So today’s the big day. We had scheduled the adolescent camp-out for two weeks earlier, but because of some circumstances we had to reschedule it for this weekend. But now all the plans were in place and it was go time!

After a breakfast of French toast, papaya, and hot milk, we spent the morning cleaning the house, clearing the porches, and getting everything else ready. For lunch we had rice, beans, fried fish, and bananas for dessert, and the next couple hours I was able to relax a little, do my devotions in Acts 16, and finish preparing the devotional I was going to give around the campfire in the evening.

At 3:00 Uncle Jim went to pick up the boys and bring them back. When they got here, Aunt Julie went to get the girls, and we hung up our hammocks on the property in the back. We found one good tree that was large enough to hold all of us. We had originally planned to sleep in hammocks on the porch, but the boys said that it wouldn’t be real camping if we did that.

When the girls arrived and settled in, Uncle Jim gave everyone a tour of the property and pointed out all the significant landmarks. Then the kids had a treasure hunt, and several of us stood at those aforementioned landmarks on the land.

It was a scavenger hunt in which the kids had to come to each of us helpers in order and receive different letters of the alphabet. At the end they had to put the letters into a phrase that they were given, completing the phrase, “Viver para Deus!” (Live for God) Upon completing the activity, they were each given a devotional book with handwritten notes, encouraging them to live for God.

Next we ate supper- homemade personal pizzas! We all went through the line and chose our toppings while the girls made the pizzas and then baked them for us. While the pizzas were in the oven we played a round of Kingdom, my first ever time doing it in Portuguese. It was really fun because Danae won the round.

Something that was interesting to me was how the Brazilians put ketchup on their pizza! Danae and I thought, “What?! Don’t they already have tomato sauce on their pizzas?” So that was a new cultural experience for me. I had guarana for the first time, a Brazilian soda that I have heard other people taut.

After supper Uncle Jim started a campfire on the property, and a short time later we were all out there, singing songs. I gave a devotional about seeking God and following after him. My two primary texts were Matthew 6:33 and Proverbs 3:5-6.

These kids are at a crucial moment in their lives, and most of them come from rough family backgrounds. Many indications show that they are headed the way of the world, so we wanted to do something to challenge them not to go that direction. I really hope God’s Word had an impact on their lives.

Next stop was a cookie-decorating contest. Everyone was given about four sugar cookies to decorate with frosting, and then some neighbors came over and judged the cookies, choosing the best ones for several different categories. I only did three cookies- a large circle, a medium circle, and a small circle- and I decorated them like a snowman. 🙂

We played a few more games outside (like another round of Kingdom that Uncle Jim won), and at about 10:00 I went with the guys to our hammocks for the night. It was nice and cool like I like it, but the mosquitoes were biting, so I had to cover up completely to try to shield myself from them. Man, I love sleeping in a hammock though.

The other guys talked a lot and tried out some simple English on me, but finally they quieted down and I drifted off…

There isn’t too much to say about this day. There wasn’t a lot that happened, but it was kind of a significant day anyway. Okay, well, it’s not really that significant, but it was a sad day for many of us.

Today was the day that Stephen, Sarah, and Olivia left. I just met Olivia last week, and it’s obvious why Stephen really likes her. She’s such a great person, and it was really enjoyable to get to know her and play in the orchestra together with her. She also has a good sense of humor and loved to laugh along with us when we were having fun.

I’ve known Sarah for eight years because back in 2005 she was a full-time lifeguard at IRBC. That was when I really got to know her, and ever since then we’ve seen each other off-and-on, and it was fun to spend another week with her, this time in her childhood home of Brazil.

As for Stephen, well, we had so much fun together. I’ve been acquainted with Stephen for a long time because we played in orchestra together for two years at Faith, and last year he taught my Music Theory IV class in the stead of Mr. LaFleur. But spending almost the whole day with him for two weeks was an amazing experience.

Playing in orchestra again with him, playing in a quartet with him, climbing mountains and braving cliffs with him…those were some fun times. But what was really great was sharing a room with him and joking with him at meal times and laughing so much whenever we were together.

It always seemed like we were thinking along the same lines. We’d hear something and immediately make some smart comment, and we would just feed off each other. There was no end of puns and inside jokes.

When I first heard that Stephen might possibly stay with me during those couple weeks, I thought it would be fun, but it turned out to be way better than I even thought, and I’m sad that we only got to be roommates for such a short time.

But praise the Lord for that short time! The Lounsbrough family has become a dear family to me after working with Stephen’s and Sarah’s parents with SMF for three years and now after spending some good times with them here in Brazil. Oh, it was so sad to see them go today!

For breakfast we ate Aunt Julie’s tasty tapioca wraps with meat and cheese, and she also made me one with cheese and guava jam. For dessert…papaya, of course!

I continued to work on fixing my blog and I did my devotions while Stephen packed up his stuff and moved it all outside. Sniff, sniff! He gave me a memory card and I gave him all the pictures from the past 1 1/2 weeks, and before he left we looked at the pictures from our adventures the last two days. Oh, so many great memories made so quickly!

At 11:55 we ate a lunch of beef stroganoff, caja juice, and frozen pineapple cream for dessert. Stephen, Sarah, and Olivia were taking a bus to Fortaleza, and it was scheduled to leave at 12:30, so they shoveled down their food. The Wilson’s showed up with their car, and at 12:20 we all loaded up quickly and took the three to the bus stations.

There we said our almost tearful goodbyes (some of us couldn’t cry), and a few minutes later they were gone…sadness.

Rest of the afternoon was dedicated to getting things ready for upcoming events. Those of us who remained (the Leonard’s, Danae, and I) went to Juazeiro. Uncle Jim had a short business meeting, and the rest of us went to various stores downtown to buy some things and get some information about who is coming to the Hope Encounter.

Our last stop was back at the shopping center. Jennifer and I sat on a couch and read books while the other girls went around looking for earrings. Neither Jennifer nor I are the most avid shoppers, so we did what we thought was more profitable while we waited for the others.

We went back home and ate for supper we ate fried spam, macaroni ‘n cheese, broccoli, and Aunt Julie’s squash and sausage pie. Afterward we played five-handed Rook, my first experience with that version of Rook. It was actually quite fun as I learned a whole new strategy, and fortunately I came out the winner at the end.

