Ladies, Chutes, a Test, and a Kitten

Where should I start this week? There is always so much to comment on and so many photos to share. We think the best way for you to get to know our lives and ministry would be for you to plan a trip for you to come visit us in Brazil. Seriously! We would absolutely love visitors! Why not consider coming down for a week or so...or even longer!

Well, while you're thinking about it, here are some recent pictures:

Above is a picture of me with two of my advanced English students at the PETI program where I teach English. I recently mentioned these two girls, Ester and Amanda, to you and how I've had some great opportunities to share about the Lord. Each week we also read a little of a children's Bible together and recently I've started teaching them some songs about God in English. It occurred to me that since songs really stick in your mind, it would be great both for their English and seeking the Lord to teach them some songs. They really have been enjoying it, catching on, and remembering. You should hear me teaching them songs in my tone-challenged singing voice....quite awful, but worth it for sharing more about Christ!

On a totally different note, here's a common sight we saw around the airport a few weeks ago. No, Asas isn't teaching parachuting, but the Brazilian miltary is teaching their troops. Recently Jeyson had the responsibility to stay "guarding" the hangar until 10pm (there is a rotation so it happens every few weeks). I stayed with him and we enjoyed a pharachuting show as the plane came around and 10 or so jumped out each time and floated to the ground. It kind of reminded me of the hot air balloon festivals in NJ in the summer time...only a little different :)

Above is a picture of me and the three women in the department that I work in part-time at Asas. Marianne, Franci, and Lori and I deal with the financial end of things at the mission - specifically dealing with missionaries receiving their monthly support. I also have the responsibility of dealing with money and communication that goes between Asas and Mission Aviation Fellowship (US). I won't go into details, but I just want to say that I was surpised about how much I really, really enjoy this work that deals with numbers, money, and puzzles. Is a great change of pace from the rest of my week which is focused on relationships. It is a great, practical way to help in a necessary area of the mission.

Onto yet another subject. Below is a wonderful project that Jeyson made recently....a screen door for our kitchen. Ever since we've moved to our new house, we've had a big problem with bugs flying into our house! So, Jeyson, being a wonderful husband, took his screen makings skills to the next level by making this door. You might remember about 6 months ago he made a screen window. Wow, what's next? A screened in porch?

My picture doesn't do the door justice since it cuts off the pully/weight system he made so it will shut automatically.

A view of the other side





Speaking of outdoor things, it's official we caved and got a pet....a kitten. Actually, let me clarify, actually the kitten sort of found us. About 2 weeks ago one of the guys showed up at Asas from a 2 hour trip and there was a meowing sound coming from the engine of his car. All of the mechanically minded guys finally managed to get out this cute kitten and he went running and hid, scared for his life, behind a compressor all day. Finally at the end of the day Jeyson gave in and brought it home as a surprise...just to give it food, a safe place to sleep for the night (it was raining and all alone at the airport). Well you already know what happened...we got attached and how have a little (mostly) outdoor kitten keeping us company.

These pictures are a little fuzzy since he's scared of the camera's flash. In fact, he was scared of EVERYTHING in the beginning and actually crawled up the back of our washer (outdoors) and hid in it for the first day. He's feeling much more comfortable now, and although I never thought I'd be a kitten person, I have to say I like him a lot. He's very low maintenance, mainly stays outside, can be left alone without us worrying about coming home for him, doesn't need walks, doesn't bark...and good company and ammusing to watch chase geckos :)

Somehow having this kitten really made is sink in....yes, we do LIVE here in Brazil...we're not just visiting or on a short term trip....and although I still miss SO much about home, I'm happy to be here with Jeyson, our fellow missionaries, and the Brazilians we're reaching out to (and Sam the kitten :)

On a more serious note - please pray for Jeyson this Friday as he takes his written commercial pilot's test. Please pray that he can remember the things he has been so diligently studying and that he will pass and move on to the next phase of his training.

Our Real-Life Ministry Drama

This weekend was a bit different for us since it was the annual Asas "recycling" weekend (as they call it in Portuguese). If you are imagining cans, bottles, and newspapers - that is not quite it :) Actually it is the weekend where the mission "recycles" a lot of information about the mission, support raising, etc. through our brains. The idea is to remind us of info about the mission, bring up new ideas for support raising, and encourage us to stay connected to our support team. There was time for workshops lead by leaders and also time for brainstorming ideas that work. One I couldn't resist suggesting is setting up a blog. We started blogging about a year and a half ago and it drastically improved our way to stay connected with our support team from back home....all of you who faithfully check in with us via this site. By the way, when I say support team I dont' just mean financial support, but also prayer, encouragement, and so much more. You are all so important to us!


