So you noticed!

At least one person noticed the new photo on my profile. And yes it is a photo of me. Even my husband who was here when I took the photo says he can't recognize me. So he took a shot of me this morning in the daylight and you get a better idea. The hairdresser was nervous about cutting off my locks, as most
Brazilians don't like short hair, so he didn't cut it as short as the photo I had with me, but it is very short in back and longer in front, so it gives the illusion of not being so very short. What a relief!
Yesterday was Elly's 24th birthday and we had a small get together for her. I got, finally a photo of the three of them. Good looking crew, isn't it?
She's a really special girl and we were so happy to be able to spend part of her birthday with her. So that's the scoop!

One woman's meat,another woman's poison.

Since we returned from São Luís last week, the weather here in Rio, according to me, has been WONDERFUL. It has been rainy and cool. Today, the sky is blue with soft white puffy clouds and the temp is 23C (or 73 F), which is just about perfect. We don't even need fans right now. In the middle of January when it would be 90 and above with horrible sticky hot weather we have had a week of miracle weather. I see people in long-sleeved jackets, etc. Everyone is cold. I just love it. I feel like it is a gift of life. I feel so good. Just had to share my joy.
Now you know, of course, that not everyone feels this way and of course I sympathize, for as much as hot weather makes me feel sick and tired and ache all over, I know most Brazilians feel that way in the cold weather. So they are miserable, especially the students who are on their summer break and want to go to the beach.
Carnival is arriving and people are heading out by the droves for the beaches. If the weather doesn't change, it will make for some unhappy campers, that's for sure. Carnival is officially on Monday and Tuesday of next week, but starting today people are heading out of the city. Sissy will travel to the beach tomorrow. João will head to his parent's house. I will stay here with Mia and perhaps not step out of the house for 6 days. I plan to read and write and clean house and iron, but mostly just hang out in my hammock and enjoy days of not having to report to anyone and having no schedule. Oh bliss. Now if it would just rain and be cool for me, I think I would be in heaven :)

Running Scared

Have you ever started a book that is so good and truthful you just didn't want to put down, but found that it is so intense you had to put it down? I bought the book "Running Scared", by Edward Welch, based on a review I read on someone's blog. And they were dead-on! It is a challenging, wonderful book. For I long time now, I have come to believe that anxiety and fear are the consequence of sin. Yet I have done nothing about it in my life. It seems I half-heartedly confess my sin and then jump right back into my old patterns. And my anxiety often makes me nasty and angry and impatient. It keeps me up at night and makes me jittery by day. I don't know where were to hide from it, or where to hide it away. It is definitely not a pet I wish to have by my side day by day, or even once in a while. I could try the excuse that I am just made this way, but I very much know better than that. By the time you are 55 years old, you are responsible for who you have become.
So yesterday I decided the time had come to begin reading this book by a Christian neuropsychologist (it is NO self-help book, though). He recommend reading a chapter a day, and only moving on when you have shared with someone what you have read. So today you are my guinea pig.
The book is so well written you feel like you are listening to a friend who has melodious beautiful way of expressing himself. Everything he says resonates, makes sense. He talks about the fact that no one has to teach us to be fearful and that our fears grow as we get older (darn! I thought age counted for SOMETHING besides wrinkles). "What was once a small family of worries quietly conducts an aggressive breeding program to become a teeming community of palpable fears and private anxieties" (p. 21). Oh so true, isn't it?
But then he really scared me (no pun intended), because he suggested I start listening to my fears to discover they have meaning, a personal meaning. I want to ignore my fears and make them go away. He suggests, however, that my fears will speak about what I most value and love. Aside from my fear of losing those I love (which is quite sizable), most of my other fears don't reveal very nice things about me. I guess I just have to face that I really am a dirty grubby sinner saved by grace and I am still on the very long journey of trusting God. So until I reach my destination, guess I live in the "world of fear".
So I will trudge along and try to bring my hidden fears and anxiety to the light because, as he says: "the more blessed you will be when you hear words of peace and comfort."(p. 28) I am ready for that blessing.

