Christmas in Brazil

In Brazil, as in the United States, Christmas is a time for family reunions. Here, Alan (left) reconnects with two cousins: Tony and Nelsinho.

Below, Lalia (right) chats with her sister-in-law, Rosa.

Extreme makeover: A baby changes everything

Thanks to Marie Foote, fellow WorldVenture missionary, for a reminder of how babies break into our life story, and of how a certain baby changed history.

Marie's insightful comments can be found on her Facebook profile.

Marie, in turn, was inspired by singer Faith Hill's song, "A Baby Changes Everything."

My inspiration comes from a variety of sources. Every Christmas season I try to reread Philip Yancey's "Birth: The Visited Planet," from one of his best books, The Jesus I Never Knew. (You can find most of this chapter and more at Google Books.) Yancey contrasts the cheeriness of our Christmas greeting cards with "the starkness of the Gospels."

We get a Herod's-eye-view of the first Christmas when Yancey quotes a vivid W. H. Auden:

Today has been one of those perfect winter days, cold, brilliant, and utterly still, when the bark of a shepherd's dog carries for miles, and the great wild mountains come up quite close to the city walls, and the mind feels intensely awake, and this evening as I stand at this window high up in the citadel there is nothing in the whole magnificent panorama of plain and mountains to indicate that the Empire is threatened by a danger more dreadful than any invasion of Tartar on racing camels or conspiracy of the Praetorian Guard...
O dear, Why couldn't this wretched infant be born somewhere else?

Yancey jolts his readers with another startling paradigm shift:

"'God is great,' the cry of the Moslems, is a truth which needed no supernatural being to teach men," writes Father Neville Figgis. "That God is little, that is the truth which Jesus taught man." The God who roared, who could order armies and empires about like pawns on a chessboard, this God emerged in Palestine as a baby who could not speak or eat solid food or control his bladder, who depended on a teenage couple for shelter, food, and love.

Another book that Lalia and I are reading through again this year is The Handel's Messiah Family Advent Reader. It has 28 readings which cover each day of the four weeks of Advent. Each reading is accompanied by a musical selection from Handel's Messiah, on a CD included with the book.

Yesterday's reading about swaddling clothes was an eye-opener:

Everywhere, parents swaddled their babies because they loved them and wanted to protect them. Swaddling is a loving act, but it also means to tie up, control, hold down, restrict, and restrain. And... can you imagine? God was swaddled!

If swaddling clothes were so common, why did the angel mention them to the shepherds? Our theory goes something like this: If the shepherds were merely looking for a baby in a manger, they might think that it was an abandoned child. But the detail of the swaddling cloths told them that someone loved the baby and was taking care of him, in spite of the spartan conditions in which he would be found.

We challenge you to take some time this month to escape the ubiquitous year-end craziness and recapture the wonder of the incarnation.

25 years and counting

One third of a lifetime ago I arrived in Brazil, wet behind the ears, terrified.

I didn’t speak Portuguese, and didn’t know if I could learn. Not being a pastor, I was an atypical missionary. Would I be accepted? Could I do the job? Would my rigid Scandinavian worldview flex to the exuberant Brazilian heartbeat?

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Twenty-five years ago I would have read that verse and told you about my goals for the future. Today I see that “the things hoped for” are not about my pet projects, but about what God plans to accomplish in me! “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Incredible! God says that faith is about drawing near to him. What about all the important stuff that I do every day? Extraneous at best.

How, then, do I write my 25-year report? In fear—that all of the stuff I have done is the only thing I have to show to God and to our steady ministry partners. In that spirit, Lalia and I send Christmas joy and thanks to all of you.

(In the photo above, Richard Sturz, right, wraps 25 years into 5 minutes at a celebration of Curt’s time with WorldVenture in Brazil.)

Intuition, wisdom and beauty. From left to right, Lucimar Davis, Jennifer Kierstead, Karen Sipes, Lalia Kregness, Mirian Sturz, Corine Thorp and Lois McKinney. At a recent WorldVenture fellowship near São Paulo.

Book Review: The Shack

William P. Young. The Shack. Los Angeles: Windblown Media, 2007. (248 pages)

When a friend said that he had been profoundly touched by The Shack, my natural curiosity kicked in. A quick online search told me that he was not alone: others were also singing the praises of the book. Eugene Peterson (The Message) compares it to John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. But lurking between the glowing endorsements were the detractors, who denounce The Shack as fuzzy theology or even heresy.

