Missionaries for a day

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!