[Morbid] Cultural Milestone

This is Jennifer. I don’t think I’ve ever written a blog post before, but today’s experience was so unusual, I really wanted to write about it. Let me warn you now that if you’re easily freaked out, you probably should stop reading about here.

After living in Brazil for almost 4 years, we went to our first Brazilian funeral today. Weddings and funerals are great ways of seeing a culture’s value system, so I knew that we would get an authentic glimpse into Brazilian culture and family life by going. I’m not going to tell you about the actual funeral service in the chapel (because we were 10 minutes late and missed the whole thing) but I’ll tell you about what came next. I want to be clear in saying that you can’t make generalizations about a country (or even a city) by going to just one funeral, but I’ll tell you what we observed.

First of all, the dress code for funerals here is whatever you happen to be wearing. I thought that surely we should at least wear our nice every-day clothes, but no – I could have worn any old jeans and a t-shirt and I wouldn’t have been out of line.

Second, embalming is not really practiced here so funerals take place within a day of death.

Okay, now for the interesting part. We drove to the “cemetery” only to find that instead of a grassy field, it was an immense 5-story mausoleum complex. Imagine an apartment complex in the US (with little roads through it and everything). This place was enormous. There were a bunch of chapels (I think 10-20 of them) and the hallways were lined with plates in the wall with peoples’ names and pictures. I had heard that sometimes people in Brazil are buried in the same grave as their family members in order to save money, but I didn’t realize that this is the norm. After the service, we followed the casket down the hall to the appointed square in the wall. The employees of the mausoleum pushed the casket into the slot, then pushed 2 plastic bags in after it – one long and one small. I thought, surely those aren’t other people’s remains. I asked a Brazilian man about it and he said that he didn’t think they’d be in plastic bags, but then I asked some other people and they assured me that yes, those were the bones of other family members. Wow. After the employees put everything inside the vault, they put the cover back on and started slapping cement over it to seal it up again. As we walked away, I looked at the hundreds of other squares on the walls and noticed that most of them bore the names of at least 2 people, and many of them had entire families on them. Pretty amazing. Tonight I’m thinking of the unfortunate person who has the job of opening the vault and consolidating the decomposed remains in order to make room for the new casket. I’m told that all of this happens while the family is in the chapel having the memorial service. Definitely a cultural milestone.

Our History and a Look into the (possible) Future

Well, we are back in Porto Alegre getting back into the swing of things. While we were on furlough we had the opportunity to visit with several church families and some individuals about the work we are doing here. Unfortunately, we were not able to visit with everyone who may be interested in our ministry.

This video is the same one that we showed to everyone that we visited with in the states. If you have about 15 minutes to sit in front of your computer I can promise that you will be much more informed about what we are doing. We hope that you are blessed by knowing what the Lord is doing for his Kingdom in the house churches of Porto Alegre.

Ready for bed

Well, our furlough is winding up. I am looking at 3 bags that weight approximately 70lbs each. In the other room Jennifer is working on the last 2 bags of the same status. We are pushing the limits. Tomorrow we will leave Colorado Springs for Denver and catch the first leg of our 24+ hour journey home to Porto Alegre, Brazil.

We have been all over the place. We have visited 7 churches (3 in Colorado, 1 in Missouri and 3 in Texas) and a lot of family. Furlough has been a blessing because of all the love and encouragement our supporters have given us. We were taken care of above what we could have expected. We have a wonderful network of supporters and we thank the Lord for them.

Furlough has also been difficult because we are never settled in one place for too long. We have seen several different beds. I decided to count up the miles that we will have traveled by the time we arrive in Porto Alegre on Thursday afternoon. The total is over 16,800 miles!!! Needless to say we are a little road weary and are ready for our own beds.

We have a long journey ahead of us to get back home. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and get back into the swing of things in Brazil. Thank you and God bless your 2008.

Overdue Update - Lots of Good Stuff!

Okay. It has been quite a while since I put an update out there for the World Wide Web. Sorry it has taken me so long. For a number of reasons (mainly Jennifer's computer giving up the ghost and we've been slammed with good work) I haven't been much of a blogger lately. So, here is a big update that I think will be worth your reading...

Furlough:

This Thursday we will start our 27 hour trip from Porto Alegre, Brazil to Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. We are planning on being in the states on furlough from November 2nd until January 2nd (2008). We will visit churches in Colorado throughout November (Eastside in Colorado Springs; Grand Junction in Grand Junction; and Meadowlark in Ft. Collins). In December we will visit churches in Joplin, Missouri; Houston, Texas; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Arlington, Texas. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us. We also plan on seeing family in other cities in Texas and New Mexico.

