Adventures in Brazil: Part 13

Yesterday the church in Brasilia went to the "chacara", a little farm in the country, which they do on occasion. They were also joined by visitors from other churches. About two hundred, including children, came to this gathering. We began with a time of vigorous praise and music with guitars, vocalists, a drummer, and a trumpet player. This was followed by a teaching, testimonies, prayer for a number of people, and even a brief sharing in Portuguese by yours truly. One of the elders spoke about the ongoing efforts to paganize the country through legislation. Currently abortion is illegal in Brazil but there are major efforts to eliminate this protection. Afterwards we spent the usual several hours of "almoco" the midday largest meal of the day. I had the opportunity to speak with a number of people including some whom I had met previously. One in particular was a young woman who had been on the team that had visited Canada and Boston this summer. Unlike many Brazilians that I have met she was not shy about speaking to me in English. The icing on the cake was that her level of English was about the same as my level of Portuguese so we were really able to help one another. Another man whom i had met last year and I had a nice conversation. He introduced his family to me, all of whom spontaneously hugged me, a complete stranger. The night before a number of the brethren and I attended another performance by the same symphony orchestra that I had heard previously. This time they played scores from famous films, some of which i did recognize. There are many things about any other culture to which one must adjust. Classical music can be very subtle with many nuances, and listening requires rapt attention. Brazilians are so relational that they need to discuss the music during the performance, and take pictures and videos on their mobile phones.