Even So, It Is Well With My Soul…

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Today’s post will not be centered around me. Yes, I will give you a small update on what I have been up to these past couple of weeks, but this blog will be more about someone whom I loved very much.

Over the past twelve days I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster. I have spent a lot of time with my friends here in Goiania, I went to Caldas Novas (a city about three hours from here that’s full of natural-hot-water-parks. The hotel we stayed in had four different pools, several waterfalls and a sauna. We planned to come back after our 3-day mini vacation with a nice tan…however, it rained everyday, so we simply relaxed in the hot-water pool as the cold rain dripped on us.
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About a week and a half ago, my Mom told me that my Grampa was sick. He had been coughing a lot and finally told my Gramma to take him to the doctor. He was soon after admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. There was a point where he looked to be getting better and my Mom went home on Wednesday (knowingly returning with my Dad and sister Anna on Friday). Friday morning I skyped with my Mom & Dad for about an hour, then had to get off so I could take a shower/clean the apartment/etc. About 2:15 in the afternoon (about 4 hours after I had first skyped with my parents) I received a message telling me to call my Mom.

My Grampa passed away a little after 9am CST in his sleep–how he’d always said he wanted to go. It has been extremely difficult grieving and trying to grasp that I’ll never eat, play cards, joke or talk with him again. I think the fact that I won’t physically see him again hit me yesterday. I just talked to him on the phone a week. I just joked with him, told him that I loved him, listened to him tell me that my work here in Brazil is much more important than anything happening up there…Today is his funeral. One week later and I’m going to watch & be a part of his funeral via skype at the church. Amazing how technology works sometimes…

Here is a little quirk about me: I love coming to the end of things. Example: Using the last of the shampoo/conditioner, eating the last of the chips, drinking the last of the juice, using the last of the ketchup. It’s always given me some sort of satisfaction and accomplishment, “Look! I’ve used it all! The container is empty and I helped to do that!” That may seem strange to some of you…when I first told my Mom about my like for these things, she laughed and said, “So I could give you half empty ketchup & syrup bottles for your birthday and you’ll love it?!” Really, I do (and would!). The morning my Grampa passed away, I emptied 1 shampoo, 1 conditioner and 1 lotion. Do I see some kind of poetry between the emptying of bottles and my Grampa’s death? Absolutely.

Ephesians 2:13-14a, 18, 19b-22
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace…For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father…you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Our bodies are but vessels. I believe in God. I believe that when I was baptized the Holy Spirit entered into my body, thus becoming God’s temple. I believe that when we die if you have also believed and been baptized, our bodies die, but our spirits go to heaven. Therefore, I will not really die. My Grampa has not really died. Ok, yes, his body is gone, but I will see him again when I am in heaven. This isn’t a ‘goodbye’ forever, it’s more of a ‘I’ll be seeing you’ kind of farewell.

Romans 14:8
“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

Ecclesiastes 9:5
“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.”

Philippians 1:18b-23
“Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

I share these verses from the book of Philippians for two reasons. First, my Grampa has been longing to go to heaven for quite some time now but that did not stop his work here. He helped plant a church, he never took a sick day while he was working, he was courageous and his life echoed what’s written above: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He lived for Christ…that is evident in every aspect of his life, and now he has now gained.

I just want to share a couple more thoughts before I wrap this post up.
1. When my cousin Amy told her kids that their Great Grandpa went to heaven, these were their responses:”He gets to see Jesus now!” “He has a new body” and “He’s eating cake!” My cousin later explained to me the last response (by her son Zachary) came from this: “Our plan was to go up in Feb over Abby’s bday and last night the dinner conversation revolved around whether or not Grandpa would get to eat cake for Abby’s bday if he was in heaven. The concensus was “yes” cuz its heaven and all the good stuffs there. Its makes me smile to think of Grandpa eating some cake while he sits and chats with Jesus.”
2. Today is my Grampa’s funeral. With the help of Skype and some amazing people at my Grandparents church in Iowa, we’ve set it up so that my sister, Marcie, and I can watch the funeral from where we are. It is simply amazing some of the things that are possible today. Imagine being a missionary only 15-20 years ago: the internet was barely starting to catch on, there were no cameras or phones. Calling home meant using a calling card and spending maybe 20 minutes talking.

I am so blessed to be where I am. I thank God everyday for the loving people I am surrounded by here in Brazil. I am thankful that I can openly worship God without fear of being arrested, or worse. I am thankful for my family in the states. Thankful that we can all still laugh and play when we talk or think about Grampa. We know that this is not the end. Our lives here on earth are temporary, but with Jesus, our spirits will live forever. I look forward to the day when I walk on streets of gold with Jesus on my right and Grampa on my left.

