Sunday, November 20th

After driving for 2 hours we arrived in Caruaru at this Reformed Congregational Church that

is interested in help from our missionaries to be more faithful in their preaching and being reformed in general.   The congregation there was very welcoming, willing to speak with us and warm in their hospitality.

Most churches in Brazil look like this.  The warehouse doors slide up and open. 

One of our missionaries preached, and afterwards they explained what they could do to help them out.

A dead cockroche - like the ones we had in our room :).  

Looking up the street the church was on.

A bright alley way that intrigued me.

In the front of the picture is a corner store that is right across from the church.

The owner has told church members that he can hear the preaching and that he likes to listen.

A typical Brazilian license plate.  PE is the state of Pernambuco and Caruaru is the city we were in.

We acted as tourists for about a half an hour waiting for the service to start. 

Imagine motor cycles zipping by at high speeds - no helmets of course.

There's one in the right hand corner, coming through.

Here's a little garden I found (it was behind bars, like everything else around there).

I took this picture because I wanted to show the primitive nature of the washroom at the church. I took this from inside where the toilet (no toilet paper, thankfully I had some in my purse because I blow my nose so much) was. That roll proved to come in handy on more than one occasion!!  The sink in the foreground is for handwashing and the one in the back is for dishes.  There is no roof over the sinks.  There is little rain there so I guess it's not much of a problem.  If it does rain it's a warm rain anyway.

Here is a picture taken in church from the front to the entrance. 

Will and the minister of the congregation that wants to live under grace. 

We were served lunch after the service with stews, rice, fruit salad and chicken.  It was all very tasty and these ladies were very kind to us too.

As you can see the people dress more casually for church in Brazil and we found this in most every church we went to.  I'm not sure why that is.

After lunch and some fellowship we got back in the Besta and we were on our way to Esperanca to the North.  That was another two hour drive which gave us lots of opportunity to discuss things with the missionaries.

This stop was funny because it was abit of a village and when we stopped to have snacks and juice then the villagers all came out to look at this strange van load of people.  Maybe they imagined that we were going to take out some guns and hold them up in our Sunday Best.  Sadly, that wouldn't be too far off from their reality (except the Sunday clothes part). 

Some cacti on the side of the road.  As we drove further north it became drier and the landscape looked very Okanagan like to us.

I love these big guys.

Our van load of aliens.

A picture down the village road.

Gorgeous palm trees.

The building on the right is a shrine.  When a loved on dies on the side of the road then people build one of these building for their soul (?) - it's part of the Roman Catholic tradition.

They have billboards too!!

We were a little late for the 5 o'clock service so we took this picture of the service going on at the Igreja Reformada de Esperanca before we went in.  The women of this church were to serve the food for the Councilio (Synod) the next day.  They had a list on the bulletin board you see there of who was to bring what food. 

Our guides, the minister, Will, and an elder all pose together.  

After church we went to the elders home for dinner and even when you don't know the language (trying to learn it anyway) it's amazing how you can still feel the fellowship and still commuicate the communion of saints with ones' brothers and sisters in the LORD.  We enjoyed our time in the elders home and appreciated the hospitality of him and his family.