A tribute to Bill Stoll

Bill Stoll had a major role in my successful adaptation to missionary life and ministry in Brazil, and I thank God for his life.  In the words of Irma, his wife, he was "instantly cured" of all his earthly ailments on Friday, January 21.  He was 82 years old.

Bill taught Old Testament at the Baptist seminary in São Paulo (Faculdade Teológica Batista de São Paulo).  One of his students in the late 1970s was Lalia Pacheco, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in Christian Education and later became my wife.  She remembers Bill as a wise and gentle professor.

Bill also helped run the day-to-day operations at Edições Vida Nova, WorldVenture's publishing ministry.  This was no small task in the days of hyper-inflation and general political and economic instability.  When I started my career at Vida Nova in 1985, Bill took me under his wing.  He was always ready to answer questions and assure me that one day I would be able to speak and write well in Portuguese.

At the breakfast table this morning, Lalia remembered that Bill was instrumental in spearheading the Portuguese translation of the New International Version of the Bible in the mid-1980s.  She was invited to consult for the translation committee on matters of Portuguese style and grammar.  Alan was a baby at the time, and so he would also attend the meetings in his stroller.  At times, Bill would hold Alan's bottle while Lalia would take notes.

Bill, thanks for being an example of what real missionary work is all about--the incarnation of the good news of Jesus the Messiah.

Deluge in Brazil

God said that he would never again destroy the world with water.  But sometimes, in the middle of a gully washer, we wish for the protection of an ark.

After hearing about the torrential rains here, some have written to ask if we are well.  The answer is yes.  The hardest hit area is in the state of Rio de Janeiro, about 300 miles east and north of where we live (São Paulo).  At this writing more than 700 people have lost their lives in the mountainous regions north of the city of Rio, due to flooding and mudslides.  Hundreds are missing.  Children have been orphaned.  Many survivors have lost their homes and physical possessions.

We are in the middle of the rainy season here, so showers are a normal occurrence in December and January.  But certain weather patterns have caused unusually high amounts of rain in some areas.  Add to this the mountainous terrain, and the fact that human activity has stripped the hills of vegetation which could help prevent erosion.  Also, many people build their homes in high risk areas, hoping that nothing will happen.  Sometimes they are right.

Here in São Paulo it rains daily, sometimes heavily, but not for long periods of time.  Even so, low-lying streets fill up quickly with runoff water.  Most of the ground in the city is covered with asphalt or concrete, so the soil is not able to absorb much rain.  The result here is localized flooding as the storm sewer system becomes quickly overloaded.  Garbage in the streets often plugs the storm drains and aggravates the situation.

In our ninth-floor apartment we stay high and dry, if we remember to close all the windows!

We pray for all those affected by this disaster. Brazilians are generous, and donations of food, clothing and cash have been pouring in from all over the country.  Our mission (WorldVenture) and our local church are investigating the best ways to help at this time.

Film review: The Social Network

The Social Network is a dark film that makes me think twice when I log on to my Facebook account. In the opening scene, the somber lighting and edgy music tell us that something is wrong. Director David Fincher is not crusading for intellectual property rights, or even documenting internet evolution. He and Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter, seem intent on ambushing viewers with the great ironies of our information age. For Sorkin and Fincher, social networks are just as much forces for alienation as they are for collaboration. Real-life friends are dispensable. Profits rule. In the final scene, Mark Zuckerberg’s character pathetically refreshes his Facebook page over and over, in the hopes that an old girlfriend (whom he publicly berated in a drunken blog post) will accept his friend request. Based on her icy attitude in their last encounter, we presume that she will click the “ignore” button. In the end, the gazillionaire creator of Facebook, a site which supposedly puts people together, is alone.