Bona fide tourism!

Yesterday was our first free afternoon in a long while, and, it also being the second to last day in Rio, we hit some of the belezas (beauties) of the city.

A waterfall on the outskirts of the Floresta de Tijuca, a huge park in Rio. We only drove through some of it though it promised to be a marvelous hike. Maybe later.

David and Tio Zi by a map of the forest. You should be able to click the picture to magnify it.

Sometime in the dark decade of the 1980s, at this plaza three cars full of Christians, two being my parents, stopped and released a host of believers praying loudly in tongues. The couples who already were at the plaza high-tailed it.

A bird

Here it is: Cristo Redentor do Corcovado. We were blessed to have both a good view of it and the city given the sky was overcast--oftentimes visitors can´t see anything up there through the clouds. And now I´ve been able to see Rio from Corcovado when it´s sunny and when it´s misty. Both views are breathtaking.

A view. That big rock is Pão de Açucar--more on that below.

Another view from Corcovado. The bridge goes to an island of several cities; if my memory serves right, it took ten or fifteen minutes to cross in 2001. Click to magnify.

All those little houses shoved up the mountainside constitute a favela, where the poorest of Rio live. Favelas are destitute, dangerous places. Contrast them with those nearby buildings and you easily understand why Brasil is the country with the biggest rich-poor extremes in the world.

David in the cable-car to Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf), the rock you see in the background.

The view from Sugarloaf. We´re actually facing Corcovado, the mountain on which is the Christ the Redeemer statue--it´s the first peak to the left of Dave.

More to the north. It was marvelous to see Rio at night.

To the south and the familial two. The beach you see is Copacabana.

Though I visited Corcovado and Pão de Açucar in 2001, the views yesterday were more meaningful. After having walked through downtown and taken the Metrô (subway) and sat in the bus and greeted the taxi drivers and met the people and spoken the language and eaten the food and bought the ware and breathed the air and stepped on the shore and ate with the rich and passed by the poor, I could appreciate the big picture of the city I´ve lived in for a month, and I longed more than ever for the city to improve and Christ to be known--the real Christ, not an icon or a thing of stone. It was a good day.

Prayer requests

A couple prayer requests--

1. A need I´ve personally felt is fellowship. We´re surrounded by believers, but the language barrier makes it difficult to fellowship on a deep level. I get worn out sometimes in the lack of weekly care group, Sunday meetings, and worship. On the flipside, please pray we can bless others by engaging in biblical fellowship with them.

2. A fuller practice of the mission aspect begins on Saturday when we join a group of Americans to minister on a YWAM base. We´ve had a fun and relaxed time in Rio, so please pray we´ll prepare our hearts for July in faith and humility.

3. We still haven´t quite figured out transportation plans in July--which busline to Rio Grande? which hour? Small things, but we could use some more energy in this executive branch.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Osasco

Well, Dave released my big news! We went to Osasco for the weekend. Osasco is a city near São Paulo, the third most populous city in the world. I cannot recall an American landscape where lights and buildings covered the land in every direction as far as I could see--for over 45 minutes on the road. The city looks this widespread in some parts of Rio, but the sprawl of Rio is still trapped by mountains. The bus trip from Osasco past São Paulo showed not one big downtown but what looked like many downtowns, many groups of Cleveland skyscrapers, poking up from the (relatively) flat terrain.

We went on this excursion to visit the Oliveiras, who were in ministry with Mom and Dad back in the 80s. Silas is now a pastor of a church that grew from 35 to over 2000 churchgoers from 1994 to today. The church is without a doubt impacting Osasco with lots of ministries--social, worship, seminary, etc.

We had a great time. It was Dave´s first time meeting the Oliveiras (in his memory, anyway). After dinner on Saturday, he went with Mateus and André to a young men´s care group and ended up staying until 3a.m.! Mateus and David said they had an especially meaningful time of fellowship.

Saturday we leave for Contagem, Minas Gerais, to work with Youth With A Mission.


Silas in his office


Marta, Rebekah, David, Mateus, Natália. Not pictured: André


A shot through the rear window of downtown São Paulo. Though we don´t have a picture of André, we have his operating system sentiments.


Natália, Éwerton (friend of the Oliveiras), David, and Mateus in front of the church

Falando, vendo, tirando

The month of June has been primarily devoted to language study. As Dave wrote a couple weeks ago, group and individual Portuguese classes at Bridge-Linguatec in downtown Rio de Janeiro take up most of our day. By today we´ve logged over a hundred hours of batendo o papo com os professores (shootin´ the breeze with professors). We´ve gone solo on the metrô (subway), bus, taxi, and sidewalk. Our initial comfort zone, which almost wasn´t big enough to exist, has expanded considerably (maybe I had a bigger problem with street anxiety than David did). Thank God we´ve had no problems so far.

Besides classes, we spent time last week with the Matoses in home, in church, and out and about. We got to meet Ingrid´s fiance Estevão a week ago. I can´t wait to get pictures from when the couple took us to the Pedro de Arpoador, a look-out rock on the beach of Ipanema.

