Electricity class

Victor was a mechanics specialist in the Asas training program. He and his wife, Monica, are currently raising support and getting ready to move to the Asas base in Manaus. Victor and Monica are living in Curitiba until July and their church was one of the churches that were involved in the Project. Victor got creative in finding a way to minister to the people in Jacuí and decided to offer classes on electricity! The men in the community were very interested in his class and commented on how much they were needing this type of help.

"I'm not a spy!!!!"

My main reason for going on the Project to Jacuí was to see the children's program in action. The lady who coordinated the children's program, Juliana, is the same lady that I have been working with in writing a curriculum that all of the teams will use in July. We have been working on this through email and talking on skype, so I felt is was very important to see how the curriculum really works and if there are any changes that need to be made for the 10 day Project in July. It turned out to be a very good thing that I did go because there are a few things that will need to be modified for the number of children we will be working with. The funny thing is that those who were on the Project seemed to think I was some kind of spy that Asas de Socorro sent to see if they were doing everything right! I kept trying to put them at ease, but it wasn't until the end that I think they really believed me!

One part of the curriculum that I asked Juliana to add was a class specific for the 1-3 year olds that teaches to their level. We have done this on the local Projects that I have been working with, but this was new to Juliana. She did a great job in writing that part of the curriculum and the teacher of this group was very creative as she made "fruit" out of balloons! I made sure I got a private lesson on how to do this before I went home!

This is one of the things that will need to change for the July Project. We had 15-25 children in each of the workshops and in July we will have 50-60 in each workshop! Working with paints, brushes, water, etc. would be way too stressful with 50-60 kids! I'm suggesting that we do a mosaic technique instead of using paints.

We had more children show up each day of the Project and on the last day the church was full! The older kids really enjoyed the program as well and had different activities in their workshops that were more age-appropriate. I am really excited about using this curriculum in July!

Crafts for the Ladies

Every afternoon the ladies had a time to learn new crafts. The first day they worked on making scarfs from wool. Since this region of Southern Brazil does get quite chilly in the months of June and July, this project will be very useful to them! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to learn how to do this craft! They used the tool in the second picture in making the scarfs...but I can't explain to you how it was done! The second day was spent finishing up the scarfs and starting in on what we call "fuxico". I don't know what it is called in the US. You cut pieces of fabric in a circle and then sew around the edge of it in order to pull the thread tight and the outside of the circle then closes up and makes a flower-looking thing. Okay, that discription is awful. Sorry! You can then use these little fabric flowers to decorate shirts, purses, and 101 other decorations ideas such as making the "fuxico" around a bottle cap and then make hot pads to put on the table. The last afternoon of the Project, Môncia and I went to where they were having the clinic (45 minutes by truck) and we did "fuxico" with the ladies as they were waiting their turn to see the dentist. It is a great way to get conversation going among the ladies!

Free Haircuts

There were three ladies cutting hair in one small room that is usually the Pastor's office. There were long lines all day, every day for a haircut!

Herberth's Wedding

Herberth is the son of the kids' Brazilian Grandma (aka: Vovó). Vovó and family have been like family to us and we even had to move from our first house because Vovó wanted to spoil Michael even more than his real grandmas spoil him. We needed to move far enough away so that she wouldn't hear him cry! She can't stand to see/hear the kids crying for any reason at all! Anyway, Herberth found a very nice girl while living and working in Belo Horizonte and the day came for them to get married on April 21st. Steve and I were "witnesses" (something like bride's maid and groomsman but you don't have to stand up front...you get to sit in the front row instead!) and Michael and Maira were both in the wedding. Herberth is like a brother to Steve and I, and the kids couldn't love Herberth more even if we were blood-related.

This is Vovó and her stunning grandchildren! (If I don't say so myself!)

Ain't he handsome?! Michael was so excited that his clothes were just like Uncle Herberth's clothes!

