Sunday, February 27, 2005
Cabo Frio
Tomorrow we fly, God willing, to Rio de Janeiro on our way to Cabo Frio, about 2 hours’ drive further east. The programme is as follows:
Monday night – Stay in Rio with Franklin and Marilene and catch up on news.
Tuesday, Wednesday nights – Preach in the church where our friend Elienai is pastor. Andrew will speak on the three texts in Mark where Jesus says why he has come - the same series recently preached at the PIB, Florianópolis.
Thursday night, Friday morning and night, Saturday morning and afternoon – Preachers and Teachers’ Training Conference, based at the church. A good number of church leaders are expected, mainly from Assemblies of God churches.
Sunday – Ministry in the church.
Monday – Drive to Rio, Fly to Florianópolis, Take fisrt Mark class at IBE, 19:30!
This visit to Cabo Frio is the fulfillment of an aim we have had from the beginning: to help Assemblies of God pastors with expository teaching. Please pray for the three days of teaching and workshops. Andrew will be giving expositions/lectures on the theology and principles of word ministry. There will be two lengthy practical sessions too: in these, Cora will work on exposition with the women while Andrew works with the men.
Tomorrow we fly, God willing, to Rio de Janeiro on our way to Cabo Frio, about 2 hours’ drive further east. The programme is as follows:
Monday night – Stay in Rio with Franklin and Marilene and catch up on news.
Tuesday, Wednesday nights – Preach in the church where our friend Elienai is pastor. Andrew will speak on the three texts in Mark where Jesus says why he has come - the same series recently preached at the PIB, Florianópolis.
Thursday night, Friday morning and night, Saturday morning and afternoon – Preachers and Teachers’ Training Conference, based at the church. A good number of church leaders are expected, mainly from Assemblies of God churches.
Sunday – Ministry in the church.
Monday – Drive to Rio, Fly to Florianópolis, Take fisrt Mark class at IBE, 19:30!
This visit to Cabo Frio is the fulfillment of an aim we have had from the beginning: to help Assemblies of God pastors with expository teaching. Please pray for the three days of teaching and workshops. Andrew will be giving expositions/lectures on the theology and principles of word ministry. There will be two lengthy practical sessions too: in these, Cora will work on exposition with the women while Andrew works with the men.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Carnival Retreat – Goiânia – 5-8 February 2005
Most churches in Brazil organise some kind of special event during Carnival. This for two reasons, one positive and one negative. Positively, it is the longest stretch of public holiday in the year – from Friday night to Wednesday morning, and it is good to make the most of it with a long church weekend. Negatively, it is a period with so much noise, drunkenness, nudity and generally licentious behaviour that many believers (and, increasingly, unbelievers) just want to escape.
Goiânia is the state capital of Goiás state, in the Centre-West region of Brazil, around 800 miles from us, flying via São Paulo. First Presbyterian Church is a large church which we have already visited twice, Cora spending three weeks there in 2003 while working in the Coloquium project of our friends Luciano and Luciene, members of the church.
We are very fond of this church. It is large. It is highly structured. These factors would not really endear us, but the reformed theology applied in a contemporary way certainly does. Most of all, as one of the few churches where the commitment is explicitly to Biblical exposition as the starting point of doctrine and practice, we feel very much at home.
Early last year Pastor Gil invited me to speak at this year’s Carnival retreat. The event took place at the Acampamento owned by one of the members of the church. It is used by other churches and Christian groups, but it is “home turf” for First Presbyterian. The site is still being developed, with a good standard of accommodation, and an excellent range of exciting activities, particularly for the young, or young at heart. The whole event was well organized, with great food, a wonderful atmosphere, many laughs, excellent weather – it was a total tonic for us.
I had agreed to preach through Exodus and, despite moments of panic in the weeks leading up to the retreat, this is what happened. It felt slightly cheeky a Baptist taking 250 Presbyterians through a Biblical Theology of the Exodus, but it was well received. In fact, each session seemed deeper and fuller, as the wonderful story of the Rescue out of Egypt gave way to the yet more wonderful story of the Presence of God with his people. I have never spoken on Exodus in Portuguese before, and the vocabulary, especially in the opening section, was a challenge, but linguistic problems didn’t seem to spoil the six sermons.
