Spanish Surfers Bible...at last!

After arriving at midnight back at Sergio's home in Sao Paulo we crawled into bed knowing we had a 6am wake up. The Brazillian Bible Society is the largest Bible Society in the world, they produced 6 million Bibles for Brazil last year!!

It was great to meet up with the director and recall God's amazing favor that enabled our first edition of the Portuguese Surfers Bible. Sergio says, "They love me and CS, I can walk in here and know everyone and they treat us with such respect."

I was so excited when I heard the first Spanish versions were coming off the press while we was there. We went down to the packing line and sure enough there they were! It has been a 3 year project to get this far. I am so thankful for Gymea Baptist for believing in this and funding it last year. Now just gotta get a box home past customs.

We debate distribution and marketing. I can picture our 10 Spanish-speaking nations using these amongst their friends. It is a very radical concept for the Bible Society. "The Portuguese Surfers Bible got us the most media attention we have ever had in our history," says the director. I am a happy man lugging 10kg of Bibles out of the place and heading for home.

Brazil Travels

After a detour to Miami to hang out with Eddie, the father of modern sports ministry network, I was refreshed to head for Brazil. Arriving at 8pm with a partner raising meeting already in progress, I was rushed by Pastor Rod to make the tail end of the meeting.

It was good to advocate for Sergio and I am impressed with how seriously he is taking his transition to the South America Regional leadership role. Juggling being a pastor at a local church, the national director of CS Brazil AND our South America Regional Coordinator is way too much. We meet with his pastor and he says, "She finally got it, she gets the purpose of my international role." I love church partnerships!

There is so much Christian presence in Brazil. "Jesus is Lord", "Jesus is my Saviour," even "I'm Catholic and I'm happy." Bumper stickers adorn cars and old and new church buildings are on most main roads. Some huge billboards as well. Sergio is in a new unit, and yet they are still finishing off the building, typical.

Philippe, Sergio's son,  considers me a novelty. We head off to Curitibe to visit Mauri the southern Brazil leader and I am treated to a Brazillian BBQ restaurant. Now imagine an endless supply of every meat possible being brought out to you on skewers. You can pig yourself out immediately, or pace yourself. I cringe at our aussie t-bone and sausage barbie, I hope I never have to BBQ for a Brazilian. One thing we didn't get to eat was the BBQ chicken hearts...shame.

Mauri shows us the meeting room for the local mission, a single room amongst many in a four story complex that make up the Baptist Church. It seats 6000! Bits of reo hanging out of walls and plastic is pasted into windows instead of glass. They will probably outgrow it before it is even completed!

Our breakfast is held there next morning with a great presentation by Sergio and I do my part.

We then head off to Florionopolis and Santa Catalina Island. This is a real treat, beautiful and the ASP World Tour event is held here. A good friend Motaury shares his story of struggle and life, and hosts us wonderfully.

Did you know Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan? Sushi bars there are like Chinese restaurants in Australia.

Feeling pretty tired now, it has been 14 days of travelling and so many late nights and early mornings along with jetlag. Got to read Courageous Leadership (Bill Hybels) again, the best!

Costa Rica Preparations for ISA World Surfing Games

Tourism makes up some 40% of Costa Rica gross income and they say surf-related tourism is 25% of that again. I can't think of many nations that say surfing makes up 10% of their GDP? Of course Americans are the majority of this, and with the waves they surf in Florida, any wonder this is an East Coaster's home away from home? (My apologies to my East Coast friends, but you have more world titles from Floridians than any other stretch of coast!)

It was great to be back at Cal and Coral's place. I am so impressed with a 62-year-old man who is willing to step out into the world of faith-financed mission at an age most are playing it safe and comfortable, Cal is such a man, and he drives a cool orange kombi!

We got to check out the ISA World Surfing Games site at Hermosa and meet with Coky about his upcoming role in hospitality and chaplain to the CR surfing team. They went from 28th to 9th to 5th
over the past 3 games and the boys accredit the fact to "our chaplain is praying for us." Don't know what it will mean when many teams have chaplains and all are praying, God has a very busy winner
schedule.

