First

Here's a quick (NOT!) review of the past 36 hours.

Pictures June 14 June 15

The Hutch First group met at the Wichita airport at 1:30PM Thursday afternoon, and after 30 minutes of checking in bag after bag, we finally said bye to friends and family and went through security. That put us at our gate almost 90 minutes early. But the time flew buy. We boarded our puddle-jumper Delta jet and a couple of hours later we were in Atlanta.

Pastor Jim Cooper was there to greet us, and brought us greetings from the San Jose (and a few other places :) ) group that would be joining us in Brazil. I briefly met Pastor Jim in Kansas City at the M7 conference, and am looking forward to getting to know him better. Pastor Jim and his wife Betty, were missionaries in Rio, Brazil from 1992-1996 (if my memory serves me correct - which it rarely does). They have many ties with the people of Nilopolis, Rio, and Brazil as a whole, and have returned to Brazil every two to three years since returning to the states.

After about an hour and a half layover, we boarded the largest plane that I have ever been on. It was a Boeing 767ER (extended range), and had approximately 300 people on board. With one extra seat. And it wasn't beside me. Rats. After waiting almost an hour for one of the three pilots (did he get lost?), we were finally on our way to Brazil.

There were monitors in the two isles about every 7-8 rows of chairs. Unfortunately for First Church's row, the closest monitor was the one straight above our head. The cool thing about the monitors is that it told us all the information about our flight that you could imagine (except where our third pilot was for an hour). It gave altitude (avg: 35,000 feet), a graphic map of where we were and where we were going, speed (avg: 550 mph), wind, elapsed time (total 9 hours from Atlanta to Rio), time until arrival, outside air temperature (lowest: -61 degrees F), and more. The only problem with the screens were when they played the in-flight movie (AJ and I were hoping for the pilot for the TV series, LOST, but we were denied). The movie was "Breech," a true, but possibly the most boring movie ever made. I hope Delta got a good deal for it!

After dinner at 11:00PM, we tried to settle down to sleep. But that was a royal waste of time. Marvin B had the record of not sleeping at all. Getting comfortable enough to sleep was just short of impossible. By the way, if you ever decide to get up and walk around the plane (which you are supposed to do to stretch and reduce chance of blood clots), do not go into the first class area. AJ F and I now know that first hand. ;)

At 7:00AM local time (5:00AM Hutch time), we touched down in Rio, to a warm, smoggy day. First up: immigration police checking our passports. After a 40 minute wait (we were at the back of the plane), we all made it through with no problems. Next up: customs, luggage pick-up, and the dreaded button. AJ and I tried to load all of our luggage onto the same cart, but I had one suitcase that would not fit. Thankfully, Suzanne offered me to put my suitcase on her cart. I thanked her, loaded my cart and offered to push it. When you go though customs, you push a button on a pole which lights up one of two lights. If you get a green light, you go on through and you are finished with customs. But if you get the red light (by random selection), you have to go to the customs Gestapo. When Suzanne and I walked up to the customs agent, he waved us on through, as if we were together. Being the chivalrous person that I am, I did not argue or correct him and allowed Suzanne to push the button. :) We got a green light. Fortunately, AJ also got a green light. Adam got a red light, and faced the, well, all he faced was an x-ray machine (more like his luggage did), and questions in Portuguese, which for some reason he was unable to answer. After a few universal shoulder shrugs, Adam passed on through with no incident. Two others in our group faced the dreaded (ok, now the not-so-dreaded) customs Gestapo/x-ray machines.

Onward to our next obstacle: a lack of fast-moving elevators. We would have even taken slow elevators at this point, but they didn't exist either. After waiting about 5 minutes for 3 people to go up one level to the waiting vans, and still had about 20 more to go. Pastor Jim decided that it would be much faster to form a human chain and move the luggage up the stairs manually, and he was correct. A few minutes later our luggage was loaded into the church vans, and we loaded up. I happened to ride with the 15 passenger taxi. What a cool trip!