Before I jumped on either bandwagon, I decided to read the book. Conclusion number one: controversy sells books, sometimes regardless of their literary content! (Hmm, that reminds me of a guy named Dan Brown…) Anyway, here’s my two cents.

First, a quick synopsis for those who haven’t read the book. The Shack is the fictional tale of Mack, an Oregon salesman who is trying to figure out the meaning of life after his daughter Missy suffers a violent death at the hands of a serial killer. Three years later Mack receives a mysterious note, summoning him to the remote cabin where Missy died. There he has an encounter that changes him forever.

At the shack, Mack meets a large effusive black woman, a small ephemeral Asian woman, and an unassuming Middle Eastern carpenter. He soon figures out that he is face to face with the Trinity. More than half the book is a type of therapeutic dialogue between Mack and the three. They break his paradigms right and left, in order to leave him with an eternal perspective on his tragic loss. At the end, Mack is not sure if his memorable encounter was real, or just a dream. But it has given him the closure that he needed to continue living.

Any evaluation of The Shack needs to meet the book on its own terms, as a work of fiction. When I read a fictional story—let’s say one of John Grisham’s novels—I expect to be entertained, surprised and emotionally moved. There is usually a problem to be resolved, a process toward the solution and some type of closure at the end. Besides the plot, we expect the characters to display the human triumphs and foibles that will cause us to identify with them and to live the story vicariously. We hope the good guys win and the bad guys lose. A good work of fiction will have all of these elements.

Incidentally, I may learn something new in a novel (Grisham’s The Testament has some good information about the great Brazilian wetland called the Pantanal), but this is usually not the main reason I choose to read a work of fiction.

Okay, so unless the book is in the fantasy genre, I expect the story to be realistic, believable. Here is where many readers of The Shack feel some tension. The book starts out like a John Grisham novel and then moves into some murky territory when Mack and “Papa” God listen to “Eurasian funk and blues” in the kitchen. Now that’s pushing our envelope! Could this really happen? What do we do with this? Do we require the book to line up with Systematic Theology 101 or do we meet it on its own terms, as a work of fiction literature?

Of course, Young is rattling our cage and he knows it. It’s a literary device to get our attention. He can do this because he’s not writing a seminary textbook. Is he treading on thin ice? Maybe, but we only get bent out of shape if we force the book to do more than it sets out to do.

Is God really a jolly black woman with a charming Southern accent? Young would be the first to say no, and he lets “Papa” explain with her own words:

…I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from my nature. If I choose to appear to you as a man or a woman, it’s because I love you. For me to appear to you as a man or a woman and suggest that you call me Papa is simply to mix metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning.(1)

Besides looking at genre, we can also evaluate a book from the perspective of the author’s purpose in writing the story. The Shack doesn’t directly give us this information, so we have to read between the lines. We could assume that the author has experienced some traumatic losses in his life, and the book is his way of helping others work through the grief process. Young’s personal testimony on the book-related website seems to confirm this analysis:

While I have extensively written for business, creating web content, business plans, white papers etc., The Shack was a story written for my six children, with no thought or intention to publish. It is as much a surprise to me as to anyone else that I am now an ‘author’. […] The journey has been both incredible and unbearable, a desperate grasping after grace and wholeness. These facts don’t tell you about the pain of trying to adjust to different cultures, of life losses that were almost too staggering to bear, of walking down railroad tracks at night in the middle of winter screaming into the windstorm, of living with an underlying volume of shame so deep and loud that it constantly threatened any sense of sanity, of dreams not only destroyed but obliterated by personal failure, of hope so tenuous that only the trigger seemed to offer a solution. These few facts also do not speak to the potency of love and forgiveness, the arduous road of reconciliation, the surprises of grace and community, of transformational healing and the unexpected emergence of joy. Facts alone might help you understand where a person has been, but often hide who they actually are. The Shack will tell you much more about me than a few facts ever could. In some ways my life is partly revealed in both characters—Willie and Mack. But an author is always more. (2)

I get the feeling that The Shack is a parable, a metaphor of Young’s spiritual journey. He’s not giving us facts about God and the doctrine of the Trinity. Instead, he expresses a type of relational truth in a story. The Shack is not about theology; it’s about experience.

