The Weekend

I meant to update the blog this past weekend telling about Thursday and Friday, but am a little behind, so I asked my mother-in-law if I could "steal" some of her summary of the weekend. On Thursday the missionary from Recife came down to Maragogi to do some street preaching. I was excited to go but unfortunately the children didn't cooperate. Seth is worn out by the end of each day so if the plan is a late evening we try to give him a nap. He fights it so much that sometimes we keep him in his room an hour or two and he won't nap. Thursday was a day he fought it tooth and nail and by bedtime he needed bed, not a Portuguese street service. So I stayed home with the kiddies and Shaun and his parents headed out to the city centre by the church to listen to some preaching. Here's my mother-in-law's summary, which she wrote Friday morning:

"Because of the flood that they have had here in Pernambuco some of the roads have been closed off. Pastor Kennedy was to have a speech last night in the park by the church at 7 but ended up phoning that he was delayed in arriving as some roads were blocked and others were congested. He tried an alternate route and came across a bridge that was closed. He then had to hike back with his family a 1/2 hour to try the next connecting road. That ended up being the a road like the one we experienced when coming down here (Maragogi) from Recife ~ waskhed out roads with huge potholes that scraped the bottom of your vehicle. So that 5 hour drive that we made for not taking the right turn from BR 101 to PE 60 didn't necessarily mean a bad move as Pastor Kennedy said we probably would have run into problems there too. WHEW!" (as a side note Thacianne told us later that Pastor Kennedy incorporated this into his sermon, talking about how Jesus was the only bridge and you wouldn't be able to find another route to heaven). "Pastor Elissandro, however, got us started with lots of singing and in between spoke a few words. Dad and I are amazed that the people here know most of the salmos (psalms) and hinos (hymns) off by heart ~ and some of them gave many stanzas. They have a book that has 150 salmos and 205 hinos. It is a joy to listen to them for they truly sing with all their heart. By the time Pastor Kennedy arrived it was nearly 8. When you enter different states you periodically have a road check. The police are at the borders and stop random vehicles to check for proper registration and safety. Pastor Kennedy said that they mostly stop bigger vehicles as a lot of people use them to make money transporting people from one place to another. They have private registration instead of commercial registration and not the right kind of insurance. He also was stopped at the state Algoas where the cities San Jose and Maragogi are in. He mentioned to the police that he was already an hour late for a preaching engagement so they let him continue. They did ask him which church he was from and he told them the reformada. Pastor Kennedy thought the policeman was pentecostal (as most people here are besides the Roman Catholics) as he looked at him strangely. Nevertheless, after about 10 minutes into Pastor Kennedy's speech it started to rain so we had to move into the church. In his sermon he used the allegory of a policeman motioning for you to stop and if you didn't stop but kept going they would have their gun out to shoot you. Needless to say you would stop. That is the way it should be for our heavenly Father. He is telling us to stop our sinful lives and live for him, follow him so that we can have eternal life. It was a 2 hour evening which is very common for them.

Tonight at 7 we have the 30th anniversary of the Igreja Reformada do Brasil in Maragogi. We have also met the Rev Meijer's who were also one of the first missionaries here in Brasil. They live in Holland now. The house they owned when they lived here, and which they sold to a lady in Germany, was open to be rented while they were here. It was so exciting for them. Lots of memories between those walls. It should be an exciting evening once again. That would mean that we will have heard an edifying word 6 times this week! This morning Dad and Shaun had a visit with the mayor of Maragogi about setting up a business here. And wouldn't you believe it, our host Katje is going to be the translator. Last night she was teaching English classes in the breakfast area in our pousada (hotel) to students. She inquired if we could spend a evening next week in class with the students so they could practice their English by interviewing us. That should be fun : ) At breakfast each morning Katje has a new list of words for us to learn. She pronounces them for us as their vowel sounds are different that what we think. Our aim is to memorize these words/phrases and learn to pronounce them properly. Yesterday we learned about greeting people (the letters in bold are were the stress of the word is on)

~good morning ~ bom dia (bon dee-aa)

~good afternoon ~ boa tarde (bo-aa taah-de)

~good evening, good night ~ boa noite (bo.aa noy-tee)

~hello ~ ola (o-laa)

~hi ~ oi (oy)

Today we have learned

~thank you ~ muito (moyn-to) very much ~ obrigado (male), obrigada (female) o-bree-gaa-do (male), o-bree-gaa-da (female)

~you're welcome ~ de nada (de naa-daa)

~how are you? ~ como vai? (ko-mo vai)

~fine and you? ~ bem, e voce? (beng e vos-say)

~goodbye ~ tchau (chow)"

On Friday night we had the 30th anniversary of Maragogi church! It was amazing seeing how full the church became and seeing how the Lord has worked here in the past 40 years, as they came from towns all around here, including Recife and Maceio.

Here's another little summary from Mom Raap:

"Friday night happened to be a fairly long but exciting night. Quite a few congratulatory speeches were made, a lot of different age groups from the churches sang some salmos/hinos, and a couple of solos were sung by individual ladies. Pastor Elisandro (present pastor of Maragogi), Pastor Pedro (past pastor of Maragogi), Pastor Bram (Maceio), Pastor Thiago (Barra Grande), Pastor Kennedy, and Pastor Julius (both from Recife) were all present with some of their congregants. Afterwards there was social time where we were all treated with something to drink and a small plate of baked goods. Yum ~ these appetizers had fish in some, coconut in others, fruit etc. It was delicioso! Shaun also had a short congratulatory message ~ and he did it in Portuguese."

I unfortunately left before Shaun did his speech. It was already 10:00 and the kids were cranky and Lyla is a bit under the weather, so I finally gave up waiting and took them home. I did hear rave reviews about his speech after!

Shaun and his stellar Portuguese speech...he practiced quite a bit and it obviously paid off.

Pastor Elissandro, pastor of Maragogi church.

They decorated the church for the anniversary, did repainting, tiling, new roofing, etc. It looked fabulous!

Saturday we spent with a family from Recife at the hotel they were staying, which was nice...playing cards, swimming, chatting, eating. Then Sunday was a relaxing day which ended with a little churrasco at our place with Thacianne, Hermes, Sandro, Djane, Mom and Dad Raap, and a friend from a different state named Cledson. Fun times all around. Today we did some clean up, spent some time at the beach (it has been really rainy here lately, not too much beach weather!), grocery shopped, and had hamburgers with Mom and Dad...the first time since we got here! Delicious! something we definitely need to import to Brazil!

Thinking of you all as we get close to coming home...already! Only 2 1/2 weeks!

Have a good week!

Brenda