the long and short of it


Came in to work this morning and found out that someone broke in to the church kitchen and some other rooms that are behind the main building. Thankfully nothing was taken except some food items. This happened last night when no one was around so no one is hurt. Morumbi church was also robbed a few weeks back and they took off with quite a bit of money from that Sundays offering. They are tightening security up at Morumbi but there is not much we can do at the Vila I don't think. The upstairs where all the computers are already has alarms and video servalliance.

This final week has been and is very bittersweet. Every once in awhile I realize that I am doing something for the last time. Palmyra and I went out for lunch together for the last time, Ana Clecia and I had our last piano lesson/discipleship time, this will be my last Sunday here etc. Part of me hates dragging out good-byes and wishes I could be on the plane home already. Another part of me is avoiding the whole aspect of leaving but emotionally/mentally I have already cut a lot of the ties so it hasn't been too bad. Thankfully I am already looking ahead and am excited to return. The clinginess of the kids who are always wanting hugs and telling me not to leave was endearing at first but is now getting on my nerves. Please pray for patience because when it comes to kids my nerves are a little on the short side lately. Thankfully it hasn't been showing, at least I hope not.

This past weekend I had two really neat experiences. On Sunday I went to Embu das Artes which is a town with huge open air craft fair and on Monday (my day off and hence my Saturday) I went to Parque Ibirapuera. Tiago and Su took me to Embu and I went to Ibirapuera with Jaque, one of the girls I mentored. It was lovely getting out of the city for a bit and the park I went to on Monday is so big it is almost like the city does not exist. I miss greenery and wide open spaces. I was hoping the fair at Embu would be calm and peaceful since its in a small town. It was peaceful but there were tons of people. You cannot get away from the crowds in Sao Paulo it seems. There's my update. A few other prayer requests include a dentist appointment for Erika whose cavity is now so bad she needs a root canal but has no health insurance and no money to cover it. She also lost her mp3 player and has no way of recording her class lectures. I have also had a feeling of uneasiness lately in regards to safety (even before todays break-in). Pray that I will be wise about walking outdoors after dark and that I'll be safe. Thanks!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

En Route Stories

Image
Ahoj! This is my second day in Prague. I arrived at 1 o'clock (Czech time) on Saturday afternoon. I have already had the chance to do some sight seeing and this evening I went to the local church. Sadly, the Southcity Church (which meets in an elementary school) is the only evangelical church in the Southcity side of Prague's 4th district. There is one Catholic church also but that's it. This means there are only 2 churches for 45 thousand people! Can you imagine? On the way to the service Mark Potma (missionaries I'm staying with) told me that Czechs don't even use churches for weddings and funerals! But I was going to talk about my flights. Wow! I could totally tell you guys were praying. Everything went so smoothly. I also got to have some really neat conversations with the people who sat next to me. From Chicago to London I ended up sitting between two University of Missouri students. They were also on their way to Prague for an exchange/study abroad program. Jo
Read more

Training in the windy city

Greetings from Chicago!! I must say that the city lives up to its name. Yesterday when we toured downtown it was quite windy so I got to sport the windblown look for the evening. Chicago also has great older buildings, amazing deep dish pizza and a gorgeous sky line! I took a ton of pictures and really enjoyed being a tourist for the day. I'll post some of them when I have some more time. Training here at TEAM headquarters in Wheaton has been fairly intense. We have breakfast at 7:15 and start sessions at 8 a.m. Its a pretty non-stop day. Really relevant info for the most part though. We've learned lots of good safety travel tips, what to expect if a TEAMserve missionary gets kidnapped, how to avoid being pick pocketed, etc. I don't think I'll have to worry about the kidnapping stuff but there is a gal going to Eastern Asia so that stuff is relevant. Also learned about TEAMs history as an organization, what to be aware of as far as knowing our own expectations, the best
Read more

Presence is Enough

Give me something to do! I whined to Iva the cook for the Compassion project. She just laughed at me and told me to go find Mariza the director. I am learning that while there is plenty to do a day at Vila Andrade is not defined by tasks. I am expected to just show up and then see how the morning develops. Yesterday this meant playing with the children, having lunch with them and then coloring and reading until 2 o clock. My afternoons are more planned out and Pastor Marcelo is doing his best to stick with our schedule. I have been told that I do not seem to have a good attitude at times and I think the lack of a pre-planned, task focused day is 90% of the problem. Now that I know that showing up and just going with the flow is the main expectation my stress and frustration levels have gone down significantly. However, being able to deal with and be game for whatever comes up is challenging. Take this morning for instance. I was super tired and barely managed to drag myself to the 8 am
Read more