Christmas 2013

This was such a different Christmas for us, the first one away from both sides of our family.  When we were in Anapolis we were only an hour drive from Jeyson's family, and a few Christmases since getting married we have been near my family while in the US.  At first I was all concerned about how to make new traditions now that it will just be us most years, but then I realized all we had to do was make THIS year special.  And it was!  Lots of time together as the three of us remembering Christ's birth...that's what it's all about!

Holiday plans, like everything else in Brazil, happens last minute.  5 days before Christmas and we still had no plans.  So we decided to invite 2 families who are also new in the community over for a brunch Christmas morning.  Then, we got invited over for a Christmas Eve dinner at someone's house (Christmas eve dinner is the big, main celebration here), and then on Christmas eve we got invited over for a Christmas day lunch with some American families.  So, we went from NO Christmas plans, to a packed, delicious, and wonderful 2 days.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures at the Christmas eve dinner and Christmas day lunch, but here are a few pics I took at our house.

Opening presents together as a family before our brunch guests arrived Christmas morning:

It must be so weird to be 2 and have no clue what's going on.  Out of nowhere your parents put a tree in the house and then you wake up one morning and get a tractor and a play tent...what?  why?  Though confused, the joy in a two years old's face in incredible!

Here are our brunch guests.  One couple (left) moved here to serve in the tribal villages, and the other couple (right) was transferred to Boa Vista from Goiania as part of government work.   They have become good friends.  Brunch was cinnamon rolls, french toast, fruit, bacon, and eggs.  Despite explanations, Brazilians always come up with original ways to eat American food, such as french toast sandwiches using eggs and bacon.  I LOVE seeing the way people from different cultures approach the same things.

Elijah thought he was one of the big boys playing with our friends' kids

 Coming back home Christmas evening, Elijah crashed at 6pm and fell asleep on the couch for a good long time.  Too much fun, food, and friends I guess.

To wrap things up, I thought I'd share our Christmas ornaments.  I haven't posted in a few years about this, but the Ciotta tradition is to find an ornament each year that represents that year.  We have them since our wedding.  Here is this year's and last year's.  

2012: An Amish buggy remembering our time out in Coshocton, OH for training...was was serious Amish country up there!

2013: And this little canoe to represent moving to Boa Vista to serve the natives in the villages.  The boat is a seed and so are the little items in the canoe and the man is made out of rubber from the trees in the Amazon.  Very col!

Looking at these two ornaments, our two years could not be more diverse!!!  Makes you wonder what's coming next around the bend in life!?!?!

Ticking Clock

In past years, the holidays have meant life and work slowing down a bit for us.  But this year it's been the opposite.  

First of all, here in this base December is usually the busiest month of the year for flights.  Lots of the missionaries come out of the villages for Christmastime or get their flight of supplies taken to them.  So there are more flights, but also more flights mean more maintenance since each hour of flight brings the plane closer to mandatory inspections.  That, added to the SID inspection.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned the SID inspection here before.  It's a VERY detailed inspection that Cesssna has recently required all older planes to undergo.  Since the planes at this base are from the 1970's, they definitely qualify!  The SID inspection project requires that almost the entire plane be taken apart as a result of all of the work needed to be done...it's very in depth!  And the deadline for it to be done is approaching...Dec 31st!

Come Jan 1, 2014 any plane that requires this inspection can not fly until it is done.  So, Jeyson has been leading up this project which has been going on since Oct.  They are first doing the whole inspection on just one of the planes (the one on the left).  It has to be done by Dec 31st so it can take over all of the flying and the plane on the right can undergo the same inspection over the first part of 2014.  Meanwhile, as I mentioned, the plane on the right, which IS flying currently, has needed the on-going regular interval inspections.

As the advent calendar ticks away, so do the days left for the project to be completed.  Long hours in the hangar and the first time at this challenging maintenance project...this has been a quite stressful time at our base as a result.  We absolutely don't want to have to cancel flights come Jan1st, so the pressure is on to do it quickly and do it well.

But even with the stress, we are SO incredibly thankful.  Thankful for the great amount of flights and maintenance we have to do each month, because with each flight we know that the Good News of Jesus Christ is reaching the ends of the earth!  And THAT is what Christmas is all about!  So it's been our most unusual Christmas so far, but at the same time, our most true Christmas.

