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. :)

Kitten Season

On the way to a new home!

It was an exceptionally busy Sunday at the end of March. We had just come home from the morning church service, and were preparing to have guests over for lunch. I had dropped off my Bible and a few things in my bedroom and was hurrying to the kitchen, when I heard the pitiful mewing coming from one of the empty lots next door to us. My heart sank as I remembered that it was “Kitten Season”, those months of the year when cats breed freely and irresponsible cat owners take the unwanted kittens and drop them off in empty lots or on the outskirts of town. A quick trip out the front gate and down the sidewalk confirmed my suspicions. There was a bewildered mother cat sitting on a pile of construction rubble. Beside her was one small kitten probably no more that ten or twelve days old and further down the rubble pile were three more tiny gray and white kittens.

Kittens soon after they were abandoned

My family first learned the hard facts about kitten season and the sad reality that there are no animal shelters of any sort in most Brazilian cities, when we lived in Catanduva during the 1990’s. Our home at that time was close to the edge of the city as well as being next door to a dirt road; it was a prime place for people to drop kittens. We kids usually found the abandoned kittens, of varying sizes, colors, and health conditions, as we were out playing with our friends or walking our dogs. Whenever you find a box or bag of mewing kittens, a difficult decision had to be made. Do I take them home? Should I try to find loving homes for them? Should I leave them there in hopes that the improbable will happen and someone else will care for them? Taking stray kittens home has never been a good option for us. Our family already fills our house nicely, and we have always had a dog or two and a few canaries. We also have to take into consideration that we frequently have guests in our home.  Finding new homes for kittens is a good idea, but experience has taught us that it is extremely hard to do. Leaving the kittens where they are with the faint hope that someone else will have pity on them is a hard option to consider, especially for a hopeless animal lover like myself. We eventually learned to do what we could for the kittens. Every year in one of the empty lots near our house, Dad with some help from the boys would build a cat house using anything they could find. I remember one year the cat house was made out of the empty body of a wash machine. Another year Dad found an extra large slab of cement and simply propped it up so that the kittens could run under it to find shelter.  Dad and my brothers not only became experts at building weatherproof cat houses, but they also developed several techniques for rescuing kittens from storm drains with unmovable lids. During kitten season whenever one of us found a kitten or a whole litter of kittens, we would take them to our cat house. Joy and I would carry food to them several times a day. Mom with her nursing skills helped us treat their minor eye infections, funguses, and common parasites. During the seven or eight years that we rescued kittens, a few of our kittens did go to new homes, a few died, but most of them grew up and wandered off on their own.

Empty lot next door to us

In 2004, we moved into a well established neighborhood in the bustling city of Presidente Prudente. The fact that this new home was a good distance away from the edge of town meant that we did not rescue any kittens for the next five years. Of course it also helped that the neighbor on our right was a cat lover, who adopted the occasional stray that wondered on to our road. We moved out of that house in 2009, and into the house where we currently live in the neighborhood called “São Marcos” (Saint Mark). São Marcos is a relatively quiet neighborhood. It is well populated, but yet not crowded. There are still a good number of empty lots waiting for someone to buy them and build a house. Our road is particularly quiet. We have two neighbors on our right side and a third neighbor diagonally across the road from us. Directly across the road from us are three empty lots, and next door to us on our left are three empty lots. Even with all the empty lots around us, we really haven’t had a problem with people abandoning kittens on our road. That is we hadn’t had a problem until that Sunday that the mother cat and her four kittens were dropped off.

