Well...

Post by Brin

Some of you have heard me complaining about my water situation. I really think it is worthy of being called a fiasco. When we first arrived back in Brazil we discovered the pump to our well was not functioning as it had been pre-furlough. So we hired someone to descend into the well (75 ft.) and he diagnosed us as needing a new pump. So a new pump was put in. Again we daily ran out of water and Josh determined that the new pump was not put in deep enough. At least we hoped, because that would be an easy fix. Josh tried to no avail to find someone to finish the job, but couldn’t until after the rainy season (June). That is when I started complaining. I really like to have enough water. I live in a rain forest for crying out loud. Sometime later we found a guy willing to go down and fix the problem. And…..he did. And now for weeks I have had all the water I could drink. It was wonderful until yesterday when Josh took a shower and the water smelled like dead animal. We thoroughly scrubbed the water holding tank and filled it with fresh water from the well, and the water still left us feeling filthy after taking a shower. So the only other source could be our well itself, which was still unsealed from the last time.

So here you see Josh, again, opening up the well and pouring a bottle of bleach into the watery grave of a decomposing something. If you could smell us now…

I think that I need to clarify a few things. Yes, our family is still home schooling. We have also put our girls in a school here in Altamira so that they could make some friends their own age and also have the opportunity to learn independence. They go to school every afternoon which leaves the mornings open to home school. It works pretty well. Ella loves Brazilian school, however Ava and Mia are not convinced yet. Ella also loves home schooling now that Chelsea helps me home school twice per week. Chelsea is a new missionary with the Xingu Mission from Columbus, Ohio. She will be working with youth and also involved with music and dance ministries. She herself is a grateful home school graduate and her enthusiasm inspires Ella to want to learn. Chelsea is also a talented musician so at some point I will have her teach Ella music. Right now the only instrument we have is a plastic recorder, so we'll wait a bit. I am so thankful for her. We have all been anticipating her arrival in Altamira since we first found out she was coming in August. Chelsea has visited twice previously, the last visit she stayed for 3 months and conducted a ballet class for all the missionary kids. My girls remembered this small detail and we always referred to Chelsea as the "ballerina." We greeted Chelsea when she walked off the airplane and I am pretty sure that Mia was expecting her to be wearing a tutu and tiara.

Here is Chelsea's blog if you want to know more about her:

http://chelsea-nichelle.blogspot.com/

Celebrate with us! Only 2 months away from being 7, Ava has graduated from Kindergarten. We surprised her with a giant chocolate chip cookie which is a grand gesture since the chocolate is imported.

Everything she needed to know she learned in Kindergarten. Here are some of Ava’s ramblings on the topic of "school”:

• I know how to say honey in Portuguese because my teacher brings it to school and gives it to us at snacktime. Sometimes they bring honey and sometimes pizza.
• Emily teached me reading. Mat M-A-T. Bat B-A-T.
  
• I go to school in brasil and I get nervous and cry. And Mia screams and cried more.
  
• My teacher she barely lets us play. At the end when we go to our moms she gets out the toys. She mostly cares about homework.
  
• Whoever does good at school gets a pencil and whoever obeys gets honey. Only I obey.
  
• We want to make friends and so we say hi and share food.
  
• I have to do Brazilian math.
  
• When I see Mia on the playground, when I leave I get a little scared.
• When I don’t want to stand on the stage I run to Mia. Everyone looks at me. Because of my white face and red curls and because I talk weird.
• I have a babysitter here her name is Cleide. She has sleepovers with us. She takes the lice out of my hair.
  
• My favorite part of school is making friends. Her name is Deborah.
  
• We went to the waterfall and we saw a snake and I was in a tube with mom. Snakes are good, they don’t hurt us but some poison.

Marituba river trip

The girls have been complaining that they haven't been able to go on a boat trip since we've been back from furlough. So finally, this past weekend, we went on a boat trip as a family. Joined by about 10 Brazilians from our church, as well as Chelsea and Patty (2 new missionaries) and Kate, a short-termer.

