I'm Making a List

I know, I know. We all do it. There is something irresistible about it. We look at that big blank calendar for the new year, and think of all the possibilities. So we sit down and write out some resolutions. I do it and you do too, right? Sometimes I do okay, but there are years I am a miserable failure. Still, I figure it's better to at least try to "reform" , then just sink into complacency. So here I go again with my New Year's resolutions. At my age, I try not to make them too hard. In another words, they are possible.
1. Sometime this year, I hope to add in weight-lifting to my fitness routine, if finances allow. I figure adding to my muscle/bone mass can only be good for me.
2. I want to lose 4 more inches around my waistline in order to take me out of the high-risk group for diabetes and cardiac disease. this is possible, as I have lost 4 1/2 inches this year!
3. João and I will work through Jaime and Judith Kemp's devotional book in the mornings in our devotional times together.
4. I will try to follow Robert Murray McCheyne's Bible reading plan. This is my most ambitious of all. It's a tough plan to follow, but I chose it because it is so different. It begins the year reading all the beginnings - a chapter in Genesis (beginning of all beginnings), Matthew (beginning Jesus' ministry), Acts (Primitive Church beginnings) and Ezra (rebirth of Israel after her captivity). Four chapters is a lot to concentrate on, but I'll give it a shot. If I find it too distracting, I'll go back to my plan of studying a Psalm everyday.
5. João and I will begin writing our devotional book for couples - 365 meditations. I hope to at least finish 3 of my 6 months.
6. After exploring the art mediums of acrylics and oil painting, by the end of the year I will define in which area (or even areas), I plan to invest in with my art (specialization) instruction- grafite, colored pencil, pastel, watercolor, oil, acrylics, or painting or drawing.
7. Carry through on my commitment to teach an English Sunday School class every Sunday. (It starts this Sunday. Starting is easy. Hard is finishing.)
8. Invite two couples per month for supper. These two couples would be from our church leadership (if they are not married, I would invite two singles).
9. Work harder at completing things around the house - if I use a glass, I'll wash it, if I use clothes I'll put them away. I want to stop just laying things down to "get to them later". I don't want to let them accumulate and get out of hand. Having a twice a month cleaning lady helps with this resolution.
10. Although I am timid on this one, I want to try harder to consciously mentor young women. I tried last year and wasn't totally successful, but I did give it a start, at least. My mentoree moved away! I believe God will send me the right person (s).

Not too many, right? Not so hard. How about you? Will you have an resolutions? Will you keep them?

16 years and what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in love!

On Monday we will be celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary. I can’t believe it, can you? Here in Brazil, it is called the Sapphire celebration. Sapphire’s meaning, of course, is blue. (By the way, I will accept all sapphire gifts you wish to shower down on me). I know in the North American psychology blue is not a good thing, as in to be “blue”, but here in Brazil, it is just the opposite. If all is “blue”, that means all is going well. We paint things blue to represent calmness and tranquility. I would have to say that would be a good evaluation of our life together – tranquility and joy. We so enjoy our lives together and it seems we make such a good fit. Waking up each morning, married to João is a constantly renewed joy for me. Thank you, God, for this gift to me. I am grateful everyday!

No Grinch Here!

Our Christmas celebration yesterday was, once again, a reminder that the “grinch” will only steal your hope and joy if you let him! Pearl and her daughter Sandra invited us to spend Christmas day with them. I had been a little disappointed that I had been unable to work out having a table full of people for Christmas dinner, so when we received the invitation, I took it as providential. It was, since I came down with severe gastroenteritis. I still am not eating anything except mashed potatoes (well, today I added mashed carrots) and mint tea. I am not contagious, or even feeling sickly, but certainly not up to cooking a big meal.

Pearl was so excited that João and I were coming, that she couldn’t sleep. I felt so very honored by that. She has been confined to bed for a long time and apparently her only real sadness is not being able to get out to church. She listens on the radio, or watches on the internet, but it is not the same thing. Our presence seemed to symbolize the church body being present to her. Her joy and laughter were contagious and we had so much fun. I couldn’t eat much. She couldn’t come to the table. But who cared? We celebrated the joy of Christ’s birth that was so much more real to me in that moment than in a million pieces of pumpkin pie! It was a moment of real communion, with God and my fellow man. Nothing or no one can ever take away that joy – ain’t no economic crisis big enough for that!!!!

Feliz Natal and Merry Christmas

João, Mia and I, on this Christmas morning, wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas celebration. As you can see, Mia’s favorite place to sleep is under the tree. I hate to take it down, as she will really miss it. She had a fun time jumping in and out of wrapping paper and boxes last night, so who says cats don’t enjoy celebrations?

