Three days until the cold front that is supposed to be our first real blast of winter arrives. Highs in the upper 30’s. Brrrr.

Same day, different perspective. Plane heading south to a tropical climate. Nice. Two days later we’re in the desert. Hot, really hot. Not nice.

My wife and I and our motley crew begin our adventure on Wednesday. It’ll be nice to see the whole thing through virgin eyes again. My wife and I have “old” eyes, almost jaded, to the hardships of life in the interior of northeastern Brasil. Most of our crew will have never seen the likes of what we’ll be working in; they’ll learn the meaning of a new term: culture shock.

Strange, but I miss that.

I still remember my utter shock and dismay in August 1977, the day Elvis died, landing in Belem, Brasil. Not prepared for that. Poverty, heat, humidity, tarantulas (really), bugs, sounds, smells, language, pirana (really) — quite overwhelming.

Now, thirty years later (that isn’t possible!), it is all as common place as strolling through downtown Wilmington. To see it through virgin eyes is refreshing, almost voyeuristic. Because it only happens once. It’s a pleasure to drink it in. Strange . . . I know that.

Another part of the perverse pleasure is seeing the proverbial scales fall from those virgin eyes. To see the realization of the stark need for the power of the Jesus-Lord in a land ruled by the Prince of the Air; to imbibe in the sorrow of a citizen in a land of plenty seeing how the majority of the world lives and observe the understanding dawning behind those eyes of how blessed they really are. In short, I watch a transformation take place, a metamorphosis, that will forever and profoundly change that individual. My prayer is always that the transformation will so mark them that they will never be comfortable again in their abundant surroundings.

They are actually cheating. They will have a bit better understanding of the words of the Jesus-Lord when he mentions denying self and chasing after him; most folks won’t ever get that unique understanding that he implied; the folks in my adventuresome platoon will.

Nothing like a bit of cultural, and spiritual, voyeurism to warm the cockles of the heart!