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The Orchestra in the Woods trip turned into a jaunt to a local park. Of all things the National Park was closed because the day we went was a Holiday. Does that make sense to you? Me neither. We must be Americans. We had a blast anyway. I was glad that we didn't make the mountain trek because the day was sunny and hot. One of the highlights  of the trip was the excellent Bar-B- Que that Samuel and Junior cooked up. Another highlight was the fellowship that we had with our small orchestra group. I thought that I liked to take pictures. Junior took nearly 400 in just three hours! He likes his new camera. Sunday we had a "Thanksgiving" focus in our afternoon service. We met early and played a few games and then I preached from Psalm 100. We had over fifty present which was our biggest group in quite awhile. That evening I also preached at New Life Baptist who was celebrating it's 21st birthday. There was a great group, a good spirit and two huge cakes. It was a great d...

To build camaraderie among the members of our budding orchestra we will be making a trek into the jungles of Brazil. Just outside of town and in fact visible from our church there is mountain called Ipanema. I’m not sure how high it is but we’ll be going up it today if it doesn’t rain. Junior threatened to have us put on a mini concert while in those woods; but he’s relented thank the Lord. Anything with me playing the cello would be a mini concert. I’m still in the “twinkle twinkle little star” stage of my cello life. I’ll post some pictures of our trip this evening if I have the strength.

Have you ever awakened from a sound sleep blinked your crusty eyelid while blearily looking at the alarm clock and wondering what planet you were on? No? I don’t believe you. That happens to me more and more these days. I can’t remember where I am. I’ve had the weirdest dream and can’t quite separate reality from my dream world. Actually I mix three worlds. There is the U.S. world, the Brazil world and the world that twirls in my brain. That is the scary one. Today was NOT one of those twirled world days set apart by the above mentioned scenario. Thank the Lord. Today was Maria’s birthday. Dawn has been giving Maria a Bible study for the past eight weeks and today was her *******th birthday. It was a simple affair put together by her daughter Mirela. Mirela is a stitch. She is 10 going on 25 and as creative as they come. She and her friends Jenifer and Ingrid had made little “treats” which included flour, sugar and corn! Yum. Dawn made one of her luscious cakes, brought along the...

Well I went and done it! That's bad grammar I know. But I done it anyway. We've been having a Bible study with Esmano and Genesie and their two kids Jennifer and Jadson, for about seven weeks now. This week Jennifer threw out a challenge. "Let's memorize a verse!" I thought that was a great idea. I told them that if they did memorize the verse that I would give them each an American coin. Esmano, their dad usually sits in on the study but he hasn't really been a part of it. When I mentioned the coin idea his eyes lit up a little. I then reached into my wallet and said, "If YOU memorize that verse I'll give you $20 bucks! His eyes really lit up then! Was it a good idea? I doubt it. No one has ever offered me money for memorizing verses. However, this will be the first verse that this man has ever memorized. If he does it. It is not a conventional way of doing memory work and it could cost me a bill for nothing. But if God uses this simple chall...

By now you might know that Brazil will have a new president on January 1, 2011. She is Dilma Rousseff . The 26% of the population who voted in the run-off selected her by a 55% 45% margin.  Though she's had socialist roots for some time her goals seem to be to carry on what president Lula has been doing for the past eight years. Though just yesterday I heard him say, "She will have to forge her own platform." Time will tell if and how that platform might affect what we are doing here.  Until change comes we'll continue to do what we've been doing.  One of those things is making preparations for our coming Christmas Cantata. This year will be a bit different than last year. We will be presenting at the same rest home, orphanage and markets. But we've also added a play that Alexandre has written.  Our Cantata and play will tell the story of Creation and Salvation. We've also been granted permission to make a presentation at  WalMart . WalMart down h...

Our orchestra is growing and we took it on the road this past Saturday. Our goal was not fame and fortune it was to present our ministry and the need of funds for purchase of land or building. In those regards the journey was a success. We drove two hour and we arrived two hours early because of a miss-communication. Our untimely arrival meant that our final rehearsal would be in van. I say “our” rehearsal because I am now a budding member of the orchestra. Though the rehearsal was a tad cramped it was great to be able to work out some of the final kinks and squeaks. I didn't get an exact count of those present for our presentation but with our team of ten there must have been close to a hundred. Our musical package was short but sweet. Graziele shared her testimony and Alexandre showed a video presentation and preached a message on, “What is a soul worth”. All of these worked together for a poignant evening. There is no guarantee that Igreja Batista da Bíblia (Bible Baptist Chu...

Tais Give me just one job....  It was my job to fill the baptistery at Calvary. We used that church because we don't have our own yet. I was told that it, "takes ALL day long to fill up." I turned on the water at 11:00 AM and let it run. Later that evening I returned to turn it off. As I entered the darkened building something didn't look right. It almost looked as if the tank was empty. But I heard water running. I stuck my arm into the "empty" tank only to find it to the BRIM and overflowing onto the platform! Praise the Lord for wet-vacs. The carpet was still damp on Saturday but that didn't stop the girls from being baptized. The Word was preached and both sets of parents heard the Gospel.  We saw the Lord work in a special way earlier in the week too. Wednesday was Children's Day. It is a BIG deal hear in Brazil and we had an activity for the little ones. There were several kids who made decisions to receive Christ. The Lord gave us perfec...