Have you not seen? Have you not heard? (Is 40:28-31)

Even though I don't have time to write my usual voluminous observations, I did need to give thanks that today, I received word that my visa application was approved for one year. That necessitates one more trip to the Brazilian Consulate in Miami, and then I hope to make it back to Belo Horizonte by the 21st of April or so. Receiving the news was such a relief that I immediately starting crying for joy. I have to thank God for working it all out (ironically, exactly three months from the day I applied), my supervisors in Brazil for hiring an immigration attorney and the others who were trying to assist me in tracking down my application.

The timing is excellent because my parents will be joining the United Methodist Church's Primetimers trip to Brazil at the end of this month to see my adopted country and the children's programs in three different cities.

One gratuitous observation, though--I noticed that I'm developing a very negative attitude toward churches whose congregations are not representative of their neighborhoods, not just in terms of race/ethnicity but also age & gender. For example, I visited a church on Sunday in Maryland that was probably 75% senior citizens. While I am glad to see anybody in church, I am surprised to find myself increasingly aggravated that congregations do not seem to be reaching the people in their neighborhoods and beyond. Perhaps they are focusing more on the "social club" aspects of being a church? How do you make your message and your mission similar enough to Jesus' original "movement" that you attract people from all walks of life like he did?