"Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else." - George Hallas

Bom tarde.

I didn't post this morning because....well, I don't have a good reason. Now it's mid-afternoon and it feels like there's too much to write about.

Here's a pic of a closet door in the church hosting my seminars. It's a solid piece of what I think is mahogany that someone carved into this piece of amazing.

They have makes of cars here we don't have in the States. Based on the logo (no fair enlarging the pic to see the name) can you identify this make of car?
BTW, there are cars everywhere and traffic indicators - lane lines, stop signs, turning lanes - are suggestions.
If you want into a line of cars it's spatium certamine (seize the space). He who hesitates sits there forever.


Yesterday afternoon Joe & Michelle (Joaquim and Michellee) took me on a tour of the other three affiliated churches here in Recife (heh-SEE-feh because an R makes a H sound. Go figure). They're all in poor neighborhoods. Not in favelas (shanty towns), but definitely poor areas. In two of the churches we got a tour by the pastor. It was very enlightening.
One of the churches sits at a 3-way intersection. The fourth "side" is an alley with stairs that lead down a narrow passageway. Do NOT go down those stairs. They lead into a 'hood full of violent thieves who often come to the top of the stairs and stop cars at gunpoint to rob the occupants. Including people who have come to the church.
Uhm....

It rained almost all afternoon and so attendance at last night's session was about 50% of the night before. When it rains that much the streets flood, when the streets flood the busses stop running, and many of the people who attend this church take a bus or two or three to get there.
We had a great time, the people were responsive, with fewer people the interaction was greater, and the evening went very well IMO.

I didn't get to bed until midnight.

This morning after b'fast and some reading I did stairs. J&M live on the 6th and 7th floor of this building (the top two floors). Nathan, their son, and I did the stairs from bottom to top six times with 12 push ups in between each climb. I took a shower and then Joe took us out for lunch.

Oh my goodness.

I don't remember the name of the restaurant but it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. Brazilians eat a LOT of meat, the specialty of this place. Joe suggested I go easy on the buffet table at the front with all kinds of prepared salads, pasta dishes, rice dishes, vegetables, sushi (yuck), potatoes.... so I only got a little bit of green salad, some beets, a pickle, and some green beans.

As soon as you sit down they start coming to your table. They come with a long skewer and a sharp knife and carve off as much of whatever kind of meat the employee has on his skewer. Before you can finish that meat another guy shows up with different meat on another skewer.  Different cuts of beef prepared in different ways - regular roast beef as tender as any I've ever had, ribs, steak, a salted beef Brazilians love, and others I can't remember. Pork sausage. Chicken. Chicken hearts (you should skip that one IMO), lamb, and more. All cooked to perfection, delicious (except the chicken heart), and unending.
If you want you can go back and get more from the buffet table, but why? Have more MEAT.

On the edge of your table is a sign you can rotate to tell the guys with the skewers that you want more, you want to pause, or you don't want anymore because your stomach is about to burst due to being crammed full of carnivorous goodness.

The price for this overload of incredible tasting meat of all kinds?
The Brazilian equivalent of $9.36 per person.
If you EVER come to Recife do NOT miss this place.

I came back and took a nap and dreamt Peter's dream. "Rise, Peter. Kill and eat."

We have our last session here in Recife tonight. We'll finish up the leadership module. Tomorrow Joe and I will make the 6-hour drive south to Aracju where I'll do both the dispensational and leadership modules for people from the 3 or four churches there.

I'm not sure what access to the internet I'll have down there so if you don't see blog posts that's why. Or I might have died in my sleep with a grin on my face and my belly still full of meat.

Boa note.