The City of Tiles

I haven't written, of course, because I was traveling and the access to the internet was extremely precarious. It's funny, sometimes I complain about life here in Rio, but when I get away from here, I miss all the conveniences of the "big city". Things like a hot shower (where we stayed there was only cold water... argh!) and taxis on every corner and high speed internet.
Anyway, for 10 days we were up north (so far north that even though it is summer here in Rio, it was winter in São Luíz) in the capital of the state of Maranhão. The only real difference up there (just 3 degrees from the equator) between summer and winter is that it rains every day in the winter. That it did - rain every day. I had a permanent frizz to my hair and it was so humid most of the time I just pinned it up.
Mia was not anxious for me to leave and she jumped in my suitcase, as it to stop my travels. I did travel without her, and when I returned she pretended like she had never met me before. I was met with very cold indifference!
We had a good plane trip up, although it seemed to take forever. The day after we arrived to took off some time to visit the historic center of the "city of tiles". São Luíz is names for Louis the 14th, and was originally a French colony. It seemed to stagnate for years and years and due to the neglect, the colonial architecture has remained virtually undestroyed in the historic part cof the city. Many of the old buildings are all of ceramic tiles, which has become the logo mark of the city.
It definitely made for an interesting day visiting the old buildings and walking the narrow cobblestone streets. And it was all up and down hills and steps. In some ways it reminded us of Quebec City.
We found the people just delightful and so friendly. We asked someone where to eat and they walked us to their favorite restaurant. Can't beat that, eh? It was a 16th century building, that was unfortunately too dark to photograph. The streets were narrow and often it was impossible to get enough perspective to get a good shot. We even visited a food market that had the most interesting "smells". I couldn't get over the huge bags of cashews (you'll see them in a photo to the left)
All in all in was a great day.
After that day, things got busy. The next day (Wednesday) was the pastor's wives meeting, where I shared the opening address. In the evening we went to the music minister's conference. On Thursday I attended the women's meeting in the day and at night returned for the music minister's concert.
On Friday the convention began in earnest. This year they decided to only have business sessions in the afternoons. Morning and evening would be for inspiration. The Bible study leader was fabulous. I definitely had a spiritual banquet with real food with him. Can't say the same for the other messages... they were mostly "fluff", with lots of stories and a ton of emotion thrown it, but no real "meat". People ate that up, of course, which is fine, I suppose, but I was very uncomfortable with most of the sloppy speaking and theology and careless worship. The music was way too much and way too loud. Some of it was okay, but definitely what I call "popular" and nothing to really make you think. I know it was a convention for the masses, but made me homesick for my church here in Rio where the worship helps me sense God's presence through my body, soul and mind and not just through my emotions. I feel farther and farther away from where the Baptists are heading these days. I have become grumpy, demanding, old and set in my ways or something or the other. I just don't like 3 hours of standing and swaying and crying and extended invitations. It does stir people, but does it result in transformed lives? I am not sure if I want to go back to a convention if this is the best we have to offer (with the exception of the Bible study leader, that was definitely worth it all).
So the convention droned on Friday and Saturday. Sunday, João preached at two small churches and it was GREAT! I felt so at home at the churches. The people in São Luíz were just wonderful. So we had a very good day on Sunday.
Monday and Tuesday the convention continued on, morning, noon and night. Monday night was the missions night and I always love seeing the missionaries, although this year the board president took it upon himself to talk forever, so we only got to hear two missionaries. Oh well.
By Tuesday, I had had it. It was hot. I had listened to all I wanted to hear. I was tired of cold showers and frogs in my bedroom. I was itchy from so many mosquito bites. I was ready to go home, which we did on Wednesday afternoon. I was pleased, however, that there was enough time on Wednesday to walk on the nearby beach and take a long swim in the pool. That was just what I needed.
We headed home in the afternoon and arrived in our home sweet home around midnight. I was happy to take a long hot shower and sleep in my own bed. Carnival is next week and we usually travel to visit João's parents about 8 hours from here. Today I decided that I will let João go on his own and I will gladly stay home in my air conditioned bedroom. I definitely like my comfortable home. I think our niece and nephew (young adults) will be coming down from Vila Velha, while João goes up. This way I'll be here to host them.
It rather sounds like I hated the whole experience, and I did not. I loved the city. I had lots of fun seeing so many old friends. I would hate to count how many hugs I gave and received. I enjoyed the company of the group of Baptists with whom I traveled from Rio. We made new friends. I learned so much from Dr. Luiz Sayão, who taught the book of James. It was great to see the beaches of São Luiz everyday and have time away from the rush, rush, rush of Rio. It was even good to be away from the internet and rest my brain. We ate some really good fish and shrimp as well.
I suppose my disappointment with the denomination was so overwhelming it has tended to color the whole experience. The picture of the ruins on the right is kind of how I feel about the way the convention is going...
Nevertheless, I made an important decision about mentoring and spiritual responsibility, that will certainly change the direction of my life. Someday soon I will write more about that.
I am glad I went. I am glad I am home.
And that's the truth!

