An Indigenous Weekend

If you like tons of pictures, you've come to the right post! Several weeks ago we went to a conference at the YWAM base in Goiania that was all about the indigenous people of Brazil, the struggles they are facing and reaching them with the good news of Jesus Christ.







The conference was terrific and we learned so much. One of the best parts about the weekend event was that it was actually organized and lead by indigenous people who were eager to share about their people's needs and hopes. Many of the indigenous people at the conference had very recently left their tribes (some this year) to either seek refuge or study at a college or seminary with the plan of returning to help their tribe. Henrique (above), from the Terena tribe, was the conference leader.

Whole indigenous families came to the event...like this adorable boy.

One of the needs the Indians mentioned was the need to for more Bible translators. There are still MANY tribes in Brazil who have never heard the good news in their language.

Above is a table of Bibles that have been translated into indigenous languages in Brazil.

Although the Indians were from many different tribes and situations, it was so neat to see how they cared for one another in a special way.

Vanessa (from Asas) with a very special mother and daughter. This young girl was born physically handicapped, and in following with the tribe's practices, she was buried alive. The young mother rescued her and has been seeking refuge in Brasilia with another indigenous family. Although it may seem like the mother and I have nothing in common, we do....we're both still learning Portuguese! It was amazing to see how she lovingly cared for her daughter. Government rules are very straight about her tribe, no one from the outside is allowed to enter the village....not even Indians from other tribes. It was amazing to learn that after she became a Christian and is now planning to return to live in her tribe so she can tell others about her new life in Christ.

One of the best parts of the weekend was really getting to know our indigenous brothers and sisters in Christ personally. In fact, 2 families stayed with us at Jeyson's parents' house for the weekend. We had a great Brazilian bbq to celebrate Jeyson's birthday together with our special guests. In the picture Eli, from the Ticuna tribe (right) appears to have a mustache, but really it is traditional paint that the Indians wore over the weekend. Each clan has a different design, this one was a jaguar. While they don't wear paint ever day, they do on special occasions, including this conference.

Jeyson showing Eli's sons how to fly a Frisbee.

Also to celebrate Jeyson's birthday, we brought ingredients to make smores. We had a great time showing them a little of our culture :)

Eli and his family left their village about 4 years ago and now live in Brasilia in order to serve in a special ministry. They help mother's of children whose life is in danger of infanticide seek refuge. They also assist young Indians temporarily live in the city to get a medical or seminary degree and then return to their tribe. Their house is always very full and they have poured their whole lives into this ministry.

Eli's beautiful wife, Anita, is on the right

The boys loved the Braun's dog, Bobby

The little girl in the picture, Hakani, has a very special story. As a young child, Hakani was buried alive by her tribe, against her parents' wishes (they actually comitted suicide as a result) Hakani's brother unburied her, rescued her, and kept her hidden in the forest and brought her food. Eventually he was able to bring her to the attention of a missionary couple and she was able to get help for her physical problems. She was later adopted by the missionary couple, Marcia and Suzuki. This couple has founded a mission, and if you're interested in seeing more details click here - http://voiceforlife.blogspot.com Over the weekend, several dramas were presented by the young Indians. They also dressed in traditional outfits.

Jorge left his village this year and is living and studying here in Anapolis! We drove him home after the conference and plan to get together with him soon!

One of the neatest parts of the conference was hearing about the indigenous Christians hopes and reality of being part of bringing the Gospel message to other tribes. It is becoming more and more difficult for outsiders (including Brazilians) to enter tribes, so in many tribes it is now up to the Indians to serve as missionaries. Henrique, from the Terena tribe does just that and our mission has assisted him many times with transportation to remote places. We loved getting to see the fruit of our ministry with Asas de Socorro first hand! What an encouragement!

Although there are many problems in the tribes with infanticide and alcoholism, it is exciting to see a new generation raising up who know the Truth and are desiring to bring it to others.

This little boy was also buried alive, but God brought others along to rescue him. Because of that, however, he needs to have monthly blood transfusions. Just to have a perspective on the problem, in the Yanomami tribe in the northern amazon, of all the infant deaths, 80% are infanticide. The parents are forced to kill their children for reasons such as defects and even twins!

As the conference was brought to a close in a service on Sunday, we had a very special moment together celebrating communion using the "ingredients" that are used in the tribes. Since no wheat is grown there, the Christians make a bread type of substance from manioc and cook it together. It turns out to look sort of like a big tortilla, but it is very stretchy. It was such a special moment to really see and experience how we are all one in Christ, despite many differences in our culture.

