09 Apr Easter Story: Brazil

From Jean Bell, UB Endorsed missionary in Brazil

Because none of the churches in our small Brazilian community hold an Easter Sunrise service, we missionaries meet together to worship and celebrate Christ’s resurrection. But this year’s service was not quite the normal service.

The setting was near the baseball diamond of our school for missionary children. We sat about 25 feet from home plate. To our left grows an enormous rubber tree along with two gigantic mango trees, and to our right the school’s playing field, just in front of the elementary wing of the school.

After our favorite Easter songs in English and praying in English–oh, what a treat!–a colleague began his Easter meditation. Hardly had he begun when in our our peripheral vision we perceived movement in the air: a toucan. Not more than a few minutes later, a second toucan soared by and landed in the nearby rubber tree. Then, yes, 3 more that joined the others. They were very quiet for toucans, not squawking or making their deep clicking noises.

A former student leaned near my ear to whisper, “They’re Christian birds.”

“Congregating, right?” I returned.

Within minutes of the rising sun, swarms of small, raucous parakeets and parrots dipped and circled overhead. I whispered to Wes, “All we need now are the ibises and blue-gold macaws.”

Within minutes the ibises honked and hooted overhead, but the macaws never joined our worship service.

Needless to say, we missionaries and our families had our powers of concentration tested at the Easter Sunrise Service.