Month: April 2007

  • Why is it that the people we truly love are the ones we only
    tolerate, use, or expect things from?

    Why is it that those we don’t really care about we work to
    impress, we go outside our way to help, and we are polite to?

    Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

    Why do things that are familiar become taken for granted?

    Shouldn’t they be more appreciated because they are
    familiar?

    They sure are when they are NOT there. Sometimes I wonder if
    we only have the sentimental feeling of love when we feel some kind of absence
    of it…

     

    A poem that rhymes this time. Weird.

     

    I just want to turn away

    My head

    If I don’t see it

    It can’t be true

    I just want to go back

    To the moment

    Before I knew

     

    That there is something very wrong

    With how things are going

    And now I start to wonder

    How long that I have been knowing

    That something needs to happen

    And changes are here

    The end is already over

    And the beginning is near

     

    Now that my eyes are open

    How do I live the same way

    Things look so different

    Since I took the mask away

    How do I reconcile

    That this is real?

     

    That there is something very wrong

    With how things are going

    And now I start to wonder

    How long that I have been knowing

    That something needs to happen

    And changes are here

    The end is already over

    And the beginning is near

     

    Do I say it to your face

    Do I run and hide

    Do I stay under the covers

    And refuse to go outside

    Do I take responsibility for something

    That is not my sin

    Holding on to a battle

    I do not want to win

     

    There is something very wrong

    With how things are going

    And now I start to wonder

    How long that I have been knowing

    That something needs to happen

    And changes are here

    The end is already over

    And the beginning is near

     

    **

    So the tickets are bought and paid for. I arrive in the US
    May 12, just before dinnertime. Mom said it will be a wonderful Mother’s day
    gift. I feel guilty because I didn’t really plan it and forgot it was Mother’s
    day. Opps. I return to Brasil August 20…but I’ll probably leave alittle early
    and spend some time in Florida again. Amazing opportunities to travel…

    It is neat what God is setting up for my time at home. I
    won’t have any of my usual responsibilities…school and work and such…so I have
    begun my list of things that must be tried. Don’t laugh—I am serious, there
    really is a list. On the top of it is doing something special for Dad’s 60
    birthday, teaching my brother how to ride a bike, and going to Rachel Jones’
    wedding…all of which I would have missed. 

    Me: I just want to know that…I am enough

    God: You are not enough. I am enough and in Me you are
    enough

    Me: I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry. It is everything
    I wanted to hear and yet not

    God: Let me be enough for the both of us

    “If our hopes are being disappointed right now, it means
    that they are being purified” –Oswald Chambers

    The days are passing so quickly. Life is completely
    different when you know you will only be there two weeks rather than two
    months. It shouldn’t be. I wish it wasn’t…things like—I find time to talk to
    people and listen. I give more hugs. I give out less demerits. I give more
    things away. I sleep less. I plan and try to stuff everything into a day. I eat
    more pipoca doce. It is easier to get up in the morning. I feel more excited
    about things in general.

    It was like I had hit a slump or something…lack  of motivation and desire…then everything
    changed and I am leaving…and it hits me that life is still “An adventure to
    live, not a problem to solve.” Even though I am pretty sure I was near to
    solving it. Then what would I have done?

    There is something weird going on and someone is hacking
    into everyone’s e-mail and passwords and stuff. I hate it. even worse, I hate
    having to change my passwords, because I’ll never manage to remember them.

    We have begun using the PACES at school. 6 five year olds
    sitting for an hour and forty minutes doing workbooks. I never would have
    believed it, but they managed! Incredible. The PACES are all in English.
    Designed for American children. So sometimes it gets alittle tricky and we just
    take it real slow. It makes for a really long afternoon…but is worth it.

    The kids had to do timed addition tests—in English today.
    Gabriel kept answering anything that was 11 or 12 with “Tweven.” And it made me
    very unprofessional and giggly. Good ol’ tweven.

    You know your students are listening when:

    • Something
      drops and they say “oh boy!”
    • Someone
      gets hurt and they say “be careful!”
    • “Refrigerator”
      is now only remembered by “Refriger-rachel”
    • I
      called the toilet a throne once and now that is how they remember it
    • Everything
      is named “Harry” or “George” (names I have given various insects and
      ghosts that have occupied our classroom)
    •  Karine told them of my habit of opening
      and closing my mouth randomly when I cut things…and now they constantly
      try to trick me into cutting something so they can laugh hysterically
      about it
    • Everyone
      turns and looks at me when the word “Chocolate” is said. I must then make
      the appropriate disgusted face and say “yuck!” so they can argue with me
      about how good chocolate is
    • I am
      introduced to their parents as the girl who does not like chocolate and
      loves bolo de rolo and Maracuja
    • They
      do not say the word “peanut butter” they sing it (from the little girl
      scout song “peanut, peanut butter, and jelly)
    • They
      do not say the word “swing” they sing it three times (from the first line
      of a song by the All-American Rejects—“swing, swing, swing…I don’t even
      know the rest of the song anyways…)

    It is scary to hear sometimes how close their intonation and
    English is JUST LIKE MINE…oh dear, what have we done?

  • ironically

    the last two weeks i have in Brasil are also my two weeks of college finals (my internet classes). and a million other loose ends and knots and…
    please pray.

  • you wake up one morning…

    and everything is different.

    i am staring at the keyboard. and will probably be back in the US in two weeks and two days.