Will readers of The Shack start adopting strange ideas about the Trinity? I doubt it. But they might conclude that God is deeply aware of their painful losses. That God is saddened by human violence, but this does not diminish his sovereignty. That he can help us in our suffering because he has also suffered at the hands of violent men. That our ideas about him are probably still too small. That the life of faith is not about following a set of rules, but about walking daily with Jesus. That doctrine can sometimes get in the way of devotion.

---

1 The Shack, p. 93. Italics are the author’s.

2 Online: http://www.theshackbook.com/willie.html accessed on 15 November 2008.

ESV Study Bible worth a look

I haven't put my hands on the real thing, but the online version of the ESV (English Standard Version) Study Bible looks great (click on the image below). Crossway has opened the entire book of Matthew for virtual tourists, with all its notes, maps, articles and other resources. Apparently everyone who buys a paper copy will also receive a code which will allow full access to the complete online version.




At the site, by clicking on the Features tab, you can browse the introductions to several books, including Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Luke, Ephesians, Colossians and Revelation. In addition, the entire book of Jonah is available for download as a PDF file.

A postscript for all of you with mobile devices: The ESV Study Bible will soon be available in a variety of platforms for your smartphone or PDA.

Great Expectations

Barack Obama's election was greeted with optimism here in Brazil.

Actually, that's an understatement. If Obama succeeds in doing half of the things that this part of the world expects from him, Mount Rushmore will need another sculpture.

While he fixes the economic crisis, he will reactivate full diplomatic relations with Cuba, Iran, North Korea and a few other rogue states. Over lunch, he will figure out how to quickly withdraw U.S. troops from the Middle East without triggering chaos in the region.

During afternoon coffee, he will reconcile the global warming issue while figuring out how to give the U.S. energy independence by 2020. He will also cut importation taxes on Brazilian ethanol produced from sugar cane (oh, that was McCain's line).

You get the idea. But here is my two cents.

We should expect great things from our leaders. However, let's not delude ourselves.

Change doesn't start in the White House. It starts at my house.

The gospel is about transformation from the inside out. Consider John the Baptist's words...

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

"What should we do then?" the crowd asked.

John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?"

"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"
He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay." (Luke 3:7-14, NIV)

The bottom line

We called in the experts! Gilmar and Gilberto (left) examined the financial reports of the Vida Nova publishing house in a recent meeting, and concluded that the ministry/business is healthy. In fact, they evaluated our efficiency ratio (income per employee) and found that it is on par with many successful multi-national corporations!

Our CEO, Ken Davis (right) is the one who keeps us on track. His conservative management has kept Vida Nova viable in a turbulent market. As vice president, I observe and advise as much as possible, although some of the finance-speak is a bit over my head!

Celebrity book signing

After an extended ocean voyage, the Portuguese version of the Manga Messiah arrived on Saturday at the Vida Nova publishing house here in Sao Paulo. Twenty thousand copies were printed in Japan.

Here, Lalia, who translated the book into Portuguese, signs a copy for one of her WorldVenture colleagues.

The Manga Messiah is the story of Jesus in a Japanese comic format. It is part of a five-book series that will eventually cover the whole Bible.

Does Black Monday have a silver lining?

By now you are tired of the thousands of talking heads blathering on about the crash. I'm here to give you a new angle on the news.

Although the floundering stock market is eroding our U.S.-based retirement funds, here in Brazil we are getting some temporary relief from the storm.

The dollar, which had sunk to 10-year lows in 2008, has jumped about 40% in value against the Brazilian currency in the last two weeks.

Wait! Why should a worldwide banking crisis cause the dollar to rise in value overseas? It seems counter intuitive. Here's how it plays out in Brazil. International investors are selling their assets here and and taking their dollars elsewhere to cover their commitments. And not only are investors selling Brazilian stocks, they are not buying like they used to, because they don't have the money. Result: fewer dollars in Brazil, pushing the price of greenbacks upward! Simple supply and demand.

However, before you rush to invest dollars in Brazil, let me suggest one caveat: tomorrow everything could be different!

Retreaded and still rolling

Last week we took a virtual tour of the Arab world, “hearing” the call to prayer in Arabic, feeling the drama of Ramadan, sensing the spiritual hunger of Muslims looking for something more.

Our tour guides were David and Carol Wilson, long-time friends from Minneapolis. They served God 12 years in Jordan, seeing him work in difficult circumstances. Here in Sao Paulo, they taught seminary students (4 nights), pastors and church members (2 nights) about Islam and how to point Muslims to Jesus.

