Adventures in Brazil: Part 7

Yesterday was another full day in the Lord. In the morning attended a meeting of the elders and deacons of the church. We read and studied Revelation 10-14. Unfortuanately i cannot completely follow a freewheeling conversation, but several parallels were made between OT events and those in these chapters.
    Afterwards I heard an encouraging testimony. Some nights before I had taught at a home gathering. Unbeknowst to me, one of the attendees was a young female doctor who was not a believer. Apparently what I shared impacted her to a point that when my friends followed up with her the next day, she received Christ. I wish I could experience the same things in the US.
    Then I met with a friend and brother named Calebe ( Caleb) who is one of the few truly fluent English speakers that I have met in Brazil, someone who speaks idiomatically. He began learning at the age of five through computers. He spoke of his plans for marriage and missionary work. In his mid-twenties He is one of the most spiritually mature  people that I have ever met.
   Afterwards I went to a private hospital to have an endoscopy exam. While I have heard that the public hospitals are very substandard, I did not observe any difference between this place and a good American hospital. Most of the time was spent waiting because I had misunderstood the requirement of 8 hours of fasting beforehand to mean fasting from food. While I had only drunk water, apparently this would cloud the issue. No problem. I read the Word and reviewed a number of my memory verses.
   The actual exam was no problem. They put something in my nostrils, hooked me up to an IV, had me lay on my left side with one leg extended and the other not, and finally put a type of mouthguard in to protect my teeth. I didn't even have to count to five or anything. I woke up in the recovery room. Both the surgeon and the anesthesiologist spoke conversational English. The nurses did not so I had to ask them to speak slowly. There were no side or after effects. The only pain was the bill, which was far less than in the states.
     Later that night Samir and I prayed for a young brother in the church, a musician and songwriter, who had wrenched his back playing soccer. Marcelo is one of the many Brazilians who does not speak English whom God uses as a motivation to keep studying Portuguese.