The Police are Coming!

Well here we are again, another week in Anapolis. It's been a good week of trying to find more routine and attempting to get ourselves more organized...a seemingly impossible task. One interesting thing about this week is that it is our 10th week in Brazil, making this the longest I (Stephanie) have ever been in Brazil at any one time before. (On my internship/missions trip from Moody I stayed only about 9 weeks). So here we go, plunging into unknown territory!

Speaking of staying in Brazil, we finally had our surprise visit from the Brazilian police this week! Most people wouldn't be too excited about a visit from the police, but for us this was a big answer to prayer. In order for me to get my permanent visa the police had to come to our house by surprise to evaluate if we are really married as we claim (since I am applying for my visa based on the fact that I am married to a Brazilian). Thank you so much for praying for us because God heard your prayers in a very obvious way with this police situation. This is what happened:

I happened to be at home Monday afternoon washing some dishes before I needed to make a trip downtown. As I was washing I "happened" to shut off the water, which allowed me to hear much better. Then, VERY faintly I heard Jeyson's cell phone ringing from way on the other side of the house, which I never would have heard with the water. Usually I wouldn't bother answering his cell phone but for some reason I ran to get it, barely answering on the last ring. It was the police! The man was calling to inform he that had come by to visit our house 2 times already and we were not home. (He made his visits during the middle of the day....I have no idea why a husband and wife would BOTH be home together in the afternoon on a week day but that's when he had visited to find no one there). He informed us that he was going to visit in 15 minutes and we both had to be home since this would be his final attempt. If we were not both there we would have a serious problem getting my visa. Quickly I called Jeyson at the hangar and he came home just in time. The visit went well and I'm now onto my final step in the process...when the Brazilian police take 2 months to process all of my paperwork for my visa. Almost there! But really, what a HUGE answer to prayer that he chose to call even though our visit was supposed to be a surprise, that I stayed home to wash those dishes (a few minutes later I was going to be out) and that I even heard the phone!

Anyway, onto some pictures!

Me eating breakfast and getting ready to head to a local seminary/Bible college where I am helping in the afternoon teaching an informal English class with 24 students twice a week. Some of these students need to speak English in order to be missionaries overseas when the graduate. What a great opportunity. My real desire is for God to open up a door to disciple some of the students I am now getting to know. In particular God has really put one young girl (17 or so) on my heart. Please pray for an open door! (I made this commitment to teach until the end of June when I will reevaluate the opportunity. Please also pray for wisdom in knowing what to do when the time comes.)

I have also started tutoring a woman that lives nearby. Today was our first lesson and it went really well! She is a Christian already, so we started reading the Bible together as part of our class. Please pray that I can minister to her in whatever way God has planned. My time teaching over at the kid's program in our city has also been opening up some very clear opportunities that I will tell more about in another entry, but I'll just say God really is working! Keep praying for Mario who I am continuing to read the Bible with.

Next, in flight news..... Jeyson and I went for our first flight alone! I promised my mom I wouldn't mention when it was going to happen, only report after it happened (so she wouldn't have to worry). So yes, it happened! Jeyson took me along when he was doing some practice "touch and go" flights just in the local airfield. It went great...I can now say first hand that he is a great pilot! I wasn't one bit scared or sick.

Jeyson in control of the plane.

Wow I can't believe we're really allowed to go in a plane alone together! I was the copilot - which basically meant I got to wear this headset and take pictures :)
Me having fun....Jeyson always taking his job very seriously (which of course is great!)
Now, some pictures of what we saw from up there:



As you can see, some areas of our city are poorer than others Here is the built-up down-town area

And some more country places. Just to clarify, since right now we are living in Anapolis (central Brazil) the land is like what you just saw. Once Jeyson gets all the experience necessary flying in this type of area, (about 2 years) we will move to Northern Brazil to a city in the Amazon region. So, once we get there you will see pictures with LOTS more trees and LOTS less roads! But this was still great!

Back on the ground after the flight there is still more to do....Cleaning the hangar....Working with the planes....(Andres, a missionary pilot from Argentina)Planning the next flight..... (this will be a 3 hour flight that Jeyson will take tomorrow) Wow this is confusing!

Lastly, we've had many people ask what our house looks like now that we're more settled in. We will show more pictures soon but for now I thought I would include our latest edition to our home...our little "garden". We don't actually have any land since we're living on the second floor of a condo type of building, but we have a huge veranda where we planted this garden.

Lastly, a beautiful shot of the moon from our veranda at night. God is so creative!
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