I thought of Linda Sequeria and Lisa Adams...I thought these were cheesecakes. It was only cheese...doh!!
Spider on the ceiling...Pastors wife had to kill it.
Dinner!
Me on a horse...I REALLY love the city!!
Bernice and Suzanne cooking dinner.
There is a town about 40 minutes from where we live. This town is named Aparecidia. It is named after the idol "Lady of Appearance". This region believes that this saint appears and saves people from evil, danger and death. At the entrance of the town there is a hill with idols placed on rocks on the side of the hill. They have a budah, many saints, idols used by mucumbah, Iemanja (goddess of the sea) and even a big cross with Jesus on it. They have a new idol of Aparicidia on the tallest hill in the town. She stands approximately 25 feet and overlooks the town. She is the "protector" of the city. All this reminds me of the passage in Acts 17:22-24:
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
Please continue to pray that Bernice and I will find favor with the people of our valley as we present the Kingdom with demonstration and power. Click on the above photo to get a better look at the idols. I will try to get a better picture next time. This was taken last Saturday on the way to Minas. I was on the side of the Dutra (equivelant to Interstate 5) so it was kind of busy...tour busses and diesels come pretty close to the small shoulder where I was standing.
Wow...What an awesome Conference! Worship with Rick Pino & the Guys was great. They were lots of fun, very humble & they had an amazing ability to usher us into the very throne room of God. Worship for me will never be the same again! Thanks Guys!
Thanks Pastor Ron for the best gorgonzola steaks on the planet!
I sense a shift in the atmosphere.
Meet Joao Bosco! It is kinda strange...Joao Bosco works on Rua Sao Joao Bosco! That is the name of our street. Joao is one of the security guards that works at our apartment complex. He always greets us with a smile and has the joy of the Lord operating in him. Joao works the graveyard shift. When Bernice, the boys and I come in he will greet us and then share a Bible scripture and prayer request. We have been praying for a lady in our apartment complex who has been hospitalized for 37 days. She was released last Friday. Praise the Lord for that great report. Now that Bernice is home we will visit her and have the opportunity to share the Gospel with her. Please pray for this divine appointment. Also pray for protection for Joao Bosco as he protects us while we sleep.
We pick up Bernice from Sao Paulo Saturday morning! She has been in the states for what seems to be an eternity (2 weeks)! Bernice was able to visit with our Brother-in-law Justin who is home from his second tour in Iraq. She also visited other family members and friends and was able to attend the Activate Prophetic Conference at Harvest Christian Center with fellow MA Angi Thresher. The boys and I were able to send her to the good 'ol USA as a Christmas gift. We are glad she went but even happier she is coming home!
Sao Paulo
"Some wish to live within the sound of Church or Chapel bell;
I want to run a Rescue Shop within a yard of hell."
C.T. Studd
English missionary to China, India, and Africa
Since the Pinda Bible School is out for summer break I have not posted any featured students as a prayer focus. I decided I would spotlight different people we interact with on a daily basis. I will post a photo and small description of prayer needs of Pindonese (people from Pindamonhangaba).
This is a picture of me and my friend Antonio. Antonio lives in our barrio. He is mentally handicapped and spends most of his day sitting on the park bench. Antonio does not speak english and I barely speak portuguese, so our conversations can often be entertaining. I do know that when I see Antonio, shake his hand, look him in the eyes and tell him he is my amigo he gets extremely excited and often begins to cry. Please pray that Antonio will soon see Jesus as his amigo.
"The Bible will always be full of things you cannot understand, as long as you will not live according to those you can understand."
Billy Sunday (1862-1935). American evangelist.
I received this in my email box and found it blog worthy. It is kind of lengthy, but has good content. This article is written by J. Lee Grady from Charisma Magazine. Here is the link to the story:
Fire In My Bones
I had originally posted the entire story, but upon further review and advice from Bernice decided it was too long. It is a good word so please check it out.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
| My Office in Brazil | |
This is a picture of a church we seen on the way to the mountains to celebrate Tommy's birthday. Bernice took the photo of the park in front of our apartment to show how hard it was raining. If you don't see rain, click on the picture to enlarge. Brazil is beautiful. We were able to borrow our friend and fellow MA's car to take a drive. Thank you Patrick Thresher!!
