Friends For The Journey

HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

This is the verse that came to mind as we have been watching the runners run along the beach to stay in condition for the races. They don’t carry anything with them and they wear as little as possible so that nothing slows them down.

Joseph and I have been searching our hearts lately to see if there is anything slowing us down in our race. Surprisingly, there were a few little things that we were holding onto…old hurts, a few failures along the way, some fears about the future… things that would be equivalent to a runner trying to carry a walkman, a towel, maybe even a bottle of water…seemingly harmless things, nonetheless, things that would slow him down or worse, distract him from the race or cause him to give up before the race was over. How is your race going?

Monday, July 16th, I celebrated my 54th birthday. It was pretty much a typical day, Joseph went to classes, I met him for lunch, then later in the evening we went to a nice hotel about a block away and had dinner on the 30th floor in a nice restaurant, overlooking the Copacabana Beach.
Then we walked to McDonald’s and had our favorite dessert…a vanilla ice cream cone dipped in white chocolate…a perfect ending to a perfect day. The only thing missing was close family and friends.

This week there was another movie and Friday a class in Capoeira (a form of martial arts used by Brazilians). Hmmm…shall we try this one?
The Samba lessons went pretty well. We’ll see (to be continued). The grad students have been presenting shortened versions of their Master’s Theses in Portuguese on Monday afternoons.

I have been resting instead of going to them, but Joseph said they are very interesting and informative covering a variety of topics such as Non-Profit Organizations in Brazil, Brazilian Dance, Brazilian Cinematography

all the way to Joseph’s, which is how religion has affected the political culture of Brazil and Colombia. We attended a lecture on Tuesday given by a UF (University of Florida) professor about 19th Century History of Brazil. It was presented in the Casa de Ruí Barbosa (an historical site that was built in the 1850s). We walked through the house and lovely gardens afterwards.

Last night we went to see a movie at The Roxy Theatre near our apartment. We saw the cartoon “Ratatouille” although it may be called something different in English. It is about a rat who wants to be a chef. I really had to press myself to get past rats in the kitchen. This time it was in English with Portuguese subtitles. I continue to pick up bits and pieces of the language. I even ventured out later and bought a couple things at the store and made a call to the US by myself.

Remember, Joseph is the adventurous one, not me, but I did it! Would you?

The last few days have been a bit rainy and cool, but it doesn’t stop people from getting out. There was even someone in the cold Atlantic waters this morning at 6am…Brrrrr! Not me!

Until next time,
Debbie