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Brasil: June of 1999

To Londrina

The 1999 English Camp team was an exceptionally busy team. Not only were we given a fairly complete English as a Second Language Course, but we were also had the Dry Bones precussion band from the Oregon City Evangelical Church. We had several concerts in several locations. This also meant that there was a lot of luggage.

Here, we wait to board the transfer bus between the São Paulo international airport and the airport in São Paulo that handles domestic flights, with our HUGE pile of luggage, including drums, cymbals, and many other things. It is for reasons such as this that participants in short-term missions teams are asked to only take one piece of luggage: sometimes it is necessary to check items needed for the team. Photo by David Frazier.

In the spring of 1999, I was asking Frank Gorsline about additional trips he was making with teams to Brasil. I absolutely fell in love with the people during my 1998 trip, and I wanted to go back.

Frank told me that due to Thomas and Margaret Scott, the managers of Acampamento Shalom, being in Ireland for their deputation time, there would not be any trips to Brasil in 1999. Would I consider a trip to Russia instead? They happened to have an English program there that needed to have some native English speakers in order to help people learn proper pronounciation and help build student's confidence in the language.

While somewhat disappointed that I would not be able to visit Brasil, I told him that I was willing to go wherever God wanted me to be. I felt drawn to the Brazilian people because they are so caring and friendly ( based on my 1998 experience ) and I would like to go back some day, and I was really hoping and praying to be able to do that in 1999, I would consider any open door provided by God.

After some weeks, Frank sent me a message: get ready to go to Brasil, with a team that would be doing something along the lines of the English team to Russia.

Operating Acampamento Shalom is a big job. As all of the other OMS missionaries in Brasil were busy with other important jobs, someone had to take the place of Thomas and Margaret while they were gone. Into that place came Jan and Rodney Dormer.

Jan Dormer's Level 3 English Class in November of 2000.

Jan's area of expertise is teaching English as a second language. Jan and Rodney had managed a dormitory at an OMS facility in southern Asia, but Jan had been raised as a child of a missionary couple working in Londrina with OMS, and so she and her husband were called to fill the need for someone to run Acampamento Shalom.

The English Camp Concept:

Learning English is a very popular thing in Brasil. There are many, many English schools throughout the city of Londrina. However, students in those schools normally have very limited opportunity to speak with a native English speaker. The idea of the English Camp started as a way for students studying English at the various schools in Londrina to have a time set aside for immersion conversation with those of us who could not speak Portuguese. Also, there was some hope that there would be some friendship evangelism: those Brazilians who do not know about Christianity would be able to get to know a little more about the faith by having conversations with us. Some Christian content was provided, but not blatent evangelistic pressure. For example, one of the classes was a Bible study, but students could choose from a number of classes, and that was just one of several they could choose. There were also some Christian songs, but no severe pressure.

It takes a speicial personality to assist in teaching your own native language to a foreign group. About the only skills that I have for this that are requirements are a dependence on God to provide all of those things that I lack, and patience.

It seems to have been enough. The 1999 English Camp worked out fairly well from my perspective.

At the English camps, we divide into teams. To divide into teams, the participants in the camp were lined up based on how much English experience each had. The range was from zero experience to Brazilian English teachers. This line was then divided into the separate teams. The idea here was to separate the teams into groups that would have some people with a lot of English experience and others with only a little English experience.

My English Camp team and I perform a simplified version of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Photo by David Frazier.

One of the Brazilians suggested the team name "Blue Jays", and so that is the name we became. What to do for the Talent Night? After several suggestions, we came up with the idea of singing something. I developed a somewhat simplified version fo the Battle Hymn of the Republic. They have this song in a Portuguese version in Brasil, but few have heard the English words. Therefore, many of my team already knew the melody, but they just needed the English words. I was quite surprised at how much applause we were given.

At the end of the camp, Jan asked all of us Americans to consider returning for next year's English Camp. While teaching is not my specialty, I decided that the time spent with the Brazilian people was enjoyable enough and better spent there than in many other ways. I liked being able to actually meet the people the missionary work in Brasil benefits. Therefore, I wanted to come back for the second English Camp.

The Americans. From Back, Left to Right: Heidi, Frank, Henry, Jared, Bruce, David, Jennifer, Sean. Middle: Bree, Betsy, Katy (leaning back against Jennifer and Sean). Seated in Front: Glenn, and Nicole, a short-term "summer" worker who spent a little time with us at the English camp. Photo contributed by David Frazier, but since he is in the photo obviously he didn't actually take the picture.

The American team came from a diverse group of backgrounds. A few were university students ( George Fox and Seattle Pacific ). A few were high school students, and a few older ones were late 20's-early 30's, and two were married. Though we were a diverse bunch, we worked reasonably well together. The one difficulty that I noticed was that the two married people got homesick very easily, due to wife and children still at home.

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