December 30th Tommy turned 11 years old. We celebrated his birthday by taking a ride to the mountains and eating some Ice cream! It rained the whole day. We had fun anyways. These are some pics of us eating his birthday lunch/dinner. In Brazil dinner is served around 7 o'clock. This is one of our largest adjustments. Tommy received his birthday gifts earlier in the day and year. We bought him some kind of build it yourself action figure, Grandma and Grandpa sent him a board game and many of you also sent him great emails and packages from the US. Thanks so much for everything!
Tommy and Nicky have both been advanced to the next level of Jiu Jitsu. They are now 1st degree white belts. After they receive 4 degrees they are advanced to yellow belts. The Master who evaluated them is a black belt and traveled from a different city for their graduation ceremony.
Our friend Jamie Gottman from Henderson, Nevada mentioned to us via email to blog what it is like here in Pinda during the Christmas season. Here are some pictures. Pinda reminds me a lot of Mayberry from the Andy Griffith show. It seems everybody knows each other and they are always friendly. They are especially patient and graceous with my communication skills or lack thereof. Bernice and the boys are soaring with their new language. Pinda has several nativity scenes around downtown area. In the central park area, they have a live nativity scene. A "real" Joseph and Mary lay on the ground in the middle of the pathway of the main walk way in the park. You literally have to go around them to get where you want to go. Once you do get through the crowd you will probably run into one of the small marching bands that walk the blocks of downtown as they play carols. Speaking of Christmas carols, there are plenty of carolers in front of the shops on most streets. They do not have their guitar cases open for donations. I found that disheartening thinking they were missing a huge opportunity to make some extra cash. Right now the minimum wage in our town is around R$375 per month(U$187.50). I was then reminded that this was all done to celebrate the birth of our Savior not to make a buck. I need to work on that renewing of the mind scripture. We have also noticed the people of Pinda do not camp out at their local Wal Mart or the largest store here in Pinda named OLAJO do get the greatest, latest gift the day after Thanksgiving. They have seemingly captured the true meaning of Christmas.
BEFORE
AFTER
Tommy gave me an early Christmas gift yesterday. He FINALLY got a haircut. After much discussion, multiple family meetings and 1 threat he found it in his best interest to cut the locks off. We have agreed that he can grow his hair long when he becomes a teenager. He turns 11 on Dec 30th, so time is ticking. Here are the before and after pictures.
Daryl Taylor gave this toy to Nicky as a gift in April and Thom Worthington sent us this video....Nicky loves it!
GENEROSITY
“Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others.”
~ Barbara Bush
Tommy's Christmas Card "PaPai Noel eu quero uma skateboard. Tommy"
Nicky's Christmas Card "PaPai Noel eu quero uma bicicleta. Nicholas"
Here are some Christmas pictures of our family and Nicholas at his Christmas production. Friday was his last day of school...now his sumer vacation begins. Living on the other side of the equator still is a little strange, especially with our seasons not matching the calendar we are used to. Merry Christmas!
Our family pet, Petey was last seen with this man. He was left with Armando who agreed to doggy-sit for a duration of two years. Unfortunately, after several requests, Armando has yet to produce any photographic proof that all is well with Petey. If anyone has any information regarding Petey, please post. Petey is a beautiful, petite yellow lab, does not bark and has a small shedding problem.
Please continue to pray for fluency in our new language!
By a final vote of 12-11 the "Rob in the field" wins. Unbelievable! Thanks for letting me experiment with your pics Rob. I would encourage everyone to visit Rob at his blog daily. It is a great read.
The poll will offically end Monday night at 6 pm Pindamonhangaba time (noon PST). If I were you Rob, I would get that youth group voting! Has Ruth voted yet? I bet she would like the field shot. It seems so nice.
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