Herberth's Wedding continued

We had an agreement before the wedding...if the kids did everything just right, they would get a present when the wedding was over. So, this is not an approved method according to Growing Kid's God's Way or the Nanny, but I wanted a guarantee! I promise this is not a method I use in day-to-day parenting! Actually, I wasn't worried at all about Michael, but Maira told me she was embarrassed weeks ahead of time. She was responsible for taking the rings down the isle right in the middle of the ceremony and she had to do this all by herself! I was very worried!

Michael as he is about to walk down the isle....he's not worried a bit!
I was so nervous during most of the ceremony as I wondered if Maira would really bring the rings down the isle! She had to stay out in the lobby for most of the ceremony and I couldn't be with her. What a relief to see her walking down the isle and actually smiling once she got a look at Uncle Herberth! And she didn't run! As she was being helped onto the bench after giving the rings to the pastor, she said, "I did it!". I think she was just as pleasantly surprised as I was!

Here she is giving the rings to the pastor.
So here is Herberth and Carla...just in case anyone was interested in seeing them! Ha, ha, ha!

More Wedding Pictures

There are pictures of the road trip after these wedding pictures if you have seen enough wedding pictures!




Herberth loves to bike, so Carla had this specially made for their cake!

Road Trip Brazilian Style!

On our way to the wedding, we took the long way, hoping for better roads. It ended up taking us over 13 hours to get to Belo Horizonte on Thursday and then another 3 hours to the small town where the wedding was held. Along the way, there were places were the road was being worked on, so we would suddenly find ourselves stuck in a long line of cars, waiting for our turn. Because Brazilians are so skilled at making the best of a situation, as soon as the cars were stopped, guys seemed to come out of nowhere to sell jewelry, cashew nuts, drinks, and popsicles to distract us and make our a wait a bit more pleasant. Of course a bathroom would of been nice too!

Here's the groom buying some cashew nuts for the long drive ahead! I am happy to say that we delivered the groom safe and sound to his wedding!

On the way back, we decided to try an alternate route that enabled us to get home in just over 12 hours instead of 16 hours. Parts of the roads were in terrible conditions though. It looks like these two trucks are going to hit, but the one in front of us is stopped while the one coming at us avoids the holes in the road on his side! Our car suffered quite a bit and is now needing some attention and repair from hitting too many holes in the road!

This is why we say the interstates in the US are like riding on glass roads...

Happy 4th Birthday Maira!

For months Maira talked about having a mermaid party for her birthday, but 3 weeks before the party she told me she wanted a frog birthday. I waiting another week to see if she would change her mind again, but she was very sure that she wanted a frog theme. I made origami frogs with a note tied to the body saying that we were "jumpig for joy that Maira was turning 4" and inviting her friends to "jump on over" to our house for a party. Then I started to look for frogs in the 1.99 stores! I found an example of a frog cake on the internet and decided to try to make it. Maira LOVED it and it didn't taste too bad either!

Here is the party table...the little dark things in plastic sacks are frog shaped glicerine soaps that I made for everyone.
And of course I needed to paint Maira's nails green to match everything at the party!

Here are Maira and her friends wearing the frog hats that I made.

Not to worry, Maira is a non-stop talker and had lots of wind to blow out the candle, even though she had to do it from a distance! We played "pin the tongue on the frog", "toss the frog on the lily pad", and we had a frog jumping race with little plastic jumping frogs. We had lots of fun! I'm so glad she decided to have a frog birthday!

President Lula

We had some excitement here last week. We live right near a major highway (major for here anyway) and a viaduct was just built at the intersection of Anápolis. With such a symbol of progress being completed, the President of Brazil came to inaugurate it! (It helps that we are only 1 1/2 hours from the Federal District) Our first clue that something "big" was going to happen was when two military helicopters landed right in front of the Asas building. The first picture shows the kids and some neighbors running down the street to see what the helicopter was doing. As we stood around looking at the helicopters, we found out that the President was coming. Michael was thrilled and HAD to see him. I kept waiting for the secret service to show up and block off all the streets for the President's arrival, but nothing like that ever happened. We walked down the street that dead ends at back of our house and there was the President on a platform. We couldn't get closer due to the highway being blocked off with his platform and that made the street between the highway and our street extremely busy. So, Michael got to see the President, who was in walking distance from our house!

