As many of you may have heard, last Friday Rio de Janeiro was named as the host city for the 2016 Olympic Games. (Check this link for a glimpse of things to come… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z00jjc-WtZI&feature=featured) This is particularly exciting for me as 1) I now live very close to Rio de Janeiro, and 2) I have always been a HUGE fan of the Olympics. Something I have learned over the last few weeks as I have anticipated this announcement is that each candidate host city chooses its own symbol and slogan to represent the Games as part of their campaign to win the decision. The symbol and slogan of the chosen host city becomes the slogan used for those Games.
During their bid for the 2016 Games, Rio chose the slogan “vive sua paixão,” which means “live your passion.” I actually really like this slogan, but I do think it’s funny. I mean, the last thing you have to tell an Olympic caliber athlete is to live their passion. They literally eat, breathe, and sleep their passion. Every aspect of their being is about their passion- the sport in which they participate. So much so that every person they come into contact with knows exactly what they are all about, be it swimming, gymnastics, diving, tennis, etc. Maybe not with curling. Or maybe so, I shouldn’t judge.
Thinking about this makes me wonder about all of the rest of us, and by “us,” I mean we that are not Olympic caliber athletes. Personally, it presents two questions. The first- do I have a passion? The second- am I living my passion? I know, I know. As you read this you are probably thinking that I, as a missionary, am of course living my passion. I live in Brasil for crying out loud. My entire purpose for being here is to tell people about the gospel story and start a church with the people who believe that story. But honestly, wasn’t that also my purpose when I lived in the States? Could you tell? Can the Brasilians I encounter now on a daily basis tell what my purpose is, what my passion is? Do I eat, breathe, and sleep the story of Christ? Am I as obvious in my Christianity as Michael Phelps is in his swimming, or Usain Bolt in his running? Are you?
In case you missed it, today Rio de Janeiro was selected to host the 2016 Olympics. When the selection happened I could hear several people down the street cheer. This was Rio’s four attempt to host an Olympics. So if you’d like to come visit our mission work and go to the Olympics at the same time you can start making your travel plans.
For more information about the selection you can go to: http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/news/story?id=4525513
A few weeks ago I was at a mall in Niteroi and was in the food court with a couple of guys on the team. While we were there we noticed that a restaurant had a promotional combo deal which included a pasta dish, a drink, and a US dollar bill! How random is that?! How many of you would like to go to Fazoli’s and get a Brazilian Real with you meal?
Just one more of the random/odd things we’ve encountered thus far in Niteroi …
Last night Brazil became the first South American country to qualify for next years World Cup. Brazil beat Argentina 3-1. These two countries have a long and fierce soccer rivalry. Imagine the rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox or Texas and Oklahoma and double it, maybe triple it and you will come close to what is at stake in such games between these two countries. Consequently, beating them in Argentina to earn a spot in the World Cup becomes that much more special. It’s nice to be on the winning side of this rivalry (at least this time …).
Brazil continues to be the only country to have played in every World Cup.
I just finished reading the book “Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation” by Barbara Brown Taylor. I simply wanted to share a quote from this book.
“By the grace of God, I am being mended, and God has called me to be a mender too. Since many threads are stronger than one, God has put me on a sewing team. Day by day, our job is to hunt the places where the world is ripped and bend over the damage to do what we can. Every good deed, every kind word, every act of justice and compassion tugs the torn edges closer together. The truer our aim, the smaller our stitches and the longer the patch will hold. We made plenty of the rips ourselves, and some of the worst ones show evidence of having been mended many times before, but that does not seem to discourage anyone.
Mending is how we continue to be mended, and we would not trade the work for anything.”
As you guys know, shortly after we arrived we started working on Sara’s application for a permanent visa. We submitted her application and hadn’t heard anything about the process since then. At the time, we were told to just wait. Yesterday, while Sara was in Portuguese class, I received a surprise visit from the Federal Police. We had been told that eventually we would receive such a visit, but we weren’t told when that would be. He arrived around mid-afternoon. He introduced himself and explained the purpose of his visit. The agent then proceeded to ask to see our bedroom, Sara’s closet, our bathroom, and finally he wanted to see pictures of us (which he compared to the visa application photos). An interesting experience to say the least, but, the bottom line is that Sara should have her permanent visa by January or February 2010.
We (finally) received our first package from the States! Ever since we left in March, my mother has been collecting things that we either forgot or things we didn’t think to bring so that she could send us a package. She finally reached critical mass (enough stuff to fill the small fixed amount package at the Post Office) and sent it off into the unknown. The person working at the Post Office told my mother that it would only take 6-10 days for the package to be delivered. We had no reason not to believe him, especially since the cards she’s been sending have arrived in a mere 4 days. But, 30 days later, when the package still had not arrived, we began talking about what to do as far as making a claim on the insurance for the package. We had resigned ourselves to the fact that it was lost in transit and my peanut butter and Reader’s Digests were lost forever. But, two days later, as Nathan and I were coming home from the gym, our doorman ever so casually mentioned that a package had come for us that day. I was so surprised and excited that I could hardly keep from opening it right there in the elevator. And after 32 days in transit, the only problem with the package was that the chocolate chips had melted and then rehardened all in one clump, and that’s certainly not a problem I mind having. I thought it especially fitting that when the package got here, emblazoned across the front was “America Supports You.” Yes, as a matter of fact, America does support me, in more ways than one.
Package from Home
This past weekend Nathan and I went to Rio to visit his family and celebrate his brother’s 18th birthday. For his birthday, Jonathan planned the whole day for us, the highlight of which was going bowling at the local mall. Now you have to understand that before we went, Nathan and his family had been telling me stories about what bowling was like in Brasil. According to them, the biggest difference is that each of the pins is held up and in place by strings, and that the strings can sometimes affect the way the pins fall down or knock into each other. So, in my mind I was picturing some kind of elaborate puppet-show with all the pins jerking around on these strings. I was actually really looking forward to seeing how it all worked- you know, another funny story to tell back home. You can imagine my disappointment then when we got to the bowling alley and everything was exactly the same as it was in the States. Well, not everything. There are strings attached to the pins, but I was halfway through the first game before I even saw one of them. And I could never tell a difference in the way the pins fell or anything else for that matter. I was actually hoping for a big difference because then I could have used that as my excuse for doing so poorly (bowling has never been my strongest sport). Instead I simply found another way that being here is like being home- I am bad at bowling in both places.
Nathan at the Bowling Alley
Yesterday I went to the Rio minister’s breakfast at the Ramos church. We had to leave at 6:30 a.m. to beat the traffic in order to make it there by 8:30 a.m. Even though it was only a small group this time, it was still good. We spent time talking about fasting, and then we had a time to hear how things are going at the other churches (we had representatives from four churches) and we spent time in prayer for each other. I’ve only been to two of these meetings, since they are bi-monthly, but I’m already looking forward to the next one.