It’s No Reflection On You

The other day I was sitting at the kitchen table studying for Sunday’s sermon and MJ was washing dishes. When, all of the sudden she said, “do you notice anything weird over here?” So I looked and there it was... a mushroom. Now you may think, “a mushroom? It’s not that strange to see a mushroom in the kitchen. We cook and eat mushrooms in the kitchen all the time.” But she wasn’t cooking mushrooms or eating them... there was an actual mushroom growing under the countertop in our kitchen!

Now, before you go judging us, let me give you some perspective of our situation. We live almost at the top of the highest mountain in our state. Literal clouds periodically roll through our front yard because we’re so high-up (in altitude). Sometimes when we’re coming home from Curitiba on the highway and we see our mountain (miles away in the distance) and where we live is sometimes above the clouds. Our house is surrounded by the Brazilian Rain Forrest. We’re in the jungle. There’s water everywhere. Streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, springs... you name it- they’re all around us. It’s wet!

As beautiful and lush as everything is on the outside, the problem is that all that “beauty” creates moisture on the inside of all the houses here as well. The houses here aren’t insulated and you have your windows and doors open all the time anyway (because there’s no central heat/air). So there’s no escaping the moisture. And, because of the excessive moisture, there’s mold growing everywhere! On our walls, on our ceiling, on MJ’s decorations, on everything. We have these little things that we bought that are suppose to 'wick' the moisture out of the house but they’re no match for all the moisture in the air. There’s no escaping all the moisture. Almost all of the furniture that we shipped from the States is ruined because of the moisture as well. Drawers won’t close right because the wood is swollen with moisture and the  shelves under all the sinks have collapsed (or are in the process of collapsing) because they stay wet all the time. 

We have to burn all of our trash here. So we usually use paper to start the fire with. But even trying to light the paper can be difficult. As soon as you bring it outside it starts absorbing moisture from the air and, depending on what time of day it is, it can almost be impossible to even light the paper on fire! Here, I’ll give you another example of how much moisture is in the air:

We don’t have a closet for our clothes. So we have these big Rubbermaid containers that we store our clothes in- stacked up in our bedroom (fancy, I know). Well one day I went to get a pair of my shoes out and there was so much mold growing on them that you could hardly see what color the shoes were! Seriously?! They’re in an airtight plastic container...”what’s up with that?!”

Here's a belt that was hanging on the back of our bedroom door.
It's a black belt- NOT a gray one! That's mold all over it! Crazy...

Here's one of MJ's jackets hanging on the back of our bedroom door.
Those white/gray splotches are mold! No wonder I have such a hard time breathing here: (

It’s common to drive down our road and see mattresses, pillows and blankets hanging out of people’s windows, on their fences or on their clotheslines drying because of all the moisture that was created on them when they slept on them the night before... it’s bizarre. Bottom line- it’s wet and moldy here.

So back to the mushroom growing in our kitchen. When I told MJ that I wanted to take a picture of it she said, “no” because she was afraid that I was gonna write a blog and show people (what would give her that crazy idea?) and that someone was going to see it and think she wasn’t a good housekeeper or something. I, of course, grabbed the camera anyway because I thought it was awesome: ) It’s like we’re living in some kind of dream or something because this stuff is crazy! Who would’ve ever thought that we would be growing our own mushrooms? lol! It’s no reflection on her as a housekeeper or on us as a family- it’s just the way it is because of where we live. Plain and simple. So why hide it?

Here's the little guy- peaking out from under our cement countertop (fancy, huh?)

You see, there’s something inside of us all (as humans) that doesn’t want other people to see any of our flaws or any of the imperfections in our lives. It’s like we all want people to see how awesome everything is in our lives but we’re afraid to let anyone see the things that aren’t. If you don’t believe me, just take a quick look at all the posts on Facebook today. People only talk about the ‘highlight’ and never the ‘lowlights.’ 

It’s crazy, because we may not all have mushrooms growing in our kitchens, but we all probably have stuff going on that we hide and that we don’t want anyone else to know about, right? And it’s all because we’re afraid that someone would think less of us if they knew. Sorry, but that sounds a lot like pride. We all have issues in our lives that are a byproduct of the broken-fallen-sinful world that we live in. 

As followers of Jesus, the problem with only letting people see the ‘perfect’ things or only the things that are ‘pretty’ in our lives- is that it limits our ability to minister deeply and effectively. When we only let people know about all of our ‘wins’ and never our ‘losses’ it gives them the impression that their life is messed-up because, next to ours, their life doesn’t measure-up in the slightest. But when we’re transparent and honest it opens up so many more avenues into people’s lives because they don’t feel like we’re speaking down to them but actually to them (from the same level). 

