Stories from the Amazon - The night I almost met a famous person!
This adventure happened during the time when I was in my early twenties and living in southern Brazil in a beautiful city called Maringa. I was working as a missionary with the organization called Youth With a Mission (YWAM) I worked with that organization for around 5 years or so in various parts of the world and doing an interesting variety of tasks. At this point I was doing rodeo ministry, where we would follow several rodeo circuits in southern Brazil and share the gospel, hold Bible studies for them, help in any way behind the chutes, pray with the cowboys before their rides, go with them in the ambulance if they got hurt and many other things. Since I also knew two languages I was called upon to translate for any English speaking cowboys as well.
One fine afternoon while resting at the mission base, one of my friends and coworkers, Lene, came running up to me very excitedly and told me that she just found out that two famous Brazilian country singers (ZeZe de Camargo e Luciano) were staying at a hotel one block away from our mission base and they were going to be performing at the local county fair that evening. She explained that she wanted to tell them about Jesus and she had a plan as to how we could get close enough to them to talk to them! I was a little skeptical since this duo was very famous and they had bodyguards and lots of security and the line of fans trying to get in to see them was two blocks long!
Lene suggested that we pretend I was an American tourist and didn't speak Portuguese and she would be my translator and we would get into the hotel and try to bump into the Duo. (I know, pretty deceitful, but kinda true) I thought it was a crazy idea but by this time her excitement had become contagious so I agreed. We dressed up and drove the one block to the hotel. The valet took my car and escorted us right past the huge long line of fans into the hotel. We explained in our English/Portuguese combo that we would like to find out about reservations and tourist info. Somehow we made it up an elevator to the very floor where this singing duo were. They were just leaving to head to the fair for their evening performance. Lene ran up to them to give them a tract but they guard wouldn't let her and she ended up giving it to him instead.
We decided to follow them to the fair and try again from there. So I drove us to the fairgrounds in my little car. As I found a parking spot I confess I did a bad job of parking so I tried to restart the car to fix it and the car wouldn't start. I had mild misgivings about this but figured we could work that out later.
As we were buying our tickets to get into the fairgrounds, a very distraught lady in high heels and sketchy clothing came up to the ticket booth, begging to be let in because her boyfriend was playing in the band and she needed to see him. Of course the ticket lady didn't believe her at all and refused to let her in. Lene and I discussed it and decided to offer a ticket to this frantic lady if she would get us in to talk to the band guys. The lady of course agreed and we bought her ticket, which meant we needed another. Lene stayed back to get another and I followed frantic lady who started running at full speed! She stopped at some steps to shed her high heels. It was the craziest thing ever but I kept up with her sprint and poor Lene followed at a much slower pace. I didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or what. The frantic lady got to the back door of where the band was and she was let in. We reminded her that she was supposed to let us in too, but by that time she was refusing to even look at us. We found out later she was the trumpet player's girlfriend. We passed tracts out to whoever would take them from us and finally we wandered around and managed to talk with the cousin to the duo.
Eventually we decided it was time to go home and that we weren't going to actually get to talk to them. The car started right up and we went on our way home. Until we were about halfway back to the base..... Then the car lost power. I tried everything but eventually we figured out that if we turned the lights off, the car would go real slow. We made it home past midnight by the light of the moonlight!
It was such an adventure full of adrenaline Years later after we had parted ways and done different things in the mission field, I got a letter from Lene . She had moved up to northeastern Brazil and had attended a church conference where there was a really good trumpet player. In the course of her conversation with him, she found out that he had been the trumpet player for that duo, with the frantic girlfriend! Somehow I feel that our prayers and attempts to witness and reach them were a little water on the seed of salvation for that man.
Finding that out impacted me in such a deep way. Even if we think our attempts and hard work and whatever isn't working, God still sees and waters and grows and eventually the fruit will come. We can't give up on doing good works and especially on doing to work God has called us to.
I hope this little story encourages you in your walk with God!
One fine afternoon while resting at the mission base, one of my friends and coworkers, Lene, came running up to me very excitedly and told me that she just found out that two famous Brazilian country singers (ZeZe de Camargo e Luciano) were staying at a hotel one block away from our mission base and they were going to be performing at the local county fair that evening. She explained that she wanted to tell them about Jesus and she had a plan as to how we could get close enough to them to talk to them! I was a little skeptical since this duo was very famous and they had bodyguards and lots of security and the line of fans trying to get in to see them was two blocks long!
Lene suggested that we pretend I was an American tourist and didn't speak Portuguese and she would be my translator and we would get into the hotel and try to bump into the Duo. (I know, pretty deceitful, but kinda true) I thought it was a crazy idea but by this time her excitement had become contagious so I agreed. We dressed up and drove the one block to the hotel. The valet took my car and escorted us right past the huge long line of fans into the hotel. We explained in our English/Portuguese combo that we would like to find out about reservations and tourist info. Somehow we made it up an elevator to the very floor where this singing duo were. They were just leaving to head to the fair for their evening performance. Lene ran up to them to give them a tract but they guard wouldn't let her and she ended up giving it to him instead.
We decided to follow them to the fair and try again from there. So I drove us to the fairgrounds in my little car. As I found a parking spot I confess I did a bad job of parking so I tried to restart the car to fix it and the car wouldn't start. I had mild misgivings about this but figured we could work that out later.
As we were buying our tickets to get into the fairgrounds, a very distraught lady in high heels and sketchy clothing came up to the ticket booth, begging to be let in because her boyfriend was playing in the band and she needed to see him. Of course the ticket lady didn't believe her at all and refused to let her in. Lene and I discussed it and decided to offer a ticket to this frantic lady if she would get us in to talk to the band guys. The lady of course agreed and we bought her ticket, which meant we needed another. Lene stayed back to get another and I followed frantic lady who started running at full speed! She stopped at some steps to shed her high heels. It was the craziest thing ever but I kept up with her sprint and poor Lene followed at a much slower pace. I didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or what. The frantic lady got to the back door of where the band was and she was let in. We reminded her that she was supposed to let us in too, but by that time she was refusing to even look at us. We found out later she was the trumpet player's girlfriend. We passed tracts out to whoever would take them from us and finally we wandered around and managed to talk with the cousin to the duo.
Eventually we decided it was time to go home and that we weren't going to actually get to talk to them. The car started right up and we went on our way home. Until we were about halfway back to the base..... Then the car lost power. I tried everything but eventually we figured out that if we turned the lights off, the car would go real slow. We made it home past midnight by the light of the moonlight!
It was such an adventure full of adrenaline Years later after we had parted ways and done different things in the mission field, I got a letter from Lene . She had moved up to northeastern Brazil and had attended a church conference where there was a really good trumpet player. In the course of her conversation with him, she found out that he had been the trumpet player for that duo, with the frantic girlfriend! Somehow I feel that our prayers and attempts to witness and reach them were a little water on the seed of salvation for that man.
Finding that out impacted me in such a deep way. Even if we think our attempts and hard work and whatever isn't working, God still sees and waters and grows and eventually the fruit will come. We can't give up on doing good works and especially on doing to work God has called us to.
I hope this little story encourages you in your walk with God!
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