A Tale of Two Villages...the INCREDIBLE part 2

Do you remember this post from a few weeks ago?  About the incredible door God opened up in a village that had been closed for 40 years?  Well the flight bringing missionaries took place, and the follow-up story is even more exciting than the first part was.  It seriously is by far the most exciting missionary story I have heard of since we got on the field.  

(NOTE: Once again for safety reasons I'm leaving out names of villages and missionaries, etc.  And for those who read part 1 originally, to reduce confusion I've decided to call Village A the fictitious name of Jarix and Village B the fictitious name of Dina.)

Since my last update I learned a few more details to fill in.  Turns out that not only were there plans to fly in the missionary couple that I mentioned, but the plans were also for several Christians from Dina to also travel over to Jarix to spend time with the new believers as well.  Together with the missionary couple, they planned to hold a mini Bible conference for the new believers in Jarix and anyone else interested.  There was great concern about what the situation would be like because of the history of violence in Jarix, etc. but everyone who had committed to flying in, took a leap of faith.

As our pilot landed in the Jarix area with the missionary couple, at first they saw no one.  Then, they saw native after native coming out of the surrounding jungle all painted from head to toe in bright red paint!  The pilot, Rodrigo, became extremely converned.  (Keep in mind that his people group had once successfully shot an arrow at Asas's plane!)  Rodrigo couldn't remember what color of body paint represented peace in this culture...was it red or was it black?  For a moment Rodrigo considered aborting the landing, then he remembered that in Jarix, red was in fact the color of peace.  What these people were doing would be the same in our context as coming out with a white flag.  A great sign!  And the story only gets better...

Do you remember how a few people from Jarix had been baptized in Dina and then returned back home to Jarix?  This was the last news that anyone knew of the new Christians from Jarix and everyone was concerned about what they would find.  Did the new believers hold strong in their faith without any help or discipleship in such an opposed culture?  Were they even safe?

Here's a email sent from one of the missionaries telling the story first hand.  It was sent via a satalitte connection....

As it turned out, the tiny band [of "Jarix" who had been baptized] had not been interested in standing or holding anything against that insurmountable tide. They were determined to march forward pushing back the sea of darkness with the light that God had put in their hearts. They had been out evangelizing! (If I'm still allowed to use that word these days.) Two villages [that the new Jarix believers visited] said they did not believe in a God like that and would prefer the "big hot fire" to following him, but three other villages said they also remembered the missionaries talk and they would to come to a conference. And so it started. They were formally invited too.

                

                    On the 29th of November two flights were flown from ["Dina" to "Jarix"] carrying 8 leaders from our... church along with [the missionary couple]. After the second leg, Rodrigo, our mission aviation pilot, had already caught the fever. He said "I think I can make another leg to [Dina]! Call them on the radio and see if they have five solid church leaders who can be ready to go in 40 minutes." They did. Rodrigo flew like a maniac and squeezed in the extra flight before dusk, and so it went. During the four days of the conference it continued to grow. It had started with about 250 people representing four villages (already impressive in that feuding region). It grew to over 450 people with over 20 villages represented from all over the region. They were saying that they wanted to put their violent way of life behind them, stop practicing witchcraft and follow God. They wanted the missionaries back.

They wanted Bible translation (a surprising number had learned to read in recent years).

Our church leaders were scrambling, sharing the gospel through the formal trade language, teaching and answering questions. They went straight through the first night without sleep. The second day and night they still kept going, barely able to stand. People [from "Jarix"] were giving testimonies throughout the second night of how they had once heard the gospel and now wanted to follow "God's trail".  Others like an old woman named Yolanda said they had "taken up God's talk" way back when [the original missionaries] first taught it and she had been faithfully following God's trail all these years. The third and fourth day groups were still trailing in from distant villages wanting to hear the talk. Many wanted to be baptized. Our church leaders were desperately trying to evaluate the level of understanding and sincerity before giving individuals the OK. The teaching continued right up until the last church leader climbed into the plane for the last flight out of that tiny grass air strip. In the end there had been 162 baptized.

