English Oasis

I didn't realize how much I miss being surrounded by English until this week when we went to an English church service. Some American friends of ours from the mission found out that a local English school (which is run by a Christian) has a worship service in English once a month and they invited us to also come. I can't tell you how refreshing it was to be surrounded by a language you can completely understand and for once to be the one who does not speak with an accent! It was also so refreshing spiritually to be able to hear a message and sing songs in my heart language. We definitely plan to return for the next service at the end of September. I also mentioned the service in my English conversation class and everyone seemed interested in coming too! What a great opportunity!

Speaking of fun in English, here's a little peak into how getting together with my family has changed drastically now that we're VERY far apart.

Where do you think we are in the above picture? Believe it or not, we're at a birthday party! My brother Joseph, who is in NJ, turned 21 last week. Rather than just celebrating with the small part of the family still in NJ, my dad decided to invite us in Brazil and my other sisters in VA and SC to join them at the party on a conference call via Skype. For those of you who don't know Skype, it's a free computer program that you can use to call anyone in the world computer to computer for free! It is so great to live overseas at a time where communication is so easy!
Back in the world of face to face communication, I was finally able to take some pictures of my conversation class. As you can see, the class is grew a little from last week since one of the students who missed last week came back, and another student will be able to return in a few weeks. So, it looks like I will have 6 students in total, which seems to be a perfect number - big enough for fun activities, but small enough to know each student individually.
Here the students are working in pairs to discuss some questions before coming back together as a group.
Please continue to pray for us as we meet together.

This week Jeyson took the camera to the hangar and got some good photos:

It was Friday afternoon and it looks like things were wrapped up for the week.

Well one last thing to fill you in on is our "newlyweds" Bible study that I mentioned last week. We were so excited to start last week but several of the couples were sick and couldn't make it. We decided it was better to start strong with the whole group together so we put the first get together on hold until tonight. This evening will be the first of the four meetings and I'll let you know next time how it goes. Please pray for us if you think of it!

New Hair and a New Heart

First, before getting around to explaining the title of this blog, I am going to post a few pictures from the past week.
On Friday we went to farewell Brazilian bbq for an Asas couple heading to live/serve in the Amazon area. The man on the right is the husband from the couple.
This couple who was leaving was just like us. The husband worked with Asas missionaries here in Anapolis to get all of the ratings/experience necessary to move to the Amazon and serve as a pilot and mechanic. It is so exciting to see others who have gone before us, finished everything, and are moving onto the next step. We can't wait to get there, but are enjoying where God has us for now. Above you can see the Brazilian style of bbq. Someone (in this case Jeyson) comes around with bite sized pieces of meat and everyone just picks one and eats it with their fingers. This way you can try tons of different kinds as each time the tray is passed around it is usually a different type. The focus of the event is really conversation as you leisurely enjoy a delicious meal. You can also see me - the one sitting closest to where Jeyson is standing.
Above is a picture Jeyson took this week in the hangar. Each day before beginning work, the men have a morning devotional that they rotate leading.
Also above is a picture of Jeyson on our new motorcycle for getting around town, as I mentioned in the last post.

Well, thanks so much if you were praying about this new ESL ministry. Yesterday was our second meeting which went really well, but sadly I forgot to take pictures again! Our group was smaller this week. I had imagined the group might shrink some since, although most of the students are a fairly high level of English, a few were a lot lower and weren't able to get as much out of the time practicing conversation. Although a smaller group might seem discouraging, actually in a way I was glad because the time together was better quality.

Our Bible study time also went really well and I was so encouraged about the feedback about last week's Bible study. One of the students who came again this week is not a believer, but after the Bible study last week she mentioned to another student how much she enjoyed this part of the "class"! She has never studied the Bible like this before, so please keep praying!

Another really neat thing I learned was the testimony of one of the students who just became a Christian a few months ago. Lorena had several friends who were Christians and they had shared the Gospel with her, but she was not ready yet to make a decision. Then a few months ago she went to a salon to get her hair cut. The woman cutting the hair of the person next to Lorena started sharing the Gospel with her client. Lorena listened to the conversation and was compelled by the message. Right there, in the salon, she prayed a silent prayer giving her life to God and she came out of the salon with a new hairdo and a new heart. When she went home she called one of her friends (also in our ESL group) and told her about her decision. It is such an awesome story about how God can use people of any profession to share His love and salvation, even when you don't know if anyone is listening. Lorena is really excited about her faith but has so much to learn and to grow. Please pray that if God put me in her life to help her in this way that He will show me how.

