News in Brazil

I'm so excited!

2009-02-25T12:13:00.003-03:00

Thursday night last week, Vinicius and Paula made a decision for Christ! Now comes the hard part....commitment! If you think about it, pray for them.

VBS is going really great. We've had a small crowd but a good one. I really hope it picks up though. I would LOVE to see us have a huge group! It's so fun! We'll see....

Captain Red Beard made an appearance last night. It was so funny. He pulled out this plastic sword and scared a visiting mom. LOL Poor woman! I'm sure she wasn't expecting that when she decided to take her kids to church. She was a good sport though. VBS is so fun!

It's February and it's HOT!

2009-02-20T11:37:00.002-03:00

I thought we were going to escape the heat of a brazilian summer. It sure seemed like it. Then it hit this month. Heat......humidity.........hot hot hot! We have VBS next week. I'm sure we're all going to die of heat stroke. Well, thank God for Heaven and at least we'll die serving! LOL Ok, on to better things.

The ladies retreat was a great success! We saw three precious souls saved. There were not from my church, but they did get saved! Cirica (CEEreeca) is from our church and heard the gospel but did not make a decision. Jeff and I are trying to set up a time to get to her house and really talk to her about the Lord but her husband is quite against it. Please pray she makes a decision soon.

Sunday morning after Sunday School, Isaias and Gabriel came to me telling me they wanted to be saved! They come from a very rough part of town and have been very hard to reach but after months of love and preaching, they finally asked the Lord to save them!

Please pray for VBS next week. I am praying we see 80 in attendance. It is during Carnaval week so I really don't know what's going to happen. Lots of people leave for the last hoorah before school starts. God knows though. Quality, not quantity, amen? If we have 20 and see souls saved, that's good enough for me! We are really praying to get some new families through this.

Oh, we are going to visit Vinicius and Paula tonight. He is Luthern, she's just searching. I pray I can come back here and tell you they both were gloriously saved!

That's it for now! I'm melting......melting.....meeeeelting.........melting!!!!

This weekend

2009-02-11T16:45:00.002-02:00

I'll be busy at a ladies retreat. I'm looking forward to it. First of all, because I won't have to spend the night! I love my own bed. Second, because I'll have 2 ladies there who are not saved. Pray for Angela and Cirica.

It's been a very nice summer. Not too hot. The kids have really done well in their school work and look forward to jumping in their pool as soon as school is over with!

We have VBS on Feb. 23-27th. I'm so excited! My prayer is to have 80. I know, I must be out of my mind but that's ok, I'm used to it!

I'll let you know how it all went!

I'm Alive!!!

2009-01-17T14:24:00.002-02:00

Can we say crazy? I have no excuse for not blogging at least something but you know how it is. First, I was using dialup and it was really costing us to stay online using that. THEN, Thanksgiving and Christmas came. Need I say more? LOL

We're all doing fine though. The kids are back to school so that makes my day pretty full. The church keeps us busy with the different activities we have going on.

Something to pray about. IF God sees fit, we may have a chance to buy the house we are living in. Jeff is praying about selling our truck, buying a smaller car then use the rest of the money as a downpayment on the house. We throw money away each month on rent, we might as well put it towards something. It really would be nice to leave on furlough KNOWING that I have a place to come back to instead of Jeff coming early to find a house for us then us having to unpack and all. God's will be done, that's all we want. He's closed the door on us buying a house before and God knows we don't want to do anything out of His will.

Ok, I'm outta here! See you in 2 more months.......LOL.....Just kidding!

Hmmmm

2008-11-11T13:35:00.005-02:00

I had a blank post so I thought i might as well put something on it. So here is something.

Isn´t that nice! LOL

The missions conference is over

2008-11-11T13:35:00.004-02:00

and we are so thankful for how God blessed and worked in the hearts of our people. As of Sunday night, our missions has raised by R$140.00. That´s around $80. May not sound like much but for us, it´s amazing. With the new support coming in, we´ll be able to take on a new missionary and maybe even raise the support of the 8 we already have! All of the papers are not in yet so it may go up more. I am just so thankful for what God did this last week.

