I've been putting off this last post, the wrap up to the Brazil missions trip, for quite a while now. It's now Saturday after I returned back, and I haven't had but a moment to really sit back and think about what happened. Sure, I had the whole plane flight back, but once I got on California soil the world turned upside down. So here's a slight recap of what happened the days before:

Friday afternoon was a recap of Tuesday afternoon - we cooked for the homeless and I sat in front helping them take down names of people who showed up. Now. First of all, let's suppose the church is a little loud. Then suppose the people talking to you are speaking in Portuguese, many of them with accents (sotaques) that were fairly strange. Then add in that the people who are talking are missing a couple of teeth. Now you're starting to get the idea of how difficult it was. Friday night, the whole crew piled on back to the two houses (CASA I and CASA II). The ride back home was fairly amusing, as I had Jenny in stitches at the train station (I was ranting again about boys, and we all know how amusing the rants about boys could be). We ended up being wedged into a train Japanese style - no one could figure why there were so many people returning on the trains at 9pm.

Saturday morning, bright and early, I got a ride back to the OM missions house. I had a chance to talk and pray with Jenny before I left, say good bye to a lot of people, and just in general enjoy my time there. Paulina had been staying at Cleyde's house, so she came back and between the two of us and Valtiner (Walter), we hit the town and shopped until we dropped. Actually, it was more that we shopped until the stores closed, which was a little early. We raced to get back to OM by the time the car was needed (Júlio had to pick some people up for the youth meeting that night), hooked up with Rogerio, and was watching a movie. But we got a couple of phone calls asking for Júlio... finally figured out that he was supposed to do some translation work for a videographer for OM. We finally got him to send it to Valtiner, and the two of us, plus Rogerio, translated the 45 second clip from English to Portuguese. The process went something like this: Speaker talks. Elaine transcribes. Once English transcription is done, Elaine does Portuguese translation. Valtiner goes through and smooths out grammatical errors. Rogerio goes through and reads through, smoothing out grammatical errors with Valtiner one more time.

After the movie and the mad dash to the video store to return some movies, the four of us went to some hole in the wall place to get supper. It ended up being a hot dog/burger stand in the middle of nowhere, outdoors. Paulina and I split a nice chicken/cheese sandwich and headed back to pass out before church.

Sunday morning, we headed to pick up Cleyde and go to church with Rogerio and, it turns out, Valtiner. Paulina couldn't go in the morning because the children of a close friend of hers was sick, so she and Julio headed out in the morning to run some errands and drop her off. The other four of us got lost on the way to church and made it in time for Sunday school in a big drafty concrete building. I was NOT dressed for that, trust me. The people we were going to meet weren't even there, though, so we stopped off at Carlos Santos' house to chat with Frances, Sarah, Julia, and Lucas. A bunch of us (five - Rogerio, Júlio, Valtiner, Paulina and I) went to lunch at a place called the "Vaca Preta" (Black Cow). Brazilian buffet. Mm.

Anyhow, so I was taking the bus back, so I got dropped off at the bus (after dropping off the future Pastor Júlio at his preaching gig - his last words, in English, were, "Stay out of trouble"), barely made it on, got dropped off at Garulhos airport, barely made it on the plane (silly 2 hour lines to check in baggage), and then I was off for a fairly peaceful flight back to the States.

Things were NOT peaceful when I got back to the States, though. After landing in SFO at 9:15am, I started to make phone calls as requested to my boss in San Mateo. I finally got in touch with him, only to find out, an hour later as I stepped into the office, that I was let go as a part of a massive layoff. Our group was hit hard - from 12 to 3, and I found myself suddenly jobless. Hence my mad panic to get the rest of my life in order. There were so many things to do - letters to write, cubes to clean up, that and my belt test this weekend. All things considered, it was a crazy, crazy week, and I'm just starting to get back into the swing of things. I'm starting to look at jobs next week, so we'll see how things go.

More about what I learned in the next missive.

