Léo - People of Brazil

     Léo is a great friend of ours.  After church, our children enjoy playing with him and he is always ready to help in any way needed!

Paula - People of Brazl

  I think little Paula had a great time at Family Camp this year!  Of course, with candied apples, who wouldn't be enjoying themselves!?

New Family Photo

     We were finally able to get a new portrait done of our family.  If you would like to download it to use for your church or as a reminder to pray for us, just click on the photo and download it from Dropbox.  Let me know if you have any problems.

Holy Fish!

     Have you eaten your Holy Fish today?  This week leading up to Easter Sunday, every where you go here in Brazil you see road-side stands selling "Peixe Santo" = "Holy Fish," sounds good, right!?!!

     Obviously, this is in connection with the catholic church and "Good Friday."  Honestly, I've tried to research it, but it seems even those who practice this disagree with each other about the reasoning behind it.  Basically, from what I understand, since Christ was (assumedly) crucified on this day, they refuse to eat meat, in remembrance of His shedding of blood.  However, fish is not considered to be meat (perhaps because fish don't bleed when cut?) and so tradition mandates that you must eat "Holy Fish" on "Holy Friday."

     Obviously, this is good for business here: the first photo advertises that they accept "All types of credit cards."  The fishermen love the sales - this week alone, in our city of approximately 800,000 people,  the fishermen are expecting to sell between 400-500 metric tons of fish, according to this news article.  That's around one million pounds (1,000,000 lb.) of fish!   Almost anywhere you go, you can buy your "Holy Fish;" apparently you can even enjoy an alcoholic beverage while you wait in line, if you'd like!

     I am definitely thankful for Christ's substitutionary death on the cross, but I'm glad I don't have to eat a Holy Fish to commemorate it!

     By the way, if I have gotten my facts off on any of this, please let me know - I'd love to know about the reasons behind this strong tradition!

Giovana and Emily - People of Brazil

   We were blessed to be able to meet and befriend these two girls at family camp this year.  In the course of visiting with them, we discovered that their grandmother, with whom they often stay, lives in our suburb.  Soon after camp, Omar took our two children to go visit them but they weren't home.  However, a couple weeks later they surprised us by coming to our house and visiting us!

John 3:16 in Portuguese!

      Our kids memorized John 3:16 in Portuguese for their Sunday School class!  This is really a tribute to Tracy's patience and time spent to reach this goal!  I'm proud of all of them!

Diana - People of Brazil

       We enjoyed getting to talk to Diana again at Family Camp this year.  Her sweet, quiet spirit made it a joy to be around her.  Her mother has raised her going to church and we pray that she'll continue to be a sweet young lady for the Lord.  I also posted a picture of her in 2011.