Math Problem

Yesterday Anderson asked me this question:

Is eleventy bigger than a kazillion?  

I told him no.  Is that right?

What would the tone and volume of your home be like if you tried this biblical approach: 

"See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another" (I Thessalonians 5:15).

Few of us do patience very well, and none of us do it naturally.  But wise men and women will pursue it as an essential ingredient to their marriage relationship. 

From The Love Dare (Day 1: Love is Patient)

Summer Christmas

It took a couple of years to get used to it,  but we have come to love Christmas in the summer time.  We actually planned our recent furlough to end in time for us to get back home to have our Christmas here.  There are lots of things that we love about wearing shorts and a tee shirt during the Christmas season.  But today was one of those days when we long for a wintery Christmas. 

 

Today was about 95 degrees.  Horrible is the word we would use to describe days like this.  

Why?  Because Brasilian homes aren't built with central heat and air.  The heat gets in your house and stays.  You sweat as much inside as you do outside. We have some window air units but to run them a lot cost too much.  In fact, you can use them for a while and cool off a room but the room gets stinking hot within a few minutes after you turn it off.  

Thankfully this new house we moved into has screens on the windows so you can at least catch a breeze, if there is one, without letting ginormous mosquitos in to snack on you during the night.  They like to wake you up at night with buzzing in your ear.  I know God made them but I hate them.  

Even though we have some super hot days we don't let it slow us down in the things we do day to day.  

Here's a little play by play of our day today. 

Last night Benay told Anderson he could pick the breakfast for today.  He woke up today and stated his breakfast choice was champagne and fondue.  We had cream of wheat and toast instead.

 

Then it was time to make some Christmas cookies for our little friend, Maurício's, birthday.

Then Leni and Jorge dropped by.  They brought Ansley home.  She had spent the night with them.  Leni's next door neighbor had sent some Christmas presents for Carys, Anderson and Giovanni.  

We think Giovanni liked his horse.  

We then went to Freitas and Auristela's hardware store to deliver Maurício's birthday presents.

After lunch everyone either tried to stay cool under a ceiling fan by moving as little as possible........

.........or by not moving at all.  

Garrett then went to a birthday party.  He called about 30 minutes after he got there and asked if we could pick him up.  He NEVER wants to be picked up early.  What was the difference this time?  Ten girls at the party and only one boy.......Garrett.  

Everybody then cooled off in the backyard with a water balloon fight. 

After the water fight everyone came in for showers.  After his shower Anderson dressed himself.  We heard Ansley laughing and telling him to come and show me and Benay.  He came into our room looking like this.  

Somehow he picked out a long sleeve shirt and thought it was pants.  He quickly wanted to take it off because he said, "It's minty on my legs."

It may be hot but we stay busy.  

Rain and a cold front are expected to come through next week.  Amen.   

Christmas Traditions

This is our 8th Brasilian Christmas.  We have quite a few traditions that our family participates in during the Christmas season. 

One of the things we started a few years ago is to have a Christmas party.  It's always a "Dirty Santa" party.  If you've never heard of that it's a party where everyone brings a unmarked present and they are put under the tree.  Then everyone draws a number.  Number one gets to pick a present first.  The second person can then steal that present or pick a new one.  That goes on until the last one chooses.  One present can only have three owners.  After the third owner it can't be stolen again and it stays with that person.  If not for that rule, we would be playing until two in the morning every year. 

We always invite people from the house church that meets in our house and encourage everyone to invite someone new.  Last night we had our party.  Four new people participated who had never been a part of our house church before.  

We let the little guys go first and just trade their presents.  Dirty Santa would get pretty ugly if we let the 1, 2 and 5 year olds play. 

Then the adults play and start picking the presents. 

Some people steal and end up with just what they wanted.  Like Carys, and her chocolate. 

Others aren't so lucky.  Like Flavia (in the pink shirt) and her machete. Yes a machete. 

Actually she lost the machete as it was stolen. Twice.  What was given as a joke ended up being a serious present.  I love this picture because of the fact that everyone is cracking up.  This is one of my favorite pictures from the party.  The smiling and laughing by everyone is a great snapshot (even if our snapshots were all blurry for some reason last night) of what these nights are like.  

