Peekee Neekee

What on earth is a peekee neekee? "Peekee neekee" is actually an English transliteration of the Portuguese transliteration of the English word picnic! Did that make sense? Some English words have seeped into the Portuguese. Words like "mouse" (computer version), "click" (again the computer "click"), "test-drive" have become normal here. Of course with a slight twist on their pronunciation. Thus Picnic becomes Peekee Neekee. I cracked up the very first time that I heard it!

We had our family peekee neekee this past Saturday. The day started early with a heavy rain but the rain stopped just in time for our fun to begin. We had 45 from the neighborhood that took part and we had a great time. Most of the day was free time but there were a couple of highlights.

One was our "Family Challenge". We divided into three teams, Alexandre gave each team a list and off we went to fill out the list. We were to get autographs from: a bald man, a woman older than 60, a Palmeiras (soccer team) fan, a person riding a bike, etc.. We were to take pictures of various objects and places. And we were to pass out tracts and share the Gospel with some one.

One of the teens in my group said, "HURRY UP!! All we have to do is share Christ with some one and we win!!" John didn't have a clue about how to do that and I'm sure that his motives weren't the purest but I thought, isn't that neat, just share Christ with someone and we win! So true but not that easy. My team came in third out of three.

The second highlight was the opportunity of sharing the Word with our people. Alexandre challenged the kids to obey their parents and he challenged the parents to "train up their children in the way that they should go". These two aspects of Christian living are rare here. Most of the time it seems that bribery and fear of beating take president over obedience and love.

When we do apply these principles we win! Again an easy to say hard to live. We are sharing these and other principles with people now and at times it seems that we are talking Greek to them. They have puzzled looks and can't imagine doing what we are saying. Pray for us.

We had 45 at the picnic, 30 at our Bible Story in the plaza, and 14 in church. Quite a disparity. During the evening it occured to me that we have two entities. We have Bible Club and we have Church. Few of the Bible Club kids come to church. Some have churches of their own and some just don't come. Pray for the working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our people.