On Saturday morning this above pastor shared with us from the Bible, but what I really remember was his testimony about how he ended up in full time ministry. For a while this pastor had really sensed God's direction and leading in his life to become a pastor, but for various reasons he was choosing to question whether this was really what God had for him. Being a little stubborn, he told God that he wanted to know in a much more obvious way if God wanted him to be a pastor. At the time this man was working on a factory assembly line. His job was to put a sack up to a machine that poured in beans and to then seal it....over and over. Can you imagine?!? Anyway, one day while at work he was filling the bags and he noticed that the man working on the line next to him had stopped and was staring at him. Beans were spilling everywhere as the man just looked at him. The (now) pastor asked him what was going on and his coworker, who was not a Christian, answered that he couldn't not help noticing how much he looked like he should be a pastor! I thought the story was so funny and just showed how our God has a wonderful sense of humor with us!

Another memorable part of the weekend was a workshop that taught us a creative tool in teaching churches or youth groups about missions. In the workshop each of us was given a different role....doctor, tribal person, pilot, missionary, pastor, etc. We each got props to represent our character and were given a situation to act out. The idea in a church would be to give different people from the congregation or youth group each a role and US be the "director" but this was just to give us an idea how it works.

In our group's drama I was a "ribeirinho" which means basically a person who lives in an isolated part of Northern Brazil along the river. Here are some pictures of actual riverinho houses.

Some live in small communities

And other homes are far isolated from others. As you can see they are built on stilts since the water rises and falls. Other houses are built to float on the water.

Obviously boats are the major mode of transportation here. Our mission works with these people in the Northern bases and above you can see a boat that arrived in the area for one of our outreach clinics. Many people have come to see the doctor by canoe....interesting parking lot, right?



Here is another group that came on a canoe bus :)


Well anyway, back to the scenario in Anapolis:

So I was supposed to be a "ribeirinho" who is friends with a tribal person (who our mission also reaches, mainly by airplane, in Northern Brazil). This indigenous person is sick and comes to me for help. I then go to our local missionary and tell him about the situation.

In turn, the missionary calls Asas de Socorro to bring in an airplane.

The pilot then calls the mechanic, who needs to do some repairs on the plane. He also calls his supporting church.

Someone from the church makes the situation known to the pastor.

Although in real life obiously the supporting church would already by supporting financially, however in the drama, the local pastor says that the church will be praying and supporting the missionary pilot to make the trip in to the tribe.

A doctor is also flown into the tribe

And able to treat the otherwise unreachable, sick patient

So obviously all o this does not work exactly in this order each time, but this drama really brings to light the fact that ministry involves SO many different people with different gifts, abilities, skills, resources, and vocational callings. Each person in this drama was vital to reaching the tribe....not only in this situation for the physical need, but for the greater need of reaching isolated places with the Gospel! It really reminded me what a small part of the team we are in our work, and how the team involves SO many people - including YOU! And also, what a great director we have to our real life situation - God who is orchestrating and enabling it all.

This weekend we really were reminded just how blessed we are to have such supportive family and friends. We have seen how God has used many different people in unique ways to participate in this ministry. Some have helped financially, others with technology assistance, others with airline miles, others with filing our taxes, others have donated tools Jeyson has needed, others faithfully pray, some send loving letters and care packages to keep us encouraged, and who can forget my Mom who prints and sends our newsletters? We are part of a body that is healthily working together for His glory. And each small fruit, each conversation about Christ, each step ahead in Jeyson's process, each new relationship, is fruit that we have all reaped. Wow! Who knew so much would come out of a drama?

The Ministry of Presence

Well Jeyson is all signed up for his written commercial pilot's test on April 3. On one hand he is feeling ready to take the test since he has spent a lot of time preparing and he is anxious to move on to the next step of his training. At the same time though, is he rather nervous knowing that if he does not pass these two subject areas, he will have to start all over and retake all 5 areas. Please be praying for him as he studies and the day that he takes the test. We'll let you know the results as soon as possible after.

