Portuguese... making me feel stupider every day.

Tim, Steve and Josh all packed and ready for our first day of school

Brin showing off her command of the perfect-present-subjunctive-reflexsive-gerund verb tense

Brain hurts... can't make words... must stop talking...

The other day I got out of Portuguese class and felt like if I didn't talk for the rest of the day I would be happy. Unfortunatly, it didn't work out that way.

Brin said she feels like she's in college again, she's returned to the habit of sitting down to do her homework with a pencil in one hand a bag of chips in the other. I, on the other hand, don't ever remember feeling this worked over after a class.

Unfortunatly learning about Portuguese is alot like learning about God: the more you know the more you realize you don't know...

A Blog of note

Emily fancher, a shorttermer who has been living with us and helping Brin with homeschooling, has just published a blog that we wanted to make you aware of. She gives a unique perspective on our lives here and we thought some of you might be interested in taking a look. Click here, or under our "links" section to the right.

The Beauty and Tragedy of Salvador

After arriving Thursday, we have had a few days to get to know the city. Salvador is a beautiul city, built on a bluff overlooking a bay. We've learned that the history of the city is linked closely with the slave trade from Africa. The high population of African decendants have influenced the culture, arts and religion. The culture and arts are beautiful, the religion, however, is a convolution of Catholosism and African spiritism. One of the results of this mixing is something called sincrotism, which is essentially combining some of the Catholic saints with an African deity counterpart. for as much beauty that we see in the people and culture here, we have felt a difinite darkness and spiritual heaviness.

Our school starts today. We are excited and anticipating the challenge that lies ahead. Brin said she felt like it was the first day of school all over again (she had her bag packed the night before).

Click here for more pictures...

Goodbye to Beto

The day before we left Altamira, we had to say goodbye to someone very close. My language helper, since coming to Brazil has been a young man named Beto. He has grown to become much more than just my language helper, he has truly become a close friend.

You know how some people just give you the impression that God is going to use them in a big way? Beto is one of those people. Teaching himself English, mostly through a Portuguese-English Bible, he has proven to have more ambition and drive than the average person.

I've also had an opportunity to see Beto's heart for the lost. I've been on several outreach trips with him and experienced the passion and love that he has or people that don't know him. I've seen him deliver impassioned sermons to a handful of villagers, as if he were speaking to thousands.

In a couple weeks Beto will be leaving to study at a university in the south. He will be studying International Relations, and will probably not return to Altamira for 1 1/2 years.

I'll certainly miss my friend Beto, but I'm excited that God will be using him where ever it is that he ends up.

Beto, on the right.

Beto's going-away party.

Arrival

After over 50 hours on a bus, we 've arrived in Salvador. The trip was somewhat smooth (an ironic word to use to describe the roads). We only had one vomitting incident, got stuck only once, and our bus driver was only late twice (for a total of nearly 4 hours).

fortunately we only had to wait for about 10 minutes before our driver got us out of this easily avoidable delay.

Leaving...

Just an update, we'll be leaving tomorrow (Feb. 12, Tuesday) for Salvador at 4 am. Please pray for our journey, a 48 hour bus ride. We will be checking our email once we get there. We plan on returning on March 17th. -Thanks.

The Graduate

Marilda, 21 has graduated from high school. Among her classmates was an Elvis Presley de Santos, or something like that… after hearing his first name I really didn’t pay attention to his last name.

Attending the graduation ceremony was truly a cultural experience. We were happy for Marilda and she was especially happy to be having a ceremony because earlier in the year the students were told there was no money available. Then one day she came to our house and excitedly announced that she was going to go to a planning meeting for a commencement ceremony. It would occur in 5 days.

We showed up at the ceremony at 7:00pm along with Marilda and several other families with graduates from our church, only to find out the time was now 8:00. So we sat down to chat. It became quite obvious that not much was ready and that it would not start at 8:00, so we started to take bets as to what time it would actually begin. I forget who won but finally the ceremony got underway at 8:50. But the main event was not until after the announcement of graduates when the real party started with the graduates serving food to their guests. By then it was well after 10pm, a great time for dinner. Huge trashcans filled with rice, meat and farinha were rolled into the room. The graduates flocked to them and brought back heaping plates. So now I can say I have eaten out of a trashcan (if I ever have the desire to say so).

Graduating from high school is by no means a certainty here. So for Marilda this was more than just a ceremony marking a foregone event. Her abusive father left only a shell of a family when we moved away years ago. You can imagine what her family has since coped with. Her siblings exhibit the scars of years of abuse. Marilda, however, has truly become a new creation since coming to know Christ a few years ago. With more confidence and self-assurance she’s done things she never dreamed of doing before such as going on boat trips, learning to swim and sharing her testimony in front of church. For Marilda, her graduation seems to represent hope for a future she never had before, hope that comes only from Christ and the miracles He’s performed in her life.

Sheyla

Brin had a student in her English class last year named Sheyla. She was raised by her Grandparents and now, in her early twenties, she lives with her older sister. She was intrigued by our church after attending the English school and started attending shortly after.

Last Sunday we had the privilege of watching her get baptized. She has developed a connection with Brin and often just drops by our house to hang out and practice English. We haven't been able to have many deep spiritual conversations with her, but we've certainly observed her as she has become fully involved in our church and displays a genuine love for the Lord. It's exciting to see the limited role we have played in her spiritual life, and makes us wonder about the potential for this to increase as we learn more of the language.