The people are very responsive, and it was particularly good to have so many sharp and deep questions from the young people. There is strength in depth in the church, with the fruit of solid teaching visible in the teenagers and twenty-somethings. All in all the long weekend cemented what was already a special relationship with this church.
It also was instructive in helping to define strategy. Over the past years, we have constantly tried to open up moments of teaching teachers, rather than just pulpit filling. In general, if Andrew speaks in a church, for a weekend say, there will also be some kind of workshop or lecture sequence aimed at pastors and others in word ministry. This is, after all, our chief concern and goal here. But it was very beneficial simply to spend a weekend with a healthy church, preaching through a book of the Bible, seeing the impact in all kinds of people, and getting involved in many conversations that had to do with the content and application of the messages. Such ministry has value in itself, of course, but we also felt this time how important it was in terms of informing and stimulating the other aspects of wider ministry. We trust this will not be our last Carnival retreat, nor our last visit to Goiânia!
We are very grateful to Gil, who has been such a staunch friend through our whole time in Brazil, and to Abe and June, our hosts and new friends in the Centre-West.
We have tried to give a particularly full photo-diary of this trip, partly for the benefit of the many friends in Goiânia who may access the site. Click on the photos to see a larger, clearer image.
Tentamos fazer uma seqüencia de fotos bem ampla esta vez, em parte pensando nos muitos amigos de Goiânia que podem entrar no site. Clique nas fotos para ver uma imagem maior e mais nítida.
Most churches in Brazil organise some kind of special event during Carnival. This for two reasons, one positive and one negative. Positively, it is the longest stretch of public holiday in the year – from Friday night to Wednesday morning, and it is good to make the most of it with a long church weekend. Negatively, it is a period with so much noise, drunkenness, nudity and generally licentious behaviour that many believers (and, increasingly, unbelievers) just want to escape.
Goiânia is the state capital of Goiás state, in the Centre-West region of Brazil, around 800 miles from us, flying via São Paulo. First Presbyterian Church is a large church which we have already visited twice, Cora spending three weeks there in 2003 while working in the Coloquium project of our friends Luciano and Luciene, members of the church.
We are very fond of this church. It is large. It is highly structured. These factors would not really endear us, but the reformed theology applied in a contemporary way certainly does. Most of all, as one of the few churches where the commitment is explicitly to Biblical exposition as the starting point of doctrine and practice, we feel very much at home.
Early last year Pastor Gil invited me to speak at this year’s Carnival retreat. The event took place at the Acampamento owned by one of the members of the church. It is used by other churches and Christian groups, but it is “home turf” for First Presbyterian. The site is still being developed, with a good standard of accommodation, and an excellent range of exciting activities, particularly for the young, or young at heart. The whole event was well organized, with great food, a wonderful atmosphere, many laughs, excellent weather – it was a total tonic for us.
I had agreed to preach through Exodus and, despite moments of panic in the weeks leading up to the retreat, this is what happened. It felt slightly cheeky a Baptist taking 250 Presbyterians through a Biblical Theology of the Exodus, but it was well received. In fact, each session seemed deeper and fuller, as the wonderful story of the Rescue out of Egypt gave way to the yet more wonderful story of the Presence of God with his people. I have never spoken on Exodus in Portuguese before, and the vocabulary, especially in the opening section, was a challenge, but linguistic problems didn’t seem to spoil the six sermons.
The people are very responsive, and it was particularly good to have so many sharp and deep questions from the young people. There is strength in depth in the church, with the fruit of solid teaching visible in the teenagers and twenty-somethings. All in all the long weekend cemented what was already a special relationship with this church.