So, WHAT’S DIFFERENT IN BRAZIL? #20: My Family

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away…So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

After the Storm…

Hello and Welcome Back Everyone!

I hope that you all had wonderful Christmas’s and New Years Eves/Days! I know that I’m writing four days after the start of 2012, but here is a video that I absolutely love and I would like to share with you:

WHAT’S DIFFERENT IN BRAZIL #19:
So what have you all been up to these past couple of weeks? Me? I got to spend my first Christmas away from my family, with my Brazilian family, and spent New Years Eve watching fireworks go off all around me! Christmas here is different in a few ways:
-If the family exchanges gifts, it’s done on Christmas Eve.
-There is a huge dinner served at mid-night on Christmas Eve with your whole family.
-Christmas Day there is usually a [smaller] lunch with the family.
-There is no tradition of leaving cookies & milk for Santa, nor the hanging of a stocking (which makes sense since there is no need for fireplaces here). =)
-Christmas Tree–if you haven’t already figured out, they don’t buy them. There are a few places that sell small plastic versions of the tree or even ornaments, but nobody really decorates for Christmas (only the outside lights, really).
-No Christmas Cookies. Instead, they have cakes called “Panettone.” You can get them with chocolate, with pieces of fruit, with fillings, etc. I have only the chocolate and fruit pieces, but I’d say I prefer the fruit ones!

This was my breakfast everyday for about a week: coffee & a Christmas cookie. =)

I got to introduce “Christmas Cookies” to Tia and her grandson, Bruno. I made regular sugar cookies and had the two of them help me decorate! It took me a few days to find food coloring and sprinkles, but I found them!!! They had never done this before, so it was quite the adventure for them! =)

Now, to explain a little…On Christmas Eve, Tia Ivani and I talked about what to cook, started cooking, etc. Her son, Fabricio came over around 6pm and started to eat “lunch.” I started to laugh and asked, “Aren’t you gonna stay for dinner?” To which he said, “Yes.” *pause* I then asked, “What time are we gonna eat dinner?” “Midnight.”
I thought that was a joke…I skyped with my family a little after that happened and said, “I hope they’re joking. I’m pretty sure they’re joking.” Nope, not a joke. Hahaha…however, there ended up being some sort of a mix-up and we started eating around 10:45pm! Hahaha. Oh my.

Standing, from Left to Right: Elene and Sandro (married, Tia’s son & daughter-in-law), Tia Ivani, Amanda and Avó (Grandma–Tia’s Mom).
Sitting: Bruno (Elene and Sandro’s son) and Fabricio (Tia’s other son).

On Christmas I actually traveled with the choir to Brasilia for our performance there. I ate a little bit before I left, but did not join my Brazilian for the Sunday lunch. Our performance in Brasilia went great! We had both choirs (Goiania and Brasilia) sing together, and they hadn’t even practiced together! Ha! Again, everybody loved it and we all had a great time! (I did get to skype with my family in the morning, which was great! They watched me open my presents I brought with me and I watched them open up the one I made for them (a photo-scrap book so that I could be there with them in that form, since I was here in Brazil–they all seemed to really like it).

The leaving-the-cookies-for-Santa tradition. When I first asked Tia Ivani if they did that here, she looked really confused then said, “Our ‘Santa’ doesn’t eat anymore. He came, lived for 33 years, then went back to heaven. He doesn’t eat food anymore…” then she started to laugh. Ha, I thought it was pretty funny anyway. I explained the tradition that we do in our house with the cookies and milk and she thought that was pretty funny. Which, when you really think about it, it is; there’s so much tradition in the states with Santa Clause. Of course there’s tradition with Jesus, too, but it’s easy to get lost amongst it all sometimes.

My New Years was spent here, in my apartment. I made meatballs & bacon wrapped lil’ wienies and Karen and her friend Dani came over. We watched all the concerts going on all over Brazil on the TV, then went outside for about 15-20 and watched the fireworks going off all around us! (pretty amazing). Around 2am or so, three more friends came over and hung out until almost 4 (by this time Tia Ivani, Fabricio & Annalee had all returned from the party at the church). It was really a great time. We just talked and laughed, and it was great!

These past 3-4 days I have been sick…I think with a mild cold. Today I feel 90% better than I did yesterday, I still have a little congestion going on, but I am SO glad that I’m better. Tia Ivani and Annalee have also been sick (Annalee is still really sick) so it was no surprise that I got a little bit of it. Please pray for all of our health though, we’re not the only one’s who are sick, it seems to be going around down here.