Now, I’m not talking about airing all your dirty laundry to the entire world. I’m talking about letting people see that you’re not as perfect as they think you are. I’m talking about being real with people so that God can use you to speak into their lives. Because as we focus more on being honest and we put less effort into keeping up the facade that everything in our life is perfect- the easier it will be to minister to other people. And as Christ Followers that should be paramount to us- not ‘keeping up appearances.’

So what mushrooms do you have in your life? Is there anything that you try to hide because you don’t want people to think less of you? If so, you may not want to take pictures and write a blog about it, but you may want to start letting people see the real you. It’s liberating so give it a try: )

Wet and Moldy in Brazil,

Jim

Another Snake that Didn’t Make It

A big Jararaca that we killed on the path that leads to the obstacle course: )
I'm holding it up with the handle of a shovel to give you some scale.

The other day I was working at the house when, all of the sudden, Ana came running up saying “there was a big snake on the path where her and Gabriel were.” The kids were there raking the path that leads to the obstacle course (because we had a camp the next day). So I grabbed a shovel, my machete’ (and my camera, of course- haha) and jumped on the motorcycle and raced up the path to where Gabriel was being stared down by the biggest Jararaca (a very poisonous snake) that I’ve ever seen here at the camp. 

It was too big to hit with the machete’ initially, so I took the shovel and speared it in the middle of it’s body, pinning it to the ground. It was rearing back and striking repeatedly- so thankfully it wasn’t going anywhere because of the shovel holding it in place. It was still too dangerous to get close enough to with the machete’- so I had to grab a long stick to pin it’s head to the ground so that I could attempt to chop it off and kill it.

I’m usually not that scared of snakes (they just make me mad) but this one had enough girth on it that I was pretty freaked-out. The Jararaca is one of the most poisonous snakes on the entire planet with venom so potent that as little as 1.3mg can kill you. We don’t have anti-venom here at the camp and the closest hospital is 40 minutes away. So as much as I know that the Apostle Paul has an awesome testimony of just shaking a poisonous viper off his hand and into the fire in Acts 28 without suffering any harm- getting bit by one of these things isn’t something that I want to add to my list of ‘missionary experiences’ here in Brazil.

After I finally pinned it’s head to the ground (after several attempts) with a long stick, I was able to inflict the death blow with my machete.’ My adrenaline was really pumping at this point. To be able to kill this thing was actually pretty exhilarating. 

Speaking of snakes, we just celebrated Easter a couple days ago and I was teaching at church about how Christ redeemed us through His death, burial and resurrection. And, as we traced back over how it all came about, one of the scriptures we looked at was in Genesis 3:15 where God told the snake (the devil) that because he had caused man to fall, that He (God) was going to send someone who was going to crush his head (the devil’s) and that his head would bruise His (the coming Messiah’s) heel. The most amazing thing I see in the story is the immense love God has for us (mankind). Because as soon as man fell- God immediately put a plan in motion (Protoevangelium- the 1st announcement of the Gospel for all you theologians out there) to save mankind. How crazy is that?

Before God even announced any of the consequences to Adam and Eve for their outright rebellion- He announced the plan of how He was going to restore things back to where they should be by sending a Savior. And part of that plan involved inflicting a crushing blow to the head of the enemy: )

And it all happened through the cross. The cross is where satan lost.  It’s through the cross and the death of Jesus where he relinquished the keys of death and hades from satan’s hand as Jesus crushed his head (Rev. 1:18). And Jesus didn’t just die, He rose victorious and is seated right now at the right hand of the Father- where He’s interceding for us (Heb. 7:25) and acting as our advocate (1 Jn. 2:1).

Satan has no authority over us anymore. And sin is no longer separating us from having a close relationship with God. So it’s just like God said it would happen... head crushed? check! heel bruised? check! Now it’s just a matter of time until he (the devil) is thrown once and for all into the lake of fire and sulphur- where he’ll be tormented day and night forever (Rev. 20:10). And having to fight against all his junk will finally be over. Sounds like the original snake isn’t gonna make it: )

Feeling Overwhelmed by God’s Love,

JIm

Here We Go Again

This isn't a normal  river- it's main street in Terra Boa after a few days of rain.
The cobblestone street has been replaced by a rapidly flowing river and can't be driven on.