We returned to Marituba, a community which I had visited last year where my friend Alison's aunt lives. On that visit, a couple of his cousins had expressed a desire to follow Christ. Spending a little bit more time on this visit, we were able to meet with his cousins and a few friends and begin going through a discipleship booklet for new believers.

Discipleship group with guys from the village.

The group of Brazilians we took included some of the young guys I've been working with on youth group events. I am continually impressed by their desire to be involved in the work here. One young man, Souza, and his wife have even expressed an interest in moving to a remote community and living there as missionaries. It's exciting to think about how God is going to use them in the future, and to realize that I may be able to play a small role in encouraging their development as leaders.

One adventure that we experienced showed me once again the dangers we face here, and how fortunate we are to have so many of you praying for our family. The community we visited sits on the west side of the river at a location where the river is wide (8 miles). The good news of this particular sight is the constant breeze blowing across the river keeps the mosquitoes away, the bad news is often storms approach quickly and the waves can be quite treacherous. To make matters worse, the beach has many hidden rocks scattered about just under the waters surface. In this situation, we usually anchor the boat off-shore and take a canoe to shore (I really wish we had a dinghy, I'm not sure what a dinghy is but if an situation called for a dinghy, this would be it). It had gotten late the night we were having a home group meeting, so Brin returned to the boat so the kids could sleep. They were fast asleep when a storm suddenly blew up from across the river. With no warning, the captain was unable to start the motor and move the boat out further from shore before the wind blew the boat and dislodged the anchor. By that time our church service was over and the rest of the group was heading to the boat, the same wind made it hard for us to even reach the boat. When it appeared that we had reached the boat, I realized it wasn't because we had made it any further from shore, it was because the boat had blown up on shore. All of this happened very quickly; amid complete darkness and a lot of yelling. We were able to get all the ladies on the boat while the rest of us tried to dislodge the boat from the sand. Fortunately the boat did not hit any large rocks, but it was stuck fast. The danger is that wind and waves heave the boat onto shore (it gets turned parallel with the shore), and if the waves are big enough they can actually flood the boat and sink it. This happened years ago to this boat and while no one was hurt, it did cost a lot to get the boat seaworthy again. Finally, using another boat, we were able to pull the stern free from the sand, and back the boat away from the shore.

At one point I told Brin to be prepared to get the kids off the boat if the boat began listing. She pulled Ella from a deep sleep in her hammock, gave her a life jacket and waterproof flashlight and told her that if she finds herself in water, not to worry because she can probably touch, but if not, just use the flashlight to look for the shore. Normally a worrier and compulsively safety conscience, Ella should have been freaking out. However, 3 minutes after Brin left her she found her back in her hammock sleeping.

Augustino, from our church in Altamira, and his sister
whose house we used to hold the church service.

Brin holding a boa constrictor that the villagers had recently caught.

Beto sharing during the meeting.

Ava showing off her canoeing skills.

Return to Surubim

I just returned from a trip to Surubim. Some of you may remember this community where I have been involved in the church planting we are doing there. I drove my truck and the main church planter, Ronaldo, rode his motorcycle. For those of you that know him, we were excited to be joined by Beto, who is home for a visit from the University where he studies down south. The seven of us where planning on a 2 night stay, during which we would visit neighbors, spend some time with Zecateca (the main leader), and have a church service.

I was especially impressed with Zecateca, a man that I first wrote about before he had become a Christian. In a blog from over a year ago, I noted that he would make a great pastor. Today, after less than a year as a believer, he has grown tremendously and is excited and eager to learn and grow more. Ronaldo, and his wife Rosanah, have poured a lot into him and it shows.

Here is a video that I made of our trip. I hope it gives you a better taste of what it's like to travel to and visit a remote community like Surubim...

refreshing changes

River village built completely on stilts

This is Brin here. I am back from my trip up river. I helped lead a team from the Vineyard Church of Delaware County (Ohio) as they visited churches and villages in a region close to where the Xingu River meets the Amazon. It was a serious treat for me. First of all, I needed to get away. But in my jungle town there just isn't anywhere to go. So when I returned I was refreshed and much more appreciative of my husband and eager to be a better mother. Also, this team was made up of such quality people 10 days was just not long enough to soak them up. I miss them, which is weird since I just met them.


