17 October 2005

Unpacking!!!


We got our stuff!!! Tell everyone that was praying for us to praise God for this. Although after 7 months of being without it we realized how much we could live without, it is really nice to have the stress of the situation over and done with. (and it is really nice to finally feel a little more settled and at home here) It feels like we really live here now!

30 September 2005

Our Ship Came In But Still No Shipment

After many many months of waiting, our ship came in!!! Our shipment arrived in port 2 weeks ago today. During which time we have scrambled to get documents to our representative at customs. We would have had our documents to her sooner had we known that the company we contracted to bring our things would not hold up their end of the contract and hire their own representative. While we were trying to get one important document from the States and another important document from Sao Paolo, the postal service went on strike here (only for the week that we needed them). We did get those documents here another way with some stress about the situation because the only address that the others had was our P.O. Box. However, the courier service really came through (DHL) but it was hard to hand deliver our paperwork since the students are protesting the bus system right now (because they are raising bus prices).

The good thing was, we knew we could trust our representative, Ana, to get our stuff released as soon as possible once she had what she needed. Ana had worked with our other teammates on getting their belongings to them and did a great job. I talked to Ana earlier this week and she said that the Receita Federal should release our things by Thursday Sept. 29 (yesterday) and that they would finally be delivered to us by the next day, (today). So I waited at home all morning excited that after 7 months of waiting, our things would at last be in our new home. Well, after just hearing from someone in Ana’s office, I’m beginning to loose hope that that day will ever come. The latest news is that the Receita Federal did not release our shipment yet because THEY went on strike yesterday. We still have the consolation that God is in control and if we ever get our things, it has to be by His help!

29 September 2005

October Prayer Calendar

October's prayer calendar is ready for download, just click here. This time we have a picture of Salvador, pretty much the whole city is visible, for you to look at while you are praying for us and the people we are here to help. Thank you so much for your prayers. We have been receiving God's blessings because of the many requests that have been presented before His throne on our behalf.

18 September 2005

What's New

In the past couple of weeks, we haven't had major entries to make, but there have been some things going on along with our daily Portuguese lessons, our three hour team meetings, and our other parts of daily routine. In other words, things are going on, but we haven't had the time to sit down and write a lot about it. So, I'll just take a few minutes to post some different pictures and write a few words about what is going on with us.

Ron and Georgia Freitas came for our six month checkup at the beginning of September. We spent some time with each of them one on one and as a couple. They spent a couple of days with our team as a whole and helped us stay on track and continue to keep the vision for what we are doing here.


I once complained that they were always playing dominoes across the street from our apartment. It can be a very loud game when played as they do on the street, slapping the dominoes down on the table at all hours of the night (been woken up at 2 am before from it). I now know it was all for a purpose. I don't know who the winner was, but I hope it was someone from our neighborhood. We met a nice guy from our building who seemed to have been sent home. I doubt he won.

Sorry, no picture for this one. One day I was traveling down one of the most used streets in Salvador on a bus. The Military Police here are known to set up "blitzes" here where they empty cars and busses and search everyone on board. It was my turn. We filed off (me with no form of identification and heart pounding) and proceded to assume the position to get patted down for contraband. The women stayed on the bus and handed over their purses and bags to a female officer. We were then allowed back on the bus to resume our ride. I guess it could have been a lot worse. Most of the guys seemed annoyed but were in good humor afterward.

We use quite a bit of microwave popcorn in a week, and Mary had the idea to save the unpopped kernals from all of our bags for a while. We recently ran out of microwave bags, so I improvised and popped all the unpopped kernals. They all popped up nicely on the stove in a little oil. A little salt and it was good eatin'.


We found a Brazilian Mexican restaurant that serves good burritos, as well as other good stuff. We'll be staying away from the taco salad though.






Mary took us out to a very nice park last Saturday and were blessed to be surrounded by God's creation. We decided to hike the bicycle trail thinking it would only be a couple of hour hike with lots of rest breaks to enjoy the scenery. It took us 4 hours to complete the entire thing, over 12 miles. We were pretty tired by the end, and hungry. We saw over 21 monkeys on the trail, one was no more than 3 feet from Mary's face. The park has a couple of lanchonetes and we sat down and had a quick lunch (well, it really wasn't quick, even by Brazilian standards) and sipped or guzzled a few bottles of water. It was a great day, despite the sunburn I got ON MY HEAD. The hair is a little short now.

