THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2008
CLIMBING ALONG

The month of October is coming to an end. What a month it's been. I think I began this month's journal by saying what a stressful month September was. Sometimes I think I sound like a broken record.

Maybe I need to get used to the idea that life involves more climbing than coasting. As Peter said, "Don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you." (1 Peter 4:12)

In spite of the fiery ordeals, we are accomplishing what we've set out to accomplish. We are helping people build better lives, we are bringing people to Christ, we are making disciples. And though we're sometimes poking along in progress, we're getting a medical clinic built, though I imagine I will really believe it when I see it -- and I'm right here.

And some good things have happened recently. One is that in spite of the financial crisis in America (or maybe because of it) the dollar has rebounded here and the exchange rate has improved significantly in the past few weeks. I don't pretend to understand how it works, but it's good to see the dollar going farther right now. To be specific, last May $100 = R$150. Right now, $100 = R$220. I don't know how long this will last -- it's a volatile market --  but I am enjoying it while I can.

Also, we have 3 people who are literally in the final stages of planning extended trips (of several weeks to several months) to work in Rio with Project Brasil during 2009. They are now taking the steps necessary to make this happen: raising financial support, obtaining visas, etc. These are all people I have known a while, each has seminary training, each has experience in missions work, and each has a burning desire to serve God in Rio. I will tell you more about this as it develops.

So take that, fiery trials.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2008
BARRA MANSA

This weekend I am preaching in a church in the city of Barra Mansa, about two hours west of Rio. Barra Mansa is a city of around 150,000, but it is much different than Rio. Though there are some poor neighborhoods, there are no favelas here, and there is very little violence. It is a safe, quiet place to live.

It's a great church here. It was started by Pastor Dayse (pronounced Daisy) about 3 years ago. Today they average around 70 in attendance.

I wish I had a camera to take a picture of the church sign. The name of the church is "Congregacao de Boa Sorte," which means, "The church of good luck." I realize it would be odd to name a church "good luck" in the US, but here the word has a slightly different connotation.

Ricardo came with me. This morning I talked about our projects in Morro Azul and Bangu, and preached a bit from Matthew 19:26 -- "With God all things are possible." My sermon was translated by a young man named Mateus who teaches English here. Ricardo also spoke in the service about our work in Morro Azul.

Tonight I preached on Proverbs 24:16 -- Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again. The sermon was translated by a woman named Adriana, an attorney in Barra Mansa. She has an interesting story. She went to the states in 1988 as an exchange student, and her host family led her to Christ. This changed the course of her life. Now she and her husband are leaders in the church, she is involved in children's ministry and she often translates for visiting preachers.

Today was Election Day in Rio. Voting is not a right in Brasil, it is an obligation. All people between 16-70 are required to vote. I don't know enough about the political situation here to know if the results of today's election were good or bad, but I am glad that this means there won't be any more vans driving down the street with campaign ads blaring from the loud speakers.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2008
GRIPE...THE SEQUEL

I had my second bout with gripe (pronounced grippee, it's the flu) this week. I'll blame it on the rainy days followed by really hot sunny days followed by more rain, etc. This time I'm not alone; the rest of the country apparently has it too. Everyone is walking around with a red nose and watery eyes.

I must have looked pretty bad, too. Earlier this week I went into a pharmacy. As I was staring at a wall of medicine, the pharmacist handed me (without my asking for it) a packet of tablets specifically for headache, runny nose, fever, etc.  I guess he could tell by looking; I'm not exactly hiding my misery under a barrel. The good news is that I think I'm just about over it now.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2008
ONE DIFFERENCE

One difference about living in Bangu, as opposed to living in Zona Sul, is that there are no pan-handlers on the streets of Bangu. In places like Copacabana and Ipanema, and even neighborhoods like Catete and Flamengo (near Morro Azul), you can't walk down the street without several people asking you for money. Often when I'm having a sandwich at an outdoor cafe, people will approach me (I have 'gringo' written all over me) to ask for help with food. This never happens in Bangu. I imagine it's because life in Bangu is a pretty level playing field; nearly everyone here has a simple standard of living. There are certainly no rich tourists walking the streets in Bangu, just the occasional extremely poor American missionary.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2008
SPRINGING FORWARD

Today we move our clocks ahead one hour, springing forward because it is spring here south of the equator. That means the time difference between here and there (there being the heartland)has been extended to three hours. I like the time difference; I feel like it gives me a head start on my work in the US. Of course, if you can't go online, it loses its advantage.

We had two great worship services in Bangu today. I didn't preach or wasn't involved in any way, so it was good to just relax and enjoy the service. Waniston translated the sermon for me in the evening service.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008
ABOUT THURSDAY

Busy day. It began with my English class for adults, which meets at 10:00. We have 10 students. Today we worked on ordinals. It was more interesting than the word ordinal might imply. This is a fun class and I really enjoy teaching them.