Jennifer asked to play my violin for a few minutes while we waited for Uncle Jim to get some things done before we had a planning meeting. We then reviewed details for the adolescent campout and assigned last-minute tasks. We made a plan of attack for cleaning up the houses and a list of things for Uncle Jim to buy in the morning.

So that was the story of today…soon after that meeting we were in bed, resting up for a very busy weekend…

This morning was one of my earliest ones so far. Apart from the fact that I was up really early in the morning to take some pictures of the stars and of the seminary at night…well, that’s another story. I got some fun pictures and it was worth getting a little less sleep.

We had to leave the house at 6:30 to walk to the Wilson home for breakfast, so Stephen and I slept in until about 6:24. We quick got ready and joined the girls outside for the 15-minute jaunt to the Wilson’s.

Beth greeted us with an array of food that included banana nut bread, papaya, cheese, guava jam, milk, and coffee (ach!). We quickly ate the yummy food, and the six of us piled into the Wilson’s small car. I sat up front while Stephen, Olivia, Sarah, and Danae squeezed into the back.

We stopped in Crato quickly to get some crackers and cookies and other snack food and then Beth drove us to the other side of the city where we stopped by Igreja Batista Regular Maranata, the church with which the Lounsbrough’s and Wilson’s worked several years ago.

The plan was to meet some people from the church and hike up  into the mountains with them. Well, we got there and they weren’t there yet, so we just stood there and waited. Meanwhile Stephen climbed over the fence and into the churchyard, looking really sketchy as a car drove by.

Eventually Stephen and Sarah walked down the street to meet some old friends (in both senses of the word). One lady finally came on a motorcycle and told Beth that the group was going to meet us at the base of the mountain, so we got back into the car and kept driving.

Sure enough, they were there! Our final destination was cliff at the top of the mountain at the end of a long trail, so we considered just driving to the top and leaving our cars at the beginning of the trail. However, the others didn’t want to leave their vehicles up there, so instead we started the long trek up the mountain by foot.
We walked up the side of a wide, two-lane road, trying to stay in the shade as much as possible. This was technically easier than walking up a steep mountain trail like the day before, but the road was still fairly steep and long, so I got more of a workout then I had the day before.
It took us a little over a half hour to get to the top, and the roadside view on the way up was quite intriguing. There were pretty flowers, massive red rock faces, and some sneak peaks of the valley below which we would see in entirety at the top.

The trail at the top plateaued, so we walked most of the rest of the way on level ground, a nice relief. It reminded me of the week in 2011 when I went to Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada and canoed and hiked for a week. Just walking through the woods, not knowing where you’ll end up. But walking through God’s creation is so refreshing.

We walked along through woods for about half an hour and eventually came upon a trail that descended to the edge of a cliff- the moment which we had all anticipated.

The view…was impressive. I can’t even describe it. It was definitely worth the hike.

I really don’t know how to describe it without simply saying that once again we were on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the valley containing the cities of Crato, Juazeiro, and Barbalha in the far distance. The closer you come to death, the better your view of God and the more amazing He appears. Way up there on that cliff, we were much closer to potential death, but we also had a much greater view of God’s creation, displaying His power.

Of course, Stephen and I got out as far as we safely could on the rocks and had the girls take pictures of us. Taking pictures of the view itself was kind of disappointing because it didn’t show up satisfactorily on my camera. It just isn’t the same in a picture as it is in real life!

After several minutes of photos we walked partway back on the trail and ate our snacks in a clearing. I had a small packet of peanuts, a couple crackers, and a couple cookies, and that was enough for me!

We walked back to the end of the trail, walked back down the side of the mountain, and returned to the cars. Walking back down actually seemed a little harder because it uses different muscles. Rather than working your legs to push you up, you’re constantly using your feet at an angle to keep you from going down to fast or falling forward. Anyway, it was also a good workout.

At the bottom we bid farewell to the others and drove back home. What did we do? We crashed on our beds again, just like the day before. We eventually woke up for supper, enjoying classic grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup.

After supper I got to go to the Wednesday night Bible study again, having missed it last week during the Semana de Musica. It was good to see the family again, and unfortunately it was the last time I would see them. Next week I’ll be busy with our English retreat at the seminary, and after that I’ll be in a different part of Brazil.

At the end of the Bible study we took a picture of the family and said good-bye. I sure am going to miss going back to see them! It will be exciting to see how God bears fruit through that ministry.

Back at the house, we spent the evening getting things ready for the rest of the week. At one point Danae asked me to go get a frog out of her bathroom, so I went over there and caught it and also got some good pictures of it. I’ve never caught a frog before, so now I can say that I have!

It was my last evening with Stephen because he was leaving with Sarah and Olivia on Thursday. Sadness. 🙁 But it sure was a good last day with them!

This day was more of a sightseeing day. We started by piling into a couple cars along with Mark and Beth Wilson and driving to a small restaurant on the edge of Crato for breakfast. This outdoor eatery only serves breakfast, and it only serves one type of food. So when you go there they already know what you want to eat!

They serve caldo de carne, translated simply as “meat soup.” It had ground beef and vegetables and the broth was thickened with manioc root flour. On the side we had French-style rolls. Since we couldn’t really celebrate Jennifer’s birthday on Saturday, this was kind of like her birthday meal since she likes this.

After breakfast we dropped Jennifer off in town for some things that she had to do and then we drove over the mountains for over an hour to a nearby town called Santana do Cariri. Along the way we passed through the oldest untouched national park in Brazil- right here in the Northeast Brazil desert!

Along the way we got stopped by a roadside police checkpoint, and they looked at Uncle Jim’s credentials to verify that he owned the car and that he had a valid driver’s license. In Brasil they will stop people at random to make checks like that. I guess it was a treat for me because the Leonard’s rarely get stopped, and I’m only here for seven weeks and got to experience it. 🙂

As we came closer to our destination, we learned more about the area and how it was rich in fossils. The Cariri valley contains several rock quarries and the Araripe Geopark because of its rich rock structures and deposits.

The whole region here has layers and layers and layers of sedimentary rock, making it a good source for smooth tiles which are easily extracted for mercantile use. A geopark is an area that features many unique, natural geological sites. Among Araripe’s characteristics are a  high cliffs that you can climb out onto, a fossilized forest, a host of other fossilized plants and animals, and even a small natural stone bridge.

