Brazilian Retreat

     This is the second year that God has given me the opportunity to participate in a retreat with Brazilians. They came from Canada, Virginia, the Boston are and Porto Alegre, a large city in the south of Brazil near the Spanish speaking countries of Uruguay and Argentina, hence their nickname of "gauchos." Samir brought his family, soon to grow again, and three young people who work with him in ministry. One, a man named Calebe, roomed with me. He is an English teacher, played semi-pro rugby, and initially learned English playing video games as a young person. Now he is a disciple of Jesus Christ. Following the usage in the Gospels and Acts, Brazilians often refer to fellow believers as disciples. I wish we did the same in the US.
     Samir spoke several times, the first evening memorably on grace. In the most powerful illustration he asked his little daughter Julia (age 4) to bring him a pencil. She did. Then he asked her to hug him, which she did with a big smile. Samir said, "Bringing me the pencil was an act of obedience, hugging me an act of love. God desires both but which one does He rejoice in? The same thing that I do as a father." He has also recorded a music CD "Decido Por Ti." (Decide or decided for you i.e. God)
     Early one afternoon about a dozen of us did an exercise together. We went into a vacant parking lot, were blindfolded, and then given a thin rope to hold. We could speak with one another but could not let go of the rope. The goal was to make a perfect square. An additional challenge was that we were working in two languages as several other Americans were present. We were allotted thirty minutes. Half the people were talking at the same time. After about twenty minutes of confusion we stopped to pray. Then the Lord gave Calebe an idea and he directed us. When our blindfolds came off we discovered that we were within a couple of feet of the perfect square. (I'm still not sure how Calebe did it.)
     As with most retreats you don't get a lot of sleep. For example, on Sunday night we were theoretically to begin at 7:30, actually began an hour later. We had a time of worship, then I shared a little on the importance of reading the whole Bible, then Marcelo spoke, and finally Samir shared again, along with times of prayer. We finished at midnight but many people stayed up until 3AM.