Catching Up

I don’t think I mentioned that I wouldn’t be writing for a while because of our trip to Brasilia. Now I am home and we can get caught up! Last Tuesday we headed out to Brasilia, via plane, for the Brazilian Baptist Convention. The first few days were the preliminary meetings for pastors, pastor’s wives, musicians, youth, women, etc. I openly confess that after last’s year convention, I was deeply discouraged and thought twice before being willing to attend another one. This year, however, it was different. All of the meetings were thoughtfully planned, the music well executed and the speakers were inspiring. I am not always so generous in my evaluation, so you can be sure that it was meaningful for me. In addition, there was the joy of seeing so many old friends, ex-students and acquaintances. Since the government was in recess, the city was virtually empty and the traffic was light. Our hotel was very close to the convention center, so it was convenient. ( In the photo, you can see the convention center. Our hotel is to the left of the TV tower. It is the tall white building.) We stayed in a very upscale (by my standards anyway) apt-hotel, where we had a heated pool and a great workout room. The rates were reasonable, since it is off season in Brasilia. I am very glad that I decided to go this year, as I did return very edified.

Our plane ride was uneventful, although upon arriving in Rio we were unable to land due to very bad weather and we had to circle for awhile. When we finally did land, and got on our way home, we discovered that the weather really had been bad. The city was flooded and traffic was gridlocked. You just have to love a city where a rainstorm floods the streets and ties up traffic for hours… and where this happens regularly and nothing if done to resolve the issue. These photos were taken near our house. In the nearly three hours in the car (when we went to the airport it took 20-25 minutes, although it’s usually about 45-60 minutes in rush hour traffic), I tried to “enjoy the process”. I watched a wonderful video about the history of Renaissance art and João and I had time to debrief from the convention, so all in all, it was not a bad thing.

Ironically because of the heavy rains, some of our water mains were destroyed and we are without water in our building! Because this happens frequently in our “very well governed and maintained city” (NOT!), there is a system in place to buy water to fill huge holding tanks on the roof of the building. There is water for baths and the like, just no water for washing clothes, floors, etc (they turn off those water registers.) So although I am unpacked, I don’t have have everything under control, since I can’t wash our dirty clothes. That, however, can wait.

While at convention, there were five deaths in our congregation, so our hearts are heavy. In addition, our youth minister is suffering from chronically low blood pressure, and the origins of the problem are not yet discovered, so we are quite worried about him, as he cannot function with such low blood pressure.

Life is full of ups and downs and I know that’s just how it is. I guess that catches you up for now. Sorry to have ignored you these days, but I am back in the swing of things again.