A Full Report on Paraná

I am feeling much better today and starting to get caught up in my life, so I decided to take some time to reflect and write about this past weekend. My writing for the blog is as much about me, as it is you, the readers. It helps me process events!

I had a great plane trip down to Foz on last Friday morning, although I arrived hungry and tired. Even though it was almost a 4 hour trip, we got the famous cookie and coke routine on the plane. When we landed, I was surprised by the intensely blue sky and HOT, HOT sunshine. Arriving at the hotel, our rooms weren’t ready, so we walked around town, grabbing some lunch and once again, surprised by the heat. You figure going south it will be cooler. WRONG! I can’t describe the heat, except to say it felt like the rays of the sun were a weight on your head. It was different, that’s all I know to say.

The congress got started that evening and I spoke Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday morning. I did three messages based on the life of Esther. The first was about the purification/sanctification based on her one year of preparation to become the queen. The second was about being a fragile flower, used by a mighty God (because her name meant “Myrtle”) and the third message was about Purim Party, or her spiritual legacy of celebration. It took a while to get the folks warmed up to my style, but gradually we made contact and soon we were all old friends.

One of the rewards of the weekend was travelling and rooming with my friend Elza. She and I worked together before I went to Canada, and I have always held her in the highest regard. I admire her and respect her, as much for her talent as her integrity and very pure heart. She spoke as well and on Saturday night she did one of her famous chalk drawings. I love to watch her as she draws while the music plays, telling the story without speaking. At the end, as you see by the photo on the left, she turns on a black light and having used fluorescent chalk, the whole picture lights up. But it was not just her message that was special to me, as we had lots of time to share and talk and that was so meaningful. We worked together for 6 years, but I don’t believe we ever had so much time to really share. She is a blessing!

Although we were given free time on Saturday afternoon, I felt I needed to use that time to prepare myself to preach that night, so I chose not to sightsee, although that was a painful decision. I figured I had Sunday afternoon, but suddenly on Saturday night, they asked me to preach in a local church on Sunday night AND I needed to “new” sermon. I panicked, until I realized Elza had brought along the magazine she edits and I had written a Bible study that I could use as a basis for the message.

Consequently I took a risk and she and I went to the Falls on Sunday aft. I could hardly bear to be so close to one of the world’s natural wonders and not go to see it. I had been there twice before, but you never get enough of seeing God’s beautiful world. Since we were at a downtown hotel, it was a long trip out to the falls, but I still didn’t want to pay the $80 for a taxi. We set out on the adventure of discovering the local busses and took one for $2. It was HOT (not air) and we had to stand (it was FULL), but we were happy to save all that money and the bus only took about 40 minutes. When we got to the park, we rode a another bus for about 20 minutes out to the Falls. Lo and behold, on that park bus were many of the women from the congress. So it was a riot having them with us. We even had an impromptu worship service and choir when we actually got to the Falls themselves. Typically, the Japanese tourist filmed it all.

Although the walk along the path of the falls was only 1.2 kilometers, it was up and down steps and it was very hot. My clothes looked like I had been in the shower because I sweat so much. Surprisingly I didn’t get sunburned. Maybe because there was shade a lot of the way. You have seen the videos and pictures and know that the falls are magnificent, even though they are in a semi-drought and there was very little water. I was so glad we made the effort to go. It was a close call to make the two bus rides home and get back in time to shower, grab a bite to eat and finish preparing to preach (all this in about 45 minutes), but we managed.

I had planned, on Monday morning, to do some more sightseeing, but I was just washed out and ended up sleeping later than I planned and needed to pack and all, so I just gave in to tiredness and didn’t do it. I did manage to get out and buy some of João’s green tea (chimarrão) that is locally produced. He was ecstatic about that. We left the hotel around noon and had a very uneventful trip home. Our husbands met us at the airport and we even managed to get home quickly without tangling in the rush hour traffic.

Now you have a semi-full report on my weekend. It was great to see the women, get to share, make new friends and enjoy God’s beautiful world. I am glad, however, I don’t do this on a regular basis like I used to. Yesterday, I was just so tired all day and had so much to do to get caught up. As Mom always says, the old grey mare just ain’t what she used to be.