We arrived at the Nilopolis parsonage, where Pastor Pedro Paulo’s family lives, without incident. Well, the taxi and the other two vans didn't have an incident. Pastor Pedro Paulo wasn't so fortunate. The pastor had to slam on his brakes to avoid traffic ahead, and a motorcyclist following him didn't brake quite as fast. The end result was that the motorcycle crashed into Pastor's van, crumpling the bumper, and the cyclist’s helmet ended up in the back window. Fortunately for the biker, the helmet won and the window was shattered. In true non-USA form and fashion, the biker was ok so everyone went their own way.

We unloaded our luggage, and found our rooms. According to what I have heard about earlier Brazil trips, our rooms are very nice this time (and I have to agree!). Other than there being a trash can beside the commode to place ALL paper products in (you can't flush the toilet paper down the commode in Brazil) and the fact that there are wires above the shower head, along with a 40 amp breaker (which produces instant hot water), it's pretty much like a nice house in the USA. We are sleeping on brand new bunk beds (with the top bunk 6' above the ground!) and new mattresses. Slick set-up!

After a quick snack, debriefing by the Coopers, a shower break and lunch (fried chicken, black beans and rice), we loaded up and went to the new school site that is being built. While we were there, we learned that the construction process is behind about 15 days, and all the bricks that we were going to be laying will not be ready to be set for another two weeks or more - after we have gone home. But not to worry, there were still about eight other major tasks that we are going to be working on.

The best part of the day came when Pastor Pedro Paulo shared with us the vision and mission of Nilopolis Church of the Nazarene. What a visionary! The church gives to needy people and children in their area out of love and compassion and not out of selfish ambitions. They don't care what their own needs are - they realize that giving to God is the most important thing that they can do. The people in this neighborhood have next to nothing (especially compared to me!), and yet Nilopolis Church is thriving with over 60 different community ministries - all paid for and supported by the people of the Nilopolis Church!

The school that we are going to work on is no exception. From what Pastor Pedro Paulo shared with the W&W group, the church has currently outgrown its current facility and needs to expand. To do that, they need to move the elementary school based at the school. So the church purchased new land several blocks away and is currently building a new school! They currently have 250 students, but will be able to have 400 children ages 4-12 in the new facility. What a ministry! The kids that go through the private church-sponsored school will have a much better education than those attending normal public school. Children in public schools are promoted to the next grade each year, no matter what their test scores or comprehension. The church school is not like that at all. Students must learn and pass exams in order to promote to the next grade. This allows them to graduate from elementary school with a much greater education than other children. And all of this is provided as a non-profit ministry of the church! The people of Nilopolis Church of the Nazarene are willing to sacrifice what they have in order to further the kingdom of God. WOW - that's exciting!

After our tour of the new school site, we went across town to the supermarket. Except for not being able to read the labels or understand the words over the loudspeakers, you would have thought you were at Wally World (Wal-Mart)! Well, there were a few more exceptions, like no cold gallon jugs of milk (Brazilians drink their milk hot or warm, and it comes out of a box or mix), and a lot of the meat would not make USDA approval unwrapped and unrefridgerated. But other than that... While there we loaded up on a lot of nutritional food to get us through the next two weeks of hard work (Coca-cola, chocolate bars, every flavor of cookie you can think of, etc.).

Oh - another lesson I learned in Brazil: you can't take pictures in their version of Wally World. If you do, they will ask you to stop! Sorry! :)

When we returned back to our place, we sorted (and sorted) all the items that the teams brought from home. There were many pounds of crayons, shampoo, Wendy's happy meal toys, combs, construction paper, candy, stuffed animals and more toys, calculators, soap, pencils, and more toys. Later in the week we will fill up hundreds of zip-lock baggies with these supplies and pass them out to kids and families in the slums of Rio.

After dinner (beef stew, black beans and rice), we had a chance to sit around and get to know each other. We are already coming together as one team. Tomorrow is a day of "tourismo" (that's how it’s listed on my visa), where we will see all the great sites of Rio, as well as some of the less-visited sites.

It's 11:36PM Rio time, and most everyone is already in bed. I guess I will join them. Actually, I have been typing this from my bed! :) I will go the next step and join them in wonderful lala land of snorers!

Continue to pray for your team!
Mark