When [missionary "J"] stepped off the returning plane and gave me the rundown ending with 162 baptized, I was flabbergasted. I did not know how to take it. They could not possibly know what it was all about, but ["J'] assured us they did. They knew the message and were sincere. For those who know [this native culture] and their traditional parties here is a hint at their sincerity. The leaders reported that there was no impropriety, no fighting, no shamanism, and most telling, no drink and hardly any food (the fields planted for the conference had matured too early and played out weeks before and every one had known that before hand. Our church leaders were strikingly skinnier after just four days.) The people had not come for a free party. They had come to hear God's word.

The conference ended with new believers heading back to their distant villages with only a pitiful handful of translated scripture and 4 solar powered Bible recordings to divide among the 450 participants. Over a hundred new believers, like children, walked nearly empty handed out into the dark jungle filled with spiritual snakes and jaguars, but they walk with a new light shining bright. Pray for them! Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out more workmen to teach them. Pray for us to know how to help.

Pray that it will be legally allowed. The region is, for the most part,

closed to missions now.  

from the Jungle satellite up-link,

Expat Thanksgiving

I LOVE Thanksgiving and it's always so interesting to see how we will celebrate here in Brazil, where it is obviously not a holiday.  This year we got together with our new friends, Eric and Donna, who live on the border with Venezuela.  They have been missionaries in Brazil for about 15 years and have 8 kids who are now in the US.  Over the past months knowing them, they have taken us in in a special way, and even taken care of Elijah for a weekend when I was in the hospital.  So it was so fun to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday with them and stay at their home through Saturday afternoon.

 It is also really fun that one of their sons just got married about a month ago and he and his wife (John and Rebeca) are now going to be serving long term in one of the native villages.  They will be flown out by Asas on Wednesday and will only come out of the village every 4 months or so.  But they were also able to make it for Thanksgiving.  We had a great time getting to know them.  Lots of fun to talk in English and make new friends in general.  Such a refreshing time!

One of the things you will find funny about us expats is how excited we get about food that you can only get in the US.  John and Rebeca brought this can of cranberry sauce back from the US as a surprise for Donna and we cherished each bite during the meal.

 Tons of fun time relaxing....

 And cooking the meal together...though Donna is SUCH an expert at whipping out meals for crowds with the large family that she raised that she makes cooking Thanksgiving look as easy as ordering take out!

Our meal...no turkey since they are very rare and expensive, but we had a great chicken

Elijah loved bath time in this very tiny tub!

And sleeping in the pack and play under a mosquito net.  The weather in Venezuela is GREAT since it's up in the mountains, so it was SO fun to take a break from sweltering temperatures to enjoy warm baths and pjs!

What a great weekend...it couldn't have been more perfect.  And there is no end to the list of what we are thankful for this year!

A Tale of Two Villages

*Note I'll have to leave out or change names of people and places, details, and pictures for safety sake on this one

On Friday one of those flights is taking place...the kind that really really gets me SO excited about what we do here and what God is up to in this area.  I'm almost always excited about it, but THIS flight is exceptionally exciting.  Here's the background story.

About 40 years ago missionaries were serving in a certain village that was known to be exceptionally hostile to outsiders and even towards their own.  (We'll call this village the fictitious name of Jarix).  Asas de Socorro was the ones who would transport the missionaries back and forth to Jarix as needed.  But things began to get really aggressive and at a certain point the plane even got shot at by arrows.  The missionaries serving there and Asas felt it was time to pull out for safety reasons.

Durning the next 39 years or so that followed absolutely no contact whatsoever was made with Jarix.  Then one day some natives from a different village (we'll call this village Dina) who spoke the same language as in Jarix, were in Boa Vista because one of them had become very sick was in the hospital.  At the same time that people from Dina were in the city, there also happened to be some people from Jarix in the city who had come to resolve some things with the government, I believe.  Anyway, somehow the people from Jarix ran into the people from Dina and noticed that the people from Dina were speaking their same language, but not only that, the people from Dina knew how to read, write, were well educated, etc.  The people from Jarix approached them and wanted to know all about how they had learned these things that in Jarix were unheard of.  The people from Dina began to explain that it was because missionaries were living in their village and they had put their language in writing and taught them how to read, write, etc.  The missionaries had also taught them about God, making their village a peaceful place.  The people from Jarix were  fascinated and they spent the next days in Boa Vista exchanging information and also the people from Dina began to tell Jarix about God and salvation through Christ.