Today we attended church with Russell and Valerie at Itinga, the church we painted. At the end of the service we were asked to sing a song for them in English. We sang "Listen to our Hearts." The preacher said it was a blessing to see us worshipping God. It didn't matter what language we were doing it in, they understood what we were doing. It was good to be able to minister to them in this way, and I know we will have many opportunities to minister to our brothers and sisters in Itinga while we are living here.

13 September 2005

Hello Sportsfans!

Well, as we hear news of Fall aproaching back home, we're reminded of how much we miss American sports. Matt loves Cardinal's baseball and Mizzou football and most of you reading this know I'm a big Auburn Football fan. And I can be happy for Alabama's good start this season even though it makes me a little nervous about the Alabama Auburn game this year. Yeah, I got to listen to some of the first Auburn game over the internet before I fell asleep because it was after midnight here at half time. Wish I could've heard this past Saturday's game against Mississippi State. Anyone reading this have a favorite play? So, this is just a short blog to say that if you have any sports news or comments about this Fall season, we'd love to hear them. Who else is gonna talk about football with us? Here, if it's not soccer you want to talk about, it's not a very important subject. We're learning to appreciate soccer too but I don't think going to the stadium here will ever replace being at Jordan Hare with 85,611 of my closest friends!

03 September 2005

Katrina

Check out this article from a former ACU student preparing for studies in China. Currently he and his wife are traveling to raise support for their upcoming adventure. Right now they are in Baton Rouge helping out at a refugee shelter at a Church of Christ.

It is so hard to stay connected to the US right now. We don't have satellite television in our apartment, so we only see the world news when we are at some of our teammates' apartments. I'm at a loss for what to say or think, besides being very worried about the people I know who may have lost everything.

31 August 2005

September Prayer Calendar


Prayer Calendars Sept
Originally uploaded by Brazilian Tempo.
To download a copy to your computer click here. Once you have done that you can print this calendar and keep it in a place that will remind you to pray for our team each day this month.

28 August 2005

Our first family visitors

This week we were blessed by two of our family members. What a great week! Mary's momma and cousin Ashley came to town for a (too) short visit and got to experience life in Salvador. Dona Cindy spoiled us while she was here. She made sure we were getting settled in, feeling comfortable, and starting to be at home in our new culture. We saw lots of sites (some of which were new to us), took lots of pictures, and still had pa-lenty of time to shop. Our walls are no longer bare. Our home is starting to feel more like a home than an apartment we rent thousands of miles from home. They even got to have a Portuguese class with Mary's teacher one morning.
We couldn't have been happier with our first family visitors. Ashley joked about staying here longer, and as we were getting ready to put them on the plane and say good-bye, we almost thought she may have to. There was a problem with the ticket the airline had printed for her. All the information was correct. She had the right time and date and flight number on it. It seemed that when they had printed the ticket, they gave her a ticket number that was wrong. Ashley got it fixed right away, and was able to get on the plane. Too bad. She would have enjoyed a few more days here living it up with all the ways that Brazilians take care of you. They should be in the air right now flying home. We already miss them. It was a great encouragement for them to be here. We look forward to our next visitors from the US.

17 August 2005

Muritiba


Matt and Mary Virginia, along with Travis, went with Christians from 7 congregations around Salvador to Muritiba, a town in the interior of Bahia, on Saturday, August 13. We left the city about 7:45 and arrived in Muritiba around 9:45 where we met up with our good friend Nilton and the other missionaries living there. They dropped us all off at various locations in the village to hand out invitations to join free Bible classes they will be holding this month. Iracema and Carlos were our partners (seen in the pictures above) for handing out the flyers. The Muritiba church had already received many calls from interested people by lunch time, and we still had two more hours of inviting after that. They served us all lunch at 1:00 and a short afternoon snack after our work was done. We arrived home late that evening and slept well. To see more pictures of the day click here.

