Back from retreat

I want to thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support, it is hard for us to be productive here in Brazil without a good support team back home. We had a major event this last week as we took a group of 13 teenagers from the English ministry that we assist from the tough neighborhood of Vila Esperança.

We attempt to have some sort of reward each semester for these students but this was much more involving than other rewards, we haven't taken these students on a multiple day retreat for several years. Us missionaries left Wednesday afternoon to prepare the rental house and then the children arrived Thursday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon. There were fun activities, a few hours at the beach, much time spent in the pool and a lot of good food to eat. I believe that our main goals were accomplished, safety, fun and times to present the Gospel.

This was also a time that Shelly was able to use to say thank you to the students for many years of taking classes with her and an opportunity to say goodbye as she returns to the States in December. On the last day of the retreat I sat down with the main teacher of these classes and with Aaron Brakefield and we discussed the future of the classes. We agreed that I will take over as the American assistant beginning next year, continuing a partnership that has been going for over 10 years. I've never thought of myself as much of a teacher but now I get the opportunity to test myself and develop relationships with many young people in a difficult neighborhood to grow up in.

We have used these classes to help teaching English with great success, we have also had great success in teaching these students about God and the Bible. Our desire is to draw a connection between these classes and a church that will challenge them to grow in their relationship with Christ. We would love to have them come to our church but it is unrealistic to expect them to come walking or by bus from the other side of town.

Please pray for commitments made and seeds planted during these few days to remain strong and to grow. Activities were mentioned to connect our church and other ministries to these young people, pray that these ideas can come to fruition. We didn't bring a camera on this retreat. As pictures get posted from others we will share those so you can see the faces of some of these young students.

Success!

A typical Portuguese class

I've been stressed out the last few weeks because I committed to preach on the last Sunday of September and then again on the first Sunday of October while our normal preacher is in the States for meetings. I am happy to say that the church got through both of my sermons and even though I felt like I was preaching for a long time I ended both weeks on time! Those of you from Park Place know that didn't always happen when I preached there. Adding to my nervousness was that for the first time in my life I was going to lead Communion, which I felt afterwards was a great spiritual blessing.

Being told in the past that going and playing soccer with a group of Brazilians will help with learning Portuguese, I have been very loyal to play on Wednesdays. Last Wednesday as I was driving to Santos to play I was rear-ended by a car who was rear-ended. After getting out and seeing no damage at first my initial thought was to get back into the car and drive off so I wouldn't miss playing. After taking a closer look I saw that the bumper was damaged so I waited to see what the other two drivers would do. Seeing them immediately get on their cell phones I got on mine to call people who I thought would know what to do. The three of us proceeded to the police station for them to take our statements; instead of practicing my Portuguese by playing soccer I ended up practicing my Portuguese by giving an official statement, making me arrive to the soccer field at the time that everyone was leaving. Everyone I have talked to assured me that I did the right thing and the person at fault has already filed with his insurance company and his insurance has already started the process for us to get our car fixed.

We celebrated Samantha's 2nd birthday twice, once with Izabel's family before church and one with our church family after the service.

Earlier today, Tuesday, Izabel and I drove to Santos to accomplish three things, each one of them was accomplished.

• At the end of last week I received my health insurance card for our Brazilian insurance; Izabel's and Samantha's have already been sent twice, yet not received. They told us that they would send our cards again. 
• We also went to the car insurance agent so we could know where to get our car fixed, thanks to a traffic detour and Izabel's eyes we drove straight to it and have a shop close to our house to take the car to. 
• While I was at the police station making my statement they told me that my international driver's permit was expired (even though the permit says it's valid until December) and they pointed out that my temporary Brazilian Green Card was expired (my permanent one should have arrived by now). Thankfully later that evening the officer came back and said that my driver's permit is still valid and they didn't make a fuss about my temporary Green Card. Izabel and I waited over an hour at the Federal Police today to ask about my Green Card only to find out when we got to the desk that it had arrived and we walked out of the building with it.

Relaxing Sunday morning

We are in the second week with a new format at Vida em Cristo. Based on research that some have done, and observing those same results here in Brazil we have decided to strongly emphasize getting each church member to attend an activity twice each week. We know that there are few who come whenever the church doors are open, but most people work, have family, and many other busy schedules only have two time slots each week. Traditionally Vida em Cristo has had Sunday school in the morning and then Sunday service in the evening, prayer service and youth group on Wednesday and Cell group on Thursdays. Our desire is to increase the amount of Cell group offerings, and hopefully, through various days and times, provide cell group access to everyone in the church.

To replace the traditional Sunday school teaching time the church will have different classes offered at different times throughout the year. There was a lot of thought and discussion that went in to these changes and we came to the decision that what is missed by eliminating everything but service and small groups can be made up for by having consistent groups who have the confidence to confide in and grow with each other. We are approaching the beginning of the first session of classes, which will begin in the middle of September, and we really appreciate your prayers. There will be one group located in downtown Cubatão on Wednesday nights, Aaron will host one group on Thursday nights, and Izabel and I will host a group on Saturday afternoon.

We have had guests to the field down here, but they are no strangers to anyone down here, Aaron's parents are visiting for a little over a month. Also, a friend of theirs has been able to make a shorter length of trip and we have the pleasure of hosting her at our house. Samantha loves any opportunity to have somebody new to play with, so while we are happy to use our house to help others out, Samantha is extra happy.

I remember writing updates and afterwards realizing that I had forgotten to say that I've begun teaching a VIP student at Life English School. It is a good opportunity to spend more time at the school getting to know more people. I've gone regularly to the Saturday morning English exercises and been able to get to know many students, I also see many others when I show up for my Portuguese classes which are held in an unused classroom. Cris Brakefield hosts another activity that I have been able to attend since the time for this activity was moved ahead one hour.