Then you have people that just surprise you.  On the left is our neighbor.  It was her first time to play.  She picked these blue Christmas hand towels.  She immediately said, "I hate these towels!"  She was hoping to keep anyone else from picking them.  She was a quick learner as she figured out that if you show joy with your gift then someone is sure to steal it.  

Her gift was stolen.  She was then reminded that she could get her husband to steal it back and it would be theirs to keep.  Only thing was he didn't want to be a part of the plan.  He's the one in the blue shirt right across from her.  He finally agreed after she took off her shoe and threatened to throw it at him if he didn't go along with it.  

There is always someone that surprises you and it's always fun. 

I think the thing I like the best is that we, as a house church family, get to be Christ to people who are coming for a fun Christmas party.  What a great way to share the love of Jesus.  

We had a great time. 

Abilene and Africa?

The day we got back from the states we had lots of mail stacked up.

One of the letters was a very important letter for Bronwyn.

What was it?

Here's what it was:

She is now officially accepted to ACU and will start the fall of next year.  She was very excited.

Before she leaves for college she will go on a short term mission trip to Rwanda.

She's going to be helping some missionaries who are friends of ours from college.  She'll be staying there in March and April.  She has had a heart for Africa since she was a little girl.  She will be doing lots of different things including working with orphan kids from the genocide (Have you ever seen Hotel Rwanda? It will crush your heart.).  

She has been fund raising for her trip and God has already blessed her with a few financial supporters, but she is still short of her goal.  

She has a blog if you are interested.  It's www.bronwynblume.blogspot.com or go here if you don't want to cut and paste.  

If you would like to be a financial partner to help Bronwyn get to Africa just let us know or go to her blog and leave her a comment stating your desire to help.  She HATES to blog so leave as many comments as possible to let her know you are following her blog.  Put some pressure on her to keep it up as her trip approaches. 

Our family knows first hand that fund raising is a hard but faith building experience.  We would appreciate you prayerfully considering helping Bronwyn on this faith walk.  

Test Week

As you know, our family just got home after being in the states for over 2 months.  We go back every two years to visit with family and friends.  Everyone that supports this ministry.  It's always good to share what God is doing here and to be encouraged by so many in the states.

This last trip was the most relaxing one we've ever had.  We thank God for that and for those people who went out of their way to make sure we were fed spiritually as well as those who just goofed off with us.  We were blessed. 

The difficult thing about these trips is that it's always a hard thing to find a good time to leave our life here for a couple of months.  There really isn't a good time.  No matter when we go we always end up missing something important here.  Imagine taking more than two months off of your job and your life.  It's not an easy thing to leave one and go to another and then go back without missing a beat.  Too many things change.  Too many things happen in that amount of time. 

This year we felt led to visit the states starting at the end of September.  We originally had planned on being in the states at the end of December through February of next year.  We weren't able to afford the airplane tickets for December so we had to look at different times.  

We know now that God had us go back to the states at the end of September so that we could see my grandmother one more time before she went to heaven. We arrived in Memphis on a Thursday.  She passed away the following Monday. We feel very blessed to have held her hand, to have given her a kiss and tell her that we loved her before she left this life.  God's timing was why we went back when we did.  

Because we left in September we had to take the kids out of school.  Our school year here is from February/March through December.  We took Anderson, Carys and Garrett out of their schools completely.  Benay then home schooled Garrett and Carys while we were in the states. Ansley stayed enrolled in her school here and did her homework online as her teachers and classmates sent her the work she needed to do.  

Because of our time away, Ansley and Garrett have to take some end of the year/make up tests this week.  

We just wanted to ask you for prayers for them as they take tests over lots of material.  It's not the funnest thing for a couple of teenagers to come back after being away for so long and immediately hit the books for some important end of the year tests.  

Thank you, as always, for your prayers.  I know they will give comfort to our kids during this week. 

To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid "big" sins---is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?

François Fénelon