A dengue-good christmas

Opening stockings this morning. Amanda, Mia, Gabriella, Ava and a sickly Josh.

Merry Christmas to our friends and family.

I have been meaning to sit down and update you all on Josh’s status since he arrived home from Maribel, knowing that some of you haven’t heard that Josh was ill while others of you are informed but are curious to know how he is doing.

So, the update: he is recuperating from dengue fever. Josh and a small group traveled to Maribel, the Altamira Bases’ most remote work, and also a place that Josh loves to visit. He was into day 3 of 5 when he came down with a fever, headache and body aches. By the time he came home he had fevers reaching 104 and was looking pretty puny. The malaria test came back negative. The other likely culprit was dengue fever which came back positive. Dengue fever is a disease caused by viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes. Josh had the classic case of headache, fever, joint and muscle pain, a red rash, and fatigue. The treatment is rest, fluids, Tylenol and in Josh’s case, an entire season of Lost.

Josh has been fever-free for the last 2 days and was even able to (feebly) attend a Christmas Eve party last night, which had us eating dinner at 10:30pm and us bowing out for our beds a bit before midnight. Other than that our Christmas has been quite still, a pleasant diversion from the chaotic celebration many of you are doing back home. Stripped of all the parties, programs, presents, over indulgence of both cooking and eating, we experience how silently, the wondrous Gift is given.

So, a picture is worth a thousand words. And quite honestly the experiences of the last few weeks could be worthy of those thousand words but I can't quite conjure up the energy to spill it on the keyboard. So here are some pictures and hope it suffices.

Josh expending his limited energy opening his present.

Prior to Josh getting sick, our family made our own Christmas tree out of açai branches that we cut off from trees in our yard.


I know little of what occurred during Josh's trip to Maribel, most of which I learned from Clyde who stayed the night and told me stories while Josh fevered in bed. Josh did tell me it was a great visit in that they were able to encourage and teach some key leaders as well as check in on a local pastor that had recently been outfitted with a boat to do his own outreach.

Having house church. I love this way of doing "church."

Some piranhas Josh caught before dengue caught him.

A peaceful home on the river. A typical dwelling in the Maribel region.

Josh after he got dengue fever. Perhaps Allison was serenading him..."Hush little baby don't say a word...." Probably not.

This is the boat they traveled in, going from one village to another.

Another home that hosted a house church meeting.

We are always humbled to hear of our friends and family supporting us with prayer and lifting up our needs before our Father. The past few weeks has been an especially difficult season, with sickness both in the body and homesickness in the heart. So please know how thankful we are for prayers and attention in our lives.

Travel, and life inbetween

Josh is home. And really I can agree that absence makes the heart grow fonder, or at least it prompts me to work on my marriage more. For one thing, Josh is leaving again in 9 days, so while I was counting down his arrival from Rio Negro, I immediately started another countdown until he leaves for Maribel.


So while Josh was gone the girls and I plugged away at our own daily lives. We had our second to the last Alpha Circles meeting where we celebrated Sharon’s birthday. We made 60 cupcakes that Amanda and Marsha decorated and they turned out to be a hit with the students.


The next day a memorable event was the Festa de Naçoes (Festival of Nations) that the girls’ school puts on, memorable in a way that will remind me not to get too involved next year. Several months ago, each class was assigned a country. The students learn a dance, pray for their assigned country but most of the time was spent raising money for the Baptist church and a new playground for the school. Several months ago Ella arrives home from school to tell me she was voted “Miss South Africa” by her class. I let her accept the offer not entirely understanding what our responsibility would be, but knowing it would once again find me fund raising for missions, this time for the Baptists. Finally the course culminated with an impressively large all-school event. The place was packed, the program running late (as usual, per the culture), and the whole time I had no idea what was going on. Thankfully Ella did and found her way to the stage each time she was supposed to be there. It was 10:00pm by the time Mia’s class (of 4 and 5 year olds, mind you) were called up to do their dance. I literally had to carry her up there she was so tired. She danced and loved it. I contemplated how long it would take for Ava’s class to be called up and I guessed it would probably be around midnight. I did not want to wait until midnight just so I could witness Ava’s refusal to get on stage. She has stage fright, had it for a while now, but we are not sure if it's a classic case or if she is just tired of everyone looking at her all the time. We never blend in you know and it is harder on Ava than any of us. So, pretty sure it was gonna be a long night, I left early. Ella was not happy that she would miss out on all the fun she had been anticipating for months and felt like she had a responsibility to stay until the end, but I didn’t care. I was tired, a (temporary) single mom and still had to pack for my boat trip the next day. I later heard that is ended at 1:30 am.

