The Grammar of a Parking Garage and a Pressure Cooker

This past week has offered to us its own special set of unique challenges, most of them humorous, none of them serious. Nonetheless, when added to the regular pressures of learning a language and communicating with mature adults in an infantile manner they brought out what could easily be the worst of our behavior. Excuse me if I get a little personal today, this is where I have been.

We still wake up sometimes to the realization that we live in Brazil!!! The busy street we look at every morning is full of people who have a totally different background and often, set of values than the ones we have grown up with. At the same time, we are already beginning to think a lot about our impending move to South Brazil. March marks the third month of 2009 and the half way point of the amount of time we plan on spending here in Fortaleza. Our language teacher has been sharing many things with us about life and ministry in Rio Grande do Sul specifically and South Brazil in general. We are growing more excited to move and more burdened for a people largely neglected in Brazil's rich history of biblical missions. This has led us to feel, as Denielle said the other day, "We are here, but I don't feel like we have arrived yet."

One more note about language study to help with your perspective on our days. I say this with a full understanding that all of my brothers and sisters, who for some reason were given incredible minds to grasp grammar, will be embarrassed and ashamed of the one Johnson sibling who for some reason missed out on the grammar gene. We were studying two Portuguese verbs on Wednesday, levar and trazer, to take and to bring respectively. Somehow the proper usage of these verbs in English missed my clear comprehension, though I'm sure that even Mrs. Charles tried to get this concept into my brain. Consequently whether you are supposed to say "I bring my book to class every day" or "I take my book to class every day" has the same chance for confusion in Portuguese as it does in English. Feel free to leave your kind and generous comments to instruct me in the matter. As our language teacher has been reminding us often these days, learning a language always helps you to better understand your own language. I progress think I that am great making.

This brings me to some of the memorable events of the couple of weeks. It began with a wonderful opportunity to meet our neighbors. Heading out to prayer meeting on Wednesday night last week we took careful note of the neighbors two cars that were parked right next to ours. It was no unusual thing to see them both there, they had been there before but it never crossed my mind to remember that I had never left the garage when they had two cars in their spot. You guessed it, no sooner had I taken off the parking break and checked out the rear view mirror than there was a little bump and a crunching sound. Our first little traffic accident in Brazil and we hadn't even made it out of our own parking space yet. After consulting with our English speaking colleague and Oxford's Portuguese-English dictionary, I made my way across the hall and knocked on our neighbors door and through a series of broken sentences and hand gestures was able to successfully communicate the bad news. It turns out the car was not our neighbors but was their friend's car. We headed downstairs and took a look at the damage. Then we agreed that she would take the car to the shop and then we would reimburse her for her the costs. It was all wrapped up before the weekend and thankfully, it was only $150 reis (about $60 US). Our car (which actually is one that is being loaned to us) didn't even have a scratch, thanks I'm sure to the quality of the hard plastic bumper that Volkswagen put on our particular model.

The end of the story is near, do not be weary. When taking our money to them the next day (along with our language teacher) we were able to have a very nice visit with the lady who lives at the apartment. That night she brought us some frango assado e arroz (baked chicken and rice) for supper. $150 reis to break the ice and get to know the neighbors makes for an expensive dinner for two- though next time I would prefer to come up with a more friendly way to spend it.

The next day I was walking with ElliAnna on the little five ft. by five ft. piece of grass downstairs and the porteiro said to me as he handed me the mail, "Bateu o carro?" To which I replied, "Sim." There are no secrets in this building!

Rather than risk putting you to sleep with endless stories, I'll have to settle for a little teaser. Then you can aske me about it the next time we talk. On top of the little parking incident, we got to meet another neighbor when the battery of said Volkswagen was dead the next two times we tried to leave building, which dead battery was directly connected to the parking incident. Other events included a flood in the bathroom that left me soaked and very irritable (another humorous story that I'll have to write about soon) and other more pleasant things like a chance to get to know other new missionaries to Brazil as well as spending getting to know some of our other coworkers better.

And now I can talk a little bit about pressure cookers. I started thinking about this when it was referenced in a podcast I was listening to while jogging the other night. Thinking about the "strains" of the last week and what my reactions had been to them left me a little surprised that my flesh could be so near the surface and ready to explode. I was shocked at the way I had responded to my wife and the strains simple things had brought into our relationship. I was a little fearful that some outside of our home had gotten a glimpse at how I could respond when things did not go as smoothly as I had planned. Even worse, I was saddened that I didn't respond in grace to the blessings God was bringing into my life through these minor inconveniences. It is so often that I assume I am doing well and walking closely with God and I think that I have my life under control that God turns on the heat and what comes to the top are things that I am not very proud of. Pressure cookers have a way of bringing out what is really inside. It sure is easy to be spiritual when life is smooth.

Thank you Father for putting me in Your pressure cooker so that I might see the areas of my life where I am living in my own strength and not in Your grace. Please keep me dependent on You in every aspect of my life