People and Pictures from the Sept. 7th Service

Song Service

On September 7th, we had a special service in our garage. Here are some pictures taken during that special time, and also a few other pictures which show people who were present for the service.

Pr. Antonio

Pr. Antonio Carlos Dias from Bauru was the guest speaker.

Bro. Marco with his wife Lindalva
and daughter, Julia

Bro. Marco Paes brought his family and three others from the church in Bataguassu.

Bro. Djalma

Bro. Djalma came from the church in
Jaciporã...

Bro. Djalma's wife, Eva, his daughters, Diane
and Michelle, and son, Alexandre

... and brought his family. 

Pr. Israel and David

Pr. Israel from Ourinhos came....

Sis. Izalina and Mom

... and brought his wife, Izalina,...

Zé Carlos enjoying the books

.... and Zé Carlos, a member of the church.
















Most of the brethren from Igreja Batista Bereana here in Prudente were also present:

Edson and Isabel

Bro. Edson and Sis. Isabel. He is the song leader.

Moisés

       



     Moisés, a faithful visitor.

Bro. Antonio

Bro. Antonio, who is always ready to help in any way he can. Very interestingly, he never applied himself to learning how to read until he was saved later in his life. He then saw the need to be able read his Bible, so he began teaching himself to read. Now Bro. Antonio even helps out by reading portions of Scripture  out loud in services.

Jucilene

Sis. Jucilene, who is Antonio's daughter. As usual, she helped make the refreshments for after the service.

Pr. Israel,  David and Luis Carlos

Luis Carlos, the Hamburger Man. He helped us a lot on the preparing for and cleaning up after the service.








Last of all, here is a picture of four young ladies who were present for the service:

Sara holding Julia - They are from Bataguassu.
Isabela behind Yasmin - They are from Prudente.

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!

Visitors, Printing, and the Blooming Ipê Trees

These last two weeks have been especially busy here in our home, but we did have a few opportunities to snap pictures and I would like to share those with you.

Daniel with the Sukerth Family
L-R: Bro. Rudi, his wife Eliana, Daniel, Sabrina, Henrique

The busyness began with a visit from Daniel and the Sukerth family. Two and a half years ago when Daniel moved to São José dos Campos, he joined Igreja Batista Ebenezer, a small church that was struggling in various areas. The last pastor that this church had was unfaithful, and left behind some wounds which were still raw.  Also the church hadn’t found a new pastor, so Bro. Rudi Sukerth and some of the other older men in the church took turns preaching and leading the church. On top of those difficulties, the members in this church have always struggled with the doctrines of grace. Two or three families in the church, including the Sukerths, strongly believe the doctrines of grace. A handful of others don’t see all these doctrines in the Bible, but yet they don’t believe there should be contention about them. Then there is a portion of the members that feel very negatively about the doctrines of grace. Just a few months after Daniel moved his membership to Ebenezer, all of these problems began snowballing and despite the help of several pastors, who traveled in to São José to preach and counsel, the church voted in September 2011 to discipline all the grace members, plus a few of the non-grace members who had taken a firm stand against the contention.  

Daniel and Sabrina with Sis. Isabel

As you can imagine, this was a very hard time for Daniel and the Sukerth family. However during this time, Daniel began to really appreciate what he saw in Sabrina, Bro. Sukerth’s daughter. They developed a friendship, which turned into a courtship, and just last month it became an engagement. The purpose of Daniel and the whole Sukerth family making the seven hour trip to visit us was to celebrate this happy occurrence.

Pr. Waldir and his wife Sis. Miriam

Daniel and the majority of the other grace members from Igreja Batista Ebenezer eventually joined Igreja Batista Betel in São Paulo city. They now have to travel about an hour and a half to get to the services and another hour and a half to get home, but as Daniel mentioned, it is a real blessing to be able to serve the Lord in a church where people are united and at peace. Pr. Waldir and the brethren in Betel voted not too long ago to begin a preaching point in São José dos Campos. They found a small building to rent and are currently holding services there every Wednesday and Saturday evening. If the Lord would be pleased to open that door, Igreja Batista Betel would like to someday organize the São José dos Campos group into a new church.