Everyone was crying when we left. Really. It was quite quite sad. I had a six year old crying on my shoulder. She's what I would call... my adopted child. In fact, when I went back to the OM house and was talking with Paulina and Júlio, Paulina said that she had an second mother who called to make sure she was okay. I commented quickly that I seem to have adopted a child. The look on Júlio's face was nothing short of shocked. But yes, I seem to have adopted a young six year old girl by the name of Isis. I can't describe her. Wiry, strong, pert, stubborn, brown haired, brown eyed, perfect brows, crooked teeth, a laugh that could move mountains, attitudes, and eminently lovable. I'll definitely miss her, but I have to say that I'm proud that I did not cry.

The same could not be said, however, of some of the young men in the church. The teenage guys were crying. It was... wow. When you see a teenaged guy crying... uhh... it's slightly uncomfortable.

Anyhow, the last night we went out for food, the whole youth group, plus three young men with whom I had an acquaintance, all brothers, Marcos, Márceo, and Marcello. (You can tell their mother had a streak for Ms.) In any case, I was seated with these three young men, plus my roommate for 9 days, Cleyde, just shooting the breeze, eating, etc. One of our teammates, Frances, came by and said, "Did you miss me?" My response.. "No, I had the company of three gorgeous young men." Of course, all in English. The ensuing conversation was quite amusing.

Monday morning, we left for São José dos Campos, near São Paulo, and stayed the night there in the empty OM house with Jenny and Paulina. We three, with the guys, watched Snake Eyes and turned in. That night was particularly interesting because on the way back from the video store, Walter and I managed to pick up an adolescent stray Siamese. This Siamese dogged us for a whole day. And like most Siamese, it was very loud, climbing up everything, including doors, windows, and getting into the house however it could. The other interesting thing that happened was that I cooked for the five of us with what we had in the fridge. Woohoo. Mom's recipe for fried rice - everything in and a little salt - worked like a dream.

So Tuesday afternoon, Jenny and I went to CENA in the city by bus. Almost immediately, we were thrown into the business of serving food for some one hundred odd people from the streets. Afterwards, we were instructed to clean up, I with some laundry (and some real nit-picking, literally), Jenny with the dishes, and then later me with the bathrooms. (Yes, you learn very quickly to breathe shallowly and not to smell anything.) That night, we were split into two different houses - rehabilitation houses of some kind, where people who have been living clean can live in a family environment so as to be reintroduced to a new, more healthy model of family life.

The next day, I went with Anna, a full time missionary with CENA, to a house of prostitution to give out tracts and talk with the women there. Ten floors of prostitution, more than a hundred women, some of them less dressed than others, some of them pregnant, some of them old, some of them new to prostitution, some looking lost, and some looking as if they were really doing their work. I got an opportunity to peek into the apartments and see the rooms - partitioned areas, really - where the work was done, and also to see the beginnings of some transactions and stuff. But it was overall a good day - we got to talk and pray with a number of women. Praise God for his protection, because Anna said that it could have been much, much worse. I'd have to say that the work was really quite heavy in some ways, to see the women there, painted up, most without hope, some fleeing bad home situations, some with children, some supporting their children, one woman whose husband had left her and given her no other choice.

Anna said that many of these women work for about R$10 per trick, half of which goes to their pimp, which in this case are women who run the joint. So really, it's about R$5 per trick, which comes down to less than $2 US. It was definitely a time where I felt that my innocence and my virginity were something truly precious and something that I had the blessing to still retain. Anna said that something that God created so precious can go at such a low price. But God was there in that house that day when we were there. The women were ashamed, the women allowed me to pray for them, and the women there - I saw them the way that God sees them, with great movement of heart and the knowledge that He, only He, can save.

Today, Jenny and I went with Sílvia to go look for street kids to talk to. But today's weather has been really quite cold, and so many of the street kids weren't in the streets but instead were hiding away in warmer locales. So really, we didn't do quite a whole lot, but after yesterday, I feel that my eyes have been opened.

