For the first time in two weeks I woke up and went on a run. I slacked off way too much the last couple weeks, so today I made sure I woke up early (6:30) and got in a good run. It’s so easy in life to stop doing the good things, and once you stop, it’s hard to start doing them again!
It was by far one of the most enjoyable runs of my time here. I decided to push myself much more than I had so far, and I ended up running 10 kilometers without stopping. But what made it enjoyable was that I spent the whole run talking to God. For about an hour I tried to thank God for as many things as I could and offer up a few requests.
Lap after lap around the seminary I thanked God for so many different things, and it kept my mind off the exercise. I just kept going and going because it was refreshing rather than tiring. One of the best 10 kilometers of my trip.
For breakfast we had baked oatmeal, papaya, and hot milk. After breakfast we had our third missions session with uncle Jim, our second Portuguese lesson with Aunt Renate, and our first camp counselor meeting with Uncle Byron. Well, it was actually more of a comedy session with Uncle Byron.
Yes, we learned the things he had to share with us, but we spent SO much time laughing! He made joke after joke after joke, and he also told us about all the gross processes that are used to make the basic foods we eat, and it was just hilarious!
We eventually made it through everything he had prepared for the morning, and we had about a 10-minute break between our meeting and lunch. We got rice, meat and beans, green jello, and fresh-squeezed lemonade. Oh man, that lemonade was so good!
After lunch we all met on the porch to discuss our responsibilities for a “treasure” hunt, one of the activities for the English retreat today. The teams of students are going to go around finding us and doing different English-related tasks for us. I get to have every team count to “50” in English.
The afternoon flew by, and before I knew it, we were at the Hope Encounter with our scavenger hunt fully underway. When we got done with that our teams practiced our skits (about the importance of learning English) some more and then we played “I’ve Never” some more because it was a popular game on Tuesday.
Uncle Jim’s mom also came to tell us about her 50 years in Brazil and how God blessed her ministry. It was great to see her pictures and hear her testimony of God’s goodness in her life for five decades. It was such a blessing.
For supper we ate pizza, and Uncle Jim explained to everyone that we don’t pick up our pizza up with a napkin and we don’t put ketchup and mayonnaise on our pizza. However, as I walked around taking pictures, I laughed as many people still used napkins to pick up their food. About the ketchup and mayonnaise on pizza…that’s just weird and I don’t understand it.
After supper we had the presentation of each team’s skit, some more songs, and the last presentation of the story of hope by Uncle Byron. Beth Willson took some time to tell everyone about her life as a missionary kid and how she lived in two different cultures. She then talked about the food in America and many of the unique things we like to eat.
When the night finally ended, we went through the whole ordeal of saying good-bye to everyone and taking pictures together, just like we did at the end of Semana de Musica. Some of these people were even at the Semana de Musica also.
It was sad all over again to say good-bye to many new faces, some of which had become good friends over the last couple weeks. But alas, it had to be done. 🙁
William, Danae, Destiny, Beth and stayed awake until midnight talking about different things, mostly relating to missionary life in Brasil. It was nice to hear the perspectives of the MKs about their experiences and thoughts on life. Eventually I went to bed, waiting for the next day to come and sad that the Hope Encounter was done.
We began Wednesday’s issue of the Hope Encounter around 3:30 with the classic mixer game in which participants find people who have done certain things and get their signature.
I found out that my group was not the most motivated one when it came to doing things like this, but eventually they came up with a skit that we could do. There was quite a bit of prompting on my end, but they finally figured out what to do. It was good for me to have a group that needed me to push them.
Uncle Doug really wanted me to play the musical saw during my presentation, but I didn’t bring my saw with me. So, he went to a hardware store and bought a handsaw! It was only a little longer than 2 feet, but I told him I would go ahead and try it to see if it worked.
After supper I had the opportunity to give my presentation about my instruments, and I concluded by playing my saw for them. They absolutely loved it, and so did I. That instrument is a great combination of easy and fun.