Our children started giving this year to missions on a regular basis. We suggested $2 per month but Stephen felt God wanted to him to give $3! Amen!!!

Off to Christmas play practice pretty soon. I can´t believe it´s time for that. WOW! It´s hard to think about Christmas when it´s 75 degrees out and getting hotter. I have been here 11 years and think I´ll never get used to that!

The prayer of a child

2008-11-02T16:17:00.002-02:00

I had a headache on Friday and was so tired that I thought it might help to lie down for a bit. It was around 11:30 am and I told the kids to just play for a bit, that I would be up soon. Around 12:30 Alyssa, very quietly, climbed up onto my bed and started to pray in a whisper "Dear God, please help mommy to wake up soon because I´m so hungry". I rolled over and asked her what she wanted. She said to me...."Mommy, I think every body else in Brazil has had lunch except us". This all said with her very sweet, squeaky voice. Man I love that girl! I got up and made lunch!

Name that tune!

2008-10-29T12:25:00.002-02:00

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR (DUH)
WHEN YOUR TRUCK DOESN'T WORK
THE KIDS GET THE FLU
AND YOU SAY
THERE'S A CONFERENCE
AND MISSIONS IS THE THEEEEEEME!

OH WE LOVE TO GO
TO THE CHURCH EACH NIGHT
EAT EXOTIC FOOD
AND HEAR GOD'S WORD!!

Well that was fun! LOL Yep, I'm a little silly today so you all will just have to sit back, shake your heads and wonder what in the world is wrong with me. LOL

The kids don't have the flu BUT the truck keeps dying on us. OF COURSE it is! It always does in November! Praise God, we're having a Faith Promise Missions Conference!

I need coffee......NOW!

How's it going?

2008-10-23T15:49:00.003-02:00

I've decided that I need to make a point to post at least once or week or just get rid of the blog! I was so excited about doing this but then we moved and lost our interent so it all went down the drain. Now that I have dial up, it wouldn't kill me to get on and update you all.

I'm so excited about next month! We start our missions conference on November 3rd and are praying for a great outcome. As of now, our church supports 8 missionaries. Three in Mozambique, 1 in Venezuela, 2 in the Amazon, a pastor here in our state that started a church and the seminary here in our state. We are looking to take on a man that works in the prisons then there are several others that have come to the church to present their work. We have a small group of people who give way above their means. FAITH!

I have begun to choose and translate recipes for our international lunch. I think I'm going to do a greek table. MMMMM We'll also have a chinese, Portugual and African table. Should be for some good eating!

Talk to ya soon!

Yep, I'm still here!

2008-09-18T19:44:00.003-03:00

It's been awhile so I thought I better get on and say hi!

It's been a busy few weeks here. I honestly don't know where the time has gone! I'm sure we can all say that though.

We had a boy saved last Friday night at our Teen meeting. His name is Roger. His parents are saved but have been away from the Lord for quite some time. Now that they are making thier way back to the Lord, Roger saw his need for a personal relationship with Christ! We have also had several visitors come to church and they keep coming back! Praise God!

I have to get going but I thought I'd give you a new excuse I heard from my daughter the other day. She had lied to me about something and I asked her why she thought lying was going to get her out of trouble. Her answer? Well, Mommy, it wasn't just me that did wrong. The angels helped me! WHERE DO THEY COME UP WITH THIS STUFF? Don't worry, I helped her understand that angels do not help you sin. She sure has an imagination!

Sundays are so tiring

2008-08-27T09:47:00.002-03:00

Sometimes you wonder if you are even getting through to the kids you teach.

About 2 months ago an 11 year old girl started coming to our church. She lives about 10 mins from the church so I would pick her up and take her home. She started inviting others and now we have a pretty good group. We have a Ford F1000 diesel truck. It's big but technically only fits 6 people. I got 16 in there! They come to church, destroy tracts, run up onto the platform, just are pretty wild. It gets frustrating but I have to remember that they have never been in church before. I have been picking them up for about a month now and have never met one mother. It shows me that these kids of 7 and 8 years old can come and go as they please and nobody seems to care.

