All Ears

For those of you who don't know, here's a little update on what's going on with this boy.

Old picture, I really need to take the time to pull out my real camera more often!

Back in April I blogged about how Elijah was pretty behind on talking.  You can see that post here.  At the time, we knew he was behind because he is learning multiple languages, but we also think it's his personality, since he's more of a reserved/analytical type rather than a dare devil....usually :)

Anyway, he is now going on 2 and still hasn't made much progress speaking.  He says has about 7 words in his dailly vocabulary, but some of those include "woah" and "oh-uh" etc. and words only we understand.  We do think his personality is a major factor, since there are many words that he has said (ball, car, moo, quack, etc) multiple times but chooses not to use daily....only very randomly when he wants.  And I've even tried unsuccessfully to bribe him with chocolate to get him to say them, but nope...only when he's in the mood.

So, at his most recent doctor's appointment we brought up our concern about whether he might also have trouble hearing.  We brought him to get tested and found out that he has what is probably chronic fluid/inflammation in his ears.  So, he has not been hearing well on top of the whole multiple languages and personality issues.  Poor guy, the cards are really stacked against him on this one!

We are currently trying one more round of antibiotics (he has recently had several) to clear out his ears, and if not, he will likely have tubes put in.  What a medical year it has been for all of us!!!  But we don't mind the idea of tubes.  At this point, I"m almost hoping for them since it will rule out the possibility of the cycle repeating itself.  But we'll see.  Next week he will go for another hearing test and and we'll take it from there!

10 Random Catch Ups

So how about a totally random catch up today of things going on here?

1.  We're making some friends!  We met a Brazilian family who also JUST moved here and are from Goiania (really close to where we used to live).  They're lots of fun and we have tons in common.  We just had pizza together last night.  Fun and yum!

2.  I am LOVING living on the border of Venezuela and British Guyana!  It's so fun to be able to hop over and enjoy the culture and products there or even when we can't go, there's always someone going.  We can ask them to pick up things for us.  Much nicer than in the middle of Brazil, where we used to live.

3. This kid LOVES acai berry smoothies.  Acai is seen as a special "super food" in the US, but this kid just thinks it's super delicious, which is surprising since it has such an earthy taste.

  4.  Speaking of food, here there are ALWAYS trucks/cars driving down the street announcing deals of things you can buy from their car.  You can hear it really loud from inside your house.  There is even a car that announces you can buy fish from their car....must smell in there!  Anyway, I usually ignore it, but the other day there was a truck selling pineapples...3 for $2!  I ran outside and grabbed some.  The guys on the truck bed were wearing cowboy hats and throwing pineapples at people lined up outside their homes to buy some.  Wish I could have gotten a picture of the truck!

 5.  We feel very loved by our family and friends (supporters back home).  We are so encouraged by notes in the mail and email, people who pray for us, those who give faithfully, and as the icing on the cake, we got this amazing care package from a friend int he mail the other day.  Loaded with so many things we don't have here.  I can't imagine doing ministry without such an amazing team of people cheering us on!

 6.  I know I say it a lot, but we really are feeling very fulfilled in the ministry we are doing here.  Jeyson has SO much to do at the hangar, and it's wonderful to have a job that when he comes home he is thinking about his job in a positive way, planning out what to tackle next and the best way to solve maintenance problems.

7. We think we settled on a church, and it's nice to get  to know people, knowing we'll be back next Sunday.  They even have a ministry for reaching out to pregnant women in the community.  I'm looking into seeing if my new skills can be useful to them.

8.  Speaking of birth classes, the pregnant mom I was helping had a great birth!  I was supposed to be her doula, but sadly it didn't work out logistically at the last minute.  But it was really nice to still be able to visit her after and help her with nursing questions, and I know the relationship is a long term investment...so much more than just having to do with her birth.  I was so encouraged just today to hear from one of the moms I helped in the Spring.  She told me what an impact the classes had on her birth, but also marriage.  What an encouragement to hear!

9. Around here cooking is a lot of work!  The other day I made burritos...and wow!  I had to make my own tortillas, cook beans from scratch, make rice and meat, grate cheese, make my own salsa and guacamole, etc.  Makes you really cherish each bite....but totally worth it!