Only after several days together did the people from the two villages realize that they were from historically warring villages.  The people from Dina were now a peaceful people, but Jarix still had a strong reputation of aggression.  But the people from Jarix had enjoyed the visit so much and were so interested in what they could learn from Dina that they implored the people from Dina to come visit them in their Jarix.  Dina was very wary of the invitation for their safety but the people from Jarix kept reassuring them that no harm would come of them.  So, about a year ago 5 native pastors/leaders from Dina decided to go visit Jarix.  One of our pilots picked them up and dropped them off about an 8 hour hike from Jarix, since there was no landing strip there.  5 days later he picked them up again.

Back in Dina the men shared the exciting news that they had been able to share the Gospel in Jarix and that 20 people from Jarix became Christians.  A while later, there was a baptism in Dina and several of the new Christians from Jarix came to it, to Dina's surprise.  And to add to the surprise, several of the people from Jarix asked for the pastors of Dina to baptize them as well! Although the leaders from Dina weren't sure how much the people from Jarix understood and had grown, they agreed to the request.  Then, the people from Jarix went home.  They told Dina that they were going to plant some crops and that when the crops had a harvest, they would get in contact with Dina.  Well this just happened.  And in the contact, they requested that several missionaries be sent to Jarix to spend time with them.  So, Dina passed on that request and asked a missionary couple to go visit Jarix.  This will be the first time anyone other than these 5 pastors from Jarix have been to village A in 40 years!  The missionaries agreed, and on Friday Asas will be taking the couple to the village to spend 4 days there.  They will get dropped off at this "nearby" strip and hike 8 hours to get to the village.  Then they will hike back and get picked up again 4 days later.

Please join us in praying for safety and open doors for the future.  Pretty exciting to see what God is doing!

Happy Birthday, Elijah

This year for Elijah's birthday, we decided to have a very low key birthday with just the three of us.  We brainstormed what a 2 year old would consider the perfect day, and that's just what we did.  It was Saturday so we had the whole day together.  For breakfast we had chocolate chip pancakes, Elijah's favorite. He had 4!!!  Then, we borrowed the projector from Asas and in the morning we watched a cartoon big screen style.  After naps we had this little birthday party.  

 The "party" was so low key we even forgot candles!  I put 2 tea lights on top...

And Elijah wound up leading the way on just digging in with a spoon (and fingers) and just skipping the plates :)  Rather than fight it, we just went with the flow, after all we were planning the perfect 2 year old day!

 He got this birthday present from us, every last part except the wheels was hand made by Jeyson.

 And then we look him to a totally dinky amusement park they have in town, which he thought was awesome!

 We have started the tradition that my side of the family did growing up of taking a birthday picture next to dad to see how much the kid has grown.  Here's this year

And here's last year in Ohio

 Speaking of last year, I never did post anything from his birthday party, so while I"m at it, here's a picture of him digging into his "cake" while he was supposed to be just standing by it for a picture :)  

Happy second birthday, Elijah.  You have brought so much joy to our lives!

What's Now Normal

This morning I had one of those adventures that I would never have believed would be part of my life 10 years ago.  We needed a part for our dishwasher and Jeyson has been so busy that I told him I would stop by a place that according to the GE website would have what we needed.

So off Elijah and I went to a new part of town I'd never been to before.  I pull up to where google maps says the place should be located, but there's nothing there.  So, I ask a guy on the street.  There's no place like that around here.  But if I go up another mile or so, there's a place that fixes refrigerators, maybe they can help me.  So off i go in the truck again.

At this point I'm on streets that aren't streets.  They're skinny dirt roads that have so many potholes it's more like you can't even find where the roads are supposed to be.  There are the poorest, most broken down houses on every side.  There are NO street signs, so I can't even find the corner I"m now looking for the shop.  On my left I pass a little shack that's has completely unfinished brick exposed and there are two friendly looking guys in their 20's selling snacks (while listening on ipods!).  They know just the place I"m talking about and it turns out it's just ahead.  BUT it's in the middle of a construction zone so no cars can go through the strip of the street just where the store (I use that word VERY, VERY loosely) is located.