João and I had a nice and quiet and enjoyable Christmas eve together. I had brought back presents from my family in the US, so we had fun opening them. We also had presents from friends, church members and the girls. It was an abundance! My husband suffered immensely, but he drug himself out to the shopping center yesterday (all by himself!)

and found a present for me. It was a surprise and I loved it. I guess you can’t miss with jewelry, right? I am holding it in the photo. It is a 18k tulip on a gold chain. I just loved it. I must say I was very happy!

For João (and me too!), the big gift was a sound system. I pooled together money from my family for him and for me and bought a CD/MP3 player. Oh so modern, you can even plug in any USB device to play music. I miss the good old days of just plugging in and turning on anything electronic, and we spent a long time getting it all configured. But we had fun the rest of the evening playing the radio, CDs and even hooking up the MP3 player. Hope the neighbours didn’t mind as we tested out the volume!

In a short while we will be going out to Christmas lunch as a member’s house and are looking forward to that.

Although we emphasize the food and presents, I know you know that is not the most important thing to us! We love Christmas because it means that Easter is coming. If Jesus had not come, then there would be no redemption story. I share one of my favorite Christmas verse:

Have the same attitude among yourselves that was also in Christ Jesus: In God's own form existed he, And shared with God equality, Deemed nothing needed grasping. Instead, poured out in emptiness, A servant's form did he possess, A mortal man becoming. In human form he chose to be, And lived in all humility, Death on a cross obeying. – Philippians 2:5-8

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008

My own tulip festival in the middle of winter

Today I had my last art class of 2008 and I pushed to finish the project I’ve been working on all month. I went slow and easy, afraid of destroying my work. I like doing flowers, so I chose this photograph of tulips. It really is a gorgeous picture and I loved it immediately. My problem was trying to actually make the watercolors look luminous and bright, and also try not to be too realistic or detailed. My teacher says my style is absolutely not abstract, that I am too well behaved with my brush. In another words I am not totally comfortable with a brush. I try too hard and my work is very “contained”. This was supposed to be a loose, sort of abstract work. I started off that way with the leaves, and then I just loved trying to do the tulips with light and color and got carried away. Frankly it’s really the first water color I’ve done that I really like. I think I’ll even put it in a frame. I like the glow and I like the dark background (that she tried to persuade me not to do!). She has suggested I try doing several larger works for framing in my apartment. I might just take her up on that idea. I finally think there is hope for watercolors, which is a huge step for me, as I seriously considered chucking the whole medium. I hated it at the beginning. I do want to get back to pastels, though, as I just loved them and only did one drawing. Maybe I’ll take a whack at these tulips…

P.S. Don't forget to respond to my poll at the left.

Christmas Cantata

Yesterday, Sunday, before the evening service, the children did their Christmas cantata. It was interesting idea, as a group of children imagined how Christmas was from the point of view of the bugs. So as you can see, we had spiders, bees, fleas, lightning bugs and even ladybugs.

It’s hard to believe when we first came to the church and the children’s choir sang, there were only about 10 kids or so. The children’s worship team has done quite a job integrating the children from the “invasion" next door and the kids who come to church. In addition, one of our seminary students does local evangelism and has been able to add a lot of kids of live nearby.

The cantata involved about 90 children if you can believe that. It was quite a production to get things rolling, as a goodly portion of the kids don’t count on parental support or help. When you do a project like this, that is so important. So it was necessary to buy the uniforms, and do the make-up at church (I helped with the ladybugs). There was an all afternoon practice on Saturday. We provided the kids with a supper. I even chipped in with a pot of rice. Some of these kids only get a decent hot meal at school or church. After the practice, they gave everyone a backpack full of school supplies (our new school year will start in February), as that’s what the kids wanted for Christmas. It was a quite a job for Clare (our coordinator) to raise the money and buy all the supplies for 100 children!

The neat thing about this cantata is that each type of bug sang their presentation and so everyone didn’t have to learn everything! Of course at the end, everyone sang everything. It was pretty impressive seeing that many kids.

They ended up bringing “Mom and Dad” and their aunts, uncles and cousins, so even at 5PM, the church was almost full. You know how parents are when their kids sing. We even had a priest present… I think the kids or their parents told him about it. He liked it and even stayed for the evening worship afterwards. In fact most folks stayed, so our Christmas service was quite full. It was a contemporary service, with typical Brazilian music, although we did close with Silent Night, complete with falling rose petals from the ceiling.

