If you ever decide to move to another country, it is good to realize upfront that there is a lot of work involved in getting established there. This post will give you a little idea of some of the things that Annie and I have had to do to get settled in Brazil. Every country has its own set of systems and beaurachracy. When it is in another language, though, it makes it even more fun!
The first thing we had to have was our CPF number. This is comparable to the American social security number. Of all the things that we have had to have, this was the easiest to get. They can’t tax you unless you have a CPF so the government has created a simple process . Our friend Bruno was gracious enough to walk us through the application and translate for us as we filled out the paperwork. In a little over an hour, we were done.
After we got our CPF, it was time to open a bank account. That should be a pretty straight forward process but our Portuguese is still pretty limited. Pastor Ronald helped us as we worked on this. The first obstacle was that we did not have a permanent address yet. Renting an apartment is tough to do, though, if you don’t have a bank account. At the time we were staying with Ronald and Chris so we used their address to start with. We had to make a couple of trips to the bank, bringing various documents to get our account open.
The next thing that we needed to get was our Brazilian identification card. We have a permanent Brazilian visa so this should be another one that is easy to get. In Brazil, the Federal Police or Policia Federal regulate ID cards, passports, and visas. Ronald accompanied us to the Federal Police office to apply for our ID cards. On that day, the office was almost empty. We told the official what we needed. He handed us a document to fill out and told us to come back in two months. When we returned to the Federal Police two months later, we paid our fees of a few hundred dollars and were issued our temporary ID cards. We were told were would get the permanent ones in the mail within six months.
The last official things that we need are new driver’s licenses. We started working on getting our Brazilian Driver’s Licenses this week. I will let you know how that goes!
A Great Event
This past weekend, C3 Curitiba hosted Mattie Montgomery for two incredible meetings. Mattie is the lead singer of the band, For Today. He is also quickly establishing himself as a man with a message. He did not sing for our event. Mattie did deliver two powerful messages that impacted many people.
This was the biggest event that C3 Curitiba has ever put on and it was incredible. You know it is a good event when you have to rent more chairs and they all fill up. On Saturday night, the altar was packed with over 100 young people connecting with Christ for the first time or coming back to Him.
On Sunday, the altar was full again after Mattie’s message in which he challenged us to lay down those things that cause us to stumble and keep us from growing as Christians. It was incredible seeing so many people crying real tears of repentance as they did business with God.
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If you would like to help us have an impact in Brazil, here is the link. Obrigado! (Thank you!)
