Day 20

Today I noticed how much my Portuguese has improved since I arrived! I spent most of the morning just in the office at Free Flight working on a book report for one of my courses. It was a little after 11 when I decided to put my brave face on and go say hello to some girls who were playing clapping games nearby. We talked a little bit, said our names, and I asked them if they were going to take any courses at Free Flight (they said no; I think they’re too young), and then we stood in silence for a little while. I said that I was going to go over to the ice cream store (sorveteria) and that they could come if they wanted to, they said yes, so we made our way over to the grassy area near the sorveteria and met up with some other kids who I know and ended up playing some games until lunch time.

The first game was very much like capture the flag, with the safe zone marked off in a circle of flip flops, and the flag being a leafy branch that the kids picked near Free Flight. That was pretty fun, although most games were really short because each side was probably not longer than ten feet, so if someone got a good run then it was over.

The next game was basically Octopus, except that instead of everyone running at once, the kids made teams of two and the person in the middle called them by the name of their team (usually a fierce animal lol, shark was very popular!). Both of these games had been taught to the kids by Canadians who came with former mission teams. Once I understood what was happening, I got to be the lucky It in the middle, and I tagged a few kids before lunch =)

After lunch, I went into the music room with a girl named Michelle – the daughter of Free Flight’s Director, Ivan (whose wife works in the sorveteria and who also has a REALLY cute although also sometimes whiny four year old). Michelle (which sounds like Mishelly) showed me some of what she could play on keyboard, and we both hung out in this unbelievably hot room for probably fifteen or twenty minutes.

(This picture is Michelle and her brother Ian)

In the afternoon, I helped to make ice cream again, had a decent amount of conversation/small talk with Adilho in Portuguese, and then I had my Portuguese lesson and came home. A great day!

(Happy Birthday, Mom!)

Day 19

Today, like yesterday, I spent most of my day at Free Flight making ice cream in the ice cream store :) I have been feeling pretty great about life here this week, and my appetite has been much better, which means I've had more energy and have been able to do more than just watch other people do the hard work of making ice cream. Before, I have mostly helped with making popsicles, which involves more people and is a lot easier and more straightforward.

Yesterday and today it was just Catherine and I, so there was plenty to do but we both had company and the time went by pretty quickly. This morning Ivan (the director at Free Flight) brought a visitor in to the ice cream store to say hi, but the machines were very loud so I had SUCH a difficult time hearing the man's name, but I finally managed to repeat it and say "prazer" (nice to meet you!). This incident sparked a joke between Catherine and I about being an unpaid worker in a country where I don't speak the language. This led us to a conversation about health and safety regulations - we had to bend over a lot when the milk was delivered, because it comes in 200 1 litre bags, and they had to be moved from crates on the floor into a deep freezer. I said that WorkSafe would probably insist that we have tables for the crates so that we don't strain our backs. In order to put our Canadian stamp on the icecream store, we came up with a safety policy that before one person can plug in the machine that freezes the ice cream mix, the other person has to have their hands safely placed on the two corners of the machine, nowhere near any moving parts. This safety policy was little comfort, however, when a man came to fix one of our freezers. I'm not sure what was broken, but fixing it involved some soldering and also propane, and Catherine and I were imagining the news stories back in Canada if we were both killed in an ice cream factory explosion in Brazil.

Anyways, yesterday was a proud day for me because I knocked my first mango out of a tree - other times Brasilians have always gotten them for me. I love mangos... Eu gosto de manga!Today also had a bit of a highlight in that Catherine and I stopped at a grocery/general store on the walk up to Free Flight this morning, and I bought some lotion and nail polish, so my skin feels great and my toenails are painted! Definitely worth the R3.50 :)ALSO I finally have some pictures of horses and carts! I don't know why they make me so happy since I've seen at least one pretty much every day for the last two weeks, but they do make me happy, so I will share :)And lastly, a creature from the walk to Free Flight - Catherine saw it and bravely put her hand beside it so you can see how big and fat it is. Definitely cooler and tougher than the slugs we have in Canada!

The Ministry of Being Fantastic

Catherine and I have a running joke of potential titles for Christian bestselling books that I may write in the future, and as silly as most of them are, they are based on important truths that I think should be shared! (although maybe not necessarily over 175 pages).

The most recent of these book titles is Is God Calling YOU to the Ministry of Being Fantastic? And I think that the answer to this question for every person in the world is yes. What exactly is this ministry and how is it carried out, you may ask. Well, the answer comes from a few trains of thought that I've been having - first: the most important things that most people do in life has to do with day to day things, the encouragement that they give or the integrity that they show and MOST of all the love that they share with people in their lives.

Second: Pastors and others keep trying to convince people that it is not necessary to be ordained or in full-time ministry or have an official title at the church in order to matter and to contribute to the Kingdom of God, to make the world a better place. I am definitely not the first person to think my first thought.

Third: An important verse in my life lately is John 16:27 "The Father himself loves you because you have loved me (Jesus) and have believed that I came from God." God loves me because I love Jesus and because I believe that he was more than a teacher and a prophet, but also God's gift. It is easy to forget how straightforward yet extravagant God's love for us is. I think this is why point 2 keeps coming up, because people don't feel confident to serve God because they don't grasp his love and acceptance of them. Most people have bad habits of remembering all the reasons they aren't good enough and forgetting the promises that God has made them:

• Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9
• Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Psalm 68:19
• I (God) have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built. Jeremiah 31:3-4
• The Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:18

I could go on. The point is that God is with us and cares for us and loves us and changes us through our faith in Christ.

Fourth: We are useful to God no matter who we are, because he made us on purpose and for a purpose - and that is our calling. I think that this universal call is well put in Galatians 6:9-10

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

To some people that means working in a church. To some people, that means letting their kids' friends come over even though they are rude and/or messy and eat all the Oreos. The most important part of this passage to me is that God gives us the opportunities to do good (to love and show mercy and be generous), and he is also the one who brings a harvest from our work. He only asks us for what he has made us to give, and then he does the rest, and as more people accept this call, to be their fantastic self with God's help, then God can do more and more in the world.
(Amen)