... and now it's Friday. Don't blame me, it's been a while since I've had Email access. On Monday, I came down with the flu, with a small fever. I moved to a house that was much nicer - a young family (Celso and Edriane, with their 9 year old daughter, Mayara) in a beautiful house that reminded me more of Taiwan. It's definitely a bunch less drafty! But they don't have Internet access, so now I'm sitting here at the host house of my leader, Paulina.

Anyhow, it's been a long week. Monday I didn't go out at all because I was so dopey - I was coughing and sleeping the whole time, and they wanted me to sleep. Tuesday I didn't go out either to the door to door stuff because I was involved in a couple of different ministries - puppeteering and some theater work. Wednesday we went out on the streets and put on some of the theater works. Yesterday, our trip was to a kindergarten of some kind, and we put on a puppet show, sang some songs, and did a short play. Today, we went to a preschool.

Tomorrow's our big day - we're going to Marasias to go and perform all day and do our stuff all day. I leave on Monday morning after church on Sunday! I'm having a good time here with the youth here at the church... it's started to be winter with a vengeance, though, and it's been raining and windy out here. I even had to break out my umbrella and gloves... boy, am I glad I packed so much. The weather has been nothing short of unpredictable.

So... the word of the day... "Brazilians like to take baths." And it's true - they take at least two a day... anyhow, time to get back to my other Email. Hopefully I'll be able to write before I go to CENA. But I'm absolutely sure that I'm in the right place, that I was put on the right team and in the right location for the ministry I was made to do.

Okay, so I'm thinking back on this past week... let's put this all into perspective, Elaine. You've just spent a week on the beach with people from 14-40, in a hotel that was mediocre (since it's so humid, it's easy for things to grow molds) but served great food (nummy desserts), everything in Portuguese, watched the sunrise four days out of five, slept too little, laughed a lot, went into town twice (had frozen yogurt both times), learned a lot, and came out with a handful of friends that I'll keep in touch with for a long, long time. I can say that my time here so far has been quite well spent.

So, after the last blog, it's been nothing but adventures! I'm quite serious. Jenny, Carlos Vicente, Rogéerio, John Ramey, and I went into town so that I could write an Email to my parents and to some other people. John split off at the beginning to get something on his own, so the other four of us were walking around town. Jenny almost forgot her address book but the guy at the Internet cafe caught us before we left the mall. (Whoo! What a disaster averted.) So Jenny said that she felt like an ice cream, so we went looking for a sorbeteria, which is an ice cream store. On our way there, we passed videogames... Pump It Up! So we got in and played... Jenny and I. Apparently the owner got four or five people to come watch us play. Poor Jenny... I at least had about nine months of DDR practice, but she was just kind of lost.

Anyhow, we finally found a sorbeteria close to the car and was waiting for John. We finally got going, and there was something wrong with the car, and we ended up stopping practically in the middle of an intersection (four way stop, thankfully). We all got out... Jenny's comment was, "This always happens in OM. Something always breaks down..." So after about half an hour we got someone to come pick us up, and we got about thirty seconds away before John exclaimed, "Oh, no, I left my underwear in the car!"

All right, think about this from my perspective. That came out of nowhere. He stopped to think about it, and then started laughing about how ridiculous (and bad) that sounded... it turned out the reason he didn't hang with us was that he had to go buy some underwear... and he'd left the bag in the van.

The next day, I wore my American flag jeans and went to the beach. Friday was our last day, and we were preparing for that. A lot of people went to the beach after the evening program, but I was beat - I needed about 8 hours of sleep and I hadn't gotten any yet. Friday morning, I woke up really late, just in time for breakfast. But oh my goodness, those 8.5 hours of sleep were excellent.

