Hoje, eu vou falar simplesmente sobre uma palavra. É uma palavra que nós vimos na vida da Rute muitas vezes no livro da Rute.  É uma palavra em Hebraico, a palavra é “hesed”. Antes de eu falar sobre essa palavra, vamos lembrar a história da Rute.

No livro da Rute, nós lemos que Rute era casada com o filho da Noemi.  Mas, o marido da Noemi e os filhos da Noemi morreram.  Então, Noemi, Rute, e a outra nora, chamada Orfa, não tinham nada-nem maridos e nem dinheiro.  Agora, nessa história apresenta vários exemplos da palavra “hesed”.

O autor do livro, “The Gospel of Ruth-loving God enough break the rules” descreve “hesed” como isso…

“Hesed é o jeito que Deus planejou para os seres humanos viverem juntos desde o início, o amor ao próximo como a si mesmo, a marca da vida, uma forma ativa, solidária, altruísta e de sacrifício um para o outro que vai na contramão de nossa natureza caída … Hesed é conduzido, não por dever ou obrigação legal, mas por um profundo compromisso, um amor, Fiel altruísta que motiva uma pessoa a fazer voluntariamente o que ninguém tem o direito de esperar ou pedir a eles … É o tipo do amor que encontramos mais plenamente expresso em Jesus … Em suma, hesed é o Evangelho vivido.”

Depois o marido e os filhos da Noemi morreram, ela queria voltar para Judá, onde ela nasceu.  As noras dela não nasceram lá e eram moabitas, mas elas começaram ir com ela.  Noemi falou com elas para ficar com suas famílias para achar outros maridos.  Elas falaram que queriam ficar com Noemi, então Noemi disse,

“Voltem, minhas filhas! Por que viriam comigo? Poderia eu ainda ter filhos, que viessem a ser seus maridos? 12 Voltem, minhas filhas! Vão! Estou velha demais para ter outro marido. E mesmo que eu pensasse que ainda há esperança para mim — ainda que eu me casasse esta noite e depois desse à luz filhos, 13 iriam vocês esperar até que eles crescessem? Ficariam sem se casar à espera deles? De jeito nenhum, minhas filhas! Para mim é mais amargo do que para vocês, pois a mão do SENHOR voltou-se contra mim!”

Noemi queria que as noras entenderam que se fossem com ela, Rute e Orfa teriam mais dificuldades do que se elas ficassem com suas famílias.  Orfa decidira ficar com a família dela, mas Rute disse:

Não insistas comigo que te deixe e que não mais te acompanhe.

Aonde fores irei, onde ficares ficarei!

O teu povo será o meu povo e o teu Deus será o meu Deus!

17 Onde morreres morrerei, e ali serei sepultada.

Que o SENHOR me castigue com todo o rigor,

se outra coisa que não a morte me separar de ti!” -Rute 1:11-13

Rute não tinha nada a ganhar se ela fosse com Noemi.  Conforme a sociedade, ela tinha tudo para perder. Olha, Rute era uma moabita.  Ela seria uma estrangeira em Judá e naquela época, era muito difícil viver.  Mas, para Rute, isto não era importante.  Ela queria fazer o que era melhor para Noemi e Noemi precisava de ajuda e uma companheira.  Isso é um exemplo muito bom de “hesed”  Rute não tinha obrigação com Noemi, Rute simplesmente tinha amor altruísta e ela vivia como este amor.

Quando elas estava morando em Belém, elas precisavam de comida.  Então, Rute disse a Noemi,

“Vou recolher espigas no campo daquele que me permitir”.  Rute 2:2

Esse ação era muito interessante porque as pessoas que recolhiam e juntavam espigas após os ceifeiros não ganhavam muito, mal bastante para a família.  Também, era muito perigoso, especialmente para mulheres, nos campos das espigas. Mas, de novo, isso não era importante para Rute.  Ela sabia dos riscos, mas ela sabia que precisava fornecer para Noemi.  De novo, Rute é um exemplo muito bom de “hesed”.  Ela não tinha nada a ganhar, Noemi nunca pediu a Rute para fazer isso nos campos, mas ela fazia o sacrifício por Noemi e nunca pediu por agradecimento.  Simplesmente, ela fazia porque amava Noemi.

No fim da história, Rute se casou um homem chamado Boaz.  Rute e Boaz tiveram um bebe.  Rute 4:16-17 disse,

16 Noemi pôs o menino no colo, e passou a cuidar dele. 17 As mulheres da vizinhança celebraram o seu nome e disseram: “Noemi tem um filho!”

