Bill Teague’s lpc e-pistle

Published by Bill on Feb 01, 2008

Why We Don’t Give Up
 
These are the final few hours of my week in Brazil and after a great lunchtime churasco (the Brazilian way a grilling meat that is unmatched anywhere else), people are resting and enjoying the mid-winter day.  Puffy clouds in the sky, temperature in the 70’s and noisy parrots flying from palm tree to palm tree.  I could get used to this.
 
I spent yesterday and today in Nova Lima, just over the hill and about 15 miles from Favela da Ventosa. It might as well be a different planet. The beauty and peace of this place is such a sharp contrast to the noise and traffic and oppressive poverty of the favela.  This place is an amazing place, a gift from God to my Brazilian friend Pastor Robson and his family. That is a story for another day. As are his dreams of a Brazilian-American partnership with churches in Haiti!
 
The story of this week is God’s faithfulness. You may remember that the occasion of my visit here was the graduation of a young friend of ours. Emerson’s story is amazing.  Once a child of the streets, literally, he is, as of Wednesday night, a college graduate. Simply and with no conditions, Emerson understands his accomplishment to be a sign of God’s faithfulness. The journey was difficult, the battle hard, the discouragement at times almost overwhelming, but the perseverance and the success all of God.  We don't give up because God is faithful.
 
As it turned out – but not by chance in God’s economy – the week was also Vacation Bible School (EBF, Escola Biblia de Ferias) week at Igreja Presbiteriana no Jardim America (IPJA). For seven straight summers EBF had been a part of my life, Becky’s life, and the lives of many in our former church. For now the partnership between our former church and Igreja Presbiteriana lies dormant, but the work begun in that partnership continues.
 
EBF at IPJA has the fingerprints of a missional partnership all over it, and many of those fingerprints are Becky’s.  The schedule, the movement of kids from class to class and especially the craft time were and are of Becky’s design.  She was a good teacher because even though no Americans have been involved for three summers now, the program thrives. By Wednesday afternoon, the final day of the program over 350 children, ages 3 to 11, from the favela and the community jammed the every small corner of the IPJA church building.
 
350 children are a lot of kids no matter what space you put them in. There are seats for 100 in the sanctuary of IPJA and all the children and their 50-some leaders filled the place for opening and closing worship of the high energy variety.  This year’s theme was Noah’s Ark (Arca de Noé) and the memory verse was from 1 Samuel 15:22, “to obey is better than sacrifice,” that is, obedience to God’s word is better than empty religious ritual.  Noah obeyed when God told him to build the ark.
 
But what most encouraged me was not the numbers of kids, impressive, or the message, important, but the faithful work of our Brazilian friends, especially those 13-18 year olds who spent this week of winter vacation at the church giving a gift they had once received to a new generation of children.  Many of those ajudantes, helpers, had been in our first or second grade classes, among the fourth or fifth graders eight or nine or ten years ago, as EBF began to take shape. For them the stories and crafts and songs of those long ago EBF weeks made a difference as did the faithful witness of the people of Igreja Presbiteriana. What a wonderful joy to work this week alongside Rodrigo and Monica, Elian and Leonardo, Gustavo and Kelly, and so many others.
 
I first came to Brazil ten years ago knowing not a word of Portuguese or the difference between pão de queijo and feijoada. After a week of no English, it’s been good to have these last two days with English-speaking friends. How many times this week did tears fill my eyes at the sight and sound of the things God has done in those ten years. And as I would send my reflections and stories on to Becky, how often her tears would join mine.  Not at all tears of sadness, but tears of joy and thanksgiving for all that God has done. We don't give up because God is faithful. Thanks be to God.
 
How has God been at work in your life in the past ten years? What good and marvelous things has he done in, through and for you?

Published by Bill on Jul 30, 2010

Thou Preparest a Table Before – Musings at 35,000 Feet
 
This week’s edition of the E-pistle comes to you a bit early as I am on my way south – to Brazil and to the 70-degree weather of mid-winter in the Brazilian highlands. I will be spending the week with friends in Belo Horizonte, a city of about 3 million 200 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. But right now I am at 35,000 feet somewhere between Philadelphia and Miami where I will have an eight-hour layover before my eight and a half hour flight to Belo Horizonte.
 
