Well I suppose for 6 weeks all of us knew these last days would come, but now that they are here it's kind of weird. We had our final party tonight and it was probably the best turn out of readers we've had yet which was awesome. We were planning on having a talent show with food and such for everyone, and in the weeks prior many of our readers said they would come and perform talents so we were pretty excited. However, things didn't go quite as planned, like most things down here in Brazil ha. Silas was supposed to play guitar, but he left Salvador for a few days. Dante couldn't tap dance or play guitar because he moved to Portugal. Marcelo couldn't play guitar because he came straight from school. Filipe couldn't bring his trumpet. Daniel couldn't show us Ikeda because he had his wisdom teeth removed a couple days ago. Julie couldn't dance because she had dance class. Marcelo couldn't act like a monkey because he forgot to show up (the rest of the team will find that one funny haha). Graciela couldn't show us ballet because she couldn't come. Plus some others! So, many people couldn't perform so we made the best of it. We showed a slide show of our whole time here and that was cool. Daniel showed us some photography he has done and pictures of Ikedo. Peret (PAY-HEY) recited a poem for us in Portuguese than translated to English. Ryan did some awesome card tricks. We showed them the cup game (check out what that is on video on my facebook). So it ended up being a lot of fun. It however is very bittersweet, as I believe Pamela said, because we have to say goodbye to some really amazing people we just met and became close to so quickly. We were talking with each other the other day- actually we say this about 5 times a day- 'man do we ever have some amazingly cool readers!' It must have something to do with Brazil, in all honesty because it's unreal how many cool people we have met. This past week has been cool because it has been our final reading session with some readers, and we know we may not see them ever again. We can only hope someday, and we will keep in contact through email, but it's a weird thought. I just read through the book of Acts the past few days and in some way, it kind of reminds of some of Paul's adventures. NOT that we are as good, or amazing, or on his level, but some of his comments to the people in cities. He traveled hundreds of miles to cities everywhere preaching and encouraging churches from all over. It's like he never stayed in one place, he just wandered around making friends (and enemies haha) everywhere he went. In one section, chapter 20 I think, he writes a letter to the Ephesians and he basically encourages them and says he will probably never see them again, but he wants them to continue following God. Iduno, somehow in my head that seemed connected and it seemed somewhat similar to what we're doing down here in Salvador. We don't know who we will ever see again, but we only hope and pray that we've affected and helped the people HALF as much as we've been affected, and that the church here could be encouraged and strengthened as we have been. Anyways, enough talk from me, my eyes hurt, and I'm stinkin tired. Love ya all and I guess we'll be seeing you pretty soon! This may be my last ever blogpost... can't decide if that's a sad thought or not... ha anyways night everybody!
Justino
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Justin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts. It is with bittersweet feelings that you come to the end of your project. Even after 15 years of summer after summer projects, we still dealt with such feelings. I identify so well with your thoughts...sad to leave, excited to get back to life in Canada, sad to know you'll never see most of your readers again (this side of heaven, anyway), satisfied in the great memories of so many neat people...so many mixed emotions.
Everywhere we have gone, we have been blessed by really amazing people. I always say that my best and closest friends are "across the ocean". How can we become so woven into the lives of such wonderful people in such a short time??? I think the reason is...from the very beginning you are basing your relationship centered around Jesus!!! You talk about important things. You get to the heart of what life is all about. On a day to day, "normal" life encounter with others, we spend so much time chatting about things that don't really matter, but with our LST projects, we know we only have 6 weeks with these people, and we are put into an encounter where life's most important questions and concepts become our topics of conversations. The challenge for us all is taking that experience out of the "foreign 6 week context" and living it in our "back home every day context". When we do that, we enjoy rich and deep relationships wherever we are.
Thank you for imitating Paul!!! I know you have been blessed as richly as you have blessed your readers, your team, and the church there in Salvador. Who knows but that you will return some day...Kresten did!!!
We'll keep you in our prayers as you travel.
Alicia
So praying for you all now as you fly away
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