Carnaval - Part 2

Well, after our rainy adventure at the beach, we had a great Sunday with our church. Even with many of our members traveling during the holiday, about 60 of us gathered in a local club for an worship and churrasco. Churrasco (pronounced shoo-HAH-skoo) is when you put yummy seasoned meat, chicken and/or sausage on a large spit and grill it over a fire. Very Brazilian, and very good. The building where we met was called a Galpão Crioulo - a rustic kind of room made especially for doing - you guessed it- churrascos.

The worship service was very informal. We all sat in a circle and had spontaneous singing and scripture reading. Matt, our teammate, presented a lesson about using our God-given spiritual gifts to benefit the church. The most memorable part of the worship was when Paulo Renato, one of my favorite people in the world, prayed over the Lord's Supper, then with tears in his eyes passed the bread to each person and said to each, individually, "Jesus Loves You."

After the worship we enjoyed the fantastic churrasco grilled by Daniel, another very special person. Everyone enjoyed visiting, eating and getting to know our visitors better (we had 12!). There's just something about sharing a meal together that makes it easier to relax, talk, visit and begin or strengthen relationships. We thank God for the blessing of this wonderful Sunday with our church family.

Daniel - our talented chef of the day.