Old Friends and New Places - Brasilia

So after Sao Paulo we headed to Brasilia, it was Monday, Jan 16.  After a quick layover in Belo Horizonte we arrived.  We are met by my good friend John Hoyt and my new good friend Frederico Batista.  John and I were in the campus ministry together at the University of Florida, we were roommates, and he actually studied the Bible with me and baptized me.  We have a lot of history together. As life went on though we both went in different directions.  He and his wife, Kay, went into the full time ministry in Florida while I moved to Atlanta.  It had been about 4 years since we'd last seen one another.  So it was a great reunion.  He and his family arrived in Brasilia a few days earlier. They will be working with the church in Brasilia, helping the campus ministry.

So Freddy takes us to his home, where we will be staying for the next couple of nights, and we all sit down to eat and chat all night. We are very grateful for Freddy and his wife Nubia for their hospitality and generosity.  They took great care of us while we were visiting. And, speaking Good English, they taught us some good Brazilian Portuguese.  Oi Tudo bem which means Hi, how are you. You hear this a lot in conversations in Brasilia.

The next day we'd planned to hang with John and his family and a few other disciples in the church to take a tour of the city.  Brasilia is the capitol of Brazil with a population of about 3 million.  We checked out the national cathedral, the plaza of the three powers (congress, supreme court, president... like the US).  We saw the President's home. We stopped by a popular bridge.  One of the more interesting things was at the plaza. There is an underground museum showing the history of the city.  Brasilia is a new city, established in the 1950's.  The Brazilian government decided that it would move the capitol from Rio de Janeiro... I don't remember why.  Anyhow, the city was designed completely before construction by one designer.  If you look at it on a map it looks like an airplane with one center section and two wings.  In each of the wings there are quadrants that were made to be self sustaining (you have residences, shopping centers, banks, medical care...etc. everything you'd need so you don't need to go too far for what you need.) It's funny though because each quadrant looks very much the same, so if you were lost, .you wouldn't know it.  The city is built entirely on a grid starting from the center.  So, perhaps if you know what street you were on you would be able to get around.
There wasn't really much else to the city, but the reason we wanted to visit Brasilia was to encourage John and Kay and the church.  We spent our whole time with them.  Helped them get settled into their new apartment and just hung out.

Scale Model of Brasilia

President's House

Anna, Rita Hoyt, me, John, Maya, and Kay Hoyt

John the Apostle, John Hoyt III, John Hoyt IV

Brasilia National Cathedral

Brasilia Government Buildings

Wednesday was an awesome day.  After meeting up at their new apartment and playing with their kids, Maya and John IV, John and I took off for the University of Brasilia.  We met up with two of the campus ministry students (well, the two campus ministry students) Pedro and Hamilton.  We were having Bible Talk (small group Bible study) on campus, Bate Papo (Ba chee Pah po) in Portuguese.  How exciting! I haven't been to one of these in years.  We walked on campus, invited some folks, set up some desks and had a lesson.  Pedro led the discussion about the character of Jesus.  It was great. Two other students joined in on the conversation.  Oh, it was all in Portuguese, but John translated so I could understand what's happening and could contribute to the discussion. COOL!  In the evening there was a midweek church service. This particular Wednesday the church met in small groups so we met with married couples at one of their homes.  John gave the message that all things are possible when you have faith.  He spoke in English, but another brother translated for the rest of the group in Portuguese.  We made many more friends that night and talked and talked and talked.
We are so grateful to have been able to spend time with the church in Brasilia.  We felt such love, warmth and hospitality (lessons we plan to incorporate into our lives).

Bate Papo "Bible Talk" (Pedro, me, John, Hamilton)

After service we headed back to Freddy and Nubia's and got ready for our 5am flight.
Next up, Rio de Janiero!