Feira

Once again Dad built a weatherproof cat house. This time two warped cupboard doors, a cardboard box, a selection of broken bricks, and several armfuls of johnson grass (to shed rain and give shade) went into the construction of the house. We put the kittens in the house and the mother cat was content to care for them there for the next two and a half weeks. At that point, the kittens were beginning to eat on their own, and again we faced that familiar, yet still difficult decision. Should we leave the kittens alone and allow the mother to raise them to be wild? Or should we help the kittens learn to eat and try to find homes for them? We chose the latter option in this case. Mom, Joy and I brought the kittens home on Saturday, April 7th, and began teaching them to eat.  We also immediately began doing propaganda for “free kittens”. This included putting up posters around the neighborhood, asking everyone that crossed our path if they were interested in a feline companion, and joining four other people, who had “abandoned kittens needing good homes”, in putting an ad in the local newspaper. The Lord abundantly blessed and opened up homes for each of the four kittens. The only male kitten found his home two days later through the newspaper ad. The three females were a little bit harder to place, but we ended up taking them to two “feiras” later that week. A “feira” is an open air market where venders set up tables and sell everything from flip-flops and homemade cheese to fresh produce and cheap toys. Just about every day of the week here in Prudente there is a feira in a different neighborhood. Joy and I, first of all, took the remaining three kittens to the Thursday morning feira out by our old house. We walked all through the feira and up and down the busiest roads in that neighborhood, and found a home for one kitten. Later that evening, Dad and I took the last two kittens to the feira in Ana Jacinta, which is a neighborhood near the church. This was one of the largest feiras in town. Government officials had blocked off three roads to accommodate the feira and both sides of each of the roads were lined with venders. Lots and lots of people were out shopping, and we took the opportunity to offer them a free cat.  We discovered that the vast majority of the folks shopping for their weekly supply of fresh fruits and veggies are either are unable to have cats for a variety of reasons or else they already have too many cats, but after much walking and asking, we found two people that were very happy to accept a kitten. 

Sundae Snoozing

 We considered having the mother cat spayed and then turning her loose to scavenge for her living. There are already several cats in our neighborhood that survive this way. Mom and we girls, however, became quite fond of her as we cared for her and her little ones and Dad has given us permission to keep her.  The cat, now named Sundae, and our family are currently going through an adjustment period. We have never had a cat in the house as a permanent resident before, and for some odd reason we keep being surprised that she doesn’t act and react like a dog. Sundae on the other hand finds it hard to understand why she can’t sharpen her claws wherever she pleases and why we insist that the birds are not to be eaten.  I do believe there are some good indications that we are all going survive this period, though. Each of us is quickly becoming a cat lover and Sundae…well, it isn't taking her long to learn to enjoy a life of leisure.

Easter Eggs, Salted Cod and Fried Watermelon

Special display of cod, sardines, and olive oil

The 2012 Carnaval festivities officially ended on February 21st. Since then Brazilians have been plodding their way through the forty days of Lent. There are some folks that with genuine sincerity abstain from something that they enjoy and attend special masses in hopes of atoning for their carnality, but there are many others who give up some item for Lent simply because it has become a tradition. Red meat is by far the most popular item to be given up for Lent. So many people give it up in fact that the beef prices in the supermarkets actually come down a little. We have also heard of people staying away from alcoholic beverages, desserts, and even chocolate in particular during Lent. Here at home, we jokingly say that we have given up fried watermelon or tuna icecream for the next forty days; there is even a chance that we will go a year or two perhaps even three without it. :)

Salted Cod

As the demand for beef all over Brazil drops, the market for fish increases. Grocery stores put out special displays of various types of fish, including shark, fresh sardines, and primarily bacalhau, which is salted cod. Brazilians love to fix bacalhau anytime during Lent but especially on Good Friday. The traditional way that Brazilian women prepare salted cod is to desalt it, and then bake it with whole black olives, small potatoes, and generous trickles of olive oil. This dish of bacalhoada is often decorated with hard boiled eggs before it is served. 

Easter Eggs Overhead and Everywhere!

Just as soon as Carnaval and Ash Wednesday were over, the invasion of the Easter eggs began. These chocolate eggs have practically taken over every grocery store in town. Prudente's six largest supermarkets have each put up metal frames in order to be able hang the brightly wrapped eggs all along the ceiling and sides of two or three of their aisles. Easter eggs have also inched their way into gift stores, English schools, and even the newspaper. We subscribe to the O Estado de São Paulo, an old, well-trusted newspaper. This year O Estadão, as it is fondly called, purchased close to thirty different chocolate eggs and then chose eleven of their subscribers to come to the office, taste each of the eggs and give their opinion. A few days later four pages in the newspaper were dedicated to Easter eggs. There were pictures of each egg, their brand names and prices, and the comments given by the readers. 


