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After my last dismal post that seems to have been up for an eternity I thought that I would bring you up to date as to our latest happenings. This was actually the weirdest Christmas that either of us has ever experienced. The weird part was being alone on Christmas day with no kids and no presents! Weird! However, in God's goodness we did have some very bright spots during this special time. Christmas Eve we had 18 present at our home for a special, first ever, Christmas Eve service for Faith Baptist Church. We sang Christmas carols and interspersed a reading of the whole Christmas story. I started with a few of the prophecies of Jesus' birth, then went to the story itself in Matthew and Luke. After all was read I asked, "How many of you have never heard this story before?" Six raised their hands! It was amazing to be a part of their first hearing of The wonderful Story! After that special time we went to our coworker's home for an evening meal with his family. A...

This week started out with a trip to São Paulo. In case you don't know, that is a rough start. In my earlier days I loved to go to the big city. It is the fifth largest in the world and fascinating to see from the sky. São Paulo is a city that seems to go on and on and on into the distant horizon. When on the ground it can be overwhelming. I used to have a certain pride that I could navigate the beast without getting too lost. There was a sense of conquest each time that I lead a successful excursion into and out of her endless tangle of streets and avenues. Those days of pride and conquest are gone and this time I didn't want to go. But then I remembered something that pastor Moreno once said, "It is not about ME!" It may have been the Holy Spirit that made me remember that one. At any rate Alexandre and I went into our version of the Big Apple to buy trinkets. We went to save some money. We were after, of all things, little girl's head bands! Alexandre thought t...

The Lord gave us a lovely cool day for the first presentation of the children's Cantata. It was at the rest home and several kids were worried that Dawn would have me committed (little brats!). But, all kidding aside the day was perfect. The little ones preformed very well making Alexandre very proud (though he looked a bit haggard). Dawn's costumes made each little angel, shepherd, Mary, Joseph, King look just as cute as bugs. She also made the 30+ choir robes. So she has been busy at the sewing machines over the past several weeks. The folks at the home really appreciated our visit. In the next three weeks the kids will present four more times. We had about 20 in our van and you know we didn't have that many seat belts so pray for our safety. Our next Saturday visit will be at the orphanage.

When is the last time that you sang several Christmas carols in front of your own house at the top of your lungs? If you are like me you might answer, "NEVER!" Would that be embarrassing or what? We talk a lot about getting the Gospel out and yet to think about doing something so simple as singing Christmas carols makes us shrink with terror. Just yesterday the kids who will be singing in our Kids Cantata on Saturday at the resthome had an "in neighborhood" practice. The houses in the neighborhood are tiny and there were 20 kids so the practice was held in Michelle's garage. To help the little ones get over their embarrassment Alexandre told me that he was going to have them sing in FRONT of Michelle's house. After about a half an hour of practice he announced his plan. There was a scream of the above mentioned terror. But, out they went. They sang the whole Cantata with narration for the surrounding neighbors. Their singing would sound like shouting to man...