Not another week

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.