10. There are some SERIOUS rainstorms around here.  There usually isn't even a drop of rain to warn you either.  It usually just starts with a gust of wind and BAM!  Down comes some of the heaviest rain you can imagine.  And, in 5-10 minutes, it's gone as fast as it came!  But dry season is coming now.  Thankfully that means there will be less mosquitos, but it also means HEAT!  They say soon we'll really find out what hot is....i'm sweating just thinking of it!  :)

Have a great weekend!

Radio Classes

The past few days I've been getting training on how to use Asas's radio system.  Here we use it to communicate with the planes while they are in route (since they are out of reach of towers) and to communicate with the missionaries in each of the villages each morning.  Once Jeyson starts flying, I will eventually be responsible to follow his flights and communicate with him on the radio.  I will warn him of weather problems and track his progress to make sure he is safe.  Each wife follows their own husband...what a huge responsibility!  But flight following is much more advanced and Jeyson isn't on his own in the plane yet, so for now I just am getting trained in checking in on the villages.

Here's how it's done.  At 6:45 am each day you simply turn on the radio and call out to each one of the village posts.  We tell them about any flights that will be happening that day, and check in to see if they have any messages or anything urgent happening and they also relay back how the weather is there, just in case an emergency landing is needed by chance.

It's really pretty easy....in theory!  The major problem is that it's VERY VERY hard to hear!  Lots of static and weird screechy noises blast through at random.  Not to mention I'm doing this in Portuguese! But the ladies who have been doing it for a while say that your ear adjusts over time and soon I'll be able to understand.  I was amazed at how our "teacher" could understand so much!  So hopefully soon I"ll be proficient in yet another language....radio-static-ese!

Aside from ear training and it being an early morning duty,  it really is a neat job.  The missionaries are very isolated and the radio call is often a big moment of encouragement from the outside world that they look forward to.  My friend Rose, left who is also being trained, lived in a village for 6 months.  She said that she and the missionary she lived with really looked forward to the radio contact.  So it's neat to have this long distance ministry with the missionaries we admire and serve.  It's also fun to already know a few of them so it's a special way to get to say hi to new friends we are made but haven't seen since they went to their villages.  After all, it's not like they can say hi to us on facebook :)

To Our Prayer Partners

The past months have been such an adventure of emotions.  When we think of the ministry that we are able to be part of, the first word that comes to mind is privilege.  After many years serving more behind the scenes in Anapolis, we feel so privileged to be on the front lines in Boa Vista. It is a privilege to be part of bringing to Gospel to places that would otherwise have zero access to it.  We feel very honored, satisfied, and fulfilled!  Thank you for being part of it as well!  On the horizon, Jeyson will begin flying and learning the techniques of landing solo in each village.  We are just waiting for the chief/instructor pilot to come back from furlough in the next days.

With that said, the past months have been hard ones for us on a personal level.  Not ALL hard.  There have been many wonderful aspects of discovering a new town, spending time as a family, etc. but we thought we would share with you a few areas that have been the hardest on us over the past months and ask that you pray for us specifically for these areas.


1 - Health - The biggest personal issue we have had have been health problems.  We have all struggled on and off with colds/flus, especially Elijah who had had a few ear infections as well as almost nonstop colds.  We finally got in with the most well known and admired pediatrician in town and are excited about that, but still would appreciate your prayer.

Tagging along with health is the sad news that we just received about us having a miscarriage.  We were about 10 weeks along at the time.  It was difficult news to receive and we are still processing it. We do have a strong sense of God's peace, but it is still hard. We would greatly appreciate your prayer for physical and emotional restoration in this area.


2 - Church - We have not yet 100% settled on which church to be part of.  They all have pluses and minuses and none seem to fit us completely.  We are growing weary of the church hunt and long for stability and the feeling of belonging and the opportunity to serve that will come once we decide.

3 - Relationships - Our team here in Boa Vista is MUCH smaller than our team in Anapolis.  So, we're even more aware of the need to build friendships outside of the mission, both with Christians who will encourage and challenge us and with unbelivers that we can minister to.  So far, the relationship building has been slow-going, a big part having to do with not being part of a church body yet, and in the meantime we feel lonely at times.

Thank you so much to those of you who regularly pray for us.  We can't tell you what an important part of our ministry you are.

What Bugs Us

After writing about our milk situation here, it made me think about another food related issue we have in our new city - bugs!