Mia, representing Japan, admiring the kimonos of her classmates.

All the Mr.'s and Miss's from each class, every class having a different nation

Ella as South Africa, Ava as Spain and Mia as Japan.

The following day I boarded the boat along with 10 visitors from Cleveland for a 5 day trip up the Xingu. Up until the moment I left the house in the back of my mind I was always thinking I could back out if things became too busy at home. Wow, I am I glad I went. This group from Cleveland was eager to experience anything missions and jumped in with both feet everything God placed before them. It was one of those boat trips that could have gone on much longer quite enjoyably. I personally was able to bond with several of women and look forward to where God takes those relationships. It was sad to see them leave but they left us all so encouraged.

David sharing under the mango trees while Denise translated.

While I was on the boat, Amanda ran the house. Amanda? I should properly introduce her. Meet Amanda Kilborn, age 20 from Cambridge, Ontario.

She is my new home school helper. She comes from a mission-hearted family and her mom and dad (Patrick and Laura) had recently visited and that is where she learned of my need for a home school helper. She lives in our back guesthouse and will stay with us until April. She delights my girls with all the craft and art goodies that she pulls out of what appears to be a bottomless suitcase. Amanda is artistic, quiet and gleefully chases down the lizards and bugs in my yard. Some exceptions being the rat that has been antagonizing our family and garden for the past week as well as the ticks that our guard dogs leave in front of her door.
Amanda had her hands full while I was away as Ella decided to unleash her sassy tween on Amanda and all my girlfriends that stayed the night. Things like talking Sheyla into letting her stay up late, even though she had done the same thing with Marilda the night before. So while I love to come home to my kids a refreshed and eager mom, I was immediately burdened to be the disciplinarian. Overall, though, for only being in the country 5 weeks, Amanda did great and I was so, so thankful to have here so that I could travel while Josh was away.


We've had a tough few days just recently. A little homesickness that was magnified by the passing of Josh's grandma Stuber and other things that just add up to make it hard to be away from home. We will post more on that later but for now we would appreciate your prayers.

What we found on the Rio Negro

I've been home from my trip for a few days now, enjoying time with the family and getting back into the flow of life. Part of me though, is still with the rest of our group who continues to visit towns along the Amazon River.Since I only was along for the first half of the trip it will be hard to make an accurate evaluation until they return. In the meantime, I'll try to bring you up to speed on what we experienced...

Upon arriving in Manaus, we were immediately confronted with an obstacle. We had planned on taking a line boat (public boats traveling between cities) to Sao Gabriel, a 72 hour trip up the Rio Negro. However, what we didn't know was the river was so low that line boats were not traveling up-river. We looked into flights, but last minute fares were out of the question. After some scrambling, we learned that we could hire a boat and driver. While this was a much more expensive option, it would give us freedom to stop at river villages. Due to the cost, we decided to only travel as far as Santa Isabel and then down to Barcelos on the way back to Manaus.

The "speedboat" that we hired to take us up-river.

A morning stretch on the beach before leaving, we camped several nights on beaches during the long trips up and down river.

We saw first hand why the line boats were no longer going up-river, this line boat ran aground on this rock a month and half ago, since then the river has dropped another several feet.

Before I go further, some of you may be wondering what we were looking for on this trip. Our goal, to find a region where God may be calling us to open a new work, is easily stated but not so easily executed. We're looking for things like remote interior communities that don't have access to the gospel, but that often depends on how you define "remote", "access" or even "community". In addition, there are some things that we want that would help us not live quite so "remotely", such as internet, access to banking and a reasonable selection of groceries. Most of these qualities are subjective (does the availability of only onions and carrots constitute a "reasonable selection of groceries"?) and often statistics on population and churches working in the interior is very hard to nail down.

