I’ve already left but I did not post much while there. Well, how about a recap?

Rio de Janeiro

I went to Rio to work for six months with Abel Azevedo and also help prepare the way for the Aggies’ visit in mid-July. It was a good time to get a grasp of Portuguese; I just can’t shake that Carioca (anyone or thing from Rio) accent. The Aggie visit was excellent and really lifted my spirits. The opportunity to move to Itu to intern under Mark and Ali Kaiser came up and, with the encouragement of Traci, travelling with the Aggies, I made the move.

Visiting Pão de Açucar.	Aggies at a language school in Rio.
Group at camp in Rio.	Aggies sight-seeing.

Recife

Before my time in Itu officially began, I made a trip to Recife in Brazil’s northeast with my good friend and housemate in Itu, Guto. We found really cheap airfare on Azul Airlines. It was exciting to fly – it was Guto’s first flight and Azul is a relatively new airline. Also, they offer unlimited food and drink service; a great airline.

We joined up with the Aggies working at a camp being converted in to a children’s home, painting at a local church/seminary, and putting on a VBS in one of the poorer communities outside Recife. On our last day, Guto and I were able to visit Porto de Galinhas, one of the best beaches in Brazil. It was an excellent visit and thanks to Danny and lee Bratcher for receiving Guto and I.

Aggies and the seminary students.	Crafts with kids at VBS.
Guto at a local market.	Porto de Galinhas

Itu

My time in Itu truly began prior to leaving Rio. I was able to go visit and be put to work immediately. I was invited by Mark and Ali to return to work at the annual bi-lingual camp a few weeks later. It was my first camp experience in Itu and was fantastic – ran in a way completely different from previous camp experiences. Read more about it. It opened my mind to the possibility of working in Itu.

So I made the change to Itu and moved in with my friend Guto. My main focuses were Guto and developing a media ministry, as well as participating with the youth group. From equipping the church secretary to giving weekend seminar on printed material and PowerPoint design, I was put to work, a change from what I had been doing prior to Itu. Mark and Ali were great people to work with and I was impressed with how much their ministry permeates their lives. There home is open to all. You never know who will be there. Beyond, it was a blast being involved with the youth and the Friday lunch for the homeless. Even though my time was rather short, it seemed like it was the ideal time for me to be there.

Guto and I together.	Nicolas, Atsuya, and I at camp.
Group at festa julina.	New church building in Itu.
Interns and youth ministers.	My last night with the youth.

Continent Connection Conference

My last week in Brazil was spent in Atibaia at a men’s retreat hosted by Continent of Great Cities. It was spiritually refreshing. We had small groups and Mark Abshier was our group leader. I’ve been in some dark areas over the past year and it was like that week just lifted so much off and God started to clean me up.

Men at CCC.

These past few weeks I was able to participate in the annual Bilingual Camp put on by the Igreja de Cristo em Itu. I first visited Itu in June 2005 on AFCSA and have been able to return several times over the years.

Well I visited Itu about a month ago and was immediately put to work by my friends Mark and Ali, the youth ministers. I was just taking the opportunity of some other friends visiting a nearby town to visit my friends in Itu and, bam, I find myself to have become “the other intern.” Ali was reading an email to be sent to a potential intern and, if I recall correctly, it went something like “Come to Itu where your talents will be used and abused.” I was used. It was so good to work alongside Mark and Ali and their other interns – Carol, Katie, and Mary Lou.

Some of my recent work for the Itu church:

Upon leaving, I was given the invitation to return to help at the bilingual camp. Less than a week later I was back in Itu.

So camp. I thought it was going to be just a five day camp where we spoke English and had some fun but it was so much more. As Kris, another recently added intern, said

…it was a Christian camp where there happen to be people who spoke English and Portuguese.

Two campers, one a former atheist, decided to follow Christ. It was an incredible experience that refreshed my spirit. Good food, dynamic groups, fun staff, a dance party until 3A, s’mores, beautiful facilities! Who could ask for more?

