The Results Are In....

Exciting news! Jeyson passed his commercial pilot's test yesterday!
I'm so proud of you, Jeyson, for faithfully pressing on even when the going got rough - even when it took a few tries to pass the written test, even when we weren't sure where the funds for the hours were coming from. God provided in amazing ways on every step of the journey and you did a great job!

Now we're one step closer to our move to the north of Brazil. We still don't know when or where, but it's exciting to be that much closer! Congratulations, Captain Braun, on your accomplishment! :)

Checkride Date At Last!

Good news! Jeyson was just able to get his checkride scheduled! His evaluation will on Friday at 3 EST. Thank you so much for praying that he would finally get news that he is scheduled! It took a long, long time for the government agency to process everything and give him a date, but it's here! Please pray for Jeyson to do well on everything he has been training for so long!

The World Cup: Brazil at the Peak of Excitement

It would be impossible to post right now without filling you in the main thing on most Brazilians mind this month: The World Cup. That's right, every four years one soccer team from each country has the chance to prove that they're the best in the world and every Brazilian is obsessed with making sure that happens in this year's competition. The world cup is a month long series of games and each team plays at least three times. If they win in their group, they advance to the next level and so on until only 1 team remains.



Every time the Brazilian team play,s Brazil literally stops. Everything closes: supermarkets, banks, government buildings, school, EVERYTHING! There is not a car on the streets as everyone gathers around their t.v. and cheers like there's no tomorrow. Every time a goal is made, fireworks go off and every time Brazil wins there's a party and/or bbq. It's crazy, but a lot of fun to be part of the cultural excitement!



Right now there's Brazilian flags everywhere! Many people even have special flags that fit onto the hood of their cars! On game days, even before the game starts people honk and shout and cheer in the streets.


We watched a game with our friends Andres and Camila and Camila's family. It was Brazil vs North Korea. Although Brazil won, people were only semi happy because North Korea scored one goal on Brazil, making the score 2 to 1 instead of the 483 to 0 hoped for :)

Brazilians go all out with decorations for the World Cup games. Here, Camila's family had green and yellow plates to represent Brazil's colors.

Concentrating on the game....no talking allowed unless there's a goal!

Enjoying popcorn during the game with Camila and Livia.

It's been a lot of crazy excitement lately - can you imagine what 2014 will be like then the World Cup will actually take place in Brazil?!? It's hard to even picture Brazil any more excited than it is right now with the World Cup in South Africa. It will be fun though!

Birthday Welding and Meal

Tuesday was Jeyson's 28th birthday. Happy Birthday Jeyson! You are a wonderful husband! Although it was a special day, we didn't have time to do anything too special other than breakfast in bed (which actually wound up in the living room) - Jeyson's still waking up in this picture :) We're going out to celebrate tonight instead of during the middle of the week.
Jeyson went to Asas and got to do one of his favorite activities in the world - welding! For the past few weeks Jeyson has been teaching the group of new pilot/mechanic missionaries and some external students a few different areas of mechanics. This is part of the process every new technical missionary has to go through in order to work on the planes and here at Asas the mechanics are taught by missionaries that are further along in the process, like Jeyson

Welding is Jeyson's favorite course to teach and he loves how the guys really get into it. Erik (on the right) is training with Asas for the next few years to serve as a pilot/mechanic in Africa once he gets all of his licenses.

Here's the external students. Having them as part of the course is not only an opportunity for outreach to non-Christians, but also their payments for the course makes it cheaper for the missionaries....a win-win situation.

Christian, Rodrigo, and Ricardo are three of the Asas missionaries who just arrived this year. Rodrigo is especially creative and makes all kinds of projects - including bicycles from bamboo!!!

Here's one of Jeyson's all time favorite recipes, which I made for dinner - It's so completely different than the normal tastes and I definitely recommend giving it a try, it's VERY easy!

"Thai Peanut Beef and Pea Pods over Noodles"

-Cook and drain 8 oz of thin spaghetti - set aside

-Cook 1 lb of ground beef in a skillet and drain.

-Add to the beef: 4 green onions (I use 1 regular chopped), 3 cups of fresh pea pods halved diagonally (I substituted green beans) and 1 red bell pepper cut in strips. Cook until veggies are crisp-tender

- In a bowl mix 1 1/2 cp chicken broth, 1/4 tea ground red pepper (cayenne), 1/4 tea salt, 2 tea cornstarch and stir into the pan

- Add 1/3 cp peanut butter and stir

- Cook a few minutes, stirring until thick and bubbly. Add a little water and continue cooking if it gets too thick

- Serve over spaghetti and sprinkle chopped, salted peanuts over

Garden Goodies

One of my favorite things about living in Brazil is that fruit and vegetables are very abundant and the friendly culture means people are happy to share whatever is popping up in their backyard at the time. Just this week, we received a bag full of clementines, lemons, a giant avocado, a container full of polenta (ok not from the garden, but from a student's kitchen), and a box full of tomatoes....



There's even more here, outside, ripening in the sun a little....