The CS property is looking really good with great gardens and teams passing through, still a need for a national family to live in and manage it.

Dennis Leon is a warm gentle surfer in a sleepy surf town, living in a house with a new baby overlooking the waves. A surfboard titled 'Pura Vida' is erected at his driveway, the name of a church he is planting. He was supposed to start next year after the birth of the baby, but first week back he had 25 turn up saying "We heard you starting a church Dennis, we are here to begin." The amazing thing about Dennis though, is that he was a loose Latino grommet hanging out scamming stuff off tourists when he first met a short-term mission team from CS Santa Barbara way back in 1988. He connected with the surfing gringos, came to Christ, was encouraged and supported to be schooled in the States, went onto college and became a pastor. Now he is back in his home town, planting a surfer-friendly church for kids just like what he once was.

El Salvador Leadership Conference

You know when you are gathering 70 Latin Americans together for surfing and meeting it is going to be lots of energy and fun. This is exactly what happened for our first America's Conference organised by Cal Fisher and so well hosted by our El Salvadorian mission led by Salvador Castallanos.

We worshiped with passion, strategised with passion, surfed with passion, talked with passion, and it didn't matter if the program started or ended late. It is with a sense of family reunion that we meet and whether joking with the Peruvians, exchanging waves with the Panama boys, listening to the new Ecuador contacts, eating with the Brazilian's or laughing with them all - it is a global family.

The conference site was incredible, right on the ocean with a long right-hand point break Sunzal as the back drop. At high tide we got splashed in our seats. There was the first big swell of the winter that hit with sets double overhead and Punta Roca is well deserving of the J-Bay similarity claim. Sergio and Cesar even dragged out a guy out who broke his femur in a collision.

Amazing stories of God at work in women's surf camps in Barbados by Melanie, Costa Rican chaplaincy by Coky, Venezuelan surf games by Luis, surf hostel outreach by George in Panama, Jesus Aloha contest in Peru and so it goes on and on.

I am in awe of how creative and courageous our guys are. I am also convicted at how apathetic and compromised my 'Christianity' feels like back at home. Such a difficult thing to rise up above one's culture. Our final day also engaged us with a local orphanage with over 100 kids. They so love the CS local guys and it is great to see how surfers have been engaged to serve the widows and orphans.

We finally split paths, Aaron headed off to Punta Mango and I left with Cal, Coral and Aldo to Guatemala ready to fly to Costa Rica.

Santa Barbara Connections

After a long 14 hour flight with Aaron to LAX we blearily met up with CSUS director Dean Plumlee and North America ASP Chaplain Lyle Castallow for breakfast...dinner time at home. I can't work out why some clever American hasn't got onto the fact that in Australia we are always a day ahead of the USA and they can simply ask us what is going to happen that upcoming day? Dean and Lyle are doing great work with CSUS and I am impressed with their diligence and godliness.

Onto Santa Barbara the home of our ASP Women's Chaplain, Liselle Wilsnaugh and met with her pastor and host family. It was so good to hang out with David and Jane Brown, whom I met on their first CS trip to Australia back in 1991. The godly grow more godly with age and these two are fine examples of that...and I swear David makes the best sourdough waffles in the world.

Really good to see see divine appointments. Do you believe in them? We went to the Channel Islands surfboard factory to meet up with Davey Smith and made our request to the receptionist. She brought back a guy I had never seen in my life, and he was equally suprised asking, "Do I know you?" We both instantly recognised our shared Aussie accents and then he says, "I do know you from somewhere?"

Now I know you American's think Australia is a small place, but it works out this guy was from my local beach and used to be in our Christian Surfers club back in the 80's when he was 13 and "just so happened to be thinking about whether I should start going to church for my kids." When the receptionist apologised that Davey Smith was not available, we could say, "Don't worry, we were really meant to meet Mike!"

Be available for God's divine appointments. I mailed Mike a Surfers Bible and old photo from the CS archives today.