I returned to Rio on Monday but with the Johnson Street church youth group from San Angelo that went to Itu to run the camp and participate in the inaugural activities of the church in Itu, which were awesome. They invited me to spend their last two days with them at a nice hotel on the beach. It was a great time and was, actually, the first time since moving to Rio that I went to the beach. That may tell you HOW far from the beach I live!

Well I’m currently transitioning from Chile to Brazil. I hopped on a bus and rode for 36 hours to Porto Alegre, Brazil. I’ll be staying with the Blumes for a few days and then head to my new home (for six months) of Rio de Janeiro.

Very soon I will be putting something up about my parents’ visit and my trip to Peru with my friend Robert. In the meantime, check out some of the photos on flickr.

Woo! It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything and originally I was going to post this two weeks ago but I kind of messed up my blog management system. Well all is well now. Thank you Jeff.

Enjoy.

Scribd

Man, what an experience. What a week. Last Monday, I left Porto Alegre for Canela in the Serra Gaúcho of Rio Grande do Sul to attend the Brazilian Missionary Conference. The first day was quite exciting because of all the familiar and new faces I saw. It was really cool to meet Carlos Castilho,a missionary in Rio supported by MacArthur Park. We were roommates.

I was truly blessed by the presence and teaching from Murray Wilton, mentioned in my last post. He led the daily men’s sessions. What I learned during our sessions is the relief that comes from complete reliance on God, filling your life with the Spirit makes a difference in your desires, far better is joining in God’s work rather than constructing my own ideas of reaching others, and the freedom that comes from absolute, nothing held back, let it all out confession to another brother. Murray cares and he lets God work through his life. He was a gift for me.

John Willis, from ACU and the Highland church, took us (“the two that were listening”) across the Old Testament and a bit of the New. The day and evening trips were fun too. Gramado EXPLODED with music and Christmas lights. For some reason the ATMs in the area would not let some others and I take out money. One day we visited Parque Estadual do Caracol, home of Cascata do Caracol, a 130m (426ft) waterfall at the base of 768 steps. My thighs burned for a few days. It was a good time to catch up with my olf friend Ali and her husband Mark who are now working in Itu.

Cascata do Caracol, Canela, Brasil

The crown jewel of the fun at the conference was banquet night. No roast this year, but a Murder Mystery Dinner. I know, my head almost exploded like an atom bomb. I asked myself, “How can fifty-something people participate in the murder mystery of Big Daddy?” Well the organizers, the Rio team members did an excellent job. Drag and all.

Thanks to the Porto ALegre team for an excellent conference.

I went from Canela to Tramandaí on the coast to meet up with Roberto and Moema. I was there one night, but I couldn’t go to Brazil in the summer and not go to the beach. “Those who know the good they ought to do and do not do it, sin.” The next day we went back to Porto Alegre. I met up with Clemens, a friend I met in São Paulo on the way from Santiago to Rio. We had a great conversation and it was good to see him again. EARLY Sunday morning, after two and a half hours of sleep, we went to the airport to catch my flight (6:10A) to Buenos Aires via São Paulo.

Kevin Blume prayed over Dottie, a speaker at the conference and currently my housemate as she is working with the Santiago team, and I as we were about to depart. He’s a special guy with a big heart and a top notch family. Dottie and I arrived in São Paulo and made our way perplexedly through the airport I do not love. The signs in the airport are truly backwards. Well she headed towards Santiago and I Buenos Aires, after an hour+ delay (this is Brazil).

Buenos Aires was fun. It was one day/night. I stayed at a nice hostel, V&S. I have a lovely meal at a parrilla a few blocks away, El Establo. Honestly they had this Caprese salad (basil, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and a vinaigrette). Oh yeah. I left my chocolate and chicken from the restaurant in the refrigerator locked up in reception and had to leave prior to the front desk opening. My flight left an hour later than I was thinking, so I could have stayed longer, but that’s ok, I had the opportunity to talk Sueli, my Brazilian roommate at the hostel. Man, our room was hot. While waiting for our, yes, delayed flight, we met Mariano and his newly wedded wife on their way to Brazil for their honeymoon. It’s amazing who God leads you to talk with. Well they were great and before I knew it I was saying goodbye, Mariano hopped up, and gave me a hug and a kiss, well, you know, “kiss-the-air-next-to-my-ear kiss. Those Argentines. Gotta love them.