After making salsa and still having tons left, I found a recipe for homemade marinara sauce that I'm going to give a try one evening.

Another really fun thing we received (that actually cost a small price since this family does it as a way to make a little extra cash) is this 2 liter bottle of honey! One of Asas's more adventurous missionary couple has boxes for bees to make honey and harvests it by the bottle full! Talk about an interesting activity to do as a couple to keep your marriage SWEET :)

I've already made some muffins where I substituted honey for the sugar and they were terrific. What else would you do with 2 liters of honey?

Meanwhile, here's our garden situation...

While we were in Boa Vista ants came and took away almost every leaf from every plant in our yard! It was difficult to imagine how many ants this could have been, until the night after we were home we caught them in the act of taking the remains of the loot! I kid you not....there were probably over 10,000 ants swarming our yard leading a THICK parade of ants from a hole in the ground 3 houses away! Some ants were cutting leaves and creating a pile in the driveway, and another group was carrying off the leaves! We sprayed the hole and they left the next day, but it took 2 weeks for our garden to show signs of life again.

Finally, this pretty, yellow bush is growing some leaves back! We hope the rest of the yard will come back to life with a little TLC!

Meet the Mechanical Side of Boa Vista

Well, it's finally time to wrap up Boa Vista with some pictures of the maintenance project Jeyson was working on. I wanted to post this sooner but I've been knocked over by a serious cold! I am finally starting to feel better though and it's time to blog.



Here's the Asas hangar in Boa Vista where Jeyson spent most of the week.

He worked together with Vitor, a Brazilian mechanic (also of German descent) who serves at the base in Manaus. He also came over for the project and Jeyson really enjoyed working with him and learned a lot from him.

After my previous post saying that the project was not to fix the landing gear, Jeyson cleared me up and explained that I had understood exactly backwards...the project was all about fixing the landing gear. I"m not sure how I got that totally inverted....what can I say? I'm definitely not a mechanic :)

Since Asas's planes are always landing on really rough landing strips, after awhile the landing gear was starting to show wear from all of the stress on it.

And on a routine inspection, a crack was discovered inside one of the cavities that you can see on the floor of the plane above.

Here's the part that they took out that had the crack.....can you see it? (Jeyson's pointing to it)

REALLY tiny, huh? It is just to the right of my finger....super small and light.

However, when dealing with airplane mechanics, everything on the plane needs to be in PERFECT condition - this little crack could cause a serious problem and unlike a car, you can't pull over to take a look!


Jeyson really enjoyed his work in Boa Vista. He is very creative and mechanically inclined, so he really enjoyed the opportunity to improve his skills and knowledge.

But the part we enjoyed most about this trip was being able to be even closer to the "action" of our ministry. What a joy to know that when the plane is fixed it will be used to reach isolated people groups.

It is just such a joy to be part of that!

While Jeyson and Vitor worked on the plane, one of the pilots, Rodrigo, was getting ready to take off to one of the villages in the other plane. The first step is loading up the supplies.

The missionary on the left works with New Tribes Mission and he lives in Boa Vista. His ministry is shopping! Wouldn't that be a great full-time job and calling in ministry?!? The many villages where missionaries live receive a plane-load of supplies every two weeks. The missionaries send a list of everything they will need to this man and he shops all over the city for everything on their lists and sends it on the plane to them.

What's in the boxes? EVERYTHING you can imagine! Eggs, flour, medicine, diapers, nails, soap, meat, vegetables....

Every nook and cranny is packed...

And the back seats are taken out for more room. Things has to be packed very carefully though in order to distribute the weight evenly. The boxes are all organized by weight.

And off he goes! We met several missionaries who normally live in the villages but right now were in Boa Vista for various reasons. We had wonderful chats about their ministry, life in the villages, the tribe they serve, what God is doing, etc. They all say that without the ministry of Asas de Socorro their work would be impossible, all of the missionaries would have to leave the villages.

We are so excited and passionate about this ministry....thank you for being part of it!

You Know You Live in Brazil When....

These are two true little stories that happened to me on my way to Boa Vista.....Ahhh Brazil :)

As I was waiting for my flight at the airport, an elderly woman sat next to me. After chatting about where we were headed and why, the woman's plane was called for boarding. "Well that's my plane" she said, "It was great chatting with you!" Up to this point would be normal in the States, but I knew I lived in Brazil when she then reached over to me, gave me a long, tight hug and a kiss on not one, but TWO cheeks! If someone had taken a picture, it would have looked like this....

Then, a little while later I was on my plane to Boa Vista. Similarly, the gentleman next to me made a few minutes of small talk with me. He asked me where I would be staying and I said that my husband would pick me up from the airport and we were staying somewhere in the city, but I wasn't sure exactly where. (To me obviously meaning that even though I didn't know where we would stay that Jeyson did). However, this is Brazil! When the man heard that I didn't know where I was staying, without skipping a beat, he (as casually as offering a piece of gum) suggested "Well if you want you can stay with my family!"

Yes, at moments like these I know I live in Brazil....truly a warm, inviting country! And I love it!