Also, since grapes do noy exist where the tribes are, they use juice from a berry, acai or from the guarana fruit...depending on the tribe. Although these are not traditional for us, these elements have the same, deep, meaningful significance to the Indians that ours had to us. In one tribe they put the large cup make from a gourd on the ground. When you come up to drink from the cup, you have to get down on the ground to reach it. They do this to symbolize that in order to be in a right relationship with God, we must humble ourselves....such a deep truth.

Wow this post wound up being quite long...so much to say, and there is still so much I wish I could add. We walked away from the conference SO encouraged to be a small part of this great work of bringing the Gospel message to these precious indigenous people.

He Passed!

Yes, that's right...Jeyson passed his written commercial pilot's test! This week we left our home early Monday morning and Jeyson once again faced that really tough 5 subject commercial pilot's written exam in Brasilia.

After 4 intense hours of testing, Jeyson came out of the testing room with a big smile. (Well, actually, first he came out with a serious, disappointed look for a second, just to trick me and THEN broke out in a smile :) We are so thankful to the Lord for seeing Jeyson faithfully through this step in the process. Thank you so much for your support and prayer! Congratulations, Jeyson! Now, for the next step...intense hands-on commercial pilot's training.

My Wonderful Husband

This week was Jeyson's birthday, and we had a great time celebrating, first as a couple on the actual day, then with our couple's group on Wednesday.

We had a surprise cake and celebrated Jeyson's birthday, and also Andres's birthday, since they were born only a few days apart.

We have made some great friends here, so it was really meaningful to have them be part of the special occasion.

Jeyson is just the most wonderful husband. He is kind, fun, giving, compassionate, thoughtful, and so patient and supportive as I adjust to Brazil. He is intelligent, forgiving, optimistic, calm, and always speaks positively of others. When I look around my house I see notes and flowers from him, which I love! However, I also see all kinds of creative things Jeyson has made or fixed around the house to make things a little easier for me. These things not only show how thoughtful Jeyson is to think of these 'inventions' for me, but they also show just how talented he is, especially considering how limited materials and tools are here! So, if you haven't noticed, today's post is going to be quite different from normal. Today it's all about me sharing a little about how wonderful Jeyson is...and specifically (below) how talented he is. Stay tuned next week for tons of photos of new indigenous friends we made, but in the meantime this week we're celebrating my wonderful, talented husband :)

One of the areas that Jeyson is especially talented in, is electricity. You might remember the story of our new house's outlets.....basically to recap....there are almost none. Specifically, our kitchen had 1 outlet at the entrance of the room...far from where everything needed to be plugged in. Somehow, in a matter of 2 hours, our microwave, toaster, fridge, lights, and more were plugged in and there were outlets to spare...and the original one wasn't even used! I'm still trying to figure out how this happened.

Also I found this homemade lamp installed over the sink, where it is quite dark. (Please excuse the overflowing drying rack :)

I also found this wonderful, hidden-away transformer ready to go. Here in Anapolis, our voltage is 220, but most of our appliances are 110, so we have to use a transformer to plug anything in. However, transformers are bulky, hot, and take up counter space. To make using the transformer in the kitchen so much easier, Jeyson created this little system to hide the transformer in the cabinet. Then, the wire leads out of the cabinet and has a switch for when we want to turn it on, and we plug the appliance in to the outlet he set up on the right.

When we moved in, there was no outside lighting, or even a place to put a light bulb. Before I even noticed the problem, Jeyson had already installed these lights for our back porch and plenty of line to hang our clothes on. It make it so much nicer to have an evening bbq in our backyard when we can see our plates :)

Speaking of grills, another specialty area of Jeyson's is welding. Jeyson never had a formal course, but has spent tons of time studying and researching on his own and has taught himself the basics and has made TONS of projects. My favorite is the grill that he made from an old metal drum, which he cut in half and doubled up for thickness. He welded the whole frame, etc. It even has several great features, including that the grill can be raised and lowered to bring the meat closer to the fire, and on the right there is a wooden cutting board that can pop out to be washed in the kitchen.



Jeyson has also put his welding skills into practice at Asas, where he has (from scrap material) made these handy rolling chairs designed to sit on while working under the planes. The trays on the bottom are to hold tools.

