Every Saturday night we attend a small group in the Rincão.  At the end of each study, like at any good study anywhere, there are snacks of some sort.  Something salty, something sweet, it usually varies depending on what house we’re at.  Saturday before last, at the end of the study, we were served pastéis. Pastéis are like empanadas. They are a pastry filled with meat, cheese, or yummy sweet stuff, the stuffings vary. (On a separate note, my personal favorite is stroganoff…amazing!!) Anyway, we took one and dug in, we love pastéis!  I took my bite and thought to myself, “this tastes interesting.” but continued on eating. With each bite it got a little more difficult to enjoy. I then looked over at Lucas. The look on his face was priceless. Without words he said to me, “Help me. I don’t know what is going on inside of this pastel, but it is really not working for me. I need to stop eating this right at this moment. In fact, if it wouldn’t be too obvious and rude, I would potentially vomit all over the floor.”  Seriously, I’m not making this up, that’s what the look on his face said.  He then whispered to me, “What’s in this?”. I decided to ask.

Me-“Oh Marcinha”

Marcinha-“Sim, Teresa” (yes, Teresa)

Me-“O que está dentro desse pastel?” (what is inside this pastel)

Marcinha-“Sardinhas.”

I was hoping Lucas didn’t really hear because it translates just like it sounds. The pastéis were stuffed with sardines.  Yes, sardines.  I was sorely afraid of what was going to happen next. You see, we didn’t want to come across as rude. This family cooked food for us, which is a sacrifice for them, and we did not want them to think that we were ungrateful. So, I quickly finished my pastel. It appeared as if Lucas had as well, I didn’t see it anywhere.

Lucas-“Dude! Sardines!”

Me-“I know dude, that’s new! How did you handle it?”

He then gently and discreetly patted his hand on his pocket.

This last Saturday we returned to the same small group at the same house. This time, we were warned by our friends Geferson and Marcia.

Geferson-“Cara, sabe Seu George fez pizza com sardinhas?” (Dude, you know that Seu George made sardine pizza, right?”)

Lucas-”Cara…” (Dude)

Geferson-”Fala ‘não obrigado’, tudo ok.” (Tell him no thank you, its ok)

Lucas-”ok”

When it came time for food, I was offered the pizza first. I politely said “não obrigada”. BUT, when Marcinha offered it to Lucas, he paused for a second and took it!!!  He is so nice he didn’t want to seem rude if both of us said no, so he took one for the team, even though it wasn’t necessary :-)

Oh, if only that were the end of the story.

Last night, on the way to church, we stopped at a padaria(bakery) to pick up something to eat in the car. Lucas went in and came out with a variety of mini pastéis-ham, cheese, hamburger, and pizza. There were 12 of them. I took my first, it was a really yummy ham one. Lucas grabbed his first one that looked just like mine. He took a bite…

Lucas-”THIS IS SARDINES!!!”

Me-”No, its not!! There’s no way!”

He handed it to me. I couldn’t believe it!! Of all the mini pastéis in that bakery, he happened to grab the one that was on the wrong shelf, buy it, and choose it to eat!! And it was sardines!!  What are the chances….

Yesterday after school, Jackson asked me if one of my language school teachers, Gabrielle, could come over to our house. I thought it was kind of odd, he doesn’t really know her, she’s not one of his teachers. Anyway, I kind of brushed it off and said maybe sometime. Well, he didn’t let it go. He kept asking and asking if she could come over. I decided to do a little prying as to why he wanted her to come over so badly.

Me-”Jackson, why do you want Gabrielle to come over so badly?”

Jackson-”I want her to play lego star wars with me.”

Me-”Why?”

Jackson-”She looks nice…”

I think my 7 year old son has a crush on my 24 year old teacher.

This morning Nathaniel woke up with Bible in hand. He wanted to show me all the pages he had read last night. It was quite a bit!

Me-”Wow Nathaniel, that’s awesome!”

Nathaniel-”You know last night when I forgot my pillow in the hallway? When I got it, I hid my Bible behind it so you wouldn’t know I was bringing it to bed to read. Then, when I told you it was too dark and asked you to turn a hall light on, it was really because I wanted light to read more of my Bible.”

We then proceeded to have a talk about how it is great to want to read your Bible, but it probably isn’t the best idea to lie to do it.

Nathaniel-”I have a challenge for myself. I want to read my whole Bible today.”

Me-”That’s awesome! Read away!”

Nathaniel-”I have an idea! How about if I read my whole Bible today, you pay me $5?!?”

Talk #2…we shouldn’t read the Bible for monetary reward. I wasn’t expecting that conversation!  At least he wants to read is Bible though, right???

Anyway, Lucas gave his devotional on Friday. I tell you, even with our small vocabulary, it was a great devotional.  The Lord has certainly blessed my husband with a gift to teach His Word. I can’t wait to hear what his messages when we’re done with school!