Normally I have a 1:30 class in Morro Azul, but today it was cancelled so I had a chance to sit in on Maria's afternoon class. Maria was very sick last week, so she missed a couple of classes, but today she's feeling much better. It was good to have her back.

As a reminder, Maria is from Russia. She's studying in a university here in Rio. Her English is excellent, and though she speaks with an accent, it is nothing like the stereotypical Russian accent you hear in the movies. Actually, it sounds more stereotypically Austrian; I think she learned English watching Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.

Her first class is with children, so she's teaching basic vocabulary. She has 8 students. She divided them into groups and played a pronunciation game with them.

After Maria's class I raced to Morro Azul for my second class. Today we worked on prepositions: why the book is on the table but you sit in a chair, and so on. After class I took the metro to the train station, planning to take the train to Bangu, but service to Bangu had been stopped for security reasons. Apparently there was an ongoing incident and they were worried about safety. I could take a train only as far as Deodora, which is still quite a long way from Bangu.

I called Waniston and asked if everything was safe in Bangu, if it was OK to arrive in a taxi. He said he was aware that the trains had stopped running, but that things were calm in Vila Alianca, which is the section of Bangu where the church is. So I took a different train (on another route) to another station, in order to get a little closer to Bangu. I grabbed a taxi there. This way, I arrived in Bangu from a different direction, not near the train station where all the excitement was supposedly taking place.

My taxi ride was uneventful and I arrived safely.

I got to the church in time to catch the last few minutes of worship team rehearsal. Afterwards my friend Monique, who speaks English, helped with a phone call to the pastor in Barra Mansa where I will be preaching next week.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2008
THE ALARM

As I have stated before, I'm staying at the church in Bangu during this visit. It's very secure; my room is behind two gates, and we have an alarm system. Last night at 4:00 a.m. the alarm went off. It's really loud, and it's right next to my room.

I wondered if it was going off because someone was trying to enter the property. I wondered if I should try to hide in the wardrobe. Instead I just waited. The alarm continued for about half an hour. The police never showed up.

I asked the groundskeeper about it today and he said he was aware that the alarm had gone off last night. He said it was probably set off by a mouse, not an intruder. It's good to know that my cheese is safe.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2008
HERE COMES THE SUN

I was glad to receive a call from Paul (the American from D.C.) last week to touch base with me about upcoming travel plans. He also filled in some of the blanks from his previous visit and I updated the entry dated September 15.

I mentioned earlier that we have had an enormous amount rain here in the past several weeks. It has been almost non-stop. The rain has passed and the sun has returned and the last couple of days have been absolutely beautiful. Hot (in the 90's) ... but beautiful. Such a welcome change.

Construction on the clinic has been delayed in recent weeks, but is resuming again. A friend snapped some photos last week of the progress; I'll get them up as soon as possible.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2008
BACK ON TRACK

Well, September was a stressful month, but things are finally settling down a bit. I had trouble with the website over the weekend and it was offline for a couple of days, but now we're back on track and everything is good. I'm finally getting the updates done. You can read them below.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2008
RAINY DAYS AND TUESDAYS

I have been remiss in not mentioning one recent development. Last year we had a volunteer from Russia, a wonderful young woman named Maria (pictured at right). Maria worked with Beatriz and Ana Claudia in Morro Azul during her month long visit to Rio.

Last month she returned to Rio to live here for an extended time. She is here on a student visa. In an amazing coincidence, she is living in Bangu. She contacted me after she arrived in early September and we made arrangements for her to teach classes here.

Today the new English classes began. Maria teaches two classes in the afternoon: one class for children, one for teens and adults. I also have a class in the morning for adults (pictured above). All together we have 36 students in the three classes.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2008
RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS

Yesterday we had a party at the church. I'm not sure exactly what it was about, but we were supposed to dress up like cowboys. Some people did.

There were snacks and games and it was a lot of fun -- in spite of the fact that it rained like crazy. It has been raining almost non-stop since I arrived a month ago. Today is no exception.

Pastor Luis asked me to preach at church last night, but Waniston was not around, so a young lady named Cecilia translated for me. It was her first time, and she was a bit nervous, but it went well. We had a chance to run through the message before the service so she could become familiar with the content. I also gave her a manuscript to read during the afternoon.  Cecilia speaks good English, but it takes a little practice getting used to each person's style, vocabulary and accent. She caught on quickly and did a great job.

Tomorrow we begin new English classes in Bangu.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2008
MARLBORO COUNTRY

Each Tuesday and Thursday I leave Morro Azul at about 5:30 and head back to Bangu. I take the metro (subway) to the train station, I take the train to Bangu, I take a van to the church.

