A Tale of Two Villages

*Note I'll have to leave out or change names of people and places, details, and pictures for safety sake on this one

On Friday one of those flights is taking place...the kind that really really gets me SO excited about what we do here and what God is up to in this area.  I'm almost always excited about it, but THIS flight is exceptionally exciting.  Here's the background story.

About 40 years ago missionaries were serving in a certain village that was known to be exceptionally hostile to outsiders and even towards their own.  (We'll call this village the fictitious name of Jarix).  Asas de Socorro was the ones who would transport the missionaries back and forth to Jarix as needed.  But things began to get really aggressive and at a certain point the plane even got shot at by arrows.  The missionaries serving there and Asas felt it was time to pull out for safety reasons.

Durning the next 39 years or so that followed absolutely no contact whatsoever was made with Jarix.  Then one day some natives from a different village (we'll call this village Dina) who spoke the same language as in Jarix, were in Boa Vista because one of them had become very sick was in the hospital.  At the same time that people from Dina were in the city, there also happened to be some people from Jarix in the city who had come to resolve some things with the government, I believe.  Anyway, somehow the people from Jarix ran into the people from Dina and noticed that the people from Dina were speaking their same language, but not only that, the people from Dina knew how to read, write, were well educated, etc.  The people from Jarix approached them and wanted to know all about how they had learned these things that in Jarix were unheard of.  The people from Dina began to explain that it was because missionaries were living in their village and they had put their language in writing and taught them how to read, write, etc.  The missionaries had also taught them about God, making their village a peaceful place.  The people from Jarix were  fascinated and they spent the next days in Boa Vista exchanging information and also the people from Dina began to tell Jarix about God and salvation through Christ.

Only after several days together did the people from the two villages realize that they were from historically warring villages.  The people from Dina were now a peaceful people, but Jarix still had a strong reputation of aggression.  But the people from Jarix had enjoyed the visit so much and were so interested in what they could learn from Dina that they implored the people from Dina to come visit them in their Jarix.  Dina was very wary of the invitation for their safety but the people from Jarix kept reassuring them that no harm would come of them.  So, about a year ago 5 native pastors/leaders from Dina decided to go visit Jarix.  One of our pilots picked them up and dropped them off about an 8 hour hike from Jarix, since there was no landing strip there.  5 days later he picked them up again.

Back in Dina the men shared the exciting news that they had been able to share the Gospel in Jarix and that 20 people from Jarix became Christians.  A while later, there was a baptism in Dina and several of the new Christians from Jarix came to it, to Dina's surprise.  And to add to the surprise, several of the people from Jarix asked for the pastors of Dina to baptize them as well! Although the leaders from Dina weren't sure how much the people from Jarix understood and had grown, they agreed to the request.  Then, the people from Jarix went home.  They told Dina that they were going to plant some crops and that when the crops had a harvest, they would get in contact with Dina.  Well this just happened.  And in the contact, they requested that several missionaries be sent to Jarix to spend time with them.  So, Dina passed on that request and asked a missionary couple to go visit Jarix.  This will be the first time anyone other than these 5 pastors from Jarix have been to village A in 40 years!  The missionaries agreed, and on Friday Asas will be taking the couple to the village to spend 4 days there.  They will get dropped off at this "nearby" strip and hike 8 hours to get to the village.  Then they will hike back and get picked up again 4 days later.

Please join us in praying for safety and open doors for the future.  Pretty exciting to see what God is doing!

Happy Birthday, Elijah

This year for Elijah's birthday, we decided to have a very low key birthday with just the three of us.  We brainstormed what a 2 year old would consider the perfect day, and that's just what we did.  It was Saturday so we had the whole day together.  For breakfast we had chocolate chip pancakes, Elijah's favorite. He had 4!!!  Then, we borrowed the projector from Asas and in the morning we watched a cartoon big screen style.  After naps we had this little birthday party.  

 The "party" was so low key we even forgot candles!  I put 2 tea lights on top...

And Elijah wound up leading the way on just digging in with a spoon (and fingers) and just skipping the plates :)  Rather than fight it, we just went with the flow, after all we were planning the perfect 2 year old day!

 He got this birthday present from us, every last part except the wheels was hand made by Jeyson.

 And then we look him to a totally dinky amusement park they have in town, which he thought was awesome!

 We have started the tradition that my side of the family did growing up of taking a birthday picture next to dad to see how much the kid has grown.  Here's this year

And here's last year in Ohio

 Speaking of last year, I never did post anything from his birthday party, so while I"m at it, here's a picture of him digging into his "cake" while he was supposed to be just standing by it for a picture :)  

Happy second birthday, Elijah.  You have brought so much joy to our lives!