I was getting worried about what the adults were thinking about so many kids coming but Sunday night confirmed that they were just as please as Jeff and I are. PTLord for that! I was pretty frustrated Sunday night though because it takes a lot out of you trying to keep them all rounded up. I even began to wonder if they were coming to learn or coming to destroy. LOL On the way home, I got my answer. We were driving along and those kids, with the windows down, just started singing at the top of their lungs "read your Bible, pray every day" (in portuguese, of course). They continued singing other songs until they got to their houses. Praise God, it is not in vain. Hard work, for sure! Worth it all, oh yes indeedy! It's been a long time since I have had to do a bus route but I sure am enjoying it, even if we don't have a bus.

All that to say this. It is so fun, wonderful, amazing, glorious, rewarding to serve the Lord. Whether it be picking up kids, teaching or cleaning a toilet. It's just good. I'll never understand the pew warming Christian, they are missing out on so much.

By the way, the 11 year old girl got saved and two of her visitors have as well. She's already laying up crowns in Heaven!

Have a good one!

I just had to get on to tell you

2008-08-16T20:04:00.002-03:00

between my church and the kids I take home from church (5 miles), I counted 48 stray dogs, 2 horses and 3 chickens. I take that back. Forty-seven dogs, one of the "dogs" I counted turned out to be a child! ROFLOL Anyway, that's a lot of stray animals.

Just wanted to pop in and say hello. We have a new family coming to our church. They are saved but far from God. It's really great to see them so excited about returning to Him!

I gotta run!!

Celebrating 13 years of marriage

2008-07-21T19:27:00.002-03:00

I am sitting in the lobby of a beautiful hotel right now celebrating our anniversary. We were married on July 22nd and my precious hubby suprised me with a little anniversary get away. MUCH NEEDED!!!!! I am so pleased at how well he kept the secret and all. It´s really hard to pull one over on me, let me tell you. We are staying at http://www.villamichelon.com.br/ if you want to take a look. It´s in Portuguese but you´ll get an idea of where we are anyway. Our kids are staying with a close friend of ours. They were so excited about going to "aunt" Kim´s house.

I also wanted to let you know that we had 2 saved on Sunday! Carol, who is 11 years old and Daiane, who is 12. One came to me in the morning after the service and told me that she had made a profession of faith a couple of years ago but only did it because her friend did. Now she really wanted to get saved. Daiane has been coming to our church for about a month and made the decision to accept the Lord last night. Neither of their families are saved so we are really looking forward to visiting their parents. We also had a man visit last night who just moved down the street. His wife was raised in some type of baptist church and he not a church goer at all but is searching. It´s just so exciting to see how God is working!

Ok, I´m going to go have a nice dinner with my hubby! Have a good night all!

If you want to get warm, go outside!

2008-07-17T19:12:00.002-03:00

That's what I tell the kids when they are cold! LOL It's actually been pretty hot this week. Stephen keeps asking me if it's winter here or not and that he wishes Brazil would make up its mind if it's going to be cold or hot. It's usually about 10 degrees colder IN the house. Forty degrees doesn't sound like a lot of cold to you that are in the north but let me tell you, sleeping with it 30 degrees in the house is not that fun! We have heaters but then cometh the bill, amen?
Sarah, I think the houses are a lot like the ones in Mexico. Concrete, tile roofs, the works. I'm not sure why they don't build them to fit the winter as well but they don't. It's crazy!

Gloria got saved! Thank you to those who have prayed for her. She came to the Bible study, we studied about who the Lord is and after it was all done, she put her palms down in the table with a determined looked and said she was ready to be saved. This lady is 65 and comes out of a spiritist background. Any one that gets saved is a wonderful blessing but someone of her age and background just makes it so much sweeter!

Our church has been running an average os 43 per service. This is just so amazing to us after having a year or more of 25. God has been working here and we are so thankful.

We are still waiting for the internet. Last time I called, they told me that I had not even asked to be on the list. Three weeks prior they told me I would have the net in less than 2 weeks. It really is discouraging. It makes you more homesick when you can't get on and just say hi to family and all. I'm not sitting in a corner sucking my thumb and crying.....YET! LOL

Stephen turned 9 on the 15th. I just can't believe that. He got some roller blades and it just loving them. We'll have a bday party for him on Saturday. He's excited to have all his friends over. I sure thank the Lord for my little buggy (my nick name for him). He has a heart for souls, understand why we are here in Brazil and continually tells me that we need to tell people about Jesus. Hes our little missionary, that's for sure. I look forward to what God will do in his life if the Lord tarries His coming.

