Adventures in Brazil: Part 19

While staying in Guarapari (sp?) I watched a small bird flutter outside the window. The colors were striking, a black helmet shaped band on top, a horizontal band of white, a horizontal band of black again which included the beak, and a bright yellow chest plumage. When the back was turned the colors were a nondescript gray/brown. The heat was extreme my last days there, about 40C or over 100F. Monday evening my host family drove me to a general meeting in Vitoria, the final one of the year, where, to my surprise I was asked if i had anything to preach. God instructed me many years ago to be "ready in season or out of season" ( 2 Timothy 4:2), or ready at anytime. Again i shared on the simple life, the only message that I gave in all three cities. My new hostess (and translator) remarked afterwards that she thought this was the most important message that i had ever preached because i live it out every day. Again a number of people interacted with me about the Word afterwards, a refreshing and welcome experience. Saw a number of friends from previous visits. Thank God for them. Afterwards we ate at midnight. ( Not unusual) It will be strange to return to my normal 7am/noon/6pm eating schedule. Tuesday night i finally had the opportunity to go to the home of my friend Norberto for dinner. His wife Ruth cooked a splendid meal, which we began about 9:30 or 10 with their son and one daughter. Vinci and Samia are the life of the party. As more people came, the conversations got louder and more animated. After awhile i understood nothing. In contrast, Norberto spoke with me later, one on one, in response to the message about the simple life, with reflections on capitalism and Christianity. Unfortunately I did not understand all the details of his nuanced thoughts. Wednesday was taken to lunch by my friends Getulio and Ana. Both speak good English but for the first time we conversed almost entirely in Portuguese on a wide variety of subjects. For some reason they are easier to understand than many others. Later that day Vinci took me to the airport, which will be the subject of another post.