So I find somewhere to park the truck and take Elijah out of the truck and start trudging down the dirt road in the heat.  I get to the store and there is stuff everywhere. I mean washing machines, fans, fridges just piled on top of each other like it was a junk yard, yet it was only a store front.  Anyway, turns out the guy doesn't speak Portuguese...only Spanish, which I dont' remember anymore.  So we communicate with each other, both straining to understand the other.  I get the point that he does NOT work with GE brand stuff but he tells me to just continue ahead, turn left somewhere vague, and ask around and I'll find somewhere that does.

At this point, I didn't want to give up, so we trudge back to the car and go around the detour, trying to find the original road again.  I have no idea how, but I manage to find the place.  Seriously, no clue whatsoever.  But guess what, this little "store" doesn't have GE products either, but the guy says there's another one that does!  Believe it or not, I"m still hopeful.  So I continue on in a NEW direction, still farther and farther from my starting point.  I stop for directions about 16 times, all the while carefully making mental notes of my turns so I can retrace my route.  I finally get to the store, and....drumroll.....they also don't work with GE!! But they used to and know there's no one in Boa Vista that does!

So, completely defeated and with no more rabbits trails to go down, it's time to turn around and follow my mental path back to the part of the city I know.  Only I do a turn around and discover that all the cars are coming at me!!!  Yep it was a totally unmarked 1 way road.  It was fine and traffic was slow so no real risk, but what to do now about finding how to get home?  Especially considering I barely know how to get home on the original path.  I grab a parallel road, each intersection peering over to see how I'm doing on the original road.  Then, the road I"m taking has a detour!  And I get turned all around.  I ask for directions from a little man who makes HUGE arm gestures as he tells me where to turn left, then right, then left and it makes no sense to me at the time.  Then, as I start deriving, I totally get what he was saying and it all comes clear.  I make it back past the second store, and then back past the first again, and suddenly I'm back in known territory again.

I feel like a SUPERWOMAN!  I'm not even exaggerating!  I think, that was amazing! I trudged around by truck and on foot on ridiculously skinny roads, navigating detours, WITH a toddler in the backseat and sometimes hauled in my arms, in a new city, in a foreign country, speaking Portuguese with people who don't even speak Portuguese, deciphering crazy arm gestures, went to three hole in the wall shops and got to the bottom of my sad story about my dishwasher, and didn't even get permanently lost!  If only I had known what I would now consider normal, my head would have exploded with panic.  But I'm not who I was, I've definitely grown and adapted, even if it's stretching.  Sometimes I think we think we're incapable of something that we totally are able to do.  God gives us what we need to handle each situation.  Now, that leaves only one question, what to do about the dishwasher???  I guess it's Jeyson's turn to figure out the next step.

Tuesday Bullets

I haven't been very good about taking pictures since I've been back home.  But here are a few bullet points about what we've been up to.

1. Getting myself and our home really organized.  I feel like we've been just making do temporarily in some areas of our home since we moved here, and I really feel like I'll feel more settled when everything has a place and I have what I need where I need it.  For example, I finally made a list of desk supplies I need (paper clips, rubber bands, etc) and just went out an bought it all.  Ahh, having things in order really makes day to day things run smoother.  But I still have many more areas like that.

2. It's been hot here.  It's the hottest time of the year in Boa Vista (Sept-Dec) and coming back from the States to this extra heat has been rough!

3.  Because of the heat, I've been doing more meals in my crockpot and we've been making at least weekend meals very easy.  Two crockpot meals I just made and loved were short ribs in tomato sauce (served over pasta) and chicken thighs in taco seasoning served with taco fixings.  Just cooked both for hours in the slowcooker until they were falling off the bones and shredded them up.  We also have been grilling, and we both love grilling fish.  It comes with the head and tail and everything around here, but it's so easy...just place on the grill with seasoning and serve with a salad.

4.  Pretty much every last part of one of the airplanes is taken apart.  It's for a special inspection called SID, newly required for older airplanes.  It's VERY involved and since it's new, none of the mechanics have done it before.  Jeyson has taken a big role in the project and is especially needed/helpful since all of the manuals and instructions on how to do the project are in English.  It will take a few more weeks. Meanwhile the other airplane is being relied on exclusively, so if it has any maintenance issues, they have to be fixed immediately since it is the only way the missionaries can get supplies.

