MyMy's Visit

MyMy and Holli had a great visit. We went to the turtle reserve, to the castle, to the beach, and lots of other fun places. It was great having MyMy here.

Paisley Likes Italian

Happy Birthday Aubry

Aubry had a couple of 3rd birthday parties this year. She had one at school on her real birthday and another one, a pool party, with her church and team friends when MyMy could come. Both parties were backyardigans and both had Uniqua, Tasha, Tyrone, and Pablo masks for the kids. Daddy made delicious cupcakes and Aubry got some cool gifts. One of her favorite gifts were polly pocket dolls and accessories. Also, turning three meant that Aubry got to start Ballet Class! She's growing up!

Super Saturday!

Super Saturday (our VBS) this past weekend went really well. With 53 kids in attendance, we had only one light fixture broken and only one kid threw up; so it was a huge success. Best of all were all the volunteers. We had over half of our church members involved in making the day happen and it was truly a team effort. It is great to be a part of a church that works together so well to teach children about Christ and to invite them and their parents into a relationship with God. Have a super week everyone!

Homeless, Stomach Flu, and Campaign

So, What's going on right now? Well, it's been a busy several weeks with new interns, visitors, Heather leaving, birthday parties, deciding to move our church, watching all the World Cup Games at the building and the crazy Sao Joao holiday plus our regular activities. Saturday we had our Benevolence lunch at the building and had several of the usual suspects with us. Everaldo, one of our homeless men, set up to study the Bible with Russ and Geraldo. When Everaldo left he said, "See ya Tuesday." The man beside me, Binho, leaned over and asked, "What's going Tuesday?" I told him that Everaldo was going to come to a Bible study and Binho replied, "I could really use one of those." Pray that he'll come.

Sunday was a good day. We had almost 50 in attendance - our campaign group had arrived. This is and will be a big week for them and us:

Sunday - church & 4th of July dinner w/ English speaking Brazilians
Monday - Work project at a member's house
(repairing walls & concreting the dirt floor)
Tuesday - Morning - prayer walk Afternoon - Work project
Night - Church prayer group
Wednesday - Sightseeing Day Night - English Bible Study
Thursday - Passing out flyers for VBS
Afternoon - Benevolence project at Autism school
Night - Church Game & Family Night
Friday - Getting ready for VBS & house work project
Saturday VBS all day and night!!!

These first few days of the campaign I have had a horrible stomach flu but now that I'm feeling better I hope to be able to make up for it. Aubry and Paisley are doing well. Paisley is growing fast and walking everywhere and into everything. Aubry is singing more in Portuguese now and Mommy is trying to learn the songs to keep up. Matt is taking care of us all, working hard and "trying" to fit in study- an hour a day for the MCAT next Spring. Matt will be joining the medical mission CURA Brazil next week in a small city in Sao Paulo state so he will be traveling. Many of the women at our church will also be traveling next week for a women's conference (including Jennifer and our three interns) so keep them in prayer as well. We pray that all of you are well and that God will send His blessings to rain down on you. And may He give us a break from the rain this week.

Youth Ninja Night At Our House

Getting Ready for the Brazil - Chile Game!

Late Picture of Culto Unico - 335

World Cup 2010

World Cup 2010. We have been watching all of the games at church. It is quite an experience to be in Brazil during the world cup. It is unlike anything we have in the States. Everything and I mean everything closes during the game and the streets are empty until Brazil scores and everyone sets off fireworks and runs around screaming! It has been fun to celebrate as a church.

Tea Set

Paisley loves her talking singing tea set she got for her birthday.

An Afternoon at the Park

We didn't get to ride the swan boats but it was good to get the girls out! Trish went with us too. It was a beautiful day!

City-Wide Service Today and Going Away Party

Nothin like 8 hours of church together (including travel time)! We had 335 in attendance for our city-wide service (just outside of the city) and it was great to see so many brothers and sisters from different parts of this huge city. So many faces and friends that I have missed and didn't realize how much. Paisley and Aubry were passed around and everyone ooed and awed at their matching dresses. It was quite the event with a 2 hour fellowship and breakfast before service a 2 and a half hour service and couple hours of lunch, fellowship, and trampolene time for this kids afterwards. The girls sacked out when we got home and we got to rest just long enough to get ready for the next event - Heather's going away party for our church.