In our morning service the main sanctuary choir did pieces from the Messiah, so it was quite a contrast! Made for a great Sunday. We won’t be doing services on the 24th or 25th, as we decided not to swim against the current. No one complained. We did provide folks with a program for a home worship service. We have no fancy plans for Christmas day, since this is the year the girls will go to their mother’s house. Christmas, however, is always special as we celebrate Jesus’ birth.

Sound of Music

João, Elly, Bernardo and I had a rewarding and delightful evening yesterday. Elly was able to get discounted tickets for us to attend the Brazilian "broadway version" of the Sound of Music. The tickets are quite expensive since it is a topnotch production with all the bells and whistles. We were thrilled when she found this special bargain and we could accompany her and her boyfriend.
I even got to wear my brand new shoes. A friend from church took me out shoe shopping in the afternoon and bought me a new pair of shoes for Christmas. I just love them. Ever so comfortable and cute!!!
This close to Christmas, on a Friday night I was a little concerned about traffic over to the other side of town, as well as parking at the shopping center. It turned out to be no problem at all and we arrived an hour early, so we had time to enjoy some delicious crepes at a restaurant, before the show began.
The show didn't start until 8:30, and since it was a three hour production, that meant a late night for us old folks, but we were so enthralled, we didn't even feel the late hour.
From the very beginning, I couldn't help doing some comparison between the theatrical production and the movie I know and love. It was also fascinating to hear my old favorites translated into portuguese. The adaptation was fabulous. I ended up liking it better than Hollywood's version (what else is new?). It took me back to Indianapolis when I was 13 and went downtown to see the movie. I think I went with my grandparents and they bought me a souvenir book of the movie. I read and looked at the pictures for hours on end. I was given the sound track record some time later and I listened to it so often I actually wore it out. I knew the story and songs by heart. I dreamed of the day I would discover my romantic Captain Von Trapp too. At one point in the play, when Maria and the Captain discover they are in love, I even got all sappy. I turned to João and told him he was my Captain Von Trapp. It's nice when you get to live the happily ever-after of your childhood.
I was so impressed with quality of the singers,the excellent sets and special effects, as was the rest of the family! From these photos (lifted from the play's website) you can see the quality of the production.
As an additional bonus, on the way home we got a long, good look at the gigantemous (no, that is not a word, but you get the drift) floating Christmas tree out on the lagoon. Since it was after midnight, we didn't have to fight the horrendous normal traffic. It really is quite a show with the lights changing colors and formations.
It made for a memorable Friday. Was yours as fun?

Art Expo

Look, Mom, and I helped! My art teacher is having an exposition of her students' work. Each student got to submit one piece. My how her studio has grown from just 4 students that we started with. I never know who will be in class these days. I didn't have time to really attend, I just stopped in to drop off my art and then take a photo of everyone's work. It's really quite impressive. Look what the world would have lost in terms of beauty if none of us had studied with Gabi. Cool, huh? Don't forget to click on the pictures so that you can see them in a larger view in another window.

This is Summer????

Since we are on the other side of the equator, we are entering into summer and this week it was really hot until today, when we had the picnic with all the church employees. As you can tell by my photo, I spent the day all wrapped up in a blanket, as I was freezing to death. It was rainy/cloudy and windy and we were out in the “country” where the wind came “whistling down the plains”. Despite the shivers, we all had a good time. We had a great barbeque lunch and lots of fun playing games, talking and generally playing around. As you can see by the two photos (men and women), we have a lot of church employees. They include, of course, the staff from our school. It was a long day, as we had to drive about 90 minutes to get there and back. The picnic was at the church’s camp. It is pretty much undeveloped there, but right beside it, some church members have a small apt. building with efficiencies, where they spend their vacations.  One of my favorite things is the fish pond. I know, I must be incredibly simple-minded to stand and feed fish and watch them eating. But I did enjoy it. I also enjoyed swinging. What can I say?  I never grew up.

It’s a busy time of year for everyone with so many activities for the end of the year and Christmas. I still don’t know why we try to cram all our parties into one month of the year. When I saw Mia lazing under the tree this morning, I thought to myself, that’s how I want to live this Christmas season: slow and easy. So take it slow and easy yourself.

Cats Are Cool

HAVING FUN

As you know Sadik and I live in Canada where we have five or six months of very cold weather. During most of that time, Sadik doesn't go outside very often since it's so cold. It even seems like it understands that because once the cold weather starts, he pretty well stops asking to go outside. But that attitude changes once the weather begins to warm up and the snow melts. I don't know if he feels the sunshine and the longer days, or if he knows by instinct, but once springtime arrives he starts sitting by the backdoor begging to go outside again. When I open the door, he practically knocks me over to get outside. He immediately runs to the end of the yard where he climbs halfway up the tree and then jumps back down again. Then he runs and sniffs all the flowers, and nibbles on the grass. He chases the squirrels and birds and generally plays until he is tired and lays down under one of the trees. Although he is not a young cat, he seems like a little kitten who is all play and fun.

