Lately nothing has seemed to go normally down here in Brazil. Just this last week there have been continued protests all over the country of Brazil; Aaron took a group from Life English School to the United States and their flights were delayed, canceled and transferred to a van to shuttle them between Chicago and Minneapolis (all this after the time they were to leave Cubatão kept getting earlier and earlier due to worries about protests), and because Aaron is in the States for two weeks I am taking over the regular pastoral duties. Preaching, leading Sunday School and leading the Thursday night Bible study are the three main things.
My first duty was the Bible study and that went better than planned. At one point we began talking about different names that Jesus is called and that caused a spontaneous breakout into song. This reminded me of a chart we have at our home that lists Scripture verses and names that Jesus is called which turned into the Sunday School lesson for the next few weeks. I will preach this Sunday evening, a Brazilian will preach next Sunday and then I will preach the following week. We all appreciate your prayers for things to run smoothly while Aaron is gone, things never seem to go as planned when the pastor is gone.
With regards to the protests, they are still going on. Today is the final game in a soccer tournament hosted by Brazil and there seems to be a large protest before each soccer match outside the stadium and in many cities there are one or two planned protests each week. To read about why these protests are happening you can read my previous blogs. I mention them again in this blog to say once again that all of us missionaries are safe. We are monitoring updates, but the protests seem to stay in the area that they are planned and we stay away from those areas and try to stay home during the protests. Most of the people protesting seem to desire peaceful protests but unfortunately there seem to be a handful of people who want to vandalize and loot.
Izabel's sister Mirian had her baby on Wednesday, the doctors decided that she should have a c-section because of low fluids. Mirian has been released but her son Miguel has stayed in the hospital because of breathing difficulties. Mirain and her husband, Miyai, are driving to the hospital daily.
We appreciate your prayers for Miguel, our safety and David and Rodrigo's preaching while Aaron is away.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Protest updates
I really need to get out another blog, mainly because of what has been happening here in Brazil with the protests. Cubatão as a city is not nearly large enough to become too involved anytime there are protests taking place. I have read in the news that the big cities are the ones hit the hardest by people protesting the last week, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and other large cities are the most mentioned. We are in an area that is generally safe from all of that.
We had a group here visiting us for the weekend and wanted to take them out to dinner in Santos. As Shelly's car was locked in the shop after they had completed the work (that in itself is a long story) it took a long time to finally figure out how to get us all to a city roughly 10 miles away. We found a Brazilian willing to let us borrow her car, thank you Raquel, so I drove her car and Duane Erickson drove our car because Shelly's driving documents were locked inside her car locked inside the shop. Duane did an excellent job keeping up with Aaron Brakefield and I. We reached a certain point in Santos however where the traffic completely stopped. We inched forward for a while until we were finally able to see the area that we wanted to go but we were still stuck in traffic. Izabel looked out her window and said that she saw a bus stopped in the middle of an intersection. About that time two transit authorities on motorcycles passed by (motorcycles can drive on the lines when traffic is stopped) and shortly after that the traffic picked up and we were able to continue to the restaurant.
Since that evening I have heard from a few people who said that traffic jam was part of the demonstrations happening all over the rest of Brazil. I think that some protestors somehow caused the bus to stop until the transit authorities we able to stop the demonstration. Until last night that instance was the closest that I had heard of the protests coming to us, Aaron and I even drove into São Paulo to take the group up to the airport and didn't see any protests. When I went up to bed last night Izabel told me that it was all over Facebook that some protests had started in Cubatão. She said that some people downtown had seen a bus lit on fire and some looting happening along the main avenue. When I go downtown I will be able to see for myself if there is anything still happening downtown. I know it's easy for people to assume the worst but just assume that all of us missionaries are safe from these protests unless you hear otherwise.
Here is what I know about the origin of these protests. Last week the government announced that they would be raising the bus fares a little bit, causing protests against the transit system. Through coordination on social media sites people, mostly students they say, organized demonstrations against these rate hikes. From there the protests took off and lately the protests are more about expressing their displeasure about the government's handling of finances than about a small bus rate hike. From what I have heard, many Brazilians are upset with how many billions of Reais are being spent on preparing the country for the many large events coming up, when things on a much less public scale are being neglected.
When one group protests against another group it is not usually the case the one side is all in the right and the other side is all in the wrong. How is it that that people can become so reliant on a government or something else to take care of them. I have bad news for you, we as humankind have problems, we are all going to be let down at some point if we put our trust in another human whether it's a president, a boss or friends. Instead of finding help from one of those listed we have a Good Shepherd who offers to take our burdens away from us.
John 10:11-13
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
We had a group here visiting us for the weekend and wanted to take them out to dinner in Santos. As Shelly's car was locked in the shop after they had completed the work (that in itself is a long story) it took a long time to finally figure out how to get us all to a city roughly 10 miles away. We found a Brazilian willing to let us borrow her car, thank you Raquel, so I drove her car and Duane Erickson drove our car because Shelly's driving documents were locked inside her car locked inside the shop. Duane did an excellent job keeping up with Aaron Brakefield and I. We reached a certain point in Santos however where the traffic completely stopped. We inched forward for a while until we were finally able to see the area that we wanted to go but we were still stuck in traffic. Izabel looked out her window and said that she saw a bus stopped in the middle of an intersection. About that time two transit authorities on motorcycles passed by (motorcycles can drive on the lines when traffic is stopped) and shortly after that the traffic picked up and we were able to continue to the restaurant.
Since that evening I have heard from a few people who said that traffic jam was part of the demonstrations happening all over the rest of Brazil. I think that some protestors somehow caused the bus to stop until the transit authorities we able to stop the demonstration. Until last night that instance was the closest that I had heard of the protests coming to us, Aaron and I even drove into São Paulo to take the group up to the airport and didn't see any protests. When I went up to bed last night Izabel told me that it was all over Facebook that some protests had started in Cubatão. She said that some people downtown had seen a bus lit on fire and some looting happening along the main avenue. When I go downtown I will be able to see for myself if there is anything still happening downtown. I know it's easy for people to assume the worst but just assume that all of us missionaries are safe from these protests unless you hear otherwise.
Here is what I know about the origin of these protests. Last week the government announced that they would be raising the bus fares a little bit, causing protests against the transit system. Through coordination on social media sites people, mostly students they say, organized demonstrations against these rate hikes. From there the protests took off and lately the protests are more about expressing their displeasure about the government's handling of finances than about a small bus rate hike. From what I have heard, many Brazilians are upset with how many billions of Reais are being spent on preparing the country for the many large events coming up, when things on a much less public scale are being neglected.
When one group protests against another group it is not usually the case the one side is all in the right and the other side is all in the wrong. How is it that that people can become so reliant on a government or something else to take care of them. I have bad news for you, we as humankind have problems, we are all going to be let down at some point if we put our trust in another human whether it's a president, a boss or friends. Instead of finding help from one of those listed we have a Good Shepherd who offers to take our burdens away from us.
John 10:11-13
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
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