Brazil Special Convention Aug 24-26, 2012

From our 6 hour layover in Peru on we wore our badges with pride. An identifying mark. To pass out as souvenirs, our card attached with little pins.

We got in at 5:00 am on the 23rd. This is the front view of a huge church seen from our Hotel in the Center. Business district of Rio de Janeiro . The street just flowed right around it.

Back view of the church from the entrance of our hotel. This sets the tone of the incredible architecture all around us. More to come in another blog.

We crashed after arriving at the hotel. Slept for 5 hours and got back up. Not knowing what to do, we headed down to the lobby. Those badges... Instantly we were greeted by 4 sweet sisters that took us under their wings. They explained some of the schedule stuff we would need to know. Then they invited us to follow them into the business district while they went shopping. We followed. Although it took all of us more than an hour to leave due to meeting so many new friends. Then we realized we hadn't eaten since the day before. At 3:00pm, desperation caused us to eat the above.  I. K.N.O.W.

Downtown. Business district. TONS of people Mon-Fri. They hang out after work. At little roadside restaurants or alongside the most delicious meat carts. All sitting on plastic stools/chairs, sharing a bottle of beer and drinking out of plastic cups. And then Sat and Sun come. We found out the hard way. EVERYTHING shuts down. Even restaurants, it's like a Ghost town. Hotel buffet looked pretty good Sat night. 

So cool. Heading back to the Hotel we saw this guy. Shoe shine. The old fashioned way.

We also got our Welcome packet. Instructions, lunch tickets, a ticket to a social gathering for Sunday night and a yellow card to stick behind our badges showing we are delegates.

Back at the Hotel this wonderful brother, Lincoln, showed up because some of the local friends had heard our hotel was out of the way and that the friends weren't getting to do as much as those staying in the hotels on the beach. He invited any who wanted, to go do a little sightseeing.

Randomly running into other friends. And guess what happens? Photo op. Those beautiful badges.

Our first view of Ipanema Beach

Ipanema Beach

Part of the beauty of all of us walking around with our badges is the curiosity from the locals. We carried tracts and invitations to the convention with us everywhere.

People would walk right up to us asking about the badges and who we all were. 

Morning breakfast each day. So many loud and happy people. Even if it was 6:15 a.m.

7:00 a.m. bus ride each morning. Fell in love with these two couples. Both from Portugal. On the 2nd day to the assembly our entire bus sang. Each language would take a verse. Beautiful. The American brothers were incredible to listen to. Drowned the rest of us out.

Open air Assembly hall. In between the cars are shade structures. Underneath them are tables for seating during lunch. Smart. Lunch is in your car. Car is at your lunch table.

Peak attendance on Sunday of 6800. It was nice having it smaller. You got to see some of the same people each day. The foreign delegates were assigned seating in between the Brazilian brothers. Made it perfect for mingling. Those smart coordinators.

Our stage

U.S. Bethel Speakers. Bro Splane and David Schaffer (Assistant to Teaching Committee for GB) For their talks they would tie in other convention sites around Brazil. In total 24 other locations were tied in. On Sunday a peak of over 71,000 were listening.

The yellow card was your identifying mark. It told everyone whether you were a local or a delegate.

If you were a delegate it stated which country you came from. White card meant you were from Brazil.

Met up with Jenna Danucci! For the English speaking we used earphones and an FM receiver. Our talks were interpreted into English. Except for the U.S. Bethel speakers. Those were interpreted into Portuguese.

Lunch!!! Two ham and cheese sandwiches. Two ruffle chips, two bottles of water, juice pack, apple and a sweet cake of some sort each day. Oh yeah. All that for each delegate. The local friends loved the ruffles chips.

If you don't go to the tables by your car the lunch auditorium is filled with waist high tables. Everyone gathers around them and eats. The friends were so kind to the delegates. Always making room for one more.

The Brazilian Bethel video/photography crew were really busy the whole convention. Video taping and walking up and down the aisles taking photos. If your photo was taken you were approached and asked at the break to head to the photography table to sign a release.