There are about 2 million Muslims in Brazil—one percent of the population. Brazilians have much greater access to Muslims than Americans, because there are fewer political barriers to cross.

Did I mention that the Wilsons are “retreaded”? We were challenged by their passion for this group of people which represent the fastest growing religion on the globe. Dave and Carol, thanks for modeling long-term faithfulness to Jesus.

So, what attracts Muslims to Jesus? (It’s definitely not Christianity!) The Master’s love, compassion, kindness and gentleness stand in sharp contrast to the harsh demands of a religion based on submission. Many Muslims are beginning to realize that the imposition of Sharia law does not change the hearts of people.

To learn more about Islam and Muslims, the Wilsons recommend the following resources: Web: http://www.answering-islam.org/
Book: Building Bridges, Fouad Elias Accad (NavPress: Colorado Springs, 1997).

In the photo at right, Lalia interprets Dave Wilson's seminar into Portuguese (the language of the angels).

Book Review: Their God Is Too Small

One of my occasional tasks is to review and evaluate books for possible publication in Portuguese. This post allows you to peek over my shoulder at a recent review I wrote for the Vida Nova publishers in Sao Paulo. It gives an idea of what kinds of things are important in our decision making process.

BOOK REVIEW AND EVALUATION FOR PUBLICATION:

Bruce A. Ware. Their God Is Too Small: Open Theism and the Undermining of Confidence in God. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2003. (142 pages)

Bruce A. Ware. God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2000. (240 pages)

Bruce A Ware. God’s Greater Glory: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian Faith. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004. (254 pages)

Bruce Ware’s three books on open theism (most commonly known in Brazil as teologia relacional or teísmo aberto) are a response to the increasing influence of some evangelicals in the U.S. who advocate a limited view of God. Ware has a systematic style characterized by irenic, yet firm, Bible-based reasoning. He does not resort to name-calling, but rather allows the logical force of his argumentation to carry the reader to an irresistible conclusion, i.e., that the God of open theists is severely truncated in comparison to the exalted God of the Scriptures.

As I considered these books for possible publication in Brazil, my first question was: Is open theism an issue for Brazilian evangelicals? At least three indicators seem to point to an affirmative answer. First, Luiz Sayão says that he has been asked repeatedly to speak on this subject. He told me that he considers open theism to be a current topic of concern among pastors and Christian leaders in Brazil. AG Pastor Ricardo Gondim has been one of the most vocal proponents of teologia relacional.

Second, Franklin Ferreira and Alan Myatt devote a considerable amount of ink to the issue in their Teologia Sistemática (see page 308-348). They comment: “O teísmo aberto tem chegado a alguns círculos teológicos no Brasil, notadamente entre os pentecostais...” (p. 310).

Third, according to the bibliography in Teologia Sistemática, there are already a number of books on the Brazilian market which directly address the subject of open theism:

• John Frame, Não há outro Deus: uma resposta ao teísmo aberto (Cultura Cristã, 2006).
• John Piper et al, Teísmo aberto: uma teologia além dos limites bíblicos (Vida, 2006).
• Douglas Wilson (org.), Eu (não) sei (mais) em quem tenho crido: a falácia do teísmo relacional (Cultura Cristã, 2006).
• R. K. McGregor Wright, A soberania banida: redenção para a cultura pós-moderna. (Cultura Cristã, 1998).

Therefore, there seems to be a Brazilian context for the publication of good material in this area. It would make sense for EVN to have at least one title on open theism, not just to hop on the bandwagon, but to provide one more conservative theological perspective on the issue.

Of the three books reviewed, I would first recommend publication of Their God Is Too Small. At 142 pages, it is 40 percent smaller than the other two books (maybe less, considering the wider line spacing), yet still provides a good introduction to the issues surrounding the debate. It is written at a popular level, and is therefore accessible to the high school educated Brazilian reader. The table of contents is as follows:

• Open Theism and Christian Faith
• Open Theism and God’s Foreknowledge
• Open Theism and Suffering
• Open Theism and Prayer
• Open Theism and Hope

If we incorporated the word “Introduction” in the title of the Portuguese edition, we could leave the door open for later publication of the expanded version, God’s Lesser Glory, which is definitely a seminary-level discussion of the debate.

The third book, God’s Greater Glory, is not so much a direct refutation of open theism but an exposition of the doctrine of divine providence. Nevertheless, its underlying (stated) purpose is to provide a sharp contrast to the limited God of open theism. This could be a companion volume to God’s Lesser Glory or, alternatively, could be published in place of it, after the introductory book.