Speaking of groups and meetings, tomorrow is the beginning of us finally putting our FamilyLife material we got into practice. You might remember back in February we went to a FamilyLife marriage conference and were very excited about their concept of "homebuilders" groups - basically a small group for couples wanting to build their marriage. We were really excited about the small group books/home courses that they put out and really feel like our marriage could grow from it so we wanted to start a group here in Brazil. Of course we are very newly married would normally make us very unqualified to teach anything about marriage, but the best part of this material is you don't have to teach anything. The studies are all set up so that the group looks at verses together and discussing them as a group. Being the leader means simply having the role of facilitating discussion and asking questions. All of that to say, we decided to start a little group of us and 4 other newly married couples from Asas de Socorro. (Several are also new as missionaries as well.) The book we chose to start with is "Keeping Your Covenant", a study that lasts for 4 weeks. We think this a great place to start because a 4 week course is a much less intimidating commitment, and after the month we will all reevaluate and decide what, if any, next step to take. Please pray for our time together as you think of it.

A New Ministry

After the last several posts packed with pictures, believe it or not - we forgot to take any pictures this week! Hopefully we'll remember our camera this coming week!

This week was the start of a new ministry I feel God has been putting on my heart for a long time. You may remember in June I was evaluating what would be my next endeavor to use English as a ministry and way to build relationships here in Brazil. Since coming back from our traveling, I have continued teaching at the children's program (where we're now all the way through the Old Testament in our reading through the children's Bible) and meeting with Angelina, a woman from the community. However, I was still wanting to do something more and decided to begin a ESL conversation group and Bible study in our home - which started this week.
I made lots of phone calls to people who might be interested or know someone who is, and yesterday at the first meeting 9 students showed up! I was happily surprised, as I had only imagined that 5 or so would actually come. Most of the students had never met each other before and range from 15-50 years old - though most are in the range of 18-23 years old. Everyone is in a different place spiritually. Some have been Christians for a while, others are new believers, and others may not yet be believers. It is a terrific opportunity, especially because part of the time together is a Bible study.
During the time together we did several activities to get their English "warmed up" and we watched a video clip which led into a good discussion. Then, we studied/discussed the very simple parable of the man who finds a pearl and sells everything to buy it. Although I was pretty nervous before the first "class", things really turned out well. There was lots of great discussion and a surprising amount of interest and participation in the Bible study section. I really feel this is something God led me to do and I can see already why!
I would really appreciate your prayer on Wednesdays as I continue to meet with these students! Please pray that I would be able to build solid relationships with them, minister to them spiritually, and teach to the best of my ability.
Speaking of prayer, we also had a big answer to prayer this week as we were able to find some temporary reliable transportation. If you were reading our blog in June you know about our continual car struggles. One of the issues we are facing is the extremely high cost of gas here - almost $6 a gallon! Also, our old car seems to always be having problems (and currently is again) and we haven't even started the process of selling/buying a new one. So, all that to say we bought a simple motorcycle just for getting around our town. I never imagined myself as a motorcycle kind of woman, but we're learning it's all about flexibility here! Motorcycles are also much more common here - maybe 25% of vehicles that you see in the city are motorcycles. Jeyson already had his license, so we're in business.
Speaking of Jeyson, a little update on him is that this week he has started preparing for his commercial pilot's test. This is the written test that comes before he can start hands on learning. He will continue his normal responsibilities or mechanics/flying for most of the day, and take some time each afternoon to study on his own. Like all aviation tests here, it's known to be very difficult, so we'd also appreciate your prayer for him as he prepares. He hasn't scheduled the date of the test yet, but it will possibly be in November.
Well that's about it for our picture-less blog update. Check back next week and we'll hopefully have pictures to make up for it!

Wedding & Just for Fun

If you love pictures, then this is the blog post for you! If you remember, in addition to our ministry trip (pictures from that are in the previous post), over the past weeks we also went to Goiania to be part of Lika's (Jeyson's sister) wedding. Here are tons of pictures from the wedding and the fun days we had with the Braun family around that time. Finally, we had the chance to see some of the interesting places close to us in Anapolis and unwind with some fun adventures.
Hope you enjoy the little album!





The first event when we arrived at the Braun household was wedding preparation:


The wedding was at their farm so there was lots of work to do. Here Jeyson and Johnny are digging a hole for some decorations.And Jeyson's aunt is busy making a HUGE amount of boccoli salad (about 200 people came!)And the day of the wedding we were sent on a quick errand to the neighborhood "supermarket" (as we jokingly called it) to pick up some more lettuce. It's so funny to me that lettuce usually comes in sets of three heads and are stuck together on these little shish kebab sticks. Jeyson and I call them lettuce-kebabs :)However, 3 hours before the wedding there was a major problem. ALL of the rental stuff had not arrived yet. And that included tables, chairs, wedding gazebo, plates, cups, silverware, pretty much everything! It was supposed to arrive the day before the wedding, but there was no arrival. Then, it was promised to arrive first thing in the morning the day of the wedding. The wedding was supposed to start at 4:30. By noon there was still no word about where the stuff was. At about 1:30 there is finally a call from the company saying that the car/trailer with all of the stuff was on its way but got stuck a distance away on a dirt road. (Wow, I am SO glad this didn't happen in our wedding...I would not have been anywhere near as calm as these Brazilian relatives of mine!)All of the Braun relatives start brainstorming about what to do. Eventually a truck was driven to the car and it was pulled up the road with all of the wedding equipment in tow. Everything finally arrived! Everyone quickly went to work.
There was so much to do and everyone was running around. This picture is so cute. With all of the commotion it seems our baby cousin was forgotten here in the stroller on the left :) You may have to click on the picture to see better.