Near where Sadik likes to run and play, in our backyard, is a grade school. I can see and hear the children playing everyday at recess and at lunchtime. They seem as happy as Sadik, as it is a huge grassy area where they can play. They throw balls, play games, jump and run and do lots of screaming. First thing in the morning, when Sadik hears the children playing he runs to the door, starts crying and looking longingly at the door as if to say: “Let me go outside and play with the children”. I go with him and the children love to look at him and watch him play through the fence.

As I told you, Sadik is no baby kitten, since he is six years old. That is like being 51 in people years. That means he's close to my age. So neither Sadik nor I are little kids anymore. That doesn't mean, though, that we can't have a good time like kids do. Sadik has reminded me how much fun it is to play. In fact, I have bought a bicycle and I am remembering the fun of riding my bike.

It's great to be a kid and it's really fun to play too. It's sad to me to see “grown-ups” who have forgotten how to have fun. It's even sadder to me to see kids who have forgotten to play with friends, run, jump, climb trees, ride their bikes and play games. I think it's just fantastic to remember that Jesus was child just like you and me. When Jesus grew up, he didn't forget the joy of being a child. He liked jokes, friends, and parties. He also liked being with children. I like to imagine that he is joyful when he sees children running and jumping and playing, having a good time.

Seeing Sadik having a good time playing outside, makes he give thanks to God for my good health that allows me to also play outside. It also makes me give thanks to him for fun, for joy, for enjoying life. I hope you don't just stay inside watching TV, playing on the computer or enjoying video games. I hope you get outside (even in the cold) and enjoy the wonderful world that God gave to us.

For that reason, I am going to stop writing and go outside and enjoy playing with Sadik. Why don't you find a few minutes to do the same thing?

I Habe a Cold

Bery wonduhvul day. Bad cold and dentist. I can’t breave and dentist fills my mouf wid coddon and odder stuff. Do you understand? Id is nod a good day, no… Now I habe a cold and a toofache. Nod a habby camper. I wend to bed for resd ov day and worked on my drawing ov a cad. That made me much habbier. I like mai siamese cad I did in colored bencil.

Seriously, I did come home from Vitória with a cold and everyone is laughing at the way I talk. I don’t feel that bad, but I sound pretty funny. And I did hit the dentist today. Gotta love having dental work done here. My original crown fell out in June and today I got the final crown glued in. It took, well, let’s see… a visit to put in cement and let that sit for a month to see if I needed a root canal (no, I didn’t). So then I go back to have the tooth drilled out and a temporary crown made. Then I return to have an impression made. I return to have the crown glued on and it shatters into a million pieces. I go back and have the tooth drilled out further and make another temporary. Then I go back to make another impression. Then I return for a fitting of the metal undercrown. Then I return to do a color match on the porcelain crown. Then I return to have the whole shooting match glued in. Only 9 visits, not counting the two times I had to run in and have the temporary re-glued. Along the way I had two other teeth filled and had minor gum surgery (all on separate occasions). Since I so LOVE going to the dentist (NOT!!!!!), ask me how much I enjoyed all this. Today the glue has sent my nerves into raging pain and I am hoping this doesn’t mean something bad for the tooth, since it hasn’t hurt at all through all this!

Our trip to Vitoria was just grand. We enjoyed the church where João preached. (The photo to the left is of the church - I have no photos because mysteriously my camera's battery was not charged, although I had fully charged it before travelling. But my niece did send me a photo of our family she took in front of the church.) His family came out each night and that was great as well. Many of the young people I worked with in Vitoria came to the church to see us and I was just ecstatic to get to see them and their children. I was in my early 30’s and they in their late teens/early twenties back in the 1980’s, so now we are all middle aged. It meant so much to see them. It is great to live long enough and stick around enough to get to see some of the results of your ministry. My time in Vitoria was so very short, around four years, and I’ve been gone for 20 years, so it’s amazing to me that anyone still remembers. It was a great reminder of the blessings of ministry and how important it is to be faithful to calling we have been given.

PS: To my non-native English speaking readers, I am sorry for the first paragraph. It is written in "cold" dialect. Just read it outloud and try to imagine how someone with a cold sounds! (Substituting "v" for "b", "th" for "d" or "f", "s" for "d", etc.

PSS: Next day - no more talking funny and no more toothache. And thanks so much for your "reactions" to my blog. That helps me a lot.

