Here on the mountain there’s no Wal-mart, Kroger, Publix, Ingles or any other store that resembles one of these. But there is the person we call the “produce guy.” This is a local man that, twice a week, drives around house-to-house selling produce. Hence the name “produce guy.” Deep, I know. Haha. Well anyway, today was the first time he came to our house. He pulled up in a retro VW van (they call them combi’s here) filled with fresh fruits and vegetables. I’m talking amazing fruits and vegetables too. The kind that wouldn’t know what an insecticide, fungicide, or any other chemical was if you showed it to them. He had papaya, watermelon, lettuce, tomatoes, oranges, fresh eggs... all kinds of stuff. It was pretty cool. And whatever you wanted he would weigh on this little scale then he would hand it to you. Well, we were getting everything we needed for the week and we decided to get a bunch (literally a bunch) of bananas. He weighed them and they weighed 3.25 kilos (Whatever that is...why can’t the rest of the world use pounds? Whoever thought up the metric system obviously wasn’t American. jk. lol!). He went to grab the bunch of bananas off the scale then yelled out, “oi” and jumped back! We all looked down and sitting on top of this bunch of bananas that he just weighed was a giant tarantula! Are you kidding me? We almost bought a bunch of bananas with a big tarantula on it! Welcome to Brazil: ) He flicked the tarantula off onto the ground and Marlon stepped on it (thanks Marlon) and then he handed me our bananas. Two things went through my mind. The first thing was, “are you going to re-weigh my bananas?” Because your initial weight was with the tarantula and that thing was huge. The second thing was “this man was riding around in his van all morning with at least 1 giant tarantula and how crappy of a job is that?” So, since I felt sorry for him and the fact that he has a dangerous job (who knew delivering produce was dangerous?) I let him slide and just took the bunch of bananas and walked into the house. My good deed for the day: )
Thursday night, for over a year now, we’ve been having outreach church services at the camp (and at a school halfway down the mountain). These services have praise and worship, Bible teaching and fellowship. We usually have a local Brazilian pastor come in and do the speaking so that the message doesn’t have to come through a translator. Last night was our first service since we’ve moved here and Pastor Bart from a church in Villa Zumbi ministered. It was good seeing everyone worshipping together, listening to the Word, and responding during the altar portion of the service. To think, that before Hope and Life Brazil began ministry here last year, Thursday nights were silent. No worship. No proclamation of the Word. Nobody having the opportunity to meet Jesus. This is truly an honor being called here. Even though we’re still trying to figure out what God wants us to do “specifically,” as we’ve moved our family here, it’s great to see the Spirit of God already moving. So, for now we’re just going to get involved in His activity... which is the way we should always do it anyway, right? Please continue to pray for us. There are so many opportunities for the Gospel here that we only want to do “exactly” what God wants us to do.
Love You Guys!
Jim and MJ
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