News and opinions on current events from “The Land of the Southern Cross”.
My friend and Brazilian MK Evie sent me this video of a Brazilian guitar quartet playing Ele é Exaltado (that’s He is Exalted, for all you non-lusophones out there). Enjoy. _____________________ Did you enjoy this post? Consider making a donation to our ministry in Brazil. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This…
Frank Jertberg It was October, 2005. Itacyara, Mikey and I were at Fellowship Batist Church in Lakeland, saying our final goodbyes before embarking on our Brazilian adventure. After the hugs and tears, I was about to walk out the door when an old friend–veteran missionary of many years in Brazil–motioned for me to come over….
The annual conference of our BMM Northeast Region was held in the city of Triunfo, Pernambuco this year. (More about the conference later…) I was able to spend an afternoon in this charming historical city with Tim and Vicki Reiner, and get some interesting pictures. (Thanks Tim and Vicki for the use of your camera!)…
This ad is showing on TV here in Brazil. It is for a bank, advertizing their paperless banking. But the star of the show is the baby. I have yet to tire of seeing this one. ____________________ Did you enjoy this post? Consider making a donation to our ministry in Brazil. As an Amazon Associate…
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…
In the US I was often asked “what is Brazilian music like?” There is no short answer to that question, as Brazilian music is highly varied, with each region of this vast country developing its own distinctive styles and rhythms over the 500+ years of its history. The video below (which was first brought to…
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…