Santana do Cariri is home to the Paleontology Museum, a small museum with many significant fossilized artifacts. It did not take us long to tour it, but it had many exciting fossils, so I came away with quite a few pictures. They had fossilized wood, small plants, bugs of all shapes and sizes, small fish, HUGE fish, and even a fish eating another fish as it died.

We had a tour guide, and in the first room, he showed us a small model of Santana and its surrounding hills and mountains. According to our guide, the high mountains around us were once the shoreline of the ocean, and the valley that we are in was the ocean floor!

Therefore, all this sedimentary rock was laid down by the ocean before it receded. Looking at the model in front of us with mountains that plateaued at the top and seemingly formed a shoreline, it was a pretty convincing theory if I didn’t already know better.

The next room had a few cases scattered around the perimeter, holding rocks that had fossils in them. They weren’t too impressive, but they were still neat to look at. The good stuff was still to be seen upstairs.

In the center of the room was a huge model dinosaur. According to Stephen, the guide said that the dinosaur had been constructed for a carnival somewhere else. When they were finished they moved it here to the museum. So much for it being some kind of artifact from the area.

Next stop was the upper level, and it was really neat. Local fossils were everywhere, lining the walls. Spiders, crickets, butterflies, fish, frogs, bones, plants…so many different things. Some of the sedimentary plates had fossils of aquatic plants and fish on the same layer, so they looked like a pictures of fish swimming in the water with plants.

been to other science museums before, but I don’t recall any that were specifically dedicated to local fossils, so it was a fun experience. It made me wish I could go find some and bring them home, but in Brazil it is now illegal to take them out of the country.

A few years ago, it was fine to take them somewhere else. In fact, the Leonard’s brought some fossils to Iowa and when they were at a conference at FBBC where Ken Ham was speaking, they told him they would like to donate them to the new Creation Museum that Answers in Genesis was building. If I recall correctly, they said that those fossils can be found in the cafe at the museum.

However, fossils are now property of Brazil, so any attempt to remove them from Brazil is illegal trafficking. If you try to take one of these souvenirs home, you’re a thief. Oh well…

It was shortly after 10am that we left the museum and headed up to a nearby mountain. At the top we dismounted from the car and hiked down a trail that actually led back down to the base of the mountain. The trip down was fun, but yeah, it was not easy.

At least the trail was well maintained. Climbing up and down large rocks was no easy feat, especially for anyone that was carrying backpacks and cameras, hahaha. It was only 300 meters down the mountain and back up, and it took us about 40 minutes to complete. But it was a good workout, considering it was 600 total meters at a steep incline.

Back up at the top, we went out to the edge of the mountain and took some pictures sitting and standing on the edge of the cliff. I like heights and all, but I don’t like falling from heights, so I made sure I didn’t fall or drop my camera. But yeah, we took some of the scariest pictures I’ve ever had in my life.

Aside from the scariness of all but jumping off the side of the mountain, the sight up there was beautiful. We could look down on Santana and the surrounding countryside. It was weird to imagine standing on the shore of the ocean right there, according to the theory given to us earlier.

But the truth of the matter is, even though the ocean did not come up to the edges of those mountains, the entire area was indeed completely covered in water a few thousand years ago. At one time, that point where I was standing was the bottom of the sea. Wow…

Seeing the fossils brought me to the end of the world, as I was reminded of God’s judgment and mercy on the earth, forming those fossils. Now standing on the edge of a mountain, it felt like I was literally at the end of the world…and if I fell off it would have also been the end of my world!

There is a restaurant at the top of the mountain, but since we didn’t order food when we first got there so it was ready when we were done, we would have had to wait around another 40 minutes to wait for it to be prepared. So instead we drove back down the mountain and drove halfway home, stopping at a churrascaria for lunch.

Mmmm…barbecued beef, chicken, and pork with rice, beans, fried macaxeira, lettuce, tomatoes, and cajuina. It was a typical Brazilian meal, and it was good. I had to be careful not to eat too much, and I was definitely satisfeito when we left.

Along the way back we made a couple more stops. We found an old quarry off to the side of the road where they used to cut tiles out of the rock. We could see how they simply cut squares down into the stone and then just peeled up the layers, resulting in flat, square tiles.

We looked around for fossils and brought back a few plates that had some small fossils in them. I also looked around on my own and found some lizards including a large tegu lizard that was probably about half a meter or so in length. Unfortunately it scurried away before I could get a picture of it.

The last place we stopped was a Catholic chapel right off the road that offered a great view of the Cariri valley. We got some pictures of the cities and some beautiful flowers that were growing on the property.

When we got back to the house, Stephen and I collapsed into our beds and took a nap after our exhausting morning. I also did my devotions in Acts 16 since I hadn’t done them yet earlier in the day. In the evening we went to the Cariri Shopping center with Danae, Sarah, Olivia, Jennifer, Neto, Joy, and Beth, and we met Pastor Renato and his family there.

We ate supper there and I had a Brazilian pastel (pronounced something like pasch-tel) for the first time. It’s basically like a big hot pocket filled with different things. Mine had meat and cheese, but for dessert several of us also shared one with cheese and guava jam.

Rest of the night we just walked around the mall, laughing at the prices of expensive clothes, avoiding the security guard who suspiciously eyed my camera and followed us for awhile, and trying some chocolate that Joy bought us. We also sat for awhile and just talked, enjoying each other’s company and laughing at some inside jokes that evolved during the day.

We eventually went back to Crato, talked a little, ate some bananas, and snuggled into our beds because we had yet another early morning approaching. Today’s hike was only priming me for the next day’s journey…

We all need rest, especially when we’re doing ministry. You know you’ve done ministry well when you’re extremely worn out and joyful at the same time. If you have no joy, or if you’re not tired, you probably didn’t do a good job.

Well, we were all very tired after the Semana de Musica Sacra, so we slept in on Monday until after 9:00. We finally got up and had brunch, consisting of baked oatmeal, papaya, and milk.

Most of the day I spent in my room with Stephen, talking about web design. He is looking to design a new website and I was trying to fix some errors on my blog, so it was coincidental that we happened to be working on the same thing at the same time. But once again we found some common ground, but this time it was away from the music side of life.

My devotions were in the second half of Acts 15. At the end of the chapter Paul and Barnabas parted ways because of a disagreement over John Mark, and both went on to have fruitful ministries. It’s a sad thing when missionaries have disagreements and go different ways because of different philosophies or concerns! But hopefully lessons can be learned from both Paul and Barnabas that will keep people from losing their unity in ministry.