We expect furlough to be full and fun. It will be really good to see our family and supporters - especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Men's Retreat:

Last weekend (October 19-20) we had our 2nd Men's Retreat! This year has been so good for the men of our church family. We have gone from having a stagnate ministry to having a dynamic spirit-filled ministry! In this last retreat we concentrated on Spiritual Warfare - answering the questions "what is it?" and "how do we fight in it?". It was a great time of fellowship and bonding; a great time of learning and growing; and a great time of fun and awesome food! Here are a few pictures to show off the great time that we all had...

Sascha gave a talk explaining what Spiritual Warfare is.

Matt's shared with us different Christian attributes that we can use to fight effectively in Spiritual Warfare.

We had 20 guys attend this retreat (5 more than the last one!)
Top row (L to R): Paul, Bretton, Garigran, Roberto, Sascha, Alexandre, Cesar, Regis, Paulo Renato and Spencer. Bottom row (L to R): Tiago, Lauro, Jorge, Matt, Renato, Daniel, Rudinei, Gabriel, Cice and Rony.

New Brothers!

Two weeks ago Daniel gave his life to Christ! He and his family came over to our house where several others from our church met to witness his baptism. Daniel grew up in a Christian home but had never fully given himself to the Lord. He and his family are a part of the house church that meets in Paul and Ana Morrow's home. They have really being growing their relationships with each other and with the Lord in that house church. Last year Daniel's wife and two of his children were baptized.

Paul baptizes a very joyful Daniel!

This last Saturday Kevin Blume and I team baptized Garigran. We have both spent a lot of time with Garigran over the past year. He first met Kevin's family at a function for their kids' school a little over a year ago. Garigran and his family began coming to our church right when we began transitioning into house churches. He has turned from being a very closed and private person to being much more open and sharing. Although his journey is just beginning he has already come a very long way! A little over a week ago Gari told me that we was thinking about being baptized in December. When I asked him why we wanted to wait we replied "I don't need to! Can I be baptized at your house on Saturday!?" So, that was that! He came over with his family and renewed his life in Jesus!

Before: Garigran proclaiming Jesus as his Lord!

During...

After: a new creation in Christ!

Service:

After Garigran's baptism one of the house churches that we work with met out at the Chácara for a "service project". A lot of the guys at the Chácara don't get many visits from their families. Needless to say, they don't see too many birthday parties. So, we decided to throw a big birthday bash for them. Leni made hotdogs for all 20 guys and she bought them all new Bibles with our house church collection. Jennifer made 3 huge chocolate birthday cakes that were so good I don't know the right adjectives to describe them! We had a good time celebrating each one of the men's lives. We praise God that they have all been spared and that the Lord is working in them!

All gathered together to celebrate 20 birthdays!!!

I couldn't leave this picture out. I think it is safe to say that no one saw Jennifer coming with the camera! ;)

Spiritual Retreat

Last week our team escaped the city for a Spiritual Retreat. We have gone off to be renewed a couple of times before, but this was the first time that we did it without taking any children along. This was also the first time that we left Porto Alegre with the primary intent on reconnecting with God and each other through prayer, meditation, worship and conversation. It was such a blessing to us all. We left our retreat feeling more unified having spent time reflecting on the past year's blessings and discussing what may be in store for the ministry here in Porto Alegre. We are in the middle of difficult, but exciting times with the House Churches that the Lord is growing. We look forward to what He has planned with future Brazilian House Churches and leadership.

I hope that you enjoy these pictures that were taken by Kevin Blume. Our beautiful surroundings really brought a refreshing spirit to us.

The hill country outside of Porto Alegre has some stunning landscapes.

You could say that we were "basket cases" before the retreat...

but, time outdoors really brings you back to where you need to be.

The Porto Alegre Mission Team: Paul, Kevin, Benay, Matt, Jennifer & Sascha

Dave Meadows

Today at 8:30am (Brazilian time) we lost a friend, brother and colleague. James David Meadows passed from this life and started his journey home after losing his battle with cancer. He was a missionary in Brazil for over 30 years. Dave was an elder at the Church of Christ in Guarulhos, which is one of the larger Churches of Christ in the greater São Paulo area. He was respected and well liked by all. He will be missed.

Youth Devo

Along with the Men's study and lunch at our house last Saturday (see previous post below), Jennifer and I also hosted a Youth devotional that evening. Needless to say, it was a very busy day for us - but very rewarding too. We had a great time of fellowship and worship with the teens. After the devotional Jennifer served them roast with potatoes and carrots (American style). I guess you could say that it went over well!

Here are a few photos of our time singing praises together. Enjoy!