Brazil, Chapter 4: In which I Go Intentionally to Church, and Accidentally to a Spiritual Revival

I was proud of myself for finding the church by myself this morning, using only an address and Google maps.

Everyone was so nice! I was certainly an oddity, and people were shocked that I came here without any Portuguese. But they were so welcoming and friendly. The missionaries introduced me to some English speakers, including Jose Carlos and Valeria. With their help I followed the gist of the lessons alright. Afterward, Valeria was appalled that I had walked, so she offered me a ride home. How could I refuse? Look at this motorcycle! And Valeria is so cute on it:

She also gave me a mini tour around the city, which was not nearly as scary as I thought a cobblestone motorcycle ride would be. I'm excited to have another friend in Lins.

Diane and I had lunch at a buffet, because Donna Katarina doesn't cook on Sundays. Then we tried to go to the park. We went the wrong way and ended up seeing a lot of the countryside, but at least we got some good pictures from it.

The Clothesline

The River

The Place Where The Park Was Supposed to Be

We turned around at some point, and on the way back a group of teenagers stopped us. It took them a while to find a translator, and even when they did, we weren't sure what they wanted us to do. It sounded like they were doing a musical sort of play with their youth group, and they wanted us to watch. So we thought, why not? and went into a theatre-type room with them.

It turned out, though, we were sort of part of the musical performance. The kids all sat around us, and their youth pastor came out and led everyone through the meeting. He sang and talked throughout the hour, and a guy on the keyboard accompanied him. Occasionally everyone around us would stand up, with their hands on their hearts or in the air or on their heads, and their eyes closed, and start praying. Diane and I followed the motions and watched everyone else: they were so fervent, and I think we both had mini-crushes on the charismatic pastor by the end. Oh, the best part was that in between praying, everyone got up and did line dances.

Afterward, the whole youth group crowded around us, gave us bibles, and asked us which popular artists we knew. We talked about Lady Gaga, Queen, Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, and other ones I can't remember. We're hoping that the kids in our classes are that sweet and eager to talk to us. Here's a picture of the youth group.