At the same time, tens of thousands of others are leaving the South Zone for their homes in the West Zone or North Zone of Rio; they're taking the metro and train also. There is no way to describe how crowded the subway and trains are between 5:00 and 8:00 at night. Each car is packed until it is literally impossible for another person to enter. Last night I had to wait for four trains to come through before there was one with a car I could squeeze into. It's a 15 minute ride to the train station, and then I repeat the process of trying to squeeze into a train for the hour long journey to Bangu.

I was exhausted and looking forward to getting back to Bangu in time for worship team rehearsal. When I arrived at the train station, I quickly checked the departure schedule on the TV monitor, ran to the train platform, and jumped in the car just seconds before the doors shut. I worked my way to the center aisle so I could grab the handrail and turned on my MP3 player (for the record, it was an Andy Stanley sermon) just as the train started to move.

After about half an hour, I realized something didn't feel right. I am accustomed to the timing of the stops, and last night the train had a different rhythm. At the next stop I looked out the window to check the name of the station, and it was a name I didn't recognize. Turns out I was on the wrong train. I wasn't heading to Bangu, I was heading to a place called Belford Roxo, which I have since learned is often referred to as Marlboro Country because many of the streets aren't paved and many people there get around on horseback.

I exited at the next stop and waited an hour for a train back to downtown Rio. Since the station where I was stranded was remote and almost empty, I was a little worried about security, but everything turned out fine. I had an entire series of Andy Stanley sermons on my MP3 player, so I at least I had something to keep me occupied. Do you want to hear the irony? The title of the series is LOST.

The bottom line is that instead of getting back to Bangu around 8:00, I arrived at almost midnight. I got to the downtown station in time to take the last train to Bangu. I guess this will teach me to be a little more careful about jumping on a train as the doors are closing.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
GRIPING ABOUT GRIPE

Every time I come to Brasil I have at least one bout with the flu. Sometimes two. Here the word for flu is pronounced grippee, and it is spelled gripe. The spelling makes sense: When I have it I do nothing but complain.

I began feeling puny last week. It usually lasts about seven days, so it's winding down now and I'm beginning to feel a little better, but I'm still not at 100%.

As a bonus, there are a million mosquitoes in Bangu this time of year, and they're all hanging out in my apartment. It's been hard to sleep at night. When I said something about it in a meeting this week, one of the deacons was kind enough to come by and spray my room Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, as has been documented here previously, I'm allergic to bug spray, so I woke up yesterday with a swollen eye. I was able to get a prescription for amoxolina, which cures the infection, but it usually causes a rash, so I'm looking forward being red and splotchy for a few days. I did mention that in Brasil the flu is called GRIPE, didn't I? I'm taking advantage of the name and griping a bit today, before I get well.

Tonight is choir rehearsal at the church. There's an echo in the almost-empty sanctuary that's making their voices reverberate through the open windows to my room across the courtyard. It sounds almost medieval. Very beautiful. They're singing in Portuguese, but it's a song I remember from my childhood. We used to sing at the Methodist church in Oklahoma where I grew up:

Longing, longing for Jesus
I have a longing in my heart for him.
Just to be near him, to feel his presence,
I have a longing in my heart for him.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2008
VISITORS FROM THE NATION'S CAPITOL

Yesterday I preached in Morro de Ceu (literally Heaven's Hill), a favela here in Bangu. The church is a daughter of the church in Bangu. Waniston translated for me. My plan was to preach the same sermons yesterday that I preached last week in Bangu, but in the evening service I changed my mind and preached Proverbs 24:16 -- though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again. I knew that Waniston would be able to handle the change of plans without too much trouble, though he did give me some grief about it afterwards.

During the afternoon we had some guests with us: Paul, Peter, and Patricia. Paul lives in D.C. and is involved with the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, which is considering coming to Rio on a mission trip. His story is interesting: he lived in the interior of Parana State and its capital, Curitiba, for 13 years when he was a child, so he speaks perfect Portuguese. He now lives inthe states and works for the World Bank; his work brings him to Rio 3 or 4 times a year.

Patricia filmed much of our conversation this afternoon (she's a filmmaker). Maybe we'll have some video to show here in the near future.

An interesting twist during the afternoon was the presence of the military in our community. There were soldiers everywhere. Next month there's an election in Rio, so the military has been dispatched to certain areas to ensure that all candidates have a fair opportunity to campaign. In some communities trafficants (drug gangs) don't allow anyone but their candidates to campaign. The military was here to even things out a bit. I guess we can expect to see them here until October.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2008
HITCHING A RIDE

Earlier I wrote about the adventure of taking taxis in Bangu. Fortunately, I don't need one very often. I get to Morro Azul using the Train and the Metro; it takes about an hour and a half.