We spent the weekend in Porto de Moz, a small port town, and the rest of the time traveling up and down the rivers, stopping in now and then at people's homes, sampling their buffalo cheese, talking about God, and putting on services in the evening. Tim, a missionary and also MD did consults along the way. I sat alongside him and acted as a glorified pharmacy tech. I loved meeting people's medical needs and it flows naturally into meeting spiritual needs as well. I was surprised at how poorly I understood the language. I thought I was doing great in Portuguese until I tried to understand the river people with their thick accents, poor grammer and missing teeth.

On the way to school

So now that I am back and getting back into a routine, Josh promptly left for a mission to the interior to a location called Suribem which is close to his heart. On Wednesday night I got a phonecall that the girls were to start school the next day. I was given less than 24 hours notice. I am not sure if that is normal or I was just forgotten. What a contrast to North American schools that have the graduation date on the calendar even before school starts. So I sent my babies off to school. They are the first foreigners to attend this school which was evident when the teachers could not make heads or tails of their immunization records and laughed at the funny names on their birth certificates. Had I had the liberty, I would have cried over the realization that my babies are no longer babies. And also that I had sent them into a lot of unknowns. But I had other commitments so I ignored the tender spot on my heart. When I went to pick them up Ava was the most enthusiastic, contrary to her worried statements prior. Statements like, "I wish I could paint my skin brown so I could make friends." Ava's favorite part was buying a popsickle for 25 centavos. She also referred to her classroom as her "hotel room." I am sure wires got crossed in translation somewhere. Mia was pleased that she got to wear a "costume" (uniform) but then at the end of the day was not happy because they did not use the playground. Ella was originally concerned because there are not doors on the bathroom stalls, which indeed there are not. She deliberatly studied her classmates, teacher and classroom and concluded it will be harder than she thought. She also stated that her classmates did not treat her any different until one of the teachers made a speech about children from other countries that look different and speak different but are still children just like them. That was when she got stared at the first time. She also gained a little unwanted attention for bringing prunes and apricots (an imported treat) for snack instead of cookies or crackers. She told them her mother was a nurse and they empathized with her.

Mia and her classmates

Adventures with dad

Brin's been gone on a boat trip for about a week now. I've been enjoying hanging out with the girls. I think they'll be in for a little bit of an adjustment time when mom returns, kind of like after the kids get to spend time with grandma and grandpa. Anyway, here are a couple of things we've been doing together...

For some reason I have memories of making Apple Dumplings on special occasions with my family when I was younger (I can't for the life of me remember what those special occasions were, maybe like in my case dad was just hungry for some dumplings). We made some the other day. It all went great, except for when I ran out to get some ice cream...

It seems vanilla ice cream is harder to find than you'd think. As I was digging around in the freezer, pushing aside such flavors as "green corn" and "tapioca", I tried to explain that I wanted vanilla, or something close to that. "Oh, are you making a milk shake?" the patron asked. I hesitated, should I try and explain to her how I'm making a dessert and it just tastes better with vanilla? I'm not sure I can even put to words with English the complimentary tastes of a warm apple dumpling and a cool scoop of vanilla ice cream. I decided to forego the explanation. She sure tried hard to please me though, at one point bringing me vanilla ice cream... with raisins. "It's mostly vanilla with some raisins", she explained. Finally I opted for Vanilla with some sort of chocolate candies, I figured it was better than trying to spit out raisins like watermelon seeds. Come to find out, the chocolate candies didn't take away anything from the sweet sweet melody of apple dumplings and ice cream.

The girls were pretty bummed out that they couldn't go with mom on the boat trip (unbeknownst to them one of the reasons she was going was to get some time away from them). So I promised to take them camping, which we did in the backyard, and we also went to a local beach with a group from our church. We spent the day there, playing football and swimming. The beach was an hour and a half boat ride from here, so the girls even got a little boat trip out of it.

