Igreja Baptista Tastic

It’s 12.35pm, and I just woke up 30 mins ago. Erica has tied on her sprinting shoes for a bit of ´Soul Touch Body Workout’(full details on the workout DVD will be coming to you soon) but I have barely made it to the next room. Oi, suck back in the ¨LAZY!¨ you were just about to shout out and let me explain the reason why last night has made me turn today into a ‘duvet day’ and almost turned out to be another Hoddit and Doddit fiasco.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good, lets begin.

Yesterday started out well. It really did. Analiá, Pilar (Analiá’s cutest baba!) Erica and I made it to ­­­Igreja Baptista Morumbi Church and we were welcomed by our gorgeous translator of the day, Christina (nicknamed ‘Chrish’ ) who has the ringliest ringlets you have ever seen, no hair tongs needed, her hair is a natural masterpiece.
Ballet classes for kids from the local community was first on the agenda and we found ourselves in a room with 10 of the sweetest marshmallow dancing girls in town. Tempted to join in for a first time experience of ballet I held back in fear of the other girls showing me up. And the fact that their tutu might only fit around my ankle.

After an hour, of Swan Lake with 5 year olds, Erica and I pirouetted our way into a fine luncheon some other children were having, causing our usual chaos. We had a question and answer time for the children to see who these strange looking girls were. I would just like to say now a big ‘sorry’ for devastating a wee boy when admitting neither of us knew how to play the bagpipes. We rocked the little lunchtime club with the Flintstone´s rendition of ¨God´s love is the best love¨ and left the little bairn´s in peace.

In the afternoon we visted the ´Favela´s’ also known as the ‘Slums’. We were kindly invited to two families homes where we heard stories of how life is there; how children as young as eleven were used to smuggle drugs and how they fear for their children´s future.

As we manipulated our way around thousands of houses, constructed using carboard and steel, each boxed up one upon the other we filmed 21^st century children writing on chalk and slate. What made the reality of what we were seeing much worse was that the children living there weren´t oblivious to what other people have; they live side by side with their neighbours. Sao Paulo is a city where the dividing line between luxury and poverty is literally made of the cardboard wall from the
side of the favela.

Making our way back home we were invited out by two stunnin’ chicas of Igreja for a very Sao Pauloinein night to the….Steak House! Yeah! We dug into a fine dish of ribs and fries, with our diet coke refill glasses in hand we chatted and exchanged thoughts on youth movements within our churches. We told stories of different missions that we all had been on and shared visions and desires that God had placed in our hearts. The night ended with a brownie ice creamy dessert thing, two kisses on the cheek and a farewell until Sunday!

Physically and emotionally exhausted by an amazing, yet challenging day Erica and I were ready for bed! I was all up for aeroplanin’ straight onto the mattress however there was a wee delay. Making it up to the 8^th floor, Erica placed the key into the door and turned twice…the door wouldn`t open. After several attempts of doing exactly the same action I took over expecting to enter effortlessly. But nope the key was definately not opening the door! Not wanting to wake up Analiá or little baby Pilar, we went down to the security guards and asked if they could help us. So all of us ended up outside Analiá’s door. The security guard, equipped with tool kit managed to totally break the handle off the already distressed door, failing still to open it. Analiá had fallen into a deep sleep after an exhausting day with not only beautiful Pilár but the Soul Touchers too and so managed to sleep through phone calls to the house and persistent ringing of the flat bell! So in great Soul Touch style, Erica and I laughed at the fact that we were going to have to sleep in the lobby that night.

Hold on…..there is a happy ending! Analiá (finally) woke up and we were ecstatic to see her ready to take us to our comfy bed!

Oh yes… so you see, my ‘duvet day’ is well deserved.

It’s going to be another busy day tomorrow, so my duvet and I are going back to bed….Buenos noches!