03 August 2005

Fresh Paint


We have “saudades” for you! To have saudades has a meaning close to “I miss you” with a little stronger connotation. We pray that all is going well and hope to hear some news about the ministries there soon. It is amazing the connections that the God provides his children through His Holy Spirit. We feel it when we hear news of other churches both at home and here in Brazil.

Our main goals these first nine months are: to learn Portuguese as best we can, support our teammates through culture shock and get settled ourselves, befriend Brazilians in our neighborhood (keeping a list of all evangelistic contacts), do cultural research, and build relationships with the existing Churches of Christ in our city. The last goal is what I am writing to you about now…

On Friday the whole team went to a very small and very poor congregation, the Itinga Church of Christ, on the other side of the city (about an hour bus ride). They have needed their small church building painted for a long time, as much of the walls were black from dirt and mold. And they as a church spiritually said that they were trying to make a fresh start and wanted something to remind themselves of this. So, our mission team, seeing the need and wanting to minister to our brothers and sisters there, took time to paint their building together.

It was as much a team building project for us as it was a project on their building. We broke out in song while we painted and worshipped together during our service to the Itinga Church. We sang some in Portuguese but mostly still in English. Two of our Brazilian brothers who came to mix the paint for us (in an odd Brazilian way I might add) would break out in the Portuguese versions of the songs we were singing and vice versa. God truly blessed us by being there together serving and singing to Him. So, we ask that as you watch the improvements on the Riverchase building taking place, think to pray for the Itinga Church. May we all remember our connection in Christ to our brothers and sisters all over the world – no matter in what language our hearts sing.

P.S. To see pictures of the Itinga church and of the pet monkey of one of the families there, click here.

31 July 2005

Festa



The latest pictures are from our language school. One of our teachers at the school, Erica, is moving to Mexico and had her last day with us on Friday. Another one of our language professors, Jaci, had her birthday on Friday. So this is us trying to throw them a Brazilian / American festa for the two occasions. God has blessed us with great teachers here who are constantly wanting to know more about what we will teach in our church. So it’s a learning / teaching situation. Please continue to pray for our teachers, that God will continue to work on their hearts as they learn more about Him.

20 July 2005

I Poisoned My Husband! (A MayVa Story)



These warnings rouqhly translate: This product contains yellow coloring TETRAZINA, that can cause reactions in people allergic to Acetylsalicilic Acid (Aspirin)

So, our allergies and sinuses have been acting up again because of all the rain which easily brings way for mold in our apartment (there is no central air here and windows are always kept open plus the humidity level here anyway is even higher than Alabama). When Matt was feeling under the weather a week and a half ago, I bought him some new medicine that the pharmacist recommended. One important piece of information in this story is that Matt is highly allergic to aspirin. The label was all in Portuguese but I knew the word for aspirin and didn’t see the name on the bottle so I determined that it was okay for him and brought it home.

So, yes, after just one year of marriage, I poisoned my husband. But like Adam and Eve… Adam was there too. Eve just offered it, Adam didn’t have to take it. Right? The next morning (Friday) after he had started taking it, he woke up with eyes the size of golf balls and the color of a fire engine. By Saturday his eyes were the same and he had splotches of red on his neck and in between his fingers. Sunday was the same story, so we spent most of Monday at the doctor’s office. The allergist (after over 3 hours of waiting to see her) pointed to a “T” word on the label and said that people who are allergic to aspirin are typically allergic to this… which was explained on the label (Ooops! I didn’t know the scientific name for aspirin). She then made a list of things never to give him and a prescription for prednisone. Today we go back to the doctor to make sure the prednisone took care of it all. He’s feeling and looking much better now! We’re having Mom bring medicine that we’re more familiar with, when she comes next month. Have a swell day everyone!!!

05 July 2005

Introducing an Old Friend to New Ones

The month of June has been a busy one for the Maberys in Brazil. We were in our second month of Portuguese training and are progressing at a pretty steady pace right now. We have both been complimented lately by people who heard us talk when we first arrived and are noticing that we are understanding and speaking better now than before.

Mary Virginia had a birthday early in June and we had our first wedding anniversary just a couple weeks ago. We were able to take some time and spend a weekend at the discovery coast to celebrate together.