Iriri Travelogue

I just spent 5 days on a trip to a very remote region where the work is growing. To get to these remote communities, we travel about 8 hours by car and then usually visit several communities on the Iriri River. This time we drove to a different location on the Iriri and visited 3 different communities on the river. I had several impressions and experiences on the trip, but writing a lot, I'll try and just comment on some of the photos:

Once we arrived by truck, we traveled exclusivly by boat. Here, a dugout canoe with an outboard motor transports part of our team (consisting of myself and 4 other Brazilians).

We carries film equipment with us, showing the Jesus Film in each of the 3 locations. Around 7 people responded to a call to follow Christ, adding to the several others who have also shown an initial faith and a desire to serve the Lord. The distance from Altamira will make it difficult to see these people discipled. We are hoping to send a brazilian missionary couple to this area to live and work with the new believers.

Illiteracy is a common. Pastor Clenildo (from the main church in Altamira), is showing a local man how to use a device which speaks the New Testament in Portuguese. Individual verses and books can be selected. It's batteries can be recharged using a handcrank or a built in solar panel.

A young boy reads a gospel tract to two illiterate men. They are laughing because he confuses the word "sinner" with the word "fisherman" when reading that "everyone is a sinner" he read "everyone is a fisherman" (the Portuguese word for sinner "pecador" is similar to fisherman "pescador").

Our group stopped by an elderly woman's house, who was blind and nearly deaf, to pray for her.

Commercial fishing is one of the main sources of income in this area. Here, a man who makes weekly visits in his truck to deliver fish to the market in Altamira, wieghs some Peacock Bass.

One of the other main sources of income is the collection of tropical fish from the river. Here an air compressor sits on the bank and is used to supply breathing air via the hose to divers who collect fish.

Enjoying a moment alone along the river.

With the river still rising due to the onset of the rainy season, the fishing was not great. But I did secure this catch one day. We mostly ate Piranha (on the left) which seem to bite in any season.

Are you ready for some football????

It all started back in June when a team of my former youth group came down on a work team. Most of the guys played on the high school football team at the time and tried to teach a few Brasilians how to play "American" football. I brought back a football when we were home, thinking that maybe we would play again sometime. Last weekend about 12 guys showed up to learn how to play. Only 2 of them were at the original game in June, so we spent a lot of time explaining the rules (which can be kind of hard to explain when you don't know how to translate words like down, line-of-scrimmage, down by contact, 1st and goal and hike - how the heck am I supposed to translate hike? I don't even know what that means).

For not knowing the first thing about football, I was impressed with how quickly they learned. My only regret was explaining the lateral, it only confused the issue and lead to way too many illegal forward passes. (I just realized, after I wrote that last sentence, that Brin is going to hate this post...)

We've played twice since that first Sunday, and once was on New Years Day after most of the guys were up all night! We always gather a crowd of curious onlookers, and a few times we've picked up some walk-ons from the crowd. We've been playing tackle on a small sand field. The dislocation has been the most popular injury so far - a shoulder and a toe. I think I'm going to push for flag football soon.

On a personal note, I go through football withdrawals every year during the NFL season. I've been able to get a few games that I've enjoyed watching. But really going out there and playing has been a pretty good fix as well. Plus, for the first time in my life, I'm the star quarterback!

Here, one of the throw-happy guys decides to chuck the ball instead of being tackled. He was not the quarterback and was well past the line of scrimmage.

This guy, Leandro, actually has a pretty good tuck going. Usually the ball would be waved frantically by the runner.

Explaining plays was also a chore, but like "backyard" football back home, they rarely (if ever) went according to plan.

A Hawaiian Christmas

On Friday Brin and I hosted a party for the leadership team that helped with the event I described in my last post. After just mentioned that we'd like to host a party for the group, in typical Brazilian fashion, it took on a life of it's own. Soon we learned that it was going to have a "Hawaiian" theme and each person was to bring a white elephant gift. We had a great time with the group. I really have been impressed by their servant's heart and dedication. I hope you enjoy the pictures from our luau/Christmas party:

The making-of a great event

A few weeks ago I made a street advertisement that promoted an evangelistic event that our church was doing here in Altamira. I have been helping with the planning of this event, often feeling both impressed and a little bit cynical about the grandeur of the project. Well, I'm here to report on the outcome. First, an update on my growing position as an advertising agent:

I was told 3 days before the event that we would be given some free airtime on the local TV stations and they wanted me to put together a commercial. I threw something together and the guys seemed impressed. I never saw it on TV (we don't own a TV). I imagine it probably ran at 3:00 am, sandwiched between an ad for a 900 number and the latest exercise equipment that will revolutionize your life.