Friday night was an experience of a completely different manner. I don't know whose idea it was, but someone invited me to go see off Flavia (from OM, not my roommate) to Rio de Janeiro. So I ditched my missions team really quickly and went into town... we all piled into the OM van (Carlos V., Rogério [ho-ZHEH-ree-oh], Flávia, Gildélia [zhil-DEH-lee-ah], Júlio [ZHU-lyo] of the amazing eyes, and Gutemburghe [goo-teng-BUR-ghee], who was also going to Rio). Since we were late, Carlos was driving at a maniacal pace. In that minivan, it wasn't fun. Holy cows, talk about life flashing before my eyes. I think I must've squealed a couple of times... after dropping them off, we went into town and someone got up the idea for going for an ice cream. But no one had money on them. So I happily offered to treat, and we went walking through downtown Sao Sebastiao, looking for a sorbeteria along the boardwalk. We walked along for about twenty minutes before we figured out that no one was really telling us where to go, and then walked around and found a place.

It was actually quite a lot of fun - we walked around for about an hour and change, then headed back to the hotel. By this time, I knew that I wasn't going to be working with street kids like I originally thought... but more about that later. I commenced landing pattern for bed, after making plans to see the sunrise the day before we left.

The same crew, plus Paulina and Flávia, watched the sun rise through the clouds, sitting together at the beach, sand firmly between the toes, singing praise songs in both English (me) and Portuguese (them), reading Scriptures, watching the waves. I think we stayed there for a solid hour and a quarter. How peaceful it was! How quiet! A bunch of us ate breakfast together and we made one last trip to the lagoon.

Okay. So here's where the next adventure starts. Flávia and Cristiane (kris-chee-AH-nee) had to get to the bus station, and everyone thought someone else was taking them. So finally Rogério gets them all together, and I got into the car with the three of them and Rosemary (HO-zee-mah-REE), and so commences the second hard rush to the bus station... except this time I was able to see. I think I said, "I'm going to die," at least twice. Imagine someone having a conversation and tailgating and shifting like no one else's business... and the car filled with oil fumes. Holy cows... you know it's bad when someone jokingly says, "Are you sure of your salvation?" So I saw Flávia off...

After lunch, we went to our next destination, also in Sao Sebastiao. I'm working with a Baptist church with an existing ministry to both kids and on the street with the normal people. We'll see what happens! I'm supposed to share tomorrow with the congregation a little about why I'm there...

Praise God that He's worked in my life so far this week. I think that I've really been told off in some of my attitudes, and a lot of what was said really pierced into how I've been living these past six months. I guess it also showed me how cool Christian brothers can be. I guess I can have hope that a single Christian guy that I'm attracted to and enjoy being with exists out there somewhere. Pray for this week's ministry with kids and teens.

Until next time...

The temperature has switched from one extreme to the other - I'm not saying that it was perfect here, but it was pretty darned close. So far, it's been a great time here in Brazil. We're now staying in a small coastal town near Sao Sebastiao (think: San Sebastian), having pretty much a five day retreat about missions. I chose to be with the youth group, and it's been pretty good so far. I have two roommates at the moment. One, Flavia, is from Minas Gerais and is probably one of the neatest girls I've met so far. She's fun, she's bubbly, and... get this (Takako, Peach) - she looks just like Maia Biaje. (In joke.) My other roommate is a Swede who speaks perfect American English... and no Portuguese. This is great for me but at the same time is starting to become a little bit of a burden. Please pray for me, that I not lose my patience with her, because in some cases (especially in the room) I've basically been put in the place of being a translator.

But hey, I can't complain too much - my Portuguese has improved greatly and there are a number of people here who speak good, if not perfect, English. There are some girls here that spent some time in England, so they speak with the cutest British accents.

So now I'm here at an Internet station in a mall in Sao Sebastiao, just chilling here on a fast machine and listening to Jenny laugh at her Email. Yay!

