Dear Friends,

I wanted to share my recent experience in Brazil with all of you. First of all, there aren’t enough words to describe the series of events that took place or the transformation of lives that occurred, but I will try.

I flew to Sao Paulo on August 29^th and arrived on the morning of Thursday, August 30, 2007. My friend, Maria Feliciano (a single, 55-year-old pastor) picked me up at the airport and, before leaving, we did the customary Brazilian thing, had coffee and a piece of cheese bread. We began catching up on the activities that were planned for the weekend.

We drove to Maria’s hometown of Piracicaba about 2.5 hours northwest of Sao Paulo, she lives one block from her church which is on the 19^th floor of a 20 floor apartment building. She has no air conditioning in her apartment and she drives a three year old car without air conditioning, power steering or an automatic transmission! Brazil is in its winter season now, so temperatures were in the low to mid 80’s. With a fan it was bearable if you didn’t move too quickly.

 Oh, I forgot to share that when I asked my friend what type of gift I could bring her I never expected her answer to be a remote control fan! Okay that was going to make packing a challenge as one bag (of my two bag limit) would be a fan. God is in the details, because two weeks before I was going to leave for Brazil, I received a rebate check from Costco for $52.00 and while my husband and I were shopping there he suggested we look for a fan. Well you guessed it - they had a remote control tower type fan with a bonus smaller fan in a box with a handle for $49.00 or $52.00 with tax. When I checked in my bags, the agent at Continental asked what the dimensions of the box were and I said I didn’t know but I quietly knew that God already had planned for this fan to go to Brazil. She measured the box and it was within one inch of the requirements.

I arrived on Thursday and the women’s retreat was scheduled to begin on Friday evening. I wasn’t aware, until Maria pointed it out to me that they had made posters with my picture on it and posted them all over town and at several churches. I began to feel the pressure of high expectations from me.  You can imagine the conversations I was having with God at this point, "Please use me so these ladies won’t be disappointed in the retreat." I was told that about 100 women were coming to the church for the weekend. I went over the outline with Maria to prepare for the long conversations that would be translated into Portuguese.

On Friday, we arrived at the church to discover that 11 pastors and pastor’s wives had organized this event from as far away as Rio Janeiro. They had made special name tags, planned all the food, and arranged a praise band complete with a recording artist, dancers, and all the details planned to perfection. The retreat was entitled Dream It, Believe it, and Realize It. Over 150 women had arrived in anticipation of finding their dreams. It was amazing as I looked into the eyes of these women who were just like you and me and saw that their hopes and dreams that had been put on hold. I was told by many that they had renewed hope for their own dreams and they believed that God wanted something more for them.

This entire experience went on all weekend. On Saturday, we began at 3:00pm and ended at 10:00pm with an outpouring of love, hope and pure joy. After we ended on Saturday, Maria decided to open up the Sunday session that originally was set up for a small group of leaders to anyone who wanted to come. Over 100 women came back on Sunday morning for more!

 After the event ended, I had at least 130 women give me a hug and some of them weren’t letting go, bless me with a prayer, tell me what a difference the message had made in their lives, and tell me that they felt loved from my heart to theirs. To say I was humbled and overwhelmed is such an understatement. At one point one of the pastor’s wives who I became friends with hugged me. I just sobbed because of all the love that was given back to me. One pastor shared that her church had been praying for me for three weeks non-stop and that she personally had taken a mattress to her church and prayed for me for three days straight. My heart was so touched by this that my eyes just flowed with tears while she shared.

 These women gave me gifts of heart earrings, heart necklaces, and one woman who was an expert chocolate maker brought two dozen amazing truffles each packaged separately. One was enough to share with two people. While at times I felt like a celebrity, this retreat was not about me at all and I felt completely used by God for a greater purpose. The music and singing had been coordinated as if I wrote them to go along with the retreat. Even if I had planned this, it wouldn’t have gone as well.

 We concluded on Sunday and a group of 12 people went out for dinner to this amazing fish restaurant located on the water. Brazilians know how to relax and enjoy each other over meals and coffee. They don’t use to-go cups or eat in their cars, they actually set tables with tablecloths and real dishes and take time to enjoy. 

 Being flexible is essential as I learned that I was a guest speaker at another church on Sunday night. You can imagine how exhausted I was after going all weekend with 150 women and now I was the "Guest Preacher" at another church. I kept telling God that He had a great sense of humor because I wasn’t a preacher but a speaker. I had a new translator that I had met a few hours earlier over lunch, so this would be another adjustment. When I arrived at the church, the pastor invited me to his office where he prayed for me and told me, "Go ahead and take an hour or more if you need it!" An hour! I told God He must be joking because an hour seemed like eternity to me at this point. This church which was filled with 200 people had been singing and praising God for 45 minutes and now it was time for the "Guest Preacher" to impart words of wisdom. I took a deep breath and asked God to give me the words, because I was so tired from the weekend and I didn’t want to be a disappointment now.