In the afternoon Stephen and I took another nap, still trying to catch up on some extra sleep that we didn’t get during the previous week. We also drank some cajuina pop leftover from last week…mmmmm!

Supper consisted of lettuce salad and macaxeira (manioc root) casserole with cheese and meat. Neto and Joy came over and stayed for supper, and afterward Uncle Jim suggested we have a Rook tournament. What a perfect way to end a relaxing day!

Wait a minute! Sidetrack…why has it taken me this long to realize that manioc root is cassava? One of my favorite desserts is made with cassava! I’ve been eating macaxeira all this time and I just now find out on Google that it’s one of my favorite Filipino foods before I even came to Brazil? Wow, I sure am slow.

Okay, back to the Rook tournament…

So we divided up into four teams: Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie, Neto and Joy, Stephen and Olivia, and Danae and I. Danae were the only non-couple, and Danae was getting a refresher course in Rook because she hasn’t played for several years. Danae also had Sarah as her “Rook advisor”, so that was entertaining to watch.

We played a game and then the winners of each match played each other while the losers played the other losers. Using this method, we switched back and forth for three practice games. Danae and I lost every single game while Neto and Joy won every single game against their opponents, so we never played them!

Then the real games started and we started keeping score. First team to 500 won. All of a sudden, Danae and I started winning, taking the first three games in a row to take a commanding lead. Meanwhile, Neto and Joy lost all three games, so we still didn’t get to face each other.

The fourth game Danae and I were on the verge of winning out, but we were finally set by Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie as I took the bid and failed to make it, actually getting set quite heavily. Neto and Joy lost again, so we finally got to play them.

We were at 320 points. We did the bidding and our opponents both passed almost right away, leaving me with the bid at 125. Danae had the option of bidding me up to 130 or passing. She chose to bid me up, and I immediately passed, confident that if she was confident enough to bid me up, she had a good hand.

So for the first time all night, Danae finally took the bid, and I could tell she was excited. She called trump as black and started confidently laying down card after card, bleeding herself out of trump. As she did that, I started to worry that she was foolishly playing her hand.

But then she started laying down the 1’s and before I knew it, she had taken all 180 points by herself, leaving me and Joy and Neto stunned. I couldn’t help but laugh that she had just done that! So, that game put us right at 500.

We went outside to watch Stephen and Olivia play the Leonard’s. The Leonard’s had the chance of beating us, but fortunately they didn’t get enough points, putting them up at 495, five points short of me and Danae, giving us the tournament win.

After the tournament we ate vanilla ice cream and leftover brownies that Jennifer had made. Mmm…it was so delicious. I thought about having more but decided against it since I don’t need them.

Well, Tuesday was going to be a big day, so we went to bed again, satisfied with a great day of fun and rest.

Ahhhh! What a great day this was! It easily ranks up there as one of the most exciting days of the year for me. We had our first of three orchestra concerts last night, and the other two were today. Our first concert was this morning at Batista do Novo Juazeiro, the largest regular Baptist church in Juazeiro and perhaps the largest one here in the valley. It is the home of Pastor Renato, the aforementioned director of the Semana de Musica Sacra.

We were told that the bus was leaving at 7:30 to transport us from the seminary to Juazeiro, so Stephen and I woke up shortly after 7am, got dressed, and went up the hill to breakfast where we ate leftover French rolls, papaya, pineapple, and hot milk while everyone else left and walked down to the seminary entrance. Sometime after 7:30 we left the dining hall and walked down to the entrance.

There wasn’t enough room on the bus for everyone to go together in one trip, so I rode in Neto’s car with Neto, Joy, Beth and Mrs. Swedberg and we got there shortly after the bus dropped off its first load. Uncle Jim had driven me by this church a couple weeks ago to see it, but this was my first time actually going inside it.

It is a good-sized building that can can hold a few hundred people, and it is also air-conditioned, unlike most of the church buildings here. We went through a process I was familiar with as a member of the FBBC orchestra for the last four years: We cleared out the front of the sanctuary and set up chairs, stands, and got out our instruments. Of course, I also went around and took pictures of people warming up.

The service was scheduled to start at 9am, and we started promptly at 9:30. Just like last night’s concert at the seminary, the room was PACKED, and the TV crew was there again to film the entire concert for the evangelical channel on TV. I played in the string quartet and took pictures during the rest of the first half, loving it just as much as the evening before.

Since many of the songs were written by Pastor Renato for the Brazilian churches, the church was obviously familiar with the music. During one of the songs as the choir sang and the orchestra played, Pastor Renato turned around and had the whole church rise and join in with the music. Oh, the worship in the air was so great!

After the last song in the first half, the one about worshiping God the Creator, the pastor welcomed all the visitors to the church and asked them to stand up so he could personally greet them and give them some information about the church with a book of the Gospel of John. I thought to myself, “I hope everyone in the orchestra/choir doesn’t stand up!” But fortunately, they didn’t, and the pastor greeted the six people in the congregation who were visitors.

Unfortunately, three people from the choir stood up, and the pastor greeted them. Then it was obvious that they weren’t the only ones in our group who were visiting, so they had everyone else who was visiting for the first time stand up, and they all received a Gospel of John. Wow, that took SO long. I almost motioned to myself as a visitor too so that I could have a Gospel of John in Portuguese, but I decided to not prolong the ordeal.

So we had our intermission, I got my violin back out, and I gave my camera to Jennifer. We took our places and played in our best concert of the weekend. It was great to serve the Lord together in music with dozens of Brazilians in one of their churches. Yes, Elijah is a classical piece, but it has a great message, and it was pure joy to play. Oh so fun!

After the concert we packed up and I took pictures of lots of people out in the courtyard area. I returned to the seminary in Neto’s car and we went to lunch, enjoying a meal of rice, pasta, ground beef, and vegetables. I don’t think we had beans though, so that was kinda weird.

At 2:00 we had a recital/solo competition for anyone who was interested. I got to the chapel around 2:30 and they were just starting so I didn’t miss any of it. I gave my camera to Jennifer because she did a really good job taking pictures in the morning and was having a lot of fun with my camera. So she took all the pictures during the recital and got some great pictures.

