On Sunday, March 7th, 2010, I finally worked up the courage to go to church here - on my own. Of course I went there with the expectation that I would know people there... I arrived at 8pm, which is when I was told that it started - may or may not have arrived at the end of an earlier service, gone in, stood in back, taken Eucharist, and realized then that it was the end of a former service….Okay, yeah…I totally did that. :/

So I started waiting for people to leave, slightly freaking out that I just missed the whole service…saw the librarian from my school, and then one of the past host-mothers of Coo (other Rotary Exchange student here, from Germany) Me: ‘Hi’ How are you?’ the mom: ‘Hi Sara, good and you?’ me: ‘I’m well, is there another service now?’ the mom: ‘Yes, for teens, did you just arrive?’ me: ‘Ahhh exactly, the teen one…yep just got here.’ the mom: ‘Aw, well welcome and enjoy!’ me: ‘Thanks, have a good evening!’ ‘Bye’ ‘Bye.’ And then I started breathing again lol. Good so I hadn’t just missed everything. I was there in perfect timing…(btw, the conversation was in Portuguese, so not actually as structured as I wrote it, but that’s basically how it went). After that, I went and waited outside for a bit, hoping against hope that one of my friends who I know attend there would show up…no such luck. I thought, well heck Sara, it’s a church, they’ll be nice to me - Plus I just moved houses that same day, across town…so walking home wasn’t an option, not after dark that’s for sure. So, I walked back in and hung around the back for a bit…and of course, being the outgoing Evangelical church that it is, someone came up to me ‘This is your first time here? ‘Aahh…yes it is’ ‘Welcome!! I’m (forgot name). Here, I’ll introduce you to someone!’ He walked me to the front of the pews (seats), where there was a woman about my age sitting, at a computer running the music slides. She was super nice and had me sit up front near her. I noticed later the guy actually was one of the worship leaders

In all, the service was really good. The worship was nice - in Portuguese of course, but still nice. I couldn’t understand to much of the service it self, because of the really loud speakers and he was talking really really fast!
I did understand this: March 8th is International Day of Woman (sounds weird because I’m not sure what we call it in English, but this is how you would translate it from Portuguese lol) So the pastor talked about Prophetess Deborah. And how God wants to use us, but He can’t do anything unless we want to be used by God, and therefore open up our hearts and lives to Him (amen!). He also talked about respect of woman, for men - not to take woman for granted, or disrespect them with lines like ‘Well if you love me you’ll do ____’. How men and woman are equal, both cherished and needed, so we need to respect each other. For the woman - to know that we are to be loved and cherished and our lives and works are to be in beauty for Him. (amen again!)

Over all, I really enjoyed my experience and I think I will start going to that church every week. (The fact that they handed out a rose and chocolate to every woman as we left the church, doesn’t hurt either.:D )
After church, my new host mom, her friend, and my new 2 year old host sister (I just moved into this family the same Sunday), and I all went out to pizza. Now, there’s one (1) uno, um, I, pizza place in my town. Nostra pizza. I went there Saturday night with Tamlyn and a friend, and saw my Rotary Club president and his girlfriend there…saw them again Sunday night… That’s what I mean about my town, we really only have two places to go out to eat here, the other being a Brazilian bbq, I go there every Friday with family…I love my town.
And so, my first night in my new host family went really well, the church went great, school is getting better every day, I think I’ll be very happy here. :)
Thanks for reading! Keep it up because I’m going to be blogging more!
God bless,
Sara

Breath to Breath

You ever have one of those moments when you just stop suddenly and can't grasp how in the world you already are almost 18? (Or insert you're age here) Because I had a whole day like that. Between moving to my third host family today, only having almost exactly 5 more months of exchange left, senior year of high school....18th birthday in two months....I could go on and on.On one hand I wonder...'Wow Sara, you've done nothing with your life so far...' But I really can't say that, I'm on Rotary Youth Exchange right now, that's something alright! I just should never watch reality tv shows of people my age going off to college...it makes it all to real.
When did I grow up? Yes I'm only 17, and who are we kidding, I will always be a child. But just the fact that I have real responsibilities now, that I don't have time to always sit back and play...Don't you remember your freshman year, when you just couldn't wait to be one of the seniors? Yeah where did all that time go? 4 years???? What the heck! Stop going so quickly! Seriously life..mind letting me cherish the moment before you move on so fast? Thanks.
We never know when we're done here, we never know when our loved ones are going to leave us. It always happens too fast. So don't waste your time being enemies, angry with people you actually love, spending waaaaay to much energy on trying to win a fight - when, I bet if you just let go of your pride, you'd see how stupid you were actually being. And yes I'm saying this from experience, it's called life.
I've been on exchange for almost 7 months already, I had my oldest brother get hit by a truck and almost die, that was back in December, now he's finally walking again: 3 months later. I also had a wonderful uncle pass away very suddenly, in his mid 40's, from a heart attact. I've not been able to be there for my family, either times. If that wasn't the hardest thing to go through in my life, I don't know what was.
Because even though we hear it all the time: We really don't know what we have, until it's gone, or until it's almost taken away from us. And yes I know, if I think I'll never take anything for granted or waste time being angry or hurt over something stupid, I'm sure I will, I'm only human and we do that. But, I can say this. I may not remember for a moment, but I won't forget the fact that I live an insainly blessed life. We all do - whether it seems it or not at times. We should be smiling and just saying 'thank you' with every breath we breath. Because we still have breath to breath, and besides everything else we have, if it was all taken away, we still have that, and that my friends, is enough.
God bless you all, I miss you dearly and pray for you every day. I love you and thank you for being in my life. :) <3
Sara K. C. Zwink