Hey family and friends!
These past couple of days in Parintins have been incredible! One of the main reasons that we wanted to come to this amazing city was to learn and experience their culture. It can be very scary to immerse yourself in a new culture. For example, not knowing the language very well or having never eaten a certain kind of food before can be a daunting task. Of course these fears are real, but they should not keep you from learning from such a rewarding experience. Michael and I decided that we would leave our American tendencies behind and totally embrace Brazilian culture. I think that part of our motivation was that we hoped people would mistake us for Brazilians rather than Americans. Unfortunately, Michael's pale white skin gave us away, haha! Anyway, because we have decided to embrace this wonderful culture, we have learned so many things. First of all, we have learned that we are obsessed with Brazilian food! It is amazing!! Every morning we eat pao and ovos fritos (bread and fried eggs) alongside with the best cup of coffee ever!! We soon learned that lunch is their biggest meal of the day. For lunch we always eat rice, beans, chicken or beef, macaxiera (tastes like a potato), farofa (a regional thing that kind of resembles bread crumbs, you mix this with your food like a seasoning), salad, and many other things. Of course no lunch would be complete without fresh squeezed passion fruit juice (the best juice in the entire world!!). Then during the afternoon, at about 3:00, they have a time where everyone takes a break, shares a cup of coffee while eating probably Michael and I's favorite food here, pao de quejo (bread with parmesan cheese inside, amazing!!!). Unlike in the U.S. the dinner is very small, usually consisting of leftovers from lunch, but of course it is still delicious. So for everyone who is worried about how well we are eating here in the Amazon, we probably are eating better here than at home haha!!!! I have a feeling that after Michael and I return, we will probably crave Brazilian food all the time!
Another great cultural experience that we were able to be a part of was a 15th birthday party. The family that we are staying with had a 15th birthday party for their neice on Saturday night. Kinda of like in Mexican culture, the 15th birthday is a very special one. It was such a beautiful party with lots of food, singing, and brigadero (little chocolate candies). One of the traditions, which is so not American, is that they make this huge (and I mean huge) cake, but they don't eat the cake till the day after the birthday. The cake is just for pictures at the party and then the family takes it home and eats it the following day. It was so hard to look at this delicious cake and know that we weren't going to eat it, hahaha! But the good news is, we got to go over to their house the next day and eat the cake anyway, hahaha!
Yesterday, we went to church and it was awesome! The dad of the family that we are living with is the pastor of this church. His name is Pastor Elmer (pronounced Elmay, yes I know, Portuguese has different phonetics), and he is an amazing warrior for Christ. He is teaching us so much about this country, ministry here, and life in general. In another blog post I will tell you all about him and his amazing story cause it is so inspirational! Anyway, yesterday at the church we were asked to participate in a skit for the children during their sunday school. I think that they just wanted to see Americans look stupid in front of everyone, haha just kidding! The skit was so much fun and Michael and I even said our lines in Portuguese! The kids laughed so hard and it was great being able to be a part of their fellowship.
As you can tell, it is so rewarding to experience a new culture. Not only do we get to learn more about who they are, but we get to learn more about our Creator who created these special people. Pastor Elmer gave me this book to read while I'm here, and it is absolutely incredible. It is called "Radical" by David Platt. If you haven't read this book, please go to your nearest bookstore and buy it and read it. It will change your life! I have not heard someone speak biblical truth like this in a long time, and you will be so convicted about how you live your daily life, I sure am being convicted. I want to share with you one thing that I learned from this book today. The author, David, is talking about how the American culture often keeps us from experiencing the Lord's will for our lives. As Americans, we want to pursue the American dream and become as successful as we can. But it seems that we are missing the point. Often times, we think that our own talents and skills will allow us to be used by God, but in reality God doesn't need these talents at all. He just desires a heart that is desperately seeking to be used by Him. In David's words, "God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in his extraordinary provision. He stands ready to allocate his power to all who are radically dependant on him and radically devoted to making much of him. This is the design of God among his people. He is giving unlikely people his power so it is clear who deserves the glory for the success that takes place. Instead of imagining all the things we can accomplish, we ask God to do only what HE can accomplish." Pretty powerful stuff, huh? I am totally being convicted that it is not the talents or skills that I posses that will bring people to Christ, it is the total surrender of allowing Christ to work through me that will make disciples for His glory. Anyway, I could talk for hours about this, but in later blogs I will continue to share more about this book because it is really transforming the way I see missions and Christianity in general.