What's Now Normal

This morning I had one of those adventures that I would never have believed would be part of my life 10 years ago.  We needed a part for our dishwasher and Jeyson has been so busy that I told him I would stop by a place that according to the GE website would have what we needed.

So off Elijah and I went to a new part of town I'd never been to before.  I pull up to where google maps says the place should be located, but there's nothing there.  So, I ask a guy on the street.  There's no place like that around here.  But if I go up another mile or so, there's a place that fixes refrigerators, maybe they can help me.  So off i go in the truck again.

At this point I'm on streets that aren't streets.  They're skinny dirt roads that have so many potholes it's more like you can't even find where the roads are supposed to be.  There are the poorest, most broken down houses on every side.  There are NO street signs, so I can't even find the corner I"m now looking for the shop.  On my left I pass a little shack that's has completely unfinished brick exposed and there are two friendly looking guys in their 20's selling snacks (while listening on ipods!).  They know just the place I"m talking about and it turns out it's just ahead.  BUT it's in the middle of a construction zone so no cars can go through the strip of the street just where the store (I use that word VERY, VERY loosely) is located.

So I find somewhere to park the truck and take Elijah out of the truck and start trudging down the dirt road in the heat.  I get to the store and there is stuff everywhere. I mean washing machines, fans, fridges just piled on top of each other like it was a junk yard, yet it was only a store front.  Anyway, turns out the guy doesn't speak Portuguese...only Spanish, which I dont' remember anymore.  So we communicate with each other, both straining to understand the other.  I get the point that he does NOT work with GE brand stuff but he tells me to just continue ahead, turn left somewhere vague, and ask around and I'll find somewhere that does.

At this point, I didn't want to give up, so we trudge back to the car and go around the detour, trying to find the original road again.  I have no idea how, but I manage to find the place.  Seriously, no clue whatsoever.  But guess what, this little "store" doesn't have GE products either, but the guy says there's another one that does!  Believe it or not, I"m still hopeful.  So I continue on in a NEW direction, still farther and farther from my starting point.  I stop for directions about 16 times, all the while carefully making mental notes of my turns so I can retrace my route.  I finally get to the store, and....drumroll.....they also don't work with GE!! But they used to and know there's no one in Boa Vista that does!

So, completely defeated and with no more rabbits trails to go down, it's time to turn around and follow my mental path back to the part of the city I know.  Only I do a turn around and discover that all the cars are coming at me!!!  Yep it was a totally unmarked 1 way road.  It was fine and traffic was slow so no real risk, but what to do now about finding how to get home?  Especially considering I barely know how to get home on the original path.  I grab a parallel road, each intersection peering over to see how I'm doing on the original road.  Then, the road I"m taking has a detour!  And I get turned all around.  I ask for directions from a little man who makes HUGE arm gestures as he tells me where to turn left, then right, then left and it makes no sense to me at the time.  Then, as I start deriving, I totally get what he was saying and it all comes clear.  I make it back past the second store, and then back past the first again, and suddenly I'm back in known territory again.

I feel like a SUPERWOMAN!  I'm not even exaggerating!  I think, that was amazing! I trudged around by truck and on foot on ridiculously skinny roads, navigating detours, WITH a toddler in the backseat and sometimes hauled in my arms, in a new city, in a foreign country, speaking Portuguese with people who don't even speak Portuguese, deciphering crazy arm gestures, went to three hole in the wall shops and got to the bottom of my sad story about my dishwasher, and didn't even get permanently lost!  If only I had known what I would now consider normal, my head would have exploded with panic.  But I'm not who I was, I've definitely grown and adapted, even if it's stretching.  Sometimes I think we think we're incapable of something that we totally are able to do.  God gives us what we need to handle each situation.  Now, that leaves only one question, what to do about the dishwasher???  I guess it's Jeyson's turn to figure out the next step.

Tuesday Bullets

I haven't been very good about taking pictures since I've been back home.  But here are a few bullet points about what we've been up to.

1. Getting myself and our home really organized.  I feel like we've been just making do temporarily in some areas of our home since we moved here, and I really feel like I'll feel more settled when everything has a place and I have what I need where I need it.  For example, I finally made a list of desk supplies I need (paper clips, rubber bands, etc) and just went out an bought it all.  Ahh, having things in order really makes day to day things run smoother.  But I still have many more areas like that.

2. It's been hot here.  It's the hottest time of the year in Boa Vista (Sept-Dec) and coming back from the States to this extra heat has been rough!

3.  Because of the heat, I've been doing more meals in my crockpot and we've been making at least weekend meals very easy.  Two crockpot meals I just made and loved were short ribs in tomato sauce (served over pasta) and chicken thighs in taco seasoning served with taco fixings.  Just cooked both for hours in the slowcooker until they were falling off the bones and shredded them up.  We also have been grilling, and we both love grilling fish.  It comes with the head and tail and everything around here, but it's so easy...just place on the grill with seasoning and serve with a salad.