Heather will be greatly missed. We (our church) gave her a picture album with everyone writing memories between the pics. Many blessings were given and a nice prayer time finished off a wonderful night together. It will be even harder to say goodbye on Tuesday morning. Heather has not only worked with us for two years but lived with us that whole time. Aubry only knows life with Aunt Heather. Heather, from our family, you will always be welcome. We love you and we are sad, sad, sad for you to leave us. We know you'll do great in whatever you do and we pray you'll come back to visit us as soon as you can. Blessings on your next adventure. Seek God in all you do. Love, The Maberys

Paisley's First Birthday Party

Space. The Final Frontier. Paisley had a great time "walking" around to all of her friends at her birthday party at the church building. Paisley, I mean Princess Leia, was soooo good on her special night. She was enthralled by all of the decorations and new food and all the people (about 47 attended). Her sister, Queen Amadala, had a blast as well. She kept posing for the camera with Mr. Fantastic (Kelton). Chewbacca (Jackson) and storm trooper (Sammuel) were cute but more camera shy. Daddy was good looking too in his Captain Kirk uniform. Mommy was just an officer on the Voyager.

Decorations and Party Favors. Everything glowed. We had balloons hanging from all over the tall ceiling with little glowing stars at the end of their ribbons. Marcy made a wonderful florescent paint Happy Birthday sign which glowed above the black light place on the food table. There were star headbands and glowing necklaces for all the guests. And the kids made their own creative constellations with glow in the dark stars. The interns did face painting. Mommy got an alien on her cheek and Aubry got a beautiful sun.

Food. The astroids were chicken nuggets and meatballs. The black holes were brigadeiros (Brazilian chocolate balls). The comets were the yellow streamer candies. The half moons were sliced apples. The stars were popcorn and the planets were the big round grapes. The UFOs were the hit of the party - cupcakes. And Princess Leia had her first bite of white confetti cupcake with white icing which she got all over herself and her Mommy.

We love you Paisley! Happy Early Birthday Sweet Heart! (We had to have it early so Tia Heder could come and so we wouldn't run into Sao Joao and World Cup madness next week). We're glad to have such a wonderful, happy go lucky, laid back, beautiful daughter as you! Piedade led a heart warming prayer and blessing over you with the lights out while everything was glowing and I was reminded of how much I have been blessed myself by having you.

Marcy, Candace and Trish

Our new interns have arrived. Marcy from Harding and Candace from ACU are here on the World Wide Witness program and arrived two weeks ago. Trish from Riverchase Church of Christ just arrived on Wednesday. All three proved to be promising workers and have in fact already been contributing greatly to the work here. Even Trish who just got there has done more and learned more in three days than you could possibley imagine. They are going to be helping start a new English Bible study, do LST studies with non-Christian friends, prepare for VBS and campaign group, help with Toddler class at Sunday school, painting projects, youth lock-in, Marriage Matters seminiar, benevolence lunches and much much more. We're excited about there summer and are very impressed by these three already. Picture to come...

Tabernacling

Our church has recently made the big decision to move again. This was not made lightly. Our landlord raised the rent again and while it was a leap of faith to stay or go, we feel that God is beginning to lead us on a journey of unity and commitment building with our members through this new transition. We will be staying 5 more months in our rented space and then we will be a homeless church for a while in order to save money to hopefully buy our own space in the future. We are forming committees within our church - one to find a temporary place and storage and another committee to come up with a plan for reaching somewhere more permanent. This is also a great opportunity for some leadership training and a reminder that WE are the church and not our building. May God be with you as He is with us. He is leading us on a Great Adventure and we are both scared and excited. Please, pray for protection for our members and our team that God will not allow Satan to use any fears or anxieties in our midst but that He will increase our faith in this process. Thank you for your continued support. God is good and faithful.

The Two Cutest Girls in The World!

Thanks MyMy and MommaLou and Grandma for all the cute new clothes!

Ever Seen A Turtle Resting on a Gator?

MyMy's Visit

We had a great visit with MyMy. MyMy brought lots of presents, nursed us back to health at the beginning of the trip, let Mommy and Daddy go off for a two day anniversary trip, and helped clean out all of our closets. Daddy, Aubry and MyMy went to the Circus. We all five got to go to the Zoo.

Happy 4th Aniversary Church!

ICOS has it's fourth anniversary last weekend. We had a video slide show, lots of people wanting to hold the girls and we went out to eat with several members afterwards. It was a good day.

Chocolate Easter Eggs

I can't believe I haven't gotten these Easter pics out yet but at least it's still April. Well, here they are... We had a great Easter weekend. We taught some of our Brazilian neighbors and church kids how to dye eggs, something they'd never seen before. They had a blast painting and finding them. Here the tradition is to give away beautifully wrapped chocolate eggs (sold at all the stores here). Estefani asked Jennifer at church, "Did you get a chocolate egg this morning?" Jennifer said no and Estefani replied, "Me neither. Maybe I'll get one at Virginia's tonight." Thank goodness I had bought extra chocolate eggs at Bom Preco for the Brazilian kids who came. I didn't realize how important they actually were here and our church kids have had very few Easter's when they actually got a chocolate egg. It was a fun and rewarding Easter. Below are the Easter outfits from the real and the pretend Easter (My-My's packages got stuck in the mail and we had our own second Easter at church two weeks later).