Wow, those of you who know me well, know that I can talk with the best of them, and now I am learning that I can write just as much as I can talk, haha! Michael just asked me, "Are you still typing over there?" haha! I am just so thankful that God has brought Michael and I to Brasil. God is opening our eyes to so many new things, and molding and shaping us in ways that He has never before. I am so grateful that I serve such an amazing God! Well, Boa Noite (goodnight) and we will write again soon! Thank you so much for your prayers and support, we love you all very much! And to all of our Brazilian friends in Chicago "Saudade!!!"
Graces a Deus,
Michael and Leah
Monday, June 6, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
We are Alive!!
Hello everybody! We are alive! Hahahaha! I know that you have not heard from us for about a week now so you were all probably wondering if we ever made it here, haha! Well, we made it safely to Brasil and we have been on an Amazon Outreach boat trip for about a week. The trip was so great and God really showed His might and power on this trip. Michael and I joined a group of students from Baylor including one of our really good friends from high school, Landen. They were so kind to let us come with them on the boat and travel to 3 different villages to do ministry. They were such great friends to us and it was such a blessing to serve God with them. We were also able to build new friendships with our translators and, of course, they helped Michael and I with our Portuguese. It was just great to see God's hand move in such powerful ways.
In the first village, Barreira Do Andira, we were able to see the future sight of their church. The people are very excited to have this church, but are a little skeptical because it is new and they have had past experiences with corrupt churches. The Amazon region, as a whole, has a problem with a very corrupt form of Catholicism. The doctrine is not much different than Catholicism in the US but their leadership and influence is very dishonest and damaging. Please pray that the Lord will open their hearts to see Jesus in this church rather than simply a building or imperfect people.
In the second village, Castanhal, we were invited to come and meet all of the families and spend time playing games with their children. There are only about 30 families in this village so it was a great time to get to know each family and share the love of Christ with them. Like the other village, they are only aware of the corruption among the other churches so many of the people were surprised when we came explaining what a personal relationship with Jesus is. Many of them were very eager to accept Christ rather than just adhere to an impersonal set of rules and regulations that the church usually gives them. Many of these people are held captive by the "church", but the blood of Jesus has set them free! Although my blog title does mean that Michael and I are "physically alive", we are also "spiritually alive" through Jesus Christ! He is the only one who can give us true freedom. This week, for the first time some people were able to see that through Jesus Christ comes freedom! By his wounds we are free! It was so awesome to see their faces light up with joy when they learned of the sacrifice Jesus paid for them. All too often we take for granted Jesus' sacrifce and it was a great to be reminded this week that there are still so many people who have never heard what Jesus did for them!
The final village, called Sao Sebastao, was such a great place because God did amazing things in this village. This village has never had any visitors from America before and they were so surprised to see that we had come to visit them. At first, they were very hesistant and scared but throughout the day, we could hardly separate from them. God really opened their hearts to hear the message that we were bringing to them. This was the first time many of them had even heard of Jesus! We had so many to accept Christ including the President of the village (who was a woman) and her husband. We gave out many Bibles and just showed the love of God to them. It was such a powerful time and you could just feel the Spirit of God working in that village. Please continue to pray that all of these villages will continue on the right path and continue to seek Jesus Christ daily.
The entire week, I had the amazing privilege to work with a family of dentists from Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Bush are amazing dentists and it was so cool to learn from them this week. At all of the villages, we spent the whole day extracting teeth and ridding the mouths of infection, while teaching public health. Even though I'm really not interested in pursuing dentistry, it was so great to work with them and just love on all of those people while they were getting their teeth pulled. It was so evident that the Lord was with us this entire week and we just give Him all the glory for everything that He did this week.
We are now back in Parintins where we will spend the next 6 weeks. We are having so much fun spending time with the family that we are living with. Today Michael and I watched both Avatar and Toy Story in Portuguese, haha! We are learning so much from their two kids, David and Daniel. Continue to pray that the Lord will be with us daily and continue to guide us in everything. Also pray for good health and safety. So far, neither of us have been sick! We miss all of our family and friends so much, but know that we are having an amazing time and the Lord is really teaching/using us in powerful ways!
Graces a Deus,
Michael and Leah Shell
In the first village, Barreira Do Andira, we were able to see the future sight of their church. The people are very excited to have this church, but are a little skeptical because it is new and they have had past experiences with corrupt churches. The Amazon region, as a whole, has a problem with a very corrupt form of Catholicism. The doctrine is not much different than Catholicism in the US but their leadership and influence is very dishonest and damaging. Please pray that the Lord will open their hearts to see Jesus in this church rather than simply a building or imperfect people.
