Thursday, September 25, 2008

Transitions

We have been in transition for the last two months. And the last two weeks was a real roller coaster ride. Things are still in transition, but it really feels good to have a place of our own and something of a schedule.

We have a really spacious apartment on the third floor of the church building. Some of the differences that may interest you, are: An electric shower head that heats the water in the head, no air conditioning, right now I'm watching a mule pull the bed of a truck down the street, no clothes dryer, don't through tp into the toilet (you figure it out), no dishwasher (we're already used to that one), no screens on the windows, etc.

Hopefully, that will satisfy your curiosity until we can take photos and put them in the internet. I'll keep you posted as to how to view them.

Cyndi read with 4 readers today and I read with two. It is really great to finally be where we can get to know those that we came to meet. We worked out our schedules today and it looks like we will have a lot of readers! I will have half as many as Cyndi, Lacy, and Cris because I will work for the Bible Study Guide for 20 hours each week.

We are being treated very well by the church. They are very considerate and make sure we have whatever we need. Which is good because it is REALLY hard to buy anything, when you don't speak Portuguese. But we went to the bakery alone today and bought bread, it went well. We just point at what we want and then hold up fingers to show how much we want. Then we look at the cash register to see how much money we owe and pay. They love to smile at us whne they know we don't have a clue. It's a fun day all around.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

We are in Natal, Brazil!

We left on Saturday morning for Little Rock airport and arrived in Natal Sunday around 4pm. We had a pretty rough trip because we lost a bag, then missed a flight trying to get the bag. But the airline was good to us and booked a flight soon after. We were on 5 different flights and Cyndi had trouble with motion sickness because of all the ups and downs. We only got a few hours of sleep on our over night flight to Rio de Janeiro so when we arrived in Natal we were really tired.

But we had a wonderful welcome. As soon as we claimed our bags (one was wrapped in plastic because it had been torn up and minus the one that didn't arrive), Lacy, Cris and some wonderful people from the church greeted us with enthusiasm and took all of our luggage for us. When we arrived at the church, we were greeted warmly by all of the missionaries and their families, and members of the church. We were just in time for worship and we decided to join them even though they told us that we didn't have to.

We were then shown the apartment that is on the top floor of the church building. It is spacious and has everything we need. (LST teams stay here whenever they work.) We slept very hard that night. Even with out air conditioning, the breeze is strong and cooling at night. We just leave the windows open and have a fan as well.

I'll tell you more about our settling in, for my next blog. Tchau (chow) = good-bye.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Here we go.

We have had some slight speed bumps since my last post. We thought we had a minimum visa of 90 days, but it turned out to be a maximum of 90 days, minimum of 30 days. So we will only be in Natal, Brazil for 3 months at the most. Brazil's government doesn't like me, I guess. Did some of you call them?!?

So we worked with LST on what we should do. And with A LOT of discussion and prayer, we decided that we will stay in Brazil as long as they will allow us and then go to another site that is also in need. LST works with a church in Panama City that is in real need of workers so we will go to Panama after Brazil. We've learned that getting a visa to Panama is much easier than Brazil, so we will work on getting that approved while in Natal.

We are really happy that we can still serve for a whole year even though it's not where we planned. But this seems to be where God is leading us. We have been praying that God will place roadblocks where He doesn't want us to go... so our plans have kept changing with the roadblocks.

We know that Natal needs us right now (they keep telling us) and from what the missionary in Panama said, they could use us just as much. We will continue to let you know about our plans for Panama, but right now we are really excited about going to Natal.

Our plane leaves Little Rock around noon on Saturday, September 20th. We are scheduled to arrive in Natal the next day on Sunday. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and as we get settled in. Thank you for praying for us during this long wait. Hopefully, my next blog will be written from Brazil!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Visa Approved!!!

Well, I'm sure you can imagine our relief when we found out that our tourist visas were approved. Brazil is giving us a tourist visa which lasts for 3 months and can be extended 3 more months. LST is looking into our options for staying the full year, like we had originally planned. I will fill you in on that when they tell us.

We are in Pennsylvania visiting my family. My Dad turns 70 today and my Grandma turns 88 tomorrow. Since my job is mobile, I decided to surprise them and drop in. I have been working 40 hours a week throughout all of our travels. It is really nice to be able to visit friends and family more than usual since I can bring my work along (as long as they let us stay in their houses!) But our wandering has reached its end.

LST is trying to get airline tickets for us to travel on Friday, September 12th or maybe the 15th or 16th, depending on what is available. So all next week, we will make our final preparations to leave the country.

It feels good to have a direction again. We have always been confident that God wanted us to leave everything and go, but where, when and for how long? Our answers are coming into place now and we trust that He is in control. All we need to do is obey.