The recital was for everyone and was judged based on difficulty of music for the person’s talent level, their musicality, their mastery of the music, etc. The winner won free admission to the next Semana de Musica (about a $100 value) and the second and third place winners got a discount off the next one. It was so cute because the winner was a little girl who played the recorder. She played a song from the orchestra music that she had learned that week, but she played it extremely well, and if anyone could be perfect, you could say that she played it perfectly. She got a standing ovation from everyone who was there listening.

Supper was at 5:00 and I think it was more rice, beans, vegetables, and meat. It was a quick meal because we had to leave at 5:30 on the bus, and the service was scheduled at 6:00. Well, we took our time eating, arrived at the entrance shortly after 5:30, and soon enough we were on our way to Igreja Batista Esperança, a church about 10-15 minutes away from the seminary right between Crato and Juazeiro.

The church facility was so neat! It has two small classroom buildings and another two-story shelter that houses a kitchen and bathrooms. Behind the small buildings are large steps that lead down to a soccer field and a huge outdoor gym. The services are held in the gym, the huge steps also serve as bleacher-style steps for soccer games, and there was a large landing next to the gym where people could talk. It reminded me of an outdoor ballpark more than anything else.

Once again, there were hundreds of people there, anticipating the program. The lights were dim and we scrambled for chairs, but excitement was in the air one last time. We had some troubles getting people arranged, and one of the piano keyboard’s electrical cords didn’t work, but we finally got started. I watched as one of the young piano players stood up and let the girl without the keyboard play his piano while he held the music up for her.

At this time though, I was probably the most sad I have ever been that I don’t know enough Portuguese to talk to someone. The second bus pulled up with a few more people after the first group started, and at least three or four of the people were supposed to be playing in that group 🙁 I found some chairs in the classroom and tried to indicate to them that they could go join the group, but they said no because it was too late 🙁

I played my quartet piece and then told Pastor Renato about the situation, and he said the others could come join if they had chairs. So I went and found Sarah Lounsbrough and she talked to the other guys, but they had already given the chairs away. Fortunately, we convinced one guy to take an empty chair and go join the group between songs and play his guitar.

But oh, how sad the other guys looked as they sat off to the side during the whole program, their instruments going unplayed. At the end of the first half, the one guy who eventually played came to me and thanked me with his little English for getting him the chair. It was encouraging to see how appreciative he was to still get to play.

The second half of the program went fairly well, our last hurrah of the 2013 Semana de Musica Sacra. We had to restart one song after a rocky start and the last song was faster than we even did it on Saturday night, but overall, it was good. I enjoyed playing in one last orchestra concert for the year before school begins again in the fall. The kids choir stood in front of us this time when they sang their four songs, so during the song which we accompanied, we had to look around and through them to see Pastor Renato as he led the song.

Afterward I gave all my pictures to Pastor Daniel and then I found all the people that I knew wanted their pictures taken with me, just like the night before. So we took lots of pictures, and I also found a good use for many of my extra prayer card/bookmarks. I handed them out to people with my Facebook information so they could find me and but also pray for the remainder of my time in Brazil. It was sad to see them all go as we wrapped up the evening.

I rounded out the evening by getting pictures with rest of the Americans in our group and then we returned to the seminary. Before going to bed I helped Jennifer retrieve the leftover food from the cantina in the dining hall and bring it back to the house, and sometime later I collapsed into bed, a very blessed person.

I can’t even explain in this blog post just how much I enjoyed the Semana de Musica Sacra. I talked to Danae about how much I loved it, and she can probably understand better than anyone else since we experienced it together. It was definitely the high point of the year, and it was right in the middle, just like a chiasm!

It was challenging to see the commitment of these people to learning music. Many of them had some experience, but most of them did not have near as much as experience as me, so I looked like a much better musician than I really am! It made me realize how blessed I was to have music lessons as I grew up. These guys try so hard to play music, but many of them have no access to good music lessons. They don’t learn music in school, but rather at church.

Also, it was encouraging to see what they sacrificed for this week. Though the price for the Semana de Musica Sacra was reasonable by American standards (somewhere around $100-$120) for a whole week of intense music training, that’s not an easy expense to pay for some of these people, especially those who brought their families! But they wanted to learn and they want to use music to serve God, so they came.

As Uncle Jim said, this is the one week of music lessons that some people get all year, so it’s a huge highlight for them. Nevertheless, in only five days they got music and compiled a wonderful program. Even those who did the Elias were not experienced enough by some standards to perform that piece. But because of a combination of excellent teachers (like Stephen, Pastor Renato, Olivia, Renato Costa, and others) and a desire to do their best, they pulled it off! At the beginning of the week things looked scary as we sightread the music, but they did it!

What do you get when you put together 19 guitarists, 17 violinists, 1 cellist, 1 violist, 14 recordists, 9 flautists, and 5 pianists? An orchestra, of course! Oh, if only you could hear the sound coming from that first group, many of whom are new on their instruments. It was SO beautiful and so well-arranged, and their beaming faces communicated their love for what they were doing.

I love my orchestra at Faith, and this reminded me of the times I get to travel to churches and play, but I didn’t even miss my orchestra this week. Why? Because I was playing with new people, making new friends despite a minor language barrier, and playing high-level music for three concerts in just one weekend. It was a huge encouragement to me in my own life, and I hope I was an encouragement to them as we played together. My only wish is that my orchestra back home could have this experience with these Brasilians.

So, it was an amazing week, and when the week came to an end, it was sad. I don’t like the term bittersweet because it seems like it emphasizes the bitterness more than the sweetness, so it was a sweetbitter day for me. I made many new friends, played some great music, and saw great motivation for ministry from people who don’t have much musical training.

Not to mention, playing with 12 other violins and outnumbering rest of the non-string members of the orchestra was a lot of fun 🙂

Stephen and I slept in until almost 7:00 before getting up and going to breakfast. Breakfast is at 6:30 and the first classes begin at 7:30, but we knew that we had plenty of time to go eat before Stephen taught his violin students.

When we got there most of the food was gone, but we still got to eat French rolls with butter and cheese, papaya, and hot milk. It was plenty of food for us. Stephen went to his class and I went to the library to do my devotions.

This morning we started the first rehearsals at 9:00 instead of 10:00 so that we could have more time to practice altogether in the chapel as we prepared for the evening concert. I showed up around 9:30, took a few pictures of the orchestra and choir, then I unpacked my violin and settled in with the rest of them.

We practiced Elias until shortly after 11:00 and then we went back up to the dining hall to practice some more while the other orchestra and choir rehearsed in the capela.

