Most Brazilians value Good Friday and acknowledge Christ's death but Easter is just another Sunday. They forget that without Christ's resurection his death has no value. We began Easter Sunday celebrating with Brazilian and ex-pats in an English worship service that Jesus is alive indeed.We had lunch at a Brazilian Jewish Christian home where Americans, Brazilians, Canadians, Chinese all had one thing in common--JESUS Is Alive!
Our final Easter celebration was with the young people, children and adults at Restoration Ministries. Most of these live in challenging places and homes. For most of them, 'Jesus has risen' has given them hope to face each day.
How many trips to the Bank does it take to open a bank account? If you said, "one?" Sorry you are so wrong. We made four trips to open our account.
How many documents did we need to open a bank account? We needed our Brazilian Social Security, our permanent residence card, and proof of home address. The proof of home address has to be an electricity, water or telephone bill with our name and address on it. That is where things get sticky. The owner of our home has only one of these bills in his name. All the rest are in the previous owner's name. Right now, Kerry, the owner, is in the USA. So we had to have a letter signed by him stating that we were living in his house with his approval. After the letter came we had to take it to a official place that has his signature on file. There they verify that he did indeed sign the letter. With this all in hand, we now opened a bank account. Of coarse we cannot withdraw our money from our account for 15 days because we have no bank card or checks.
We have been in Brazil for one month. We have renewed our Social Security card, opened a bank account, and bought a car (next blog). We are making progress. We are learning the bus routes, getting our exercise by walking from one place to another and meeting various taxi drivers. This has given us several opportunities to share our faith.
I was getting bogged down in frustration and self-pity. So I decided to spend a day visiting families in one of the slum where Restoration Ministries works. It was a great reminder that my life is a piece of cake compared to the stories we heard. How would you like to be one of these women we visited.
Maria (name changed) had a new one month old baby. The mother was recovering from pneumonia and bronchitis. She is the mother of more than 10 children. One of her youngest children is exceptional. She is the sole provider and no husband to help carry the load. She lives in a tiny two room shack. She needs to take more antibiotics, but the doctor didn't stamp her prescription correctly so now she needs to return to the hospital to get a new one. She hardly has enough breath to walk around her home and try to nurse her baby. She said her hope in God is what keeps her going. She wanted us to pray for her and her family.
Cida (name changed) is a young 22 year old woman with two children, one six and the other four. Her husband is in prison. She lives in a concrete home in the slum where the sewage water pools at her door. She is trying to find work in order to support herself and her children while her husband is in prison. She said that her husband was a good provider, but admitted that when he was drugged he beats her. Yet, she insists that he is a good husband.The children in homes like these need to have hope that Jesus is alive and loves them.
We will spend the next week trying to get our Brazilian drivers license. We have already gone to three places to begin the process. At each place we find out the next step in the process. Of coarse, at each step more money is spent. We are working at having patience. Sometimes it is a lot of work.
Reporting from Sao Paulo,
Arlene for the Flurrys
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