Monday was our “off day,” so Phyllis, the local minister’s, Antenor, wife gave us some choices on how to spend the day. Most of us decided to go hike a hill, Morro do Elefante. It was a great experience. At some points I was having flashbacks to Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, climbing almost straight up hill.

At the top there was a concrete cross and a fabulous view over four cities below. When we gathered together at the bottom of the trail, we had the opportunity to see two capybaras, the largest rodent in the world – about the size of a medium dog, swimming and feeding in a pond. We also noticed after some time, three from our group were not with us. After some worrying and searching we found they had taken an other trail by accident.

I am now in Santiago and very tired from our 4:30A wake up call and 3 ½ hour flight. I’ll miss Brasil so much, Itu is an amazing place, but I look forward to what God has for us in Chile and Argentina.

On Thursday, Corpus Christi (Brazilian holiday), about fifty people went to Porto Feliz, 35km from Itu. There Bob Carpenter, a past missionary in Brasilia, now Oklahoma Christian professor, spoke on diversity in the body of Christ and the need to over come past and present prejudices to unite the church.

On Thursday I sat down for two hours with Bob to discuss diversity. He told me about two churches, predominantly black and prdominantly white, in a small Oklahoma town that for two years have been in open discussion about the subject. It´s amazing that these two small town churches, on their own will came together to discuss the problem. When it came down to the only thing separating the two was historical prejudices. The two don´t know what the future is. If God wills merger, it´ll happen, if not it won´t, but amazing bridges and relationships have been built between the two.

Antanor´s, the local minister, daughter, Ali, was singing a song while banging her hands on the table and looked down to find her suspended diamond of her wedding ring missing. She stopped every one, turned to her father, and says, “Dad, my diamond is gone.“ He turns, picks up a pebble, and hands it to her. She starts balling. One of the local youth looks at the bottom of his drink as a joke and there´s the diamond. Amazing and a good laugh.

The retreat was at a small suger cane farm set in the hills. Gorgeous. We all had a great time.

We came back to Itu on Saturday and rested up. Today was worship this morning and soccer in the afternoon.

Go Spurs. Star Wars was depressing.

Bom dia. Good morning.

Boa tarde. Good afternoon.

Boa noite. Good night.

Fala inglês? Do you speak English?

Goodbye Ciao

How are you? Tudo bem?

Thank you Obrigado (males) Obrigada (females)

Please Por Favor

Yes Sim

No Não

Pardon me Desculpe

Tomorrow we go out with the church and locals to an area 35km from Itu for a three day retreat.

For the past three days we´ve been visiting many English schools to give the children and adults interactions with native speakers. It´s been quite an experience. We´ve been to an upper class high school and today to a public (meaning ´poor´) grade school.

Some common questions are:

§ What do you think of Brazilian women?
§ How long are you here for?
§ Where have you been?
§ What do you think of Bush?
§ Do you know any Brazilian music?
§ Can you samba?
§ What did you know prior to coming to Brasil?

Take care and much love.

We left Rio de Janeiro at 7:30A on Sunday. We awoke to get ready to go to the airport at 4:30A. Our flight took us to Sao Paulo where we got a bus for an hour long trip to Itu. We arrived around 10:30A, in the middle of church services.

I and Hilliard are staying with a guy named Marcio and his family in their beautiful home. Today, we went to a high school to do help the students practice their English and then went on to an other English school this afternoon to do the same. This Thursday is a national holiday in Brasil, Corpus Christi, so the church is having a retreat and inviting locals to come along.

The church here is very young. Many of the members are in their twenties or below. It,s really exciting to meet so many people who are eager to meet you. It´s really hard to put in to words and recollect all my thoughts. Again Internet access is sporadic, so I don´t know when my next post will be. Until then, much love.

Ciao

I´ve been Rio de Janeiro for three days now and finally have access to the Internet. We arrived around 8:30A on Wednesday. It´s benn a great two days. We´ve already been to Pao de Açucar (Sugar Loaf) and Ipanema. Well I don,t have much time on the computer, others are waiting. Were here for another ´day then off to Sao Paulo on Sunday. I don´t know when I´ll post again. Until then.

Boa noite.

Praia do Ipanema (not my photo)