Ok, I've written a book so I must needs get off of here and delete my 800 or so useless emails. I miss you all so much! Thanks for the comments! I'm so afraid you're all going to forget about me. Ha, as if that would happen!

I´M STILL ALIVE

2008-06-26T19:48:00.002-03:00

I feel bad I haven´t been here in so long but I´m doing fine, just don´t have the internet yet. My patience is growing stronger by the minute, let me tell you! I sure do miss getting on every day just to say hi and read my emails.

Everything is going well here. It´s cold and rainy here right now so we´re all wrapped up in every bit of clothing we have, sleep with about 4 blankets, 2 pairs of socks, the works! Did I say it´s cold?? Don´t worry, pretty soon I´ll be complaing about the heat! ha!

The ministry is going very well. I´m still holding two Bible studies on Tuesday nights. They are going well. One of the ladies, Gloria, is so close to being saved but has seen some hypocritcal christians in her time and this is keeping her from accepting the Lord. I finally told her that she needs to stop using this as an excuse and just get saved! I sure pray it´s soon!

Ok, that´s about it for now. I´ll "see" you all soon!

Here I am again!

2008-05-05T19:49:00.002-03:00

It's been just crazy trying to get the internet up at our house. God had His reasons so I'm just trying to sit tight and wait on Him. Easier said than done, let me tell you.

I don't have a lot of time but did want to let you all know our church celebrated 8 years this last weekend. It was a joyous time! We saw 82 in attendance on Sunday night and had 2 men saved. They are both in Bible studies now and show great interest in growing in the Lord! We are just so excited. God has been working in great way in the church and our people are showing excitement in the God's work.

Ok, that's all I can write for now. If you think about it, please pray we get in the internet at home soon.

Thanks!

Popping in!

2008-03-11T21:00:00.002-03:00

I am at a birthday party and they let me use their internet!! YAY!!

We´re doing fine. I had the kitchen and childrens´ rooms done in a day and am just about ready to start putting things up on the walls. It´s quite a job! I can´t wait to show you all pictures though. I´m happy with the house and am thankful we´re getting it all put together quickly.

That´s about it. It´s rude to visit someone and sit on the computer so I guess I better get off. You never know how much you "need" the internet until you don´t have it! My husband is happy though........if I don´t have the internet going, I like to bake so you can imagine the stuff we have in the house right now. Cakes! Pies! Bagels! OH MY!

Bye for now!
Althea

WOW it's been busy!

2008-03-03T13:59:00.003-03:00

We had a great weekend with 4 visitors on Sunday night and had 6 baptized!! All of them were children including our own 2! Praise the Lord.

This will be my last post for a little while. We are moving tomorrow so I am taking the computer and all that apart tonight. It's like a death, I tell ya! LOL I have no idea how long it will be before I go back online again. Sometimes getting the internet together down here is a pain.

Don't forget about me! I'll be back.......

We're moving!

2008-02-26T19:02:00.002-03:00

My husband and I looked at a house last Friday and rented it on the spot. The house we are staying in is full of termites, has several different leaks and is just falling apart. It's also about 8 minutes from our church. I know it doesn't seem like much but when you are out of the "bairro" our neighborhood of the church, you are out of the clan, so to speak. They are big on being unified by neighborhoods. In fact, we say we liven in Alvorada but once you say what neighborhood OF Alvorada you live in, their eyebrows go up with understanding. Now that we are back "the hood", we will be an accepted part of the tribe once again. LOL

The house has 5 bedrooms, 2 baths. Now before any of you have a heart attack thinking our house is way too big, fret not. The master bedroom could fit in most American bathrooms. LOL It's a great house though. It will give me oragnization, which I thrive on. Everything in its place! GLORY! It has been our prayer for over a year that the Lord would move us back to the area where our church is and He's done just that. We've had a chance to witness in this area and we thank Him for the friends that have been made.