We had a wonderful experience at the home of Mary Virginia’s professora de Português, Jaci, on a Saturday night. Her teacher invited us to come and share about our lives and something from the Bible with some of the teenagers she tutors for free on the weekends. Little did we know that we would be meeting a few students and most of Jaci’s family when we arrived. Visiting a Brazilian home, especially for the first time, is a big deal. There were six of us from our team visiting, and we all brought with us some little snack or a bottle of Coke to add to the treats offered. We spent about an hour sitting together on the porch getting to know each other (the six of us and about 20 of them), and then the food was laid out for us to try. There was everything from a flan type dish topped with prunes to boiled peanuts. We talked and laughed some more and met everyone else that we hadn’t already met. It was such a warm, welcoming and fun atmosphere that we hardly knew what to do, so we just joined in.

We met Jaci’s nephew, Mateus (Matthew). He wanted the rest of his family to meet us, so when his father arrived he introduced us and said we would have to come back and have dinner with him and his mother, whose name happens to be Virginia. He was so proud to have us as new friends that he wanted everyone else to know us as well. That is how it is with knowing Jesus. We want everyone else to know him because of the joy we have from knowing him as well. Just like the healed leper in Luke 5:12-15, we cannot keep quiet about the good things Christ has done in our lives. Now we just have to learn how to do that well in Portuguese.

08 June 2005

Pelourinho Fieldtrip

Pelourinho: (L-R) Marina's Boyfriend (tour guide), Marina (Matt's teacher), Jaci (Mary's Teacher), and Us
Our Portuguese Professoras took us on a fieldtrip to the Pourinho today to learn about some of the history of Salvador. Our tour guide works at a museum for antique postcards and knows a lot of Brazilian history.

24 May 2005

Esperança (eh-spə–rahn–sə)


Oi Everyone from Salvador, Brazil! Things are starting to cool off some (meaning 70’s and 80’s as best we can tell from Celsius) during the rainy season which is our Fall and Winter. It’s a little strange having Autumn when it should be Spring. With the weather change, Matt and Mary have both been sick (nothing serious), mostly sinus, allergies, and stomach problems. Don’t worry. Our realtor, who lives downstairs, had just the thing. She brought up a Brazilian home remedy for us to drink. A new cultural experience, it was made of beat juice (red), honey (thick), onions and lemon juice. It looks like blood and smells awful! Our bodies are just adjusting to their new environment, the new foods here and the new remedies for both!

It’s also an adjustment to think in two languages and not be sure about which one needs to come out – response time in conversation is much slower at the moment. Of course, with Mary, her response time is faster, but she never knows if what she’s saying is Portuguese or her own language (a mixture of Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Italian). Good thing Brazilians are patient with us!

We’re almost a month into language school and already we see how much we have to learn. It’s overwhelming and exciting at the same time. Learning to think in a different way means adding new meaning to what you already know. Take the English word “hope” for example… In English, the definition of “hope” is more of a wish or desire. We “hope” that our shipment gets here, but right now we think maybe the boat sank. In Portuguese, the word “esperança” is awaiting something desirable and connotes a strong expectation. Spiritually, we hope for heaven; we hope for Jesus to return. Are we hoping with expectation? When we expect something to happen, we take action accordingly. What would that kind of spiritual hope look like in our lives?

God is teaching us many things lately. Thank you for sharing in our work, our joy, and our “esperança” for the church here.

25 April 2005

Land Lines and Life Lines

Well, our first month was about finding and securing an apartment and getting all of our documents processed so we could live here in Salvador, Brazil. This month we have been setting up our new home and learning culture and language as we go. Everything here runs at a much slower pace than in the States. There is no hurry here to deliver our furniture or our shipment of things or a telephone or a refrigerator. As of now, however, we have two sofas, two ceiling fans, and two mattresses in our apartment. Little by little, we’re getting settled in. We really love our apartment and have a great view from the 12th floor.

Language school starts this week. We’re ready to get some help. Did I mention earlier in the list of two’s that we also have two cell phones? The second one was delivered last week. When the delivery man opened the box, we didn’t know what to say. We were expecting a land line phone for our apartment. You see, our realtor, Helena, said she would help us get a phone. So we let her call for us and set it up. Apparently there was a slight miscommunication. Our team thinks this is pretty funny. They call our new cell phone our land line. We had a good laugh about it and moved on. All of us have stories to tell now like this one and it helps to share these experiences with each other.

