Natal, Brazil 2007: Coconut Water of Life...

Thursday's weather was supposed to be gorgeous. In fact it was supposed to be so nice that weather.com had stated there was a 0% chance of rain. Weeks before while I was at home, Trista and I had a discussion that there is always at least a 10% of rain listed on weather.com. We attributed the fact to the weathermen wanting to cover their bases in case some rouge storm hits that they had not foreseen on their radar systems. I found it extremely odd that I would see this 0% in the precipitation column for the first time in a place that had rain almost every day for a least a short period of time. William and I were on our way to the beach early looking to make the best of this joyous 0% precipitation occasion.

We distributed some tracts on our way down the hill, and once we had arrived on the beach we hit the water. There were not an overabundance of waves, but the ones that were rolling across the top of the sea were quite large. I would say a few of them were close to 12 feet which is pretty big for body surfing. We stayed down on the shore for about two hours, alternating swims in the water with some time reading time on the beach. We walked back home and went to work vacuuming the dirt of the bottom of the pool. Junior had done his job and the water was crystal clear, however the dirt that had been floating in the water had now all sunk to the bottom and needed to be extracted. I worked on blogging for a while until Aunt Lori and Caroline came home.

They had made a trip to the Bible bookstore Gilgal to check on the order of 500 Bibles that were scheduled to arrive the next day. Including this order, Aunt Lori had ordered over 2,500 Bibles during the almost three months she had been here, and had given out all but 20 of them. The remaining 20 were still on our shelves waiting for the next clothing distribution. On their way to the store they had stopped at a coconut water stand that Paul had frequented on his trip here due to his love of the beverage. They had given the young attendant there several tracts over the course of their visits. When Aunt Lori pulled her VW Gol into the small parking area, he raced over to them. He told Lori that he was very thankful she had given him the papers. He was unable to read, but he had taken them home and had his wife had read them too him. He had realized he was a sinner and needed to have Christ in his heart if he was ever going to be in Heaven. Because of a simple Gospel tract, a man was on his way to heaven. Praise God!

This was an encouragement to us all. Thousands and thousands of tracts had been given out since we arrived. Yes...we only know of one who trusted Christ because of reading one, however, we will never know how many others may have come to the same conclusion as this man. There may be none. There may be hundreds. All I know is that God used this one man to be an encouragement to us and show us that we were doing the right thing by passing out these tracts and showing people the love of Christ. This should also be an encouragement to everyone else who is reading this. You never know what effect that a single simple action may have on someone’s eternal life. A tract, a simple word, telling one person the word who passes it on unbeknownst that this is what they are doing... Even the smallest action can have the greatest eternal reward for someone else.

Uncle Mark came home from the Planalto for lunch, as usual. He had found a place that made kitchen counter tops. Much thought and discussion had gone into deciding what to do for these counters. He had been contemplating slate and concrete, but a talk he had with Luciano now had him considering granite. He had visited the granite place and learned that the whole kitchen could be done for $350 American Dollars. This job would have easily cost $3,500 just for the materials back at home. Since they mine and refine the product right here in Brazil, the cost was 1/10 what it would be in the states. William, Caroline and I went with him back to the Planalto after lunch. Uncle Mark went to work finishing the cabinets for the kitchen and making the template to bring to the counter place. Caroline and William began scrubbing and painting the roof tiles as I went around doing whatever odd jobs they had for me. I scrubbed, painted, moved large pieces of plywood from one area to another and helped get the tiles back on the roof.

After a long afternoon, everybody began winding down. Luciano had spent the day doing the final coat of exterior paint. Damião had built a beautiful handicap ramp. Raimundo had finished tiling the kitchen floor and was now working on the door frames for the kitchen and bathrooms. Neto had untiled and re-tiled the roof. Liese and Rodrigo had scrubbed and painted tiles. Everyone had worked long and hard in the hot Natal sun. Rodrigo and I played some catch at dusk while Uncle Mark finished up something for Luciano. It was the first time he had ever played, and he cheered for himself when he caught the ball for the first time.

I had not had the opportunity to play baseball that day as planned, due to the kids staying away from the hall in fear of being recruited to work. William was too tired to go off and recruit the kids, so I had just stayed and painted...even though I had promised some guy’s father that I would be playing that day. I didn't want to go alone, and appear to be luring children over to play the game. It would have been one thing had three or four kids already been with me, but it would seem rather suspicious and creepy if I had just been standing in the middle of a field with a bag of baseball equipment waiting for James Earl Jones to walk out of a cornfield.

I gave Dona Nier (pka Mama Luis) and Neto's wife Paula a ride to their homes, since Luciano had forgotten them and left them in the Planalto. It was only my second time driving down here.

It had been a while since I had driven a stick shift, and it was a baptism by fire to drive amongst the crazy Brazilian drivers. I used the common courtesy seen in the states and allowed people to cross at crosswalks. Every time I did this, I could see a look of shock on their face as if to say "is he really letting me cross". This is never seen down here. If you are in the middle of the street, they come faster, making you cross faster and get out of the way of all the drivers who apparently had somewhere to be RIGHT NOW!

We returned home at about 7:00. I ate a small dinner and just hung around for the evening. Bedtime came, and I wasn't going to complain. I was tired, cranky and covered with orange paint. I would wash that off on the morning since at this moment all I could think about was a pillow....