Two cups of chimarrao, five people trying to stay warm, seven days, eight apartments and houses, about sixteen hot showers, roughly twenty-eight hours of shopping, something like thirty-six cups of coffee and tea, and forty-nine people in church on Sunday night. Our first week in Rio Grande do Sul has been full. Here are a few of the details:
Ministry: "Estancia Velha is wide open." This is what Phil told us after our first two days here. Estancia Velha is two towns down from Campo Bom, the city where the current church is located and where we will be living. "They are just begging for someone to come over and help them." We have a tremedous privilege to be a part of this ministry on the ground floor. Last week during a business meeting we had the opportunity to witness the beginning stages of this ministry take place as a pastoral team was installed at Igreja Batista Maranata. Our coworkers and the local churches have targeted several other communities for church plants nearby. Of course, we are still facing several months of language school before we can really feel competent to communicate easily. Thank you for continuing to pray for us in this regard.
Many people in this area are descendants of German immigrants from the early to mid 1800s. Many of the older generation grew up speaking German and so Porutuguese is their second language as well. It was interesting to note that the easiest person to understand at church on Sunday was an older lady who told us, "I don't speak Portuguese well."
Housing: Last Friday we entered negotiations on a house to rent and heard yesterday that a different realty office was also showing the house on Saturday. The house has some excellent qualities and a lot of potential but also has an attached (but separate) apartment. Either the other people who are looking at the house will be able to rent the house and apartment together or we will be able to rent the house. Lord willing it will be all settled by the end of the week. Thanks for praying.
Stuff: All of our earthly possessions were supposed to have arrived last week sometime but the last we heard from them, they were still in northeast Brazil. We have spoken to the driver of the truck who told us he expects to arrive in our neck of the woods at the end of this week.
Shopping: We've just about completed a survey of all the stores in the area and once we have a home we will be able to begin setting up housekeeping. This includes, beds, appliances, desks, bookshelves, heaters, closets, table, rugs, couch, chairs, etc. If we are able to get the aforementioned house, it will come equiped with kitchen cupboards, just one more thing to not have to purchase! Car shopping is also on our to do list.
Misc.: We got off the plane last week knowing we were still in Brazil, but things are so different between here and the northeast that we have to keep reminding ourselves that we really are not in a different country. There continues to be a number of adjustments. So many of those adjustments come from being in a new place, adjusting to a new culture, a new climate, a new church, making new friends, etc. - things that are still so fresh from our move to Fortaleza seven months ago have all come rushing back for us to feel afresh. God's Word has been a constant companion and we desire with Paul in Philippians 3 to pray, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Thank you for your continued intersession before the Throne of Grace on our behalf! We are praying for you, too.
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