JOIN US AS WE SHARE OUR JOURNEY...as we arrived at the airport, we immediately realized that this was not going to be an ordinary mission trip. We literally entered the airport, walked right up to the ticket counter, proceeded through security and waited for our flight. Our first flight was 6-1/2 hours. We landed in Panama City, got off our flight, walked 5 minutes to our next gate and walked right onto our next flight and landed in Sao Paulo 7-1/2 hours later. We had prearranged for Tom (a resident missionary in Brazil) to meet us at the airport and he was scheduled to pick us up 1-hour after our landing time as previous teams he has worked with have had an average of 2-3 hours waiting time from landing to going through customs. We landed, walked directly up to immigration, got our passports stamped and was motion by customs to just keeping walking. We were outside the airport in less than 10 minutes from landing. We contacted Tom who was to pick us up and he said, there has never been a team come through so quickly and we were quick to respond, it was all God, we specifically ask people to pray that we would breeze through customs, and that prayer was answered. AMEN!

Each of us felt the overwhelming presence of the Lord as he effortlessly lead us from Orange County, CA to Sao Paulo, Brazil. To put it simply, it was as if we were the only 4 people traveling at that point and time.

As we waited for Tom, we decided to get a bite to eat, which led to our very first experience in Brazil. Linda ordered a hamburger, so being from So. Calif. we were naive (very naive)…well, you can imagine our shock when she was given a plate with two sausage patties and an egg on top with French fries. From that moment on, we were very guarded in what we ordered though the surprises just kept coming and the laughs were ever so mounting.

The following day, we visited 1st Baptist Sao Jose dos Campos, aka. Saddleback, Brazil. We felt at home immediately. The similarities to our church back home made us feel as if we never left home in the first place. It wasn't until we were out in the jungle (forest) did we say, “Okay, now we are far away from home.” We ate lunch at Koynonia (which means fellowship) it is a restaurant on the church campus that serves as a place to fellowship and also is a full-service restaurant to the community. What a great forum to fellowship, discipleship, serve and evangelize. From this moment on, we had the equivalent of a 15-course meal, 3 times a day, make that 4 times a day.

Brazilians are extremely attentive if you are not eating a little bit of everything, so this is where teamwork came in full force, we quickly strategize and made sure someone at least ate from every dish. Priscilla was our 'Mikey', she loves to eat anything and everything. “Just bring it on”, she says. Praise the Lord! One famous Brazilian dish we were told on our first day, "If you knew what was in it, you probably wouldn't eat it.", hmmm, that comment didn't exactly entice our appetites, BUT Priscilla ate it. We later found out what was in it—you don't want to know, and we haven't told Priscilla. SHHH.

Well, you know how there is always that one story you just have to tell everyone...here it is. At one point we had lunch at a well-known Brazilian Steakhouse. We didn't think we could see any more meat than what we had been seeing, but we were soooo wrong. Let’s see...tri-tip, quail, rabbit (couldn't do it, couldn't stop thinking about the rabbits that run around Saddleback Church’s campus), lamb, sirloin...so here we are with each about a side of beef worth of meat on our plates. It was after this meal that our digestive systems completely shutdown. Anyway, I happen to look over at Bill who was using the salt shaker. I watched him put it down and reach for the other shaker. Now let me preface by saying Brazil does not use “Pepper”, and therefore, there are no pepper shakers on the table. So, I am still watching Bill and then I shake my head in disbelief as I am watching numerous toothpicks flying out of a shaker onto is food, he of course is not paying attention. I had to say, “Bill are you planning on eating that.” HA! We kept the condiment shakers far away from Bill after that.

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