Our 16-year-old Talitha has a heart for children. This has led her in ever-widening circles of connection, even beyond America.
There’s a way you can bless her this week. Please check it out.
All posts in South America
Brazil photos
The whole array of my photos from Brazil are online now at Shutterfly.
Winners of mystery gifts from Brazil
Congratulations to the winners of the mystery gifts from Brazil.
- Lonely Planet Brazil guide book (2011)(better for someone else to enjoy it than for me to store it on a shelf till it’s outdated.
- Ground coffee, 1/2 kilo (Brazilian product)
- 2 packs of cashews, 50 grams each (Brazilian product–see below for a cashew story)
- Wooden Christ the Redeemer–a reminder to pray for Brazil– 4-5 inches tall
- Magnet of Brazilian flag — a reminder to pray for Brazil
- Vase from porcelain works in Monte Siâo (Mount Zion) — You can see my photos visiting the porcelain factory.
If your name is the same as one of the winners, you’ll know whether I mean you if you get an email from me. The winner’s commenter names are:
- Fanny
- Kat
- Pamela Nees
- Susan Lytle
- Connie
- Mel
Cashew story . . .
Soon after our daughter-in-law first arrived in the US from Brazil, she was playing the fruit game with a bunch of people. It’s a fast-moving game and C was the letter on her turn. She named the first thing that came to mind–cashew. All the North Americans laughed because they all knew cashew is nut, not a fruit.
But guess who was right? She was. The cashew nuts that we know, are the inside of a lower appendage on the cashew fruit. Cashew juice, made from the fruit is one of the many, many fresh fruit drinks to try in Brazil.
Thank you, Brazil
My husband has said it well, and with photos. Thank you to so many who blessed us and so many others during our days in Brazil.
Desiring God Portuguese website
While we were at the FIEL Conference outside Sao Paulo, one of the highlight moments was when Desiring God announced the inauguration of the Desiring God Portuguese website. Around me, I could hear the gasps and murmurs of glad surprise.
Brazil is the largest of 9 nations where Portuguese is an official language.
If you are a Portuguese speaker, please take at least a few moments to check out Desiring God’s Portuguese website. There are a growing number of people who are working hard to increase the resources available there. You can bless them by leaving an encouraging comment at this post.
If you don’t understand the language, you can bless them by commenting here how you’re spreading the news of it to anyone you know who does speak Portuguese and to Christian workers who are in one of the Portuguese-language nations.
Thank you!
Good suggestions, O & L!
Before we started out on our trip to Brazil, I asked our 5- and 6-year-old Brazilian experts what they’d do if they were going to Brazil. Here’s my report to them.
Dear O and L,
You were right, cold coconut water is refreshing on a hot afternoon. It tastes a bit odd, but I could get used to it. And the ladies told me it’s full of electrolytes, so it’s good for you when you’re sweating a lot. And scraping off the coconut with a spoon–yum.
I’m like you. I love being in the water at the beach. I wish I had had time for swimming. The closest we got was that one night we slept in a hotel next to the beach. We kept the window open so I heard the waves while I was going to sleep a
nd when I woke up. That’s a sound that makes me happy.
When I asked about eating crabs at the beach like you suggested, somebody thought that might be something special in Fortaleza, not in Rio where we were. But one night we had dinner at Real Astoria Restaurante. The table was looking right over the wate
r, and I had crab cake in a crab shell–another yum.
I didn’t get to eat at Habib’s, but we did have lunch one day at a Raful’s in the Mercado Municipal in Sao Paulo. They didn’t have a play area like you enjoyed at Habib’s, so we just enjoyed the food–a lot.
__________
Tomorrow–Tuesday 10/11–at 11:59 pm CDT is the deadline to enter for the Mystery Prizes from Brazil. If you haven’t done it already, add your name into the Mystery Gift drawing here and here and here and here. (Each of those clicks gives you a way to enter once. So if you click on all 4 and comment on each, you have entered 4 times.)
How shall they hear without a translator?
When most of the congregation understands Portuguese and the preacher speaks English, God’s Spirit
speaks God’s word through an interpreter. No matter how good and true the words of the preacher might be, they land on no Portuguese-speaking hearts without a translator.
The preacher has to trust that the interpreter is presenting the message as he intends it. But the words are not enough. Supporting and carrying the words is the demeanor of the translator. Imagine that the preacher throws his hands high and exults, “GOD IS GLORIOUS!,” but the interpreter stands 
head down, arms hanging at his side and intones in his language , “god is glorious . . .”
The words are there, but the full message isn’t.
So we are thanking God for Pastor Heber Campos, here at the FIEL Conference. He has the words,
expertly. And his energy matches Johnny’s. Sometimes it’s almost as if there is no pause in Johnny’s speaking for Heber to translate. They overlap each other’s beginnings and endings and flow with little pause. Each seems to give energy to the other.
Pastor Heber is a chaplain at MacKenzie University in Sao Paolo. We will be there tomorrow evening, after we finish at the FIEL Conference. And Pastor Heber will be translating.
Thank you, Lord. And thank you, Pastor Heber.
Tiny taste of Brazil
Karin, I hope you notice I’ve gone this many days without mentioning food–well not much anyway.
Anyway, my plate from yesterday’s buffet lunch was delicious–and fairly normal midday fare here, I believe. Rice and beans, greens (collards to a southern American, as opposed to a South American), and the best polenta I’ve ever eaten. It had the texture almost of custard. I passed by the meat that was offered, because the meal was just right already. Oh yes, and some asparagus too. Looks like the food I grew up with in Georgia.
The little “extra” on my breakfast plate this morning is probably not as usual-carrot cake with a chocolate glaze. Not bad (as a Minnesotan might say). Not bad at all.
Now, just wait till I break down and have some puddim (pudding)–the Brazilian version of flan, I’d call it–my totally favorite dessert here. You’ll hear about that.
What makes a protein complete?
Brazilians have the reputation of being meat-eaters. Statistics put them 2nd behind us in the US. But it seems to me that Brazilians have a lot more conversation than we do about meat, meat, meat.
During a conversation at breakfast about food. . . .
Husband: Beans and rice. Yes. If you eat rice without beans, it just doesn’t seem to have enough body, enough substance.
Wife: They say rice and beans together give us protein as good as meat. . . .
She takes a sip of her coffee.
Wife: . . . . but just to be sure, we have meat with our rice and beans.
Which reminds me, what foods should we try to have while we’re in Brazil? Answer in the comments to this post, and that enters your name once again for the Mystery Prize from Brazil.
__________
Additional opportunities to add your name into the Mystery Gift drawing are here and here and here.