Back in Anapolis, we had our occasional problem with ants in the kitchen.  The houses in Brazil are not nearly as sealed shut as they are in the States, so an occasional army of ants attaching your sugar bowl wasn't a huge surprise.  It was easy enough to clean up the sugar, wipe out the cabinets, and find and do away with the trail of ants.  But what we have here is WAY sneakier and more common.

The first problem we have is that ants don't appear in easily defined trails, they just simply appear out of nowhere, and FAST too!  It's like they're waiting to ambush! If you accidentally leave a cookie or a smear of jelly or a piece of tortilla out on the table, there will be a swarm of ants around it in just a matter of an hour or less.  And it's not a trail that can get rid of, but just an every ant for themselves type of group that you can never really get rid of.  I mean you can kill THOSE ants, but they don't seem to be part of a coalition that you can ever find and rid yourself of.  We don't have an ant problem to deal with, but an ongoing ant reality to get used to.  Needless to say, we have to be very careful to not leave things out.

The other problem is that little tiny black bugs get into food in our pantry.  I'm not even just talking about previously opened bags of food, but closed bags as well.  They seem to like grains best - oatmeal, cornmeal, flour, and pasta.  They chew their way right into the bags!  And when I go to use a cup of flour or pour pasta into water, I always have to do a double check that there are no black specks in the back.  I find them in something about once a week!  I've even stored my stock of these grains in a closed cooler, but i have no idea how, but even that didn't stop them!  Maybe bugs were already in one of the bags when I bought it and they just spread around to the other bags.  I was so sad the other day to have to throw out about 10 lbs of flour, oatmeal, etc.  A lot of people I know store their grains in the freezer.  This seems like a great idea, but I'll have to investigate to see how much space I realistically have.  

For now, it's just a situation that bugs me :)

Flights, Headdresses, and Stranded in a Village

What a week that last week was for Jeyson.  He went along as a copilot to a village where he stayed for 6 days.  What was going on in the village was no small deal.  A conference was taking place called "CONPLEI"  made up of native indigenous Christian pastors and leaders all around Brazil.  Their goal is to encourage and train other native Christians and to do that they put on conferences throughout the year in different villages.  The village is from a people group called the Hyxkaryana but there were 4 other tribes represented speaking their own languages. The natives come from LONG distances to make it, and from all different tribes too.  Some even came from French Guyana and Suriname!  Some come by boat, others on foot, (one even took 2 months....I repeat 2 months to arrive by foot and boat!!!), but the ones who can, come by plane.  Annually CONPLEI reaches about 1,000 native Christian leaders!   So when the conference was over, Jeyson and the other pilot, Heber, flew to the village to act as a taxi service returning the people to their homes. 

 The pilots stayed in the village with a Brazilian missionary family (On right is the husband) and the timing of being there was amazing too.  Right when the plane arrived, the missionary family's son, who is about 1 1/2, developed a very serious rash that was both an infection and allergy.  The plane was able to take the boy and his mom to a hospital in Manaus.  Otherwise they would have had to take a 4 day boat trip!!

 So with just the missionary husband and their other child at home, it was quite the bachelor party, especially since a few visiting missionary pastors stayed at the house too. So what do Pastors and Missionaries from different denominational backgrounds talk about? Jeyson said they would stay up past midnight mostly telling jokes, discussing theology, and encouraging each other!

As the main conference came to a close, one of the visiting missionaries taught a smaller part of the group (above) biblical truths. Though all of the participants were Christian, they do not have the whole Bible in their language, only the New Testament and a part of Genesis. The missionary was teaching them a little about the old testament in Portuguese through a translator to the Hyxkaryana language.

The village was right on the water

Such gorgeous weaving in the roof!

Are you getting the hint for the NEED for missionary aviation?  One word....TREES! The other pilot who had lived in France said the trip from Boa Vista to the village was farther than crossing all of France, with only jungle below!

People always love the shade the wings provide.

 Each day the plane took MANY short trips to drop off people.  It's crazy that a hike that could take days or weeks by foot can take 15 minutes  by plane.  Some days 7 or more short flights were done, so it was quite the production

Around the village

 Here in the RAINforest, you never know what the weather will bring.  But these downpours are usually really fast!

