Northeast Region Conference, 2012

Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries from Northeast Brazil: Triunfo, 2012
In the last post I told of how I was in the city of Triunfo for the Northeast Regional Conference of Baptist Mid Missions of Brazil. We hold this event ever year, and it is always a great time of refreshment and encouragement.
Since our arrival in São Luís back in April, the only Americans I have seen here have been the occasional, fresh-faced Mormon missionaries trudging up and down the streets lugging their briefcases and looking incredibly out of place in their neck-ties and name-tags. The only Americans I have actually talked to have been on the few occasions that I have left São Luís and traveled to regions where some of my colleagues work. Thus, being in a place where English was spoken regularly, being able to tell jokes that people understood, being able to hang with people who have a common background…all of this was kind of a big deal for me.
And while I usually have a deathly aversion to business meetings, these meetings were actually fun, because I feel like we were actually getting stuff done–not just marking time.
I have to say that the highlight, though, was before one of the evening sessions when one of my missionary colleagues got up and led us in the impromptu singing of two hymns. We sang them in English, in four-part harmony, and we sang them slowly to savor every word, every note, every chord. Nobody needed a hymnal. When it was done I had to fight back tears.
The only bad thing about the conference was that, due to school schedules and finances, I had to make the trip alone without Itacyara and the boys. Hopefully next year we will be able to experience this as a family again.

The Astonishing Adventures of Missionary Max, Parts 1 and 2 are now available for Kindle and Nook!