We’re off, but not to see the wizard

Just a note to let you know we are off to Espírito Santo, where João will be preaching over the weekend. I will also speak to the women of the church. I remember vividly searching to buy the land for this church back in the 1980’s, as the city of Vitória was growing out in this direction and there was no Baptist church in the neighbourhood. It was really hard to find a piece of property. But buy it we did (the State convention in partnership with the mission board) and now the church is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary. I am looking forward to seeing old friends as well as João's family and generally enjoying staying on the beach! (Oh the sacrifices of ministry!)

Just so there would be something to look at, in case you don’t like reading without illustrations, I am including two of my recent art efforts. To the right is a Macaw, done with colored pencil, a medium I am really struggling to dominate. It is a very precise medium, but in this study (it is very small, about 4x6), I feel like I made some breakthroughs in blending without making a hole in the paper.

To the left are two watercolors I did in class last week, with the specific assignment of doing something stylistic (not realistic) in only 15 minutes. The two paintings are of the same scene, one a general picture and the other an enlargement. I both like and dislike the watercolors. They were actually fun to do, but I felt they look very childlike or primitive. Believe it or not watercolor is a similar method to colored pencil, in that you do layers. What I just can’t seem to get the hang of, is leaving “white” around the edges and emphasizing the highlights. I am missing this week’s class, but I think that next week we will be working more on that. Oh, there is so much to learn and I am so slow to catch on!

Sleepy time

"Sadik! Quiet. Sh-h-h-h-h-h! We are trying to sleep.” It was 3AM and Sadik was meowing very loudly. And in my ear. Unfortunately Sadik liked to sleep by day and play at night. The problem was that I “played” by day and slept at night. It was a serious problem and no one was very happy in our household.

I started thinking to myself: “My, oh my, how Sadik and I are so very different.” As a general rule, most cats do like to sleep in the daytime and stay awake at night. I think that's because they have special eyes that let them see better in the dark than my eyes. Their whiskers also help them to navigate at night. That helps the cats to be wonderful nighttime hunters. God gave the cat the ability to find food that way.

That's not all that's different about us. Have you ever noticed how a cat sleeps? They sleep almost awake. That is to say, that even sleeping a cat is alert to what is going on around him. If you move a little or try to touch a sleeping cat, he will immediately open his eyes. He knows what's going on around him while alseep. That is one way a cat can protect himself from danger. He gets his rest, but at the same time he can run from an enemy.

There are lots of other differences between Sadik and me as well. He sleeps all curled up with his nose touching his tail. I could never sleep forming the letter “O” with my body because my back bones wouldn't let me do that. I am not as flexible as a cat is.

Neither can I jump like a cat. Sadik can jump from the ground straight up to the kitchen sink, or even the refrigerator if he want to. It's really incredible to see how high a cat can jump. For that matter it's pretty neat to see how a cat can squeeze into tight spaces, as well. Sadik can wiggle underneath the couch, even as big as he is. I can barely fit under the bed! Nor can I fly. Well, Sadik can't really fly, but it looks like it when he comes running, jumping from the sofa to the table to the chair, as if he were flying. All of these characteristics are important so that he can climb trees, run quickly, hide away if necessary, hunt for food, etc.

Something everyone notices about Sadik is his beautiful long fur. It is so soft that it is like silk. It's hard to resist hugging him and petting him. Although I have never given him a bath, he stays clean and smells good. That's because he bathes himself with his tongue. He has so much fur that it takes him a long time. Have you ever been licked by a cat? Their tongue feels like sandpaper. God made it that way so the cat can clean his own fur.

Besides being beautiful , Sadik's fur is useful. It's really really cold where we live in Canada. Although he is not especially fond of cold weather, every once in a while he likes to go outside for a couple of minutes. His fur protects him while he is outside. It's his own personal fur coat. Sadik even has special fur between his claws, on his paws that help him walk on the snow and ice.

God made Sadik in a very special way. If he made a cat with such care, imagine how he made you and me! Isn't it just fantastic the think about how God made us in such a special way? Just thinking about all I can do makes me want to say thank you to God.

By the way, we finally came up with a solution for our little problem of not being able to sleep at night because Sadik made so much noise. We were able to make a space for him to sleep in the basement of the house where he would have food and water, his bathroom and plenty of space to run and play at night. We even put in a bed for him where he could rest when he got tired of playing. During the day, he and I play together a lot. He chases after his play mouse and the ping-pong balls, we run up and down the steps and he sleeps in my lap or right beside the computer. At night, when I am in bed asleep, he eats and plays and makes all the noise he wants, without keeping me awake. Isn't that great that God gave me a brain to work out that solution?