Carnaval

Raise your hand if you had all five days of Mardi Gras off of work. Oh...just me? Raise your hand if you spent all five days of Mardi Gras at a gorgeous beach with your brothers and sisters from church. Oh, just me again? This is awkward.

I've blogged once or twice about the Carnaval holiday here in Brazil, a nation-wide celebration of the same things that are celebrated at Mardi Gras. The bad thing is that it exists, the good thing is that since it exists, we as a church use it as an opportunity to get away and take advantage of the time together!

A couple of years ago, we decided that rather than hold a retreat over every major holiday, we would plan and prepare for one big retreat each year and make it great. Well, that worked really well, except for the fact that everyone still wants to hang out on the other holidays, even if there isn't a planned retreat. What that has led to is these little mini-retreats, where we go somewhere, we do something, but it's not a big production. It's laid back and fun, and provides a nice contrast to the going-going-going, jam-packed schedule of our big retreat.

Since our big retreat will be over Easter weekend, this year, over Carnaval, we were blessed to have a mini-retreat at a beach house about 15 minutes outside of town. The son of one of our church members belongs to an association (I think he's kind of like an assistant district attorney?) of lawyers who has a beach house that is up for grabs. He knew we liked to have retreats, so he reserved it for us at no cost! The house had six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and was one block away from one of the best beaches in Natal. Given that we are used to having retreats at an equally-beautiful, yet only three-bathroomed house, this was quite the treat!

Forty-two people spent Sunday through Tuesday at the house and several others came and spent the days with us. We had devotionals in the mornings and evenings, and the rest of the time was left open for us to do whatever we wanted. Some spent their time playing soccer, others at the beach, some playing foosball, others not napping because of the foosball, some playing card games or dominoes, many engaged in heated debates whose topics ranged from parenting to tithing to skin care, and all ate many a popsicle sold by a man on a bike.

I was even thrilled to finally introduce my Brazilian family to my favorite card game of all time, Pit. I grew up playing with my aunts and cousins (once they finally let the kids join in, we were always led to believe it's a hard game to understand *ahem*) and it was just as magical as I had always hoped!

It was a great reminder that time spent together studying God's Word and fellowshipping is never wasted, and provides an excellent alternative to what the world is offering. This was the first chance many of our newest members had to participate in an event like this, and it was given an overwhelming thumbs-up! The mini Carnaval retreat laid the groundwork for our Easter retreat to be a huge success, and we are excited about how God will use that event to grow us as well!

So if you ever see footage of Carnaval in Brazil, with the flashy parades and samba dancers, remember that not all of us are shimmying down the block in body paint and tassels. Some of us are taking advantage of a holiday that was created to dishonor God in every way to do just the opposite: growing stronger in our relationship with Him in order to encourage others to do the same!

God is Good

It's easy to talk about God's goodness when things are going great. Sometimes people (read: I) can be critical of people exclaiming "God is good!" over something that seems trivial, like a beautiful, sunny day or travel plans working out when in actuality the truth is that God is good on a sunny day and God is still good on a dark, stormy day. But what those cynics (read: I) miss when criticizing is the importance of simply recognizing that God is good. Giving God credit for good things, even if he might not actually have opened up that parking spot for me, can't be bad way to keep my ego in check, a way of remembering that there is something, someone, bigger than me, more in control than I am, who, yes, made the day sunny and, yes, gave me five senses to enjoy it. (Who doesn't enjoy an ice-cold fudgesicle on a sunny day, thus covering the fifth sense.)

So that's enough shallow theology to last this blog the rest of the year, but what's my point? My point is this: I just got back from the most wonderful trip to the United States visiting my family, friends, and supporting churches, and the best way I can think of to sum it all up is with one, simple phrase: God is good.


When I moved to Natal in 2007, I had no idea when I would be able to go back to the States for a visit. I'm cheap and tickets aren't. So imagine my surprise when, in the last 4.5 years only one of my five trips to the States has been planned long ahead of time. Some trips were a gift, some were to fundraise, one was an official, planned furlough, and this last one was a dream come true.

As I've reflected on the trip in the days since I got home, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Grateful that I got to go, grateful that the tickets weren't very expensive, grateful for who I got to see, grateful for the conversations I was blessed to be a part of, grateful for the time I got to spend with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandpa, and, of course, grateful for priceless moments with my immediate family. And most of all, grateful that I got to share all of that with a very important person who loved every minute just as much as I did.

Disclaimer: This is the first and will be the only mention of any such person on this blog. But as my logic goes, if you read this you either met him or saw the pictures of him, so this should not come as a shock to anyone who knows me personally! 

Our memories and camera memory cards are full of puzzles, chips & salsa,  miles and miles and miles of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and New England highways, hugs, rounds of Mexican Train & Pit, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, museums, Braum's ice cream, clay pigeons, hours of shared meals with friends, and bookstores.

I am grateful that God allowed for all of the pieces to fall into place to make this trip happen, and grateful for the love and support we received both here in Natal and in the US that made the trip so enjoyable.

God is good!

Disclaimer pt. 2: If you are a little nauseated by the mushiness of this post, very uncharacteristic of the usual writing on Living and Loving, just chalk it up to today being February 14 and rest assured that the next entry should have all the forwardness and self-deprecation you've grown accustomed to around here! Happy Valentine's Day!

Where is your God?

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

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

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

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

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.