Dona Francisca's baptism video

Trust me...you want to watch this. Pay special attention to the post-baptism beaming!


Chiquinha's Baptism from Cris Carpenter on Vimeo.

Dona Francisca!

Several years ago when Roberto and Marisa Signoretti arrived as missionaries in Natal, Marisa immediately looked for special ways in which she might serve the church. Over the years she has led a variety of different ministries. When I first visited Natal in 2006, I remember vividly her Monday afternoon literacy class. A certified Portuguese teacher, each week Marisa gathered about five or six little old ladies from the neighborhood (in their fifties, sixties, and seventies,) around the table in our reception area and taught them how to read and write. They would arrive promptly at 2pm and leave promptly at 3pm, spending an hour sounding out words and tracing their letters on worksheets not unlike what you and I used in elementary school.

After I moved to Natal, I enjoyed seeing these women each Monday afternoon, eager to learn and come to "school"(as they called it!) I will never forget the day one of them excitedly came in wanting to tell Marisa some big news. She had gone to a doctor's appointment that day and, for the first time in her life, had signed her own name on the forms. Her joy was overwhelming and contagious.

For a variety of reasons, after several years Marisa's literacy class came to an end. Attendance had dropped significantly and Marisa began to focus more on evangelistic Bible studies and our English program. But she remained friends with the ladies from her class and visited them regularly in their homes, just across the street from our church building.



A year or two after the literacy class ended, one of the ladies from the class, Dona Francisca, began to show up at our worship service on Sundays. She'd show up every once in a while, but sometime last year we began to see her every Sunday. Then she began to come to Bible class beforehand and stay for worship. She always brought her Bible and let us help her find the passages being read. Then we found out she was coming back early from her family's ranch every weekend in order to be able to come to church!

Dona Francisca taking communion for the first
time after her baptism

Last week Dona Francisca decided she wanted to be baptized. She told Marisa that she would like to be in heaven with us. On Wednesday, our missionaries sat down with Dona Francisca and her daughter to talk about her decision and help her understand the meaning of her baptism. She was excited and ready for Sunday!

What a joy it was to watch Dona Francisca put on Christ in baptism this morning! She is only the second person over the age of 60 to join our church family, and we are excited to welcome her as one of our own!

1000 Words - Birthday

For all of these people to show up on a Monday night, the first day of a 100% bus strike, to celebrate your birthday...

that's love.

Even though 27 feels pretty old, it can't be too bad with these people by my side. 

*And yes, that is my daddy-o on the far left of the picture. My parents arrived yesterday in Natal with their LST team to begin their project. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday gift!

1000 Words - Fridays

A few weeks ago I told you about what I do on Mondays. Mondays are for my basic English students. We chat (very slowly) together in English and read the Gospel of Luke. They explain Jesus's parables to me and I tell them whether or not I agree. And a lot of times we eat chocolate, which, ironically, is always brought by the dentist.

(let's play a quick game of "guess the Gringo")

Mondays are one of my favorite days of the week, but Fridays are quickly catching up. You probably love Fridays because of what they represent. Friday is my day off, so I know all about what a good Friday means. However, my Fridays have taken on a new look recently, besides sleeping in and watching my favorite real-estate reality shows. This picture was taken at my apartment a couple Friday nights ago, around 9pm.

This is a group of single young women from our church. You've probably seen several of them in pictures on this blog before. Two of them are the daughters of my teammates, one is my roommate, and two are recent converts. Since I got back to Natal in February, we have been meeting monthly on Friday nights to study the Bible together.

Since the first study I made it very clear that all were invited, but the only ones who were welcome were those who really wanted to be there. Falling on a Friday night meant that often the girls would have other obligations and commitments, and I wanted them to not feel in the least bit guilty if they ever needed to miss our study. I wanted it to be something they looked forward to and enjoyed, rather than something where attendance would be taken.

What has resulted is turning out to be one of the biggest blessings of 2012. The girls were thrilled to spend their Friday nights once a month studying the Bible, and asked why we weren't meeting more often! We've met three times, and Catherine prepared the lesson at the last study. My dream was not only for us to study the Bible more, but for them to have the chance to prepare and teach those studies.