Waiting for the rain to pass

And it's time for takeoff again !  Muddy, slippery runway!

                                The wood for the houses is all cut from the surrounding jungle using only              chainsaws!

Oops completely out of order, but this was before Jeyson left.  Him and Elijah were testing out Jeyson's sleeping arrangements, a hammock with a serious mosquito net over it.  It's BYOH (bring your own hammock) around here!

In between flights there was lots of this...refueling!  And since there's no big pump system, each jug of fuel had to be hoisted up onto your shoulder in order to get into the wings (fuel tanks) of the plane.  Very sore muscles by the end of the day.  It's not all just glorious flying when you're a pilot!!

Mass production around the plane as people load

Jeyson said it was so interesting to se how different the pastors dressed from different tribes.  Some are very conservative, always wearing suits and ties and others are very informal.  It all depends on what customs the natives wanted to adapt when contact began with the outside.

Next time you check in your bags at the airport, remember this scene.  This was the official bag check and person weigh in station, as the pilots always have to be careful to not go overweight.  When the person's allotted weight was passed, just like when you fly American or South West, people were unloading and abandoning their excess baggage by the scale.

I love this shot because you can just understand exactly what this woman is thinking.  No matter what culture, us ladies don't love to be weighed...especially in front of men!  :)

 So how about a few pictures of the conference itself?  The story behind the picture below was one of the ones that stuck with me the most.  This young man, who is holding the gun, is one of the only, if not THE only believer from his village, he is basically all alone in his faith.  As a surprise, many of the native pastors chipped in to buy him a gun so he can have it to hunt.  That may sound weird, pastors buying a new believer a gun!  But you have to understand in the cultural context what a gift of provision a gun is for the young man!  It wasn't cheap at all either!  Jeyson told me it cost them almost $1000!  (Things are really expensive in Brazil!)  So it was a huge symbol of support and backing this young man up.  So moving!

Here is the last session, wrapping things up.  Jeyson said they sang and sang and sang!  They even and a song about the CONPLEI being over and them all going home.  Song clearly is a big part of the culture, so it's awesome to see how they have incorporated that in their faith.

These ladies did a little dance and song.  I love how technology has reached so many of the natives.  Look at the guy in the front filming on a cell phone!  (Although there definitely was not reception that village!)

And the headdresses!  Don't even get me started on how much I loved them!  Look at this one!  Feathers on top of feathers!  Beautiful!

During one song towards the end, many of the leaders were dismissed, holding their Bibles up high

 And have I mentioned how the coolest part is these are NATIVES, not foreigners or even Brazilians living in cities, but natives from all different tribes coming up with the activities and styles of worship and teaching each other.  SO neat to see! The only ones who didn't like the whole thing were all the birds that had to give up their feathers to adorn everyone!

If you notice, this man's headdress even has CONPELI woven into it since he is one of the leaders.

 Ok so all went smoothly right?  Ummm... not so much! in the middle of it all, a major problem happened, an airplane problem.  Heber an Jeyson noticed there was a problem and started working to find out what it was.

 Turns out it was the alternator that broke needed to be replaced!  Unfortunately, it's not like there was a stock of them in the village!  So, through the radio, the word was passed on to the two pilots back here in Boa Vista.  A new alternator was needed ASAP as the plane was now stranded without being able to fly out of the village until it was replaced.  

People here in Boa Vista, and even at the base in Anapolis went into immediate action to locate one.  Turns out there were NONE in Boa Vista.  It looked like one would have to be ordered from Manaus to be shipped to Boa Vista and then flown to the village.  But, praise God, one was found at a tiny airstrip nearby where Asas had sold one of its old airplanes to an air-taxi almost a decade ago.  On Wednesday morning (the day the plane was supposed to have returned to Boa Vista), one of our pilots flew out in our second plane to the airstrip to get the part and then flew it to the village.  

 Once the plane was up and running, Denis did a few of the flights to help make up for lost time and then headed back to Boa Vista.  Heber and Jeyson stayed until Friday and got every last person delivered.  Mission complete!

Back home we missed Jeyson a lot, but are so glad to be a tiny part of the bigger picture of what God is doing.  Thank you also so much for having been part of that by praying for safety and for many of you who prayed for that alternator to be located!!!  Isn't it so great to step back and see what God is doing that's so much bigger than our own lives?