Curt Kregness

São Paulo, 24 August 2008

Leftovers again?

Did you know that Jesus' miraculous multiplication of bread has an Old Testament counterpart?

I didn't realize this until I started working on a new project for the Vida Nova publishing house: checking and revising cross references for a new study Bible.

[Vida Nova already has a study Bible in its catalog, using a Portuguese translation licensed by the Brazilian Bible Society. The new study Bible will be based on a new translation prepared by our own team of Hebrew and Greek scholars here in Brazil, called the Almeida Século 21 (Almeida Century 21).]

Although painstaking, the work of cross references is fascinating. The New Testament was not written in a vacuum, of course. The Old Testament background is deep and essential to understanding the message of the Gospels, Acts and Letters. If you have any doubts, check out Jesus' encounter with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: And beginning with Moses and the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:27, NIV)

So where is bread multiplied in the OT? Take a look at 2 Kings 4:42-44 (NIV):

A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said.

"How can I set this before a hundred men?" his servant asked. But Elisha answered, "Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: 'They will eat and have some left over.' " Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.

See the similarities to the accounts in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 and John 6? Even down to the incredulity of the servant and the leftovers! There is, however, an amazing difference in proportions. Elisha feeds 100 men with 20 loaves (5:1 ratio), but Jesus feeds 5,000 men with only 5 loaves (1,000:1 ratio)! Don't you get the feeling that God wanted to emphasize the fact that, in Jesus' case, You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased?

We have no greater joy...

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3 John 4 NIV




Lalia and I experienced some of that joy when we visited Alan recently in Minneapolis.

Jennifer Hayes, Alan's girlfriend, appears with him in the first photo. Jennifer is studying veterinary medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Alan continues as an English major at Northwestern College. He also works at a popular electronics store.

Shedding light on the "Dark Ages"

As I had lunch yesterday with a teacher from Stony Brook School in Long Island, NY, I learned of a fascinating lecture series available for free on the web. Lars Brownworth, a history teacher at Stony Brook, uncovers some of the mysteries of the Byzantine Empire as he looks at 12 of its most influential emperors.

I listened to the introductory lecture this morning, and I think I'm hooked. Lars teaches in a conversational style with non-technical language. His lectures are not long--15 to 20 minutes on the average. You can listen in real time on the web or download in mp3 format. You iPod users can also find these goodies on iTunes.

At a time when the East is gaining attention in world affairs, this series promises to give us greater understanding of the issues behind today's headlines.

Here's the link: http://www.anders.com/lectures/lars_brownworth/12_byzantine_rulers/

Baggage recycling

Lost baggage can be a good thing.

We discovered this last week when we assisted with translation for a team of optometrists from Alabama, who were here in Sao Paulo on a short term missions trip.

Believers from the Lions Club had received hundreds of pairs of glasses from the unclaimed baggage center in northeastern Alabama. Optometrists and other volunteers classified the glasses according to degree of lens correction.

Armed with portable eye-testing equipment and a suitcase full of glasses, the group arrived in Sao Paulo and went to work. A Brazilian Baptist pastor had contacted the local public school to get permission to test the children's eyesight and fit them with reading glasses, if possible. Adults from a GED-type program were also included in the campaign.

In a 3-day period, several hundred people--who could not afford to purchase eyeware--were tested and fitted with glasses. Gospel tracts were distributed and the local church received greater visibility in the neighborhood.

Curt is pictured here with one of the American volunteers and an eager candidate for "new" reading glasses!

Two new books on sale

We both continue to edit and translate books for the Brazilian church. (This is not our only ministry activity, but it is probably the main event right now.)

I was the editor for the Manual de primeiros socorros para ministério com jovens e adolescentes (Emergency Response Handbook for Youth Ministries).  The book is aimed at youth leaders and parents, providing an overview of 12 different crises facing youth today. Each chapter gives practical ideas for helping students at their points of need.

My job included checking the accuracy of the translation and making some minor adaptations for the Brazilian context. Unlike most books, for this one I wrote an additional chapter which addressed a crisis which is more acute for youth in Brazil: employment.

