Day 3

Sunday

As many years as I've been attending North Point (11?) I've never experienced Kids Stuff.  Jake is just starting to be the age of its target audience...kindergarten through fifth grade.  It was really cool to finally observe this vibrant environment!  The church is small...about 150 people and so many of the teens we met last night were actively serving in the KidStuff environment Sunday morning.  

I know just enough Spanish to be able to READ and understand, though interpreting verbal Portuguese leaves me completely flummoxed!  And PRONOUNCING the words and phrases we've learned isn't very easy.  It's exhausting.  Portuguese seems to be a weird cross of Spanish-French-German-English.  I don't know how accurate this assessment is but that's what it feels/looks/sounds like to me.  I have a much greater appreciation for my ESOL students who have to navigate a whole day of STUDY.  (So Albert I understand why you would fall asleep at least once a week 7th period.)

Paolo and Kellen took us to a Brazilian steak house for lunch...slated as the fanciest outing of the week.  It was an incredible culinary and cultural experience, all the better appreciated with such gracious hosts.

In the evening we went to church.  Paolo's message on "Pai Perfecte" or The Perfect Father went mostly above our heads, though we tracked the versus he shared in our English Bibles.

We hosted a meet and greet with our Brazilian brothers and sisters in Christ after the service.  Only a handful of people speak English, and these folks are pretty timid about USING the language because they are taught grammar versus functionality and speaking in their public schools.