And we're off and running....

This week has been packed and it's only the start of the crazy month of July. So I'm just going to take a few minutes to post quick pictures from this week and then give you some information about what's going here the next few weeks.

Also, just to let everyone know - because of the traveling we're going to be doing between now and the end of July, we're going to have VERY limited access to the internet, so I'm not sure how much we'll be able to post, never mind reply to email. In August everything will return to normal and we'll be back in regular communication again.

Ok to start, this week we had a fun social event at our mission. While a lot of the other missionaries are Brazilians, there are also people representing the US, Portugal, Argentina, and of course Jeyson with Ecuador. Also, within Brazil there are people from each of the 5 very diverse regions. So the event was a dinner where each country or region of Brazil set up a little table with decorations representing their country/region, served typical food, and wore typical clothes. It was a lot of fun and a great way to travel the world without jet lag! I decided to represent Ecuador with Jeyson rather than leave him alone to with all the work involved.

Looking around at the room with so many people groups represented, I couldn't help but think about how wonderful it will be one day in Glory seeing ALL of the cultures of the earth together praising God. Maybe we'll even get to try to typical food from each place :)

Here are some pictures:

Here is our table representing Ecuador. Thankfully Jeyson's family had typical clothes and things from Ecuador that we could display.


Here's a close up in our outfits. We decided to get dressed at home and just arrive wearing our outfits since it was easier. However, it never occurred to me that this might mean seeing people on the way! As we were walking out the door one of our neighbors was walking right by our door. We just said hi, got in our car, and didn't even bother trying to explain why I was wearing what looked like a nightgown and Jeyson was wearing a poncho and pan flute!!

Here is the Portugal table.

And one of the regions in Brazil

Jeyson having a typical drink from South Brazil.



And another table our friend Suze wearing a typical hat from the North.
Us and our good friends Andres and Camila. He is from Argentina, so they were representing there together.

Another really fun and different event of the week was getting to take our friends from church for a flight. Most of Jeyson's flying has been with missionary instructors or other people from the mission so this was a great experience for him to fly people who are not used to it, and even the wife had never flown before ever. It was a quick flight and afterwards the wife was so moved that she started crying out of joy. It was a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of the family. You may recognize the couple as our friends who we help with the preteens at our church.

A shot of the flight from the ground.

So now a little bit about our plans for the next weeks. At Asas in July things change a lot. Rather than Jeyson going everyday to the hangar as usual, instead we will have time off and then go on a 10 day, very intense medical/evangelistic trip to another State. This is a lot like the one day trip we went on to Brasilia a few weeks ago, but this time we will stay in the same city ministering a lot longer. Then when we return we will have another week or so off and in the first few days of August we get back to our regular routines.

During the first part when we will have off, we are headed to Goiania where Jeyson's family lives. On Saturday his sister, Lika, is getting married right on the Braun's property. There are already lots of relatives arriving and we can't wait to join in the fun. Even Jeyson's brother, Johnny, and his wife, Krista, came from the California and we can't wait to see them. There are also many Brauns coming who I have never met before and others who I have met when I visited Brazil in the past but could not speak to because I couldn't say a word in Portuguese. It will be so fun to finally get to have a conversation with them!

We really would love your prayer for us as we head out on this evangelistic trip. It is 10-15 hour bus ride (which is already tiring!), and each day there will be packed. Normally we get up around 6am and don't get to sleep until around 11pm. It is exhausting, so we would love your prayer for physical strength and energy. More importantly though, we really need you to pray that God will prepare hearts to hear His message and receive it. We are passionate about sharing the wonderful news of Jesus Christ and pray that God will bring lasting fruit from the trip. We can't wait to report when we get back. The trip will be from July 18-28.

Anyway, as I mentioned we will have very limited access to the internet in the coming weeks. (The Brauns don't have internet at their house and we won't be able to use it on our evangelistic trip.) If for some reason you write and we don't get back to you right away, we haven't forgotten you. We'll write as soon as we can!