To get to the train station (and to the shopping mall, grocery store, and bank), I take a van. This is a common means of transportation throughout the city. The vans hold 15 passengers, but it's not uncommon to have 20 people packed in them. It costs two reais (about a dollar); you might get a seat or you might make the trip standing hunched over the whole time. The vans run about every 10 minutes, so they're the quickest way to get to downtown Bangu.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008
LIFE IN THE WEST ZONE

I am staying in Bangu for this tour of duty. It's been fun; life in the West Zone is very different than life in the South Zone of Rio, where I've been staying during my visits since 2004.

One difference is economic; there is more poverty in this area. That's not to say that everyone here is poor; it is to say that life in Bangu is simpler. For example, rent is much cheaper. An apartment that rents for $500 in Copacabana will rent for $150 in Bangu. Also, there aren't nearly as many restaurants here, though Bangu does have a mall with some good places to shop and eat.

It's also not very easy to catch a taxi here. In the South Zone it seems that 3 of every 4 cars is a taxi, and I'm not really exaggerating. You can find a taxi on any street any time of day. Here, you might wait 10 minutes before a taxi comes by. And you're taking some chances getting in the car. I've ridden in three taxis since I got here; two of them had car trouble. One ran out of gas just a block or two before my destination. The other car stalled at a light and took forever to get started again.

Classes have started up in Morro Azul. We have two classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. I am teaching them.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2008
PREACHING IN BANGU

I preached in Bangu today, both services. It is a holiday (Independence Day), but Brasil doesn't do holidays like the US does. If a holiday falls on a Sunday, they don't celebrate on Monday -- so no one is getting off work and no one is getting out of school tomorrow. For this reason, the holiday didn't seem to affect church attendance, i.e. not many people were traveling today. The church was packed for the evening service.

Waniston translated the sermons. I typically begin each message now with a few words in Portuguese, but I am nowhere near ready to preach without a translator. There are too many nuances to the language, just as there are in English. There are also too many opportunities to say words completely wrong.

Today Waniston told me about a guest preacher they had here a couple of years ago who tried to preach in Portuguese. His text was Matthew 18, where Jesus talks about the 99 sheep. The Portuguese word for sheep is ovelha. Unfortunately, this ambitious pastor kept saying ervilha, which is Portuguese for peas. So his sermon was about the man who lost one of his vegetables and went looking for it. This is why I'm afraid to preach in Portuguese. 

In the morning service I preached on Ephesians 4: The Process of Transformation. At night I preached on Jonah: Radical Mercy.

In the afternoon I had lunch with some dear friends, pictured here. They make up the worship band in Bangu, and they are also brothers and sisters: Allen, Alexander, and Nedia. They live with their parents Nilma and Anderson. The whole family are involved in the leadership and ministry of the church. They invited me to their home for lunch, and it was wonderful.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2008
LOCAL POLITICS

I'm still having internet problems, but I will continue to write these updates because the situation should be resolved soon. I have access to dial-up here, so I can read email, but the connection is so slow that I am having difficulty updating my various websites; it takes a high speed connection to do this. I'm hoping this is resolved soon.

I went to a political rally with some friends last night; it was for an acquaintance who is running for the equivalent of City Councilman. I didn't understand much of what was happening, but the snacks were very good -- well worth the effort.

After the meeting I talked to a local politician that I had met 3 years ago in Morro Azul. His name is Pedro; his grandfather was once governor of Rio, if I remember correctly. He speaks a little English and he vaguely remembered the meeting in Morro Azul where we met. We talked a bit about the project and traded business cards.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2008
ALIVE ON ARRIVAL

I arrived in Brasil on Thursday. I should have arrived Wednesday, but there were problems at the airport in Atlanta -- some kind of air traffic control glitch -- and a large number of flights into and out of Atlanta were cancelled or delayed, mine included.

When I finally arrived in Atlanta the flight to Rio had already taken off, so I had no choice but to hang out in Atlanta for 24 hours until the next flight. Turns out there were thousands of stranded travelers in Atlanta, and all of them were about as grumpy about it as I was.

Hotel rooms were hard to come by -- especially cheap ones -- but I eventually found a La Quinta with a special airport rate. I had to check out at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, and my flight to Rio wasn't until 8:30 p.m., so it was a long day of waiting at the airport. To add a little humor to the situation, the Rio flight was delayed 2 hours -- so we left at 10:30 p.m. If this had happened the night before, I wouldn't have had to spend an extra day in Atlanta. Oh well.

I am staying at the church in Bangu this trip. They have prepared a special room for me; it has a shower and refrigerator and desk and bed. They are working on getting internet access for me as well. I had hoped it would be ready when I arrived, but there were some problems with the phone company and so we're having a short delay. I guess that is to be expected, but it's a little bit frustrating.

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