October 3, 2009

  • October is the middle

    Pastor Assuario`s father passed away on Thursday. Please keep their family in your prayers. He said “It wasn’t a good feeling to leave my dad there, alone, in that cemetary. But if i could say just one more thing to him, it would be only be to say thank you, for teaching me the ways of God.” and that is a good place to be.

    Roberta is getting married today.

    the girl next to me at college tried to copy my notes. i let her cheat all she wanted to: she was trying to copy my thoughts about Living Stones. i was letting my mind wander during class. which never gets called out because i write everything in English. there are some benefits about living in Brasil.

    So Rio vs. Chicago. i love them both. shall celebrate with Rio, and lament with Chicago.

    Thank you for those who prayed! on Wednesday, we had a mother’s tea. All the mothers, grandmothers, caregivers for the kids at Living Stones were invited.

    Patricia and Cacau went all out…we cleaned and decorated for hours. i dunno how they manage it. For example…they made these flowers…out of two liter bottles. they cut, painted, glued, painted again…the stems are straws. everything is made my hand around here. These boxes–over 50 of them, were given to us by a resturant. wine bottle boxes. We cut and stapled and glued and covered them until they didn’t look like wine boxes, they looked like nice containers that we gave to all the women…inside was a towel, hand painted by the kids (a project they have been working on since March), and then crocheted around the outside. and then a bar of soap. It might not seem like a big deal…but it was.

    These are the faces of those who give so much…

    Pastor Celso gave a short message, and a lady shared about how the government project works, to make sure all the women are signed up for food assistance. We had a power point show of pictures of the kids, and i sang some songs (in Portugese). The women came up and daintily put a piece of cake on their plates and went and sat down. when everyone went through the line, Cacau announced that they could come and take the rest home to their families. I have never seen food disappear so quickly…cake and crackers and cookies piled high. It is always the mothers who take one for themselves…but no limit for their family. for those they love.

    We gave each mother an envelope of all the worksheets/activities/art project their child had been doing, and lots of hugs and food along with their box with soap and a towel. something special to say we saw them. we valued them. we loved their children, and we loved them. it was a great time.

    “Every stereotype can be broken with a face, and every face has a story.” –Andrew Marin

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