They weren't the only ones. This local television station showed up. As the session was going on they set up right in front of us, he gave his whole spiel and then they were gone again. We wish we knew what was reported.

The kids here were awesome. Once they found out we had the pins they were all over us.

And full of character.

The costumes were amazing. Some will recognize the sister on the right from an Orange Cong.

Beautiful Portuguese sisters. Boring Americans. No offense Diantha.

Beautiful

Bolivia

Bolivia. Although she reminded me a lot of The Indians we had in Ecuador.

This summed up the love.

The signs were beautiful. "We love brothers and sisters USA"

"It's our pleasure to be together here with all of you!"

After the concluding prayer on Sunday a bunch of local brothers and sisters ran to the front. In each language it read "Come Back!" As a side note, since we've all had our DC I can say this: when it came time for the release of the Children's video, when the children broke out singing in Portuguese, it made everyone cry.

Our transportation. You can imagine how difficult it was to get people into their buses. :)

On Sunday for each and every bus (and there were a lot! Remember the picture above?!) this growing crowd would crouch down low to the ground...

...and as the buses would pass they would jump up in the form of the wave, yelling, cheering and waving their hands back and forth. As we drove in our buses on the highway the brothers were driving alongside us in their cars honking and waving out their windows.

The scene of our Social Gathering Sunday after the Convention. A real Brazilian Bbq place. YUMMMMM

There had to be over 300 in attendance. Locals and delegates.

Meat was brought right to your table. Along with french fries, empanadas and other sides. This included a huge buffet table of other options. 

Did it. Ate chicken hearts. It was ok. Kinda like eating sausage. The flavor wasn't bad. Just the mental image.

A live band of brothers. Played traditional music. Beautiful.

After that experiences were given. From Bethel, from brothers from other branches and local brothers who have been instrumental in the truth here in Brazil. Experiences that had many crying. It was amazing. You left knowing that with the brotherhood we have, we'll always be protected.

Full bellies and happy smiles. These two brothers Jose and Javier were a crack up. From NY. Jose on the right kept giving his pins away. He might have handed out more pins then we did. They looked like politicians. They even came up with the slogan for the pins. "Vote for Jesus". :)

The following evening on Monday we had as one brother called it an unofficial "4th day of the Convention". Word got out that the Rio de Janerio English cong of 30 publishers were having their School and Service Meeting. 310 showed up. They were taking the chairs off the stage during the meeting to add seating. It ended up with standing room only. The meeting was condensed and then allowed for the last 15 mins to be used by the friends to share experiences or feelings of appreciation. It was amazing!!! This is the cong we'll be with for the next month.

I'll see you in Paradise

Another great couple here on the right. Will and Cait from NY. We all went to eat after the meeting. Cait had heard about a pizzeria a block down the street. When we got there the place was almost empty. We added a few more seats to our table. Then walked in another brother. He said he was scoping it out. We told him the place was great! Cheap, good food. We invited him to sit with us too. He mentioned that there were a few friends outside looking for somewhere to eat. We told him they could join us too. The more the merrier!! And then they walked in. And kept walking in...

...and kept walking in till there was not an empty seat in the restaurant. So glad we hyped the place up. Haha. We're pretty sure all 310 showed up for pizza. The poor manager went from standing around to coat off, shirt sleeves rolled up, serving pizzas to the tables himself. His face when we told him they were all our friends...priceless.

More friends made at breakfast our last day at the hotel.

Spent time with the guys on the left. Kevin and Justin. And met the brother on the right on our last morning.

Everywhere we went we saw our Brothers and Sisters. Our badges were the most beautiful things. One day J and I were walking down the street to our Hotel. A man reached out, grabbed my shoulder and motioned for me to wait. When he started reaching for his wallet I figured he wasn't a thief. It's usually the other way around. He kept motioning us to wait, wait. Flipped through his pictures till he came across his No Blood Card. He pointed to our badges. And then pointed to his card. We all hugged and then went our separate ways. This has been the best part of our whole trip. How could it not? Looking forward to the rest of our time here.