At the end of each session, we have oral exams with the director of our school. I did mine on Friday. I had to recite 5 memory verses and the irregular verbs up to this point.  Portuguese has quite a few different tenses of verbs (ie. present, perfect past, imperfect past, and I think 4 more).  Each of these tenses has some irregular verbs that are conjugated differently than the rest of the verbs in its tense.  Each verb has a 5 conjugations. That means for each tense of irregular verbs we have to memorize 100 verb conjugations (I think my math is right).  This is definitely my biggest language school challenge. I don’t have the type of brain that memorizes lists. But, God was so good and I was able to rattle them all off!  And, this weekend, I even found myself using those verbs…correctly!  Lucas does his this coming week.

The boys had their first sleepover at our house last night. This is their friend Junior. He is the son of our friends Geferson (the pastor of the Rincao church) and Marcia. They have been wanting to do this for weeks and it finally worked out this weekend.  I have no idea how late they stayed up. I just know I was asleep by 1:30 and they were still talking! I have a feeling the rest of the day will mostly consist of this…

“The Precious Blood”

Before the cross I kneel and see
The measure of my sin
How You became a curse for me
Though You were innocent
The magnitude of Your great love
Was shown in full degree
When righteous blood, the crimson spill
Rained down from Calvary

Oh, the precious blood
That flowed from Mercy’s side
Washed away my sin
When Christ my Savior died
Oh, the precious blood
Of Christ the crucified
It speaks for me before Your throne
Where I stand justified

And who am I that I should know
This treasure of such worth
My Savior’s pure atoning blood
Shed for the wrath I’d earned
For sin has stained my every deed
My every word and thought
What wondrous love that makes me one
Your priceless blood has bought

A crown of thorns, pierced hands and feet
A body bruised, and Mercy’s plea

Oh, the precious blood
That flowed from Mercy’s side
Washed away my sin
When Christ my Savior died
Oh, the precious blood
Of Christ the crucified
It speaks for me before Your throne

Where I stand justified.

Praise the Lord for His precious blood.

This is my best friend. I used this picture because this is how I knew we would be friends for life, totally selfish, I know. 10 years ago this month (last week actually), I attended the NANC training in Lafayette, Indiana. I went there with a married couple from our church and this single girl I didn’t really know. She and I roomed together. Our first night she gave me a back rub. I knew she had to be my friend forever. Actually, God brought her into my life at a time where I was very lonely. He knew just who I needed.

We could not be more opposite. She’s quiet, I’m not really so much. She’s an amazing writer, she blogs alot, I think we all know how good I am about blogging. She has 2 girls, I have 3 boys. She used to chop wood, I’ve never mowed a lawn. Actually, after several years of picturing her with an axe in her hand, I learned she used a wood splitter, it was devastating. Anyway, the list of our differences go on and on. I think that’s why this friendship is so beautiful. We mesh perfectly together. We never argue. We can sit in silence without it being awkward. She’s a great mom. She let’s me pretend her girls are mine.

Someday, these two are going to get married.

Our husbands are best dudes too. They understand each others quirks. They laugh at each others jokes. They play video games together. Its a beautiful friendship.

This is one of their proudest moments together when they won the Halo tournament at the Impact Superbowl party 2006.

Becca officially found out she has cancer this week. She’s had a tumor in her lung for 2 years now, but it was confirmed this week that it is cancer, along with some small spots in her liver. What her cancer is going to learn, if it doesn’t know this already, is that she is one tough chick. She used to chop wood, you know.
It’s not easy to be so far away while she’s facing this. She has walked hand in hand with me through every difficult thing I’ve faced in the last 10 years and I so desperately want to do the same for her. Unfortunately, thousands of miles hinder that a little. God has been reminding me, though, that His plan is for me to be here. My favorite verse is Psalm 18:30.

“As for God, His way is perfect”.

Becca gave me a bracelet before I got on the plane to move here that has this verse inscripted on it. She now wears one on her wrist with the same verse in portuguese.

“Este é o Deus cujo caminho é perfeito.” Salmo 18:30

This verse is so true (duh, its from God’s Word). God’s plan in her life is perfect, no matter what it is, as it is perfect in mine as well.

I am asking for your prayers for our dear friends. They have some big decisions to make in the immediate future. They meet with an oncologist next month to figure our where to go next. Pray for God’s working in Becca’s body. Pray for strength and wisdom for her husband, Dustin. Pray for those beautiful girls whom I love dearly, Karis and Gabi. Pray that in all of this we remember that “As for God, His way is perfect.”

We have gone back to school after a 7 week summer break. At the beginning of the break, I was like, “7 weeks! I don’t want to miss school for 7 weeks!”. The week before we returned to school I was like, “7 weeks!! I don’t want to go back to school after 7 weeks!!”. It was so nice to have a break from studying and just be a mom and wife. We had a great break. We traveled the area a little, visited the beach a few times, even had a group come down from one of our supporting churches. It was really great to have visitors.

