Sigh....

What a crazy past few days! It was one of those situations where everything seems to be going wrong, nothing major in life, but many small things. So, what happened?

- For reasons I can't go into on our blog, 2 walls in our new home will need to be repainted - nothing horrific, but disappointing since our house is still brand new.





- Our computer is having some big probelms. It suddenly decided to stop allowing us to use any letters in the "home row". Whenever we type anything from D through "page down" on our laptop, nothing happens!

- Lastly, do you remember our car's tire situation from the post a few days ago? On Saturday we were driving to the outreach project and following 2 friends' cars. Suddenly someone stepped out into the highway to cross the street, and the cars in front of us came to a sudden (literally screeching) stop...only we we weren't able to stop so suddenly :) and hit our friends' car. Oh my! Two car problems in one week! This time we had radiator damage and a cracked bumper.

Fortunately though, through these crazy days we have been able to see God's hand in our lives. We are so thankful that nothing more severe happened to our car - imagine how bad it could have been! We also are so grateful that the first cars were able to stop in time so the person crossing the street wasn't hurt and that nothing happened to our friends' cars (not even the one we hit). We also were so thankful to have gotten in the accident RIGHT in front of a shop that fixes radiators! (Seriously, how could you not see God in that!) We were able to get the radiator part fixed that morning and can now drive fine even though the front is cracked.

Also, of course, the walls are paintable and we are hoping that buying a new keyboard on ebay and installing it in the laptop will fix the typing situation. I'll keep you posted on that. It was so funny though when we were trying to Google the problem. Since we couldn't use any of the keys from D over, we were trying to search "computer Keys won't work" - Of course it came out - "computer eys wont wor" The Google auto-fill kept coming up with "computer EYES wont work" Finally I was chatting with my Dad on Skype and he was able to do some searching for a new keyboard for me since I couldn't even type the word "keyboard" haha.




So, it's been a bittersweet week, but we are continuing on, trusting in Him. Oh, and in case you were wondering, we DID still go to the outreach on Saturday since we were most of the way there when the accident happened. I went ahead with some other cars and a few guys stayed behind with Jeyson. (I knew my emotional self was better off seeing people in much harder situations than us, rather than feeling emotional at the car scene!) Later Jeyson joined us when the car was drivable again. I'll post some pictures of the outreach in the next few days.

Weekly Adventures

How does the week fly by so fast? (No pun intended :)
I met with students, we had small group, Jeyson headed to the hangar...

It was his maintenance week this week....

so he was hard at work. Next week should be his flight week again.

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Here's another sight that I saw last week that I could have added to last week's post about unusual sights that you get used to. You never know what kind of interesting load a car, motorcycle, bike, or horse might be carrying around here!

Speaking of transportation, we had an unexpected adventure this week. On Wednesday morning Jeyson and I were heading in different directions. Just after Jeyson arrived at Asas I was driving along in the rain and heard a strange noise coming from the car. I got out only to notice that the back wheel of the car was COMPLETELY flat and had a large hole in it. In fact it even had water in it from the rain. I called Jeyson and he arrived on the motorcycle dressed in his full mechanics uniform (since he had been working on the planes). He started to change the tire for me - only to discover that the spare wheel we have in the car was for the wrong kind of car! (We haven't had a flat since we bought the car so we didn't know). So, since there's no AAA here and since we only have the car and motorcycle, Jeyon had to strap the car tires onto the back of the motorcycle to bring them to a tire store. I wish I had gotten a picture of that interesting sight! They put the tire from the spare on the flat wheel. An hour or two later I was back in business. I'm so thankful to be married to a handy, resourceful man! Meanwhile we have to get a new spare wheel to be more prepared next time!

Regardless of what the week holds, it's always great to unwind by having a Brazilian bbq for lunch like we did today.
Cleo grew up in a tribe where he first heard of Asas when the planes would come into his village.
He later left the tribe and wound up joining Asas as a mechanic. He was working hard at the grill.

Above is a couple that had just returned from being in a tribe. Literally, the Asas plane landed and they stepped off and they and the pilots joined us.

Andres was one of the pilots that transported them. Andres and Camila will be leaving in a few weeks to spend 5 months in Argentina raising support. We'll be dog sitting for them....we keep wondering - are we ready for this?!?

It's always relaxing to spend time together....especially around the grill :)

Two of my good friends and fellow missionaries - Camila and Rose

Jeyson with another missionary in the pilot/mechanic training process - Jefferson

Well now that the week is over, it's time for a ministry filled weekend. We'll be heading with our mission to a town near Brasilia where we'll be doing an evangelistic outreach trip. As usual they'll be work with children and teens, a medical/dental clinic, and we'll be involved with evangelism. The city is considered somewhat dangerous and is known for problems with drugs and prostitutes. Please pray for us tomorrow and I'll fill you in with pictures soon!