At lunch we had our rice, beans, vegetables, and meat. As we  were eating, Pastor Renato announced that our afternoon rehearsal would begin at 1:30 and go as long as necessary, cancelling the last day of theory classes. Oh buddy…we weren’t quite prepared for that announcement, but we knew we needed the practice!

When Jennifer walked into the dining hall we all sang happy birthday to her in Portuguese, and later when there were more people we sang to her again, this time in English! Her parents also had a big birthday card for her hanging on the wall next to the cantina where she works every meal. Stephen told her he liked the baby picture of her, and I took that to mean that he didn’t like the picture of how she looks now, hahaha.

In the time we had before the rehearsal, I went with Sarah and Danae back to the Leonard’s house where I got a couple bananas for dessert. Many, I’ve always liked bananas, but I think now I’m addicted to them because they taste so good here and I always want to eat them!

So…with a rehearsal that long, we were going to need all the energy we didn’t have! Well, I again took more pictures before joining the rehearsal myself, but I made sure I was there for the harder pieces. It was a good practice and we showed lots of improvement, but we still had our many rough spots.

We started shortly after 1:30 (eita! [oh, that’s an expression similar to “wow”, or so I’m told]) and finished sometime after 3:00 I think. The Elias group didn’t have any more rehearsal time, so as the other groups practiced, I spent some time working on my blog.

We ate supper at 6:00pm and then Stephen, Olivia, Sarah, Danae, Jennifer and I returned to the houses to shower and get dressed in our concert black and white. Our concert was at 8:00pm, so we had more than enough preparation time.

Some other concert was going on at 6:00, so they scheduled our concert to begin a couple hours later. I’m not sure if it was because people coming to our concert were also going to the other one? It didn’t really affect us either way because no one here could leave campus until the end of the day. It’s pretty much a music camp, and people don’t have the freedom to just come and go.

So we hung around the house, slowly getting ready, and at about 7:30 we all walked to the capela. The place filled up fast, and the concert was packed. It was so full that some people stood outside and just watched and listened through the windows.

All the windows and some of the doors here on campus are all just like large grates, always open without glass coverings. They don’t have air-conditioning and heat here because the temperature is about the same all year. It’s just warm, and the open windows allow air to pass freely through the buildings, cooling them.

So the people who stood at the windows weren’t missing out on anything except for the fact that they were closer to the mosquitoes. But otherwise, they were really just standing at open windows, able to take it all in.

The concert was such a blessing. The first hour or so was a large selection of Brazilian hymns (some of which were written by members of the local Baptist churches), and they were played and sung by the orchestra, the choir, and some small vocal ensembles (like our string quartet piece that Pastor Renato arranged).

I played in the quartet and took pictures during the whole first half. I really wish I had video-recorded the last song that the orchestra and choir performed. It was a song that talked about Creation praising God (I figured it out on my own by reading the Portuguese words on PowerPoint!), and it was really powerful.

Out of 10 spotlights that were being used to light the front of the capela for the concert, only one was left on, leaving most of the musicians with only a dim light by which to read their music. It started with the violins, viola, and cello playing a soft, eery drawl that seemed to go nowhere.

The PowerPoint screen showed a picture of a beautiful waterfall and then pictures of colorful birds started to flash on the screen. Sounds of birds started to fill the room as various members in the choirs pulled out all sorts of bird calls.

Recorders and flutes joined the strings, and eventually the air was filled with not only bird calls but also several other wild animals sounds and we felt like we were in a jungle. The sounds quietly died out and then the choir made a soft entrance, growing in volume with each measure.

The nine other spotlights also started to turn on one at a time at the beginning of each measure until the room was once again lit, as if the sun was rising. The words showed up on the screen along with the choir, and it continued to escalate to a powerful conclusion.

I couldn’t understand all the words, but from what I did understand, I was so powerfully reminded of how great God is and how He is the Creator of the universe. Oh man, I SO wish I had recorded it!

When the song was finished, they took some time to give gifts to those who had helped during the week, especially the teachers. However, at the end of the list of people, I was surprised when I was called to the platform to receive a gift for my work as the photographer. It was such a kind act of gratitude on their part!

My name was announced as “Joshua Jordan Gonnerman Huang”, and I think many of the people applauded only because they thought my long name was really neat. Anyway, it was encouraging to know that they really appreciated my pictures and that it was truly a ministry to them. I hope the pictures serve as a good source of memories for all of them for a long time to come. I later opened my gift, and it is a mug with the Semana de Musica Sacra logo.

At this point we had an intermission to switch out the orchestras and choirs. I gave my camera to Jennifer to take pictures and then I sat down and helped my  string partners tune their violins. It was the moment we had been waiting for all week!

Before we played, a children’s choir sang four songs that they had been practicing all week. Pastor Renato randomly pulled out a string quartet arrangement for the second song, and he gave it to the orchestra to sightread. So we quickly ran through it one time with him and a few moments later, we were playing it with the kids! Hahaha…it was easy though so you wouldn’t know that we had just received the music.

The kids were SO cute, and whoever had taught them the music did a very good job. They enunciated so clearly and cut off so cleanly and sang so loudly. As they sang, many people in the audience sat there and mouthed the words along with them, and it was a sight that was equally as special as the kids themselves.

So…on to Elias. Hahaha…it was SO fun. As I told Stephen later, it was more fun than it should have been, because our two faster pieces with lots of notes were much faster than we practiced them in rehearsal, and we could barely keep up!

Some of us didn’t and got lost. Stephen said that the choir really pushed Pastor Renato along, and by that time there was nothing he could do to slow down the train. But it sure got our adrenaline pumping because we didn’t have much energy left after this week!

I also didn’t have the greatest concert overall, messing up on a few places with rhythms, but for the most part I did okay. Most importantly, it was ministry and we did it for God. So from that aspect, it went well, and it was exciting to be part of it.

The concert ended around 10:30, and for about half an hour I had picture after picture taken of me outside on the lawn. So many of the people wanted to have their picture taken with me, and we knew just enough of each others’ languages for them to tell me they wanted pictures and for me to agree to letting them take them.

As one of the guys told me, I was famous, and I sure felt like it too. Picture after picture after picture. But it was fun! Spending time with my partners in ministry just being silly after such a long week and making memories with new friends…it was all great. I definitely am not lacking in the picture department myself!

