Brazil Summary in Two Weeks
Brazil Mission Trip 2006
July 21-30
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Isaiah 6:8
Friday, July 21
The sun crept its way into my room to wake me up at about nine o’clock in the morning. I got out of bed and brushed my teeth, than headed to the kitchen to make myself my last eggs on bagels before I left.
The night before I had spent about an hour packing up my suitcase and making sure I had the necessary effects for an enjoyable trip. The only bad part about packing my bag was that we were bringing VBS supplies for the kids, so about a third of my bag wasn’t even stuff that was mine. I am notorious for bringing a lot of clothes on trips that I don’t wear while I’m there, however I believe that on this trip I barely brought enough to wear. As a result my bag only weighed about forty pounds and I knew that my body was going to like the light bag after reaching Ariri the next night.
I watched Family Guy for a little bit and then got dressed to go to my bank to get some money. I decided to go to the Washington Mutual by Chili’s because it was closer than the one that I work at. When I got there I said hello to Ben and Michael and told them that I was leaving for Brazil in a few hours. The cash dispense machine wasn’t working there so I stopped by Subway for my last fast food for a while and got a bottle of Coca-Cola in order to get the Coke Rewards.
Going back to my branch that was awkward because I had said my good-byes the day before and when I came back it would be like, “Just kidding! This is the last time I’ll see you in a while.”
I got some spending money and then drove home in my van to eat my subway and watch a little television before I left. When I was finished, I packed up me suitcase and my guitar equipment so that I didn’t have to haul it up to the Lighthouse the day I got back. I pulled up and parked backwards in one of the handicapped spots because it was the fastest route to unload my stuff.
After taking care of my stuff I hung out in Tim’s office and just talked about the trip and joked around about how the kids in Brazil are going to demolish us in soccer and reminisced about Costa Rica and stuff that happened there. We were all getting excited about the trip. The first major bummer of the trip was hearing that Derek wasn’t going to be going with us because his visa never came back in the mail and there was no way for him to leave the country. It’s hard to imagine why God would allow this to happen, but then again, who am I to question God? (Job 38: 4-13)
A few of us decided to get our hearts right with God before we left and decided to have a prayer meeting an hour before we started to pack up. Eric, Trent, Kyle Mullet and I went back to the couch room. Even Kyle Owens, who wasn’t going on the trip, went back there with us to help us prepare for everything that was going to happen to us.
While we were back there, we just got quiet and let God talk to us about the trip and then openly prayed out loud about our concerns, praises, and preparation for the trip. It was one of those experiences where you didn’t say anything until God inspired words into your mouth. God was challenging us just to walk with Him and not think about what we were doing. He just wanted us to do what He wanted us to do and go wherever He was leading us.
It was a neat time of silence, group prayer, and scripture reading and it helped us humble ourselves before everyone got there. Scripture that God was leading me to read was Isaiah 6: 8 which says, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” At that moment we knew that this verse was reflecting on our attitudes going into this trip. God had been equipping us for this mission ever since we said, “Send me, Lord.”
At the end our time, my parents came and I got to hug and kiss them goodbye. They wished me safety for the week to come and told me to enjoy myself.
I helped pack up everyone’s things on the Rainbow Warrior, or the Breakdown as I call it, and we got into a circle to pray for safety as we travel for the next day and a half. Everyone got to say their goodbyes. Mrs. Shea was remembering when Mick and I were in kindergarten together and I would walk him from the office to the classroom, and she got quite emotional over her baby boy leaving. Neither Mick nor I remembered this, but we decided to play along with her (bless her). I also got to say goodbye to Mrs. Barnes who wasn’t quite as emotional as Mick’s mom but was close.
After all the hugs, kisses, and pats on the back were given and received, we left to go to Tampa International. I got to sit next to Mrs. Mullet on the bus. This was cool because she was the representative from our group to World Servants and had done more work than anyone in preparing for the trip. We talked about how God was a provider and how all of us couldn’t remember how we raised enough money to go on the trip and how we prepared to go. All we knew as we were leaving was God was in control, and He was going to take care of all the specifics of the trip.
We got to Tampa International and said our final goodbyes to Kiara and Tim’s wife. We unpacked our bags and went inside the airport and a strange feeling came over us that we knew was going to come, but it felt strange to us nonetheless: we’re leaving today. After checking our bags in and going through security, we got on our plane to Houston.
This was a very short trip because I did my quiet time on the plane which took about half the trip. There was a moment where all I could do was laugh. I sat on the plane between Marc and Tim. Tim and I were reading our Bibles on the plane when I look over and Marc was completing a page in a coloring book.
We landed in Houston at eight o’clock and then rushed over to our terminal to board our plane. We noticed how much bigger this plane was and how the flight attendants were going to take care of us better. We took off at about nine o’clock and then got comfortable in the plane.
As we were flying we were served dinner and drinks which was surprisingly not bad. There were two movies going on during the flight, She’s the Man and Benchwarmers. Since I am not into movies that cause my IQ to drop several points, I naturally chose to watch Benchwarmers. It was a very funny movie, but by no means “good.” By the time the movie ended it was about midnight and I was exhausted from the day, but I was thrilled about what we were going to be doing the next day in Brazil.