Mia the coffee cat

Don't ya just gotta love a cat who is into the java? Seriously now. Because it turned hot again this morning, I made my traditional iced café latte. It is seriously good on a hot morning. Mia was being particularly pesky this morning, wanting my attention full time. I gave her several long loving sessions, but as I have said before I do have a life! So I went to the computer to work on my sermon for the pastor's wives convention in São Luiz, Maranhão (by the way if you don't hear from me in a while you will know that the ten days we were at the Baptist Convention up there I was in internet withdrawl). Mia began to cry to get into the computer room, so I opened the door and up she jumped onto my desk. Unlike Sadik, however, she hasn't quite gotten the hang of sitting quietly on my desk to keep me company. She prances in front to the screen, paws at the screen, plops herself on the keyboard, lies on my written text, is generally a nuisance as I work.
Today, however, she decided to check out my coffee. She is not really much of a people food cat (with the notable exception of ham), so I figured once she got a whiff of the coffee she would be out of here. Would you believe it? She sniffed and then she began to imbibe. She loved the coffee. She licked the ice. Then she dipped in deeper to get a more serious buzz with the espresso coffee with hazelnut flavoring. I did a double-take when I saw her guzzling away on my latte. I guess I will finally have someone to join me in my morning cup of java. Have you ever heard of a coffee drinking cat before???

Decoration days

We have had a respite in the heat here in Rio. I can't believe we are enjoying such nice weather in January. We have a missions/evangelism project going on at church. The youth are out visiting all the neighbours (population 20,000) and are terribly grateful for the nicer weather - no rain, nice temps.
Because of the lower temps I actually ventured out to downtown to buy some new furniture for our apartment. Laugh if you will, but when it gets hot here, it is like downtown is boiling. Your feet get hot walking on the sidewalks and your head feels like it is going to melt your brains.
Anyway I enjoyed my excursion. I was able to finally get the bookshelf for my living room and also a dresser for my bedroom. It has been hard for me to find what I wanted, but I had previously visited this store and knew they had what I wanted. The furniture is built of real wood (which seems to be a difficult thing to find these days!), called "demolition" wood, since it is taken out of old farms and then rebuilt into furniture. It even smells like real wood. The style is old-fashioned, not modern and I like it. So now I have someplace to put books and CD's and "stuff" in my living room. I love the glass doors since it protects things from the heavy layer of dust I fight with on a daily basis. In addition, we finally had the tulip painting framed. We love the frame and feel like it adds a lot to the painting. It deserved more attention.
I was especially pleased to find a dresser I liked - with a marble top - for my bedroom. Most people use the built in drawers in their built in cabinents in the bedroom. But three little drawers just weren't enough for me. Guess I have too many clothes. But I hated the daily jumble of trying to find things for me and for João as well. I spent my afternoon yesterday adjusting 'drawers" in a very literally sense. I am already quite happy with being able to just grab things without having to take the drawer out of the closet into the light to try to find matching socks.
I know the walls are bare in the bedroom, (hopefully you can't tell), but perhaps now that I finally have the furniture I can concentrate on getting pictures framed. That is an expensive process. My philosophy is that you only buy what you can pay cash for, so that's why it's been slow going on getting the apartment fully furnished. I kind of have the impression that by the time I have everything the way I want it, we will be retiring and have to downsize to our small apartment in Vila Velha. That's life, isn't it? Take things one day at a time.

For Unto Us a Book is Published

It's here, it's here! The Vacation Bible School I wrote over the last few years has been published and is in print. Today they gave João a copy as he was walking (while I was in aqua class) at the WMU office. I could hardly wait to get it home and look it over. I was so excited. For those who don't read Portuguese, the title is: "Adventures in God's Forest" and it's a VERY Brazilian book, full of information about the Amazon region.
To accompany the book, is a CD with the Cantata that João wrote the lyrics to many years ago. We finally found the perfect venue for this beautiful story of God's creation and redemption. A former co-worker from the WMU wrote the music and it's just great. The tunes are very Brazilian and easy to sing. I have put an mp3 player link at the top of left column. Just click on the pink arrow in the mp3 player and you'll hear our favourite song on the CD. It is the song: "Paradise" that has the children and Adam singing about how happy Paradise was. I think you will enjoy it. João and I sat and listened to the CD several times. We just can't help marveling over the joy of seeing our "child" being born. It is such a wonderful sensation. And so exciting that I just had to share it with you. Hope you enjoy it too!

Don't Have Enough to Do

After looking at some of the changes on my blog, you might conclude I don't have enough to do! It's not that I don't have anything to do. It's just that I don't want to do it! How's that for an explanation?
So I redid how my blog looks. And I experimented with adding in some gadgets that are kind of fun. For instance you can see my weather here in Rio. And if you type in your area (postal) code, it will even give you your weather forecast. How's that for cool?
I added in a crazy cat who does nothing more than follow your cursor and purr and move around some. Totally useless, but funny.
And for those who are not yet addicted to YouTube, I added a YouTube gadget. You can chose from the drop-down menu if you want the videos recently view, or most popular, etc. I warn you though, you will have to do some censoring. If you click on the video screen you can see the video in another, full-screen, mode.
There are a lot of gadgets and goofy stuff you can put on your blog. I experimented with clocks and games, but it got a little busy. Which is exactly what I REALLY need to do right now. So I guess I'll bite the bullet and actually take down my Christmas decorations. Have some fun today, okay?