Now I’m back in Santiago. In the words of my friend Renzo, “buenas noches handsome men.”

Sadly, I did not mention it in my last post, my point-and-shoot camera’s screen broke in Rio so I sent it back with the group to be returned to my mother, so no photos. Check out Mark & Ali’s blog and The Blumes’ blog for some photos and other points of view.

So we had the opportunity to go to Corcovado, the hill with Cristo Redentor overlooking Rio, and we went. I guess since it now is one of the Wonders of the World the administratio thinks it can charge how ever much. R$35 per person! It was my third time in Rio so I had to visit even though the price was a bit outrageous.

Time with Abel and the Aggies was refreshing, a change of scenery. The churches in Cosmos and Jabour are so loving and welcoming. They even threw me a surprise going away party with a cake that we had on New Year’s Eve that I commented to the maker was delicious. The hostess of the girls wrote me a poem and gave me a shirt. The love here is incredible. It was one of the best times I had in Rio. Who knew Skip-bo could bring so many people together?

Now I am amongst more friends in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Moema and Roberto are a couple that hosted Brandon and I when we here in June. They insisted that I come back and stay with them for a bit, so I am. We’ve visited the local botanical garden, worshipped together, eaten great food, and walked through the city. Yesterday we went to a house church at the home of one of the missionary families here, Kevin and Benay. A man, Murray Wilton, spoke on how we regard each other and everyone around us.

I head out to Canela for a conference today. Should be good.

I have the joy to return to Rio de Janeiro to accompany a group from the Aggies for Christ for about a week. It’s always good to be amongst the brothers and sisters in Rio. The group is composed of six people including myself. I am so happy to be in the presence of good friends and fellow travelers from A&M. Last night we gathered around and had a bit of worship time together in English (a rare happening). I hope this time is refreshing for all; I am already feeling the ’saudade’ of having to leave soon. I will be here until Friday, 4 January.

Have a happy New Year!

So this was our first time to be in Porto Alegre. Pretty much everything (except Foz do Iguaçu) before this point have been new experiences. The missionaries we worked with in Porto Alegre were fantastic, funny, and hospitable.

We worked most of the time at a place called Chacára, a alcohol and drug rehabilitation center for men. We built a dormitory brick-by-brick. I think only one member of our group had previous masonry experience. It was excellent to work along side these men and at random they would shout out “Gloria a Deus!” (“Glory to God!”).

We also had the opportunity to stay with host families, and I do have to say, ours was the est. Ha! No, Roberto and Moema were superb people. Always making sure we were comfortable and well fed. Man that was some good food.

I had a fantastic time in Porto Alegre and I can not wait to return in the future.

Brandon and I have the pleasure of staying with a family this week, as do all others of the group, but Brandon and I have the pleasure of being with Moema, Roberto, and their son Keldy this week whie in Porto Alegre. We were at Jennifer’s and Sascha’s house on Tuesday and twice Moema and Roberto called to check if we were ok. We had not been assigned homes, so I jumped on the chance to stay with people that were SO excited to keep us.

They are sweet and considerate. They were not sure if we would be comfortable staying with a bi-racial couple that has a cat and a dog, no worries we said. Truly they are servants and some of the most hospitable individuals I have had the pleasure to be with. Brandon has a great attitude as well, so it makes they stay that much better. The food is not bad either.

In other news, I sat on a granite table today in the mall food court and broke it off the pedestal. Oh well. The mall staff were only concerned if I had been hurt. Not really, just a bit embarassed.

It was a quick stop, but we had a fantastic time in Foz do Iguaçu. Originally we were going to visit Itaipu, the largest power plant (a dam) in the world, but we opted to go shopping in the third largest duty-free zone in the world – Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Cheap computer stuff and everything else.

The visit to the park was nice too. We actually received passport stamps this time when we crossed the Brazil-Argentina border to Argentina. It made my day. Most of the group went on the boat ride, but I decided not to. It was pleasant walking around tha park, touching coaties, looking at the falls.

Quite a good visit. Now we are in Porto Alegre after a thirteen-hour bus ride overnight. Should be fun.