You may be wondering what this current flood of blogging has to do with jam... Well, nothing in particular  :-)

This is all about a desire to follow hard after God and about  "If you want to get wet, go stand under a waterfall."  Just the same way, Ian and I went to Toronto 21 years ago and we were touched by God there in a way that changed the course of our lives.

This morning, we went driven about 50 mins north-west to a Four Square church.  They were very hungry for the things of God.  Tom preached a message about hunger for God and then we prayed for people.  I went to the back and prayed for people who were not pressing forward.  it took a little longer for them to start showing signs of the presence of God upon them, but it happened.  I prayed for a little girl who fell over under the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Then tonight, we went back to Gravidade Zero.  what an amazing church! The had a couple of dozen translators and as we approached the church, they started greeting us.  As we passed by achieve one, they hugged and kissed us and said how welcome we were.  By the next of that, we felt really great! Really loved and welcomed.  The sermon this evening was about facing difficulties in life and how our story in our life will always have challenges in it.  Every story has conflict and resolution.  I was very touched by Charities talk and the whole church surged forward afterwards at the altar  call.  We prayed for people, many of whom needed inner healing, a girl who had been abandoned by her parents and felt u loveable, a little girl who was hyperactive after having been cursed by her grandmother, a solo mother who was suffering from depression.  All felt more peaceful and joyful after prayer.  One of the team prayed for a man who had been shot through one eye and the bullet had lodged behind the other eye.  The eye that had survived was able to see letters two inches high, but after prayer he could read a Bible!!! Praise God!

 23rd September 2016

We had a restful day today, until 4:30 – team meeting.  Received impartation prayer.

On the way to the bus, there were so many people in the team who had to go down to the foyer from the top floor (28th), that a few of us walked down the emergency exit stairs to avoid the long wait for an elevator ride.  Someone started singing in tongues. One by one, the rest joined in and the overall effect was of a medieval chant in an echoey crypt.  Beautiful.

Then had a half  hour bus journey to a local church. We felt very warmly welcomed. People were lined up waiting to welcome us.  We were given delicious food, then the meeting started.  Amazing worship music followed by Carter Wood preaching.  He gave the testimony of his conversion at age 3!  Even though so small, he had been the only one to come forward at a revival meeting altar call.  He spoke into the mic, and said “Every one should  know Jesus!” and then the whole congregation responded to the Lord and there were many conversions!  So he has been a revivalist from a very early age :-)

Tonight I prayed for for a woman who had had a painful back for 8 years.  She had had prayer before but the pain had come hack.  It felt as  if she had a heavy weight on her back.  We waited on God to find out how to pray. It seemed to her that the weight was what other people had put on her, so we prayed for it to be lifted. I suggested she put the burdens she felt at the foot of the cross. I asked her to declare aloud, “ Jesus is their saviour and I am not.”

I had felt there was some some inherited stuff that needed dealing with, some bad choice her parents had made.  She said she had a bad relationship with her father and renounced any judgements she had made of her father.  I placed the cross of Christ between her and any negative spiritual inheritance.  Then I commanded the pain to go.  It went from a level “10” to an “8”.  I commanded it to go again, and it went down to a “3” and moved to one side.  I commanded a spirit of affliction to go and all the pain went.  Praise God!

OK, this is proving very difficult to edit. I am a bit of a poor Weebly worker, so bear with, as Miranda would say. If you want to see a fabulous photo of the view from the restaurant, be sure to look on my Facebook page.

​I read somewhere recently that a Sabbath day's journey is 1.4 km, so I can walk to church if Ian gives me a lift home :-). We left Rio at 14:20. The purchase of a decaf coffee at McDonald's in Sao Paulo worked about as well as the purchase of the dinner we had last night. The girl was adamant that she understood me when I said, "Decaffinated", but what I received was Ian's cappuccino and he got my one, which turned out to be a hot chocolate :-)

Last night's dinner was a truly special one, in the restaurant overlooking Copocabana Beach etc, way up on the Sugar Loaf. Such a treat, looking out over those pretty lights. The first surprise was being given a selection of 5 or 6 interesting kinds of bread, complete with butter whipped with oil of orange, plus an olive spread. Wow! I thought. If it starts like this, with a fabulous free selection of breads, how good will the rest be?! The truth came at the end, when we were billed for it - never having ordered it! Obviously, a Brazilian cultural difference. In NZ, the bread would have been free, or we would have had to order it before it arrived on the table.

