Day 7

Ola everyone from Sao Paulo.  Today was another good day.  We got to play together again, play with some really great students and teachers from the institute and the church, play for a really great church service, play jazz in a Brazilian city park for a lot of folks, and so much more.

Our day started out early with a trip to a bakery for breakfast.  This is a Brazilian tradition.  One person from the family goes to the bakery to get fresh bread every morning.  For Dr. K's family, this was his sister.  I told him that my dad going to pick up Dunkin Donuts every Saturday just can't complete with that. We all had a great breakfast and then headed back to the hotel to board the bus for Osasco, the suburb of Sao Paulo where the church is located.  We are getting really good at "the chain."  This is where we make a chain into the bus to the back and pass our instruments in to be loaded into the last two seats.  It's super efficient.  

We got to the church about 8:30 and started a rehearsal with the church musicians and Pastor Manu, who also arranged the pieces that we were playing.  They are great arrangements and they are really fun to listen to and to play.  I love playing at the churches with musicians.  In all of the places we have gone, church music is universal.  We can't carry on a conversation, but we can perform music together.  That's so cool!

Then it was time for the service (and thank you everyone that took the time to watch the live stream. Pastor Manu said that they had way more people watch the live steam than they have ever had). It was so fun.  We started of with a tune that was combined orchestra and Baylor Jazz and it was awesome.  The church was packed and they were all singing along.  The pastor gave a first prayer and I know it was beautiful, but I had no idea what he said.  Neither did the band.  We all looked up when the congregation said amen.  Then Dr. K jumped in and explained to the congregation who we are, what we are doing here, and why we do these mission trips.  I am so thankful he is here, for so many reasons, but the translation thing is beyond helpful for everything that we do.  Then it was our turn.  They wanted us to play for about an hour, then there was to be a short sermon and then three more combined praise songs with the jazz ensemble and the church orchestra.  Believe it or not, we actually have some church tunes in the book.  We played four of them throughout the service (When the Saints, Just a Closer Walk with Thee, How Great Thou Art, and a brand new, as of this morning, rendition of Amazing Grace where I told them, figure out Amazing Grace in F....Go!.   The congregation was so responsive and they interacted with us in so many ways.  There were many Joyful Noises to the Lord.  We ended our part of the service, and I told them that praising God through music is universal.  And that we needed to test that theory.  So, they had to perform with us.  We played one chorus of Amazing Grace and then I brought them in to sing along.  It was AWESOME.  Then the next chorus, I stopped the band and everyone just sang ( I am so glad they understood my hand signals).  Then the last chorus the band was back and the singing was even louder.  This was a very cool experience, indeed.  

The sermon was so creative.  It was all about God being the great composer, putting together orchestras on Earth, that eventually go out of tune, so he has to start over (Noah's Ark), and again and again, until the Conductor of Conductors, Jesus, shows up to bring the orchestra together.  It was a great metaphor and a perfect day to tell us all about it because we basically played our own jazz mass or jazz cantata service.  Pastor Manu was engaging and funny and his congregation was glued to his every word.  We were glued to Dr. K's, who was translating for us.  It was a great way to worship with my students, and all our new friends in Brazil.  Several of my students even mentioned that they were moved to tears because of this service today.  God is good, and everywhere. 

Here are some pics of the service:

 

That's us!!

 

 

 

The start of the rehearsal

 

 

 

This is a great shot by Maggie!

 

 

 

The congregation is coming in....
 

 

 

 

 

 

This is just the first two rows in the front.  They were an all side, but the back of the band if you count the balcony.  It was packed, and people were walking in off of the street after they heard us!

 

 

  

After the concert,  a dad gave this picture to Camden that his daughter drew and told him that she wanted to give it to him.

There was so many hugs and obrigado's after the service.  We were so happy to have shared this time with them, and them with us.  Pastor Manu said no mater where we are from and what language we speak, we are all children of God.  A woman in very broken English, after hugging me said, "God was in this place today and you made Him happy today."  I loved that!

Then it was off to eat at a buffet again, wow we are eating well!  But apparently it makes us sleepy.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then off to a city park in Osasco to another performance.

 

 

 

the Park

 

The Band, swinging!

 

 

 

A rare view from the rhythm section! And yes, we are set up backwards....today it was because of extension chords.

There were also some amazing solos and playing from Dr. Taylor and Dr. K today!

After each concert....the Paige fan club always delivers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out all of the cameras on Paige as she solos!



 

 

 

The sax section picked up a new member!

 The Institute kiddos and the band!

Then, because one of the kids from the Institute brought a volleyball because he wanted to play with his new friends, the most epic game of "get in a circle with three people in the middle and don't let the volleyball touch the ground game" broke out.  I think that is the official title of the game.  It was sooooo fun!  There was so much laughing and clapping and counting of times hit. 

 

This is Pastor Manu and his wife, Gislene who runs the Institute. They are amazing people.

I have found that the Brazilian people are some of the nicest, warmest, most inviting people that I have ever met.  We have felt welcome in the place (even though they laughed and took pictures of some of our folks in Hawaiian shirts.  They were still having fun with us!)  

 

I watched a little boy run back and forth to Dr. K and Camden to ask how to say things like "You are Incredible."  Camden said he always messed it up by the time he got to him!

 

After having to stop the game after what was probably about and hour and a half, we said good my to our new friends for now (they all say bye-bye to us and line up to wave to us as we leave each time.  See?  the warmest people.   

We got back and dropped of our stuff at the hotel to head to the bakery again for dinner.  Most folks got sandwiches.  They were huge and good.  Quote of the day...Eloy..."Can it get a to go box because the sandwich is huge...like Biblical big." 

It's off to sleep time now, hopefully without dance mix music blasting all night.  We need some sleep!

 

Thank you all for following us.

Thank you Baylor Missions.

Sic'em Jazz 

and

Tchau  (Chow)