Feeling Like Home

As of a few weeks ago, I have lived in Brazil for 1 1/2 years. Life has changed so much, but it's amazing how much I've gotten used to the changes. In fact, I hardly even notice anymore some of the sights and experiences that I used to find SO different. Although there are tough days, I have to say, overall it feels like home here.



So, what are some of those things I've gotten used to that I used to think were SO different?


Seeing "owner-less" dogs living free in the city. They don't always travel together, but the other day there were 7 digging through garbage on a street. (I only was able to get 6 together in 1 shot though)

Don't let that scare you off from visiting though, they never pay attention to people....they live in their own world and are almost always small like this.

Also, huge bags of vegetables being sold on the street corner for $5. (Sorry about the fuzzy picture)

Shops along the street that sell huge slabs of granite for extremely cheap! You see it in even poor houses as counter tops, and it's even used as floor tiles.

"Convenience Stores" at gas stations that look like this. (There are some that actually have an indoor store, but the closest one to our home is this one)

The Sunday evening flee market in town where you can buy clothes,

Freshly made sugar cane juice (the sugar cane is in his hand and he is pushing it through a small machine)....

And drink straight from coconuts.

I hardly notice anymore that our shower water is heated eclectically, right over my head! (Except I did notice when I got shocked in our first home since it wasn't set up right. Talk about literal culture shock!)

And one of my favorite things that I've gotten used to, is being able to eat ice cream outdoors all year long :)

Speaking of feeling at home here....we have some exciting news...we decided to buy a tiny investment home here in Anapolis. We had savings before becoming missionaries and had the goal of using it for a home when we move to the north of Brazil so we wanted to find a good way to invest it while living in Anapolis. After talking with many wise people in our lives (our mission's leaders, American missionaries living in Brazil, relatives, etc) we decided buying a small starter home was the best investment in the Brazilian economy. We prayed and waited and looked and finally we found the right one for what we could afford. (Of course Brazilian homes are a fraction of the price compared to the States) So....we bought it. It is actually only a hop away from where our old house was, so we are able to easily continue relationships from our old neighborhood and we are excited that here our new next door neighbors will be moving in in a few weeks. They are a young couple that is about to get married. We know they are not believers so we are praying that we will be able to build and evangelistic relationship with them. Well, on to some pictures!

This is the outside of the house. Unfortunately, you can't really see the home since all houses here have huge walls around them, but hopefully it give you an idea. The big door is the garage door. The house is small but it's the perfect size for 2 and we feel so blessed and excited that it's ours :)

Here's the kitchen...we're still in the process of getting cabinets.

The living room....excuse the shoes on the floor :)

There is an area for grass and a garden out back. Jeyson's mom will be coming this weekend to help us get started. The area you are seeing above is behind the house, but inside that wall you saw in the first picture.

She already helped with the front yard and it came out great! We just need to get some grass! It's been a process getting everything together but it's been really fun. We truly see this house as a gift from God as we serve here in Brazil. Our prayer is that we will always see it as His gift and that we would be faithful to have our doors open for whoever He sends.

Sending Off

You might remember from update emails and letters that Asas de Socorro has a partnership with SIL here in Brazil. SIL is the Brazilian aviation branch of the mission Wycliffe. Since SIL is pretty small here in Anapolis we're formed a partnership with them. We share a hangar, we work together on planes and we even take flights together to some of the tribes/villages where they have missionaries. (Of course I and using "WE" very loosely here since I, Stephanie, have never worked on or flown a plane :)

This week we had a special celebration together. Over several years, SIL was working on the documentation and logistics of transferring a small plane from the States to a remote base in Brazil. Eventually the plane was ready for the trip and a pilot from Asas traveled to the States to help fly it down....ALL the way down here, making many stops along the way. It was flown to the hangar here in Anapolis and worked on by the mechanics. Finally last week, it was time to send it off to it's final destination base.

Craig is a SIL missionary from the States. He was presenting the history of the plane and it's journey to Brazil.

We all gathered around the plane and thanked God for the tool and prayed that it would be used greatly for His kingdom.

Us outside the hangar

One of the most special parts of the ceremony was giving the plane it's new name. As you can see in previous pictures, the plane's identification is PR-IPD. The last 3 letters are said using words so a plane can clearly communicate and identify itself to others. So, a pilot in this case would call its plane "India, Papa, Delta". The team however thought that it would be fitting for us to refer to the plane with a slightly different set of words, "Indios Para Deus"... that means "Indians (or Ingendous People) For God" in English. Pretty fitting, right?