Lalia's strong suit is translation from English to Portuguese.  Another one of her literary "children" just came off the press: Zooclopédia: 52 mensagens e lições bíblicas do mundo animal (Zoopedia: 52 Bible lessons from the animal world).  This book is aimed at teachers of children from 6 to 11 years, and provides step-by-step lesson instructions.  It is gratifying to know that the many hours invested in crafting a good Portuguese translation are now making a difference for teachers all over Brazil!

The Creator's Majesty, Part 2

"...since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Romans 1:20 NIV

While Lalia and I were walking inside our condominium grounds today, we were attracted by the beauty of these orchids.  

Joy delayed is not joy denied

I have to admit that there might be some redeeming value in shopping.  Before you think I've gone off the deep end, read on...

Lalia recently visited a women's clothing store recommended by a friend.  Since the shopping experience is as much about social interaction as it is about keeping up on the latest trends, she had soon struck up a friendship with the owner.

To make a long story short, the store owner told Lalia of another friend who had her life transformed at a Christmas tea several years ago. Her old paradigms were turned upside down.  

She had never heard anyone talk that way about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Normally, Baptists and other Protestants in Brazil relegate Mary to the footnotes of their Bibles.  But that afternoon someone gave Mary her rightful place in history and the Scriptures, praised Mary for the right reasons, and ultimately pointed to her Savior and Lord.

The person who delivered the Bible message at that Christmas tea was Lalia.  More than 3 years later, we were able to rejoice, because of what God's Spirit had done.

  

"...we had to celebrate and be glad, because this [sister] of yours was dead and is alive again; [she] was lost and is found."  Luke 15:32

THE CREATOR'S MAJESTY UP CLOSE

During a WorldVenture leadership training event this week, we sang and talked and prayed about God's majesty. Yesterday, we saw a part of it--up close and personal. The photos here are a meager glimpse of that glory at Iguaçu Falls, on the border between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.

In the bottom photo, Lalia laughs with Sylvia Engel (WorldVenture, Caracas, Venezuela) on the train inside the Argentine national park.

POW! SMASH! KABOOM!

One recent afternoon, Lalia and I wandered down the street to the newsstand. In a few minutes, we returned home with a small stack of comic books and sat down to work.

No, we’re not in our second childhood! We are researching the contemporary language used in Brazilian comic books, in order to translate the Manga Messiah into Portuguese. This 280-page Japanese comic version of the life of Christ is a first for the Brazilian evangelical book market.

In Japan, manga style comics sell at a monthly rate of at least 120 million copies. Their unique visual style has become a significant part of the 21^st century world pop culture. Manga Messiah leverages this effective story-telling medium to communicate the gospel to today’s highly connected youth culture.

Lalia and I thoroughly enjoyed working together on this project. We laughed frequently, looking for the “hip” word or phrase. It was a welcome change of pace from the traditional books we are used to translating and editing!

OK... time to get back to work. Now, what was the word for "WAAOOW!"? How about "THUP THUP"?

Some of our best source material in Portuguese is a series of comic books by Maurício de Sousa, a long-time cartoonist. Tough research...whatever it takes!

My amazing Greek students

Meet my New Testament Greek students. They are simply amazing. Not necessarily because they excel at Greek (most of them struggle, as I do). They are amazing because of their stamina and determination. They attend Bible college classes 4 or 5 nights a week, from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Most of them work full time, are active in their local church, and have families.

The photo with the smaller number of students is the Greek I class, and the larger group is Greek III. I have both classes on Thursday nights, and look forward to their stimulating questions. My goal is to get them into the Greek text as much as possible (can you see some of my Greek scribbling on the chalkboard in the lower photo?).

When do they have time to study? Good question! On the bus, after midnight, weekends. They do what they have to do. And because they believe that God has called them to serve the Brazilian church, they press on. They want to be well-prepared. I admire their commitment and introduce them to you, so that you can do the same.

Passover Seder essential for understanding NT

Last night, on Easter Sunday, our pastor walked through the details of the traditional Jewish Passover meal, known as the Seder. It convinced me that every believer should have this experience. Why? When the reader has a grasp of the Jewish background, many parts of the NT leap from black and white into technicolor.

One example: During the Passover meal, Jesus breaks the bread and says, "This is my body, given for you..." The bread that Jesus used was the matsa (unleavened bread, to symbolize the absence of sin). It had first been broken into 3 pieces. Jesus then took the middle piece and broke it again. Traditionally, part of that broken middle piece was placed inside a white linen cloth and "hidden" in another part of the home. Later in the meal, that cloth would be "found" and the family would rejoice together. If this sounds a little like Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, you have caught the excitement of the early Jewish Christians, who realized the incredible symbolism in the Passover meal!