While signing up for the test we had an interesting cultural moment. Jeyson asked the scheduling person, "Just to clarify, if I don't pass these two areas I understand that I will have to retake all five areas....is that correct?" The man (who had never even met Jeyson before) responded with a typical Brazilian "no-worries" mindset by saying, "Oh don't think about that....you're definitely going to pass"....without ever even answering the question. After repeating the question, he did finally give the answer, that yes this was true. However, the point is that moments like this are so typical :) Often as people with American mindsets, we want quick, to the point, blunt answers. Here in Brazil though when you go to someone with a problem wanting direct resolution, the person often responds " don't worry about it" or "stay calm". Sometimes I want to shout back "I would if I could, but I can't be as relaxed as you!". ha ha

Anyway, this past week we also began our newest HomeBuilders study "Overcoming Stress in Your Marriage". Obviously there will be a lot I can learn from Brazilians in this area :) Even the first study was a great time of refreshment and discussion. We are looking forward to the next meeting this evening.

Many of you have commented on how much you enjoy seeing pictures of everyday things and places that are different here in Brazil. It give you a better idea of what we see day to day. So, this week we decided to take a bunch of pictures of the Sunday farmer's market in Anapolis to show you. Below are the pictures. Then, I will get around to explaining the title of this post.

Jeyson and I love going to the farmer's market or the "vegetable fair" as we sometimes call it to stick more closely to the translation in Portuguese. One of my favorite things about it here are the "big bag" tables. Here there are tons of differente fruits and veggies layed out on huge tables. You take one of these big plastic bowls and fill it with as many veggies as you want for the price per kilogram written on the board. So, you can fill your bowl (or several bowls) with any combination of produce you want, then the staff weighs it for the rate listed....all of the produce is the same price. Here it is listed as 99 cents/kilogram...that's equivalent to about 20 American cents per pound. You can't beat that for everything from tomatoes to apples, to papaya, to orka!
There are also specialized booths, like this famer man who only sells bananas. They are sold by the dozen usually, but often there are less in a bunch. If you are careful to count and point out that there are less than 12 in that bunch, they often give you the missing bananas and a few extra on top of it.

Here's a table that just sells pineapples. They are grouped by size/price. The small ones are 1 Brazilian real (.43 American cents) and biggest ones are usually about 1.30 (in dollars)

There are also booths that sell fresh cheeses and eggs, etc and other tables that sell leafy greens and fresh herbs.

I took this picture to give you an idea of the size of the market...and this is only about 1/4 of it.

This picutre was taken a little to the left of the other picture. As you can see there are just tables, people, and food everywhere!

Many of the booths still have these neat, old fashioned scales

Speaking of people, this is one of the best places to people watch as an interesting mix comes out to buy their produce. These are some "eye-camera" shots that I was able to get thanks to my zoom. For those of you who missed the eye-camera explanation, look at last week's post.

A group of Brazilian monks of Japanese decent....

This man really seems to care about his customers and offering good quality produce each week. He also seems to be of Japanese decent. Believe it or not, Brazil actually has a large population of people from Japan.

I loved the hat

And of course the fair wouldn't be complete without the butcher booth. We have never bought meat at here (I prefer getting it in the supermarket where is a little more....packaged :), but I do love the culture and interest it adds to the ambiance here. If you look closely on the left of the meat rack you will see a motorcycle helmet also hanging....do you think you can order a kilogram of ground helmet?

In addition to the interesting people, there are also interesting animals at the fair....like this stray dog. Stray dogs are much more common here in Brazil, but never (that I have heard) cause a problem. They just wander around and scrounge up what they can to eat.

Speaking of animals...here is where you can buy meat that is even fresher than the butcher stand - or even a pet if you prefer. I am definitely not ready to conform to that part of the culture yet :)

Oh and before I forget, I promised my mother-in-law that I would post some update pictures of our garden, since she was such a help in getting it set up. See old posts to compare pictures, but basically when we moved in it literally was a garbage heap. We are still waiting for vines to grow up on the back wall, flowers to bloom, and plants to fill in, but it's looking better already.

One of the most fun parts of the garden as been watching our zucchini grow. In the beginning we thought it was pumpkin, but it turned out to be zucchini and we enjoyed it with some pasta for dinner last night.

Well now that we have toured around our local farmer's market and garden, on to the theme of the post...the ministry of presence.

I remember while at Moody a chapel speaker spoke on this subject, but at the time I can't say I had ever clearly experienced it...until this week. So first, what is the ministry of presence? Perhaps this is obvious, but just in case basically it is the idea that sometimes the best way for us to minister to others is by simply being present. Sometimes we don't have all of the right words to say, but our presence is what the person needs most. It is a matter or listening, holding the person, and then when they are ready, reminding them of some of God's truths/promises to us. Last week, God really taught me about serving in this way.

