Burden for Brazil

My mother recently informed me that not everybody uses Facebook.  A revelation to some of you, I’m sure; however, that was not the reason for my delayed posting.  Nope, just sheer survival.  How I can spend so much of one day simply preparing for the next often amazes me, but as I have learned, it is very much a part of life here. Speaking of, that’s exactly what my mother wanted me to blog about.

Fred and I recently spent five days camping out on the beach in Almofala, Brazil, for IBBM’s Carnaval Retreat.  It was an adventure, to say the least, as we spent time with our church family in close quarters under leaky roofs and rainy skies.

The bulk of activities were held under a thatched roof shelter (made of tree branches and dried coconut tree leaves) built right on the beach, which also served as the boys’ sleeping quarters.  You would be amazed at how many hammocks can be strung across a small space!  The girls slept in a small house up the dune from the barraca (ba-HA-ka). You women will be interested to know that there were only two bathrooms shared among our group of 50+ and, of course, neither included modern conveniences.  Well, not entirely.  Each had a “modern toilet” but it lacked a seat and flushing was by bucket, as were the showers.

The housing conditions were aggravated by rain.  It’s rainy season here in Brazil, and although we were on vacation, the weather wasn’t.  This proved to be particularly significant for Fred and me as we had taken a pup tent along for our sleeping quarters. Our tent was water-resistant, but not water-proof; thus during the downpour of the first evening, we were forced to make an early morning evacuation to the boys’ barraca where we slept on the sandy floor.

The next day we spent scouting out a vacant barraca under which we could pitch our tent.  We ended up moving it twice when an afternoon shower proved the roof of the first barraca we found to be inadequate.  The night we slept dry for the first half until the leaky roof and the wind-driven rain (no side wall to the barraca) moistened the walls sufficiently to allow water to seep in to the tent.  Unfortunately, the rainy weather continued throughout the next day, so we were unable to dry out; however, we did make some “improvements” to the barraca with garbage bags we had used to keep our luggage dry on the trip out there.

The sun finally came out with force on the fourth day, and we were able to dry and air out the tent, sleeping bag, etc. – all that just in time to pack everything up in the rain the following day!  Needless to say, it was a special delight to sleep in my dry bed that evening – that is after the convenience of sitting on the bathroom stool and taking a shower with running water.  Ah, modern conveniences!  It was also nice to simply sit in a chair! Sitting options for the week included the sandy floor, which can be surprisingly stiff after a time, and a few tree bark benches built into the barraca.

That was the housing adventure; the meals were an entirely other matter.  They were very basic with very little variety – lots of bread, corn meal, rice, spaghetti noodles and other starchy foods.  I had some apples packed along, but after three days of the same diet, I (and my body) gratefully accepted a friend’s generous offer to drive to town and buy some papaya and pineapple.

There were, of course, team competitions. (Being Brazilian means being competitive!) If you have never seen a six-month pregnant woman sprint (at least attempt to sprint), you may have missed your chance. My team picked me for the sprint/swim leg of a relay race, but only because I was the only one who knew how to swim. Beggars can’t be choosers! I quickly discovered when I tried to stand and dive over some of the initial waves that a heavy belly definitely changes one’s center of gravity; I also don’t have the endurance that I did six months ago, especially after my month of bedrest!

Pastor Tiago spoke in the evening services, focusing on the retreat’s theme: “Fishers of Men.” Fred headed up the music for the retreat and gave a devotional the second morning on not being ashamed of the gospel (Rm.1:16-17). A special blessing of the week was the salvation of two sisters. Their husbands accepted Christ as Savior last year and have since been praying for their wives. It is a neat continuation of God’s work of grace in this family as the sisters’ mother Vilany and younger sister Paula (the first one saved in the family) have been praying for them for nearly five years. Now they all are praying for Vilany’s sister Gracilene, who attended the retreat, and other sibilings/family members.

So, in spite of the showers (that is, the natural ones), it was a good retreat, a spiritually refreshing and edifying time for our church family. As youth leaders, we were especially excited to see the teen’s initiative in working and saving up money for the retreat.

Speaking of, please continue to pray for this ministry. Daniel, an unrepentant teenage boy, was recently disciplined by the church. Some of the teens are really struggling with the change in how they are now relate to Daniel.  You can pray especially for three who have strong ties to Daniel: his sister Isabelle, his best friend Michael, and his ”crush” Lucience (who is a very young, impressionable Christian!).

It may seem like a silly request, but please pray also for my feet. Do pray that they will be the beautiful feet of one “who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, [and] who publishes salvation” (Is. 52:7); but also pray that I will be able to wear shoes the remainder of my pregnancy! Although my blood pressure is low (per usual) as is my salt intake, I’m having a tremendous problem with swelling feet. Trivial, but true. The swelling usually goes down a little a night, but it doesn’t take long for them to fill in the morning.

It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I took a one after our we arrived home from retreat.  Pretty, aren’t they?