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!
30 September 2005
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.
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.
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.
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