On Tuesday I went to PETI (a children's program where I teach English) and I was disappointed that only 2 of my 12 year old girls came that day to the program. I sat down with the two girls and started by asking them how they are (in English). When they responded "just ok" asked them to tell me why they seemed down (in Portuguese so they could express themselves better). Both of them told me about recent deaths that they have been dealing with. One girl's aunt and uncle were recently murdered. Her and her family have been struggling to deal with the as the investigation is continuing. I, though twice her age, have never dealt with anything as difficult as this. I truly did not have the words to say but the other student and I listened and listened as she told the whole story and how she is dealing with it. Then, the other student started sharing about the death of a friend that she is facing. Recently her friends and her went swimming in a pool without adults or a lifeguard. During the time there, one of the boys (20 years old) drowned in the water. Again....what words are there to say to someone in so much pain? I could only minister to them by being present, by listening, praying with them, and at the end telling them how much God wants to draw them near to Him during this tough time. I felt so humbled that I don't always have the right thing to say, but comforted to know that I was doing the ministry God had for me...presence.

Later in the week, while meeting with 2 of my adult English students (separately) they both shared with me deep things on their hearts about their families. Once again, I know God had me there to be present...to listen, pray with them, and tell them about the Lord.

While my heart was broken for all of these situations, I also rejoiced that He had planned this all. He had planned for me to enter in the lives of these women for exactly these moments of ministry and drawing them to His truths. I am so excited to see fruits in these relationships and I am praying that God will draw each of them to Himself.

1 Year in Brazil and Eye-Camera

This past week we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of us arriving together here in Brazil. I can't believe how quickly the time flew by and how excited I was to arrive at this milestone! What an adventure this past year has been for us getting used to married life and life together in ministry....and this year has especially been a challenge for me as I've adjusted to living overseas. Wow, there is just SO much I could comment on - so many emotions, so many challenges and highlights we have faced, so much we have learned, but to keep it simple here’s a quick glimpse of some of what I’ve faced over the last year:

• Getting a new mindset, getting around a new city, getting my permanent visa
  



• Taking risks, taking trips, taking ministry opportunities, taking worries to the Lord
  



• Making friends, making mistakes, and making my first pot of beans.
  



• Learning Portuguese, learning to function, learning to serve, and learning to trust Lord more each day.

Above all else, as we look back over the past year, we see God's faithful hand guiding us each step of the way. So many obstacles seemed impossible - raising support in such a short time, learning Portuguese without going to language school, and much more, but God has truly led us and directed us and we can only give Him the praise for the ways He has worked in and through us.



Throughout this year when I had a tough day, Jeyson has encouraged me to just keep my eyes set on the one year mark of living overseas since trying to take in the big, long term picture can seem so overwhelming. So, to me this one year milestone was a HUGE accomplishment - so naturally that means we needed a big celebration! We decided to go out to dinner at our favorite restaurant around (actually about an hour away) Outback Steakhouse. We just love being transported "back home" for a few hours and have gone there only twice on special occasions, and this definitely was one! So off we headed, and even better, we brought our good friends, Andres and Camila with us. It was so much fun to show them around an American style place with booths, carpeting, ice tea with endless refills, apple sauce, and they had a great time. Camila was even impressed with the different American style FOAM soap dispensers in the bathroom she had never seen before. It was a great evening and a wonderful celebration!



So, why do I feel a twinge of sadness thinking about arriving at the 1 year milestone? I've actually put off blogging about this for a few days to figure that out and I finally have. Since the 1 year mark has been such a goal to strive towards on the tough days, arriving at that goal I felt a bit disappointed to realize the struggle for adjustment is not over. After one year and one day of being here I didn't wake up speaking Portuguese fluently and I don't automatically know how to handle every cultural situation with ease. Also, I still miss Target and munster cheese :) Passing the 1 year mark doesn't mean the adjustments are over, it just means by God's grace I have gotten to an important point and in His strength each day I'll continue on this adventure.

Now on a COMPLETELY different note, I have some pictures that I wanted to post of sights from around Brazil. Jeyson and I have often joked about how great it would be to have an eye-camera. No - I didn't mean to write iCamera, I literally mean a camera in my eye. Strange sounding? Let me explain. There are so many situations here in Brazil (and of course also in the States) that I wish I had my camera with me and could pull it out and take a shot of a picture that is worth more than 1,000 words, pictures that capture so much about the people and culture here. However, in many many of those situations I either don't have my camera or it would be inappropriate to take it out and start snapping away. In those situations I wish I had an eye-camera....a tiny little camera in my eye that would take a perfectly framed and focused picture when I blinked. This way, no one would have to know I had taken one and I'd be prepared at all times! Wouldn't that be a great invention? Then I could just put my finger in the USB drive of the computer and they would upload automatically to the blog :)

Anyway, occasionally I do have a situation where I see a great shot that says so much about Brazil and I DO have my camera and it IS ok to take a picture. Those, Jeyson and I call eye-camera pictures. From time to time I'll post them on the blog and refer to them as that and you'll know what I'm talking about :) Below are a few of those:

A newspaper vendor resting his bundle of newspapers on his head as a client searches for change

Jeyson's uncle making a broom from a plant especially grown and used for this purpose. You can see the dried plant on the table and he is wrapping them together around the handle.