Santa Isabel was smaller than we expected, probably around 7,000 people in the town itself, but we were surprised by how clean, well-maintained and safe it was. The town itself only had 6 churches, and only one, that we could tell, was working in the interior. Somewhere around twenty interior communities were in the region of Santa Isabel, only about half have churches. We left thinking there was certainly kingdom work to be done, but not sure if this was THE place.

Government buildings in Santa Isabel; the cleanliness and condition of the city, we learned, was more to do with the local government than any presence of prosperity.

Barcelos was probably twice the size of Santa Isabel, and felt like a big city after eating every meal in the only restaurant in Santa Isabel. Barcelos had twice the number of churches in town, and one was quite large. The church work in the interior was better organized, but the interior region was much larger and had more communities. The town seemed much more comfortable to live in compared to Santa Isabel. Again, Barcelos seemed to have plenty of work in the interior, but is this the place God is calling us?

Ben and I explore Barcelos on a rented motorcycle.

View of Barcelos from our hotel.

The Rio Negro seems to be a needy place, it certainly qualifies for remote. Tim and Kevin, along with Tim's sons Luke and Ben, will be visiting more than 10 communities on the Amazon. When they return we will have a better idea of how the Rio Negro compares to the Amazon. We were hoping for a big "God moment" that would help us know with certainty where He is calling us. That may still happen on the second part of the trip, but most likely, God will speak to us in His "still small voice". Please pray for us, both as a family and mission, as we seek to hear that voice and respond to His call.

Thanksgiving on the Rio Negro

I fell asleep in my hammock, gently swinging between two trees on a beach somewhere on the Rio Negro, under a brilliantly starry sky.  Only to be greeted in the morning by a magnificient sunrise, admitedly, I don´t see a lot of sunrises, but I don´t remember one quite this colorful.  Our boat lazily waited on the beach, we were in no hurry to finish the 10 hour journey from Santa Isabel to Barcelos.  We still had about 4 hours to go, but we´ve been trying to allow time to listen to God, and share as a group each morning.  As I read in Psalms "offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving...", a thought occured to me and I turn to Luke and asked "hey Luke, what days is it?"  "Thursday, I think" 

Thanksgiving has always been a family day.  I grew up every year going to both of my extended families' thanksgivings.  It was just what we did.  Brin often reminds me how when we had our first thanksgiving together and were discussing our plans, I selfishly said "well of course we have to go to my family things on thanksgiving", not even considering that her childhood may have been different (yeah, we had a few issues to work out).  At any rate, thanksgiving for me is being with family.  And here I was, in the middle of the Rio Negro, 2 days boat ride from what most people would call civilization (Manaus), with 4 fellow missionaries and 2 brazilians that we had hired as guides. 

I have to admit, the first feelings were of self-pity, wishing I were somewhere else, eating something else.  But before long a feeling of peace decended on me.  This was a unique experience I was having, seeing new places and sights, experiencing the beauty and majesty of God.  Like the 10 foot crocidile sunbathing on the beach, the tea-colored water of the Rio Negro, the endess white-sand beaches lining the banks and islands, the indigenous people of the region, and of course the sunrises, sunsets and star-filled night sky.

I do miss my family, but this year I am more aware than ever, and thankful for, the beauty of God's nature.

(pictures  to come later)

Exploring the Amazon

View Rio Negro Exploration Trip in a larger map

Tomorrow (Thurs. Nov. 19th) I'll be leaving on a two week survey trip of a region in the western Amazon. Tim Kubacki, a fellow missionary, has been wanting to explore this region to see the potential for future work. Since we are asking some of the same questions about our future, I thought it would be a good opportunity. Tim and I, along with his sons Luke and Ben, and another missionary, Chelsea, will be exploring primary 3 cities, and the remote areas around those cities, along the Rio Negro.