Well, we have completed 2 weeks since we returned. I think we’re adjusting well to jumping back in. Yesterday, I gave my first devotional in portuguese for class. It is certainly a different experience giving a devotional in a language that I speak like a preschooler. Really what it consisted of was thinking in english in words I could translate into portuguese and writing them on paper. It was more of a 3 minute testimony about a passage that is dear to my heart than it was a devotional. I actually thought it was way too fluffy and it seriously annoyed me, but it was as far as my current portuguese would take me! Then the actual presentation itself was simply reading the written out devotional in portuguese. I’m not sure how I did, but it was kinda cool to talk about the Lord in a different language! Lucas gives his this coming Friday…

We are settling into a church, which is great. It is “Comunidade Crista” in the Rincão bairro. (A bairro is like a village or neighborhood in cities. Cities here are all broken up into bairros.) We love it. We love the people. We love the pastor and family. The first time we visited in November we really felt like it was where we belonged. I’m sure I’ll share more about it in blogs to come.

If you would like to see a video of highlights of Crossway Community Church’s visit here, you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX3_G6loaZA .

The last three months have been filled with so many adventures. We’ve had many bus adventures. We’ve had many mini-bus, I mean, Kombi adventures. (BTW, I think I could be a bus driver when we come home on furlough in a few years…) We’ve had many, many language barrier adventures. Even going to the grocery store has been an adventure!

We’ve experienced some serious bugs and lizards. The really uneasy part about that statement is…we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

We became students…again.

We experienced christmas in shorts and new years at the beach.

We’ve experienced the realities of being more than a quick plane ride away from those we love…but I won’t get into that.

We’ve watched our children make friends without the ability to communicate with words.

We’ve watched God use our children to build bridges between us and our neighbors in a way that we couldn’t.

We’ve worshipped with Brazilians in their churches and in their language. Its beautiful.

There have been days when we have asked ourselves, “What are we doing here?!?!?!”. God continually reminds us the He brought us here. He has a reason for us being here. We just need to patiently wait and let Him reveal everything. He will do it in His time. He’s already done so much!!

So, when our break from language school is over, we will return to being students. We will continue to study this new language. We will wait and listen to God and let Him lead us. We will wait and let Him do His work and try not to get in the way.

We will continue to have more adventures, of that I am certain…

Off to the park we went!! It was a great time. Lucas, Jiro, and the boys played soccer while Miriam and I set up the picnic. We were there for about 2 hours getting to know each other. We even talked about doing it more often when they return from vacation next week! They also said their son Lucas can spend the night at our house sometime! That is huge considering 2 months ago none of the kids parents would even let them come in our house to play! We are so grateful to finally have opportunity for some relationship building and potential ministry! It’s been way too long!

What’s in store for the rest of 2010? Of course, we don’t know. Lord willing we will finish language school, learn where God wants us to serve, where He wants us to live, continue to build relationships with our neighbors and see fruit, watch our kids grow in the Lord, and grow our relationships with the Lord. We just want to continue to seek the Lord’s will for our lives and make Him the Lord of our lives daily! For some reason, society tends to focus on the new year bringing new opportunities and a fresh start-new year’s resolutions. But, God’s Word says we have that each day!!

“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” -Lamentations 3:22-23

Praise the Lord for that, right? Instead of new years resolutions, I am going to seek to make Christ the Lord of my life each day and look at each day as a new start. I mess up way too much to only start over once a year!! Praise the Lord for Lamentations 3:22-23.

Happy new year!!

Yesterday we had our first brazilian visitors for the weekend. We have made some friends with some of the teens (age 14-25) in Gravatai, a city nearby where some missionary friends of our serve. Yesterday, 3 of them took the bus and came to our house for the day! It was so fun! We hung out and spoke lots of portuguese since they don’t speak english. It was really nice to entertain again, and we were right in our comfort zone with college age people(except for the no english part)!!! It made me get an itch to get language school done and get on with ministry!!! Next fall can’t get here soon enough!!

Até mais…

Today marked the end of 9 weeks of language school. We are now on summer break, or in portuguese, férias. We will not have any school for 7 weeks. That has its pluses(no studying) and its minuses (no formal learning). We are looking forward to having some time off to explore our city and surrounding areas. We have definitely learned a ton in 9 weeks with even more yet to learn!! The last 2 days, we have been reading a short story about these silly, slow moving turtles. We read the story at home, then today we discussed it and had to answer some questions to check comprehension. We were able to comprehend quite a bit of it, but there were still alot of words and verb tenses we didn’t know. I asked our teacher, Pri, where she got the story…it is from a 3rd grade reading textbook!!! Slightly humbling, yet at least it wasn’t a kindergarten textbook!!!

Bom fim de semana!!!