Our team has been very important to us since we’ve been here. In fact, they’ve been our life line. Without each other, this experience of moving to another country to live as missionaries would be much more difficult. All of us Christians are on a team. Satan makes it easy for us to feel isolated when we are going through a trying time. But it is especially during such times that we must remember, the church is our team. Remember your team goal. Take care of each other along the way. We miss you all very much! Keep us informed about the ministry there! mabery@missionsalvador.com

05 April 2005

Citizenship?

For the past three weeks we have been working on living as citizens of Salvador. Of course we don’t have the full rights of citizens here, but we have had to make certain arrangements in order to be able to live here and do our work. Everyone moving to Brazil must go through the same procedure. At least our whole team was able to experience all of this together.

First, we were obliged to travel across the city to the Policia Federal to register with the Federal Police of Brazil. This took two trips, one to find out what paperwork we had to have with us, and the other by the whole team to stand in line to pay to have our papers processed and then to stand in line again to actually have them processed. We had three small children in our group and they were more than happy to move our process along, especially when all three decided to start screaming at the same time.

In order to rent property or buy any large items, we are required to give a CPF number, the equivalent of a social security number in Brazil. We went to the revenue office here in Salvador to apply, and ran into a bit of trouble. We had to go to the central office of the Banco do Brasil to pay a 4,50 reais (less than $2.00) fee and then call to make an appointment at the revenue office to get our number. We paid the fee but opted to just go wait in line again, which worked. The Parker family on our team received their numbers on the first try just on their charm alone without having to pay.

For the next week we hunted apartments. We have now all found our apartments, signed contracts, and should all be moved in by the end of the week. It helps to remember something that is true whether we are in Brazil or in the U.S.- our real home is in heaven. Paul writes to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi (3:20) about citizenship saying, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

30 March 2005

Flood Waters



These were a couple of the days welcoming us to the beautiful city of Salvador. In the first week we were blessed with a lot of sunshine, and then rainy season began (they say it lasts from March to August). You can see similar pictures in the banner to the right>

15 March 2005

Greetings from Brazil

Well, we made it safe and sound! We're here in Brazil to begin this long awaited journey and adventure! We arrived on Sunday night and our first two days have certainly been eventful. Many of you have asked about MayVa stories from Brazil like the ones I sent from Europe. So, here's the first one... We have a kitchenette in our hotel room and the Porter family and Matt and I were trying to cook our first meal in Brazil, a frozen pizza. (We wanted a meal that didn't take three hours to cook or three hours to wait on at a restaurant.) Jennifer had packed a pan and we had done well for our first trip to the supermarket on our first day in Brazil. The only problem was that we couldn't figure out the gas oven since it was different than any one we had ever seen.

Therefore, I was nominated to call for help. I called what I thought was the front desk and explained in broken Portuguese / Spanish that we needed someone to come and light the oven. The woman I was speaking to transfered me to the front desk and I explained again. The man at the front desk didn't know what I was talking about so he handed me off to someone else. Finally, someone who spoke English. When I explained he said, "Okay, I send someone up." Thirty minutes later, two maids arrived carrying pots and pans. Through sherades we communicated what we really needed and the laides radioed their supervisor. Matt and the two ladies found instructions (in portuguese) and while they rattled off things in portuguese that he couldn't understand, Matt lit the oven - just before the supervisor arrived. By the time all of our visitors left and we cooked the frozen pizza, it was still a typically long Brazilian meal.

As I think about how many miscommunications we'll have while we're here, I'm reminded of how our heavenly father understands us no matter what. He knows what we're going to ask for even before we ask it and it doesn't matter what language we ask it in. God understands us and knows us better than we know ourselves. So when you have one of those days when you feel like you can't communicate your thoughts and feelings, even in your own language, remember that God understands and is waiting for you to come to Him.

P.S. Thank you for the wonderful send-off and the gift that you gave us! It means so much to kwow that we have such a caring church behind us. We miss you all already.