I had just drifted off to sleep Sunday night when the sound of a car woke me. It was loud and obnoxious and seemed to have stopped right outside of our house. I could tell from the sound of the engine that it was the old 1970s Volkswagen Beetle that resided in a driveway a few doors down. The owner had been puttering with it for a few days and we had seen it make some brief appearances before. On this night however ol’ Herbie was revving its inefficient engine. It backfired several times, and each time that I heard the loud pop, I prayed it was someone putting a bullet through the engine block of the car ending the awful noise once and for all.
Relief never came. The noise continued for at least an hour maybe more. It lightened up for a short period of time, while the owner probably took a bathroom break, before the car resumed its torturous noise. It was loud enough to make even the toughest of soldiers break down to their enemy captures, and we should all hope that North Korea and Iran do not get their hands on a beat-up VW bug or we are all in trouble. The eventual silence of the car gave way to the normal crowing of the rooster at about 3 AM. I tossed and turned on the half flat air mattress, before finally deciding to risk suffocation and sleep with a pillow over my face.
The pillow blocked the rays of sun early in the morning, so I was able to regain an hour of lost sleep. I made my way downstairs at about 8:00. Uncle Mark, Patty and Stephanie had already left to work on the hall. I started working on my blogs, posting the pictures and doing what needed to be done on my end. Every time I left the computer running to load the pictures and go do some other task that needed to be done, the internet would crash and I would lose everything I had loaded. This happened throughout the morning, and I would up having to redo what I had already done four or five times.
There is no worse feeling than having to start over after you put a lot of time into something. When someone tells you that maybe God is having you start over for a reason, the comfort and reality that you should be feeling is quickly replaced by further frustration. By 1:00, neither of the two blog posts I had been working on all morning was finished. I angrily shut my computer and headed off to the Planalto with Uncle Mark to work on the hall.
It had rained pretty hard that morning. Torrential rains which reminded me of my first few days here in Natal back in June were not what I needed to get over my anxiety and irritability. When I left for the Planalto the sun was breaking through the clouds and I was hoping for a nice afternoon. I needed a nice afternoon! Aunt Lori and Paul had spent the morning at the Bible bookstore getting Bible’s for that afternoon’s clothing distribution. William, Caroline and Eric had spent some of the morning packaging some children’s clothes and diapers to be passed out in the Planalto later on that day. Now the time had come to hit the streets with Bibles, tracts and clothes for everyone who was in dire need of the materials.
I got to work as soon as I arrived at the hall. Neto brought me to the bathroom to give me my task of sanding the concrete walls in preparation of Luciano’s plastering job. I worked an hour on that job, getting covered from head to toe with concrete dust. Caroline begged me for pictures of how filthy I was, so I agreed and lent her my camera for the afternoon. It started to rain hard outside, as I took on the next task of washing the roof tiles. Within a few minutes I was soaking wet. It was only 3:30 at this point and I still had a long way to go before I went home for the day.
I assisted the man who Patty hired in the task of re-tiling the roof. He had returned for another day’s work even though Luciano had told him that he would not be receiving any money this time and if he wanted to work for God then he was more than welcome to. So he had returned, and he worked hard even though he stopped for 20 minutes to try and sell me some prehistoric shark teeth. I found them interesting but wasn’t about to shell over 75 Raies for one. I was freezing cold, soaking wet and in a worse mood than before, but the day wasn’t over yet.
In another part of the Planalto, Aunt Lori, Paul, Patty, Steph, Caroline and Amy were giving out clothing, Bibles and tracts to people in need. Shakinjo and Neto had taken them to some needy neighborhoods to make some contacts for the hall. Hundreds of tracts were given out, as well as bags of clothing and diapers and almost 75 Bibles. 500 more Bibles were on order and set to arrive by Friday. Children who had been naked minutes before now had clothes to wear. The group watched as a man ran from a distance to where they were. Expecting him to ask for clothing first they waited for him to open his mouth. While he may have needed clothes or money, the first thing he asked for was the Bible.
The afternoon was a success on all fronts. The rain had slowed progress on the halls exterior, but work had been brought inside. Much of the kitchen floor had been tiled, and half of one bathroom had been plastered. One quarter of the auditorium roof tiles were now painted and re-hung, and Uncle Mark had finished the halls bulletin board and more shelves. Eric and William were soaking wet and playing with the hose in the street. Boys will be boys.
Monday night meant English lessons, and had it not been for the fact that I was soaking wet I would have been looking forward to teaching the Christians how to speak English. I assisted Aunt Lori’s class, and helped a few women with some vocabulary terms for common household items and places. My favorite part of the evening was trying to describe the function of the toilet so they could tell me the word in Portuguese so I could tell them how to spell and pronounce the word in English. One of the women named Liese said, "ahh, the Queen on the throne”. She then referred to Lori as the queen of the toilet, which made us all laugh. Thought I would share a little bathroom humor with you all.
After the lessons were finished we said goodnight to the students and headed home. We stopped and picked up some snack pastries for dinner and then returned to the house. I was still freezing cold. A warm shower felt good, but my relaxation came to a halt when I discovered that my bag and my bed were soaking wet from the rain. The one clean long sleeve shirt I had left was wet. Now I had to decide to go short sleeve on my goose bump covered arms or put on a damp long sleeve shirt. I decided to go damp. I gobbled down a snack and returned to my office on the patio to make another attempt at posting.
