br Salvador Porters: October 2005

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

World of Discovery

Oh to be a child again. As I watch Kelton grow it is so amazing to watch him discover the world around him. Lately we have worked on animal sounds and so far he makes sounds for lions, bear, cats, dogs, elephants (which is really cute as he raises his arm to his for the trunk), ducks, monkeys, gorillas, and several others. So after working on all of these animal sounds it was so fun to go to the local zoo a couple of weeks back for our language class.

This weekend though Jennifer and I were present to witness a moment of discovery I had not thought to look for. Kelton discovered his shadow! As we were walking back from a devotional time with our team at our retreat Kelton stops all of the sudden. Then he started waving his arms and finally knelt down to touch this dark spot in front of him. For the rest of the walk back he was interested in the dark figure that seemed to appear in front of him and then move to the side before disappearing behind him. It felt a little like watching Peter Pan chase his shadow around Wendy’s room.

What a precious time to be present and witness the discovery of a world we often ignore. Oh to have the eyes of a child. It reminds me of how wonderful the world our Lord created and what a gift it can be to see the world through the eyes of a child. Maybe it is a set of eyes we ought to pick up a little more often. May we never forget that life is full of things to be discovered with innocence and enthusiasm.

A World of Need

This morning I read 2 Corinthians 8 and about half the way through I stopped. So much of 2 Corinthians seems to be about a conversation Paul is having with the Corinthian church about our connection through Christ and that whether we are close to one another or not we are all connected. In this particular passage Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to be exceedingly generous and he says, 13Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality... (2 Corinthians 8:13-14)(NIV).

This passage struck me in two ways this morning. The first being that of gratitude for all those who have taken from their plenty and their little to help make our life in Brazil possible. For surely we have been people in need and you as our family in the body of Christ have answered our needs with gladness and love. What a gift it has been to have the conformation from our family for the Lord's calling to ministry in our life.

I was also struck though, by how difficult it is to allow ourselves to need something. And not only to admit our need but to allow ourselves to reach a point in which we have a need. It seems so many of our efforts are aimed at insuring that we never have a need and that we never have to rely on someone else for help. We are told to grow up and become responsible, quite asking your parents for help, save, save, save, put away for retirement, put away for a rainy day, etc... Believe me I am all for these things. I think we are called to be prepared for the future and to work hard to responsible with our money. What strikes me this morning is how these good tasks can become our excuses for not risking generosity that might someday put us in need. Being in need and seeing the family of God respond is not such a bad thing. Nor is releasing our position of power in order that we might have equality among ourselves.

Lately God has worked on my heart with this issue in Brazil. If there are countries in which a great chasm exist between those with and those without Brazil would make that list. It is striking how much those with money have and how much those without lack. Pray for us as we seek to share the gifts of God in our lives with those with less in such a way that hope is given, love is shown, and humility is shared so there may be equality among us all.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Turkey Dinner

As it is getting closer to November I am sure that may of you are eagerly waiting for that famous meal at the end of the month, Thanksgiving leftovers. That is right, we all enjoy the first meal when everything is hot right out of the oven and it just seems to melt in our mouths promising full stomachs and maybe even loosened belts. But one of the things I really enjoy about Thanksgiving Dinner is that I get to keep eating it for several days. Reheated leftover turkey and dressing with a side of pumpkin pie, a turkey sandwich for a snack later with a slice of apple pie, and then always followed up with a little more turkey, dressing, and lemon meringue pie at the end of the day.


So, you might be wondering why I am teasing all of you four weeks out from our actual feast. And no it is not to be cruel. This past weekend our team went on a team retreat. We actually got out of town and while we were out there we decided to have our annual team Thanksgiving meal. Since Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in early October and the US celebrates it in late November, our retreat in late October seemed like a good time to celebrate Thanksgiving all together.

