These scenes have almost zero to do with ministry but, rather, with everyday surroundings. Enjoy your visit to Pinhais, Brazil!
Maybe you've never wondered what it looks like where we live. Maybe you're not interested. But for those of you who are, here are a few scenes on some streets near our house, taken when I went for a walk today. Granted, the majority of them include flowers. Oh, now why IS that?? Well, I (Rena) started my walk with the intention of taking "window pictures"-you know, those cute windows with flowers nearby to beautify them? Well, I just saw too many other things to take photos of so...here you have them. There's a brief explanation on most of them. These scenes have almost zero to do with ministry but, rather, with everyday surroundings. Enjoy your visit to Pinhais, Brazil!
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As American citizens abroad, we routinely get emails such as the one below from our U.S. Embassy in Brasilia (Brazil's capital). Security Message for U.S. Citizens U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Brazil brazil.usembassy.gov June 25, 2013 The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia alerts U.S. citizens traveling to and residing in Brazil to continued protests in several cities throughout the country including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Recife, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Fortaleza, Salvador, and Manaus. Protests have occurred throughout Brazil in the past week and more are planned for June 26. There have also been calls on social media for a series of strikes and protests throughout Brazil, which could potentially occur in the next week. U.S. citizens should avoid the protests and areas where large gatherings may occur. Even demonstrations or events intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. U.S. citizens in Brazil are urged to continue to monitor local news reports and to plan their activities accordingly. If you require assistance, please contact the nearest Embassy or Consulate... __________________________________________ These protests for political, social and financial reforms have been happening off and on for about 9 months but have increased in intensity and frequency over recent weeks. To understand more about them and see some photos, click on this link. This link also gives some of the history of the movement.
Please be in prayer for this situation. There has been some loss of lives and much damage of property, especially government buildings, banks and businesses. (Fhoto credit: Wikipedia) The biggest holiday in Brazil finished at about noon on Ash Wednesday (finished is a relative word. Some people continued their celebrating). When did it begin, you might ask? Oh...roughly last Friday. Most business places are closed for the l-o-n-g weekend of 5 days so we usually try to make sure we have enough groceries to last that long. But what exactly IS Carnival?? According to everyone's favorite encyclopedia, "Carnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent...(It) typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party." Ok, that is a super-simple and super-basic definition. And in some places that may suffice. However, in Brazil it does not! You can find a more detailed description of this country's Carnival by clicking here. It is quite involved, to say the least. To most people who live in, I'll call it, a non-Carnival country or region, that word mainly conjures up visions of masks, costumes and confetti (think Mardi-Gras). But here it is much more than that-perhaps the same difference between American soccer and Brazilian soccer! (RCC two blocks from our house) Carnival is connected to the Catholic church. Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world so, of course, their Carnival is big. As you noticed in the definition above, it occurs just before the Lent season of 40 days. To put it simply, Carnival is the time when people indulge to an exaggerated degree those things that they plan to "give up" for 40 days. Without a doubt, they go a bit overboard and I am NOT talking about food. Drunkenness, scandalous dress and immorality of every description abounds, as was evidenced by the government giving away more than 68 million free condoms (one for almost every 3 people that live here). To add to this, they end the celebration on Ash Wednesday when they crowd the Catholic churches to repent of all the sins which they committed during the previous days. For sure, all of those who pula Carnaval don't go and confess and repent. And of those who do go, most do it out of ritual and tradition, which leaves their hearts and lives the same as they were before. Flaviane and Carol worked hard to go to camp! Not all Brazilians celebrate Carnival. The Christians (believers in Jesus Christ) have a joy that transcends the shallow, empty, transient one of Carnival. Happily, many of our church young people have camps available to them and we were encouraged to see 7 go from our little Victory Baptist Church. They worked hard in the weeks beforehand, trying to earn enough money to be able to go...which they did! They returned with beaming faces, happy voices and encouraging testimonies of the blessings during the 4 days of camp. By a margin of about 12% Dilma Rousseff won yesterday's run-off election. For those interested , you can read more about her here. Yes, only 3 hours after her declared victory, she's already in wikipedia! This election was a bit quieter and less messy than the first one last month when pamphlets were thrown all over the ground, especially near the election centers. The one in this photo was a block from our house. Dilma visited Pinhais last week but we didn't know about it til after the fact. And to think we could have shaken the hand of a future president.... She's not the one we would have voted for but God allowed her to be elected so now we need to pray for her! As of today, it is only 17 days until Brazil's Election Day. At many junctions we are given pamplets with political propaganda. And at least twice a day 50-minute blocks of time on TV are given to showing the campaigning of Brazil's many political parties. We doubt that many people watch that for a solid 50 minutes but...what do we know?! There are at least 9 people running for President. Of the 3 main ones, 2 are women. Brazil has never had a woman president. For those of you who are interested in international politics, click here to read about it in Portuguese or click here to read about it in English. Last Saturday morning we received all of this-pamplets, newspapers, bumper stickers, and even a stack of almost 100 little papers for US to hand out! Thanks, but no thanks. Well, we can't vote here and we can't even tell others for whom to vote but we can pray for this important Presidential election. It might determine what we can and can't do in our ministries here as missionaries. Please help us PRAY for Brazil's elections on October 3rd! On September 8th the city of Curitiba celebrated its 317th birthday! Yay, birthdays, we all love birthdays, right? Well, this one was so quietly celebrated that we didn't even know about it til the day after. (To know more about Curitiba, check this out.) Since Curitiba's patron saint is Our Lady of Light (one of the many forms of Mary), most of the celebrating was in the form of idolatry...worshipping, praying and giving thanks to this saint/image. Mass was held at many of the Catholic churches on this day. Here the state's governor, Orlando Pessuti, is seen at the mass in the Catedral Basílica de Curitiba which is dedicated to the patron saint. He said, "I am here today to ask Our Lady of Light to intercede for us and make us have more faith..." The archbishop who presided at the mass said, "As we manifest ourselves on our birthday and above all on the birthdays of our mothers, much more we want to do this for Mary, who is our mother, mother of the church, mother of our city." Sometimes it's a bit difficult to minister/witness to those of a religion & culture who don't see their adoration as being contrary to what the Bible teaches. Pray for wisdom for us and enlightenment of the Spirit for them. "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."-John 8:32
Friday began with much excitement as Brazil prepared to win their game against Holland in the quarter-finals of World Cup Soccer. That's "Brazil", as in, the whole country and not just the team! I (Rena) decided to go downtown where a big screen has been set up during these games and "experience the experience" of watching this one with the thousands of people who were there. I was not quite prepared for the emotion I would feel as I followed the crowd and neared the location of the showing of the game. I did't even have to ask where it was as everyone was headed in the same direction! Many police were all around to control things...just in case that was needed. At one time I counted about 30 of them just at the end where the screen was. The crowd was huge,.. and as I squeezed through... I was finally able to get pretty close to the front. Some people were watching from the windows of the nearby buildings... or from inside the stores (which had all closed), many sporting the yellow, green and blue of Brazil... ...but all with their eyes on the screen and their hearts in one direction: to win the game! (As a missionary, I also had other thoughts during this time...) It looks like things are beginning to go the wrong way here...Oh no, Holland is ahead! And so it ended, with Brazil losing to Holland 2-1. No happy smiles or scenes & sounds of cheering as we leave the game. This is the sad atmosphere we'll have to take into consideration during the next several days as we continue with our ministries here. But not to fear. Brazilians adjust (and we do, too) and life goes on! |
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