I do not normally sit in the first class cabin when I travel. I just don’t.  But this trip, my sixteenth to Brazil, finds me in seat 4A, up front; among those seats I normally see on my way to the back of the bus. It’s taken a lot of miles to get this seat and I’m here because it was the seat I could get. No frequent flyer seats in the back. And so here I am. The service is great. A little dish of warmed nuts – lots of cashews and almonds – a warm wash cloth after the nuts and before a really nicely done chicken Cobb salad for lunch served on a glass dish with silverware that clinks. The flight attendant smiles and calls me by name and is eager to provide whatever I want.
 
I probably won’t do this again for a long while, but it’s nice flying first class.
 
As I sit here sipping coffee from a porcelain cup, I’ve been thinking about that line from the 23^rd Psalm, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” I don’t think there are any enemies on the flight, but I have a strong sense of the table prepared before me.
 
In about thirty hours, my friends Emerson and Nilcéia and I (it’s Emerson’s college graduation I’m going to celebrate) will be making our way to the home Odias and Nilda, mutual friends who live just on the edge of Favela da Ventosa, the windy favela, for a Friday evening dinner.  Odias and Nilda are contemporaries to Becky and me, their two daughters about the same age as our kids. Odias is a fine stone mason and Nilda is a seamstress. They are some of the best people we have ever met: kind, caring, faithful. They know Christ and share him in how they live and by what they say.
 
By favela standards, Odias’ and Nilda’s house is quite nice. Becky and I have stayed there many times and it is a favorite place.  Behind the high walls and steel gate that keeps the violence and hopelessness of the favela in the streets is a place that is well-kept and full of love. Tomorrow night’s meal prepared by Nilda will be far better than anything they can offer in the first class cabin.
 
Odias and Nilda are poor by American standards.  They don’t fly first class or eat at restaurants where the wait staff attends to your every need. But they are rich, indeed, by Kingdom standards. One of the great joys of the Christian life is the anticipation that is ours in Christ – that someday we will sit and eat together with all the saints at a table prepared before us, that we will receive the full blessing of those who are already blessed by having been invited to the wedding supper of the lamb. Someday we will feast with Odia and Nilda, Nilcéia and Emerson, in ways my fellow passengers in first class and I cannot imagine.
 
So, overnight tonight to Belo Horizonte and met at the airport by Emerson and Nilcéia. Clean up and rest and then off to casa do Odias e Nilda. Saturday will be a relaxing day with Emerson and Nilcéia and then Sunday School in the morning and worship in the evening on Sunday when I will preach at a service honoring Emerson’s graduation.  The three days of EBF (VBS) with another graduation worship service and then the graduation itself. I round out the week with two days with my good friend and seminary classmate who introduced us to Brazil ten years ago.
 
Here is a link to a video I have put together with some images from our times in Brazil (you have nothing better to do sitting around Miami airport all afternoon).
 
I won’t see you Sunday, but all of you will be in my prayers.

Published by Bill on Jul 22, 2010

High Seas Expedition: A long way from the beer hall. Or maybe not.
 
I can hardly wait for Monday morning. That’s when the latest edition of an LPC Vacation Bible School begins. This year’s theme is High Seas Expedition. The program begins at 9:30, but the first leaders will arrive much earlier and by 9:00 the church building will be full of activity as team leaders and teachers are putting last minute touches on lesson plans and activities.  And then there’s the sanctuary where all the kids gather daily for the opening and closing of VBS and where each class grouping comes for song and skit at some point during the morning. Thanks to the Cook family for once again transforming the chancel, this year into a high seas expedition. I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen to the room after worship on Sunday!
 
If you are able, and not one of the many who will be serving this year, think about dropping by the church, say at 9:30 or noon, to get a feel for all that’s happening. Continue Reading »

Published by Bill on Jul 16, 2010

LeBron James and Christian Discipleship
 
For those living on another planet: LeBron James is a basketball player.  He is 25 years old and for the past six years, since his graduation from high school in Akron, Ohio, he has played for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.  Between his contract with the Cavaliers and endorsements for the likes of Nike, he has earned hundreds of millions of dollars.
 
LeBron has been a remarkable player for the Cavaliers.  His all-star and MVP awards are too many to count. His team has become a contender and a bright spot in an otherwise dismal city. But the Cavaliers have not won an NBA title even with LeBron James in the line-up. Continue Reading »

Published by Bill on Jul 09, 2010