This next invention will probably seem strange, unless you understand how badly I wanted one of those Chinese paper floor lamps available in the States. Since they're not available here, Jeyson made one for me by welding a frame together and covering it with material.

Since counter space and cabinets are about as limited in our kitchen as outlets, Jeyson made this wonderful rolling cart for my mixer and baking supplies. I simply roll it over to the outlet, plug it in, and I am ready to go with all of my ingredients.

Jeyson welded and painted the frame and varnished the shelves. Not only is it sturdier and nicer than any cart I have seen here, it constantly reminds me how caring Jeyson is!

Although I've already posted a picture of this screen door that Jeyson made, I couldn't leave it out on this post of Jeyson's 'inventions'.

Every time I turn around, there are new hooks,

or shelves on the wall,

or wheels under the coffee table. They all remind me how caring Jeyson is and what a wonderful support he has been as I learn to live life in this country that has a lot less conveniences. I get the feeling though, that he'd still be busy with his projects if we lived in the States :) I'm so glad God brought Jeyson into my life. The last year and a half married to Jeyson has been such a blessing, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him!

A Packed Week

There is always so much to catch up on, but this past week was exceptionally packed, and a really fun week, too!

(below) Friday evening was our latest Cafe Club. Although the group was a little smaller this time (about 50 people) at the end we all agreed that it was the best one so far. This time about half of the people were from the community and not part of our (or another) church. The conversation at this Cafe Club seemed to be exceptionally meaningful, and we really feel like we were able to begin or deepen relationships -which is exactly our goal.

Above is a picture of me with my student Nina (second to right) along with the group she brought from her family.

The people who came out seemed to be genuinely interested in the message,

as well as interested in meeting others, practicing English,

as well as participating in the discussion groups about the message....

that Tiago (James in Portuguese) lead (above)

Also the logistics seemed to go especially smoothly. Since this was our third time pulling things together, we seemed to really be getting the hang of things. I made chocolate chip cookies for the event (something that is only beginning to exist here) and people really enjoyed them! Someone came up to the food table and rather skeptically wanted to confirm that he was going to eat "Authentic American Cookies". I said, well I'm American and it's a recipe I found in the States, so I guess they're as American as they can get. He seemed quite relieved and ate 3 :)

Above is a picture with another one of my students, Angelina, who also came out to Cafe Club.

Then on Saturday morning we took several teens from our church on a panoramic flight. (By "we" I mean Jeyson did and I took pictures :)

You might remember a while ago that we were asked to be part of a challenge for the teens in our church to take their faith seriously. This involved a movie night, a talk with the teens, and then a tour of our mission. To follow up with that, we raffled off a panoramic flight and the three winners finally were able to do that this weekend.

Jeyson doing a pre-flight check of the plane

It's critical to make sure everything is in order

Clear for take off! These teens had never flown before, so they were a little nervous but did great.

It was so refreshing to once again be involved with these teens and we're looking forward to future opportunities.

The rest of the weekend was tons of fun. We went out with some friends to a restaurant where you choose your own pasta sauce ingredients (mushrooms, chicken, etc), sauce, and pasta and the cook puts it together in front of you...Think an omelet bar, but with pasta. Jeyson's mom also came by on Saturday with one of Jeyson's cousins that he hadn't seen in over 15 years! It was fun to get to know her. We also went out for some pizza with some missionary friends and their 4 kids, and then on Monday we returned to Asas as usual. However, the weekend fun wasn't over yet! Monday evening we went to a country style "county fair" here in Anapolis where I even got to pet a zebu. I don't have any pictures yet, but will post them when I can. I told you it was a really fun weekend!

Now back to pictures....we also went to Walmart in Goiania. In a lot of ways, Walmart here is just like in the States. Almost all of the products are produced here, and there are a lot of American things you can't get, but it's basically the same kind of feel....except for this aisle.

In Brazil it's very common here for even middle class people to have a "maid", or housekeeper, so Walmart has an aisle to meet your maid's uniform needs! Look at all the colors you can choose from!

Another VERY, VERY exciting find at Walmart is a Brazilian brand of tortillas! We have seen imported tortillas before, but they were way too expensive. We have also seen some Arabic bread that is similar to a tortilla in texture and shape, but the taste was pretty different. Although we used it, it just wasn't a taco to us. So, now they've finally arrived...affordable, "real" tasting, Brazilian tortillas! We bought 5 bags since we don't come to Walmart much, and we're celebrating with fajitas tonight. Speaking of which, I better get cooking!