Today I got to finally break in one of my Christmas presents–SCRABBLE!!! Drew and Lucas came over and we played a couple of games whilst eating pancakes & watching the WVU-Clemson game overview from last night. It was pretty epic (last nights game, that is). I’m actually going over to Drew’s in a little bit to play more Scrabble and watch “The Muppets Show.” =)

I hope you’re all doing well! Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll write more next week!

Peace and Love,

Dani

I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas…

…Just like the ones I used to know…

That really is the only way I’m having a white Christmas this year…by dreaming about it. Actually, I took Bruno, Tia Ivani’s grandson, to our pool today and now have tan lines! White Christmas? Nah, I’ll just soak up the sun instead. =)

This past week has had both crazy moments and slow moments. The choir performed Sunday night (and did an amazing job!) and I went to Lucas’s graduation (3 parts)…so every night last week was either filled with choir practices or graduation celebrations. This week has been a little bit slower, but I’ve still been keeping busy–Secret Santa exchange with the choir, bbq with the choir, walking the feira with Tia and friends, etc.

So last week my nights were filled with choir practices & Lucas’s graduation…here are some pictures from both:

These next three were taken during 3 of the musical numbers!

The first part of Lucas’ graduation festivities was a church service.

He went to Military school, so the actual commencement ceremony was held outside–in the pouring rain. They even did a Marching Routine! !

Me and Lucas!

Davy, Lucas, Me, and Karen!

Friday was the BIG dance! Davy and I got to go:

After all of the fun of graduation ended…it was back to choir practice for me! Followed finally by the production of it on Sunday night! Everything came together so well and they sounded amazing! I am so proud of what they accomplished! We’re actually going to Brasilia to put it on again on Sunday! I’m excited about getting to show and share what our students can do with others!

Here’s one of the songs they did:

Well, with Christmas only 2 days away, it’s hard to think of anything else. I am so thankful that God sent Jesus to earth, for us. I am thankful for this time of year where we can center our focus on Jesus’ birth, and the promises that come from that single act! I am thankful to have a God who is gracious, merciful and just! I am thankful for His blessings and Love. What are you thankful for?!

WHAT’S DIFFERENT IN BRAZIL #18:

Again, continuing on in the Christmas spirit of things, something that’s different here…is the purchase of wrapping paper. From what I have gathered, presents usually come in either bags or decorated boxes…not wrapped up with the same ribbons and bows we use in the states. Last week I had to go to a paper store (not a grocery store) to buy individual pieces (not a roll) of decorative paper. They didn’t have any Christmas-like paper…so I improvised. I found some red & silver paper with white roses on it. I also found some green ribbon, so with those combined, it has the Christmas feel to it!

Today’s website shout-out goes to: SKYPE. No, it’s not an organization, nor do they offer the chance to donate a goat to a family in need. BUT, they help me (and countless other missionaries/people away from home) stay in touch with their friends and family. This is one more thing that I am thankful for this Christmas. Having a way to stay connected to my family where I not only hear their voice, but get to see their faces! That is such a blessing. I’ll be able to spend a few moments with my family on Christmas day, literally face to face, even though we’re in different hemispheres. Accomplishing a feat like this didn’t even exist 10 years ago! So, thank you Skype, for your free video calls to my family and friends!

Merry Christmas Everyone! Enjoy the time spent with family and remember why we celebrate Christmas–JESUS! =)

Peace and Love & Merry Christmas!

Dani

O Come, All Ye Faithful…

Hello Everyone!

I’m in the middle of my second week ere in Brazil, and things sure have picked up! This is definitely a good thing because I’ve been able to keep busy, work amongst the students from ICMM, keep my thoughts off missing home, and help with a Christmas musical–ALL at the same time! =) I was originally going to actually be in the musical, but with the first performance being Sunday evening and with my going to 3 different parts of my friend Lucas’s graduation tonight, tomorrow and Friday–there was no way that I would learn all of the songs, dances, and find costumes(!) before then. So, I have become the “Stage Manager.” I like it. Good old fashioned behind the scenes work. It’s kind of surprising how much I like this role that I’ve stepped into, but it’s great! Plus, as I’ve already said, I get to work with students from ICMM as well as people from the church everyday! Please keep that in your prayers this week: the actual production (Sun 12/18 & Sun 12/25–Brasilia); stress levels; that people’s hearts will be opened to the message we’re bringing; and for the choir themselves! A musical like this (if you’re from Johnson, it has a similar feel to Festival of Christmas Joy) is no where to be found here. So we’re able to bring something new and exciting along with the message of Hope & Christ to people here.

