Just Stuff

First of all Mia says she wants to say something so here goes her “say-so”:

See how tired I be? I have to be workin’ hard to take care of Mommy while Daddy is away. Is really tiring. I have to sleep on Daddy’s side of the bed so Mommy doesn’t miss him so much. BIG SACRIFICE for me. But I do it for love. I be so glad he come home early tonight instead of tomorrow morning. I think he do it ‘cause he miss me SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much.

So as you read from her, João has been away for a couple of days preaching in Espírito Santo. He left on Friday and is due in this evening. I have missed him, but Mia kept me good company. She has really “stuck” to my side. In addition she has had several litter box accidents, so I suspect that although she is very much my cat she has missed João as much as I have.

Sunday morning I preached at our church, for the first time since we have been here. I preached at the church many many years ago, but I don’t think most folks would remember that. Our church is a challenging church for preachers, as not only are our members demanding (and not afraid to criticize or tell you exactly what they think about your message or the way you delivered it), but we also have a huge radio and internet audience. Makes even the most experienced of pastors shiver in their boots. I worked really hard on my message content and practiced a lot, trying to keep the time down, as I tend to like to preach about 45 minutes. I felt like it was pretty simple and maybe not enough content, but since we also had the Lord’s supper, I didn’t want the service to go on forever. Anyway I did manage to keep it down to about 15 minutes (a small miracle for me) and people were nice enough to tell me they liked it (and those who didn’t were nice enough to keep quiet). The funny thing was how surprised everyone was. Being at this church has been a good experience for me as I have learned about being less instead of more, meaning I have been no “shining” star and in the background as much as possible. So when I do something, like teach or preach it is always a surprise to the members that I can! I know so many were praying because I was so at ease. I do love to preach/teach, although I  wouldn’t want to preach twice every Sunday. I am thoroughly enjoying my Bible study group in English on Sunday morning. I have a pretty steady group of 7, but sometimes there are 10 or so. I have a couple of more people who tell me they are going to attend soon.

I am also enjoying my storytelling/oral culture class with missionaries. Last week I told a relatively obscure Bible story 3 times and then they had to retell it then retell again from another point of view. Suddenly they were very into the story and its meaning and we all realized how very effective story telling can be. I intend to do more of that. Sunday night during the children’s message, I told a story from my childhood and you should have seen how the kids had their ears glued to every word. I just have to get better at my expression and work harder at being “good” , not just natural at story telling.

Speaking of stories, I saw an HBO movie this week called “Taking Chance”. You won’t see me do this often, but I highly recommend that you find a way to see this. It is one of the best and most moving stories I have seen in just forever. Whatever you think about the war in Iraq, this story will move you. It is about honor and dignity and caring about life. Now you will cry probably, but they are “redeeming” tears. Do yourself a favor, find it and see it because no matter what you politics, you will be a richer person for having seen this.

So that is my this, that and the other for today.