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.

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!!!

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.