Almost done with the collating 

The print room has also seen a lot of activity recently. The duplicator has been faithfully saying whirr, whirr, beep, whirr, whirr, beep as it prints the pages of a small book about the history of Baptist churches in our corner of São Paulo state. Pr. Gilberto finished writing his much larger book about the history of Baptist churches in the whole state of São Paulo and took exerts from it to make this smaller book. He was interested in having a few copies of this smaller version to give to some folks who helped him gather information and another pastor called Dad asking for a copy of it, so Dad printed off one hundred copies of the smaller book.

Punching holes for the spirals

Luis Carlos (the Hamburger Man) came over several days to collate the pages as Dad printed them. Once the collating was done, both men worked on cutting the books and putting them through the puncher. These machines added a crunch, crunch, thud to our everyday noises. The final step was to thread the spirals into the book. We spent two evenings working on this step as a family. The books are now done and a few have already been mailed off to their new homes.

As many of you already know, we are currently in winter.  So far we haven’t had a whole lot of cold, but it has been dry, extremely dry. The ground becomes hard and the dirt turns into a fine red dust which the wind blows all over. The wild grasses in the empty lots become dry and certain people find joy in setting the lots on fire. There was one week recently were every day there was a different empty lot burning near our house. The wind blows the ashes up and over our walls where they scuttle across the floors and eventually gather in the corners. This can be a discouraging time of year considering the dust and ashes, not to mention the constant allergy and asma problems which they bring.

Pink Ipê

However, we learned recently that it is this dryness which causes the Ipê trees to bloom. The pink Ipês are by far the most abundant of all the Ipês. They are the first to drop all their leaves and deck themselves with clusters of flowers.

Yellow Ipê

As the pink flowers begin fading and falling to the ground, the yellow Ipês burst into bloom. Dad especially loves these cheery yellow blossoms, because yellow happens to be mom’s favorite color. Dad had this picture of himself in front of a yellow Ipê tree taken especially for her.

It is snowing!

Last of all, the white Ipês exchange their leaves for flowers, and interestingly their blossoms only last about forty-eight hours before they are dropped and small new leaves appear. We sometimes refer to the old blossoms laying on the ground under white Ipês as “Brazilian snow”. This “snow”, by the way is very nice. You don’t have to shovel it or put down salt. Simply sweep it up once or twice a day and throw it away. :)

White Ipê

And here is one more picture of a white Ipê. Joy took this picture on one of her afternoon walks, and it was too pretty to not use it.  Just in case any of you are wondering, horse and wagons are not a common means of transportation here in Prudente. There are a few men, though, that earn a living by moving branches, construction debris, etc… with their horse and wagon.

Trip to Ourinhos

My time is a little short this week, so instead of writing a full fledged blog post about Dad's and my trip to Ourinhos, I thought I would simply post the pictures that we took with a few words of explanation. I hope you enjoy them!

Marilia

On the way to Ourinhos, we stopped in Marilia. A nice city with a little over one hundred thousand inhabitants. I'm not sure what all the city thrives on, but we learned that it is home to three universities and Marilan, a factory that produces a wide variety of cookies and crackers.

Dad and Pr. Gilberto

Our purpose for stopping in Ourinhos was to visit Pr. Gilberto Stefano.  As soon as you set foot in his home, various pieces of antique furniture and an old, old radio reveal Pr. Gilberto's love of history. He loves church history in particular and is currently adding the final touches to a book he wrote about the history of Baptist churches in São Paulo state. Pr. Gilberto has been wanting Dad to look the book over and give his opinion about it. This visit was scheduled so that Dad could do just that. 

Lara and Maria Lydia

 Dad and Pr. Gilberto spent almost two hours holed up in his office. During this time, I talked and played Old Maid with Pr. Gilberto's two daughters, Lara (16) and Maria Lydia (6).

Filipe and Sis. Valeria

Near the end of the visit Pr. Gilberto's wife, Sis. Valeria, and his son, Filipe (14), even joined the fun.

