Preach!

Tuesday's Pictures

Ever start your day off by going to prayer meeting? I did! Ever start your day off by being the speaker at prayer meeting? I did! :) What a privilege – to come all the way to Brazil and be asked to speak in Pastor Pedro Paulo’s pulpit at Nilopolis Church of the Nazarene. I wasn’t really nervous, just slightly apprehensive (is there a difference?). What do you say as an American, who has grown up in a protective environment all of your life, to Brazilian saints who would be disciplined enough to start their day at church? And why be nervous – I mean, how many people can you have at an 8:00AM prayer meeting? 35? 45? Maybe 50 on a good morning? When I walked in the sanctuary, it was full. Not packed (like Sunday night was), but 300-350 people. OK – now I’m a notch above apprehensive (but still slightly below nervous!). I can’t remember ever preaching to a group of adults that large before in my life.

But I chose to share with the people what God has been speaking to me about for the past few weeks: Prayer – it’s a necessary activity to participate in if you want to have a real relationship with your Creator. It’s a message that goes beyond language differences (even if my illustrations don’t!). After singing several beautiful songs, some of which I recognized (“Great is thy Faithfulness”), and many I didn’t, I got up to speak.

I introduced myself, and let them know that I was an American programmer who God called to preach. I told them that they would make me very comfortable as a children’s pastor if they would just talk right out in the middle of the sermon, and if half of them needed to get up and go to the restroom in the middle of the sermon that was alright. Oh, and feel free to fight with your neighbor. Then on a serious note, I said that I had already learned so much from them the past five days, and I wasn’t sure if there was anything that I could teach them. The congregation was a warm, forgiving one, encouraging me with their eyes and nods, even though they couldn’t understand what I was saying directly.

If you have never spoken to a group through a translator, it’s very interesting! There’s nothing quite like telling a joke, getting to the punch line, laughing (all by yourself, since you’re just about the only one who understood what you just said), waiting for the translator, then hoping they laugh with you. Maybe next time I’ll hold off on my laughter until I see if they laugh! :) If you ever need a Portuguese translator, Alessandra is the lady you need. She was awesome. Hopefully, later this week in my blog I will share her and her husband’s story. The MOST interesting work and witness story I have ever heard – full of love, romance, repeated proposals, and – oops, I said later.

After the service, I went out to the court yard and started greeting, playing and interacting with the children from the school. They are so incredible! If any of them knew any English (and most did!), they shared it with me, trying their best to get my attention. They did! My favorite was, “I love rez.” After finally getting the original translation from Portuguese, we realize that she was saying that she loved “red.” :)

Pastor Jim, Betty and others then arrived from the work site with bags of balloons in hand, and we proceeded to make balloon animals/swords/flowers/hats/unknown items for the kids. It was then that everyone discovered that Pastor Mark was the only children’s pastor alive that had never made any balloon animals in his life. He was quickly given a pump and told to start filling. It was then that it was discovered that not only could Pastor Mark not make balloon animals, he couldn’t even tie the silly things. Oh well…

By the way, never attempt to play a Brazilian child in soccer. Not only will you lose, but you will walk away feeling really bad about your athletic skill set.

Pastor Pedro Paulo then took us on a tour of the Nilopolis Nazarene community clinic. Next door to the church, the clinic is full of medical tools, supplies and medicine that is used and dispensed regularly by two volunteer doctors that come to the clinic to give of their time. The clinic even has EKG equipment! When the hospital’s EKG machine was broken recently, they sent their patients down to the church to get it done there! The clinic is ran by a retiring state employee who is paid by the state to work in the clinic for two days a week. But she loves the people so much that she runs is five days a week – volunteering her time and talents to the community. Oh – and she also manages the snack shop in the court yard area.

Back at the work site, two more trucks of clay had arrived, as well as crushed rock. By the time I got there, the team had removed a huge pile of wood to outside the walls. People were then asking for the wood, and hauling it off by the truck-load (OK – more like horse-load). By the end of the day, about 1/3 of the floor to the play area was ready for rebar and then concrete. It’s coming!

Back at the house, several of the team members stayed and made up hundreds of care packages for us to give out next week. They also did wash for the entire team! That’s servanthood! For the last 13 years only one person has seen all my wash, and Amy (my wife) is still back in the states! When we arrived home, we found all of our clothes hung around the entire outside area (they have no clothes dryer), and discovered that our jeans and pants had taken over 4 hours to wash in the washing machine! (The water runs really slow in Brazil! The water pressure is very slow, so each house has a large tank on top of the structure to store water in. Then it drains out of the water into your house quicker than if you were waiting for it to flow from the street.) But I still think 4+ hours on a load of wash might have more than water pressure to blame. That did not stop our team, though. They washed all of our clothes by hand! THANKS!

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, and sharing our impressions of Brazil and its people with each other in a group meeting. It reminded me of a campfire get-together, just without the campfire. It was very neat to hear how God has been working in other team members lives as we serve Him here in Brazil. Pastor Jim was not able to make our campfire meeting, because Pastor Pedro Paulo wanted him to attend the Nazarene seminary with him that evening. When Pastor Jim returned, we asked him how it went. He let us know that he ended up speaking at a chapel service at the seminary. At least I had an entire night to prepare!

Mark