The day we were to begin setting up at a local gymnasium I realized very little was going to be ready by the advertised 7:00 start time. Literally, at 6:45 I was in my truck driving around the city picking up instruments for the band. As we arrived back at the venue at 7:15, some of our band members were just leaving to go home and take a shower! There was a part of me freaking out. But when I looked around at all the workers, no one was acting like I was feeling. No one had one bit of urgency in what they were doing. Even the crowd, who had just been trickling in up to this point didn't look one bit incensed that we were obviously not going to start on time. I think things finally started at 8:30, an hour and a half later than advertised (in my commercials, mind you). By then I had resigned myself to not caring.

The event itself is not easy for me to explain. It was an evangelistic event, but seemed not too seeker-friendly, in my American evangelical mind. The theme was "miracles", or "Jesus is alive", depending on who you ask. The program included dance performances, a drama, worship music and a talk. Following the talk there was a ministry time where people came forward to receive prayer for healing.

What impressed me the most about this whole undertaking was the way it was planned entirely by the youth group leadership team (comprised mostly of college and young adults). I love working with this group and they truly put many hours into planning the event (although not enough effort went into the details, but that's just my opinion).

My role was kind of like a consultant, they would ask my opinion and sometimes they would do it, other times I think they probably laughed at me when I left. I was also in charge of the video and photography team (I'm telling you, they were serious about this). I have been commissioned to make a DVD of the event, including a "making-of" segment. For some reason unknown to me they seem to be more excited about the "making-of" than they do about the actual video. I can't tell you how many times someone has come up to me and told me "can you film this and put it in the making-of"? And that's how they say it too "making-of", I guess DVD's don't bother translating that description so they have grown to include the English phrase in their language, except it sounds more like "moking oov", so it took me awhile to understand what they were saying.

Anyway, I'm having grave reservations about this DVD. I'm not sure how it's going to live up to the expectations. And is it OK to have a DVD with a "making-of" segment that is longer than the actually video? I'm so confused. But I better get going because I have several hours of video and about 1,000 pictures to weed through. The video and photography team that I was in charge of was not lacking enthusiasm, fortunately they eventually ran out of storage space.




Our cheesy TV commercial:

A Brazilian Ballerina

I really did not consider the recital essential to my daughters upbringing.

I had a language mishap the other day. Not a funny one either. I was having a short conversation with a young women, she was 20 or even younger. I asked her how she was and she did not give me the quick, standard, "all well" response. Instead she told me that she is pregnant and left her boyfriend because he hits her. But here is what stinks, I didn't undertand. So I asked her to repeat it. I think she used some slang, sorta like "he slapped me around" or something. I didn't get it so again, she repeated and again I didn't undertand. On the third time, I understood and felt like garbage that I made her repeat something so horrible 3 times. But here is what really stinks. I was so stunned about what I did and somewhat paralyzed in the awkward moment that I did nothing, said precious little, and even worse, didn't even ask to pray for her. I see know that I was preoccuped with my lack of language to allow God's power to work through me. This insight into myself is sobering. I have thought about it a lot since then. How I get so concerned about my lack of fill-in-the-blank that I miss out on being powered in the way God intended me to be. I hope I have a chance to run into that girl again.

Josh had a great weekend. He spent a lot of time planning, organizing and working at a big event the central church put on. The weekend isn't over yet so check back soon for video, pictures and Josh's take on the whole weekend.

what ifs

It is 3:30 am and I can’t sleep because I drank too much guarana. My friend who is a chemical engineer (and who works at the local guarana factory, informed me that a guarana bean has more caffeine than a coffee bean. I believe him.

