Merry Christmas from Brazil

The border of this picture has a quick synopsis of our year. Merry Christmas everybody!

Permanent Residency

We finally got our permanent residency! No more worrying about visa issues. Praise God!

Politics

Can't get away from all the political banter no matter where I look!
I think everyone in the US is complaining politics now, am I right?

Well, everyone in Brazil is talking about politics, too! And it's not even a presidential election here.
Here's a look at what local elections look like:

Getting stuck in traffic is a pain, but it makes life interesting! Here are a few signs from around town, too.

To catch you up

Here's what's been going on in the past few months.

Have you ever had to wait a long time for something? In the midst of waiting you may feel discouraged, bored, or just plain depressed. It can be frustrating waiting, but God is always there teaching. It's a time of highs and lows. You think your day is coming and then it doesn't. You hear news that everything is finally ready, just to learn that there is some new development. Then finally, FINALLY all that waiting pays off!

We must be stubborn people, because it seems that God is still teaching us about patience! Visas, the car, the house, and so very many life events have taken more than the usual amount of time.  And we get frustrated, discouraged, bored,  and depressed. Then, when we just can't take it any more we cry out to God and he gives us peace. I am beginning to think that if we would just learn to cry out to God first we wouldn't have to go through such an emotional roller coaster. Imagine that!

And after a good wait you are so much more grateful to God for the gifts he gives.

So, we are finally settled in to our new home. The reforms are done and it looks great! We are so thankful for the beautiful house we have. For the first time in our marriage we are in a house not an apartment (or room at a relative's house!).  We are learning how to be responsible home owners and about how much time you have to put into care-taking! We have been able to house Jeff's parents in our guest room for the past two weeks and are looking forward to the next two weeks that they will spend with us. 

We also have a new seven passenger car to enjoy! It is not the same make that we were looking at before, instead we purchased a Nissan Grande Livinia. It's been such a blessing to the ministry already! Jeff was able to help transport the American group that was here last week and we have been able to give more people rides to church because of it, too. With such a big car (for our area) we find ourselves asking all the time, who can we give a ride to today? 

The last few weeks (really month!) of school was extremely busy for Lindsay with grades, evaluations, an end of semester program, and English Camp! We had a great semester and a wonderful wrap up program through the English Camp (a VBS program for the school where we focus on encouraging the students to make a decision to live for Christ). We started off with an intern through World Renewal from the US in February and ended with two exchange teachers from Canada and the United States through a secular teacher exchange program.  Since our dear friend Emily Taylor returned Stateside we have worked hard to cover her many roles of volunteer communication and coordination, English teaching and outreach, and so much more!  

Here's what's on the board for next semester and how you can pray for us:

Teaching: Lindsay teaching Nursery (2's) as their main teacher and the first grade English class at the school. Jeff continuing to teach communication and technology classes at the school. Both Jeff and Lindsay teaching English classes at church in Lagoa de Itaenga. Please pray that we will be bold witnesses to our students in both what we say and how we act.  Pray as we revamp our English classes at church. We have had a significant drop in attendance. Pray that we learn how to best serve our community in this way.

Outreach: Lindsay is beginning to work with Rachel Winzler and a church in Carpina to help with an outreach called Massa Humana that reaches out to families who live in the trash dump in town. She also helps with a girl's bible study for the older girls from the school. Jeff is beginning to help with a soccer ministry at our church that has started because of the new multipurpose gym/meeting room.  Jeff also leads the youth group at the church on Saturday nights. Pray for consistency for us in these areas. Some of these events are held every-other week and are easily set aside (or cancelled) when other events come up. Please pray that we will work diligently with these outreaches and that they will impact the community for Christ.

Interns/teachers: This is a very busy area, so here's a list of names! We will be receiving a new missionary from São Paulo this next week, Suenia. In August, we are expecting one World Renewal intern to help teach at the International School from Indiana, Michaela Hawkins. In September we hope to receive a basketball/teaching intern Mike Westlake. Please pray for all of our missionaries that they will receive the prayer and financial support that they need to come. We will also may be receiving 2-4 international interns (from China, Russia, and Portugal) to work with our Living Stones program and our school. This it through a secular student-teacher exchange program. As an International School we seek new experiences for our teachers and staff. Please pray for them and that they will be open to hear about Christ, an opportunity that they may have never had in their home countries.

Almost there?

We have been in a weird waiting status. I feel like this is 2007 all over again for us, where we were just waiting for our visa to come through and thought we would leave for Brazil at any moment. Now we have been waiting to move into our house and are ready to move at any moment.