After flying to Manaus and spending a few days doing some fact finding, we'll head up-river on a line boat (public transportation) for almost 600 miles to the furthest city, Sao Gabriel. Spending a few days in each city and possibly some of the area around each city, we plan to arrive back in Manaus by Dec. 4th, when Chelsea and I fly back to Altamira. The Kubackis will continue the trip, traveling up the Amazon and exploring several cities for another two weeks.

Please pray that we will not only see the region through our own eyes, but be able to see what God is doing and if we are to play a part in it. Also pray for Brin and the girls staying behind. I'm bummed to be missing Thanksgiving and the girls are going to be in some kind of a parade that they are excited about, but Brin and I both feel this is an important opportunity to seek God and where he might be calling us.

The simplicity of doing without

About once a quarter we have a leadership training workshop called a TLC.  Leaders from city churches and interior churches all come together and receive training in areas such as small group leadership, leading worship, children's ministry, new membership classes, etc.  What makes this workshop different is the setting.  

Agua Preta is a community where we have had a church for several years.  Throughout that time, we have also developed a crude training center on site.  The structures include a pavilion in which to hang a hammock, a shack for cooking, and a few mango trees which serve as protection from the Amazon sun.  The lack of electricity (except for a generator we brought for showing a film), running water, or any other modern convenience makes this a memorable setting for a workshop.  

Mealtime 

 

 One group meets in an abandoned home.

 

But I am constantly impressed with the Brazilians ability to take what is available and make it work.  Sure, it was a bit inconvenient to walk down to the river in the dark to wash my dishes and the heat was oppressive at times during the day, but nothing a dip in the cool river didn't help.  

I think at times we convince ourselves that we need much more than we really do, leading to attitudes of self-entitlement and privilege.  It would have been nice to enjoy all the amenities of a modern conference center, but there's also something to be said for the simplicity of doing without.  

A class project

Allison, Josh, Zeca, Rómolu, Patrícia, Carlinha and Ronaldo, the church planter from Altamira that has been working in Surubim.

In some previous posts I have written about our church plant in Surubim, a remote community about 4 hours from Altamira. I just got back from a trip there. This time, however, I used the experience as a practical learning experience for the training group I have been working with. Our group has been meeting together for a few weeks now, talking about missions and what it would be like for them to live in a community for 3-6 months and disciple the leaders. We learned some teaching material, and then went on this trip to apply what we learned.


Surubim was an ideal location because all of them had been there before and knew the main leader, Zeca. Also, recently a woman named Carlinha moved to the community from one of our churches in Altamira, and more importantly she had been through some leadership classes and involved in leading a small group in Altamira. She is excited about helping out and has been holding a small group in her home since arriving in Surubim this summer. Zeca has been through some leadership material already, but still feels a bit nervous about leading a meeting on his own. We hoped to encourage both of them and to help them logistically plan for how to move forward.

We arrived Sat. and took the afternoon to visit with Zeca, Carlinha and some other potential leaders. We explained that we wanted to meet with all of them on Sunday morning to begin training them as a group.

One of the logistical problems with this area is that the people are spread out over a large area. The people work all day and it is usually dark or getting dark by the time an evening meeting would start. A long walk through a dark jungle path, often in the rain, is difficult. That any one shows up at all is a testament to their desire to meet together. The distance between Zeca's house and Carlinha's is about 4 miles. We took a group from Zeca's house to Carlinha's small group, but we realized that it was going to be too far to expect them to go that distance when we weren't there to give a ride.

On the road to Carlinha's house from Zeca's.

Carlinha's small group, meeting outside her house

Carlinha is going to be a great asset to the fledgling group of believers in Surubim. We are hoping to help Zeca start his own small group which will meet weekly at his house, and then once a month the two groups can meet together for a larger church service.

Sunday morning, Allison, Rómolu, Patricia and I met with the leadership group, or at least what we were thinking would be leadership. In reality, when a group congregates out in the bush, it is normal for neighbors to just stop by and hang for a bit. So included in our meeting were several people who just happened come by, some not even believers yet. So they stayed and listened. We had prepared a lesson on how to study the bible, each of the three took a section of the material to teach. Next month we are going back and will be teaching about how to lead a home group. Up until this point the visits to Surubim had been primarily evangelistic, with several believers in the community it is now time to begin releasing them to meet on their own. For me, this is one of the most encouraging steps for a church plant, watching them begin to walk together in faith and taking those first few steps on their own.