I've been feeling more confident to talk with people in Portuguese but I know that I still have a long way to go. I still drive in to Santos every Wednesday to play soccer. This was originally meant to be a time that I would have fun, but Aaron encouraged me to make it a time to work on my Portuguese too. I quickly learned that it is not appropriate to yell all of the things that they yell at each other but it has given me a group that I can be a good example to. I have more freedom now to stay after the game and talk with them since I don't need to hurry back to Cubatão in order to make it for the prayer service.

We appreciate your prayers, Izabel has had a nasty cough for a few weeks and within the last couple days Samantha decided it looked like fun to start coughing. We don't like when anyone in our house is sick so please pray that these go away quickly.

I apologize for the lack of pictures on this, I rarely plan ahead to bring the camera to activities and it is usually when I am already somewhere that I realize it would be a good photo opportunity. I will try in the future to plan better.

A distracted review

There was a group from Life English School who were touring the United States the last couple weeks. Aaron was in charge of the groups planning and traveling. While he went north with the group the activities down here continued, church, prayer group, Bible study and Sunday school. Two weeks ago I was able to preach my first sermon in Brazil since Izabel and I visited in 2010. Last week one of the Brazilians Rodrigo did a great job preaching the sermon. Even though the group and Aaron arrived back in Brazil earlier this week I will be preaching the message tonight since Aaron had many other things to be doing other than preparing a message. Whenever I'm preparing to preach, especially when it's imminent, it is hard to focus on other things; hence the distracted update today.

At the beginning of June I was asked to take on a private English student as his classed with his previous teacher were coming to an end and I was looking to get a little bit more involved with life down here and at the school. We have had 4 classes together, he is a very inquisitive student so a lot of our class time is spent in dialogue, forcing his English which is pretty good already. The thing that makes it hard is that I am teaching principles that I know but they are things that I've grown up with so explaining why and when to use certain tenses is difficult. I am enjoying the time that I get to spend at the school getting to know some of the students, I hope to hear good stories from the ones who were able to visit the States.

I am continuing with my Portuguese classes. When we began almost 6 months ago I felt like I still needed to learn a lot but at the same time I felt like I knew quite a bit. Now I know a lot more than I did back then but I have come to the realization that I have no idea how much more there is to learn. To illustrate this,
       Imagine exploring a house that you do not know how big it is. Having explored what you feel are a lot of rooms you cannot imagine the house being larger. You come to a door and you think to yourself that it must be the exit but when you open the door you realize that you were just touring the guest area and that the house is much larger than you expected.

I knew that I had a lot to learn before I started but now I am learning that I underestimated how much it was that I actually had to learn. There is also a common illustration about peeling off layers of onions. Portuguese, just like peeling onions, the more layers I peel off the more I want to cry.

On Tuesday we will be going with a group from the English school in Vila Esperança to the zoo in São Paulo.

I almost forgot to give an update about the protests. They were receiving attention during a soccer tournament here and using that tournament as a good platform. Once the tournament ended there was one mass protest the next day and I thought that was the end of it. This last Thursday, the 11th, there was another mass protest organized and we were surprised to find that it went through our neighborhood. We were on our way to the Bible study and had to take a detour because the protesters were blocking the road we wanted to take. We are all still safe and I don't think anything will happen to us. We receive warnings from our consulate to stay away from the protests while they are happening, so we do.

Thank you for your prayers and your support, feel free to share this around.

Dave, Izabel and Samantha

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.

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."

Pentecost greetings!

Greetings from Cubatao. I realize that many of you have been praying for us but lately you probably have not been sure of ways that you can pray for us. I want to send something out before you wake up and head to church. I sent this out as an email but then I had so many of them returned from undeliverable addresses I thought I would make a blog too.

• Just over a month ago Samantha had a regular check up with her Doctor down here and she was beginning to show symptoms of a cold. Two weeks later the cold had gotten much worse and we have one month after we pay for a Dr.'s appointment that we can go back for free, the only problem was the Doctor was on vacation. We decided to go to a public hospital (read 'free') and after driving around from 11-3 we finally arrived back in Cubatao in line to see the Doctor. Samantha had "a lot" of mucus in her lungs and we were given other medicine and sent home. Now, about 2-3 weeks from that public hospital trip, Samantha is much better. She's been eating more than normal in order to replace what she lost while she was sick and she's also been sleeping much better.
• We finished buying furniture for Samantha's room. We'd been talking about getting her furniture and decided when she got sick that it was time because of how often Samantha was waking up in the middle of the night. When Samantha would wake up the only thing that would calm her was to lay on Mommy, Samantha would come into our room and I would go downstairs to the couch. We wanted a bed for Samantha so that Izabel could put her back to sleep in her own room. The night that we finally had her bed installed was when Samantha started sleeping all through the night again.
• There is an important soccer match today at 4:00 our time. The team I cheer for is playing against the team that our missionary pastor cheers for in one of the local championships.
• We went up to Sao Paulo last week hoping to return with a car. We had a successful trip, we bought an almost new car that we were able to get inside out budget. It's a very basic car but it's the car that most taxi drivers use so we figured it was a safe bet. Also on that trip we were able to splurge a little bit and we ate lunch at Outback Steakhouse and then Izabel and I went on to a Starbucks.
• I've been asked and have agreed to begin teaching English for a student, Renan. His current semester is about to end and in June I will begin doing classes with him. You can pray about the classes that I will be having with Renan and also for our future ministries.
• Yesterday morning we found an abandoned kittten, with all the dogs on the street it wouldn't survive so we gave it a safe place to stay. We're hoping to find someone who wants to take in a kitten.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragements. Feel free to share these updates around.