My Son's Nightmare

This morning around 2:00 AM  I awoke to Johnathan's hysterical crying.  I stumbled to his bedside:


- "What's wrong?" I asked.


I had a bad dream! (sob, Sob, SOB!)


- Everything's ok, it was just a dream; it wasn't real.


But, I had a bad dream! (sniff, sniff)


- What was your dream about? (Wondering what in the world could give a two-year-old boy such a nightmare.)


I had a bad dream! (voice trembling)
I ... I ... I dreamed I was hungry. (aaaagh, sob, sob!)
And mommy said ... (Sob, SOB)
that ... that there wasn't any [food]!!!!! (WAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!)


Yes, that's the horrifying thought that wakes a two-year-old boy in the middle of the night!




And so today he got to have popcorn for his snack - his favorite!

Stopping By - Postcard From Brazil

   Here in Brazil, we have been treated to so many new birds of all kinds!  This Swallow-Tailed Hummingbird is just one of the many interesting birds whose visits we have been enjoying recently.

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!