Our goal is to move on Monday. I may be offline for a couple of weeks but I'll let you know what's going on before I sign off.

Have a good night all! Time to go make some yucca root! MMMM MMMM good!

Our amusing Alyssa

2008-02-23T19:25:00.008-03:00

Today Alyssa and I were talking about how Jesus is not in your heart, that He is in Heaven and that it's the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. Afterwards she went on her merry way as usual. Later on this evening I was folding clothes in the living room and she comes in and says she sneezed and that the Holy Spirit came out of her heart, up her throat and flew out her nose!

It was so hard to not crack up!! So then she asks me if Jesus wants the Holy Spirit to stay put and I told her that He will always be with her. So THEN she asked me if MY Holy Spirit ever flew out MY nose. OH MAN! So I went on to explain that there is only ONE Holy Spirit, that he can't fly out our nose and that He lives in all those that accept Jesus.

So then she started naming off names. Does Daddy have the Holy Spirit, does this person and that person. Pretty soon she started naming off people who she KNOW are not saved. She got all concerned and said that Jesus wants us to tell them about the Holy Spirit that if we don't, they'll go to Hell.

It was just so cute, funny and sincere.

How's it going?

2008-02-20T16:02:00.003-03:00

I know, I keep changing my blog but I'm not satisfied yet so you'll just have to be patient.

I've been working a lot on the special Saturday we are having for kids in Kings Kids. It is the last weekend before school starts up again. Kids are running all over buying pencils, papers and all the wonderful things that go along with getting ready for school. As usual, not a one of them is happy about starting up again but the parents are thrilled!

We are making individual pizzas, a lady in the church is making popcicles, we'll have face painting, games and I am also starting a series of lessons on the Tabernacle. We will give each child a sack of pencils, a sharpner and some erasers as well. Should be a fun day!

Why do we have special things for kids? They are important! They are the hope for the next generation if the Lord tarries His coming!

A little girl came to church on Sunday and was holding a book in her hand. She asked me if it was the Bible. She had no idea. I was so happy to tell her that, yes, it was the Bible. She raised her eyebrows in shock, smiled at me and started to read it. Eight years old and living in such a religious country but had no idea what a Bible looked like. Yep, it's worth it all!

My weekend

2008-02-17T16:18:00.003-03:00

I woke up early Saturyday morning to go to a ladies retreat. It was a really great time! The theme was "Be still and know that I am God" Psalms 46:10. I spoke to the ladies about how people can be so busy in the ministry that they forget to take time to be in the Word. It really spoke to my heart because I am so busy in our ministry. How can we serve a God we do not KNOW? It's just not possible.

We also spoke about nutrition. There are so many around here anemic because of their dislike to any vegetable beside lettuce! A nice table was set out with anti-depressive veges and fruits. It was quite the spread. We were able to teach them about foods that can help their energy level and emotions. OH, they even (notice I said THEY) massaged each others' feet! I did NOT do this! I am not a foot toucher nor do I like my feet touched! YUCK Feet are so ugly! They were given a page to show the pressure points on your hands and feet. More power to them. My dh already knows not to expect a foot massage from me! haha

Today we had a visitor at church. Her name is Gabriela. A sweet girl who just seems eager to learn God's word. I am starting chior practice with the children tonight. They are so excited but I did tell them the only way to be a part of the chior is to be faithful to church. If they choose to stay home to play instead of coming to church, they miss two weeks of practice. Strict, I know! It is needful though and fair to those who are doing their best to be faithful.

Well I think that's it. My house looks like the normal weekend tornado that visits us. Monday it will all be put back into order.

I pray you are having a great day in the Lord. I just love Sundays!

Teen meeting tonight

2008-02-15T12:25:00.000-02:00

We're pretty excited. Tonight we're having our first teen meeting. I'll make homemade pizza, we're going to play the candy bar game (I'll have to explain that another time), and just have a good time together. We only have 2 teens that attend our church and neither one really wants to be there. If you read this, please pray for us!

Beautiful Wednesday!

2008-02-13T14:53:00.000-02:00

It is so pretty today! A beautiful breeze blowing. It's 79 degrees out! It's just perfect! How many of you buried in snow are feeling the call to come to Brazil now??

