It's worth the sacrifice, even for a short time I received my visa and it said that I only had one month to stay in Brazil. The missions office of The Evangelical Church had already purchased tickets for my arrival on July 10, and departure on Sept 1. This really set me to wondering if this trip was in fact worth the huge effort it was going to be, since the time was going to be quite a bit shorter than hoped. Very soon after, while looking in my Bible, it fell open to the rear endpaper, where a young Russian woman from my 2002 missions trip had written a brief message about how she was so sad we all had to leave. The emotion in her message reminded me of how little time is really required to make a difference in people's lives. This was perhaps the most important message I received from God during that time. When I closed my Bible that moment, I was determined that no matter what it took, I would take this trip even if it turned out to be a much shorter trip than what I expected. When I turned to the word of God to find some sort of message about if I should go on this trip or not, I was not expecting to find the answer written in two year old pen by a 19 year old Russian woman, but.....
Always be Looking for Gods answers, even in the most unexpected circumstances.
Patience and Trust During the months leading up to this trip, I frequently questioned "Is this really what you want me to do God?" I felt God leading, but there were so many obstacles. This would be a good preparation for being the only American around during these two months. It is one thing to talk about faith, while it is yet another to need to rely on it before going out the door every day. It is so very easy to get distracted, and not pay much attention to God's daily provision in our lives, here in the USA. This is a very different thing when such things as our language, daily habits, and financial resources (obtaining money from the USA requires some thinking ahead in Brasil) have been taken from us.
Always make time for the word of God. This can be a major struggle at home, and never go into a trip thinking that there will be lots of time available. It isn't the nature of missions work for there to be time available. Time must be made for everything, otherwise it will vanish.
Our afternoon group of students at Vila Esperança, minus 16 year old Luciana who does not like to have her picture taken. The severe darkness of the classroom, which is lit by only a few bare light bulbs and has black colored walls in many areas, eats light. Even with my large flash at the highest setting the light at the edge of the photo quickly dims to nothing in such darkness.
