Day with the Kehler's

Last week Sunday, we had a very good and eventful day. Our friends, Darryl and Elaine are missionaries and have been for the last 10 years. Carl and I have high school and college connections with them, so they were a great resource for us as we anticipated our move here last year.

Darryl and Elaine and their four kids are preparing to move back to Canada and so they invited us to come to their church this past Sunday. Their oldest Lindsey was getting baptized and we were honored that they included us in this special event.

We first met them at their house at 9:00 and then drove to their church. We were warmly greeted by folks in this small church. It was really nice. Kezia and Asha went off to Sunday school and were doted on by all the older girls while Joel stayed with us. The pastor, Nelson and his wife Judith were very excited to have us come, and invited Carl to come and give greetings and blessings to the church. Apparently it's a big deal to do. Everyone was pleased, since Carl is Jack and Ruth's son, and they were missionaries here in the 90's and the 70's. Family connections are important!

After church, we loaded up into the vehicle, along with Nelson and Judith and their two kids. Along the way to the lake? pond? river? for the baptism, we picked up a few more people, and it started to rain.

By the time we made it through all the mud holes and rough patches on the road, we arrived by the water for the baptism. The rain had gotten stronger and so we waited inside the vehicle until there was a break in the rain and all 20 of us from 5 vehicles jumped out for the short baptismal service. Well, within 5 minutes, the rain came back and came with such a force. Someone ran to get a wool blanket for the smallest kids, Carl took a towel and placed it over Asha while he held her. But that made no difference.

I don't think I have ever been in such rain, not even with an umbrella or a jacket. And there we were, no umbrellas, nothing to shield us from the downpour. The three baptismal candidates were soaked to the skin before they even got into the water. I yelled over the roar of the rain to Elaine, "I will never forget this baptism!".

After the girls were baptized, we sang a song and then ran for the vehicles. There was one towel to dry off our faces, but the seats were getting wet and no one had a change of clothes. Uhg. Well, we drove back to the church, dropped off a few people and then headed to Darryl and Elaine's to borrow some dry clothes. They didn't have much since the next day they were moving out of their house, but we were grateful for dry clothes! Asha had the strangest/cutest dress that I've seen in a long time from when Lindsey was a baby.

Darryl and Elaine treated us and another family to lunch, which was very nice. We told them we felt honored to be invited and were glad to spend time with them, considering they are leaving in a few weeks.

We went home to rest, but only for 2 hours before we piled back into the vehicle on damp seats to the Kehler's to go to another church. We had been wanting to go with them to Fortaleza for a long time, and we were anticipating the evening service with them. It was neat experience to see people that I had met 10 years before when I came. 10 years is such a long and such a short time. After the singing, there were a number of people who sang or spoke about Darryl and Elaine, since it was their despedida at this church. I couldn't imagine what they were feeling; having people speak about how they had been blessed by them over the last 10 years. Maybe the same aching, wonderfully touching emotions we had when we left Braeside...I don't know.

After the service, there was food. The benches were rearranged into a circle, with one long table set up at the front. We sort of hung back, not sure of what was going on. Then we were ushered to the table, along with Darryl and Elaine. We were going to sit at the head table with the Kehler's because we were guests, but not just any guests, missionaries! Well, uh, I guess....

So there we were, sitting with everyone in the church circled in benches, watching us. Then came the food. It was fried crumbled platano and meat called masaco. Only Kezia, Asha and I liked it, so Joel and Carl tried to be polite and eat some and push the rest around on the plate.

Then came the drinks. I saw plastic cups, and thought we'd probably have pop. When the plastic cups came with dark liquid, I thought Coke. Until I picked it up. It was warm. I smelled it as the lady brought the kids their own full cup. It was coffee. And coffee with about 2 Tbsp of sugar. It was 9 o'clock. And we were sitting at a head table being served. It's not like I could just trapse off to the kitchen and ask for water. So everyone, including Asha had a full cup of coffee. Darryl turned to us and asked if we liked the coffee, and chuckled at our puzzled smile. He said that kids get coffee as soon as they can walk. Well, I guess they need to drink something warm and it might as well be coffee.

Well by 10:00 most people had left and we felt free to get up from the head table and make our way home. We said our goodbyes to the pastor and to Darryl and Elaine and the kids. We thanked them again for including us in their celebrations. It was a rich day for us. As we were leaving, Darryl said, "So how about next week? We have despedidas at all the churches until we leave. Do you want to come?" That sounds like a plan.