Este versículo é muito interessante porque não diz que Noemi tem um neto, este versículo diz que Noemi tem um filho!  Rute, que era estéril, deu Obed para Noemi porque Rute queria que Elimelech, o marido morto da Noemi, tenha um herdeiro! Isso é um muito grande sacrifício.

Assim, esta história sobre Rute demostra um tipo de amor, “hesed”.  Hesed é um amor sacrifício que nós fazemos em nossas vidas sem expectativa de ganhar alguma coisa.  Ás vezes, “hesed” amor pode ser um risco.  Mas, nosso amor por pessoas e nosso amor para Deus são maior do que nosso amor por viver confortável, ter reputação, e ás vezes, viver com segurança.

Como nós mostramos “hesed” amor?

1. Ativamente saiba o que são os necessidades das pessoas.

1. Rute sabia o que Noemi precisava.  Seria muita facíl por Rute focalizar nos próprios problemas, ela era uma estéril viúva!  Mas, ela estava mais interessada nas necessidades da Noemi e ela queria fazer o que era necessário para glorificar Deus e ajudar os outros.

1. Peça a Deus para te dar a coragem e abnegação para fazer os oportunidades que Deus te dá para demonstrar “hesed” amor.

1. Amor não é natural e amor com sacrifício é mais difícil.

Rute é um exemplo muito bom de “hesed”, mas a Bíblia tem um exemplo melhor.  Nosso salvador, Jesus Cristo.  Ele fez o último sacrifício, morte.  Ele morreu na cruz simplesmente por que ele te ama.  Ele não tinha obrigação legal, ele morreu na cruz simplesmente por que ele te ama.  Ninguém pediu para Ele fazer isso, ele morreu na cruz simplesmente por que ele te ama.  Ele fez “hesed” amor e ainda faz em nossas vidas e Ele quer que nós o façamos nas vidas dos outros.  Simplesmente por que nós amamos os outros, mas mais importante, por que nós amamos Jesus.

We are in the countdown to the end of language school!!  We have 5 weeks to go, and boy are we counting down!!  I was thinking yesterday about the amount of hours we spend in language study and I realized it is the same amount of hours as a full time college student.  Then I thought about how ready I am to be at home with my boys again!

Nathaniel and Jackson started 4th and 2nd grade yesterday. They are studying with one of our colleagues, Carol (they studied with her last year) for about 5 weeks until I graduate. Then…I become a homeschooling mom.  Those are not words I ever really thought I’d hear myself say (or see myself type), but I am really looking forward to the challenge.  Owen started kindergarten with Julia yesterday.  This morning he told me that he can pour his own milk on his cereal now, because he’s older. He’s pretty excited about this growing up thing.  Me, not so much :-)

After viewing more houses online than I can count, and visiting over 25, we finally found a house to rent in Gravataí (the suburb where we plan to work)!!  It was definitely a challenge to find something within our price range that wasn’t falling apart or way too small for our family.  But, as He always does, God provided!! I will post some pictures once we get moved and settled. We have quite a bit of paperwork to do, plus we have to outfit the kitchen ourselves (countertops, cupboards, appliances-which is totally normal down here), get our stuff out of storage, clean this house, etc.  We have quite a bit to get done(with school on top of it all)so we are hoping to move sometime next month, preferably after we graduate.

We have a group from Crossway Community Church in Altoona, Iowa here right now. They are doing a missions trip to the church in the Rincão(the name of the neighborhood) in Gravataí where we plan to be working.  They have been a great encouragement to us and definitely to Pastor Geferson and his wife Márcia. I will try and post some pictures next week after they leave…really, I will :-)

So, for now…Até mais!!! (Until later!)

There are soooo many things that have happened since I last wrote on this space. Lucas’s parents came to visit…AWESOME, we went to Florianopolis, aka the Hawaii of South America…AWESOME, Julia got her gall bladder out, and we have continued to rob our minds of any space left in them by filling them with more and more and more portuguese…oh so awesome. :-)

No, really though, we seemed to hit a wall, which we were told we would, around the 6 month mark of being here.  I have caught myself thinking now and then, “Ok, this missions trip has been a blast. It is time to go home yet?”  There have been points along this 6 month journey when it has felt like we are on the missions trip that never ends, and its not always a fun missions trip!  But, God is still good in the midst of our doubt. He always reminds us that He brought us here. He tends to remind us on the weekends when we are with our small group or at church in the Rincão.  We have a purpose in being here, we just need to learn the language to do it!!