Playing it safe

-post by Brin

My children arrive home after an afternoon of Brazilian school around 6:00pm, and with about another 30 minutes of daylight, Ava and Mia usually run to the street to find their neighborhood friends who also just returned home. I pity the neighborhood boys. This group of girls, sometimes as many as a dozen of them, rule the street. Or at least the portion between my house and my neighbors house 20 meters away. They patrol their turf with scooters from my garage and then whatever else they might find around. Adults would call it trash or yard refuse, but they call it a Barbie car, a bowl of rice or whatever they need to fit into their imaginative play. That is the part I like. Josh and I have often been impressed with the ingenuity we see among Brazilians friends (at least for Altamira, I can’t speak for the rest of Brazil) and I see that same trait come out in the children as well. I like that my children do not need a drawer of dolls and their plethora of accessories to play house. They would probably like it, and they do have some, but they have learned to play and have fun with simple things. I see their minds at work when they make up a game with a jump rope and bucket of dried açai berries. I really like it for one thing because I am a homeschooling mom, and hey, they are doing some of my work for me.

So clearly I will need to admit, I have found my children playing with trash. This leads to conversations about what sort of garbage they should leave alone, such as tin cans, cigarette butts and diapers. And then which trash can be used for play (am I really saying this?). I would probably give a go to an empty butter container that has a string attached so it can be floated. Which leads to another conversation about what sort of water is ok to play with. Yes to buckets that you make yourself and no to the gray water run-off from the neighbor uphill, however alluring that greenish, odorous little river running next to the sidewalk is to my children. During heavy rainfall, the drainage ditches fill with a swift current of water. Once I let my girls out to play in the rain with their friends and when I checked on them they were splashing around in gray water. I bee-lined it to the group and busted out admonishments about the filth of the water and how prone they all were to diseases like diarrhea and skin infections. They stared at me wide-eyed as I confirmed what the neighborhood girls already knew, that the American mom is weird. I think my girls wonder why I must complicate their play to the degree I do. I consider it too, because sometimes it is a lot of work for me. It would be much easier if I just kept all the kids entertained within the confines of my clean, safe yard. And I do, often. But sometimes, they are just too noisy. And sometimes, they are rougher with some of my girls’ belongings than I have taught them to be, as in throwing a Bitty Baby doll into the mango tree. Sometimes, they are frustratingly disobedient and disrespectful. However, what it really comes down to is the value I see in my girls learning from their Brazilian counterparts and gaining some of those traits that I find so desirable. So yup, my kids get parasites more than your kids do. And I still do not know my neighbors well enough to let my children have more than 5 minutes of unsupervised play. Not that my neighbors aren’t friendly, it is just that so many people come and go I never am really sure who lives there. That requires close tabs and fragmented email writing. For now, I think the extra effort is worth it.


I love this picture of Ava as Captain Hook. The beauty of her play is that we were at the beach when she came up with that and so she got to play out her Peter Pan story on the boat… err ship, back home.

A new pile of sand was delivered to the neighbors today for an addition on their home. What a treat for my girls because if I do not know how long the sand has been on the street, I won’t let them play in it. It is anyone’s guess as to what critters are living in it and so it is cruelly off limits. Mia is in the foreground and happens to be playing with a dried and discarded turtle shell, the likely remnants of our neighbors’ lunch.


I am thinking about this because I am realizing what a contrast it is to my antibacterial and garbage-less neighborhood back in Illinois. If I was concerned when my kids ran barefoot across the street, it was probably for their tender soles on hot pavement, not the dog hookworm larvae or scorpions hiding the in the coconut tree trimmings. My children’s every day play comes with a risk that I simply didn’t experience in my old life. Thanks to things like childproof medicine bottles, construction codes for stair railings and that forbidding skeleton and crossbones warning on the bottles that scares away even a pre-reader. But with the risk comes the creativity, the freedom of play and the expanse of mind that might not happen otherwise or at least to that degree. And so sometimes, with a decent amount of assessment and prayer, I choose risk.