What will I do????

I now have 2 dogs, 1 fish (one died on Monday), and 3 cats. A man came by my house two weeks ago to sell manioc root and he gave me the bonus of an amandoned kitten. Steve rolled his eyes at me, but didn't make too much of a fuss about it. Well, the next night he was walking home from the hangar and heard meowing in the weeds and found another kitten that looked just like the one I had taken in. He called me from his cell phone and let me hear the meowing for a bit and then asked me what he was supposed to do with it. Well, now that I know there is a kitten needing help, what else can be done??? I told him he would have to bring it home! They have to be brothers because they look so much alike. The second one is smaller... maybe he was the runt or maybe because he was without nurishment for a longer period of time. So now we have two kittens running around and my older cat is not happy about it. The kittens are finally off the bottle and eating kitten food, so taking care of them is much easier now. Steve keeps telling the kids that we are not keeping them, but I am not sure how he is going to get them out of the house and where he is going to take them. Maybe Luna (see the next post) will need some company....

Gone Country

Our closest friends here in Anápolis are a couple named Viviane and Eneas. Well, a few weeks ago, Eneas bought this beautiful horse that he happened across. Her name is Luna (named by Eneas' daughter) and she is the best horse I have ever met. You may notice a little bulge around the middle...she will be having a colt before too long! Anyway, Eneas knows how much I enjoy horses, so he invited us to go with them to ride on Luna a bit on a Saturday morning. Luna is such a calm horse...Maira's squeals for joy didn't even make her ears twitch! Not to mention her standing perfectly still and quite as Michael made her lips flap shut! We all had a great time and now Eneas and I are talking about using Luna for therapeutic horseback riding. It is a dream of mine to work at or create a place for therapeutic horseback riding, so we are just researching options and praying about it. There are lots of obstacles, but sometimes you just need to take a few steps to see if God opens the doors.

The Neighborhood named "Hope"

On March 10, I coordinated a day of outreach in a neighborhood about 15 minutes out of town. The name of the neighborhood is "Esperança" which means Hope. An interesting name for a neighborhood that is known for being very poor, full of drunks, and full of fugitives of the law! There is a wonderful church in this neighborhood that asked me to help them with a one-day evangelism project. One of their members has participated in our other local evangelism projects and wanted that sort of outreach done at his church as well. There were all sorts of hurtles along the way as I organized this event and I even tried to cancel it 2 times due to these difficulties, but the president of our mission told me it would do more harm than good to cancel, so I pushed on. HOPE......by the end of the day on March 10, there were 12 new names in the Book of Life and 202 children clearly heard the plan of salvation. A missionary of Asas de Socorro gave 31 haircuts during the all-day event, 200 children received a toothbrush and fluoride treatment, 39 people received dental care, and 43 people received a medical consultation. One person was indicated for furthes exams this week that resulted in discovering that she has skin cancer. Many others were given vacinations and diabetes tests. (I won't have the exact number until Monday) I am so thankful that I was told to not give up hope. I'll have more pictures next week that I am downloading from a friend. The batteries in my camera gave out so I didn't get many pictures!

