Brasil: Late Summer, 2005

Having never had an opportunity to visit this area of the city before, yet having known so many that were involved there at some time or another, it seemed good to take the opportunity to visit and help this congregation.

And praise God for the opportunity to visit this special place and group of people that I had heard about over the previous four years, but never had the opportunity to visit.

Now, you will notice that in only a few cases names are included. Everyone on this team contributed in some way or another. The fact that names and clear photos were not included is no reflection on their contributions. However, because Brasil has become very sensitive about Americans visiting their country, and dealing with visas can be a complicated issue sometimes, I felt that it would be much better to err on the side of security.

The Need

The Trip

• Left home at 4:30 in the morning, Portland time, on February 27th. My roomate (who was also going on the trip) was going to drive us to his parents house. His parents would then drive us to the airport.

• Portland - Houston - Miami - São Paulo - Londrina: approximate travel time 22 hours. Arrival in Londrina, 3 in the afternoon or so, February 28th.

• Praise God there were no problems making all our connections, and everyone's luggage arrived just as it was supposed to.

Our first look at the work. The current church sanctuary is in the basement, below what is going to be their sanctuary in future years.

Projects we helped with at the church included:

• adding new light fixtures where before there were just bare light bulbs

• installing tile in some of the classrooms

• installing electrical wiring in some of the rooms

• installing an electric shower in one of the restrooms

• helping finish some of the classrooms, including rebaco (about the closest we have in English would be "interior succo" or something along those lines - rebaco is a concrete mixture that is used specifically for coating interior walls, were we would use either plaster or sheetrock).

• Sanding, painting, and gluing back together of various wooden furniture for the church. This included a crib for the nursery, various chairs and tables for the children's rooms, and one or two desks.

The sign for the church and a look at the neighborhood around the church.

A Few Interesting Challenges Included:

• Attempting to find supplies - Brazilian stores sell what they think will sell in their particular area of town. Hardware stores may or may not carry what you are looking for. At least one hardware store I walked into sold toilet seats (but not toilets), ceramic floor tile, electric shower parts, and women's underwear, but not any electrical fixtures. It can be a major project to look for things in such an environment. A huge home improvement store is fairly near the church, but it is quite expensive, and even though they carry everything from toilets to doorbells to lighting fixtures, the one thing they don't sell are screws to install it all with. Instead, you have to go across town to the "House of Screws" in order to purchase those types of things.

• Many of the Brazilians joined us, and there was a bit of a language barrier, but our presence was obviously of interest to many who came.

Dan, from the Oregon City Evangelical Church, installs rebaco on the wall in one of the church classrooms.

A crew from the Oregon City Evangelical Church was sanding the chairs and tables for some of the children's rooms in the church. Note that two of the team members have been replaced by young Brazilians, after they saw what we were doing, how we were doing it, and borrowing some of the tools we had for the project. (The ability to purchase tools, with the money shortage of many congregations in Brazil, is a significant challenge.)

Look! New Chairs Have Come for Us!!! Some of the chairs our group attempted to glue back together were simply beyond repair. Some we wound up taking apart to provide enough pieces to keep others in service, but in the end the sunday school rooms were short a rather large number of chairs. Therefore, we purchased a number of new chairs for the children's rooms. This made several of the girls very happy.

You mean you want it over here? Dan, one of the Oregon City Evangelical Church crew, delivers a load of concrete-like mortar for use in attaching ceramic tiles to the floor in one of the classrooms. Ceramic tile is the most common flooring substance in Brazil, as it is cheap, lasts forever, and can be kept clean with relative ease. In the background is another Oregon City church member, and a Brazilian church member who happens to be the local expert in how to install tile and rebaco.

Putting the ministry degree to work: This is Pastor Nelson, of the Igreja Missionarià Imagawa. Here, he proves the flexibility of the Brazilian pastor's education by installing electrical conduit in the wall of one of the unfinished rooms in the church. Yes, he is holding a hammer. Because the walls are concrete block (as are most such structures in Brazil) it is first required to knock a path for the electrical conduit before installing any new electrical circuits. The conduit then goes into the slot created with the hammer and chisle.

A new wiring conduit is installed. Before, wires to the stage light system just hung down bare, and was not particularly attractive. After this day, the wiring will be enclosed. Refinished and repaired children's furniture dot the landscape, and notice the new lighting fixtures as opposed to the ones visible in the first photo of the church.

Summary

Praise God for:

• Lives touched, both on the Brazilian and the American side.

• Lives changed, particularly in the neighborhood around the church.

• No serious sickness, injuries, or other significant problems during this time.

• We made one small step in the advancement of the kingdom of God in an area that needs encouragement.