GATS Brazil Trip – Part 9

Wrap-Up & Team Picture

If you’ve read all the posts until now, thank you so much for your interest in our trip. After writing all these posts, which originally were to share with you what happened, I came to see more seemed to happen after I got home.

One thing we did after every service on the bus, on the way back to the hotel, was to take statistics. Here’s the total.

I could have spent more posts on what happened in Brazil, like:

• Praying for one person after another and they get healed of something, even if you pray several times. I did mention that. I could have expanded on that, I suppose.
• I could have mentioned how LOUD the worship was. Oh, I think I did. We all had to wear earplugs.
• I could have talked about the “quirks” of the hotel, and how some things are different than here in the U.S. One being their standard weights and measures and how elevators act goofy if too many people are on board. (Did I mention that?)
• Sao Paulo’s population is around 22.6 million people, that’s more than twice the size of New York City, which is 8.4 million. You can drive several hours around Sao Paulo and never leave the metropolitan area. It’s buildings, buildings, buildings, wherever you look. It’s a sprawling metropolis.
• That “cakes” in Brazil are what we would call quick bread. I didn’t ever see a “cake” as we know it.
• I also mentioned that they provided full meals they called “snacks” at around 11 p.m. or later. That’s why I was careful about eating too much, but that one chocolate banana pizza was too tempting to resist (see photo).
• Our team was originally going to only be about 30 people, but so many more wanted to come from the master’s program that we rented another bus, and they paid more than those of on “scholarship.”

I love seeing the power of God come on people. I love it because I know that the King of kings and Lord of lords is touching them, healing them, and imparting more of His Spirit to them, so they will have a closer relationship with Him. I just love that.

The Brazilians are very expressive emotional people and they’re fun to watch in worship and when praying. And they receive from God so easily, as opposed to the part of the country I live. We are very UN-emotional in a lot of ways, because of the German, Swiss, Mennonite, and Amish populations that live here. Mindsets from the 1700s are still having influence.

Again, thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think, you can leave a comment on any of the posts.

Next: a new series called “Doctoral Dribbles.” Nuggets from my studies, which begin at the end of August, but I have two semesters I can draw on until then. Fun little things about how different doctoral studies are than the lower degree programs.