Exotic dog food....a whole cart of avocados! Can you imagine serving your dog avocados as a treat? Here they are so plentiful that they are dumped in carts and given to animals like cows and this lucky dog who LOVE them!

And Bobby also loves snacking on corn on the cob that grows at the Braun's farm.

Ok one more animal eye-camera shot...Andres giving milk to the Braun's lamb who was rejected by its mother

Feet in a hammock, a great symbol of the laid-back speed of life that Brazilians love and closely stick to!

Ok don't peek too far down....first, I want you to imagine a bunch of bananas growing on a tree.

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Are you ready?

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Scroll down and see if this is what you imagined?

Did you imagine right? Did you know that bananas grow in THIS direction? Before living in Brazil I had always thought that bananas hang down from the stem (the part that you split open to peel it). However, actually they grow in the opposite direction....with the stubby "bottom" end of the banana at the top and the opening "top" part at the bottom. Lastly, one last fruit eye-camera picture...pomagranate....a fruit I had always heard of but only recently tired for the first time. It is both beautiful and delicious!

Well enough fun pictures for this week.... Tomorrow Jeyson will be driving to Goiania (1 hour away) in order to sign up to take the final 2 areas of his written commercial pilot's test. Brazil is a little behind with online things like this :) Also tomorrow evening we will be kicking off the next couples small group study "Overcoming Stress in Your Marriage". Since the study is all built around discussion, we are praying that the group will be open to sharing at that we will all be challenged.

Oh, and great job for those of you who figured out that Jeyson looked different because he got contacts! Very perceptive!

Refreshing Retreat

This weekend was the Asas Family retreat so we had a great time of refreshment with all of the missionary families here at the Anapolis base. We went to a nice little place that was like a retreat center with a conference room, pools, game room, etc. We stayed from Thurs to Sat and really had a great time. We had an interesting guest speaker that taught on the theme of God increasing and us decreasing - always an important perspective to regain. We spent tons of time talking, eating, and swimming. In fact, I enjoyed the sun a bit too much and experienced a bit of "sun sickness" by the end and when we got home...but the weekend was definitely worthwhile for all of the refreshment we had. Here are some pictures:

It was nice to actually get a good picture together. Since our camera is a bit more complicated to use, it seems we're never together in a picture! By the way, do you notice something different about Jeyson?

Pool volleyball

Jeyson in the middle of the game

The wonderful, bountiful breakfast spread

Me and Camila enjoying coffee during breakfast

Some of the ladies getting ready to listening to the speaker in the morning.

Our wonderful friends, Cininha and Paulo. Cininha has helped me so much by spending time practicing Portuguese with me and Paulo joined Asas the same year as Jeyson so they have gotten closer over the years. We were so sad (though happy with them) to hear the news that they will be leaving the mission in April to move to Portugal, where Cininha is from. They feel led to join in evangelism there and spend more time with Cininha's family who does not know the Lord. We will be sad to say goodbye, but we are so thankful for the time we had together with them.

The retreat center was decorated with an antique farm theme. We had heard that there was a museum there and were interested to visit since we love museums (in fact our first dates were to the museums in Chicago). Anyway, we were interested to tour around, imagining a large building of old farm tools. However, we had to laugh when we finally visited the museum, only to find it was about the size of a small walk-in closet! We enjoyed it anyway though and are so glad to be living in a time where you can plug in your iron instead of like the ones in the museum that you had to put hot coals in!

Here's a final group shot of almost everyone from the Anapolis base of Asas de Socorro (expect for me and a few other who were taking the pictures). All I can say is, what a great, refreshing weekend.

Before leaving, just one note about comments. First, we LOVE getting comments on our blog, so please feel free to leave one. However surprisingly this week we got a bunch of nasty junk/spam messages left on our blog (18 to be exact!) So for now anyway, we set our blog up so we will check the messages before they actually get published to make sure this doesn't continue. So, please leave a comment, but FYI it won't appear right away since we'll have to approve it. We can't wait to hear from you!