Joining The Country Club

Dear Diary,

I remember the first night at the new house sitting in our empty living room waiting on the movers to get there because in Brazil they are not in a big hurry. I was leaned up against Mary's arm holding tightly to her and drifting off to sleep. The next day I heard the doorbell ring and my mom's voice talking to a kid so I walked to the door and that's when I met my neighbor from across the street. He saw my bike coming off of the truck so he knew there was a kid at the house and we set off to discover the neighborhood. We became really good friends. Our Bairro which is like a name for a district or neighborhood was call "Country Club" which is pronounced Count-tree(roll the r) Cloo-be. This is was one of the wealthiest communities of Cascavel. But I hung out with the ones who weren't so wealthy... who actually were barely getting by. By hanging out with them I became the enemy of most of the rich kids. We formed our own little gangs and wouldn't hesitate to throw down at the sight of each other. We even had meetings where we made plans to ambush the rich kids with our slingshots filled with little berry's we picked off of trees. I introduced my friends to the Slip & Slide and we played games like who can slide down and not get hit by lemon's that the others were throwing at them. My parents started a new church that met in an old office that belonged to a church member. I loved my new church because it was all of my real friends from my old church's family that help my dad start it. The church started growing immediately. In school I had a hard time paying attention because I was a very hyper child who constantly being distracted. I caused my sisters alot of grief because I found entertainment in annoying the crap out of them. My sister Sonya was 7 years older and Sara was 5 years older than me. I would hide in their closet and wait for them to open the door and then I would jump out and kick them because I thought I was a ninja. I went to the emergency room a couple of more times because I broke my left arm climbing a tree and then I tried to jump a ramp on my bycycle and land without using my hands. Oh... and I forgot about another one of my visits to the emergency rooms!!! One night my dad was going to a men's choir practice and I went with him. At our church there was a massive iron gate that you had to open to park inside and when I say massive I mean massive. We got there and all of the guys pulled in and I went because I thought that maybe one of my friends would be there but they weren't there. So while the men started practice I went outside to play and I notice the gate still open. I walked over and put everything I had in to sliding this gate closed and i remember that it started moving and then that it wasn't moving to close but falling towards me and in a blink of an I was trapped underneath. I couldn't move it at all and the grid was crushing my head and my chest to the point I could hardly breathe and I screamed with what little breath I had and a car honked as it drove by. It seemed like an eternity before I heard them men running out and calling my name but they ran past me and in to the street because they thought I had been hit by a car. I screamed again and they finally saw me. Normally it would take probably 5 or 6 guys to lift this gate but one of my friends dad ran over and lifted this thing by himself and the rest of the guys grabbed me and we were off to the emergency room because I was bleeding alot from my eye and on top of my forehead. After several stitches and my mom getting there I was ok. Later on when the men looked at the gate to see what happened they noticed that the corner of the churches wall had a huge chunk taken out by the gate and it stopped the gate from crushing me but if it had fallen another inch I would not be here right now. That was my first encounter with God's sovereign intervention..... I made a full recovery and continued on. Years went on and I had adjusted to my new house. I still had nightmares of what happened to me in MS and the weight was still there but if I stayed busy I didn't think about it as much. I was safe now.... but my trust was broken again.... It always hurts the most when a person you love breaks that trust to..... I don't know if it was who or that it seemed to be happening over and over again but my spirit was fading slowly.... "Why is this happening? He is my friend... why is he doing this? It's my fault..." Even though I went before the church and told them I accepted Christ into my heart and I was Baptized I really didn't trust God and I only did it because my best friend went forward and I knew I could finally drink the juice and eat the bread at church. Looking back now I am amazed at how young I was when I began wearing the mask of "I have it all together, I'm fine." The day came when we were to come back to the U.S. for our furlough. We said goodbye to friends and to Mary who would not be back when we came back because her term was over and we left for Tupelo, MS where we would stay for a year.... Back to the land of gotten where hurt and pain is not forgotten....