JAHDAI, MEMORIES WHICH TOOK ME INTO TEARS - BY GILBERTO STEVAO

Jahdai, memories which took me into tears - by Gilberto Stevao

Curitiba, Brazil June 4, 2011

Precisely in 1958, 63 years ago, I became a missionary in an island called "Ilha dos Marinheiros" (Sailors' Island). I bought a small catboat to make the crossing from the mainland to the island. Catboat is a small vessel that has a keel and not a flat bottom like sailing boats. A board perpendicular from the outside, at the bottom of the boat, gives it a greater security.

I prayed to the Lord that he would give me a name for that catboat. I prayed that it would be guarded by the Lord in my crossings by the sea. Crossing that arm of the sea, going from the mainland to the island and from the island to the mainland, with such a small vessel, was often not easy. Then the Lord put a name for my catboat in my heart: Jahdai, "the one who is led by the Lord".

Photo 1. Arm of the sea which led from the mainland to the Sailors' Island in the background. In the foreground the future wife to be Maria José de Lima. Catboat Jahdai and Gilberto Stevao at the stern maneuvering him.

Photo 2. Arm of the sea that led from the continent to the Sailors´ Island in the background. Catboat Jahdai and Gilberto Stevão at the stern maneuvering him.

Photo 3. Catboat Jahdai with his name painted on the starboard (boreal) of the bow, floating on the waters of the arm of the sea which led from the continent to the Sailors' Island, in the background.

The many fights against the sea waves between Rio Grande (city) and Ilha dos Marinheiros, day or night, have always been great. I crossed over furious waves. There was an occasion when, tying the kayak on my body, I swam. In one of these struggles, I made a hymn to the Lord:

Jahdai, Jahdai, he walks over the sea

My boat is small, very small at sea

My boat is Jahdai, it sails the sea

Today, as an old man, I don't remember all the lyrics, but the music I can remember. (I must have an old photo of that good old catboat somewhere...)

Jadai, I thought it was a very significant name. But I did not find among the evangelical families, one that would put this beautiful name in one of their children, expressing the wish that the child would be the one to whom the Lord directs or the one who is directed by the Lord.

Today when I read Jadai, the name of a pastor in a list of names, I praised the Lord for the life of his parents, who wished him the best that could be desired: to be led by the Lord our God! 

I could not stop my thoughts from flying through those years of a young missionary on the Sailors Island. How good those memories were for my soul! It was like, so many other memories of my youth, consecrated to the service of the Lord. I remembered my trip of three days and three nights, by sea, at Companhia Costeira de Navegação (Coastal Shipping Company), from Santos, SP to Rio Grande, RG. A long trip, for me, a young dreamer. It brought me to tears of gratitude to the Lord.

I recently learned that Ilha dos Marinheiros is a tourist place and easy to cross, as they build a bridge, based on Ilha da Pólvora (Gunpowder Island), connecting the continent to the island. It is certain that no one who visits that place today will think about the dangers that used to be a simple crossing. In the rough waves, in the dangerous crossing of the canal, in the scary winter days at sea, when the Minuano (the name of a really strong wind in South Brazil which blows during the winter) blows. That very strong wind that has been singing, whistling through the trees, pushing everyone in the city, dragging everything, raising a lot the waves of the sea.

The years have passed but not my love for the work of the Lord, in which I still serve out of mercy, not on the Ilha dos Marinheiros (Sailors' Island) anymore but in places where I have been allowed to go to serve Him and worship Him with my work.

Gilberto Stevão - A pierced ear servant.

P.S. Memories of my father when he was a very young missionary with only 20 years old in Southern Brazil. The photo was somewhere and we have found it and it is posted here for memory. "Well done my faithful servant" certainly will be spoken in his (pierced) ear, in that Day. (ELLS)