It was wonderful to come together at our table of Thanksgiving sharing our common meal, sharing food each family associates with Thanksgiving, and talking about our family memories and traditions. What a time for thanksgiving as we started a new family tradition with our team. Of course, another obvious added bonus is that we get to turkey dinner twice before Christmas. That cannot be too bad.

Friday, October 14, 2005

A little bit like home

I am not sure if everyone experiences this or not, but in our lives there are a few people, dear friends, who have been there at major transitional points in our lives. They are the friends who take off work when your father passes away or make a couple of extra trips right after your child is born to hlep out. They are the friends that have seen your house at every state-- messy, cluttered, and clean (and this sometimes because they helped clean it). These are the friends your parents ask about because even they think of them as part of the family.

Our friend Emily is one of those friends for our family. She was Jennifer's roommate in college and after, and seems to have been there at every major stage of our family. This week Emily and her brother Nathan came to see us in Brazil. It has been a great week. We took them to the beach, the lighthouse, the old part of the city, our incredibly huge mall, our team worship, and even a few thrilling bus rides. Our time with them has been refreshing and encouraging.

An unexpecting outcome of their visit has been the normalizing effect of our life here in Brazil that their visit has brought with it. Having lived here for almost seven months, Brazil is starting feel like home. We are making friends. We know how long it takes to walk to the bus stop, the mall, the grocery store, and our teammate's houses. Our language is improving and we are starting to feel fairly normal (as normal as we Porters can be). But having Emily and Nathan here has just helped that transition feel a little more solid. It feels so normal to have our friend in our home who has been in our home so many times before. Our life feels a little more normal and a little more like our life and not someone elses. While I think I was expecting a fun visit with Jennifer's best friend and her brother, their visit has brought so much more. What a blessing this visit has been.

Here are some of the pictures from our time:

Jennifer and Emily













This is us after a little bit of Brazilian Beef.













Emily and Nathan













Emily and Kelton at one of the Lighthouses in Salavdor












Thursday, October 06, 2005

Bible Studies

Wow, it seems like it has been a while since we have jotted down a few notes from our life. We will try to do better.


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I did want to write and tell you about something that is very exciting to me. As many of you know or would guess part of sharing Christ with people is actually sitting down and talking about Christ with someone. Shocker, I know. As many of you probably know as well some of these conversations are easy to start with people and others are a little more difficult. Well while we were at Continent of Great Cities in Abilene they helped us see the benefit of having some written lessons to use in these situations. It really is a great idea. It helps you think through things you would like to talk about before your conversations and they can serve as great study guides for Bible studies or small group discussions. Another added benefit is they can be very helpful to new Christians that want to study the Bible with their friends as well. (yes, we also know that these lessons are not a magic bullet. However, they can be helpful especially for those of us still learning this new language.)
So with all of this encouragement we decided we would set out to write a set of lessons for our team to use. We decided who would write the lessons, what would be the focus of the lessons, and we even sketched out the content of some of the lessons and then set out to write them. We did not get off to as quick of a start as we had hoped, being that we started this process while still in Abilene, but I am so happy to report that the end seems to be within view. PRAISE THE LORD!! For the past month or so our committee has been meeting weekly to talk through the lessons and help each person think through content and language. And if our meetings themselves were not inspiring enough, the process of translation has been an absolute blessing.
Travis and Mary Virginia, the other two teammates on the committee with me, are currently taking language classes on their own and are currently working during at least one class a week to translate our lessons into Portuguese. What is amazing is that God provided one of the teachers to be a preacher from one of the local churches, so he, knowing the Biblical narrative already, is great at helping us know how to translate these lessons. God also provided the other teacher to be a wonderful woman who before starting to teach our team had not read her Bible in many years. She is a great blessings and brings a fresh set of eyes and an open heart to these conversations about our Lord. Hopefully soon I will be able to introduce them into our language class as well. What a blessings that before we are even finished, God is blessing us with conversations that draw us all closer to Him. Please be in prayer for these conversations, especially with our teachers who may be hearing the story of Christ anew. What an awesome God we serve!