The Ministry of Presence

Well Jeyson is all signed up for his written commercial pilot's test on April 3. On one hand he is feeling ready to take the test since he has spent a lot of time preparing and he is anxious to move on to the next step of his training. At the same time though, is he rather nervous knowing that if he does not pass these two subject areas, he will have to start all over and retake all 5 areas. Please be praying for him as he studies and the day that he takes the test. We'll let you know the results as soon as possible after.

While signing up for the test we had an interesting cultural moment. Jeyson asked the scheduling person, "Just to clarify, if I don't pass these two areas I understand that I will have to retake all five areas....is that correct?" The man (who had never even met Jeyson before) responded with a typical Brazilian "no-worries" mindset by saying, "Oh don't think about that....you're definitely going to pass"....without ever even answering the question. After repeating the question, he did finally give the answer, that yes this was true. However, the point is that moments like this are so typical :) Often as people with American mindsets, we want quick, to the point, blunt answers. Here in Brazil though when you go to someone with a problem wanting direct resolution, the person often responds " don't worry about it" or "stay calm". Sometimes I want to shout back "I would if I could, but I can't be as relaxed as you!". ha ha

Anyway, this past week we also began our newest HomeBuilders study "Overcoming Stress in Your Marriage". Obviously there will be a lot I can learn from Brazilians in this area :) Even the first study was a great time of refreshment and discussion. We are looking forward to the next meeting this evening.

Many of you have commented on how much you enjoy seeing pictures of everyday things and places that are different here in Brazil. It give you a better idea of what we see day to day. So, this week we decided to take a bunch of pictures of the Sunday farmer's market in Anapolis to show you. Below are the pictures. Then, I will get around to explaining the title of this post.

Jeyson and I love going to the farmer's market or the "vegetable fair" as we sometimes call it to stick more closely to the translation in Portuguese. One of my favorite things about it here are the "big bag" tables. Here there are tons of differente fruits and veggies layed out on huge tables. You take one of these big plastic bowls and fill it with as many veggies as you want for the price per kilogram written on the board. So, you can fill your bowl (or several bowls) with any combination of produce you want, then the staff weighs it for the rate listed....all of the produce is the same price. Here it is listed as 99 cents/kilogram...that's equivalent to about 20 American cents per pound. You can't beat that for everything from tomatoes to apples, to papaya, to orka!
There are also specialized booths, like this famer man who only sells bananas. They are sold by the dozen usually, but often there are less in a bunch. If you are careful to count and point out that there are less than 12 in that bunch, they often give you the missing bananas and a few extra on top of it.

Here's a table that just sells pineapples. They are grouped by size/price. The small ones are 1 Brazilian real (.43 American cents) and biggest ones are usually about 1.30 (in dollars)

There are also booths that sell fresh cheeses and eggs, etc and other tables that sell leafy greens and fresh herbs.

I took this picture to give you an idea of the size of the market...and this is only about 1/4 of it.

This picutre was taken a little to the left of the other picture. As you can see there are just tables, people, and food everywhere!

Many of the booths still have these neat, old fashioned scales

Speaking of people, this is one of the best places to people watch as an interesting mix comes out to buy their produce. These are some "eye-camera" shots that I was able to get thanks to my zoom. For those of you who missed the eye-camera explanation, look at last week's post.

A group of Brazilian monks of Japanese decent....

This man really seems to care about his customers and offering good quality produce each week. He also seems to be of Japanese decent. Believe it or not, Brazil actually has a large population of people from Japan.

I loved the hat

And of course the fair wouldn't be complete without the butcher booth. We have never bought meat at here (I prefer getting it in the supermarket where is a little more....packaged :), but I do love the culture and interest it adds to the ambiance here. If you look closely on the left of the meat rack you will see a motorcycle helmet also hanging....do you think you can order a kilogram of ground helmet?

In addition to the interesting people, there are also interesting animals at the fair....like this stray dog. Stray dogs are much more common here in Brazil, but never (that I have heard) cause a problem. They just wander around and scrounge up what they can to eat.

Speaking of animals...here is where you can buy meat that is even fresher than the butcher stand - or even a pet if you prefer. I am definitely not ready to conform to that part of the culture yet :)

Oh and before I forget, I promised my mother-in-law that I would post some update pictures of our garden, since she was such a help in getting it set up. See old posts to compare pictures, but basically when we moved in it literally was a garbage heap. We are still waiting for vines to grow up on the back wall, flowers to bloom, and plants to fill in, but it's looking better already.

One of the most fun parts of the garden as been watching our zucchini grow. In the beginning we thought it was pumpkin, but it turned out to be zucchini and we enjoyed it with some pasta for dinner last night.

Well now that we have toured around our local farmer's market and garden, on to the theme of the post...the ministry of presence.

I remember while at Moody a chapel speaker spoke on this subject, but at the time I can't say I had ever clearly experienced it...until this week. So first, what is the ministry of presence? Perhaps this is obvious, but just in case basically it is the idea that sometimes the best way for us to minister to others is by simply being present. Sometimes we don't have all of the right words to say, but our presence is what the person needs most. It is a matter or listening, holding the person, and then when they are ready, reminding them of some of God's truths/promises to us. Last week, God really taught me about serving in this way.

On Tuesday I went to PETI (a children's program where I teach English) and I was disappointed that only 2 of my 12 year old girls came that day to the program. I sat down with the two girls and started by asking them how they are (in English). When they responded "just ok" asked them to tell me why they seemed down (in Portuguese so they could express themselves better). Both of them told me about recent deaths that they have been dealing with. One girl's aunt and uncle were recently murdered. Her and her family have been struggling to deal with the as the investigation is continuing. I, though twice her age, have never dealt with anything as difficult as this. I truly did not have the words to say but the other student and I listened and listened as she told the whole story and how she is dealing with it. Then, the other student started sharing about the death of a friend that she is facing. Recently her friends and her went swimming in a pool without adults or a lifeguard. During the time there, one of the boys (20 years old) drowned in the water. Again....what words are there to say to someone in so much pain? I could only minister to them by being present, by listening, praying with them, and at the end telling them how much God wants to draw them near to Him during this tough time. I felt so humbled that I don't always have the right thing to say, but comforted to know that I was doing the ministry God had for me...presence.

Later in the week, while meeting with 2 of my adult English students (separately) they both shared with me deep things on their hearts about their families. Once again, I know God had me there to be present...to listen, pray with them, and tell them about the Lord.

While my heart was broken for all of these situations, I also rejoiced that He had planned this all. He had planned for me to enter in the lives of these women for exactly these moments of ministry and drawing them to His truths. I am so excited to see fruits in these relationships and I am praying that God will draw each of them to Himself.