It also was instructive in helping to define strategy. Over the past years, we have constantly tried to open up moments of teaching teachers, rather than just pulpit filling. In general, if Andrew speaks in a church, for a weekend say, there will also be some kind of workshop or lecture sequence aimed at pastors and others in word ministry. This is, after all, our chief concern and goal here. But it was very beneficial simply to spend a weekend with a healthy church, preaching through a book of the Bible, seeing the impact in all kinds of people, and getting involved in many conversations that had to do with the content and application of the messages. Such ministry has value in itself, of course, but we also felt this time how important it was in terms of informing and stimulating the other aspects of wider ministry. We trust this will not be our last Carnival retreat, nor our last visit to Goiânia!
We are very grateful to Gil, who has been such a staunch friend through our whole time in Brazil, and to Abe and June, our hosts and new friends in the Centre-West.
We have tried to give a particularly full photo-diary of this trip, partly for the benefit of the many friends in Goiânia who may access the site. Click on the photos to see a larger, clearer image.
Tentamos fazer uma seqüencia de fotos bem ampla esta vez, em parte pensando nos muitos amigos de Goiânia que podem entrar no site. Clique nas fotos para ver uma imagem maior e mais nítida.
Gil and Débora. Gil is the pastor responsible for the church retreat. This couple have become very important friends to us. Gil was present at the FIEL conference in 1998 when we shared about our ministry hopes in Brazil, and he has been continually encouraging and constructive since then. Through Gil we have this relationship with First Presbyterian Goiânia, which is now our key contact in the Centre-West of Brazil(Photo taken in 2002.)
Friday, February 18, 2005
Approaching Goiânia. (We actually arrived at night this time - photo from 2003.)
We were met at the airport by Gil, and Abe and June, our hosts for the week. Abe is Brazilian, of Armenian descent: June American, a missionary who met Abe when he was a mission pilot. They drove us to the conference, and treated us like royalty in their lovely home.
The dome of one of the, several, large shopping centres.
Arriving up the steep steps outside the chapel.
One of the music groups - Jairo, on the right, being a dear friend and the full-time music minister in the church.
The retreat centre has many sources and reservoirs of water. Given that it was a very hot weekend, falling, jumping and diving in proved popular.
Taco - a two on two cricket-type game, played with greater seriousness at the retreat than we have ever seen it in the south. In the Centre-West it is called Bets or Bats, which exposes the English language origin, as the word for Bat in Portuguese is actually Taco. (Are those Mexican crispy things actually derived from table-tennis?!)
As well as the "normal" sports, the retreat centre is well equipped with more demanding stuff. "Arvorismo" - a walkway high among the tree tops, ostensibly to look at the trees and wildlife, actually to scare us silly, was a popular activity.
Looking back to the start, having just strolled along the wire visible on the left.
There are a variety of walk ways, of varying degress of hairiness.
The activity is not conducive to conversation, but an occasional friendly wave helps to defeat the sense of being isolated at the top of a telegraph pole.
The final interesting stretch is the oil drums, where the safety line runs inside the drums.
The retreat centre has a 10 metre artificial climbing wall - excellent range of difficulty levels, and good safety equipment and team.
Cora on the way down - first experience of abseiling.
Our cabin for the retreat. (Full en suite facilities!)
Our immediate neighbours - Alexandre, Dulcenyr and Arthur
Two doors down - Elói, Meirebele and their daughter Elen
The cooking crew - excellent and plenteous food throughout the weekend, served with great warmth in all senses. Much was donated - a cow was slaughtered for the last lunch, and one brother gave 100kg of beans, perhaps the best we have ever tasted.
People 8 - Milton, Kátia and their children Thaís and Hugo - Milton being one member of the pastoral team at the church.
People 9 - homeward bound, clutching our pillows
The "luxury" bus for the trip back to the city.
The night after the conference, we were back at Abe and June's - a slap-up Mexican banquet.
Abe runs an aircraft maintenance business, which we looked over before lunch and our flight. Goiânia is in the heart of Brazil's centre-west region, where huge ranch-style farms make private planes more necessity than luxury for those with multiple farming and business interests.
