The Last Week

It’s been a few months now, since we left Anápolis, but I’ve told this story to enough people it seemed right to write it down with the appropriate pictures. If you’ve heard the story, you can skip to the pictures, no judgment.

In my blog post “Daughter of God,” I talked about our last Encounter retreat in Anápolis. That same week, the week of March 15^th, we were expecting a visitor from Ardeo to come meet with the team for four days to emotionally prepare them for the transition from the mission field to back home that we thought would be happening in late April. We canceled her trip last minute and did sessions with her on Skype so that she wouldn’t have to travel during the very beginnings of Covid. We alternated meeting with her and doing activities and sessions on our own. While we were laboring emotionally, Pr Marcos was continuing the remodel at the new church building that he, TJ, Bernard, and Dave had begun the week before. Tuesday evening, Alexsandra began showing flu-like symptoms. Wednesday morning, the doctor said she had dengue fever but needed to run a blood test to confirm. As the city was slowly entering quarantine, I was helping Pastor buy ceramic tiles for the church bathroom, organizing church finances and receipts from the Encounter retreat, buying mosquito repellent to prevent the spread of dengue to the rest of the team, buying a thermometer and vitamin C to ward off Covid, and translating emotionally-heavy workshops for the missionary team. One of our missionaries has asthma, gastritis, and allergies that compromise her lungs and her immune system. If I told you I didn’t have a breakdown that week imagining her ending up like the grandparents in Italian hospital hallways, I’d be lying.

Our new church building used to be a school. It had these four stall, child-sized bathrooms.
Pastor, Dave, Bernard, TJ, and a brick-layer tore them down to make two enclosed bathrooms.

A women's bathroom on the left and men's on the right.

Dave, Bernard, Pr Marcos, TJ
Real dirty and real tired. 

Now each bathroom is fully tiled with a toilet. 
Next step will be to put in sinks and shower heads!

On Thursday, as we were walking to lunch, my phone rang. It was Brian, the CEO of Ardeo. We needed to talk as soon as possible with the pastors and Sheli, the counselor who had been preparing the team to go home in a month. We postponed our regular training with the team and at 2:00 we met to discuss the team’s emergency evacuation. We didn’t know when the borders would close, but there was a high possibility that it would be before the end of the weekend. We decided that the longest we could wait would be Saturday. Forty-eight hours to get everyone out of Anápolis and on their way home.

We announced the decision to the team. Talk about heartbreaking. They were expecting to have another month together and now had only two days to say goodbye. The next few hours were task-motivated, amidst the tears and emptiness of shock. We had our last session with Sheli, created an official statement in English and Portuguese to send to our families, churches, and donors, bought plane tickets, and packed our bags.

We had a late dinner with the pastoral family at our house. I remember sitting in our carport with Pr Marcos and Bernard playing with little Alice. I was afflicted. I still hadn’t bought my plane ticket and didn’t know if I should return to the States or not. Pastor mentioned that we should rent a van to take everyone to the airport. A van. That was the trigger. I already had a van driver’s phone number because we were supposed to take a day trip to the waterfalls the following week. So many things. We were supposed to have church services in our new building. We were supposed to have another baptism service. We were supposed to celebrate with our church family, write letters, give presents, preserve memories.

I bought a plane ticket that night. The next morning, I packed everything that could fit in my suitcases and stored everything that would have to stay there until my return. I scheduled the van driver and went to the bank. Ardeo purchased everyone’s plane tickets, but I still had to put some money in the missionaries’ hands so they could travel. We cleaned the house the best we could and separated out what was garbage and what could be donated. The rental lease for the house, masks for the missionaries to travel, where are everyone’s house keys, receipts from March, bills for April… From Thursday to Friday, most of the American missionaries’ flights had been canceled or rescheduled. New flights were purchased. Everyone was now flying out of Brasilia (two hours from Anápolis) between 2:00am and 8:00am Saturday morning. We would have to leave town on the van Friday night.

Back: Pr Marcos, Bernard, Hannah, Alexsandra, me, Sarah, Aline, Bianca, TJ
Front: Dave, Alyssa, Alice, Pra Ericléia, Isabela, Olivia

At 5:30pm on Friday, we met for team pictures and then went to the church. We spent two final hours worshiping and sharing with our church family. The missionaries had an opportunity to share and say goodbyes, but the most impactful moment was hearing each church member share how God had used the missionaries to change their lives. We ended our two years together the same way we began: singing and serving together. Ours is the only team in the history of Extreme Nazarene/Ardeo Global that finished their contract time with the team intact. No one gave up or went home early.

The service was heavy and sad but so good. At the end, Pr Marcos and Pra Ericléia washed our feet and prayed for us. There were lots of tears and lots of hugs. No one got Covid from this service. All of the missionaries got home without contracting the virus. No one from the Anápolis congregation has contracted the virus either. We appreciate your continued prayers. 

After the service, we went back to the house and had one hour to finish getting our suitcases ready. We ordered burgers to eat in the van. I slept on Pra Ericléia's shoulder most of the way to the airport. We arrived at the airport in Brasilia around 11:30pm and were on our plane headed to Panama City by 2:00am Saturday morning, exactly 36 hours after that Thursday meeting where we decided to evacuate the team. 

Alexsandra, one of our Brazilian missionaries, flew out a couple hours after us to Manaus, her state capital. From there, she was supposed to take a boat up the Amazon river to her home in Parintins. The boat was taking limited passengers and then closed down all together. She had to go back to Anápolis and is still there living with the pastors. As soon as transportation opens up in her state, she will return home. Everyone else got home safely and is with their families. 

Even though this process has been painful and sad, we have seen and felt God's presence and care in all of it. Even though we have seen and felt God's presence and care in all of it, this process has been painful and sad. It's just both. It's just very good and very painful. It's a miracle that the evacuation went as smoothly as it did, but any surgical extraction is still just painful. For me personally, it's been so good to be at home with family and with time to process and to pray. I still miss Brazil like crazy. I still wish we could have ended our time as a team differently. But I know that just as God has used every day for my growth and healing and maturity, He has done the same for each missionary and church member. Some amazing things have happened in the past couple months during quarantine, but for that you're going to have to read the next blog, Ministry in Quarantine. Thank you for all your support and love and prayers!