If you do decide to invest in a chocolate Easter egg, I would say there are three ways by which you can choose your egg. They are:

Medium Sized São Paulo Soccer Team Eggs

1. By Size. All the Easter eggs are actually categorized by numbers. Each company makes a selection of number four eggs, number twelves, fifteens and so on all the way up into the thirties. However,we don't have the habit of buying eggs, so I have never figured out the number system. To me, they are either small, medium or large. The small eggs weigh about fifty grams and cost between two and three dollars apiece. These are usually aimed at children and inside the chocolate egg there is often a toy. The widest selection of Easter eggs is without a doubt in the medium size. These weigh a little less than a pound and cost anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. The large Easter eggs which weigh a little over a pound are often made with special (read that "expensive") chocolate, so there are fewer of these eggs produced and fewer of them are sold due to their price tags which range from thirty to fifty dollars each.

Smilinguido Eggs

2. By Wrapping. The packaging of the Easter eggs is definitely a good thing to consider because without a doubt the wrapping is going to last longer then the egg itself. Joy and I were out getting groceries recently and we took a few minutes to browse the hanging Easter eggs. What a variety of wrappings there were!! We found several rows of eggs wrapped in pastel colors. Others were in metallic gold and silver. A number of companies bought the rights to print much loved cartoon characters and movie stars on their packaging. We even found chocolate eggs specially wrapped for soccer fans. These eggs carry the colors and emblems of each of the top soccer teams in Brazil. Lastly, we discovered some Smilinguido Easter eggs. Smilinguido is a black cartoon ant that is quite popular in Christian circles. He and all his fellow ants show up on bookmarkers, cards, in coloring books, and even on some clothing items, and they are usually quoting the NIV or teaching some watered down truth.

Prestigio Eggs

3. By Flavor. Of course, there are the common milk chocolate, white chocolate and extra dark chocolate eggs for all those that, like myself, prefer their chocolate simple, unmarred by other flavors or the crunch of nuts. But there are also some creative flavors for those who are adventurous. The Prestigio is a Brazilian candy bar that has been around for years. It is a chocolate bar with a creamy coconut filling.  At Easter Prestigio's makers make an egg with the same filling and the same name. Another filled egg is the Sensação. Its filling is strawberry cream.  The Sonho de Valsa egg is also worth mentioning.  It is a chocolate egg that comes with several chocolate bonbons inside of it. Each of the bonbons is filled with a cream made from cashew nuts. This paragraph could go on a good while yet describing several more Easter eggs, which contain different nuts and fillings, but I would imagine that your mouths are already watering enough. :)

Preparing for an outdoor Passion play

The grand finale of all of this - Carnaval, Lent, and Easter eggs-  is Semana Santa, or in English, Holy Week. This series of celebrated days begins on Palm Sunday. On this particular Sunday every year, we see people carrying palm fronds arriving at Catholic churches for a special morning mass.  Palm Sunday is a bad day for any bush or tree that has palm-like fronds. There used to be a short palm tree here in our neighborhood, and every year without fail people cut off all but its very highest fronds on Palm Sunday.  The poor tree fell over and died several months ago, so this year it is resting undisturbed.

Cement Figure at Morada de Deus

 The Catholic churches around town joined together and planned special masses, processions, Passion plays and other events for each of the weekdays that come between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. One of the largest events this year was a procession followed by a special mass at “The Dwelling Place of God”.  Presidente Prudente used to have a staunch Catholic mayor named Agripino. As the story goes, one day seven or eight years ago Agripino was very depressed and on his way to a neighboring city to commit suicide. However, before he reached that city, he had a divine revelation. As a result of this revelation, he set aside a large piece of his property for religious purposes. He built an ornate church with lots of stained glass windows on the highest point of this land and put in a winding road that leads up to the church. All along this road, Agripino put in cement figures which portray events in Christ’s life, with special attention given to His crucifixion. This place is called Morada de Deus or “The Dwelling Place of God”. This last Monday Agripino  invited anyone from Prudente and surrounding cities to join a procession that would walk up the winding road and then stay for a special mass at the church. Approximately two thousand people were expected to participate. 

