Our Commissioning

On Sunday we were officially commissioned to our ministry by our sending church, Calvary Bible Church. This was a very significant day for us that we have been leading up to for many years. In the service we shared our testimonies and the elders, deacons, and missions committee stood with us and prayed for us. We know it is impossible for us to be "lone rangers" in ministry, so we are so glad our church is willing to officially take on the responsibility of encouraging, supporting, and keeping us accountable in ministry.

Sometimes it seems so unreal that we will be getting on a plane in a few weeks to head to Brazil. It is moments like the commissioning service though, that helps the truth sink in. As each day passes we get more and more excited to get established and "dig in" to what God has in store for us in Brazil. Also as reality hits I, Stephanie, am beginning to process more that I will really be leaving my family and all I have known - it can be emotional at times. So many changes all at one time!

Tomorrow we will be making a trip to the Ecuadorian consulate in order to get Jeyson's Ecuadorian passport renewed. Although this does not have to do with the situation with Stephanie getting a visa, we have to do it so Jeyson can continue to get long stays in the US next time he comes. Then on Friday we will be leaving to spend about two weeks in Chicago. We are so excited to return to our college home as a married couple! For now though we are headed out to dessert with Stephanie's family to "live up" our last weeks with them!

Our Trip Down South and Some Not-So-Exciting News

This weekend we took we went our our first ministry sharing trip as a married couple. Stephanie's sister, Danielle, and her husband, Adam, had shared about our ministry with their church in Virginia and we were invited by them to come share more with the church.
We had a short time to share in the service and we went out to lunch with the missions committee after. The church was so welcoming to us and we walked away from the opportunity feeling so encouraged by their passion for missions. Although the church is relatively small and is working hard to raise funds to replace a building, they still place a HUGE priority on funding ministry outreach overseas. It is such an encouragement to us to see that kind of excitement and dedication - it helps us become even more excited and dedicated too!Here is our table in the back of the church where we met some new friends and were able to share more about our work in Brazil.

In addition to our time sharing with the church, we also had a great time with Danielle and Adam. They have been married four years and are both teachers. Danielle teaches elementary school and Adam teaches middle school history. We took a ferry ride, played games, visited Danielle's classroom, and ate LOTS of Mexican food - a treat for us! These pictures are of our nacho making and our ferry ride.

Now yesterday and today, back in New Jersey, we are back to the grind. We have a lot to do to get ready to move out of the country and to prepare for more trips to share about our ministry. One of the major steps in the process of Stephanie moving to Brazil is getting her permanent Brazilian visa (this of course not a problem for Jeyson because he is Brazilian). Since we will be doing this process while IN Brazil, in our research we had previously learned she would have to get a tourist visa to get TO Brazil where she would apply for her permanent visa. This seemed like a straightforward process since Stephanie has gotten tourist visas several times before. So, today as we were beginning to plan our trip to NYC to get the visa we called to confirm what exactly would be needed to get the tourist visa (to prevent showing all the way up on the city only to discover we are missing a document). Anyway, during this phone call we found out the very "not-so-exciting" news that the Brazilian embassy requires a ROUND TRIP ticket as one of the documents to get the tourist visa. Unfortunately, since at this point we have no foreseeable plans to return we only purchased a one way ticket and to purchase the other way will cost about $1,000! Of course this doesn't even make sense in our situation to get a round trip ticket because the whole purpose in going is to not return like a tourist does, but so far we have not had success explaining the situation to get an exception. For several hours we pursued explaining this situation to various people at the consulate but everyone so far has wanted to stick to the book because it's a requirement to have this round trip ticket. Anyway, with all that said we began to pray about the situation and we sought more people who might help and it looks like we may be able to make our case to the Chicago consulate when we are in the area in 2 weeks. So, please pray for us as we face this dilemma not only as we seek to get this tourist visa, but also as we try to get the permanent visa in Brazil!

"Goin' to the Chapel"

Well the big day has finally come and gone. After hours of preparation and countless trips to pick up guests from Newark Airport, we are now officially Jeyson and Stephanie Braun! It is impossible to capture in a single entry all that has happened in the past few weeks, but here is our best shot.

In the beginning of December Jeyson's family, Jonas, Iria, and Lika Braun, flew in from Brazil to spend several weeks with the Ciotta family before the wedding. It was such an exciting time because our families had never met before.

The Brauns had never been to New Jersey before, so there were so many new places to take them to show them around. We went down the the shore area (even though it was SO cold!) and up towards New York. We introduced them to NJ/NY style pizza and of course put them to work on some last minute wedding prep. We had a lot of fun and especially enjoyed spending Christmas together. The picture here is of our Christmas dinner. (left to right is Stephanie, Jeyson, Jonas, Iria, Lika, and Bruce). We had Chinese food for Christmas...a little unusual but we all loved it and and with the wedding in 4 days easy was just what we needed!

After Christmas, each day new family and friends arrived in town. Stephanie's siblings came in from Virginia and South Carolina and Jeyson's brother and his wife came from California. It was so fun to all be together! There was so much to do, but we made sure to just enjoy the moment too knowing it is unlikely we will ALL be together again anytime soon.

The day before the wedding was such a crazy day - this was the day to tackle all of the behind the scenes tasks. Then we had the rehearsal and a very casual dinner of pizza back at our house following the practice. Wow, you don't realize how big your family is until they are all in one kitchen! It was definitely a bonding experience!

The next morning of course was the wedding. It really was such a special day for us and so beautiful to make a lifelong covenant in front of everyone who means so much to us. One of the most meaningful parts was having our fathers come up with us and bless us.


After our wedding we went on our honeymoon. With so much going on with support raising and family coming in town, we decided to go with an easy honeymoon that involved no planning - a cruise. Stephanie loved the idea of beaches and and Jeyson loved the idea of the all you can eat buffets :) We left on a cruise from Bayonne, NJ and went to the Dominican Republic, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico. It was so relaxing to just wake up each morning at a new destination without having to worry about traveling. Each destination was so unique and we loved trying different foods and activities like snorkeling and hiking. There was so much to do on the huge ship (almost 5,000 people including the crew!). It would have been impossible to do everything.

We came back to "real life" on Sunday and have a lot of catching up to do. Stephanie finished up her job before our wedding so we are both focusing full time on support raising and preparing to leave for Brazil. We will be traveling to Virginia and Illinois, speaking at several churches and meeting with missions committees. Please pray for us as we travel and continue to raise the funds we need to head to the field.