Karina - People of Brazil

      Karina is perhaps the most faithful teenager in the church here.  Her faithfulness and desire to learn should be an inspiration to all.  Case in point: recently her Sunday School class was challenged to memorize a verse per week for about sixteen weeks and then on the last sunday they had to quote each verse back to back; Karina was the only young person who was able to do it!

      She has been coming to church for quite some time, along with her younger brothers.  

      Karina is also a blessing as she is very helpful to us as an additional language tutor.  She waits patiently as we try to construct a portuguese sentence, and then sweetly corrects our mistakes.  We are so thankful for Karina's godly testimony here in the church and the community.

Rogério - People of Brazil

     Rogério is one of our neighbor boys and so we get to visit with him nearly every day.  He and his two older siblings have been coming to church very faithfully since they were very young.
     Although he doesn't speak English and Johnathan doesn't really speak Portuguese, they love to play (and tease) with each other.  As you can tell, he is always ready with a smile.
     He is a great boy and we are glad to have him as a neighbor and friend.

Photo Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to last week's quiz!  

If you missed the post last week, but would like to see it before you see all the answers, go here.

#1.

A porch chair

These chairs are very popular here. Some are rockers and some are not.  The frame is made of metal rebar, and then it is tightly wrapped in plastic tubing.  You can choose from many different colors of tubing, and they also make them to fit the buyer; so mine is (of course) several inches shorter than Omar's. 

#2.

Clay tile roof

Most roofs here are made from clay tiles like these or from overlapping asbestos sheets.

#3.

Top of a wall
This is one of the walls that surrounds our house.  It's a pretty good theft deterrent. When they are finished building the wall, then take glass bottles, break them up, and set them in mortar on top.  Would you want to try to climb over a seven foot wall that had pieces of glass waiting to cut you?  Hopefully no one here does!  




#4.

A kite "skeleton"

I wish that you all could watch a good kite fight here.  It's pretty neat.  There are days when we can see ten or more homemade kites in the sky at one time.  The way that they maneuver these kites is amazing.  Every boy here knows how to make kites like this.  They make them all different colors and designs.  The object of a kite fight is to get your kite string wrapped around someone else's kite string and then pull that other person's kite out of the sky.  Many times the kite falls to the ground or gets caught on power lines before the victor is able to "reel" it in.  We've had several kites land in our yard, and from our front porch we can see the remains of about ten kites stuck on the power lines.  This particular kite "skeleton" also serves another purpose for me; it's my weather vane!  I can look out my window and see if we're getting a cool breeze from the South. (Sadly, that doesn't happen often enough!)

#5.

Lightbulb

Yep, just an ordinary lightbulb.  

So.....you're probably all waiting with baited breath to find out who won, aren't you?

No one was able to correctly guess all five items, but with four correct answers, the winner of exclusive bragging rights is........(drum roll)........

Nicole!

Good job, Nicole!  You may come down to Brazil to claim your prize at any time :)

Friends - Postcard from Brazil

Ellen - People of Brazil

      Ellen has been coming to church here for quite some time.  We knew her brother from our visit here four years ago and it is a blessing to see her faithfully coming to church with him.  At nine years old, she has a lot of potential as long as she stays faithful to the Lord.
      It seems that she is always happy and always excited about something and so it will be a blessing to see how the Lord will use her.  She definitely needs all the prayer and encouragement that she can get!

It's Quiz Time!

My talented assistant (aka: Omar) took some pictures for me so that I could make a quiz for  all of you!  There are MANY things in Brazil that are different than in the United States, but I chose these  five things for your quizzing and viewing pleasure.  

Here are the rules:
1.) Use the number posted above each picture to list your answers in the comment section. (Even if you only guess at a couple of them, it will be fun to see everyone's guesses!)
2.) If you live in Brazil (or have in the past,) please don't spoil it for everyone else by giving away the answers :)
3.) One winner will be drawn at random to receive exclusive bragging rights. (Wow! What an honor!)


I will post the answers and a "bigger picture" of the items next Monday

#1.

#2.

#3.

#4.

#5.

Ready?.....Set?......GUESS!

Johnathan's Day

Because of the Brazilian holiday, we're on "vacation" for a few days this week. (That means that we aren't having language school.)  This is giving us a little more time to get some things accomplished and spend a little more family time.  Today was Johnathan's day.

It started out as a walk with Daddy to the local hardware store for some rope.

Then came the hard part: watching without touching :)

 Time to hang it from the carport. 

And now.....time to ENJOY!  

He spent most of the day swinging on his new swing.  He just loves it!  He literally spent hours swinging today. I hope that he stays content with simple. I can handle simple.  

P.S.  Before the rumors start, no Johnathan's shirt is not a new announcement. It's the shirt he wore on the day that Mahalia was born.  Sorry for any disappointment incurred. :)

Giovanni - People of Brazil

     Giovanni is a faithful member of the Church here in Brazil.  His life is a testimony to the blessings of faithfulness to Christ.  Though he faced many obstacles, he continued to come to church with his parents and siblings through his teen years.  Now, as an adult, he is actively involved in the church along with his wife and their two beautiful daughters.
      He loves to have fun and is always in the middle (or at the root) of any teasing or joking.  He and his family are a constant blessing to the church here.