I don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate  Friday. But with these girls, we have a whole new reason to love a good Friday night.

1000 Words - Tiago Filho

I can count on exactly one finger (or maybe 10 teeny tiny ones) a good reason for me to wake up voluntarily at 5:50 am on my day off.

Meet the newest addition to our family in Natal. The last time a baby was this loved, kissed, squeezed, and drooled over...well, it was the last time someone in our church had a baby. :) 

I had the privilege of hanging out at the hospital with Tiago and his mom, Kelly, the morning after he was born. We had a blast, braving the new world of baths, blood tests, diapers, and staying awake through meals together. He and Kelly are doing great and are being very well cared for by his namesake, his dad, Tiago. 

I have fallen in love all over again with the beauty of the body of Christ. Kelly's roommate at the hospital must have thought we were nuts, because we just kept showing up! I love watching how we all care so deeply for one another and are ready to serve at a moment's notice, whether that be through giving rides or washing dirty clothes or preparing lunch.

This guy had no idea how many people are absolutely crazy about him. 

1000 Words - Jailza

This one really doesn't need an explanation.

 

Please pray for Jailza, a woman who has believed in Jesus for many, many years but just last week decided to proclaim her faith through baptism!

Fasting

Growing up in the church, I remember exactly one time that I participated in a fast. It was the summer before my junior year of high school and we were going through several months of preparation before a youth group mission trip to Mexico. We had several Bible verses to memorize, service project hours to complete, and even some essays to write. The preparation culminated in a (non-mandatory, I'm pretty sure) 30-hour fast. My friends and I faced it much as teenagers would, more of a survival of the fittest competition rather than an opportunity for spiritual growth. I made it through the 30 hours, praying often and consuming only water and juice, and celebrated with my friends at Wednesday night church by engorging ourselves on several 6-ft subs brought in by the youth ministry interns.

Fasting, to me, always seemed like one of those disciplines that was often talked about but rarely practiced. And those who practiced it individually were only the spiritual giants, maybe of the John-the-Baptist, eating locusts variety. Or, as was in my case, people fasted in community for a specific reason, more as an experience than anything else. (Note: I am merely sharing my personal impressions. It's quite possible that many people I knew fasted regularly and I just didn't know about it.) When I moved to Natal in 2007 I was intrigued to find a body of believers that included individual fasting in their regular spiritual diet.

Our church in Natal engages in two to five church-wide fasts per year. Usually they are included in a week-long prayer and fasting campaign, where we are given prayer partners and asked to pray together for a specific subject all week long, and then choose something from which to fast. Food is never emphasized, as it's become pretty obvious that many of us have idols whose absence hurts much more when removed than food. :) Some choose chocolate, some the internet, others video games, some choose meat (a daily staple in a Brazilian diet,) others, soft drinks, while others, full food fasts.

In addition to these church-wide fasts, however, it's not at all uncommon to hear our members mention their fasting on random occasions, never in a "look at me, I'm fasting" kind of way, but in a "really, stop offering me chocolate cake, believe me, I want it, but I'm fasting" kind of way. They always have a purpose for their fast, though we don't always know why. Most recently I've known of sisters and brothers fasting before the big college-entrance exam, fasting until a member who had left came back, fasting for the conversion of their parents, fasting to gain full confidence in God over a troubling situation.

Maybe it's nothing special to you, but I sure think it is. I'm so encouraged to be surrounded by people who take their relationship with God so seriously that they are willing to make these kinds of sacrifices for a greater purpose on a regular basis! And, it might be interesting to note, the specific fasts I mentioned above were all young people like myself, in their twenties, people who are learning very early on in their faith the importance of fasting as a spiritual discipline.

This past Sunday was the last day of one of our week-long prayer and fasting campaigns. The theme this time was "be," praying to grow in our being as God's servants. And...what's the best way to end a church-wide fast? With a church-wide breakfast, of course! So before worship we all came together to break our fast and celebrate the ways in which we had seen God grow us in our being throughout the week. After everyone had eaten and everything had been cleaned up, we shared together in communion to mark the end of our experience.


I feel pretty blessed to be a part of this family.