August 11, 2005

• Tuesday I woke up and started the schedule with the students which is:

  roll out of bed and have devotions from 6-7, breakfast (which seems to be eggs and goose-goo daily–I am not complaining and I really like the stuff!) from 7-7:30, and group devotions from 7:30-8. by 8 I was exhausted. there is nothing more tiring than Portuguese in the morning. grrr. from 8-12 they have class and I do various things like wash my clothes, listen to Portuguese music, read my Portuguese book (sensing a theme here?), and write nice long letters like this. We each lunch together at 12:30 and have a break until they split up for work assignments from 2-5. The guys do alot of maintenance work, Jaciara is the secretary (so she has lots of extra time and I sit around and try to find things to say in Portuguese) and Valdilene goes to the Growing Kids program. I am hoping to go with her sometime, and when I do, I will write all about Growing Kids (AKA Living Stones) which is a super neato program working with kids–basically the same thing I do at the Youth center in Indy. at 6 we have dinner (the girls cook for everyone and then we all do the dishes) and then they have study time at 7:30, lights out at 10:30.

   

  Wednesday morning Tele, Heather, Roberto and I sat around the table and talked business. well, they talked and I listened. and I got overwhelmed. you have to understand me. I struggle with the whole “faith” thing. not salvation or accepting God’s truth, but with the whole “what the heck am I supposed to do?” thing. God has clearly shown me that I am to be in Brasil, but after that, everything is VERY blank. It is like I only have one step…and we were talking about about five steps ahead. ideas about the school and me finishing my degree and coming and when and soon and raising money…and my head was swirling. I started to voice all of my worried when Heather just put her hand on mine and said “Rachel, it is about faith…” and it is. and I want to much to simply walk by faith. I seem to start out on the water just fine, but then see the waves and sink like a rock. so once again I hold out my hands to Jesus and say “Lord, help my unbelief!”

   

  This is definitely an area I will be stretched in. and I am so glad, despite my intrepidation. Tele is such a visionary. He will wake up in the morning (he is such a morning person) with ideas to change the world. this is a great gift, and he married Heather, who pulls off just about anything she puts her mind to and works long into the night (she is such a night person). it always cracks me up to see how God puts couples together just right.

  it is so funny. as I sit here typing in Tele’s office the students and teachers pass and wave at me (waving is so much safer than trying to start a conversation with me). Jacicara just called me into the kitchen as she made a banana milkshake for me on their break. the sun is streaming in through the opening (everything is open here) and the plants outside the door are thriving. and in this moment…this one right now, I am just flooded with God’s love. I feel it. His presence. there is something wonderful about this place, these people…something wonderful that I want to be a part of. that is why I am here.

   

  By 5, I figure we should have something for dinner. I ran into my streak of boldness, and walked down to the supermarket, bought some vegetables, and then made spaghetti, garlic bread, and lemonade. This might not seem like a big deal, but to me it was. it was also quite a funny sight: David and Alyssa’s friends, Luana and Analu were there, and all the girls wanted to help with the cooking. so I have one girl smashing up garlic, one asking me how much butter to melt, one trying to show me how to turn on the stove…not only that, but John somehow got himself VERY dirty and I was determined he would get a shower before dinner. he was determined not to. so I am running around the house, chopping up onions, answering questions, and getting the little man out of his clothes. actually, the bigger problem was getting him INTO clothes, as he thoroughly enjoyed running around with his towel. But in the end, we all sat down, fully clothed, to a nice dinner. I consider it quite a success (even if John refused to eat everything but the noodles). Tele and Heather came home to a clean house and clean kids…and a very exhausted me.

   

   

   

   

  • 3:53 pm
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