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Saturday evening the men from our three churches: Esperança, Calvário, and Nova Vida, got together for some fellowship and a challenge from the Word. The topic was missions and the speaker was Brazilian church planter pastor Lucio. He and his wife Claudineia are planting a church in Boituva (Carlinhos and took our class to visit them a few weeks ago) and are leading the way for other Brazilian brothers and sisters in Christ to follow. Eight of our eleven men participated. Sunday afternoon Dawn, Abby, and I went again to Habiteto to minister with the group from Calvário. We had 39 kids who heard the Word and were able to share with us. This weeks "talk-time" brought another interesting story. Natalia told me that a neighbor had cast a spell on her family, threatening to kill several of her family members. Natalia's brother told her that in order to protect her grandmother Natalia needed to fast and pray. A horrendous story but some good advice from her brother. Both Natali...

As I mentioned in my last post, Ben and Dani have been doing some remodeling on their "new to them" house. Here in Brazil that usually means renting a dumpster and filling it with all of the refuse from years gone by. I have been helping with the clean-up, for some reason that seems to be my specialty. Anyway, as many of you know, tile is the "carpet" here in Brazil. Everything is either tiled or bare cement. As you can imagine (or maybe you can't) when you remove tile from floors and walls it makes a huge mess and is also very dangerous. Broken tile is a lot like broken glass. I have little cuts and nicks on my hands and arms as proof. As I looked at the piles and piles of broken tile in every possible square centimeter of the house I thought of how so many of our people here have lives that look like that broken tile. Tile when it's just out of the box is lovely. There are innumerable textures, patterns, and styles to choose from and it can be shiny, or du...

Ben and Dani just bought a new house. Or at least it is new to them. It is in fact their first house and they are really excited about it. But, in the process of their move they are doing a little remodeling. Actually their house looks like a house from New Orleans just after Katrina hit. All of the tile is being removed from both floors and walls. It is really a mess but I am sure that it will look nice in a few weeks.

Well, it was back to Habiteto Sunday afternoon. It was a hot day with temps in the 90s. The heat combined with the dry weather we've had has left everything soiled, everyone sweaty, and most of the kids a tad stale. The dog day heat didn't keep the them away from the afternoon Bible club however; We had forty. After a short opening and a Bible story we have a time where we let the kids talk with us about life in general. Those of you who have worked with kids know that you can learn a lot about a family if you let the kids talk. Often more than you care to know. Just a couple of week ago one little girl came up to me and said, "Man, we had a dead lady in our house the other day and did she ever stink!" I'm not sure what that meant but I didn't ask too many questions either. In "friend" time I had Hallisom , Micom , and Rafael . As the boys were trying to memorize their verses Rafael had many interesting questions. One was, "When was God born?...

Little did Ed and Jan know that when they moved a few weeks ago they were going to create a pastoral avalanche of moves! Ben and Dani just began the process of moving to their first home. Dawn, Abby, and I made an offer on renting a place near the church today. This will allow Davi and Claudia to move into our place. And sometime next week, Shawn and Donna will be moving back to Brazil after nearly two years in the States! It makes my head spin just thinking about all of the boxes, packing tape, sore backs, and excitement. At left is a picture of the house that we will be moving to. It is a four bedroom place about three blocks from the church which will help us to be even that more active in the neighborhood. Ben and Dani's place is just a couple of blocks north of ours. And finally Davi and Claudia will be nearer the church which will facilitate their ministry efforts. Praise the Lord! And thanks to you who have been praying for us.

Two cameras and eight teenagers mixed with several "mysterious" locations, and a time limit, made for a lot of fun last Saturday night at youth group. Ben had the idea of driving around town, taking pictures of different locations from differnt angles, and having the kids try to duplicate them as close as possible. We (Ben and I) were the drivers and we were to say nothing about how to get to the different locations. The kids had to look at the pix on the two cameras and then direct us. I think that my team won! Ben thinks that his team won. Oh well everyone had fun.That's Paulinho with his strange "glasses" at right. And above were (left to right) Ariel, David, Barbara, Rafaela, and me, with Ursinha and Shiba (who seems quite bored with the whole idea. It also looks like both Ariel and Ursinha have the shys). Ben's message that night was "God is Suficient". It is a concept that many of our young believers cannot grasp. The verse they were to memor...