In the second village, Castanhal, we were invited to come and meet all of the families and spend time playing games with their children. There are only about 30 families in this village so it was a great time to get to know each family and share the love of Christ with them. Like the other village, they are only aware of the corruption among the other churches so many of the people were surprised when we came explaining what a personal relationship with Jesus is. Many of them were very eager to accept Christ rather than just adhere to an impersonal set of rules and regulations that the church usually gives them. Many of these people are held captive by the "church", but the blood of Jesus has set them free! Although my blog title does mean that Michael and I are "physically alive", we are also "spiritually alive" through Jesus Christ! He is the only one who can give us true freedom. This week, for the first time some people were able to see that through Jesus Christ comes freedom! By his wounds we are free! It was so awesome to see their faces light up with joy when they learned of the sacrifice Jesus paid for them. All too often we take for granted Jesus' sacrifce and it was a great to be reminded this week that there are still so many people who have never heard what Jesus did for them!
The final village, called Sao Sebastao, was such a great place because God did amazing things in this village. This village has never had any visitors from America before and they were so surprised to see that we had come to visit them. At first, they were very hesistant and scared but throughout the day, we could hardly separate from them. God really opened their hearts to hear the message that we were bringing to them. This was the first time many of them had even heard of Jesus! We had so many to accept Christ including the President of the village (who was a woman) and her husband. We gave out many Bibles and just showed the love of God to them. It was such a powerful time and you could just feel the Spirit of God working in that village. Please continue to pray that all of these villages will continue on the right path and continue to seek Jesus Christ daily.
The entire week, I had the amazing privilege to work with a family of dentists from Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Bush are amazing dentists and it was so cool to learn from them this week. At all of the villages, we spent the whole day extracting teeth and ridding the mouths of infection, while teaching public health. Even though I'm really not interested in pursuing dentistry, it was so great to work with them and just love on all of those people while they were getting their teeth pulled. It was so evident that the Lord was with us this entire week and we just give Him all the glory for everything that He did this week.
We are now back in Parintins where we will spend the next 6 weeks. We are having so much fun spending time with the family that we are living with. Today Michael and I watched both Avatar and Toy Story in Portuguese, haha! We are learning so much from their two kids, David and Daniel. Continue to pray that the Lord will be with us daily and continue to guide us in everything. Also pray for good health and safety. So far, neither of us have been sick! We miss all of our family and friends so much, but know that we are having an amazing time and the Lord is really teaching/using us in powerful ways!
Graces a Deus,
Michael and Leah Shell
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The Start of our Journey
Hello everybody! We are so excited to finally go back to Brasil! God has given us the amazing opportunity to serve Him this summer for 7 weeks in the city of Parintins, located on the Amazon River. We decided that we wanted to share our journey so we created this blog for everyone to see how the Lord is working in and through us. Unfortunately, since we will be in the middle of the Amazon, we are not 100% sure how often we will have access to internet. We will try our best to update as often as possible and share everything that God is doing.
As we begin the journey that the Lord has for us, we want to give a big "thank you" to the many who are supporting us. We are so thankful to have such great family and friends that are supporting and praying for us daily. We are so appreciative for your generousity and thoughtfulness. We encourage you all to keep praying that the Lord's will would be done these next 7 weeks and that His light would shine through us.
We are currently sitting in the Miami airport where we will spend the night (haha) and then board our flight to Manaus in the morning. We will hopefully arrive in Parintins tomorrow night. We cannot wait to get there and see all of our friends and give them "um grande abraço" which means "a big hug" in Portuguese! Again, thank you all for your support and please continue to pray that God would be with us as we travel.
Tchau!! (Goodbye in Portuguese)
Michael and Leah Shell
As we begin the journey that the Lord has for us, we want to give a big "thank you" to the many who are supporting us. We are so thankful to have such great family and friends that are supporting and praying for us daily. We are so appreciative for your generousity and thoughtfulness. We encourage you all to keep praying that the Lord's will would be done these next 7 weeks and that His light would shine through us.
We are currently sitting in the Miami airport where we will spend the night (haha) and then board our flight to Manaus in the morning. We will hopefully arrive in Parintins tomorrow night. We cannot wait to get there and see all of our friends and give them "um grande abraço" which means "a big hug" in Portuguese! Again, thank you all for your support and please continue to pray that God would be with us as we travel.
Tchau!! (Goodbye in Portuguese)
Michael and Leah Shell
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