Visitors from Castilho

My primary purpose for this post is to share with you a few pictures that we took the last weekend of August during our visit with the Haroldo Garcia family. However, I thought I would add in a picture of Bro. Marcelo and his family, since he is also an active participant in the contact that Dad has with Bro. Haroldo.

Bro. Marcelo and Wanderleia
With Daniel and Asaph

Marcelo Lima is one of the men that years ago asked Dad to come to Presidente Prudente and begin a right church. He and his family had been through every Southern Baptist church in town, and he was convicted of errors in their practices and preaching.  In 2004, we moved to Prudente and Dad began holding Wednesday and Sunday services in either Marcelo’s home or our own. At that time, Marcelo and his wife, Wanderleia, had one small son and they lived in what we call a “cracker box” house. These houses are built by the government and are known for being tiny. Bro. Marcelo’s house had one bedroom, a super small bathroom, and a kitchen, period! In the years that have passed since then, Marcelo’s family has gained another son, and they have done extensive remodeling on their home.  

Marcelo and Dad enjoying some fellowship

Marcelo has always worked in companies that buy and sell metal for construction purposes. Here in Prudente, he worked his way up to be the manager of one of these companies. He spent most of his days on the phone buying and selling truckloads of metal. It was a very stressful job. In September 2010, he quit this job and moved his family to Três Lagõas (3 hours away from Prudente). He is now managing a small company that presses sheet metal into doors, window frames, etc…

Haroldo, Mariana, Ana, Maria, and Amauri
with Bro. Antonio from the Prudente church

Our visit with Bro. Haroldo and his family began with a good hearty laugh. Two months ago, Bro. Haroldo entered into contact with Dad and asked if there was a good Baptist church in the Três Lagõas area. He and his family actually live in a small city named Castilho, which is fourteen  kilometers away from Três Lagõas. Dad put Haroldo in touch with Bro. Marcelo at that time, but also continued exchanging a few emails and phone calls with him. Through these emails and telephone conversations, we came to the conclusion that Haroldo and his wife, Mariana, had six children ranging in age from six months all the way up to ten years old. As we prepared for their visit last week, we planned places for eight people to sleep, planned out meals that would feed their eight along with our five, and tried to think of how to entertain six small children, etc… but when they pulled up in front of the house, we discovered that they only have three children. I would imagine the misunderstanding happened over the phone. Bro. Haroldo probably said they had “três” (three) children and we heard “seis” (six). The pronunciations for three, six and ten in Portuguese are similar, and it isn’t uncommon for us foreigners to mix them up. Anyway, Dad told them right away about our mistake and we all shared a good laugh. Then began a good visit…

Maria and Ana with Yasmin in Sunday School

Bro. Haroldo and Mariana were very happy to spend Saturday evening and all Sunday afternoon talking with Dad. They used to live in the state of Goiás, and were members for years in a conservative Southern Baptist church in their hometown.  Two or three years ago, they moved to Castilho and soon discovered that all the Southern Baptist churches in this area are contemporary. The visiting of many different churches and seeing many different practices, left Bro. Haroldo and Mariana with lots of questions about the doctrines of grace, the church ordinances, correct worship, etc… The Lord gave Dad grace to show them Biblical answers.

Ana beating Mom in a board game

This couple also had some questions concerning home schooling. They have heard a lot about how home schooling is done in the States and as a university professor, Mariana has seen many of the flaws in the public school system, so they would very much like to home school their three children. The only drawback is that the Brazilian government prohibits home schooling in 99.9% of the cases. Bro. Haroldo is a lawyer and he is doing his best to take care of the legal side of this matter, while Mariana works on organizing the material to teach the kids with.

Maria Teiró playing around

Saturday and Sunday also abounded with opportunities for us to get to know the three Garcia children. Amauri is the youngest. He is six months old, and his two favorite pastimes are smiling and sucking on his fingers. Ana Wiuiko at ten years old is the oldest. David, Joy and I took turns playing a variety of table games with her. I might add that she beat us soundly multiple times. Maria Teiró is the middle girl. She is three. I aroused a lot of memories as I pulled our old toys out of storage, and then played house, raced cars, and built block towers with her.  The two girls have very unusual middle names, because Bro. Haroldo is a native Brazilian. In fact, when they are at home, the Garcia family speaks mainly the Indian dialect that he grew up with.

Tupã, our current mayor, who is running for re-election

Now I will conclude this post with a little local news. On October 7^th Brazilians are going to be casting their votes for mayors and members of the city council. Here in Prudente there are six candidates for mayor’s office and a little over two hundred men and women hoping to occupy one of the thirteen chairs on the city council.

Sound truck with lots of loud speakers

All of these candidates have begun fervently campaigning. Many of them have paid to have a catchy little tune composed with their name in it, and then hire a truck or car with loud speakers to drive all over town playing their tune. In smaller towns, it is considered important for the supporters of the candidate to form a caravan and follow the sound truck, but here in Prudente that is less common.

Santinhos

Most political hopefuls also hire dozens of people to pass out “santinhos”. A “santinho” is a small piece of paper that carries the candidate’s name, number, and a few impressive promises. These papers are passed out door to door, given to drivers stopped at red lights, and eventually end up scattered around in public places.

Since David and I were born in Brazil, we will Lord willing be voting in the upcoming elections. We have each already chosen a candidate to support for mayor’s office; now we just need to sift through those two hundred candidates for the city council and choose one. Thankfully some of the candidates disqualify themselves. Take Paçoca the Clown for instance. He is a well known figure around town because he does propaganda for one of the large grocery stores, but that definitely doesn’t equip him for a political office!