Carangola

    Thursday night I thought i heard that i would be leaving for Carangola, the next place on my itinerary, first thing in the morning. That was my misunderstanding of what my hostess had said in Portuguese. In reality we did not leave until after one in the afternoon. So I took a walk, a shower, watched my amazingly skilled host fixing the garage door electrical system, and had breakfast. M. A. & his wife Cida arrived in early afternoon. I had met him in Germany last October. Hid took us to a natural food buffett- very nice- and then we were off. MA had borrowed a late model Honda sedan, in which I was able to put the seat all the way back. Carangola is in the state of Minas Gerais, and it took about six hours to get there. Tough on the back but had good fellowship with MA. He is learning English, and is a bit ahead of me in learning another language. We had some good, halting conversation. He told me about a dream that he had many years before, long before he had started to learn English or to travel to any other country. He dreamed that he would be speaking English with someone whom he would take to his house. Apparently i was the fulfillment of the dream.
    We arrived at Carangola at night. It is a smaller city of about 45,000 people nestled in a valley surrounded by higher peaks with old cobblestone, often steep streets. I thought we were going to dinner at the home of a brother named Jefferson, and his sons Mateus and Davi, (Matthew and David) all of whom I met on my first visit. This did not happen right away so i had something to eat at 8, well after my normal dining time. Eventually Jefferson and Mateus, a new driver, came. Mateus had a challenge working a stick shift  on such steep streets but we got there. I was introduced to a number of people, and eventually it dawned on me that this was a home group meeting. More people came to fill the living room, and my friend MA was the only one who spoke any English. A three year old can speak better Portuguese than i can so it was like falling into a flooding river when MA asked me to share from the word... in Portuguese. I tried, and at least could ask people to read the passages in Portuguese but i had not realized that i would be asked to teach, and in another language. They were very patient with me.
    On the way back MA stopped for food he had ordered- we had snacks at Jefferson's home as well- and he headed for his house. The entrance to his street, and many others, is very narrow... and was blocked by a horse. The house is not in the country but there were six horses picking at little tufts of grass on his very short street. Needless to say we ate too and finished about one in the morning. They were still wired but i was exhausted.
     In the morning MA, his nine year old son Felipe and i went for a walk... up a very steep hill that provided an excellent vista of the city and environs. There is a television tower at the top shaped in the form of a cross. I'm told that when it was erected in 1960 the townspeople placed their Catholic priest on top of a cross and carried it on their shoulders up this same hill. I hope he was a small man.Sadly fifty some years later the top of the hill is used for witchcraft. As MA and i approached the peak we began to pray. Once we reached the top we had a powerful time of prayer claiming the hill, the city, the region, the state and the country of Brazil for the kingdom of God. We prayed over Felipe that he would remember this day. This is the most anointed time i have had in the Spirit of God since my arrival.