Brazil - Just a Bit of a Stretch

**Brazil cannot be summed up in one single post and so I think I shall share about it day by day and say what I felt God was teaching me through it. **


3/11/11 Sunday


"Well, coming to the end of our very first day in Brazil. We arrived here in Fortaleza tired and a little bit jet legged. We were greeted in the airport by Paige Anderson, the missionary that runs this orphanage. The first thing I remember her saying was 'Are you guys tired? Well get over it right now.' And that's just how Paige is. She's very energetic and cheery. After the airport we were whisked away for a brief lunch and then Paige took us to the orphanage. This proves to be far more of a stretch for me than I thought. I don't know what I pictured about Brazil.. epic vacation maybe?.. but this is crazy. Our house has also introduced us to our roommates of large cockroaches, frogs, geckos, and wasps. :| Today during church, a bat flew in and landed on a fan above some girls. While the girls squirmed some, everything went on as normal.
 The children here were rescued from prostitution, crime and other unfortunate circumstances. I wonder at what God will teach me in these coming days."


The above is an entry from my prayer journal. A brief look into my first 8 hours in Fortaleza. I could tell from the beginning that the trip was going to stretch me in ways that I had not expected. To be honest.. I tried to think back on what I had expected and I couldn't come up with anything really clear. I had not expected much of anything. I just hadn't expected bugs and poisonous critters or any sort of danger at all. I have been on many missions trips with my church back home and I don't think there was ever a time that I felt unsafe. Even when staying in a church right in the middle of inner-city KC where people had been murdered a couple blocks over.. I felt safe. When sharing my faith with drug addicts and ex convicts on the streets of Omaha, I felt safe.  I Like to feel safe. But, our first evening in Brazil we were warned of Dangy Fever and other diseases carried by bugs of which we needed to take caution. That was a bit of a trusting adventure because I had no bug spray and I was for sure getting eaten alive. 
Truly there was no reason to really fear getting sick or bitten by something poisonous.. but I didn't really care for the idea either. That Sunday also started our dependence on bottled water for the week as well. We used it for drinking, brushing our teeth, flushing our eyes and occasionally cleaning dirt out of a wound if one so desired. It was right from the get-go that I realized that I was in for an adventure and that God had some major work to do on my heart. 


You know, you always hear about fortunate Americans going on a mission trip to some impoverished place and commenting "They didn't have much, but they were happy." Well, in my own little heart of hearts I've always thought.. of course. I would just expect that because God gives joy in all circumstances and thats not really a lesson I would need to learn myself. 
That first night at church the kids were just all over the place excited about anything and were so into the worship songs and you could just see joy in them. Being exhausted from all the travels I mostly found myself staring in wonder at how much they enjoyed being in church. Even more so, I wondered at how I was not over come with joy myself. Joy is something that tends to be contagious and overwhelming. I thought to myself, "Perhaps it is just because I am tired that I feel kind of out of place." 
And don't get me wrong.. I enjoyed those kids very much. I loved how they didn't know me but would climb into my lap and play with my hair and hug me and want me to sit by them after the short few minutes of knowing of my existence. It was awesome! But, for some strange reason I felt disconnected to it all. A lot like I was watching and not really apart of what I was seeing. 

Just another spider.. 

One of my roommates. 

My teammate, Victoria, and I shared this room.

This is the house our team stayed in while we were there.
For the children, there are about 15 kids in a house with one house mom.

What you see when you walk into the house.
The kitchen and living room area. Our house was not furnished.

The door front door. As you can see, the windows in our house
are just some clay star things that let in a breeze from outside.
The windows also served as the perfect places for wasps to build their nests.