The next day, Saturday, we went to Barra Shopping, the largest mall in Latin America. In front stands a replica Statue of Liberty, and let´s just say a picture is worth a thousand words:



Now. I have more news. But I´ve been summoned to eat. Até já!

Youth Camp 2006

David and I are missing youth camp for the first time in four? five? years right now! But we are praying for Sovereign Grace Church of Cleveland, Covenant of Grace Church, Providence Church of Pittsburgh, and Lord of Life Church as y´allses youth and parents come together for a life-changing time. Temos saudades de vocês! (We miss you.)

Portuguese Lesson # 1

que isso? [kay YEE-soh]
1. -- uttered when profoundly confused by the situation before one´s eyes
2. -- an expression favored especially by Nickole Matos











enlouquecer [enn-loe-keh-SAIR]
-- to become crazy

gol [goe-oo]
1. -- the act of a soccer player fielding the ball past the goalie into the goal of the opposing team
2. -- oftentimes the signal to a group of Brazilians to erupt into a deafening uproar and dance like no one´s watching

David gave a description of the day-today, so how about a description of the church? Osias is one of the pastors of a local church, and our week is colored by fellowship and meetings. Every day somebody´s over to hang out or watch a World Cup game or for some other reason. Several home groups meet at various times and places. Sunday morning meetings are either nearby in Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, or half an hour away in Jacarepeguá—this makes it easier for the 350 church members spread about Rio to meet. I learned more last year about the importance of greeting other believers, getting to know them, sharing lives with them—and these guys excel in all these areas.

Every other Wednesday (or every?) a group goes to a nearby plaza to evangelize. Tonight, for example, about eleven of us went out and ended up conversing and praying with a man and woman. I was provoked by, well, how comfortable these witnesses were to talk lovingly but unambiguously about that precious gospel. I could only understand 20% of the conversation—but a few sentences Ingrid said to the woman came to me loud and clear—those few sentences about how God sent his only son as a sacrifice for our sins, to save us and give us new life.

And isn´t it amazing? The God here is the same God there. The gospel I heard in the United States is the same one transforming lives in Brasil.




Dave and I couldn´t quite syncronize.


Dave meets Mister Shake. And is conquered by him.

All this was last Sunday night at Chaika, a classic hang-out eatery in Ipanema--now one my top-five favorite places to eat. I´ll try to post a couple more pictures in the next couple days. . . . até mais!

Here´s another photo from our descent. It better shows the sprawl of Rio. Cleveland and its suburbs are a fraction of what this image conveyed to me, even without capturing downtown Rio.

In this metropolis God is veritably moving. The passion and growth and evangelism of the little church the Matoses are part of is exciting enough. What else is God doing here that I don´t know about?

The Young Man Helps Himself to Max & Erma´s at the Cleveland-Hopkins Airport Before the Long Journey South


The Familial Two Rejoice in Having Bought a Headphone Splitter While Waiting For Flight 93 to Take Them to São Paulo


David Played a Lot of Cards


Descending into Rio de Janeiro



Ana and Osias Matos, Masters Amáveis and Amados of the House at which We Stay


The Matos Girls with Rebekah and David, All Donning Fluminense (a Futebol Team in Rio) Gear at Maracanã: David, Ana, Nickole, Rebekah, and Ingrid


O Campo de Jogo de Maracanã: FORÇA FLU!


PIZZA NIGHT! Rebekah, Nickole, Ana, Ingrid, Erick, and David in the Kitchen

During the World Cup the GDP of Brasil increases by 0.3%.

I knew Brasil would be crazy about the World Cup, but now I know what "crazy" means.

Per a Brazilian´s own statement, now´s the time Brazil is really patriotic. Everywhere there are flags, the colors of the Brazilian flag, media coverage of the World Cup, and futebol (soccer) clothing. In two months Rio de Janeiro will be a different place. All businesses will close when Brazil plays--even banks, which on certain holidays must be open by law (they get an executive order every four years for World Cup exceptions). But who can argue that Brasil, sem dúvida, doesn´t prosper in futebol? And it´s a sport well-tested internationally. Our Superbowl is rather local, and rather brief. ESTA MENINA TORCE PELO BRASIL!

Okay. So Dave wrote an entertaining post. I´m gwina hafta get my act together so as not to be outdone...

Aside from an unexpected four-hour layover, the flight was great! After a fun couple days with the Matoses and their church (it didn't take long to break the ice, especially with David around), we're now sitting at the language institute where we'll spend quite a bit of time until July. Osias, pastor of the church here and who we're staying with, showed us the way to the metro subway...we hope in a couple days to be getting to Carioca Station in downtown Rio by ourselves.

David and I are a bit ecstatic to discover the Matoses use cable Internet...thus, unlimited Internet is pretty much at our disposal...and pictures will come soon, I hope. Among the most notable we have is us and the Matoses at Maracana--the world's largest stadium if my memory serves me right. It was our last chance to see Fluminense play Internacional before the World Cup shuts everything down.

tchauzinho!

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