I am alive!

Really I am alive. After my April Fool's joke, I figured I'd better give everyone a cooling down period. Seriously, I became so involved in the classes I was teaching (actually still am teaching) that just about everything else went by the wayside. I just about quit cooking (thank goodness for being able to call for take-out) and cleaning (really missed that), doing e-mails and definitely forgot about my blog.
My class, a 30 hour module, is about Storytelling and Oral Cultures. To sum it up, it was a class about transmitting the content of the Bible to people who either have no written Bible or who cannot read. The class is for our "radical" missionaries of the World Mission Board (Brazilian Baptists). These are young people (in their 20's or early 30's) who will go and live in cultures, living as the people live. They will be going mostly to unreached people groups. So they will plant rice, build their homes, fetch water from the well, etc. Through incarnational missions, they will share the good news. And now, hopefully, they know how to take the Word of God and tell it has a story that the people can repeat and tell as well. It's an exciting concept. I am no expert or even amateur on this subject, so it took a lot out of me to prepare and teach, especially since they were three hour session. I had to model the method, so I allowed no books or notetaking in my class. Everyone had to listen and remember! They actually need a lot more work to be effective, but hopefully I have given them the tools to go one and work on their storytelling skills.
Of course there have been other things happening in my life. Some good, some not so good. I have continued my drawing lessons and feel I am making some actual progress. My hand drawing is from yesterday's class. It's a slow process. I mean, it took me over three hours to draw my hand. But it does look like a hand. Rome wasn't built in a day and after six lessons, I don't expect miracles either! But at least I am producing something that looks like something! Last's week chair was a struggle and you won't be seeing any photos of it.
Recently Sissy was quite ill and kind of scared us. But after two hospital visits and tons of blood work, they think she might have had dengue fever. Dengue fever is still raging as an epidemic with over 100,000 cases in the city. If you consider that only 10% of the people with the illness present symptoms, that means that probably almost a million people actually have had the disease. At any rate, Sissy seems on the road to recovery and no longer seems in danger of bleeding out on us!
Tomorrow João and I are taking off for "parts unknown". Well at least to me. João is preaching a revival (protracted meetings) in the southwest part of the country. We figure it's about 11-12 hours away. So tomorrow we will drive as far as Marilene's house and spend the night. She moved to São Paulo in June of last year and I have yet to visit her house! I am so excited. Then Friday we will drive 7 hours (or less I hope) to Passos in Minas Gerais. We will return on Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday I teach my last two classes for the "Radicals"(Missionaries Without Frontiers). Hopefully things should calm down some in our lives as we prepare for .... VACATION at the end of the month. I have already packed on suitcase for vacation, but who says I am excited???? We are going to the mountains where it is cold. Yes, cold. Sometimes it even gets down to 5 or 6 degrees (Fahrenheit), so I mean cold even my North American standards. Actually it will probably only be around 40 degrees most of the time. But since I don't even have any long sleeved clothes and house will not be heated, I think this will be a challenge!!!!
The night has arrived and I have much yet to do before we travel tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know I really am still alive. And well. And happy.