Other than the musical and the 3-part graduation with Lucas, that’s about all that’s going on! haha. I also had a meeting with Rafa and Drew yesterday, we planned for next semester and it looks like I’ll be teaching 3 different English classes along with one Bible class (most likely Old Testament–Pentateuch & Poetry). I’m really looking forward to starting!

It’s been kind of funny (but really only to me), everyone is on “vacation” now that school is over and that the Christmas season is here, so everyone’s resting and such…but I don’t want it to be ferias, I want to work! I’ve been at home “resting”…haha, so, I am pumped about getting next semester going!

WHAT’S DIFFERENT IN BRAZIL #17:

I thought I would continue in similar fashion with the last entry and continue on the difference of Christmas here! Today will about their Christmas lights/decorations…now, keep in mind that I now live in an apartment building, so all of the decorations and pieces of information I’ve gathered are from living here and not in an actual house, near other houses. =)

In Goiania, apparently there’s a “Best Christmas Decorations” Contest, because the majority of apartment complexes here have gone to the extreme on decorations. I am not at all complaining, it makes being away from home a little bit easier having the familiarity of Christmas lights, decorations, manger scenes, reindeer and Santa Claus around.

These are all from my apartment complex:

Yep, they put reindeer right next to their Manger scene. =)

View from the main entrance, down the sidewalk.

That’s what entrance looks like right now. If you look close enough, there’s a Santa on his sleigh pulled by his reindeer on top of the main entrance…with an angel to the left of it. =)

View from the end of the fence back towards the entrance.

These are from other apartments:

I got Tia Ivani and her granddaughter, Isabella, in this one!

That Santa in there is electronic! There’s a button by his feet and he’ll sing and dance!

This is a light tree that’s up at the shopping center across from my building. =)

Today’s Website Shout-out goes to:World Vision International. World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.

They are dedicated to working with the world’s most vulnerable people and serve all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. I am pretty sure I first heard of them at CIY I went to in high school. They a lot with sponsoring a child monthly, being able to provide them with food, money to go to school, and basic needs. I’ve decided to post about this Organization because they have an amazing program during the Christmas season where you and your family can choose to help give those in need:Give a Goat. This link will take you to their page where you can search more about who they are, ways to give and how to sponsor a child!

It is so easy for us to get lost amidst the “buy buy buy” commercials and feelings of “I want” that seem to cloud up the real meaning of Christmas and this time of giving. Many of the things on our Christmas list are things that we want and don’t need…this past Saturday I spent my whole day with 3 friends–Karen, Davy and Thiago. We went to the mall, got lunch, saw a movie (with popcorn and a soda), played a video game or two at the mall, went to the park and watched fish & turtles fight over bread then went home. It was fantastic! BUT, something that made it even more amazing, was that we got to take a 14 year old boy, Manuel, with us. He lives at an orphanage about 40 minutes from here. Our day started early so that we could do all of those things with/for him. He was a small young boy, wearing his best jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes & ball cap. Even though his clothes were clean and he’d probably taken a shower that morning, he still looked a little disheveled. His jeans were worn and there was a hole in his shirt.

Karen works at a surf-style clothing store at the mall and had bought him a t-shirt (brand-new and a brand name!). That lit up his face. We got to the mall a little early so we took him to the arcade to play a few games–he loved it! We saw “Gato de Botas” (“Puss In Boots”), his preferred choice, and he thought it was the best thing ever! It was his first time both at a mall and in a movie theater! (Somethings we take for granted all the time, it’s a privilege having the freedom and money to experience these things). There was popcorn and a large coke, that was all for him! We took him to McDonald’s for lunch, where he also got an icecream sundae! We headed to the park where he really felt free and ran after geese, prodded fish with a stick and attempted to catch a turtle. Then the day was over. We took him back to the orphanage, said our goodbyes, and left.

Experiencing something like that, where it’s a day full of ordinary settings/foods/fun for us, but for him, it was like he found treasure–experiencing it all for the first time!

I tell you that story, so that you and your family may consider and pray about supporting people with an education, food or even a goat(!). Think about giving up that new Kindle that you “need” or that $20 gift card as a stocking stuffer. I ask that you will consider using that money for something actually worthwhile. We need to remember that Jesus, His love for us, His sacrifice on the cross is, God’s sending His one and only Son here for us…that is the true meaning of Christmas.

Peace and Love (and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!),

Dani