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 Though Thanksgiving is celebrated in several different countries I have never seen it celebrated here in Brazil. So, with its arrival this past week I had not mentioned it Alexandre. He, however, brought up the subject as a possible church family activity. "What would you think about telling our people about Thanksgiving and what it means. I think that it would be good for them to know about the holiday and we could use fruit as our theme. He went on to share his idea. We would focus our "Family Time" on the fruit theme and each family would bring something made from fruit (cake, salad, juice, jello, pudding or just the fruit itself). We would have a mini feast, play some games and be able to share the Word of God with our people. Both Dawn and I liked the idea.    We played fruit games: eating watermelon, banana toss, decorate the orange and guava relay. Then we ate some luscious fruit deserts. I preached about the church being a family (Acts 2:42-44) and several hands...

Fifty-six years of Thanksgiving celebrations and many of them included the obligatory torture of watching the Detroit Lion's "play" football. I just Googled the Lion's Thanksgiving day record and got a somewhat dated but revealing stat. It said: From 1934 to 2007 the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day record stands at 33-33-2. In other words they've virtually cancelled themselves out over the years! I believe that in my life time they were more like 3-30. I will never understand why we spent the afternoon on such a special day watching their futility. However, I believe that it was because there was nothing else to do after we ate. Back in them thar days we had channels: 9, 7, 4 and 2. The Lions were on TV 2. After dinner we were a bit lethargic and so the game filled time. I thought that Lion's Watching was a necessary part of Thanksgiving until 1997 when I first arrived in Brazil. Thanksgiving was the Hudson's parade and then the Big meal followed by the Lio...

What on earth is a peekee neekee ? "Peekee neekee" is actually an English transliteration of the Portuguese transliteration of the English word picnic! Did that make sense? Some English words have seeped into the Portuguese. Words like "mouse" (computer version), "click" (again the computer "click"), "test-drive" have become normal here. Of course with a slight twist on their pronunciation. Thus Picnic becomes Peekee Neekee. I cracked up the very first time that I heard it! We had our family peekee neekee this past Saturday. The day started early with a heavy rain but the rain stopped just in time for our fun to begin. We had 45 from the neighborhood that took part and we had a great time. Most of the day was free time but there were a couple of highlights. One was our " Family Challenge ". We divided into three teams, Alexandre gave each team a list and off we went to fill out the list. We were to get autographs from: a bald ...

Yesterday was a rainy one. At least in the morning. We have been having our "Preaching on the Playground" activity for over a month now and have yet to have postponed it because of weather. Yesterday was the exception. We planned to make some visits instead but the weather did not cooperate there either. We had several kids show up to help us pass out tracts but we ended up talking in the van as we watched the approaching bad weather. Even though our plans were set aside Dawn was able to have a good conversation with one of the moms who came with her girls. It was a conversation that would not have happened if the "bad" weather hadn't stopped what we had planned to do. Yesterday afternoon we had some "missing in action" as we celebrated our time around the Word. The beginnings of a church plant are difficult times. We want everyone to be mature saints who follow Christ with their whole being. Though we know that there are many "mature" saints...

Have I explained our new ministry? We are in a new church plant. It is called Faith Baptist Church (Igreja Batista da Fé) and is on the north side of the city of Sorocaba. Our other churches (New Life, Calvary and Hope) are sending teams each Sunday to help with Junior church, song leading, special music and the like. This last Sunday at church Aline from Hope said to me that her husband Cristiano didn't know that we were working in the new church plant! I was a bit shocked with her statement but it made me wonder... "have I officially told anyone?" I thought that I had but if you are not aware, let me explain. This work is a bit different than our first two works. In those we were in a team of Americans planting a church in Brazil. This time we are still planting a church in Brazil but we are a part of a Brazilian team. Our coworker Alexandre is the team leader and also less than half my age. He came to Christ in 1999 at our Calvary work and then felt God's call to m...

It has been quite a hot week here in northern Sorocaba. The last few days have each been a 100 degrees or better and with air conditioning scarce one tries to lay low. We spent Monday in a mountain stream and so didn't notice the heat too much. This morning at about 1:55, however, was a different story. I was awakened from REM sleep by a dive bombing mosquito that sounded like an F16 on a suicide mission. As I staggered from the bedroom and came as close to my senses as I could at that hour I realized that I was dripping wet from head to toe! I'd been under the sheets. I guzzled a cup of water and tried to remember what planet I was on. I wondered if Al Gore might have a point with his goofy global warming idea (just kidding!). But as the day wore on it has gotten hotter. Dawn's oven thermometer is coming in handy to get a read on just how hot. I'm not kidding! Just yesterday that little gizmo climbed to 107! Our house has a vaulted ceiling that is about 13 feet a...

Oh NO... I feel a trend coming on. Cutesy titles (if you remember my last one, congratulations). Anyway, I went downtown yesterday afternoon to get a tiny screwdriver. I was in the middle of taking my Sony 150, 8 mp digital camera apart. I had preserved it's life during my trip to the waterfalls. Well, almost preserved it anyway. During my last half hour there I had stuck it in my shorts pocket. That was just before I stepped into a BIG hole in the riverbed and soaked that very same pocket! Anyway as I was doing open heart surgery on my Sony I came to a minuscule screw that I thought needed to be remove. It was that tiny tool that lead me to an hour long talk with a Spiritist. This particular Spiritist is my coworker's (Alexandre) father who happens to own a tool store in town. Yesterday was a blistering 107 and as I made the 20 minute trip downtown I wondered if I wouldn't melt before I found my "Barbie" screwdriver. On a lark I thought that I would visit A...

November 2nd in Brazil is a big day. It is the Day of the Dead. Not to be confused with that old B movie where one sees those zombie people walking out of the cemetery. It is a day where the nation shuts down to "honor" and remember their loved one who have gone on into eternity before them. I got the following article from Wikipedia: "The Day of the Dead ... is a holiday celebrated in Mexico, [Brazil] and by Latin Americans living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on November 1st, and November 2nd in connection with the Catholic holiday of All Saints' Day which occurs on November 1st and All Souls' Day which occurs on November 2nd. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gift...