Finally we stopped and I gave all my new pictures and videos to Pastor Daniel before heading back and going to bed. To give you an idea of just how many pictures we took, I think I shall include several of them here.

After waking up really tired again, I think I decided not to run anymore until Monday. I know I’ll lose some of the strength I’ve been building up, but I’d rather have that energy from exercising to finish out this music week. As the photographer, I also do a lot of walking around in the heat, and I don’t want to drain myself.

So I waited for Stephen to wake up and then I went with him up to breakfast. Today it was French rolls with scrambled eggs and ham, papaya, hot milk, and avocado shakes. I really like the shakes because we had them in the Philippines too. They are sweetened, so they don’t taste like the avocado we use for guacamole at home. They just taste like thick, fruit-flavored shakes!

My devotions were in the second half of Acts 14. It’s amazing how much influence the Pharisees. The people in Lystra were worshiping Paul and Barnabas in one verse, and in the very next verse they were persuaded by the Jews that these men ought to die!

What I really like about this passage though is that it did not deter Paul and Barnabas from accomplishing their mission. Being persecuted actually kept the people from further worshiping them, and after leaving Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came back through the city on their return trip! That’s courage and confidence in God! Amazing.

Instead of going to orchestra rehearsal right at 10:00, I went around to the other rehearsals to take some pictures first. I went to the capela (chapel) to take pictures of the other orchestra, and I found both choirs practicing their music. After taking my pictures I went up to the dining hall to join my orchestra.

Lunch was rice, beans, vegetables, and some kind of meat…I can’t even remember what it was (because I’m actually writing this blog post a day late). Supper was the same thing with the addition of some kind of pasta. It’s been the same meal twice a day all week, but it tastes good, so I like it.

Danae and I sat with a couple girls who wanted teach us Portuguese and work on their English, so we ate with them and taught each other a few new words. One of the girls spoke good English and had a decent vocabulary and the other one also spoke a little English fairly well, so Danae and I had fun talking with them.

It was also during the meal that I noticed a few little girls at a nearby table who tried to hide every time I looked at them with my camera. Later I was walking back to the administration building when they saw me and ran away. So I got out my long zoom lens and put it on my camera- it was time to have fun.

I LOVE action shots, and some of the best pictures are those of little kids running. So I always savor the opportunity to play along with kids that are running away from me. I don’t start the chase, but if they start running, I commence a chase. It’s photo tag!

So for several minutes I stayed in the building moving around to strategic doorways and windows as they ran around the building and tried to figure out where I was. Fortunately, I considered myself the winner after getting the good pictures I wanted.

The afternoon was more of the same- pictures and orchestra rehearsal. This afternoon the choirs joined the orchestras, so we were able to practice Elias with the orchestra and choir combined for the first time. It helped us all to finally hear how the parts all fit together.

I also discovered that Danae also has a blog in which she is documenting her own trip here in Brazil. So I read all her blog posts up to date about Brazil. It was neat to read about the things we experienced together and to hear many of the same perspectives about those things. You can also read her blog at http://ruminationsfromaredhead.blogspot.com.br/

After supper in the evening, all the people who volunteered as teachers for the week put on a concert of classical music. It included a flute solo, a piano/violin sonata featuring Stephen, and several vocal solos, most of which were sung by Joy Baxter and Olivia. I walked around and took pictures the whole time.

I met with Pastor Daniel to upload the day’s pictures and then came back to the house. However, the gates around the campus were already locked, so in order to get out I had to climb over the wall, get a key from Jennifer Leonard, and go back and unlock the gate and retrieve my stuff.

It wasn’t long before Stephen and Olivia returned from an evening out in Crato, and we got ready for bed. At midnight I wished Jennifer a happy birthday and a little while later I was in my bed, getting some much-needed rest.

Ugh…I woke up so tired this morning! Not from going to bed late, but simply from being worn out the day before. I set my alarm to wake up early for a run, but I quickly put that idea aside when it sounded. I would rather be at my best throughout the day than to get in that run.

Went up to breakfast and ate a French roll with hotdogs and cheese, four slices of pineapple, papaya, and hot milk. I then stayed in the dining hall to do my devos in the first half of Acts 14.

I always find it interesting how the people of Lystra thought Paul and Barnabas were gods after they healed a lame man. But last fall I did a report on the city of Lystra, and they had their reasons for their misconception. According to an old myth, Zeus and Hermes visited Lystra, but everyone refused to show them hospitality, save one old couple.

So when the gods left, they destroyed everyone but that couple. Therefore, the people of Lystra were afraid that the same fate would befall them if they did not honor Paul and Barnabas after their supernatural actions.

Stephen had his advanced violin class in the dining hall, so I took pictures and a video of them and then made my way back down to the chapel, administration building, and classroom building, taking pictures and videos along the way.

I took one of my favorite pictures of the summer when I visited the beginners violin class. A girl messed up and let out a laugh just when I happened to be focusing my camera on her. That picture was enough to make my day, and it wasn’t even halfway over.

At around 10:00 I headed back up to the dining hall to practice with rest of the orchestra. I showed up late and told Stephen that I thought I would be on time, hahaha. After showing up “early” for too many things this week, I’m finally learning the correct way to do things here.

For lunch we had rice, beans, lettuce, French fried manioc, and salted steak. After lunch I went to the Leonard’s house again to get a banana for dessert, just as I did yesterday.

I went around and took some pictures of the music theory classes and kids classes again, and I also called home a couple times to tell Janette happy birthday. The first time I called my family was still out in the field working at home, but Joyanna answered, and both she and James spent awhile talking to me and telling me stories.

It’s the Fourth of July, but here in Brazil, we obviously don’t celebrate that day as a holiday. Our latest holiday was on Sunday when Brazil played Spain in futebol, and yes, that’s when we watched our fireworks and ate good food. Today is just another normal day in Brazil, and this week a normal day is taking pictures and playing my violin a lot.

It was 8 years ago today that I flew back home from the Philippines, watching the fireworks from above in an airplane as I flew back into the states. Oh, all the good memories! It’s so different to be in another country on July 4th and to experience, well, nothing (that I’m used to in America).

At 3:00 I had another orchestra rehearsal. The music is starting to come together better, so I’m excited to hear the progress. Stephen and I still have to do a lot of shepherding because the violins especially need to hear the correct notes and rhythms to figure it out, but we’re getting there!