Miachael-san the judo man

Steve and I decided that Michael needed some kind of physical sport/activity this year. I wish we had baseball or basketball here, but we don't so I had to think of something else. You are probably thinking, "duh, what about soccer!" Well, I thought long and hard about that, but I have heard some things that left me thinking that it would be close to impossible to find a team that would be a positive experience for him. I happened to remember seeing children in the video rental store wearing the karate style clothes and I knew they were the owner's children, so I stopped by and asked the owner where they take their kids for training. Turns out that it is judo class, not karate. The owner even told me to tell the people at the judo academy that he sent me and that I would give me a discount! Well, do I need more confirmation that this is from God???? I don't think so! I talked to Michael about it and he was really excited. I took him for a test-run and he LOVED it. So, Michael used some of the birthday money he got from his Papaw and Mamaw to buy judo clothes and we have made the judo academy our new hang-out from 6pm-7:20pm on most evenings! Maira doesn't want to take lessons, but she does some of the exercises on the bench as we wait. She wants to take ballet, but we'll have to find some place with a discount! Anyway, there are days that there are about 4-5 kids Michael's size, but the day I took the camera there were only big guys training. Michael's not intimidated though, and goes at it with all he's got! What is really great is the way the owner/trainer stresses respect and self-discipline, enforcing what we are teaching at home. There is a great spirit of encouragement during the training as well...when one of the guys is struggling with a certain exercise, the others tell him to "keep breathing", "you can do it", etc. Now, when it comes to the actual competition stage of judo, I'm not sure how this mommy will be able to watch!

A Unique Birthday Party

This is the most unique birthday party I have ever been to. I happened to get involved with this after a phone call on Thursday afternoon. A friend of mine asked me if I could help coordinate a program for about 200 kids on Sunday! I wanted to pretend that the phone suddenly went dead, but instead I agreed to help. These 200 kids are from a poor section of town and a man named Washington invites underpriviledged children to his house every year for his birthday. He gives them a wonderful lunch and someone always does a program for the kids. This friend of mine did hear me clearly state that a 2 day notice would not be sufficient in the future, but just this once I would try to throw something together. Another young lady in the mission helped me call around and we quickly formed a group of 8 who was willing to help. Turns out that there were only 120 children on Sunday (can you imagine only 120 children in YOUR house?) and there was another team that works with the kids every year that was there. Oh, yes...the ever present lack-of-communication strikes again. We quickly joined the two groups and combined both programs. They led the singing and then did a short skit. As it turns out, they were really struggling with what to do this year and they were happy that we showed up.

Our team had 4 stations for the kids to rotate through: story, craft, dance, and (the big distraction) the trampolines that Washington rented for the occasion! This is a picture of the craft station where the kids made a "God's eye" using the colors of the Wordless Book. I'm not sure why it is called a "God's eye", so I didn't even tell them that is what it is called. Most of them decided to use is as a ninja throwing object! Oh well....at least they got to hear the story of the Wordless Book!

Washington has been a Christian for only 2 years, yet he has done this for kids for at least 10 years. He owns a beauty salon here in town and saves money all year so that he can celebrate his birthday by giving a special day to these children. Humbling, isn't it?

Asas Family Conference

January 24-27, Asas de Socorro had their family conference. We had a wonderful time together with lectures in the mornings and free-time every afternoon and evening. There was a wonderful lady who took care of the children during the mornings and they had their own time of growth around the theme of Psalms 119:11. Even little Maira memorized the whole verse! The conference was in Caldas Novas, a hot spring town about 2 hours from Anápolis, so the afternoons and evenings were spent in the warm water pools chatting with everyone! Maira was still taking antibiotics and recovering from pneumonia, so I had to be firm with naptime and bedtime schedules. I was just so happy that we could go and the doctor gave me strict instructions to not let Maira play in the hot sun for very long, not to put her head under water in the pools, and not to let her go in the pools at night. Maira knew the rules and had no trouble with them. It was so fun to be able to relax and talk with the other missionaries in the mission during these days! So often we work together daily but we don't have the time to casually talk and just have fun! The speaker for the conference was excellent and challenged us individually and also as a mission. I was particularly challenged by the lecture he gave on not giving up on the dreams that God has given us and he used the story of Hannah as his reference. I have several dreams that I have not fulfilled, so I am praying for God to show me if these dreams are mine or His!