Paul and Patty got organized for their trip home the next day. Paul was still miffed that his FedEx packages hadn’t arrived yet. I managed to get one blog up on the first try, but it took four more attempts to get the same success with the second post. Finally they were finished. I was exhausted by this point, but dad was online and wanted to talk, so I spent some time with him before retreating to my damp mattress on the terrace. The worst news was that the weather forecast was equally as bleak for the next day…
Relief never came. The noise continued for at least an hour maybe more. It lightened up for a short period of time, while the owner probably took a bathroom break, before the car resumed its torturous noise. It was loud enough to make even the toughest of soldiers break down to their enemy captures, and we should all hope that North Korea and Iran do not get their hands on a beat-up VW bug or we are all in trouble. The eventual silence of the car gave way to the normal crowing of the rooster at about 3 AM. I tossed and turned on the half flat air mattress, before finally deciding to risk suffocation and sleep with a pillow over my face.
The pillow blocked the rays of sun early in the morning, so I was able to regain an hour of lost sleep. I made my way downstairs at about 8:00. Uncle Mark, Patty and Stephanie had already left to work on the hall. I started working on my blogs, posting the pictures and doing what needed to be done on my end. Every time I left the computer running to load the pictures and go do some other task that needed to be done, the internet would crash and I would lose everything I had loaded. This happened throughout the morning, and I would up having to redo what I had already done four or five times.
There is no worse feeling than having to start over after you put a lot of time into something. When someone tells you that maybe God is having you start over for a reason, the comfort and reality that you should be feeling is quickly replaced by further frustration. By 1:00, neither of the two blog posts I had been working on all morning was finished. I angrily shut my computer and headed off to the Planalto with Uncle Mark to work on the hall.
It had rained pretty hard that morning. Torrential rains which reminded me of my first few days here in Natal back in June were not what I needed to get over my anxiety and irritability. When I left for the Planalto the sun was breaking through the clouds and I was hoping for a nice afternoon. I needed a nice afternoon! Aunt Lori and Paul had spent the morning at the Bible bookstore getting Bible’s for that afternoon’s clothing distribution. William, Caroline and Eric had spent some of the morning packaging some children’s clothes and diapers to be passed out in the Planalto later on that day. Now the time had come to hit the streets with Bibles, tracts and clothes for everyone who was in dire need of the materials.
I got to work as soon as I arrived at the hall. Neto brought me to the bathroom to give me my task of sanding the concrete walls in preparation of Luciano’s plastering job. I worked an hour on that job, getting covered from head to toe with concrete dust. Caroline begged me for pictures of how filthy I was, so I agreed and lent her my camera for the afternoon. It started to rain hard outside, as I took on the next task of washing the roof tiles. Within a few minutes I was soaking wet. It was only 3:30 at this point and I still had a long way to go before I went home for the day.
I assisted the man who Patty hired in the task of re-tiling the roof. He had returned for another day’s work even though Luciano had told him that he would not be receiving any money this time and if he wanted to work for God then he was more than welcome to. So he had returned, and he worked hard even though he stopped for 20 minutes to try and sell me some prehistoric shark teeth. I found them interesting but wasn’t about to shell over 75 Raies for one. I was freezing cold, soaking wet and in a worse mood than before, but the day wasn’t over yet.
In another part of the Planalto, Aunt Lori, Paul, Patty, Steph, Caroline and Amy were giving out clothing, Bibles and tracts to people in need. Shakinjo and Neto had taken them to some needy neighborhoods to make some contacts for the hall. Hundreds of tracts were given out, as well as bags of clothing and diapers and almost 75 Bibles. 500 more Bibles were on order and set to arrive by Friday. Children who had been naked minutes before now had clothes to wear. The group watched as a man ran from a distance to where they were. Expecting him to ask for clothing first they waited for him to open his mouth. While he may have needed clothes or money, the first thing he asked for was the Bible.
The afternoon was a success on all fronts. The rain had slowed progress on the halls exterior, but work had been brought inside. Much of the kitchen floor had been tiled, and half of one bathroom had been plastered. One quarter of the auditorium roof tiles were now painted and re-hung, and Uncle Mark had finished the halls bulletin board and more shelves. Eric and William were soaking wet and playing with the hose in the street. Boys will be boys.
Monday night meant English lessons, and had it not been for the fact that I was soaking wet I would have been looking forward to teaching the Christians how to speak English. I assisted Aunt Lori’s class, and helped a few women with some vocabulary terms for common household items and places. My favorite part of the evening was trying to describe the function of the toilet so they could tell me the word in Portuguese so I could tell them how to spell and pronounce the word in English. One of the women named Liese said, "ahh, the Queen on the throne”. She then referred to Lori as the queen of the toilet, which made us all laugh. Thought I would share a little bathroom humor with you all.
After the lessons were finished we said goodnight to the students and headed home. We stopped and picked up some snack pastries for dinner and then returned to the house. I was still freezing cold. A warm shower felt good, but my relaxation came to a halt when I discovered that my bag and my bed were soaking wet from the rain. The one clean long sleeve shirt I had left was wet. Now I had to decide to go short sleeve on my goose bump covered arms or put on a damp long sleeve shirt. I decided to go damp. I gobbled down a snack and returned to my office on the patio to make another attempt at posting.
Paul and Patty got organized for their trip home the next day. Paul was still miffed that his FedEx packages hadn’t arrived yet. I managed to get one blog up on the first try, but it took four more attempts to get the same success with the second post. Finally they were finished. I was exhausted by this point, but dad was online and wanted to talk, so I spent some time with him before retreating to my damp mattress on the terrace. The worst news was that the weather forecast was equally as bleak for the next day…
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William and Alison Uno Taking Tiles off the Roof for Painting
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Luciano Working on the Handicap Ramp
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Raimundo and Damião Tiling the Kitchen Floor.JPG)
Stephanie Painting Roof Tiles
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I'm Covered in Concrete Dist from Sanding
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This is the Man that Ran for the Bible
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Lori Puts Clothing on a Boy Who had Been Naked Minutes Before.jpg)
Lori and Patty Continue with Distribution
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Time to Clean Up for the Day
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