So there is still no electricity. It has been since early February that we first asked the electricity company to hook up our power but because it is a new road they had to get a project to put in two new posts in. Which meant doing the assessment then sending it to their main office to get approved, then sending the material, then assigning a work crew and date.

Well the good news is we have a potential date that they will come, the bad news is it is anywhere between May 8th and May 18th and it will take 3 days once they come. First we wanted to be in the house before Easter, now we wanted to be in the house before Melody's one year birthday which is May 18th. I am thinking this will not happen.

God's timing is perfect. From our 2007 experience we learned why God wanted us to stay in the US, mainly being there for friends in distress. So, it seems that there is a reason why we are not in our house yet. I know the longer we wait the closer it will be to when Ricardo and Family might be able to move into their house next door. It is coming along nicely and the workers have even started on Pastor Assuerio's house next door to Ricardos'.

House, Car, Life

It is pretty sad when you are giving blogging assignments in your class when you neglect your own blog. I know that the way of social blogs and such is basically being changed to Facebook. I guess everybody wants instant information. We now need to know what is going on less than a minute after it happens. I can't say I don't want the same thing sometimes, but sometimes you lose track of what someone is doing when you just hear all the small details.

HOUSE

 If you have not heard or noticed all of the house pictures on Facebook then...  WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! In November...

And are still not living in it yet. So we decided to do some improvement to the house before we moved in and well, everything takes a long time in Brazil. We are getting very close to be finished except that the closer we get the more I find other things that need fixed and/or changed. For example water is not getting to the showers because of the way the pipes were put in the house, so now we need to change of bunch of the pipes in the house to get the water pressure we need. I have put up a lot of pictures on Facebook about each step that we have done but here is a quick (haha) list of the improvements we have made in the last month:

• Loft on top of the kitchen area
• Cut the kitchen divider down and put on a granite counter top
• Change the location of the back sink and did the piping for the laundry machine
• Put in more outlets in about every room
• Made the outside walls around the property taller on 2 sides and put in bars on the walls
• Put in Bars on all the windows and doors
• Put in the back service area bars
• Added a roofed garage (open on two sides)
• Made a sidewalk

What we are currently working on:

• Stairs to go up to the loft area
• Putting this plaster stuff on the walls to make them smooth before we paint

What we still need to do:

• Paint EVERYTHING
• Change the garage entrance to make it easier to get in and out of
• Change the water pipes so that our showers work
• Clean up everything
• MOVE IN

CAR

We bought a 2005 Fiat Palio 1.8L HLX a year after we moved here with our Work Visa. It has been a  very good car for us but Brazil driving and Brazilian roads have taken their toll on the car. I have never been very good at car care outside of oil changes and making sure gas is in the car, so that has meant a few things that need fixed have turned into a lot of things that need fixed. Mostly minor stuff like grills for the fog lights and a new trunk cap thingy (hatchback car). But, now we are thinking of selling the car and it needs to be in better shape to do so. 
We are also praying about buying a 7 passenger vehicle next. We are looking at the Fiat Dobló. A few of our friends heard we were looking for the Dobló and did all the leg work for us. They found a 2009 1.8L Adventure Dobló for us at a very good price (for Brazil and for the year of the car). We were not thinking of buying the new car/van so soon but now with such a nice one and good price we might go ahead and buy it. So we need prayer about this and prayer that we can fix our Palio to get a good price for it as well.

Fiat Dobló Adventure

LIFE

Melody is growing like crazy. We really wanted to get moved into the house before she started crawling and getting into things but that did not happen and she is crawling all over the place, plus she is pulling herself up to a standing position to play.

It is so cool and weird to see her grow so much. I guess after her being a little colic for around 4 months I got used to her needing to be held so much and comforted. Now she is happy as can be playing by herself and crawling around. Lindsay and I feel so blessed to have Melody in our lives and I really enjoy being a father. 

Lindsay is back to helping at the school this semester during the morning and I only have to teach during the afternoon, so it has worked out great for one of us to be with Melody while the other is working. We feel very blessed this semester because of that. Lindsay will also be finished with her online classes soon. She is about to start one of her two remaining classes to graduate. Please continue to pray for us as we have had a lot of life changes last year and this.

If you are interested in helping us with some of the one time expenses we have been having I.E. Car and House you can donate to us at: https://app.etapestry.com/cart/WorldRenewalBrazil/default/item.php?ref=8200.0.7360555

New House Video

We are very excited to own a house in Brazil. This is a short tour video of our house before we have a few more things done to it.