Well, we’re still trying to recover and clean-up from the flooding and storm damage we had back in February and now “here we go again!” It started raining a couple of days ago and it hasn’t stopped. It’s slowed down to a miserable drizzle at different times over the last few days but it hasn’t stopped completely for more than 30 seconds at a time. 

I’m looking out the window and it’s extremely windy and the rain is actually blowing sideways right now. Even though it’s windy, we haven’t seen the wind damage like we saw last time (PTL!) but the amount of rain that’s fallen is ridiculous. When the rain falls up here on the mountain it flows through all the rivers and streams and down to the bottom of the mountain into town (Terra Boa). And man, has it flowed!

As you can see from the pictures below the streets in town have turned into rivers and can’t be driven on. The electricity has gone out several times over the last few days too. So, not only are we prisoners inside our house because of the rain, but we’re also in the dark. And, FYI, there’s a difference between being in the dark in the city and being in the dark in the jungle. Jungle darkness is on a completely different level. And just in case you didn’t know- it’s best to replace the batteries in your flashlights ‘before’ the electricity goes out, as opposed to during the power outage... just thought I’d mention that: )

MJ lighting candles for the millionth time. Man, it's dark here: (

A view of the street from someones front yard on main street in Terra Boa.

A view of town from a helicopter. Main street is a river. You can see the soccer field totally submerged on the right. And at the North end of town you can see that it's totally under water.

The Povo (grocery store) trying to deliver food, driving through the flooded streets.

But, to be honest with you, we’re becoming kind of numb to the adverse circumstances and crappy weather. Sure, it’s uncomfortable, inconvenient, paralyzing (from a productivity standpoint), aggravating, and somewhat depressing- but for some reason it’s not affecting us as bad as it has in the past. I think we’ve finally submitted to the fact that things aren’t gonna go the way that we want them to here and we just need to pray, trust God and just roll with the punches. Getting frustrated does absolutely no good in this situation (or any other, for that matter) so why not just go with it?

It reminds me of that story in Mark 4 where Jesus had preached all day and then He jumps into the boat with the disciples and says, “let’s go to the other side.” Then he (Jesus) decides to take a nap in the stern of the boat during the journey. And, as they were traveling, a huge storm arose and waves were crashing into the boat. It was treacherous. But Jesus was asleep on a cushion, not concerned in the slightest. You see, storms happened in that region on the Sea of Galilee. The cool air coming over the mountains would crash into the warm air coming off the Sea of Galilee (which was almost 700ft below sea level) and violent storms would breakout. It was common. Uncomfortable-dangerously-scary but common, nonetheless.

The disciples start freaking out and wake Jesus up and accuse Him of not caring that they were about to die. So Jesus rebukes the wind and speaks to the sea and there’s a great calm. Then Jesus looks at them and asks them “why they’re afraid and why they still have no faith (i.e., trust)?” For real, Jesus? It’s kind of obvious isn’t it?

I use to not really understand why He asked those questions. Because in my mind it’s like... duh, Jesus. Ummm... don’t you see the huge waves and don’t you see the boat filling up with water and don’t you see that we’re in danger of capsizing and dying out here in the middle of this huge body of water!? It seems like a a stupid question...

But see, it wasn’t a stupid question at all- it was actually a really good one. Because Jesus (who is God in the flesh) had told them earlier, “let’s go to the other side.” He didn’t say, “let’s go halfway and die out in the middle.” And to think that anything else (other than what He said was going to happen) was going to happen, was crazy. So that’s why Jesus wasn’t freaked-out because of the storm... because they were going to the other side no matter what they encountered along the way.

And that’s where I think we may ‘finally’ be getting it. We’ve been given an assignment by God (to come to Brazil as missionaries) that we’re trying to fulfill. The assignment was given but in the midst of the assignment there’s also gonna be storms along the way (literal and figurative). But the good news is that He’s with us. He’s not panicked or frustrated or scared or worried or _____________. He’s in control and He knows what’s gonna happen before it happens. So to get my panties all in a wad is futile and unnecessary because He’s with us. We just need to trust (i.e., have faith in what He’s asked us to do) and not put stock into all the negative things that we experience around us.

What about you? Have you ever freaked out in the midst of your journey (that God asked you to take) and wondered if He even cared (or noticed) that you were in peril? Because one thing’s for sure... He does know. And not only that- He cares and He’s with you. So just sit back and trust Him because it’s gonna be a wild ride: )

“Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is it’s own trouble.”

                               Matthew 6:34

Just Chillin’ in the Boat with Jesus,

Jim

PS- the rain finally stopped as of the posting of this blog: )