Monday
afternoon, December 1, 2008
Hot
temperatures and soot in the air from the burning sugar cane fields
around town…that means that the holidays are here again!
Last
week Thursday, we had a Thanksgiving meal with friends from our small
groups from church. By the time we ate, there were twenty-two of us
there – between adults and kids. The evening started with a devotional
time followed by meter long turkey sandwiches. Not the traditional meal
for the day, but much easier and still tasty. Sue had made three
pumpkin pies – with whipped cream on top – for dessert. After
the meal, candy corn – a novelty brought down from the states – was
given out, and people gave thanks for something in their lives with
each piece of candy they had. The candy corn was way too sweet for
everyone, but they still had a lot to be thankful for!
It
was decided that next year, we’d use chocolates instead of candy corn.
Since it was a weeknight, the get together didn’t go too late, but
people still hung around to visit for quite a while. (To see pictures
of this event go to http://spoelhof-brazilnuts.blogspot.com/ )
Saturday
morning, we went out with the evangelistic teams into the church
neighborhood. This outreach has been going on each Saturday during
November, but this past Saturday the sun was exceptionally hot! There
have been all kinds of responses from the folks we’ve talked to, the
kindest ones have been those who invited us in for a cup of juice or
water along with the conversation. Some have come out to visit the
church, and several expressed how nice it was just to know that a
church in town was interested in them.
Saturday
afternoon, the thanksgiving decorations came down and Christmas
decorations went up. Even after all these years, I’m still not used to
decorating the tree with a fan blowing on me, but we got it done. Good
timing too, as we had out of town guests for lunch today.
On
Friday evening there will be another group over for supper. It’s nice
to have the house decorated both for us to enjoy and the folks we have
in.
Looking
ahead, there’s another wedding is coming up at church this Saturday
night. Though Brazilians have said that it is an “American thing” to
have air-conditioning, but everyone that comes in breathes a sigh of
relief and is so thankful to walk into the church. I know I am!