But I am just speaking of risk within the context of my parenting my girls, but I know it plays out in so many areas of my life. Do I risk inviting a 20 year old girl to live in my home for 6 months even though I met her once for maybe 5 minutes and I don’t really remember her? Should I launch a new idea that could fail as easily as it could succeed? Heaven forbid people might suspect I have the incompetence I actually do. Do I risk telling my friend about a dangerous tendency I see in her life, knowing she is sensitive and might put me at a distance? Keep in mind, it is not fun to make friends with a foreigner who speaks annoyingly slow and asks a lot of questions, so I would like to keep the friends I have, thank you very much. So how about you, do you risk telling your boss some prickly feedback knowing his thanks might not come until the day of his retirement party after you have been passed over for a promotion 3 times. Or what about the risk that comes in revealing sin, hurts and betrayals. Admitting “I am getting close to the breaking point” can be uncomfortable, but downright risky if we know someone is going to suggest we take a leave of absence from work, enter rehab, or go to counseling. Believe me, that sort of risk runs especially costly when you work under and minister with the very same people you meet for small group with later in the evening. Imagine it with me, you have fleeting doubts of God’s faithfulness and you want to share it but that means you will be sharing it with people who make decisions on your role within the ministry. See what I mean?


So why do we risk? We know we should. I think the same reason I do with my girls. We undertake risk for the prospect of maturity, opportunity of a wide-open future and the expanse of heart and soul. When are you more likely to see the unparalleled hand of God in your own life than when you make a chancy decision in faith of God’s provision? However that provision might look. If you want your life used by God that might mean having an unsafe conversation with someone. It might bring an awkward difference to your relationship but it also might make all the difference with their soul. If our finite minds could comprehend what we are missing by not venturing beyond what we know, the risk would be not risking. Zero risk can get you zero gain, God is going to do what He wants, with or without you.

Sending out

I recently read the following line in a book about missions "No one would ever dream of living in the tropics unless he were either after money or souls." (The Challenge of Missions by Oswald J. Smith). While technology has made city living in the tropics bearable, I tend to agree with that statement every time I go to the bush and experience life in a harsh reality, absent of any modern amenities such as electricity, refrigeration, lights, telephones, running water, etc. I often wonder what has driven these people to choose this difficult life? There must have been no alternative or perhaps the other option was equally bleak.

The method we have used, as a mission, is to make visits to these harsh environments, usually spending a few days each month evangelizing the area and raising up a leader. This is slow work, often complicated by illiteracy and the difficulty of transportation. I have been thinking a lot recently about a different method that I hope to help implement. Why not send a couple to live at a village, even for a short amount of time (3-6 months)? This couple could invest in a few leaders, leaving them more qualified to lead the church in our absence.

What sounds easy and straightforward on paper is not always such in reality. Reality says the local churches lack the funds to send out missionaries. Another challenge is that often the workers willing to go are young and inexperienced in ministry. I'm working with 3 Brazilians that are excited about giving this a shot. Rómulo and his wife Patrícia will be finishing up a commitment to the military in February. They don't have a lot of experience in mission work, but are very excited, willing and available. My friend Allison returned from a missionary training in August and he also is excited about moving to a village and applying some of the training that he received.

I've started a weekly meeting with the three, hoping that we can better prepare them for this venture. We've started reading through "Peace Child" by Don Richardson, which recounts the story of the Gospel coming to a headhunting, cannibalistic, stone-aged tribe in Irian Jaya. I remember reading the book when I was in high school and first became interested in missions. I think about how my romantic dreams of mission-life have changed over the years. I don't want to temper their enthusiasm, yet desire to prepare them for the sacrifices that will be required of them for such a calling.

Even though they certainly don't fully understand to what they are committing, it's exciting to see young people willing to go, not for the promise of riches, but for the fruit of souls.