Then we both ordered duck. The receptionist came over - the non-English-speaking waiter had understood that we only wanted one main... She sorted it out. Then we ordered only one dessert and two arrived! We should have known what would happen when Ian ordered a cappuccino - an espresso arrived :-0 lol.

I am keeping my lips sealed about the other mix-up, but by now you can sympathise with me if I start to believe that God was trying to teach us something when the hot chocolate arrived today.

I suggested to Ian that it might be that Brazilians have a shame-based culture and it would have been very shameful to admit they didn't understand what we had ordered. Maybe that is what I am supposed to learn.

Since starting to travel around Tanzania and deal with people there, I have realised that basically I know nothing and that assumptions are dangerous things. A couple of years ago, I started saving money to send to Kondoa in order to make it possible for some clergy kids to get to school (perhaps paying for shoes, books etc), but later Bishop Given told me that even if there might be a school within reach, the school would not necessarily have a teacher and if it did, there might be a pupil/teacher ratio of 100:1. Not even the Government offering twice the normal rate of pay to teachers can necessarily entice teachers to come to Kondoa district. So I had to re-think the target for this money I had raised.

Thus I am a bit wary about how to relate to the Brazilians. I know nothing. The only thing I can know is "Jesus loves you and wants to heal you."

. One of the most amazing visits of my life!  Riding the cable car up to the Sugar Loaf Mountain... The view is breath-taking.  One of those times in life when it pays to have a deficient imagination - shockingly high drop to the ground if it gave way.  I wondered how they built on top of that sheer cliff.  The info place said it was courageous climbers in about 1912 who carried the first cable up, and a larger cable was attached to the end of it, so thicker cables could be pulled up later.

We also saw a super-gilded Chapel of the Third Order of Franciscan.  I thought they were supposed to be associated with poverty? 

 I am reminded of yesterday - we were in another amazing RC church.  I loved the huge angel holding up the pulpit, but was sorry for a young woman who was praying for ages, fervently crossing herself, genuflecting  etc etc and looking really sad.  I wanted to say ""Your daddy God is in a good mood and he listens when you pray", but I lacked the Portuguese words :-( 

The Municipal Theatre held a tremendous treat. It was a ballet company rehearsing "Sheherazade" Wow! I was supposed to be looking at the beautiful theatre but couldn't take my eyes off the ballet :-)

 I prayed I would see an angel in Rio, but I actually meant I wanted to see  one in Sao Paulo during the ministry trip.  During the first team meeting, it was mentioned that that was not uncommon especially during the night.  Every team member  has to sign up for on​e or two separate hours of prayer during the night.  I was not too keen, especially so because sleep is pretty scarce on the trip anyway. But when I heard that angels sometimes show up, I couldn't wait to get my name on the sign up sheet... So, Sunday week, here...

​Today the Internet is down – and it was yesterday, too! Yesterday’s highlight was looking at a large church in downtown Rio, and finding a man who had a broken shoulder. We asked if he would like prayer and he gladly received it. It was our first experience of praying for someone on the street in a foreign country. His wife spoke English (yay!) We did not see an instant miraculous healing, but we gained confidence in handling such a situation. 

Rio has many eager, accomplished graffiti artists. They do not hesitate to display their talents, even on the outside of third story buildings. I wish I had photographed two which depicted large portraits of a woman with excitedly parted lips.

Oh, and whilst waiting for half an hour for an Uber taxi (supposedly three minutes) we were thrilled to see three or four monkeys racing around the hospital grounds next door. Then two tiny monkeys (with different faces, so not their babies) skipped and darted up the power pole and onto the wall and away. 

As we walked from Santa Teresa suburb into town we passed down the Selarion Steps, a ten year long project by a local artist tiling this flight of stairs and some of the surrounding walls. 

Food seems quite expensive. I imagine the favela-dwellers mainly live on beans and pasta, but avocados seem very cheap and enormous.