Shortly after 4:00, I got together with Stephen, Olivia, and Pastor Renato to work on some string quartet pieces. I’m so excited about them! One song is a vocal piece with a quartet accompaniment arranged by Pastor Renato, and the other one is an arrangement by Stephen of the classic hymn, “Rock of Ages.” The music isn’t too difficult, but both songs are beautiful.

Supper was shortly after 5:30, and we had rice, beans, shredded lettuce salad, and chicken. No hot dogs, brats, hamburgers, chips, and Jell-O like your traditional July 4th picnic, but we had the cooked beans! I had a good time talking with Renato, Stephen, and Olivia and laughing at all sorts of things.

When supper was finished I worked on some more Portuguese and took some more pictures, and soon enough, it was time for the evening orchestra rehearsal! Before I got up there, I took a video of the other orchestra practicing their music down in the chapel. Oh man, it was such a great sound, regardless of the playing ability of each person!

We had our evening rehearsal and Stephen said he was really encouraged by how it went. Following that we also had another quartet practice with the man who is singing the song for Pastor Renato’s arrangement. I gave Pastor Daniel the new pictures and videos and spent some time trying to fix some errors on my blog, but I was unsuccessful 🙁

That was my July 4, 2013. Not the kind of Independence Day I’m accustomed to, but hey, it was a great day anyway. Now time for some sleep.

Woke up again around 5:30am to see if the sunrise would be worth watching, and it was. This morning the sky was full of clouds, so the sunrise was a pretty one. It wasn’t even close to being one of the best I’ve seen, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

As I watched it rise I ran some sprints on the property behind the house. My plan was to go up to the campus again and run around it, but the key to get out of our gated yard was gone, so I couldn’t get out without climbing the wall. I tried to run the equivalent of five 240-yard sprints, similar to what we do during the soccer season.

After taking a shower I went up to the seminary for breakfast. By this time the gate had been opened for the bricklayers, so I was able to get through without the key. I had a ham and cheese sandwich on French bread, papaya, two bananas, and a few mugs of hot milk for breakfast, and then I went to the library to do my devos.

Today I read the last half of Acts 13. Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch of Pisidia and Paul had preached to the Jews, warning them against rejecting Christ. The Gentiles had heard these words and begged Paul to preach to them the following Sabbath. Paul did so, and it angered the Jews. Unfortunately, they had done exactly what Paul cautioned them against.

The Jews were rejecting Jesus Christ and becoming envious of the Gentiles. Oh how sad it is when God’s people reject Him and get angry when other people hear His truth! That is what happened to the Hebrew people. I hope that my utmost desire for the gospel is to see it given to others and not just me.

I also worked on Colossians 1 some more, trying to finish memorizing it. It is so neat how Colossians 1:27 fits in with what I read in my devotions today, how God desired to make the gospel known to the Gentiles. As a Gentile, what a blessing it is to know the mystery of the gospel!

Then I walked around for about an hour and took pictures of individual instrument classes. There was a beginner guitar class upstairs in the administration building, a more advanced guitar class in the library, and a beginner recorder class outside.

In the classroom building there were classes for beginner violinists, beginner and advanced flautists, pianists, vocalists, and advanced recorderists (what do you call them?). Up in the dining hall Stephen was working with the advanced violinists.

Walking around campus was like watching a video of different instrumentalists, with many different sounds fading in and out as I moved from one location to another. It was literally music to my ears!

However, I must admit that the noise coming from the beginners’ violin class was not pretty. Some of the harshest sounds come from a violin when a person is just learning to play it, and I can say that because that was me at one time. Danae later told me that she thinks a really bad sound also comes from the horn of a beginning trumpet player, so I guess it’s not just my fellow string players.

At 10:00 I joined Stephen and his orchestra in the dining hall for our morning rehearsal. I switched to second violin to help out the group with the sight-reading because they were having a few troubles. It was a good morning, but it took a lot of work for the group to start figuring out the music. I’ll explain in a later post what I started to realize during this rehearsal.

We kept playing until lunch and as people started arriving. Soon there were long lines waiting for the food to be placed on the counter, and we’re still playing away. We finally stopped and of course, everyone clapped for us. Way to set the mood for the meal, huh?

For lunch I had rice, beans, sausage stuffed pork, and fried manioc root. The manioc root tasted SO buttery, but it was really good! Danae and I really wanted bananas for dessert, so we walked down to the Leonard’s house to get some, and I stopped for a few minutes to talk to them about how the day was going.

After lunch we had the theory classes again, so I walked around the classroom building to take pictures of them in class. We had another shorter orchestra rehearsal that I went to, and then I worked on some more Portuguese vocabulary.

When I was done, I talked to John Peterson, an older missionary who I met last week at the Monday night prayer meeting. He asked if I sing or play an instrument, so I told him that I am a violinist.

He told me I needed to learn a new instrument, and he took me to his office and gave me a nose flute! I got a quick lesson on how to play it, and a couple hours later I was playing songs on it, just like he said I’d be able to. It’s really fun and easy!

We also talked about school (Faith Baptist Bible College) and church planting. He told me how Brazil used to be closed to church planting, and he used the nearby city of Barbalhos as an example of people that would not even rent a house or sell food to an evangelical missionary. It was interesting to hear more about the history of missions here in Brazil.

Next up was supper, and it consisted of rice, beens, pasta, grated cheese, lettuce, cucumbers, and fried chicken. Since my pop fast is over, I also accepted a Sprite from Junior, the seminary student who translated for me two weeks ago in seminary chapel.

Junior and I were the last ones to leave supper. He told me about his desire to go to Portugal to do church planting. He wants to plant a church and then train Portuguese nationals to go and plant churches throughout Europe, similar to what the American missionaries are doing here at this seminary with the Brazilians.

After supper I worked on some more Portuguese and then went to the chapel where everyone was watching more videos of orchestra music. When I arrived, they were playing Sibelius’ Finlandia, one of my favorite songs.

I got to play it for two years in college, and hearing it brought back all sorts of really good memories for me. I smiled the whole time and imagined that I was playing along with them.

Finished out this evening with our last orchestra rehearsal of the day. We did some more sight-reading of songs that we had not touched yet, and we worked on picking up the tempo on some of the other songs. Afterward I helped Pastor Daniel upload some more pictures to Facebook, and that’s it!

After playing my violin three times and learning to play a nose flute, I’m gonna get a good night of sleep tonight!