The highlight of the last couple of weeks was this past weekend. Our small group wanted to meet at our house. Seeing as how most of them don’t have cars, the Kombi served as a bus!  I made homemade american style pizza and Lucas shared the devotional(which went great!).  It was definitely a great reminder that we aren’t just here to be students again, but we are here to serve the brazilians! It was an awesome night.

Julia had her gall bladder out last week. We had a bit of a scare building up to it, though.  She was very sick and in a lot of pain and we didn’t know why!  After a 9 hour day at the hospital, it was confirmed she had 30 or more gall stones.  So, a week and a half later, out the gall bladder came!  Everything went super smooth and she is recovering great!

The same day as Julia’s surgery, Nathaniel and Jackson’s teacher, Carol, had surgery in her esophagus.  Her surgery also went great and she is recovering well.  As a result, last week I got a taste of what it will be like to homeschool the boys (although Carol had the lesson plans laid out for me).  It was a little crazy with my own schoolwork and classes in the midst of it, but, all in all, I really enjoyed it!  I’m not sure the boys did though…:-)  What really matters is that we survived and the boys resume class at school with Carol today!

It was such a blessing to have Lucas’s parents visit a few weeks ago!  We had a great time just hanging out and touring things around here. It was hard to see them go.  But, another blessing is right around the corner, my mom comes next week!  We are really looking forward to having grandma here!

There is a quick recap of the happenings around here in the last month.  I know I’ve said this before, but I’m going to try harder to write on this thing, Christi, I promise!!!

Every Saturday night we attend a small group in the Rincão.  At the end of each study, like at any good study anywhere, there are snacks of some sort.  Something salty, something sweet, it usually varies depending on what house we’re at.  Saturday before last, at the end of the study, we were served pastéis. Pastéis are like empanadas. They are a pastry filled with meat, cheese, or yummy sweet stuff, the stuffings vary. (On a separate note, my personal favorite is stroganoff…amazing!!) Anyway, we took one and dug in, we love pastéis!  I took my bite and thought to myself, “this tastes interesting.” but continued on eating. With each bite it got a little more difficult to enjoy. I then looked over at Lucas. The look on his face was priceless. Without words he said to me, “Help me. I don’t know what is going on inside of this pastel, but it is really not working for me. I need to stop eating this right at this moment. In fact, if it wouldn’t be too obvious and rude, I would potentially vomit all over the floor.”  Seriously, I’m not making this up, that’s what the look on his face said.  He then whispered to me, “What’s in this?”. I decided to ask.

Me-“Oh Marcinha”

Marcinha-“Sim, Teresa” (yes, Teresa)

Me-“O que está dentro desse pastel?” (what is inside this pastel)

Marcinha-“Sardinhas.”

I was hoping Lucas didn’t really hear because it translates just like it sounds. The pastéis were stuffed with sardines.  Yes, sardines.  I was sorely afraid of what was going to happen next. You see, we didn’t want to come across as rude. This family cooked food for us, which is a sacrifice for them, and we did not want them to think that we were ungrateful. So, I quickly finished my pastel. It appeared as if Lucas had as well, I didn’t see it anywhere.

Lucas-“Dude! Sardines!”

Me-“I know dude, that’s new! How did you handle it?”

He then gently and discreetly patted his hand on his pocket.

This last Saturday we returned to the same small group at the same house. This time, we were warned by our friends Geferson and Marcia.

Geferson-“Cara, sabe Seu George fez pizza com sardinhas?” (Dude, you know that Seu George made sardine pizza, right?”)

Lucas-”Cara…” (Dude)

Geferson-”Fala ‘não obrigado’, tudo ok.” (Tell him no thank you, its ok)

Lucas-”ok”

When it came time for food, I was offered the pizza first. I politely said “não obrigada”. BUT, when Marcinha offered it to Lucas, he paused for a second and took it!!!  He is so nice he didn’t want to seem rude if both of us said no, so he took one for the team, even though it wasn’t necessary :-)

Oh, if only that were the end of the story.

Last night, on the way to church, we stopped at a padaria(bakery) to pick up something to eat in the car. Lucas went in and came out with a variety of mini pastéis-ham, cheese, hamburger, and pizza. There were 12 of them. I took my first, it was a really yummy ham one. Lucas grabbed his first one that looked just like mine. He took a bite…

Lucas-”THIS IS SARDINES!!!”

Me-”No, its not!! There’s no way!”

He handed it to me. I couldn’t believe it!! Of all the mini pastéis in that bakery, he happened to grab the one that was on the wrong shelf, buy it, and choose it to eat!! And it was sardines!!  What are the chances….