Rómulo and Patrícia

Allison

sand, birds and a wedding

We are back. While it was a dusty 14 hour ride on the way to Belem; the ocean, bathtub, and croissants more than made up for it. We swam, rested, read and watched movies in air conditioning. A highlight for me (Brin speaking here) was visiting Belem's version of Krogers where I was delighted to find dark mustard, turkey breast, cheddar cheese all within the ambiance of automatic doors and air conditioning. They even had a public bathroom with, wait for it......paper towels. Utterly pleasurable, I cannot even tell you. I have no pictures of it, what was I thinking?! I do have some pictures of our other outings that I believe were more memorable for the rest of the family. We picked my mom and dad up at the airport and spent a few days exploring Belem. The open air market on the banks of the river, a zoo, a heron park and of course Pizza Hut at the mall.

Mom and the girls at the Praça da Republica.
It was hot and the chilled coconuts refreshing.

Our girls preferred searching for random rocks,
shells and even trash to decorate the sand castle that their dad built.

The giant lily pads at the zoo.

At the bird sanctuary.

more pictures of Belem here

We traveled back as planned. I don't want to make much mention of the journey back since it reveals what a priss I might be. I will just say, the plane ride brought me into my house only 10 minutes before Josh's journey of dust and my day poolside was lovely. My mom and dad pretty much jumped into our lives. One of the things they were able to experience with us was Alpha Circles, the Friday night English groups that I lead. I did a talk on contentment. It ended up being one of those (many) times where you give a message but really you are just preaching to yourself.

Cleide translating while I speak in English. There were times in the past where I tried to translate for myself. That was a disaster.

Oooooh, and another big event; Sheyla and Leandro's wedding! Both of them were my former English students that turned into friends. Long ago Sheyla asked Mia and Ava to be her "damas de honra", the Brazilian version of a flowergirl. With enthusiasm, both accepted. However, a few weeks ago Ava evidenced a painful case of stage fright during the Conferencia de Milagres when she refused to dance only seconds before her group was called out. Ella was mortified to be left partnerless. Now, a couple weeks later, Ava's stage fright paid off for Ella in the end when Ava gave up her flower-girl dress. Ella was overjoyed to take it. The wedding was beautiful. It was fun to watch Sheyla throughout the ceremony, remembering some of my lunch dates with her where she interrogated me about marriage. We laughed a lot realizing how much Sheyla and I are alike and how much Josh and Leadro are as well. Many times I left my outings with her asking God to guide her because I knew I certainly did not have marriage all figured out. And really, we are on the same path together, pointing each other towards God.

Ella and Mia.
When I asked Mia what her favorite part of the wedding was, she said when Sheyla and Leandro kissed. About 2 months ago, Ava fell asleep at a wedding, she awoke to everyone clapping when the couple kissed and she was mad at me for not waking her up for the kiss.

Josh and I were padrinhos. Which I would explain as part bridesmaid/groomsmen part role model/Godparent.

Another beautiful part of the wedding was that Sheyla wore a dress given by Josh's cousin Katie (Pflederer) Roth. The gown is in the wedding circuit for other brides in our church to borrow. Also, the girls' tiaras came from their friends Anna and Alia Porritt. It was rather endearing to have a little piece of home play a part in such a meaningful weekend.

See more photos of the Sheyla & Leandro, Chelsea catching the bouquet, Denise singing and other friends

the little things that make a good vacation

I (Josh) originally wrote this post last week when we got back from Belem. Our internet was down for several days after I thought I posted it, come to find out it was never posted. So, here it is, a week later...

It's funny how little things can make a big difference. Air conditioning in our truck, for example. Without it you have to keep the windows down to keep from suffocating in the equatorial heat. But during the dry season the dust is so bad, in places it is like driving through snow. On our trip back from Belem, we passed one hill where a semi-truck was uselessly attempting to climb a dust covered hill (surprising, dust can be as slick as snow). Two more trucks waited to descend and a third was waiting nervously to take his run. We easily maneuvered around them, safely and dust-free in our air conditioned truck.