Ourinhos

My "Cell"

We left Pr. Gilberto's home shortly before 8 p.m. and continued driving to Ourinhos. I think a good adjective to describe Ourinhos as we drove into its downtown area at 9:30 p.m. would be "bustling". Every parking spot on both sides of the streets was taken, and it looked as if the majority of the city's 10,300 inhabitants were heading to the central plaza, where music was playing and lighted food booths abounded. Later we learned that a festival for Saint John's Day was taking place.


The family we would be staying with during our time in Ourinhos wasn't expecting us until noon of the following day, so Dad after much searching found us a hotel for the night. This hotel earned itself a place in my special memories. I'm not exactly sure when it began working its way into that special category of memories, perhaps it was when the elderly clerk informed us that the hotel's parking was around the corner and down the road a block and a half, but for sure by morning, the Ninth of July Hotel and especially room #9 had become an unforgettable experience. It surprised me frequently during my stay there how very tiny the room was, and Corrie Ten Boom's descriptions of her prison cells often came to mind. With portions of Corrie Ten Boom's book, The Hiding Place, lurking in my thoughts, I measured my room. It was exactly 5 steps long and 4 wide. Later I opened the window and sure enough a dingy, gray wall was within arms reach. Thankfully, unlike a prison cell, my room was very clean and the bed soft. It was a welcome haven after a day of traveling and visiting.

Dad with Pr. Israel

The next morning we packed up and made our way to Pr. Israel's home. Pr. Israel has worked as an electrician for many years. Of late, he and his family have been working extra to make some improvements on their home. They have already finished adding on a bedroom and laying new tile in half the house. Their next project is to transform a back bedroom into a utility room. Pastor, his wife Izalina, and their youngest son, Giovane layed their work aside and welcomed us warmly.

Salto Grande

That evening we accompanied Pr. Israel to Salto Grande, a small town about twenty minutes away from Ourinhos. Although the church in Ourinhos began this preaching point in Salto Grande quite awhile ago, there are only three people that faithfully come to the services. None the less, Dad enjoyed preaching to them, and they really seemed to enjoy the books that we took.

Talking after the morning service

Dad preached both the services in Ourinhos on Sunday, and we had enjoyable times of  fellowship with the brethren after the services. 

Jander, Flavio and Dad

Two of the men in the church, Flavio and Jander, especially enjoyed talking with Dad about the Greek roots of certain words. 

Giovane and Dad

 In the free hours that we had in the afternoons, we played numerous rounds of dominoes. Giovane won most of the games, but it was still fun.

Diego and little Julia

Pr. Israel's oldest son, Diego, came over Sunday afternoon to see his parents and visit with us. He brought his little daughter, Julia. She doesn't like strangers, so I had to content myself with looking but definitely NOT touching. :)

Sis. Izalina, Pr. Israel, Giovane and Paula with Dad

This gathering of Baptists (like most others) was not lacking in good food. Right before this picture was taken, Sis. Izalina served us a two layer pudim. The common pudim is very similar to an extra sweet custard and only has one layer. This pudim had been baked and then covered with chocolate cake batter and baked again. It was delicious!

Lanchonete

Okay, this is a bonus picture. I took it in Marilia because I liked the trailer's paint job, but later I realized what a good example this is of a lanchonete. Lanchonetes are quite common in Brazil. The cooks and waiters that run these eateries usually set up tables and chairs on the sidewalk and heat their flat griddles around 7 p.m.  They then fix and serve every type of sandwich that you can imagine until the wee hours of the next morning. Most lanchonetes serve a sandwich called the X - Tudo (which means: Cheese and Everything). This sandwich has a hamburger, chopped chicken, bacon, fried egg, cheese and even sliced sausages stuffed into a big hamburger bun. 

Luis Carlos, the Hamburger Man

We came to know Luis Carlos, fondly called the Hamburger Man, through the lanchonete that he owned and operated just a few blocks away from our house. Since his battle with cancer, Luis Carlos had to sell his lanchonete, however the Lord has kept the door open for us to have contact with him. Dad visits him occasionally, but more often then not he visits us and helps run errands or work in the print room. This month Luis Carlos has been rejoicing because he has been cancer free for one year.

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. :)