 I shared my life story and how the Hand of God had been apart of it throughout the journey. I shared how I had failures, depression, and selfishness that almost ruined my life, but somehow I was standing in front of them now being used in a mighty way. After I finished, two women came forward to give their testimony. One of the women was at the retreat all weekend and I was told she had never spoken in public before. She shared how she came from an abusive family and was always afraid, but now she knew that God had a dream for her life and that she was going to stand up for herself and reach for more because she believed it was possible. Again, I was humbled at her transformation and how the weekend had impacted her personally. Another man and his wife came up to me after the service and he told me that my story was his story. He had just lost his job, position, and high pay because it had become so important to him that his identity was tied into it and now he was just waiting for what was next.  He told me that he had hope now because of listening to me. Knowing that God worked in my life, he believed God would do the same in his. Again, this was confirmation that I had been used for a higher purpose.

 Later that night, Maria shared that the retreat had raised a great deal of money. There was enough money to cover the expenses of the retreat plus extra that they gave to me for my expenses. What? I was also handed two envelopes after the church service that equaled $250 USD. I never expected any money yet alone so much money.  

 I knew that there were two reasons for me to go to Brazil, one to inspire women to realize God’s dream for their lives and the other to be a friend to Maria. You see, Maria is on call 24/7 for everyone at her church, counseling and teaching. She needed a friend to relax and just have girlfriend time with. We used the money to fly to Florianopolis an island in southern Brazil above Argentina where the beaches are breathtaking. The money covered our flight, rental car, and food. I took what was left over and went shopping so Maria could treat herself to a new Sunday outfit, fix her car, and use the remaining money anyway she needed. Her monthly salary leaves little extra for items like an air conditioning unit for her apartment.

We spent seven days at Maria’s sister’s apartment near the beach. We had three hour breakfasts and explored the entire island (pop. 400,000.) I drove the manual car without power steering and we relaxed, laughed and ate seafood everyday. I was told that we would go directly from the airport on Sunday to Maria’s church where I would be …you guessed it "The Guest Preacher." I had some time alone on Sunday morning to ask God for something new to talk about and was directed to John 15:1-14- "I am the Vine and you are the branches" The experience of returning on a full flight, TAM Airlines (remember they crashed on the runway about 6 weeks prior) was scary as we began to take off on the runway and the pilot put on the brakes! I told Maria, "This isn’t good, what is happening?" She replied, "Don’t worry we are blessed and besides, God has assignments for us so we aren’t leaving earth yet!" 

 We arrived late into the airport and Marcella Maria’s niece, picked us up and began to drive as if she might actually take off like a plane. I was tired now, stressed out, and on cold medicine I  asked God to either make me pass out or get violently sick for an hour - anything to get me out of speaking on this night. We finally got to the church and one of the church leaders was giving the sermon, so I was so thankful that I was off the hook. But not so fast….this man saw Maria and almost hopped off stage to give her the microphone as if to say, Please take over for me. Maria turned to me and said, "You’re on!" You can imagine my talk with God as I approached the podium, filled with Tylenol Cold Medicine and in my own bubble because my ears hadn’t fully popped from the flight. I just asked God to please help me make sense. It wasn’t my best job, but I made it through. Afterwards, the church presented me with this very large framed piece of art as a thank-you. The artist was in the audience and it was very beautiful - Three Angola Chickens in charcoal with red beaks. I was pleased to accept the gift all the while wondering how I was going to get this on the plane. I ended up taking it out of the frame and rolling it in an art tube. 

 I went home and slept for nine hours. When I awoke, I was told that we were going to have lunch with friends and go shopping for shoes. One of the women at the church owned a shoe store and she wanted to show me her shoes. Most Brazilian women have small feet, size 6 so the largest I could find was an 8 and I wear a 9.5 to a 10, so I was like the big Dutchwomen looking for her wooden shoes! Well they made sure that I tried on every pair of shoes in my size. I knew that I had to buy at least one pair because they were working so hard and watching my expression as I tried on over 20 pairs of shoes. She gave me a huge discount and I narrowed it down to two pairs and ended up buying leather brown shoes. To my surprise, Maria bought the other pair and surprised me with them later at the apartment.

 Later that evening, we went to another town, Americana. On the way, Maria told me that I was the …you guessed it, "Guest Preacher." "No, I said, they must be sick of hearing me." She told me that this was a new audience and they had been anticipating my visit. So again, I asked God to give me the words. I had a new translator and I began to share John 15:1-14 and how God had used me to bear more fruit. There were tears and many hugs as I became emotional sharing that even though I had messed up my life so many times that God saw potential and now was using me in a mighty way that was far beyond me.

 After the meeting there was a huge spread of wonderful food and great socializing. One woman who had been at the retreat came up to me. I thought she was fixing her necklace and needed help, but instead she was taking off the small diamond heart on her necklace to give to me. I told her that her gesture was so kind but I couldn’t take her diamond heart. She said, "You gave your heart to me tonight and I want to give you mine!" This was probably a valued gift her husband had given to her because she wore it all the time. Now she was giving it to me. Again, I was humbled and overwhelmed.

 I am sorry this is so long, but I wanted you to get an idea of what occurred during my time in Brazil and how amazing our lives can be when we believe in the possibilities of our dreams. I have had dreams of reaching women all over the world. Once the door opens the possibilities are limitless!