We've been going running at 6:30am every morning (all two mornings so far), and it's been such a great blessing. This morning I walked instead of ran - my muscles are a little sore, and I'm thinking I should take a day of rest. This morning, we woke up during that predawn hour and took off down the beach. When I turned back, I saw the most beautiful sight - the craggy almost-mountains of Sao Sebastiao as gray upon bluish gray upon more gray on a sky of light blue. Suddenly, the sun shot up from behind these hills, like liquid metal, hot and furious, and pushed up into the sky in a matter of minutes. Each moment sent a different color and a streak of light across the Atlantic shores, almost like a path of light straight to the sun. In ten minutes it was over, but it was one of those moments where I thought... "God, this is beautiful. Really. You've outdone yourself this time."

I found out that I will be going on two weeks of what they call "a práctica," which is the two week missions part that I've been looking forward to. The first week will be working with street kids, and the second week will be working at CENA, which is a ministry to prostitutes and other marginalized people (including more street kids, I think). In any case, it should be pretty interesting going forward, though I had to make a special trip to come out here to use the Internet. Here I thought I'd be able to walk somewhere or take a bus, and it turns out I had to go and ask someone to take me.

I've also had the privilege of getting to know a number of different people, including some OM career missionaries who speak very little Portuguese. John Ramey and Frank Dietz are a) both from California, b) both from northern California, and both from the town of Sacramento. Woohoo! They've been real blessings and I will be sorry to see them go after the week long missions conference ends. Other than that, there are a lot of godly men and women around, from young couples to older missionaries, and especially the people from OM Brazil. One of the translators, Júlio, turns out to be half Japanese and has these bright, bright, striking bright green eyes. Sidney and Karen, it looks like Nathan has a chance of growing up with those gorgeous slate blue eyes of his. :D

I probably won't have a time to update until the weekend, if that, so please pray and I'll talk to you later.

Current Impression of Brazil Weather: Perfect. What can I say? When it's 75'F out, sunny, with a slight breeze... the scent of roasting meat outside as our hosts prepare a barbecue (barbacoa). Drooling yet? I am, having eaten nothing today beside a small croissant.

So, walk through my past 24 hours with me. Saturday morning, wake up at 9am. Finish packing. (I realized about half way to the airport that I'd forgotten a towel. Time to go shopping!) Start out at about 10:10, and then to SFO. Make it there at 10:45 at the international terminal, a place that I happen to be very well acquainted with, given the hoopla of WUTC a few weeks ago. Find out that I'm actually connecting through Miami, and I had to walk to Domestic.

Check in (early), hang out (talked on the phone with Chris), board plane to Miami, read. Eat dinner at Miami International Airport. (It's purple there. I can't explain it, but if you've been to Miami International, you'll know what I mean.) Find out when I get back to the gate that the flight is delayed - no longer am I flying out at 11:45, I'm now flying out at 1:30. Panicked call to OM USA to let them know to let OM Brasil know that I was delayed in Miami.

Flight to Sao Paulo. Slept for about seven hours, waking up parched in the middle and going for water... also waking up at the announcement that Brazil won the World Cup. At this point, I'm expecting pandemonium on the streets in Sao Paulo. Flew through customs, was met at the airport, and what do you know...

My first impressions of Brazil is that of an incredibly lush countryside. Flying close to Sao Paulo, one sees rolling hills covered with tall, dark green trees, vaguely in the shape of large eucalyptus. Then rows and rows of white houses with red tile roofs, some peaked and some that have an odd >-< shape. Then, interspersed, the tin roofs of the favelas. Driving through the city and the into the suburbs, one can see the same trees, tall green grasses and the occasional glimpse of red-orange dirt. The sky is cloudless today, the sun shining as we pass through four toll gates on the highway.

I'm staying tonight in the OM house, which is a small house of about 5 rooms, which looks to house about twelve people or so. Everything, from the tile and brick floor, reminds me so much of Taiwan. Even the scents are familiar; walking in the first moment, I had the same scent of "clean" that was in my grandparents bathroom growing up. Oddly familiar, even if everyone is speaking Portuguese.