4.  Pretty much every last part of one of the airplanes is taken apart.  It's for a special inspection called SID, newly required for older airplanes.  It's VERY involved and since it's new, none of the mechanics have done it before.  Jeyson has taken a big role in the project and is especially needed/helpful since all of the manuals and instructions on how to do the project are in English.  It will take a few more weeks. Meanwhile the other airplane is being relied on exclusively, so if it has any maintenance issues, they have to be fixed immediately since it is the only way the missionaries can get supplies.

5. We just had dinner with two of the missionary families who live in a very remote village.  They can stay there for 8 months at a time with no breaks.  I am completely inspired by all they are able to accomplish and all they sacrifice to serve and it renews our vision for why we are here...to make their work possible.

6. I can't believe Elijah will be 2 this week.  What?  Where's the time going?

7. I was asked to speak two weeks in a row to a group of ladies about birth.  Even though I'll have an hour each time, I don't even know where to start, there's just so much to say and Brazilian women really know so little about the subject.  It's an exciting opportunity though and a great door for ministry and to talk about the Lord.

8.  Our city here has free aerobic classes in the park open to anyone.  It's called "open gym" and is out in a huge central plaza.  A teacher stands on the stage and about 100 people go!  You don't have to sign up or anything, just come.  And there's free equipment to use, like steps for step aerobics

and everything so it's pretty well put together.  MWF 7:30-8:30pm.  I've been trying to go at least once a week.  It's a great way to meet women!

Trip Whirlwind

  What a wonderful, refreshing whirlwind the past weeks have been!
First we went on a retreat as a base to Venezuela.

Our team, minus 1 couple and 2 kids

The hotel we stayed in was so cute and had a game area right outside the rooms so we could put the kids to bed and still relax together.  The devotions were encouraging, conversations were refreshing, the cooler mountain weather was greatly appreciated, and we also found out that pizza in Venezuela is much more like the kind in the States...yum!  

I loved the hotel's quaint style and the exchange rate being so favorable to us in Venezuela made it SUPER cheap!

Devotional time...no special speakers, but that gave several of the team members a chance to share

 One day we went to a waterfall that pours into a jasper rock area.  Just beautiful! The rest of the time, we just relaxed.  It was the first time in several years that the whole team has just gotten away to spend time together, and I'm so glad we were able to be part of this spur of the moment get-away.

 Two days after returning from Venezuela, Elijah and I took a trip to AZ to spend some time with my family.  There were so many reasons for the trip, and I'm SO glad I took the opportunity to go.  Elijah was a lap child on the plane, and he did amazingly!!!  We even wound up with an extra seat (or 2!) next to us on 4 of the 7 plane rides that we took in the process of going and coming.  I'm so proud of my little international travel buddy who has now taken off and landed 24 times in his 23 months and I only remember 1 of those flights being really horrible.

Anyway, time with family was what it was all about.  We were able to go visit with Joe about 5 times, including going to parks and out to eat.

And now that my parents are in AZ, I get the added fun of visiting my college room mate, Bekah.  We got together twice, and one of the times it was without kids and we had the most fabulous dinner and side splitting laughs. Truly therapeutic :) 

 Then there was fun with my sister, Jamie, and nephew, Noah.  They came up to Gilbert for a few days and we went down to Tucson overnight.

Playing with G-ma's bowls

The boys fought over toys constantly!  At one point we had to set up separate "slides" for them to send things down and my dad had to act as the dividing line to keep them away from each other!

 Also, my grandma came out from NJ for a visit for a few of the days we were there.  It was very nice to get to see her.

Time to tuck in after a long day of fighting...I mean playing :)  This set up was just for story time since they would never have lasted all night like this!

Also, once of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing Elijah take off talking!  It seriously was night to day.  When we first got there, Elijah wouldn't say anything.  For example, even though he KNEW the word ball and had said it many times, he wouldn't say it even though he wanted a ball desperately.  He just wouldn't talk on anyone's terms but his.  But during the time there, he suddenly decided it was time and is now repeating almost anything and talking to request things too.  Cup, door, shoes, milk, more, thank you, etc.  It's so fun to see and Jeyson especially noticed the change when we got back.  Oh and he also got his ears checked in the US and is hearing perfectly now.  There definitely could be a connection as well as only hearing English for a few weeks.  We're hoping the ears stay that way and don't clog up again now that he's off meds again.

Anyway, all in all, it was an excellent time.  Refreshing, renewing, meaningful, etc.  I'm so glad I went.  And now, I'm SO glad to be back home and getting myself organized and in a routine again.  With no guests or trips on the horizon, it's time to settle in.