And we have arrived! In the country with perhaps the most expectations for from our team. This is a country we have looked forward to with great expectation for the things the Lord will do while we are here since the beginning of our trip (nearly 10 months ago now), we have so so many connections here, there are many Iris (the missionary organisation we are part of) churches across Brazil and we have a Brazilian team member (Carole) with us so she is just overjoyed and proud to be showing us her country and to be sharing God's love with her fellow countrymen.
The drive from Cuchilla Alto (Uruguay) to Porto Alegre (Brazil) went well, taking 14.5 hours in total which was our desire, to make it there in one day. Praise God for absolutely no car troubles :) And a smooth, quick border crossing - only 1.5 hours which includes half an hour of driving back on ourselves looking for the Uruguayan side of the border crossing because we accidentally missed it the first time round and drove into Brazil without our Uruguayan exit stamps! Easy mistake to make, missing the border crossing, I think it's at least the third time that we've done it!!
We're staying with a wonderful couple, Ricardo and Vanessa who have made us feel so welcome and loved from the very first moment, and they don't know us from a bar of soap. They're Carole (our Brazilian team member's) pastor's (from Rio) friends so she doesn't know them either. Saturday we rested a bit after travelling all day Friday and Ricardo and Vanessa took us out to show us some of their city in the late afternoon. Porto Alegre (where we are) means "Port of Joy", and this city is exactly that. We are all so full of joy and love being here, and we've only just arrived!! It's been interesting to see the change since Uruguay. Uruguay is known as the missionaries graveyard because of the spiritual heaviness, and heavy it was, I felt quite depressed and sad most of the time I was there for no natural reason - I actually loved my time there, the church we ministered with were amazing to us, I loved the ministry, we stayed at great accommodation, ate enough good food (especially home made cakes!) to make anyone feel happy, and still I felt sad and had difficulty sleeping. Cross the border into Brazil and voila, I'm full of the joys of spring and am sleeping better than I've slept in weeks.
Sunset across the port
Sunday we ministered in a small church in a poor neighbourhood half an hour away. As usual, the day was not exactly as we thought it would be, and we have once again had the opportunity to learn more about the culture in which we now find ourselves, namely that they are extremely relaxed time wise, and any good day consists of eating and more eating. In fact, the first day we asked Carole, our Brazilian team member and thus source of all important cultural etiquette, whether it was typical to eat the main meal of the day at lunch or dinner time. Her reply was, "yes, we do eat a big meal in the middle of the day, but we also eat a big meal in the evening, and actually breakfast is also usually big, so, well, we actually just like to eat a lot, all the time. We like food!" Enough said :)
So back to today (Sunday). Off we go at 9:30am to the church where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast they'd prepared for us. We thought we'd have a church service afterwards but no, we were just there to hang out with them. So hang out with them we did. After our leisurely breakfast we sat around and shared testimonies, answered their questions about us and how our trip was, what God was doing through us, we shared some teaching with them, etc. Following a good Sunday afternoon vibe we enjoyed some relaxing worship and just lounged around for another hour or two (I'm getting the hang of Brazilian time, very much like African time!) while our next meal was prepared for us, delicious rice and beans, chicken, spaghetti, salad... Brazilians love their meat, which is suiting most of our team just fine!
It continues to blow my mind just how much genuine love we are shown when we come to new churches and contacts. Ricardo and Vanessa and the Church have welcomed us with open arms, not knowing us or having any reason to receive us or bless us, yet they have done so and with abundance. Ricardo and Vanessa are hosting us for free and have made us feel at home right away and the church is providing all our meals for us. Bare in mind it's a tiny church in a poor rundown neighbourhood, so they are not giving out of their excess, they're giving at a cost to themselves. And so willingly, we never asked for this at all, and with so much love. It really touches my heart and makes me quite emotional when I see the body of Christ operating so well with this love for one another. We come from all 4 corners of the earth, unable to communicate in Portuguese at all (I still haven't quite figured out how to say my name and where I'm from!) and yet we are connected with our Christlike love.
The first miracle I've seen the Lord do while we've been here is change the weather. Being winter, it's supposed to be between 0 and 2 degrees (celsius). Friday night was 23 degrees (10pm), Saturday 27 degrees and Sunday 29 degrees. Perfect days. The locals don't understand it at all, but we know the Lord controls the weather and I for one (and most of the rest of my team!) are LOVING the fact that it's warm and we're able to wear flip flops again. It's been a long time that we've been bundled up wearing everything we own and still cold.
We then went home to rest (read, sleep off our full stomachs) and watch the football final (yay for Spain) before heading back for the church service. The highlight of the evening was without a doubt hearing Juliano's, a rough looking man from the poor neighbourhood we were ministering in, testimony. He'd been walking in the neighbourhood when he was saw one of our team members sitting outside the church and he was attracted to the light (God's presence) he saw shining around her. He was drawn towards her and thus the church so for the first time in his life he came into a church. Through chatting with some of my team member's, he saw the love of Jesus in us and landed up spending the afternoon with us, just hanging out with us while we worshipped God, enjoying lunch with us, coming to the church service and giving his life to Jesus. The overflowing joy and peace in his face was so contagious, it makes the sacrifice of leaving the comfort of my life at home in Cape Town, my friends and family who I miss so dearly, all worth it, to see one life as precious as Juliano's changed for the better with the promise of eternity spent in heaven with Jesus all worth it.
View out of our window
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