Biddles In Brazil

Here it is 11:30 Sunday night. We got home at 10:00 this evening from having been gone since 7 this morning. Sounds like a normal Sunday for us at home. We are all pretty tired from this weekend since Saturday was just about as busy and long. Everyone else is in bed but this is the time I can be on the internet and not take up Larry's time.

We left yesterday morning at 7 to get to the church in Anatascio by 8. I had a workshop in the morning on puppet making. Larry translated for the first part but when we got to the actual making of them Fay translated. We had 7 people in the class and they worked together and made three foam puppets similar to Pedro. We only had enough paint for one puppet the color of Pedro. So Cal and Larry went to get blue and orange for the other two. Those were the colors the girls chose. I guess I did not emphasis enough that you could get two puppets out of a can of spray paint. The girls used a whole can on one puppet. The orange one is a neon orange. I think it would glow in the dark. The blue one is very brilliant too. I did not get a picture of all of them together. They got them together, painted and the mouth on and then they were to take them home and finish them. We made arrangements before we left that we would come back September 13 to see their finished product and maybe a skit they have put together. It class went well and I they seemed to be exvited to
use the puppets. They kept mentioning places they could use them.

Several ladies in the church fixed lunch for just us four. They had a table cloth on the table and everything. Of course they did not eat with us. They waited outside until we were done. One lady was the one who helped Larry's mom when he was little.

In the afternoon Fay and I had a workshop on costume making. After talking about the use of costumes and looking at a CD of our costumes I had brought we made a simple garment. One of the ladies' little girl came along so she was our model. There were 4ladies in the class. Two particularly asked a lot of questions and seemed very interested. So they too have until September 13 to make some costumes and have a drama ready for us to see and help them with. Brazil does not have fabric available like we have in the states to make fancy costumes. However they have a really neat product that is a paper/plastic type of thing. One side feels plastic and the other had the feel of paper.It comes quite wide and in many colors. It sews well and could be painted or drawn on to make designs, stripes or texture. They seemed satisfied with using this product. I will be interesting to see where their imagination takes them.

While I had this class Larry had a discipleship class. It was a nice day and I know you were praying because things went well. I was calm and pleased with everything.

Today we also left home at 7 to get to the church in Aquiduana. I had not been at this church before. Cal had been there with Larry two weeks ago for the wake for a 21 year old young man. He was their drummer in their praise team. It is probably the largest of all the churches we have seen, attendance wise. Some of you may remember from Buckman's prayer letter earlier in the year praying for a pastor's daughter who was dying of cancer. This is the church. Since the churches in Brazil have Sunday School in the morning and preaching service at night, my workshop was in the morning. There were 12 people in my class. We talked about how to choose what to put into a Bible story picture. We looked at the same story with different pictures shown in different ways. Composition, some perspective and attention to details in the story were covered. Towards the end I had them choose a Bible story to illustrate. They chose Jesus stilling the storm where he was asleep in the boat. I wanted to see where they were in their drawing. It was interesting to see how each person visualized the picture. Several young men stood out with their drawings. So I game them assignments to draw a picture that could be used in our series of Bible story pictures.

The church had a church dinner after services. Again they had a table with cloth in a seperate room just for the four of us. Everyone else ate outside. It makes you feel strange to be treated this way. You feel like you are ignoring everyone. But it is there way of showing honor.

There is an older couple who go to this church that are not able to attend but once a month. The man had very bad knees and prostrate cancer. They knew Larry's parents and several other missionaries of that generation. They had been wanting Larry to come see their ranch. So we took off in the afternoon to go visit them. We ended up staying there several hours. They had cattle, two horses, chickens and the most unusual snoutless HUGE piges. The pigs had free range of the yard just like the chickens and dogs. This couple own 300 acres of land. The lady served us dessert of sweet mashed bananas, sweet oranges, and another fruit which I have forgotten what it was. They were all very good. She had some cheese she had made too. Then she wanted to show us around. So we met the pigs, where and how she milked the cows,where they brand them and then we met the horses. We all had to crawl through a fence at one point. Not easy in a skirt.

Then she asked if Larry would tell a Bible story to her hired man's family. The man, his wife and three children came over. Since I had a set of the Bible Story pictures with me Larry got several. We all sat around the porch while he told the story of creation, Adam and Eve leaving the Garden and Cain and Abel. He presented the plan of salvation with it. It was neat to know that God's word was going out in an unexpected way.

This lady also had a yard full of plants (in pots of every kind. Fay asked for a start of one plant and came home with a big bag full of starts. Guess who will be getting their hands dirty tomorrow.

We went back to the same church for the evening service. Cal was preaching the sermon before communion. There was singing and about 40 young people got up and sang a special. Cal spoke on Remembering Christ. Larry translated. After he spoke they had communion. This is the third time in a month Cal and I have had communion. Fay said that was what we got for church hopping. Each one has been a little different but remembering the same Christ who died for us. They do something nice at the end of the service. The congregation gets in family groups, hugs/hold hands while the pastor prays.

After saying good bye we headed home. Even though there is much we can not understand they seem like friends. People hug you, shake hands and genuinly(sp) make you feel like they were glad you worshipped with them. I am going to try to be more like that when I get home.

I need to tell you we had a nice rain last night so it has cooled off. I should sleep well tonight. So I will sign off and try see if I can sleep. Thank you again for praying. This week we will be getting things ready for our Amazon trip. Pray we take the right things with us.