The funny thing was our air conditioner had recently gone out, not during our trip but a week earlier. After 3 return trips to the mechanic it was fixed, each time I was thinking "I hope this doesn't happen on our way to Belem". Our air conditioning functioned fine the whole way there and back. I have to think God was watching out for us.

Another little occurrence the day after we returned got me thinking again. After running some errands on my motorcycle I returned home to find a flat tire on the truck. It seems it somehow held up through all the bouncing and banging around on the TransAmazon, but sitting in my garage was too much for it. Sure, I could have changed the tire in 95 degree heat and 3 inches of red dust, but I'm sure glad I didn't have to.

We enjoyed a week at the beach as a family, and 3 days in Belem with Brin's parents. Brin and her mom flew back Sunday night, Larry (Brin's dad), the girls and I arriving 10 minutes after they did, after 14 hours on the road. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for our time away. It seems God worked in many little ways to make our time relaxing.


Two years ago, before we went to Belem the first time, we had promised to take Ella to the butterfly house as a reward for a school assignment, only to find out that it was closed. After Brin somehow explained the situation the staff allowed Ella to enter alone, for about 5 minutes. This time around it was open and we all enjoyed it together.

More Pictures Here

Off to the coast

Tomorrow we are leaving for a much needed and anticipated vacation. We'll be driving to the coast, a few hours to the east of Belem, and staying at the beach there for a week. Then we will pick up Brin's parents, who are flying into Belem. We'll stay a few days there until finally Brin and her mom will fly to Altamira and I will drive home with Brin's dad and the girls.

Travel on the TransAmazon Highway is always adventurous. It'll be about 600 miles, and should take in the neighborhood of 18 hours. This time of year, washouts and mud are not the problem, but with the dryer weather comes dust. The dust can make the roads slick, as well as eliminating visibility if you get stuck behind a truck or bus. Hopefully our next post will be more about our time at the beach, rather than the adventure it took to get there.

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São Felix and Beyond

Following is a video of my trip to São Felix. As I elude to at the end of the video, it can be quite a process to understand the needs of a certain region. How exactly should we define whether or not a community is remote? Or what if it already has a church, but it is not reaching unchurched people? Does that mean that community is unreached? These are difficult questions, but ones that need to be wrestled with as our work here expands and we look to where the most need is.

Enjoy the video, and pray with us as we explore where the Lord may be calling our family.

São Felix do Xingu

Our group at the riverfront in São Felix: Josh, Fransisco, Aline, Clyde and Allison

I confess, August truly was a pathetic month for blog posts. Nothing excuses the poor showing of 2 whole posts. Let's hope for a better September...

Meanwhile, I (Josh) just got back from a trip to São Felix with Clyde, a fellow missionary who hopes to move to São Felix in the next year. It was a long journey; 12 hours on a bus... 8 hours in a car... 4 days in a boat... 6 hours in a car... 8 hours in a car... 15 hours on a bus. I'm working on a video that I will hopefully have done in the next few days (actually so far I have just been thinking about working on it).

Until then, here are some pictures:

The main reason for the trip was to get a better picture of the need for churches in the area around São Felix, we decided to explore the Xingu River for 4 days. In a rented boat, we traveled downstream, stopping occasionally to talk to people along the way.

One of the things that struck us was the lack of houses on the river. There seemed to be much more people living inland, possibly due to the popularity of the cattle industry in that region.

Talking to the people along the river gave us a better sense of the need for churches, where the majority of the people lived, as well as a feel for their economic needs. In the above picture we talk with a man who is making a dugout canoe. His daughter lead us through a jungle trail to where he had felled the tree and was busy hollowing out the canoe.

Our boat captain, with one hand on the rudder control and the other on a string which lead to the throttle control. The motor was out of a truck , including the transmission, and had to be stopped by ducking below into the engine room and moving the shifter into neutral.

Each of the three nights on the river we found islands to sleep on. Our hammocks with mosquito nets served us well, except for the one night when we had a rain storm. We all ended up sleeping in the boat that night, and didn't get much sleep.

Allison and I enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning.

Allison, Clyde and I sit on top of the boat as we arrive back at São Felix.