Yesterday after school, Jackson asked me if one of my language school teachers, Gabrielle, could come over to our house. I thought it was kind of odd, he doesn’t really know her, she’s not one of his teachers. Anyway, I kind of brushed it off and said maybe sometime. Well, he didn’t let it go. He kept asking and asking if she could come over. I decided to do a little prying as to why he wanted her to come over so badly.

Me-”Jackson, why do you want Gabrielle to come over so badly?”

Jackson-”I want her to play lego star wars with me.”

Me-”Why?”

Jackson-”She looks nice…”

I think my 7 year old son has a crush on my 24 year old teacher.

This morning Nathaniel woke up with Bible in hand. He wanted to show me all the pages he had read last night. It was quite a bit!

Me-”Wow Nathaniel, that’s awesome!”

Nathaniel-”You know last night when I forgot my pillow in the hallway? When I got it, I hid my Bible behind it so you wouldn’t know I was bringing it to bed to read. Then, when I told you it was too dark and asked you to turn a hall light on, it was really because I wanted light to read more of my Bible.”

We then proceeded to have a talk about how it is great to want to read your Bible, but it probably isn’t the best idea to lie to do it.

Nathaniel-”I have a challenge for myself. I want to read my whole Bible today.”

Me-”That’s awesome! Read away!”

Nathaniel-”I have an idea! How about if I read my whole Bible today, you pay me $5?!?”

Talk #2…we shouldn’t read the Bible for monetary reward. I wasn’t expecting that conversation!  At least he wants to read is Bible though, right???

Anyway, Lucas gave his devotional on Friday. I tell you, even with our small vocabulary, it was a great devotional.  The Lord has certainly blessed my husband with a gift to teach His Word. I can’t wait to hear what his messages when we’re done with school!

At the end of each session, we have oral exams with the director of our school. I did mine on Friday. I had to recite 5 memory verses and the irregular verbs up to this point.  Portuguese has quite a few different tenses of verbs (ie. present, perfect past, imperfect past, and I think 4 more).  Each of these tenses has some irregular verbs that are conjugated differently than the rest of the verbs in its tense.  Each verb has a 5 conjugations. That means for each tense of irregular verbs we have to memorize 100 verb conjugations (I think my math is right).  This is definitely my biggest language school challenge. I don’t have the type of brain that memorizes lists. But, God was so good and I was able to rattle them all off!  And, this weekend, I even found myself using those verbs…correctly!  Lucas does his this coming week.

The boys had their first sleepover at our house last night. This is their friend Junior. He is the son of our friends Geferson (the pastor of the Rincao church) and Marcia. They have been wanting to do this for weeks and it finally worked out this weekend.  I have no idea how late they stayed up. I just know I was asleep by 1:30 and they were still talking! I have a feeling the rest of the day will mostly consist of this…

“The Precious Blood”

Before the cross I kneel and see
The measure of my sin
How You became a curse for me
Though You were innocent
The magnitude of Your great love
Was shown in full degree
When righteous blood, the crimson spill
Rained down from Calvary

Oh, the precious blood
That flowed from Mercy’s side
Washed away my sin
When Christ my Savior died
Oh, the precious blood
Of Christ the crucified
It speaks for me before Your throne
Where I stand justified

And who am I that I should know
This treasure of such worth
My Savior’s pure atoning blood
Shed for the wrath I’d earned
For sin has stained my every deed
My every word and thought
What wondrous love that makes me one
Your priceless blood has bought

A crown of thorns, pierced hands and feet
A body bruised, and Mercy’s plea

Oh, the precious blood
That flowed from Mercy’s side
Washed away my sin
When Christ my Savior died
Oh, the precious blood
Of Christ the crucified
It speaks for me before Your throne

Where I stand justified.

Praise the Lord for His precious blood.

This is my best friend. I used this picture because this is how I knew we would be friends for life, totally selfish, I know. 10 years ago this month (last week actually), I attended the NANC training in Lafayette, Indiana. I went there with a married couple from our church and this single girl I didn’t really know. She and I roomed together. Our first night she gave me a back rub. I knew she had to be my friend forever. Actually, God brought her into my life at a time where I was very lonely. He knew just who I needed.

We could not be more opposite. She’s quiet, I’m not really so much. She’s an amazing writer, she blogs alot, I think we all know how good I am about blogging. She has 2 girls, I have 3 boys. She used to chop wood, I’ve never mowed a lawn. Actually, after several years of picturing her with an axe in her hand, I learned she used a wood splitter, it was devastating. Anyway, the list of our differences go on and on. I think that’s why this friendship is so beautiful. We mesh perfectly together. We never argue. We can sit in silence without it being awkward. She’s a great mom. She let’s me pretend her girls are mine.