    With VISA issues, i can be in Brasil 180 days total. With teacher issues, it works better for me to go back home now and then come back for three months the second semester (Mid August-November). The school will be paying for my plane ticket, and checking out prices today–i can get a round trip ticket for those dates for HALF the price it was going to cost me to return to the US the end of July. i don’t get it. but maybe i don’t have to.

    I will arrive in time to help my sister pack her suitcases and head to Brasil. my kids are gonna love her.

    what do i feel about this? surprisingly good. all ready to wind into a whirlwind of planning and packing and setting things into motion…

    because life is like that. you get up one day thinking the road stretches on for miles and miles…
    and then it ends
    it turns
    and you jump in for the ride.

  • i forgot

    please pray…in the next month i need to find a REASONABLE plane ticket back to the US and renew my visa.


  • my crazy second grade class


    The surprise


    Most of them….are only temporary…Happy Birthday Eukias!


  • Two new elders were ordained at Paudalho last Sunday. Please pray for their church, the pastor is going on Sabatical for a year. They are a special church.


    You can’t read it very well, but it says “i love you linsay!” They miss you and hope you come very soon Lindsay! i hope you come very, very soon:)!

  • Brasil by numbers:

    • 1 knee
      surgery: Nal is getting his knee done today—after busting it up royally
      last year playing futebol with the group from the US
    • 2
      couples, engaged, serving in ministry—hoping to get married but cannot set
      a date until they have the money: Gilson and Valdilene, Author and Jaciara
    • 3
      churches waiting for buildings—have the land and everything, just waiting
      for construction to start or continue: Timbauba, Amexias, and Tracumhaem
    • 4 kids
      in the amazing family that lives in 209 and 210 (the rooms next to mine at
      the Alcance). They are missionaries to tribes in the Amazon, but had to
      come back because of one of the girls’ health problems
    • 5 kids
      in Tele’s family, running around the Alcance…hopefully their house will be
      done by next month
    • 38
      students at the international school
    • 50
      kids a day, seen, fed, loved, and helped at the Creshe project, ages 2-5
    • 65 is
      the number of students Tele wants for the second semester—we need English
      teachers!

    Please keep each of these things in prayer.

    David is the new cook…he makes pizza at the graphica on
    weekends.

    I am so sick of Candyland. I brought it for the kids. They
    love it. and play it every available second. The second favorite is chutes and
    ladders. I pretend it is educational by making them say the colors or count in
    English…

    Random fun things to do to make things fun (spoken from
    experience)

    • Blow
      up balloons on the bus. It makes everyone smile
    • Make
      everyone put on temporary tattoos
    • Climb
      trees (although just because you can go up does not always mean you can
      SAFELY come back down)
    • Invite
      strangers to your English class (even though none of them have showed up
      yet)
    • Watch
      downloaded episodes of “Lost” and “Prison Break” oh dear…I must say I
      really like them now
    • EAT
      LOTS OF PIPOCA DOCE (this “sweet popcorn” stuff. I love it)
    • Eat
      pitomba with strangers on combies. This guy gave me pitomba (this weird
      fruit stuff that you take off the shell with your teeth, then suck the
      clearish gooey stuff off the seed) and then you can throw the seeds out
      the window. This part is especially fun for some reason
    • Turn up
      the music really loud when you are in the shower
    • Chase
      kids around to give them kisses on the top of their heads
    • Give
      someone a surprise birthday party 

    I am reading “The Practice of the Presence of God” by
    Brother Lawrence. Well, actually, it isn’t by Brother Lawrence. Brother
    Lawrence wrote these letters to someone…I don’t think it says his name, under
    the idea that they WOULDN’T be made public…and there you have it. Thanks Dad,
    it is a great book.

    The point is…doing life with God. Brother Lawrence was a
    monk who worked in the kitchen. And walked with God. so much so, that he didn’t
    want to pick up a straw without it being with God. He lived to do everything
    always and only for the love of God. 

    “I shall have this good at least, that till death I shall
    have done all that is in me to love Him.”

    “It is not about changing our works (after salvation), but
    in doing for God’s sake that which we commonly do for our own.”

    “All things are possible to him who believes. They are less
    difficult to him who hopes. They are more easy to him who loves and still more
    to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.”

    “You need not cry very loud, God is nearer to us than we are
    aware of.”

    Brother Lawrence just decided that he wanted to give all of
    everything to God. so whenever he started thinking about something other than
    God, he would recognize it, and go back to conversating, thinking, and praising
    God. The letters he wrote are so…simple. It really is that. you just do it. 

    “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within
    me…Why are you cast down, o my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope
    in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” Psalm
    42:4-5

    “Making a difference will always take emptying yourself into
    a place and waiting until you are trusted. In Latin culture especially, you
    have to wait. It takes a long time for a foreigner to have a voice. Still, the
    poor are more trusting simply because they have less to lose…perhaps to be a
    missionary is as much to be changed by a place or a people group as it is to
    change one or the other.” –Marlee LeDai, from the book “Go Girl” 

    “It is not the stars that create light, but the light that
    creates the stars”


  • smile


    us and our lollypops


    Me, Pricilla, and Maninho


    We all got up early and headed down to the lake. sat, played music, climbed trees, and went swimming. i got burnt. L to R: David, Aninha, me, Joelson, Esras, Maninho, Karine, Eukeas


    Music

    Tree climbers


  • Dilma is passing out candy


    i don’t know her name


  • The dance presentation


    All the kids came together and sang some songs in English

    Gabriel, me, and Lucas


    The Creshe project


    Where will this girl be in a couple of years?