St. Judas Catholic Church

Today, Easter Sunday and the last day of Semana Santa, literally started off with a bang. Right around 6 a.m. Catholic churches all over town set off firecrackers in anticipation of the early morning masses that were to come. We live two blocks away from the St. Judas Catholic church, and noticed that by 7:30 a.m. cars were arriving and people were walking from nearby streets for the last special mass of this Easter season.  If our calculations are correct, the next big religious holiday in Brazil will be Corpus Christi here in sixty-one days. 

A Trip to Jaciporã

The church's building

March 18 was the third Sunday of the month and the day that Dad routinely visits the church in Jaciporã. Mom, Joy and I take turns accompanying Dad on his trips, and this Sunday it was my turn. Dad and I left Prudente at 5pm and quickly got on Raposo Tavares, a well maintained four lane highway. The next fifty minutes of traveling were a breeze broken only momentarily by the need to stop and pay $2.70 in toll. As we neared the city of Presidente Venceslau, Dad exited right onto a smaller two lane highway. There are sections of this highway where the asphalt has  been patched numerous times and other portions where the asphalt is definitely needing some repair work done. Considering everything, though, it is still a good highway. The scenery along both of these highways was mainly pastures and grazing cattle. This is fitting since this corner of São Paulo state raises a lot of beef cattle. It is likely that many of these cows will eventually end up in Presidente Prudente, where there are two slaughter houses and two leather processing plants.

Bro. Djalma and Dad  enjoy talking

Dad and I arrived in Jaciporã forty minutes before the evening service was to begin. Bro. Djalma, the leader of the church, met us on the main road and took us to his home. Sis. Eva, his wife, had some bread in the oven which made the house fragrant but also very hot. It didn’t take Dad and Bro. Djalma very long to decide that it would be much cooler to sit outside under a tree and talk.

Michelle and Alexandre

I ended up sitting on the small varanda outside of the kitchen door and playing Uno with Bro. Djalma’s son, Alexandre, and daughter, Michelle. Michelle is in her last two years of highschool, and she is studying hard in hopes of being accepted into medical school after she graduates. Alexandre is a little bit younger than Michelle. He is very tall and shy and at the moment he doesn’t see much need to study, 
but he is still plodding along in his schooling with his parents’ constant encouragement.

The snack being served in the kitchen

Michelle won several of the games of Uno, and I was just starting to explain to them the zero-seven variation when Sis. Eva called us to come in and have a snack. She served us fresh bread with butter and two types of juice – guava and graviola. We had only ten minutes to eat and then had to hurry over to the church building, which is a little less than two blocks away.

Looking at books

The service was scheduled to begin at 7:30, but starting time came and no one but Dad and I, Bro. Djalma, Alexandre and his cousin Luan had arrived. This didn't bother Bro. Djalma, though, in his custamarily calm way he was sure that his wife and daughter would be down as soon as they had finished getting ready. Bro. Jonas, he suggested, was probably showering after working on construction all day, and Bro. Roberto and his family were most likely being delayed by their milk cows. Bro. Djalma and the boys straightened the rows of chairs and then enjoyed looking at the books that Dad had brought. Michelle, her mom, and a visiting lady named Salete arrived about 7:40 and Dad suggested that Bro. Djalma go ahead and open the service with Scripture reading and some hymns. He agreed and led in the Scripture reading. Bro. Jonas arrived in time for the hymns, and that was a good thing because he leads the music while playing his guitar. Bro. Roberto, his wife, and two grown children eventually arrived in time for the preaching.

Singing hymns

The Lord gave Dad grace to preach a clear message about sin - the origin of sin, the nature of sin, the end of sin, and the Saviour. They must be harvesting some of the sugarcane fields around Jaciporã, because four times during the service a heavy sugarcane truck would go by on the road in front of the church building. As is his habit, Dad paused in his preaching until the rumbling of the truck had subsided and then resumed where he had left off.

We spent just a few minutes talking with the brethren after the service, before packing the car for the trip home. Our hour and a half drive home was uneventful and we arrived home at 10:30pm.