And in about 2 hours the farm was somehow transformed to this beautiful scene.
The wedding itself was amazing! Mario Jr and Lika were a beautiful couple!

A beautiful reception.
Us with Johnny & Krista.
The cake/toast.
After the wedding the stacks of dishes were a little scary!

But somehow we washed them all and within a day things returned to normal.

Brazil has some of the most beautiful sunsets!

The Brauns all relaxing together the day after the wedding.

The extended family stayed until the day after the wedding, then most people headed out of town. Above is a picture of Jeyson and his uncle sharing a typical tea drink in Brazil. Only Johnny & Krista stayed for another week or so, and they were anxious to experience Brazil. We got to spend several really fun days with them taking little day trips. Here are some of the pictures.

A hike to a nearby lake.
On this hike we passed this big empty field and this cow was just standing in the middle like a scarecrow.
We made it down to the little lake.

Back from the hike, Johnny and Jeyson decided to take up the big challenge of giving the Braun's farm dog a bath. After a lot of resistance, they finally were successful
One evening on the way back to the farm we saw this funny scene and I couldn't resist a picture. On the left you can see a lady who is the passenger on a motorcycle. She was home with a huge piece of wall art! That must have been terrifying (not to mention unsafe) to ride in crazy traffic without being able to hold on or even see!!!
Another day we took our siblings for a panoramic flight using an Asas plane. This was especially neat because Johnny and Krista are some of our supporters. It was so great to be able to show them first hand what it is like to fly in one of the mission's planes.

Another day we took a trip to a nearby historic city. It is a quaint little town to go shopping and outside the town you can go hiking and see waterfalls. We had never been there before, and we definitely want to go back another weekend since it's only 45 minutes away from our house.
Some of Jeyson's relatives who live on the Braun's farm also came. Here is our uncle and little cousin.
Here is a huge Catholic church in the town
Jeyson crossing a bridge in the town
We went to this waterfall, which actually was quite bigger than you can see in the picture. Jeyson convinced me to go swimming in the freezing cold water too...though there are no pictures as evidence to show what a good sport I was to go along with it!
And a trip to the zoo, which was especially interesting because of all of the different animals I'd never seen before in the States.

A Tamandua da Bandeira - a kind of anteater
Antas - in the elephant family

And a Brahmin Cebu - After the famous VeggieTale song I can now show that I've seen a real one. These are actually the common cow here, of course this one is a bull.

And Jeyson & Johnny checking out another exhibit at the zoo - an old truck. I thought watching them inspect the truck very entertaining!

And a refreshing stop at a stand to drink "coconut water" straight from the coconut using a straw. If you look closely, you can see this coconut stand itself is part of a motorcycle. He just parks and opens up the stand. I wanted to bring this cute dog home, but we are trying hard to remember all of the advice given to us about not getting a dog so early in married life.

An interesting place we brought Johnny and Krista is the McCafe, which is owned by McDonalds. Believe it or not, it's an upscale Starbucks kind of place. You even drink out of real glass cups and saucers and get a cinnamon stick to stir your drink. It must be shocking when Brazilians visit the States and go to McDonalds there for the first time!
An another fun favorite of ours is Acai. This is a very delicious berry that is mixed up into sort of an icy pudding/smoothie and you put granola on top. It's starting to become popular in the States and it's definitely worth trying!And more fun back around the Braun's farm - horseback riding...
And a bonfire out by the pool...

A quick Braun family picture after the wedding day. Left to right - Lika (Jeyson's sister), Mario (Lika's new husband), Iria & Jonas (Jeyson's parents) me and Jeyson and the last couple on the right at Johnny (Jeyson's brother) and his wife Krista.
To finish our time together, Johnny, Krista, Jeyson, and I decided to take a one night trip to a famous town nearby. The city is famous because it is built on top of natural hot springs so there are tons of pools and water park kind of place all built on top that are heated by the water. It was so much fun to get away and spend some time together. Here we are at a little ice cream shop that features all kinds of different kinds of ice cream - from kiwi to condensed milk flavor. You get as much as you want and weigh it so you can try tons of kinds.
After ice cream we drove past this lake. It was so hot we decided to jump in. If you click on the picture you can see us in the water.
After getting out of the lake we were enjoying the view, not realizing Johnny was taking our picture.
A water park that is heated by natural hot springs. It was so refreshing. There was lots more to the park that can't be seeing from the picture - waterslides, hot tubs, saunas - all naturally heated. So refreshing!

And the last shot is of our Braun-side siblings when then dropped us back off at our house in Anapolis. We had a great, refreshing, relaxing time with them that we were definitely in need of!