Met another fellow missionary by the name of Jenny, who grew up in the Middle East but is Swedish. She speaks perfect English and broken Spanish, and has a laugh that could tickle a brook. Also met a few others here in the house... can't wait to get to the beach tomorrow! I'm glad I brought sunblock.

Praise God for the safe trip out - pray that my language skills are up to par. I still have no idea what I'm getting myself into...

Current Temperature in Brazil: 60'F at 4am. 68% humidity. What am I getting myself into? I've just finished the majority of my packing, with the help (and occasional hindrance) of my mom. Had lunch with a TKD buddy. Took classes. (Super slow.) I may not finish this quarter. After work today, made it to a fantastic kicks workout at hankido. After the workout, I bumped into a Christian sister who used to go to CFC - I hadn't seen her in such a long while, and sprung on her the news that I would be going to Brazil. She promised to pray. Yes, God, thank you for providing more prayer warriors! After hosing myself off, went with a bunch of people from the martial arts club to eat my last American meal, so to speak (portabello mushroom burger, mm - how California can I get?) Came home around 10 and started packing in earnest.

Needless to say, I'm a little stressed out and my to-do list keeps on getting longer. (Having Mom call me away from the computer three times just as I'm trying to send out my insurance information to the US HQ office was not amusing.) I'm just about to hit the sack and pass out for a few hours before I go shop for last minute items, make photocopies, and write out my mailing list. My room's a disaster zone, and I can only hope and pray that I will be ready to leave on time. God will be doing many great things on this trip, and I ask you to pray for His movement in Brazil during this extremely short period of time. Had a few moments to spend with Dan V. online, and his promise of prayer was definitely an encouragement.

Prayer... need prayer to get myself and my life in one piece to SFO. And from there, prayer over my flight and then prayer for the landing. When I land, we're guessing that things will be pretty crazy - the World Cup finals are on during the time that I land. So we're talking about pandemonium either way - if Brazil wins, it'll be a crazy party. If Brazil loses... well, let's just say I don't know. Must... sleep. Must!

Getting jazzed to pack. Okay, so I thought there was a lot to talk about tonight.

Tonight's talk was on faith. It make sense, given that this term's studies are about "Walking on Water." The speaker tonight spoke about Peter's fantastic journey across the waves, his faith, his lack of faith, and his restoration. But the point that we tend to hammer in at LSF is that... you can't walk on water until you get out of the boat. Amusing that this talk would come at just this time. Perfect timing. Here I am, getting out of my boat of the US of A, being flown to Sao Paulo, and then... taking it on faith that God will do fantastic things through Jesus while I'm there. Life changing things. Not only for the people there but especially for me.

The concept of faith, however, is not only on what you believe but what you do based on that belief. But to discern what God is calling you to do (in faith) is a little more difficult. I'm faced with an interesting dilemma (non missions related)... an interesting concept... an interesting proposal. As I struggle with it, I wonder, "Is God really calling me to do this, or is this just a product of my (admittedly overactive) imagination?" (On a side note, I have an overactive imagination. I think this is how I manage to write fiction.)

A girlfriend of mine wrote to me in an Email, "You have such an interesting life, Elaine." You know, in retrospect... my life as a non-Christian was pretty darned boring. It wasn't until I became a Christian and listened to God that things really started taking off. I mean, really launching. One can only imagine what life would be like if I followed Him completely, wholeheartedly, without any reserve.

T minus 2 days.

Time from Macarthur BART to Montgomery BART: 15 minutes.
Time from Montgomery BART to Brazilian Consulate: 5 minutes.
Time in elevator: 1 minute
Time in Brazilian Consulate: 5 minutes.
Time in elevator: 1 minute.
Time from Brazilian Consulate to Montgomery BART: 5 minutes.
Time from Montgomery BART to Macarthur BART: 15 minutes.

I have my passport! Both of my lunch buddies today couldn't make it, so I'm eating cherries at my desk at work.