I thought that I would start this week out with a bit of an update on health issues (doesn't that sound interesting!), and ministry moves. My stone is still with me but I'm going to a urologist this week. I'm also going to the dentist to get an x-ray of my jaw. I think that I might have broken it in the fall. Nuff-o-that for now. We have received an offering that combined with some other budget cutting moves should give us enough to make a move. Our move is ministry related in that, as already mentioned in previous updates, our team is scattered through out the city and we need to be closer together. Our house will become the parsonage for Davi and Claudia, and we will rent a house for a year and a half (our next furlough date). Last night we had fifty-two in service and I preached from Matthew 21.18-22. For those familiar with the passage it is interesting to note that figs grow here in Brazil. The fruit comes with the leaves (actually it starts before the foliage). Thus w...

Around 3:30 AM I awoke with a dull but growing pain in my middle back. It took me a minute to realize that the pain was real and not part of a bad dream. As I came to my senses my first thought was, " KIDNEY STONE! " Never had one before so I really didn't know. Of course the intake of water (which I rarely do) became an instant interest. As I stood in the dark of my kitchen drawing a huge plastic glass of water I suddenly blacked out. The next thing I knew I was in a puddle of water (from the drinking glass) and a small puddle of what I suspected was blood (I was in the dark at the time, in more ways than one). I had never fainted before so I was a bit confused about what had happened. I flicked on the light, now with a pain in my jaw as well as in my aching back, and staggered to the bathroom where I now noticed a two inch gash on my chin (this sounds like a report from the rest home doesn't it...)! Knowing that I was going to need stitches I woke Abby on the first ...

Working with some of the kids in Habiteto Sunday afternoon made for some interesting Bible interpretation. The Portuguese word for Word, used in John 1.1 is Verbo (literally tranlated Verb). The word for worm is verme . During Bible memory time I worked with two boys, Hallison (14), and Douglas (8) who couldn't read. So, they had to memorize by what I quoted to them. The word Verbo sounded like worms to them. As I quickly straightened out their vocabulary I had an opportunity of helping them get a bit of an understanding about someone they didn't know, Jesus Christ. It has been three weeks now since the start of the Bible club and our attendence has dwindled a bit. Though we still had a good turn out today of 24 kids. We have seen several repeats. You can see some pix at right.

In doing a little research on Brazil's Independence Day I discovered the following: On September 7, 1822, after receiving orders from the Portuguese parliament limiting his powers in Brazil, Pedro (whose actual name was "Pedro de Alcântara Francisco Antônio João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim de Bragança e Bourbom" (imagine the poor little boy's kindergarten name tag!) declared Brazil’s independence near the Ipiranga River in São Paulo. Tearing the Portuguese blue and white insignia from his uniform, Pedro drew his sword, and swore: "By my blood, by my honor, and by God: I will make Brazil free." Their motto, he said, would be Independência ou Morte, Independence or Death! (sound familiar? "Give me liberty or give me death!"). This statement is known as the Grito do Ipiranga [or the cry from the Ipiranga]... Pedro became Dom Pedro I, the first emperor of Brazil [who] ruled for nine years . ( Abou...

Abby is feeling the pressure of aunt Jan being gone. But she is doing a great job and we are proud of her! Tuesday, Dawn started a Bible study with one of our newest families. She is taking them throught the Milk study and they had a good time working through the first lesson together. On Saturday morning I met with one of our men for a time in the word. It was good to share with this young believer. He is having a hard time breaking a bad habit but I am seeing God work in his life and am praying for victory with him. On Satuday there was a good number of teens who came to the youth activity. Ben has taken the teaching responsibility, at Davi's request, and has begun a study on God's attributes. The first being that "God is Good". The group will have verses to memorize weekly as they work through the study. This weeks verses Psalm 119.68 and Psalm 136.1. On Sunday morning in the Junior's class we looked at “God's will and bad things”. What happens when God...

I was looking at my friend's blog the other day and asked him if he could help me redesign mine. He sent me a new look and I really liked it (though I have since made some changes). That's the night skyline of Sorocaba in the header photo. When I see it, it reminds me that there are hundreds of thousands of lost here. There is much work to be done! A very sobering thought. Is God calling you to the mission field? Come and help us! Remember to pray for the work in Habiteto tomorrow afternoon. We're expecting a crowd! My new look blog gives me a bit more space to put my thoughts as well as more pictures. And speaking of pictures I just happen to have some new ones of our grand son Gabriel. He is really growing and it looks like he is going to have hazel eyes (like Annie, and me, and Dawn and great grandma Jewell). Isn't he just the cutest little man!