this is what really matters...

...sitting for countless hours with tia just talking. Getting to know her and my family through stories. And not even stories about her or our family, but stories that reflect her character and ultimately her heart that is full of God´s love and an ache of what christ wants for this world expressed in what she wants for her town and community.

(10/6/06) Today it was RAINY!!! it rained all day, almost without stopping. And when it stopped and we thought it OK to go out it would start again, so, consequently, we stayed in all day literally, waiting for the rain to pass. We watched 3 soccer games; taking breaks to eat, but even with such a laid back day, I am thankful for it. Being reminded of God´s faithfullness as she speaks of his faithfulness in the life of her friends that ultimately reflects his faithfulness in her life.

She told me about friends who were in horrific accidents who were healed miraculously, and also about her feelings on the death of Baba, her siblings and parents. How she said she´s never angry with God, that he has his reasons and he´s always faithful. To go through such loss and not be angry or upset -- it speaks a lot to her strength as a person, her faith and trust in God and her ability to accept normal events in life, however tragic or hard.

She told me about her childhood and about her friendship with her brothers, Gregorio and Paulo. About how baba and tia lydia got married early and it was the three of them at home for a long time. How the three of them used to sing together at church, how she regrets never recording any of it, especially now that it won´t ever happen again.

We talked about a lot of other things, she also said to enjoy Blake as much as possible, to seize the morment and never miss out on an opportunity to share your faith or help someone. She told me this through the story of the last day that my great grandmother was alive. How Babunha and her went to a friends house to help her out because she was sick, and she hadn´t been at church for a while and babunha was the one to ask her to come to church sometime, that its never too late to start over again. The next day babunha died suddenly... but tia was and is so happy that she was so lucid until the very last day, even to draw people to christ.

we also talked about materialism and racism and how much we don´t like Argentina (Go Brasil!), how much she likes to root for the underdog as we cheered on the Ivory Coast to beat argentina. I hope that in this time with her I can recieve some of her wisdom. Wisdom that can only be learned over a lifetime. You can learn so much from people who have been there, I hope I can learn life lessons in these next few weeks that are unforgetable.