Someday, these two are going to get married.

Our husbands are best dudes too. They understand each others quirks. They laugh at each others jokes. They play video games together. Its a beautiful friendship.

This is one of their proudest moments together when they won the Halo tournament at the Impact Superbowl party 2006.

Becca officially found out she has cancer this week. She’s had a tumor in her lung for 2 years now, but it was confirmed this week that it is cancer, along with some small spots in her liver. What her cancer is going to learn, if it doesn’t know this already, is that she is one tough chick. She used to chop wood, you know.
It’s not easy to be so far away while she’s facing this. She has walked hand in hand with me through every difficult thing I’ve faced in the last 10 years and I so desperately want to do the same for her. Unfortunately, thousands of miles hinder that a little. God has been reminding me, though, that His plan is for me to be here. My favorite verse is Psalm 18:30.

“As for God, His way is perfect”.

Becca gave me a bracelet before I got on the plane to move here that has this verse inscripted on it. She now wears one on her wrist with the same verse in portuguese.

“Este é o Deus cujo caminho é perfeito.” Salmo 18:30

This verse is so true (duh, its from God’s Word). God’s plan in her life is perfect, no matter what it is, as it is perfect in mine as well.

I am asking for your prayers for our dear friends. They have some big decisions to make in the immediate future. They meet with an oncologist next month to figure our where to go next. Pray for God’s working in Becca’s body. Pray for strength and wisdom for her husband, Dustin. Pray for those beautiful girls whom I love dearly, Karis and Gabi. Pray that in all of this we remember that “As for God, His way is perfect.”

We have gone back to school after a 7 week summer break. At the beginning of the break, I was like, “7 weeks! I don’t want to miss school for 7 weeks!”. The week before we returned to school I was like, “7 weeks!! I don’t want to go back to school after 7 weeks!!”. It was so nice to have a break from studying and just be a mom and wife. We had a great break. We traveled the area a little, visited the beach a few times, even had a group come down from one of our supporting churches. It was really great to have visitors.

Well, we have completed 2 weeks since we returned. I think we’re adjusting well to jumping back in. Yesterday, I gave my first devotional in portuguese for class. It is certainly a different experience giving a devotional in a language that I speak like a preschooler. Really what it consisted of was thinking in english in words I could translate into portuguese and writing them on paper. It was more of a 3 minute testimony about a passage that is dear to my heart than it was a devotional. I actually thought it was way too fluffy and it seriously annoyed me, but it was as far as my current portuguese would take me! Then the actual presentation itself was simply reading the written out devotional in portuguese. I’m not sure how I did, but it was kinda cool to talk about the Lord in a different language! Lucas gives his this coming Friday…

We are settling into a church, which is great. It is “Comunidade Crista” in the Rincão bairro. (A bairro is like a village or neighborhood in cities. Cities here are all broken up into bairros.) We love it. We love the people. We love the pastor and family. The first time we visited in November we really felt like it was where we belonged. I’m sure I’ll share more about it in blogs to come.

If you would like to see a video of highlights of Crossway Community Church’s visit here, you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX3_G6loaZA .

The last three months have been filled with so many adventures. We’ve had many bus adventures. We’ve had many mini-bus, I mean, Kombi adventures. (BTW, I think I could be a bus driver when we come home on furlough in a few years…) We’ve had many, many language barrier adventures. Even going to the grocery store has been an adventure!

We’ve experienced some serious bugs and lizards. The really uneasy part about that statement is…we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

We became students…again.

We experienced christmas in shorts and new years at the beach.

We’ve experienced the realities of being more than a quick plane ride away from those we love…but I won’t get into that.

We’ve watched our children make friends without the ability to communicate with words.

We’ve watched God use our children to build bridges between us and our neighbors in a way that we couldn’t.

We’ve worshipped with Brazilians in their churches and in their language. Its beautiful.

There have been days when we have asked ourselves, “What are we doing here?!?!?!”. God continually reminds us the He brought us here. He has a reason for us being here. We just need to patiently wait and let Him reveal everything. He will do it in His time. He’s already done so much!!

So, when our break from language school is over, we will return to being students. We will continue to study this new language. We will wait and listen to God and let Him lead us. We will wait and let Him do His work and try not to get in the way.

We will continue to have more adventures, of that I am certain…