5. We just had dinner with two of the missionary families who live in a very remote village.  They can stay there for 8 months at a time with no breaks.  I am completely inspired by all they are able to accomplish and all they sacrifice to serve and it renews our vision for why we are here...to make their work possible.

6. I can't believe Elijah will be 2 this week.  What?  Where's the time going?

7. I was asked to speak two weeks in a row to a group of ladies about birth.  Even though I'll have an hour each time, I don't even know where to start, there's just so much to say and Brazilian women really know so little about the subject.  It's an exciting opportunity though and a great door for ministry and to talk about the Lord.

8.  Our city here has free aerobic classes in the park open to anyone.  It's called "open gym" and is out in a huge central plaza.  A teacher stands on the stage and about 100 people go!  You don't have to sign up or anything, just come.  And there's free equipment to use, like steps for step aerobics

and everything so it's pretty well put together.  MWF 7:30-8:30pm.  I've been trying to go at least once a week.  It's a great way to meet women!

Trip Whirlwind

  What a wonderful, refreshing whirlwind the past weeks have been!
First we went on a retreat as a base to Venezuela.

Our team, minus 1 couple and 2 kids

The hotel we stayed in was so cute and had a game area right outside the rooms so we could put the kids to bed and still relax together.  The devotions were encouraging, conversations were refreshing, the cooler mountain weather was greatly appreciated, and we also found out that pizza in Venezuela is much more like the kind in the States...yum!  

I loved the hotel's quaint style and the exchange rate being so favorable to us in Venezuela made it SUPER cheap!

Devotional time...no special speakers, but that gave several of the team members a chance to share

 One day we went to a waterfall that pours into a jasper rock area.  Just beautiful! The rest of the time, we just relaxed.  It was the first time in several years that the whole team has just gotten away to spend time together, and I'm so glad we were able to be part of this spur of the moment get-away.

 Two days after returning from Venezuela, Elijah and I took a trip to AZ to spend some time with my family.  There were so many reasons for the trip, and I'm SO glad I took the opportunity to go.  Elijah was a lap child on the plane, and he did amazingly!!!  We even wound up with an extra seat (or 2!) next to us on 4 of the 7 plane rides that we took in the process of going and coming.  I'm so proud of my little international travel buddy who has now taken off and landed 24 times in his 23 months and I only remember 1 of those flights being really horrible.

Anyway, time with family was what it was all about.  We were able to go visit with Joe about 5 times, including going to parks and out to eat.

And now that my parents are in AZ, I get the added fun of visiting my college room mate, Bekah.  We got together twice, and one of the times it was without kids and we had the most fabulous dinner and side splitting laughs. Truly therapeutic :) 

 Then there was fun with my sister, Jamie, and nephew, Noah.  They came up to Gilbert for a few days and we went down to Tucson overnight.

Playing with G-ma's bowls

The boys fought over toys constantly!  At one point we had to set up separate "slides" for them to send things down and my dad had to act as the dividing line to keep them away from each other!

 Also, my grandma came out from NJ for a visit for a few of the days we were there.  It was very nice to get to see her.

Time to tuck in after a long day of fighting...I mean playing :)  This set up was just for story time since they would never have lasted all night like this!

Also, once of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing Elijah take off talking!  It seriously was night to day.  When we first got there, Elijah wouldn't say anything.  For example, even though he KNEW the word ball and had said it many times, he wouldn't say it even though he wanted a ball desperately.  He just wouldn't talk on anyone's terms but his.  But during the time there, he suddenly decided it was time and is now repeating almost anything and talking to request things too.  Cup, door, shoes, milk, more, thank you, etc.  It's so fun to see and Jeyson especially noticed the change when we got back.  Oh and he also got his ears checked in the US and is hearing perfectly now.  There definitely could be a connection as well as only hearing English for a few weeks.  We're hoping the ears stay that way and don't clog up again now that he's off meds again.

Anyway, all in all, it was an excellent time.  Refreshing, renewing, meaningful, etc.  I'm so glad I went.  And now, I'm SO glad to be back home and getting myself organized and in a routine again.  With no guests or trips on the horizon, it's time to settle in.