I am sorry it has taken so long to close out my blog for the Brazil trip.
Life has been full since we have returned. Our last days in Rio were
memorable. The training went very well and we were pleased with the responses
of the students. One interesting moment happened on Wednesday. We were meeting
in the second floor space the church uses for its meeting room. The wall facing
the street was all windows. We heard some commotion down in the street below
and the pastor rushed over to see what was happening. Then he and his associate
ran downstairs. We watched as a group of people were struggling together with a large
young man on the sidewalk across the street. The pastor rushed in and laid
hands on the young man while praying. After a bit he led the man back into the
house and it all calmed down. Later we learned that the lady next door, who is
a bit hard to live by, threw water over her fence into the street, and
unfortunately all over this young man. He became so enraged that he went in the
house and got a knife and rushed out to kill the woman. His family was trying
to restrain him when the pastor showed up. His prayers calmed the man. This
was not the first encounter with danger for the pastor. Once a drug gang pulled
a young man into the street and were going to shoot him, a fairly common sight
here. The pastor stopped his car, rushed over to the men who all had guns and
said "there will be no killing today." With that he led the young man to his
car and drove away. Their motto is, when there is trouble run to it, not
away from it.
When I arrived back to where we were staying on Thursday, the day we were
to leave, I found Edie sitting in the living room in a cast. She had stepped
into a crack in the sidewalk and turned her ankle, tearing the ligaments and
tumbling into the street. She was pretty banged up with scratches and scrapes.
The doctor advised against travel for 6 weeks, which was not an option for us.
He gave her a shot to prevent blood clots and we made it home without incident.
Edie is still recovering but getting around pretty well. She could use your
continued prayers.
In Atlanta, on the way home, our daughter wrote and informed us that our
dog, who had been staying with friends in a nearby town, had escaped from the
yard and no one could find him. It snowed several inches the night he escaped, and we were
certain that he would not survive that unless someone caught him. It has been a
week since then and we had heard nothing, although we had looked ourselves and
informed the police, the animal shelter, etc. Our friend put an ad in the paper
today and someone responded this afternoon that he thought the dog was in his
barn, although he could not catch him. He had been feeding him for several
days. We went up and sure enough it was our Louie. We are so thankful to God
for even these small but significant things in our lives. Thank you again for
praying for us, even when you do not always know everything that is going on.
Our lives are full of warfare and the Lord's provision.
Al
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