Reading through: Boundaries in Dating. Probably won't bring that book with me, though. Packing has not yet commenced.

After workout today, spent some time with a couple of friends talking about the whole concept of mystique and guy's initiation in a relationship. Very interesting talk. Came home and found a package on the doorstep. It was something I had almost forgot about - my brand spankin' new Portuguese Bible! I know that my Spanish-English NVI-NIV Bible was a lifesaver when I used it in Mexico, and so I went online and got a Portuguese Bible. It seems to be something along the lines of a New Living Bible - lots of interpretation, but I figure with that and my NASB I'll be all set... pieces of the puzzle are all falling in place.

Read a book on the BART today about culture shock and the concept of a hot-temperature culture and a cold-temperature culture. Most parts of the US is very individual-focused and is typical cold-temperature culture. I saw lots of SF in it... and then we were introduced to the concept of a hot-temperature culture, like most of Latin America, which is group-oriented, warm and inviting, where you don't need an invitation to just sort of drop on by. I think I'm going to find that a little hard to get used to, but we'll have guides there most of the time to help us with the culture thing. Fascinating stuff. Also finishing up a book, Taking the High Ground: Military Moments with God, which is a series of vignettes about how God has carried military families through the best and worst of times.

I pick up my visa tomorrow. There's one more loose string to be tied up, something important to be shipped.

Oh, right. Through the course of conversation with our US coordinator, Nadia, I found out that I am the only American going to the Brazil trip. Ooh, this should be interesting.

T minus 4 days until I leave for Brazil! I'm very excited and not a bit apprehensive. So many things have been taken care of so far. A month or so ago, I went to meet with our missions coordinators at my church, and I put together a missions budget. My projected need? $1650. I put down specifically that I would entrust $300 of that into God's care, not knowing where the funds would come from. Well, what do you know, the plane ticket was $200 less than I thought it would be, for the exact same dates, and the missions fee was $100 less than I thought it would be.

Last week, before I headed to New York to perform at a festival, I was freaking out about all of the details of the Brazil trip. Was my flight all taken care of, what did I need from the missions organization, what did I need to prepare... it dawned on me - I hadn't received any information about my visa! Holy cows, it was time to put my rear in gear and get that stamp on my passport. So I wrote in to OM USA (the missions organization I'm going with, http://www.om.org/), got the information I thought I needed, took some time on Sunday and Monday to get everything together, and went into the office on Tuesday (3a-feira), and waited in line. Well, the woman was very nice and all, but told me I needed a ton more information from the Brazilian office and told me to get it together and come back to San Francisco to reapply.

I wasn't quite devastated, but I was starting to really stress out. What if I was turned back at the border? I steeled myself, but kept on repeating... God didn't make all the rest of it happen just to have you turned back at the border. I talked that night with a friend from hankido, Kevin, who said that I'd probably only need a tourist visa and that I should ask. So, bright and early this morning, I called up OM USA out on the East Coast. Nadia, my coordinator, said yes, I'd only need a tourist visa, and that for the rest of it she'd call Brazil. Well, what do you know, I get a phone call a half an hour later saying, "I couldn't get a hold of anyone in the Brazil office - it just rings and rings and rings! I tried calling the leader's house, but the leader's wife doesn't speak a word of English... can you call Brazil and talk to her?"

So... I said I'd call as soon as I got into the office, then got ready for work and drove on up. When I got up there, I received an Email. "Oh, I got a hold of someone, she's going to fax it to you." Put together my prayer letter, and then went down for a lunch meeting with some Christian coworkers. Got the fax, put together my packet, and showed up at the Brazilian consulate again. This time, all I had to say was, "Oh, I have a letter from the Brazilian office here." After reading through it, the woman disappeared with my passport, and said that it would be ready... tomorrow!

Nadia responded with this Email: "My friend always says that God is rarely early, never late, but ALWAYS on time. Ha! I guess you can relate/testify to that statement." Phew. What a load off my back!