Sunday, June 10, 2012

Rio Day 2

Today has been a whirlwind of a day.  I have had several times during the day when I wanted to stop and write down the events but I did not have time or resources and therefore I will only be able to provide the details I can recall at this late hour.

First I have to try to explain something.  Rio is freaking huge.  Do you know how big this city is?  My guess was 2 to 3 million.  Sharla guessed around 1.5 million.  Our missionary/guide/parent said that the estimate is 8 to 12 million people.  That is what we are dealing with.  So when I talk about Rio you have to understand as I am still trying to, that what life or cars or streets or people look like in one area might be completely different than life in another area but it is all inside this giant place called Rio.

Church:  I will find out later what neighborhood we are living and working and worshiping in, but today was Sunday and Church.  The building is awesome.  So much more than I expected.  12 years old is the church plant here and Kevin is one of the original missionaries.  The church sits on a slight incline below a small mountain or big hill.  Auditorium on the left connected by a breeze way to a 3 story building holding classes, offices and an open air court/multi purpose room.  We arrived for class fashionably late as we would in Ft. Worth.  Shar enjoyed a cup of fresh espresso and the kids and I snacked on pastries and bread before heading to class.  The kids went to a kids class with Bruno's little sister Hebecca and Shar and I entered auditorium to here Kevin class on what I think was bible history.  Very cool to hear him teach and ask and answer questions in Portuguese. 

After class church began with singing.  Christians are similar world wide I guess because the church was sparse at the beginning but after 2 or 3 songs it was nearly half full.  I would guess around 150 or so but I was not counting.  Bruno lead the worship with a small praise team.  The church has a great energy and clapping is a church wide part of almost every song.  Communion was buffet style at the front of the church and the offering was accepted in red velvet bags that were on a stick and controlled by 3 or 4 people throughout the church.  The sermon was on 1 Cor. 12 and discussed the body of Christ having different parts.  Great sermon by Jefferson the Evangelist.  I was particularly encouraged by 2 items.  1.  Toward the beginning of church they had birthdays announced.  2 men in there late 20's maybe were brought up front.  Jefferson prayed over them and then as they were seated the church began to sing a birthday type song to them.  After a few more announcements took place an older gentleman entered and Jefferson stopped what he was doing to welcome this brother and announced it was his birthday.  Even though the official moment had passed the man was invited to the front and another prayer was lead over him.  The same song then began and this man left the stage as if he had just won a boxing max.  Hands raised and waving.  It was very fun to watch.  2.  At the end of the sermon Bruno lead a final song that dealt with family and the church and encouraged the congregation to express their love for one another.  From that moment on the entire church engaged in a church wide time of hugging and kissing (which I will address in a moment) and time together.  We were greeted and loved on by people from all over the church and members freely moved around without worrying about the singing or the order of worship.  In the states we would have kept this time to the people right around our pew but in the Brazil the pew is ignored and the family is the priority.  It was a blessing. 

After church we stayed for a meal at the building.  It is a weekly event to eat a church with the members, most of whom stay.  The meal is prepared by one of the ministry teams as a fund raising event.  Roughly 3$ a plate for fresh black beans and rice, chicken, this stuff that is ground up root that has been toasted and looked like sawdust and salad.  It was a great meal and good to see the church stay and eat together.

From Church we (Blake, Anna, Shar, Mariah, Kevin, Tami and I) piled into Kevin's Fiat SUV (Fiat is big here) and headed to the more visible and well know part of Rio.  Our destination was an event called the Hippie Fair which is located on the coast in the tourist section and was about an hour drive from the area of the church and where we are staying.  It really was just your basic outdoor fair that mainly sold hand crafted goods for tourists but it had some great stuff.  I was really close to buying a hand made blow dart gun but Shar decided that was not an ideal souvenir.  Blake did find his treasure which was a stuffed Parana and Anna left empty handed and hopes for better luck in our next outing.  From the Hippie Fair we walked about two blocks to the beach and let the kids run wild.  It was a good release of energy for them and a chance for us to sit and talk and enjoy the more scenic side of Rio.  Then we went to the mall.  I know you think it is crazy but since Rio is so big there are actually 4 or 5 malls in Rio that are huge.  This one we went to seemed enormous and then Kevin explained that they had recently built a second mall right next door and attacked the two together.  We really just went there for easy food and some Italian ice cream that Kevin loves.  From my earlier post I described Rio as India with a touch of L.A.  This is so very true.  Every shop you would expect in the Galleria (Dallas) is available and money is being spent but as we leave we drive by on of the largest poverty areas in Rio that houses nearly 200,000 people.  It is interesting to clearly see the various levels of society within a only a mile or two of each other. 

We returned to Bruno and Tami's (it is pronounced like t ah mee) and relaxed and hung out until bathe and bed time.  Our conversations with Bruno and Tami have been enjoyable and I am pleased with how similar we actually are. 

It might seem like all we are doing is playing but here is the reality.  We arrived on Saturday morning and did nothing that first day but become aware of what we are about to do.  Sunday is church and the church is closed on Monday so our LST work does not actually begin until Tuesday.  I promise we will do what we came here to do. Blessing to you all and I will discuss kissing tomorrow.  Chow. 

1 comment:

Diana said...

Thanks, Byron, for your posts. We are interested in what you are doing each day! Love