After yesterday’s post I had not expected to return to the subject of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God any time soon. However, as I perused the blog of Mrs. Cardoso today (morbid curiosity led me to add it to my RSS feed reader), I was surprised to see a post singing the…
An alert reader recently sent me some information about a new church in Houston, Texas called the Succeed in Life Center. A quick perusal of the website shows that the pastor is one Renato Cardoso–a distinctively Brazilian name. Hmmmmm. A church in Houston being pastored by a Brazilian? Not impossible, but definitely…interesting. One automatically wonders…
As we hiked around the city of Caririaçu the other day, Nathanael and I happened on what appeared to be a dead end street. Curious as to why the city government decided to end the street at that location–with a large neighborhood just beyond–we walked toward the fence. When we reached it, we discovered that…
Beginning tomorrow you will be able to follow the adventures of Missionary Max here on this blog. Several years ago I made a brief foray into fiction, trying to write the chapters of the story as I went. After a short period of time I abandoned this as impractical. For the last two years I…
Missionaries who leave their homeland to work in another country almost always carry with them political baggage. They will be asked to explain or justify the actions of the leaders of their nation of origin. And this is not limited to current events. I still get asked why the US found it necessary to bomb…
I have been meaning to do this post for some time. Several months ago the son of one of our first BMM missionaries here in Brazil sent me some photos and post cards that date back to the 1930’s. Among the photos were a set of postcards from Belem. As I looked through the cards…
I have mixed emotions about taxis. My tight-fisted Scottish nature recoils at the high fares. Yet the writer and conversationalist in me enjoys hearing stories – and few people have better stories to tell than Brazilian cabbies. Of course, once the cabbie finds out I am American, the subject turns to the US, and suddenly…
I was surrounded by sixty of them, to be exact. Puppets that had been hand-crafted during our two-day puppetry seminar in Fortaleza using Nice Braga’s flawless technique. On Saturday night I stood on the stage for a photo opp with Nice, Pastor Nogeira, and all sixty students, AND their puppets. Here is what it looked…
One of my students was talking about biblical interpretation on his blog. As an illustration, he posted the following video. My jaw dropped open as I watched. The video is from a popular Brazilian TV show called “Fantástico”. The announcer begins by saying that the next story involves an Evangelical pastor, his neighbor, and his…
We went to the BMMB Family Conference expecting to be blessed by the preaching, the fellowship, and the change of pace. We were not disappointed. But for me there was one feature that added immense value to the week, like the caramel covering that takes vanilla ice cream to a whole new level. There was…