Transforming lives through the Word

Since we returned from the States last year, Lalia and I have been attending a church plant here in São Paulo, Igreja Batista Nações Unidas (see photo, Pastor Luiz Sayão). About a year old, it is a Brazilian Baptist church, but with a non-traditional model. The mission statement is simple: “Transformando Vidas Pela Palavra” (Transforming lives through the Word). We meet in a convention center located on one of the major urban expressways. The preaching is expository. The teaching ministry avoids the Sunday school mold and focuses on biblical theology, even to the point of testing students with periodic exams.

At the pastor’s request, I started teaching a Sunday afternoon English Bible class (just before the worship celebration). Internally, the class is known as a “bridge” event to serve those who are searching for spiritual meaning. We are enjoying the smallness of the congregation, after spending four years in a mega-church (by Brazilian standards) environment.

Last night during the worship celebration we heard from a missionary sponsored by the church, who works with evangelism in the Middle East. Until God transformed him, he was a member of Hamas, in charge of rigging bombs for use on targets in Israel. Now he risks his life to take the explosive power of the gospel to his fellow Palestinians and peoples in North Africa.

Too many books

"Paul, you're crazy! You've read too many books, spent too much time staring off into space! Get a grip on yourself, get back in the real world!" (Acts 26:24, The Message)

Sometimes I feel a little like Festus’ evaluation of Paul.

Our ministry revolves around books, but I was able to “get back in the real world” this week as I hopped the bus and subway to a government office in downtown Sao Paulo. I was on mission business, the latest in a series of frustrated attempts to register some important documents. I spent half an hour in the government office and 2-1/2 hours in transit. Maybe this time the red tape vigilantes will give us the green light. I will only find out two weeks from now.

Back to books. Get a grip! I finally finished editing/proofreading the latest book for Vida Nova publishers: Group’s Emergency Response Handbook for Youth Ministry (the Portuguese version, of course). Besides correcting the translation (Brazil translators don’t always “get the drift” of the English text), I also wrote an additional chapter which addressed the problem of employment for young people in Brazil. It’s a different reality here, and we wanted to contextualize our book for Brazilian youth workers. Lalia did a final reading for the finer points of Portuguese grammar and style which are still out of my reach. We make a good editing team.

International Women's Day

I usually think of the U.S. as having the corner on political correctness, but I had never heard of International Women’s Day (March 8) until I arrived in Brazil. It’s a pretty big deal here. Advertisers use it to hawk their products. Politicians use it to garner votes. Employers use it to keep their female employees happy. And sometimes it even shows up in churches.

Using the hook of International Women’s Day, Lalia will give a Bible message on Sunday, March 9, at the church pastored by her brother Nelson. In a separate event on Saturday, she is the featured speaker at the women’s Easter tea, sponsored by the Morumbi Baptist Church. Hundreds of women will attend, including many seeking faith. I’m suspect, of course, but those of you who have heard Lalia speak know that she has a great gift of communication. Just think what she can do in her first language, Portuguese!

Deadlines

Deadlines are good motivators. While I don't work well under a lot of pressure, I find that deadlines help me focus on a task and filter out a lot of unnecessary stuff. Not to mention that it's a great feeling when you finally check the item off your list.

One of those deadlines on my February calendar is a new book for the Vida Nova publishing house. I am now proofreading the translation to make sure it is faithful to the original. (I can't reveal the title, but I can say that it is aimed at leaders of youth, their parents and friends.) Along the way I make occasional grammatical revisions, consulting with my live-in Portuguese language expert, Lalia.

The book deals with crises that youth face, like depression, divorce, addictions, grief, sex, relationships, and others. With the publisher's permission, we decided to add a chapter on employment to the Portuguese language edition, because that is a huge crisis in Brazil. I'll be writing that chapter based on interviews and other information.

One more deadline. Next week, classes begin at the local Baptist seminary. This semester I will be teaching first and third semester Greek. I'm looking forward to the challenge of making Greek understandable and even desirable. How is that possible? One goal is to teach students how to glean the goodies from Greek reference books. Another priority is to constantly remind students that Greek is a means to knowing God better, not an end in itself. This perspective keeps us humble, too!

Oh yeah. The photo was taken from our living room window a few evenings ago. Intense colors courtesy of Sao Paulo's high particulate levels!