Skip to main content

Lost in Time

Have you ever awakened from a sound sleep blinked your crusty eyelid while blearily looking at the alarm clock and wondering what planet you were on? No? I don’t believe you.

That happens to me more and more these days. I can’t remember where I am. I’ve had the weirdest dream and can’t quite separate reality from my dream world. Actually I mix three worlds. There is the U.S. world, the Brazil world and the world that twirls in my brain. That is the scary one.

Today was NOT one of those twirled world days set apart by the above mentioned scenario. Thank the Lord. Today was Maria’s birthday. Dawn has been giving Maria a Bible study for the past eight weeks and today was her *******th birthday.

It was a simple affair put together by her daughter Mirela. Mirela is a stitch. She is 10 going on 25 and as creative as they come. She and her friends Jenifer and Ingrid had made little “treats” which included flour, sugar and corn! Yum. Dawn made one of her luscious cakes, brought along the candles and a small gift.

It was simple but fun. We gave Ingrid, Jenifer, Genisis and Val, Ingrid’s mom, a ride back to their homes afterwards. On the way something came up that made me giggle. One of the ladies said to me, “What month are we in?”

What time? Ok. What day? Maybe. BUT what MONTH? That was funny.

Dawn and I got to talking about that comment. We came to the conclusion that it might be a beautiful day in the Neighborhood but that doesn’t distinguish it from any other day. The hours, days and months all run together into one of those twirly brain dream like states.

We have church, Bible studies and other obligations that add spice and variety to our lives. People in the hood mark time with little change to set one day apart from the other. It seems to be beans, rice, school, wash, sleep, beans, rice, school, wash... you get the drift. In one word Boring!

This brings to mind Jesus words again, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” We bring salt. Salt adds flavor and flavor is the spice of life and the stuff that good dreams are made of.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What About the Property?

Some of you have been asking about the land purchase. In fact I got a note from my friend Tom asking about it just this morning. So, I decided to respond to Tom's question and send the note to everyone on my list.  Tom Funny that you should ask about the property. We talked about it last night in our team meeting. We see three options.  We could buy a piece of land near the neighborhood and build.  We could buy a couple of houses that are side by side and remodel or  We could buy just one house and expand as we grow.  We have R$37,000 ($22,000) available to choose our option. We decided last night to pray and ask God for specific guidance as we proceed. We plan to talk to a man next week about option one . There is a huge piece of property next to our neighborhood and we will be asking him to sell us a 600 meter square piece. If he does we will have our land but no money for construction. If the man say, "No" we will consider that God is closing that door and we w

The Twenty Buck Challenge

Well I went and done it! That's bad grammar I know. But I done it anyway. We've been having a Bible study with Esmano and Genesie and their two kids Jennifer and Jadson, for about seven weeks now. This week Jennifer threw out a challenge. "Let's memorize a verse!" I thought that was a great idea. I told them that if they did memorize the verse that I would give them each an American coin. Esmano, their dad usually sits in on the study but he hasn't really been a part of it. When I mentioned the coin idea his eyes lit up a little. I then reached into my wallet and said, "If YOU memorize that verse I'll give you $20 bucks! His eyes really lit up then! Was it a good idea? I doubt it. No one has ever offered me money for memorizing verses. However, this will be the first verse that this man has ever memorized. If he does it. It is not a conventional way of doing memory work and it could cost me a bill for nothing. But if God uses this simple chall

If this is the kingdom of God, do I really want it?

If this is Kingdom Living, Do I Want it? Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. In a study of the Sermon on the Mount to this point we might be tempted to say, “I don’t want to be that happy!” If this is Kingdom living then I want to go to Disney World. This place is depressing.  What Jesus describes here seems to highlight all of the