I should have been posting but I'm still getting the hang of all this. I keep going to other posts and seeing all the cool things the are doing but can't seem to get mine to look as nice. One of these days I will learn!

Our family went to Santa Maria this weekend. It is 4 1/2 hours west of Porto Alegre. On Saturday, I spoke to 68 ladies about working together for the glory of God. It was a really great time. There were several ladies there that are not saved. They heard the Gospel so we are praying that soon they will ask the Lord to save them.

On Sunday morning, Jeff preached about what God expects from us. It was a great message! One of the ladies that was at the ladies meeting got saved in the morning service! Praise God!

The bad thing? I forgot my camera! I guess that's better than forgetting our clothes!

Have a great day!

Busy Week

2008-01-28T14:20:00.000-02:00

It's been a busy week of school and ministry. I do 2 Bible studies every Monday night. One is with a new convert than right after that I do a Holy Women study with a couple of other ladies. The kids love Bible study night because it's the only time they are allowed to have fried stuff! Jeff makes hamburgers and home fries and they love it. Tuesday night Jeff and I went on a very much needed date. It's amazing how just a couple of hours together can lift you spirits. I really miss him when we don't take time out to be with each other. I guess I like him a little. LOL

Yesterday was a good day at church. Sunday morning we had 35 with 2 visitors and Sunday night we had 24 with 5 visitors! I had kids church on Sunday night and we talked about creation. It's amazing how much kids DON'T know about the Bible. That's why we're here though, amen?!

That's about it on me. Have a great day!

Althea

Christmas pictures a little late!

2008-01-17T15:28:00.000-02:00

I've been meaning to get some pictures up from our Christmas play at church. There are our Angels. They really did a great job. The three is the back starting from the left is Jessica (9), Carol (10) and Raquel (9). In the front are Suelen (10)(mary and Joseph's older sister) and Alyssa (6).

Here's our happy shepherds! LOL The far left is Welinton (9), then Stephen (8), and next is Maicon (11). The one is beige is Matueus (6) and in the very front is Wilson (7).

Mary and Joseph! They are brother and sister. Israel is 7 and Evenlyn is 8.

We had 58 people in church that night and 28 of those were visitors! What a blessing!

2008-01-08T15:36:00.001-02:00

Brother! I only have 2 posts and have already gone AWOL! I think starting a blog right after 2 big holidays was not the smartest thing I've ever done.

The Christmas stuff is down, school is back in session, Bible studies have started back up and life is back to "normal".

I've been trying to figure out how to make my blog pretty like other people's blogs. There are some really nice ones out there! I honestly don't think I'll ever learn but if I'm able to post a picture, I'll be happy. I just got some batteries for my camera so the next thing I plan to do is post pictures of our Christmas play. It was really nice but I'll leave that for the next post.

We had 2 visitors at church over the weekend. One lady, Gloria, is so very close to accepting the Lord. I can't wait to be able to post about her salvation!

It's almost 4 o'clock here, Stephen is almost done with school, Alyssa has been done for some time and is waiting for Stephen so they can go swimming. I guess it's time for me to get dinner started! Have a great day!

Happy New Year!!

2007-12-31T17:37:00.000-02:00

Right now I have the oven full of turkey and pork. I just got done making the cheesecake and have the fresh blueberries boiling right now. We just can't pop a can open and throw blueberries on top like you do in the states! LOL In fact, up until a couple of years ago, you couldn't even find a blueberry. I am SO happy we have them now, I LOVE them!

Our church is having a nice dinner tonight with lentils, rice, turkey, pork, potato salad, lettuce salad and for dessert some pudim (flan), sagu (like grape tapioca but better) and the blueberry cheesecake.

After dinner we are showing the film "Facing the Giants" then we will pray in the New Year. We won't have many there but it will be a sweet time of fellowship. As the fireworks go off, we will be on our knees. What better way to start 2008!

Hello all!

2007-12-30T16:16:00.000-02:00

I was thinking it might to a good idea to start a blog. Life gets so busy that we have a hard time keeping in touch with family, friends and supporting churches. I am not very good and figuring this stuff out but plan to give it my best shot! Have a good day!

Althea