Up, up, and away

Beans, beans, they're good for your..... cultural transition. To begin with a very light piece of news, I have finally taken an important step in this cultural transition - I made my very first pot of beans. Now of course some people make beans "from scratch" in the States too, but here EVERY wife knows how to make beans from scratch and puts the knowledge into practice on a daily basis. Beans and rice are the staple here and eaten almost every day, in some families twice a day. I grew up in a family that rarely ate beans, and when we did, the recipe simply meant opening a can and adding a few ingredients. (Not that there is anything wrong with this - if there were cheap canned beans available here I never would have bothered with this project and would have just stuck to cans.)
So anyway, the idea of making something from a bag a dry beans was quite intimidating so I have been putting it off. Then a few days ago Jeyson mentioned that he wished we could eat some beans occasionally and I realized I had to give it a try. So I asked around trying to get some information on how to begin and gave it a try....

Me in the kitchen "slaving over the stove".... so far so good...
(notice the cornbread in the pan next to the stove....more Southwestern US than Brazilian, but I couldn't resist)

Giving it a try...pretty good! Officially approved by Jeyson also :)
Anyway, now for some more serious news (and much more exciting than a pot of beans):

Jeyson flew again for the first time this week

First he flew with one of the new missionary flight instructors, Marcos, and Jeyson felt the flight went very well overall. The next day he did another flight with the instructor and today he will do his first solo flight since being back. It is so exciting to be moving forward again!

Here is a picture of one of the airplanes, though as you can see it is going through some maintenance. There was a gorgeous rainbow in the sky that you can sort of see in the picture.

Before Jeyson's second flight I, Stephanie, was at the hanger too for some other things. Before the flight Jeyson took a while to sit in the plane and do a "mental flight", which means going through all of the motions of the planned flight without actually taking off. I got to sit in the co-pilot seat and mentally fly along too. It's nice that on mental flights you never have stomach problems :)

Jeyson mentally flying.
Me working hard being the mental co-pilot. Notice the background...you can see we're still inside the hanger.

I'm not sure what all of these buttons and knobs do, but fortunately Jeyson knows!

And a safe landing :)

For other news, I am continuing teaching English at the children's program, as I mentioned in earlier blogs. Although it is a secular program the leader had told me I was free to share anything about the Bible with the students. Growing up in a public school in the States, this was very surprising news! However, what an opportunity! This week I started taking advantage of the freedom by using part of my time teaching English to start reading through a Children's picture Bible in English with them (explaining in Portuguese as needed). This week we only got through the first chapter (Creation/Eden) and after class three students came up to me with questions. Among the three was that boy, Marcio, who had asked me questions the week before. I wound up taking with them for a while and reading the next part of the Bible with them. It is so encouraging to see their excitement and a real affirmation that I am serving where God has planned for me.

Also, this week we had an event with the youth group. There are quite a few kids at the church but only 7 came to the event...still though it was definitely worth the time and effort. Jeyson is going to be teaching them in Sunday school this week. Here are some pictures of the night. Most of the group is pretty young (it starts at 12 years old) but a few are older (15 or so)

This couple (in the two pictures above) also lead the youth. We have been getting to know them a lot over the past weeks. at church, in our small group, and spending time at each other's houses. They have only been married 7 months so we have a lot in common.