last week or so my roommate Lacy and I have been reading all kinds of stories about John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his VP running mate. I have followed the media's reaction, bloggers' reactions, etc, and felt I had a pretty good sense of what was going on, but didn't have a good feel for what so many people love or hate about her. Last night I finally had a minute to sit down and download Palin's speech at the RNC on YouTube. When I started the video and the announcer introduced her to come out to the podium, I yelped and Lacy ran out of the kitchen. "What??" we both said. For the last two weeks Lacy and I had been calling her Sarah "Paah-lin" rather than "Pay-lin." I started laughing at how out of touch I felt. I had done my best to stay caught up and with it, and all this time didn't even know the most basic detail, how to say her name!

This past weekend about 15 of us from the church participated in a retreat for young people put on by the churches of Christ in Fortaleza, the capital city of our neighboring state to the north. The theme was "Facing Giants" and the classes and talks were centered around the story of David and Goliath. The retreat was EXCELLENT, and I came away from it with a renewed sense of purpose and commitment to the Word. It was wonderful to get away and relax for a couple of days but to spend that time with my closest friends. Highlights included: learning new Portuguese worship songs, a Bible Bowl-type competition complete with pie-in-the-face penalties for the losers, a spider on my bed frame the size of a softball (not exaggerating,) cold showers, 6 am wake-up calls, and a quick trip to Pizza Hut. This was my second opportunity to travel to another city and participate in a retreat for young people planned by young people, and once again I was blown away by the organization and quality of the program. I hope, dream, and pray for the day that our church in Natal will be big enough and have the resources to plan our own retreat and invite our friends from neighboring states. It was a fantastic weekend and I look forward to the next retreat we get invited to! And now, pictures.

Our group from Natal

Marta (missionary), Carol, Andressa, and Lacy, hanging out on Saturday

Kelly, Sarah, Fernanda, and me hanging out during the Bible Bowl competition

Everyone in the van (Sprinter, really. Shout out to MRCC) doing a quick tour of Fortaleza with a special stop at Pizza Hut before heading to the retreat