Monthly Archives: September 2012

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Sarda

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Sarda! I remember playing a game during my grade school years (in Canada) where we took turns holding each other’s forearms and then slapping them as hard as possible, until they turn bright red and swell up. I think the point was to see who could stand the most pain. Here in Marabá Emma tells me the game is common, and called Sarda. These guys are part of our “group”, the people that come and hang out here. What do you think these guys would find interesting about church, or God, or relationship with Jesus? What is the path from Sarda to becoming a missionary or a pastor?

PS: I know what you are all thinking. You are thinking, “I wish I could go to Marabá and play Sarda.”

Bruno!

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Bella and Emma’s Garden

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Bella and Emma want to plant a herb garden, with maybe some other things too. I told them to put some seeds in some dirt and we would get working on it. What do you know? The seeds started growing. Here people have their gardens in wooden boxes, off the ground. We take Monday’s off. Last Monday I went and bought some boards, and the three of us started building. Hopefully we will finish their “canteiros” tomorrow, so they can get they plants into deep ground.

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The Jumpers

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“Hey, my friends and I like to jump with our bikes. Could we come and do some bike jumping before your races?” A neighbour who I had never met was at our gate asking me about the BiciCross.  He got involved. He helped us set up our race track. We got a two extra dump-truck loads of fill donated for the jumps. These guys eyeballed it up, “Put one here, put the other one there…”. They took out the biggest rocks and lumps, and packed it down by whacking their shovels on it. They dumped on a bit of water, and whacked some more with their shovels. And they were off, riding at full speed, doing incredible stunts with inexpensive bikes and equipment. And they knew how to fall well. I was thinking, “This is a good lesson in life. Learn how to fall well. And keep getting up. You’ll get better at what you are doing.”

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The Bike Races

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The bicycle race track was 450 meters long, twice through the ravine, which included some jumps, and then around the top part of the mission/church property. The prizes were a donated bicycle and two donated cell phones. The entry fee was R$15. Lots more kids wanted to race, but they do not have bikes, or dads to buy them bikes. Moms can buy bikes too, but in our neighbourhood, if there is no dad, the mom is probably busy trying to figure out how to keep some food on the table and the electricity bill paid. Some kids rode on borrowed bikes.
The purpose of the event was:
1. To have a fun event in our neighbourhood…to be good news.
2. To give our church a good name in the city as a group working to help at-risk youth.
3. To help link the words fun and church together.
4. To get people through our gate who would otherwise not enter a church property. If we can get them to come in once, the next time is much easier.
5. To raise money for the church sound system. 

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Preparing the Trails

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Ivanildo rigged up a way to water the dusty bike trails in preparation for the race. This is the trailer that used to pull the airplane out of the water and put it in the hangar. It serves in a humbler capacity now, but it is still serving. Ivanildo told me it takes 8 minutes to get to the river, and about 20 to load up. Quite a bit of the water gets all the way back to the trail.  It worked well since the city water truck was unavailable (we tried to get them to donate a couple of loads) and the newly made trails had a couple inches of powdery dust. The water helped pack the trails, making a faster racing surface.

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Marcos Turns 7, Our church turns 4.

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Marcos was three when we moved to Marabá. Now all he wants to do is show his muscles, show how he is losing his baby teeth, show how tough he is. He just wants to grow up. While celebrating his 7th birthday, we took the opportunity to briefly celebrate four full years in Marabá and one year in Brazil for the Rae family. (Cyndi and Daniel were not present as they were travelling).

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BiciCross

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“Can we have a BiciCross (think MotorCross, but with bicycles) event? We can combine with a Drug Awareness teaching, and stores will get behind this. We can charge an entrance fee for participants, and sell hotdogs and pop.” Eliel was talking to Ivanildo several months ago. Here is what it took:

1. Get a printing press to donate posters and flyers.
2. Get the newspaper to print an article raising awareness.
3. Prepare the track in a ravine on our property.
a. Get a company to donate dump trucks and a loader to build the starting ramp and some jumps.
b. Get Ivanildo to smooth down the track, and to water it with our tractor.
4. Get stores to donate a bicycle and two cell phones for prizes.
5. Make some nice trophies out of bicycle chains and wood.
6. Get the police and a huge loudspeaker truck to lead us around town in a parade.
7. Get the TV reporters to film the event and get us on the mid-day news.
8. Pray with the Youth group. Orient starting people and helper people.
9. Get Deanna on the First Aid station.
10. Get Bella and Emma to paint a black and white checkered flag for the Finish Line.
The police were very helpful. Eliel had planned a short ride. The police planned a much longer route, almost 10 kms, through the city and through heavy traffic, all with the humungus speakers blaring away to the tune of a catchy jingle, made up by Eliel’s friends, “Bike races at the Igreja da Vinha today. If you are going to be addicted, get addicted to Jesus. Life is Jesus is more radical!” Emma did an endo when she was fooling around and hit another bike but thankfully there were no serious accidents.
This whole event was to get us known in the city as a group who wants to give hope to young people. A lot of people came through our gates who I have not seen before. Apparently the TV people really spoke well of Igreja da Vinha on the 12 o’clock news.
Here are some pictures of the Bicycle Parade through town.

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A Third Culture Kid’s look at Canada.

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Olivia, our first child born in Brazil, shares a two minute video of a Third Culture Kid’s first impressions of Canada and the US, after she moved there at 17 to study. If you know any TCKs, you need to watch this video so you can get a glimpse of how much you do not understand them…unless you are one yourself.

It’s a two minute video. This link will take you to YouTube. (click the title, not the photo)
Our Journey, by Olivia Bergen