News and opinions on current events from “The Land of the Southern Cross”.
Yeah, I know, it’s a couple days late. My excuse is that we were on an island in the middle of the Sobradinho reservoir in Bahia. Internet access was “iffy”. The occasion was the New Years retreat (or Retiro da Virada, in Portuguese). Thanks to my friend Júnior (our camera is operating at a less…
This post is part of an ongoing series which seeks to introduce the readership of this blog to the many fascinating aspects of one of Brazil’s best-kept secrets–the city of São Luís. The city of São Luís has gone all out in their Christmas decorations. While I have been unable to photograph many of the…
Behind our Kerigma congregation stretches a sizable neighborhood called “Coroadinho”. It is known as a hotbed of crime and violence. Within this neighborhood–and within sight of our church–is a hill named after a colorful figure from Coroadinho’s past known as “Ze Bom Bom”. If Coroadinho is a hurricane of crime, Ze Bom Bom hill is…
This post is part of an ongoing series which seeks to introduce the readership of this blog to the many fascinating aspects of one of Brazil’s best-kept secrets–the city of São Luís. Since 1994 it has been my privilege to watch the Independence Day parades (September 7th, here in Brazil) in many different locations. It’s…
About an hour–by boat–from downtown São Luís is a little peninsula called Alcântara. Although seemingly unimportant when seen on a map, the history of this “finger” of land is intricately wound up in the history of São Luís itself. Back in the days of “King Cotton”, when the prosperity of Maranhão was wholly dependent on…
On one of my more recent ventures into downtown São Luís I happened to see a post card of a beautiful facade in a local bookstore. I had never noticed such a building in all my wanderings in the historical district. Later on that afternoon I found myself looking through a fence at an enticingly…
Recently, in looking for some pictures of my adopted city, I came across this Flickr set of São Luís of yesteryear. I thought it would be a great way to kick off this series, aimed at showing you the beauty and old-world majesty of the city we love. The owner of the Flickr page, Manoel…
My friend and colleague Mike Jewel received some unexpected visitors last month. Here is his report of events: I was sleeping and heard my dog bark. When I looked from bed I saw a shadowy figure in the kitchen. He ordered me to bury my face in the mattress. He asked me a question and…
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…