As Time Goes By

Take a deep breath. I am going to try to catch up on the last 3 weeks.
First of all, Easter was FANTASTIC. We had a sunrise service that everyone thought NO ONE would attend and in fact almost EVERYONE who is ANYONE was there. It was a great service, followed by breakfast (ah, you miss out when you don't live in the tropics - fresh mangos, papayas, watermelon, etc.) and then a 10AM service. Although the 10AM service was a repetition, in part, lots of people stayed through for the second service, so the church was full again!
That evening the Cantata, "HE LIVES" was presented to a full, packed out crowd. There were 200 in the orchestra and choir, but even so it really was Standing Room Only. The presentation was just fantastic. The surprise of the evening was João's solo. He was narrating and then at one point, he sang the introduction to the choir's piece. This was planned, but people didn't know it. They kept looking around to see who was singing! What a hoot. They didn't know he could sing and some choir members told me they were really nervous when they heard the pastor would be singing, until they heard him sing.
We were on a high from that experience for several days.
Then I began working with the family life group on the Couple's Retreat to be held at the end of June. We have booked a small retreat center that is quite charming. We have now hammered out most everything - from fees, to menus, to activities, to schedule to speakers. But it has been kind of consuming working on this. It is one of my favorite activities to work on, however. I love family/couple ministry. Since it will be the week we get back from vacation, I want to leave as much as possible ready - and the rest I can work on during vacation. We will only be dealing with about 60 people, but it's still a great deal of work. The photos, obviously, are of the retreat center.
In between getting this ready, I have also been madly working on getting ready to travel next week. I wish I could just snap my fingers and get on the plane, but there is lots to do before travelling. Just buying the tickets requires lots of research and time these days. In addition, I am trying to leave things organized here. Since I do the worship services, I am working on that for part of the time when I am gone. Today, I have a cook here at the house making about 40 meals to freeze so that João and Sissy will have food while I am gone. That is wonderful, but also required a lot of time to plan the menus and buy all the food. But the family will eat better when I am gone, than when I am here. Hahahaha.
I continue to do physiotherapy on my left leg, that is a little bit stubborn in terms of healing. I can now walk without pain, which is wonderful. Believe it or not, that consumes a lot of time, by the time I wait and wait my turn and then do an hour of PT.
We have had a number of deaths in our church lately and that has made us quite sad. It does remind me, that I too am on the way out. I mean I know that, but when you stand before the closed coffin and watch the families' pain, it is a much more visible reminder!
We have been so busy that even our little excursions to the Tijuca Forest have been put on hold for a while. We are really looking forward to seeing lots of nature and being able to breathe deeply while on vacation.
It seems that I must go and freeze containers of shrimp and chicken stroganoff and serve some shrimp/fish stew (muqueca) for lunch. So I am closing out this entry. As momma always says: "It's a great life if you don't weaken."

The Blue Lagoon

Today, our day off, we decided to make a daytime visit to the large "lagoon" (a salt-water lake) on the south side. We headed off to cross "under" the mountain in front of our house (via two tunnels) and there we were. I have actually only been there one other time (although I've driven by hundreds of times). We had just a great time. It is often described as a huge mirror, reflecting the mountains of the city. It is just that. They have managed to make it a very nice tourist area with lots of outdoor restaurants, where we ate some great fish ( a la Cleopatra). On the walking/biking/skating trail around the lake you get a 360 degree view of the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado. If you look carefully, you can it in the background behind João.
After lunch, we met Elly and Bernardo (he is Elly's boyfriend, obviously) to go biking. Elly chickened out, since it had been 10 years since she had been biking! So they walked the path and João and I biked back and forth. We thought about doing a whole turn around the lake, but the kids were walking and we hadn't biked in almost two years.
Surprisingly, we all held up quite well. João and I didn't even get trembly legged. But then we only biked for 40 minutes and not even uphill. I didn't want to stress my ankles too much, either.
After all that effort, we figured we deserved some nice ice cream, so we enjoyed some (with a hot caramelized banana on top).
Since it had rained here yesterday, the weather was just wonderful. Not too hot and a nice bright blue sky. When we left, night was beginning to close in on us and Elly and I both felt chilly with the breeze coming in off the lake. It was a great way to spend our afternoon.
When we came home we stopped to see Marilene and Franklin and Bia, where I shared Easter Eggs with them. That is fun to do. Yesterday I took chocolates into the church staff (not a small task with about 17 people involved). Tomorrow I will be sharing with the workers in our apartment building (about 10).
I am especially looking forward to Sunday. We have three services at church. We have the 6:30AM, 10AM and 7PM. At the 7PM service we have a cantata with 200 participants (between choir, orchestra and drama). I can hardly wait to see "He Lives". I know it will be a terrific day because He is Risen. Yes, He is risen indeed. Hallelujah.

Ford Every Stream

Despite the odds, we are still at it. I mean to say, we are still walking in the Tijuca National Forest. Last week, however, I had a small... or perhaps large, setback as I got a little too happy about walking, too ambitious. I walked too long, too far and too uphill. I knew I was tired at the end of the walk, but the next day I knew something was wrong as my leg was swollen in an odd place - behind my ankle. Yup, you already guessed it, an injured achilles tendon. After lots of ice, some physiotherapy sessions (8 sessions left to go), it's much better and I am back to walking, albeit with much caution. I have to avoid hills and steps still and I am being very good about lots of stretching. I just couldn't stand the thought of giving up this paradise. It's like my own little personal link to complete sanity in an insane world. Those photos are from today's trail walk. We are always finding new little places that are loops and easy walking for me right now. I just can't get over the joy of seeing this beauty.
In a pragmatic way, neither of us really has time to do this. However, we have decided we don't have time NOT to do this for us. We both feel so much better, that we intend to plug away while we can.
It's been a really hectic week that has been hard on both of us and I think we need this time to decompress.
This weekend we both led part of the sessions for a Religious Education Congress that was held at our church, although not organized by us. It went very well and there were about 1000 participants, but we both came to the same conclusion that we will not be accepting anymore conferences. It's too stressful, in terms of preparation and trying to catch up on Saturday night. I was completely exhausted. I have been saying all along that my days as a religious educator are really over and this was a confirmation of that. It's good to move on and in new directions. I now know that when I feel totally drained and down after I do something, I am working on my own, not with God. It's hard to say no sometimes, but amazingly, it's getting easier. It's all about a long obedience.
Saturday night, despite my tiredness, I was at Bia's birthday party, which we held here in the party room of my building. She is Marilene's daughter. I can hardly believe she is six years old. I was there when she was born and then never got to participate in any of her birthdays. So this was a special moment for all of us- especially so since they are moving out of state in July. By the time we took our photo together, I was so tired I was hardly making any sense. In fact, I had already gone upstairs and changed clothes and we were cleaning up when we recalled that we hadn't done a photo together. Marilene had to work hard to do the decorations with a Dora Explorer theme, as this material is not available here in Brazil. In the end, it turned out to be quite cute. I think I am still in denial about the fact that they will be moving in July. That's definitely more than a stream I will have to ford and a mountain I will have to climb.