BRAZILIAN HOSPITALITY 

by Marian Hart, Commissioned Lay Pastor, West Liberty, First Church United 

 

Several months ago, the Presbytery sent out information about the next Brazil trip. My husband, Arnie, and I half-heartedly considered going. I pondered:

We’d already gone once, maybe we should give others a chance but, most of all, wouldn’t we be going just for fun, not with the purpose of the partnership?

Then I heard a speaker at a workshop. She is a professor at a seminary. She told of taking students every year to Costa Rica, to sit around a cookfire, eat what the people eat, do what they do, and be reminded of why she is an advocate for peace and justice.

 

My ponderings began to sound to me like the folks in Jesus’ day who wanted to finish their own business and then follow Him. I decided, I needed to go back to Brazil.

 

We did not go on a mission trip. Not in the usual sense, anyway. Our East Iowa and their Ceara Presbyteries stress that this is a partnership. Most people ask us, “What did you DO there?” expecting that we built something. What we built was relationships.

 

We can’t be missionaries to people who know Jesus better than we do; who count on the grace of God every hour of their lives. I think we were called on a reverse-mission trip. Read more.

 

A DREAM IS COMING TRUE IN BRASIL
In Davenport, Newcomb Presbyterian Church sent $3,000 to the Aerolandia church in Brasil to help with their expansion project.
 
In Fortaleza, hammers can be heard as a lateral wall is lifted. The smell of solvent lingers in the air from freshly painted fixtures. A mosaic of newly installed tiles gleams in the afternoon sunlight pouring through the windows at Aerolandia.
 
We are living the dream, says Pastor Sinval Israel and we feel the scripture coming alive in Psalm 126:1, When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy.
 
Pastor Sinval refers to the people of Newcomb as his "siblings"; the root being "sibb" meaning kinship which has been the goal of the Brasil campaign - to build relationships between congregations in Brasil and Iowa. 

OUT & ABOUT 
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Lookin' for Life is the newest CD of the Presbyterian musicians known as Steeplechase.  Members of the band include Ely's Joanne Chadima, Greg Mulherin, Barb Horak, Julie Kilberger, Kenny Hofer, and Mike Hamilton and Pastors Bob David (interim at Iowa City St. Andrew) and Al Zimmerman (who recently moved to Kansas from West Liberty). Pastor Howard Chapman painted the CD cover art pictured at the right. A portion of each Steeplechase Lookin' for Life CD sold will support flood relief in Iowa.  For more about Steeplechase, click here.