Day 6

This will be the second day of teaching here in Nicoadala...


So, I'm keeping true to my word and doing my best to learn the names of each of these pastors. Above is Toni Francisco, and he's probably the youngest person here. Toni is not actually a pastor yet, but is a church leader and speaks Portuguese very well. It won't be long before Toni is ordained and has his own church. Tony has also been through a lot, which is typical for all of these men; his faith is stammering and his honesty during discussions is simply wonderful.

Please pray for Toni.

Today was all about routine (remember I said my posts would get repetitious). For breakfast, Wanne didn't have bacon...so she just made steak and eggs. Not just any steak, freshly killed African rebuck steak. It was a great meal, and I told Wanne I'll take steak over bacon any day. We headed out to Nicoadala and began teaching right away. Pastor Gaspar read and taught out of Isaiah 1:2-9, and once again it was a great message. After Juan went over some basic business, I started off the day again. I was able to cover A LOT more material today, but I am STILL in 1 & 2 Kings, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to at least get started with the captivity books (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther).

During the breaks I am trying to break away from John to be around the local pastors more. This proves a challenge since I hardly speak a word of Portuguese, and it's also horribly out of my comfort zone. During the first break I was mostly around Sobrinho, and he was very patient and told me how to say, "Can I take your picture?" in Portuguese...this took about a half-hour, haha. He helped me with some other common phrases and we had a very good time. Local kids were around, and since they are the same kids everyday they know I'm the guy with the camera...so I can't refuse, I mean just look at them! Once I take their pictures, I'll show it to them on the camera and they just smile. For most of these kids, this might be the FIRST time that they have see themselves. Mirrors are rare, water is next to mud, and most pans are burnt iron...many of these kids will go several years before even knowing what they look like.

Rick took the second session and finished his teaching on funerals, he then began to teach about church organization and vision. The concept of "vision" that we use in western church lingo was a hard concept for the African pastors, so a lot of time was spent making sure they understood this point.


Rick stopped at some point and John suggested that we brake for lunch. It was pretty hot today, and all of us were tired and hungry. I was in for a treat for lunch today! Fish, with beans and maza; yum! The fish is some type of a macrel, and tastes something similar to a sardine. Normally the head is left on, but John told us they remove the head for foreigners because we tend to freak out, haha.

At lunch I learned A LOT more Portuguese from Sobrinho, which brings me to the phrase, "Muita informação!" Too much information!! haha

After lunch, it was VERY warm inside the teaching center but we were still able to meet inside. Rick taught for about another half hour to make sure the pastors understood the importance of "vision". Once the point was across it was my turn to teaching again. It is still really weird when they call me professor, haha. I was able to get to the 3rd main point, and we had lots of great discussion.

After that, I played with the "benas penas" with a few of the children around and pastor Orlando...who I just learned is over 50, I thought he was around 30. haha. Went went home, had another ah-mazing dinner by Wanne (who also got me more samusas) and we all went to bed early.

Things to remember...

"That's low level coke man" -John Dina

"I can say that, because I have swag" -John Dina
*Everybody should know at this point that I'm teaching John slang

"You're not suppose to be studying that! You're suppose to study this!" -Jim Otter, while I was looking at my Portuguese notes instead of my lesson, haha

Favorite picture...

There you go Royal Palms, Jim Otter at this best! haha