Trip to Sud Menucci

Daniel, Guest Speaker, Sabrina and Ellise
at the youth conference

Thursday, June 7th, was a cold, drizzly day, but it was also one of the many national holidays here in Brazil. Not only was it a holiday, but to many people’s delight it fell on a Thursday and could be extended to the weekend. It was interesting to take notice what Brazilians did on their holiday. Joy found out the hard way that lots of people went grocery shopping. Joy used part of the holiday to balance the book ministry’s accounts and found that the post office bill was due the next day. "No problem", she thought, "I’ll just run to Muffato Max (a grocery store similar to Walmart) and get some cash out of the ATM so that the bill can be paid early on Friday." Joy arrived at Muffato to find that there was a substantial waiting line to get into the parking lot, long lines at every checkout, and much to her disappointment the ATM had already been milked dry. The withdrawing of cash was immediately postponed to a later date.

Daniel participating in an activity
at the youth conference 

Many people also used the extended holiday to travel. The newspapers were full of reports about the heavy traffic and accidents on the most used highways. Daniel and his work buddies had to travel from São Jose dos Campos, where they live, to a nice conference area in the small city of Atibaia. Every year Editora Fiel, the Christian publishing company where Daniel works, holds a youth conference with a variety of guest speakers, special book sales, and fun activities. This year’s conference took place on the holiday weekend. Several days before the holiday, Daniel and his fellow employees packed up boxes and boxes of books and electrical equipment, then accompanied them to the conference area in order to set everything up. The holiday brought buses and cars loaded with young people to the conference. Eventually about three hundred young people had gathered to attend the conference. Daniel’s usual job at these conferences is to take the footage being picked up by the video cameras and transmit it live over the internet to spectators that are watching off and on throughout the day. This year, however, Daniel’s boss asked him to take a more public part and share the responsibility of introducing speakers and activities, in short keep things running on schedule. Daniel said it was quite a challenge for him, but by God’s grace he was able to do it.

Decorated Street

This holiday like so many others in Brazil has significance to the Catholic community and on this holiday in particular, they put special emphasis on organizing priests and Catholic faithful into processions that walk up and down the main streets of the city. In some cities they even go so far as to decorate the streets that the procession is going to walk on. The city of Piquerobi is a good example. It is a very small city with only four thousand inhabitants. For the last forty-four years many of the inhabitants volunteer every June 7th to make a seven hundred meter "carpet" for the procession to walk on. Two months before the holiday the government and Catholic authorities begin planning what designs and colors are going to be included in the carpet. An average of $25,000.00 is invested every year in having the metal patterns (similar to gigantic cookie cutters) drawn out and made, and the purchasing of colorful pellets which will be packed tightly into the patterns. Years ago flower petals, dyed sawdust, sand, leaves and natural rocks were used to make the carpets on the roads, but nowadays these have been substituted by the made to order colored pellets and a little spray paint and styrofoam. The decorated roads and procession in Piquerobi have become so well known that four or five thousand tourists flock to the city every year to see them.

Celeste and Adalberto

Our Thursday was fairly normal. We worked on routine jobs around the house and in Dad's office, and then helped Dad and Mom pack up for a four day trip. Late that afternoon they were expected to make a visit in Araçatuba, a city two and a half hours away from us.  A number of years ago, Sr. Celestino took over the pruning of the two trees in front of our house. With time he invited Dad to have Bible studies in his home, and we came to know his wife, Marcia, and the three daughters that are still in their home: Suellen, who is in her twenties, Celeste, fifteen, and Marcela, who is nine. In December 2011, Celeste ran away from home to live with a man in Araçatuba. Celeste cut off all contact with her family at first, but after several weeks she resumed communication with them and even asked them to come visit. About a month ago Celeste sent word through her parents that Dad would be welcome to come visit with her and Adalberto. Dad scheduled the visit for this holiday, and shortly before noon, he and Mom piled into the car and headed for Araçatuba. Adalberto and Celestre are currently living on the chicken farm where he works. The constant drizzle and crisscrossing dirt roads made their house a little hard to find, but Dad and Mom eventually found it and the Lord blessed them with a good visit. Adalberto was receptive to the Biblical counsel that Dad gave them, and both Adalberto and Celeste left the door open for Dad to visit again the next time that he is in the area.

Church in Sud Menucci

Dad and Mom spent Thursday night in Araçatuba, and Friday morning drove another hour and a half to Sud Menucci. Sud Menucci is a tiny city. Most of the people that live there are employed by the large sugarcane processing plants in the area. Some of the folks work in the fields planting and harvesting the sugarcane, while others work in the plants turning the sugarcane into refined sugar or alcohol. The church in Sud was going to be holding a series of special services beginning that night and continuing to Sunday evening. They invited  Pr. Figueiredo from Catanduva to preach the first three services, and Dad to preach the last one. Pr. Figueiredo arrived by bus shortly after Dad and Mom arrived. Later that evening he preached a good message on forgiveness.

Pr. Figueiredo and Bro. Ari, the church's leader

Saturday dawned as another gray and drizzly day, and with Saturday began the most memorable part of Mom and Dad's trip. Just minutes before breakfast was served, Mom began having waves of nausea and vomiting. Nothing, not even medicine, would stay on her stomach. Bro. Ari and his wife, Rosali, with whom Dad and Mom where staying, mentioned that a strong stomach flu had been making its way around town, and most people ended up going to the hospital for some strong medicine to stop the vomiting. Mom ended up going to the hospital that night at eleven. The intravenous medicine stopped the vomiting, but a few hours later the second phase of the flu, diarrhea, began. 

Some of the members and visitors in the special service

Sunday was a little bit drier than the three days before it. The sun even broke through the clouds for short periods. Mom was still battling nausea and diarrhea and unable to keep anything but small amounts of liquid down, but she was feeling a little bit better. The Lord gave her grace to sit through both the Sunday services, and He gave Dad grace to preach the evening service. Dad preached about "So Great a Salvation" and then made his way to the back to shake everyone's hand as they left. Just minutes after the last person left, Dad began vomiting and it didn't stop until morning. We were all seriously wondering at this point if Dad and Mom would be able to come home on Monday as originally planned. The Lord was merciful, though. Dad’s symptoms subsided early Monday morning and he was able to sleep for a couple hours.  Dad felt brave enough to start traveling after his nap. So, he and Mom packed the car and picked up two Gatorades to sip on the way home. They arrived here in Prudente pale and very tired, howbeit safely, shortly before 2 pm. In the three days since then, Mom and Dad have been taking extra naps and eating mainly jello or potato soup. Now that they are definitely feeling better, I guess we are ready for another member of the family to come down with the flu. :)