I lay in bed tonight thinking about “what ifs.” We had a little one yesterday. Josh was out with Mia and was getting on his motorbike when he bumped a long, heavy piece of metal sitting against a pillar and it crashed down on Mia. She is a bit bruised but what saved her from potentially another trip to the hospital was that she already had her helmet on. Thank goodness. Close calls like that kind of prompt me to remember other close calls. About this time a year ago, we were moving from one place that we had been house sitting for 3 months to a different house. We pretty much had everything moved so that night Josh and the girls slept in the new place. I stayed back at the old house because I had neglected to find a house sitter earlier that day. Plus I was not thrilled about leaving that house for a lesser. Anyway, here in Altamira, when you leave your house for the night you almost always ask someone to house sit for security reasons. We have heard stories about people arriving home to see their washing machine being lowered over their wall or another story where a couple went to the hospital to deliver their baby and when the husband went back to the house, their valuables and clothing had been stolen. Theft is so common and all the security measures, like guard dogs and privacy walls that felt weird when we first moved here are quite normal to us now. So to guard the house I slept there one last night. It went fine and the next day I lined up a sitter. A day later I talked to the house sitter and discovered that someone had broken into the house that night. She had smartly put on the security alarm and when it was triggered she awoke just in time to witness a man running out the door empty handed. See the thing is, the night before I had slept there. And I often did not use the alarm because those were the days when I was not sleeping well and I didn’t want to risk tripping the alarm when I got up to pace the kitchen or get a drink. I am not sure what I would have done but I certainly thought about it. And a year later, that “what if” situation still crosses my mind.

Another more humorous “what if” occurred 9 months or so ago. We had taken a trip to the Brasil Novo waterfall. I love that place. A small group of us were hiking through a wet creek bed when someone called out to stop and pointed to ground. Peaking out of some jungle river debris was a poisonous Amazon dart frog! You know, the kind Indians use to tip their blow-darts with poison. They are so rare and I was ecstatic and immediately began calling for Emily and Ella to come see it. I must have gotten too close because Alison pulled me back and said, “Careful, that snake can kill you.” I really wanted it to be a dart frog and didn’t believe him until the creature came out a little farther and revealed it’s triangular, some might say frog-shaped, yellow-speckled head. At least 3 pair of bare feet had trampled over it. Again, thank goodness. So on the way home I thought about it. Josh and I were leading that little group of 11 people. I was the only one with any healthcare knowledge but really that is inconsequential since I have no schooling on poisonous snake bites. But I thought about what I would have done. Tourniquet and transport was all I could think of. It would still take an hour to get to a hospital and that would be with no rain and driving as if someone’s life depended on it.

Josh has an even better “what if” story of when he was living in Papua New Guinea. I will let him share it. But on the subject of close calls and “what if’s”, they do get you thinking, don’t they? Large occurrences, like 9/11 incited masses of “what if” testimonies. And those big occurrences prompt us to think and rethink our lives. It gives us a chance to refocus our lives if we let it. Surely, if you take a second you can think of your own “what if” account and how it reshaped you as a person. But the little “what ifs” can start to add up too. And it not properly dealt with they can become rather overwhelming. Don’t ask what I mean by “dealt with” because like I said I am still thinking about mine years later. But here are some thoughts my mind has mulled over. Was Mia protected yesterday because of the relentless prayers of her great-grandparents? Quite possibly, yes. Do you think that hint of an experience with a middle-of-the-night thief make me appreciate the safety I have thus far experienced. Absolutely. It is when we have a difficult illness that we appreciate our previous health or when we have experienced a lay-off when we understand how good that old job we used to complain about really was. Those moments provide perspective. And in those moments if we can change our perspective to worship God as the guide in our lives that is what changes the rethinking of our lives to actual transformation. But even better, if we worship God, again as the guide of our lives, when the “what if” actually occurs, it proves that our worship and dependence on Him is not based on current circumstances. God is always worthy of our acknowledgement and praise, no matter how lousy we might feel, how massive the mistake we made was or what close calls fearfully become realities. The choice to embrace God is ours to make.

~BZP