At last I am online again!

There is so much to share that it is not possible to do so now.
So here are a few pictures, worth a thousand words!

We are harvesting ata right now - a delicious fruit!
It is wonderful to get and to share the fruit of the trees that others planted before us.

Gladys had the privilege of visiting Indian territory (entering the reserve here) on a one-day trip to get a family and come back to Barra. Robert was there many years ago with another missionary family, so I went this time!

Internet is just too slow! This much has taken a long time!
Good night!

Centro de Treinamento Carlos Harrison

It has begun! The opening took place on Feb. 8th, with the support and attendance of the local Christian churches, our mission leaders from Belem,


and our international director from CrossWorld

Songs were sung in at least 4 languages!


We have been very busy since I last posted, and now the first week of classes at the new Bible Training Center is history. I had the teaching responsibility for 4 full mornings - helping the students in the Portuguese language, to learn to how to respond to many different kinds of questions, to put things in ABC order, to memorize, etc. - learning to learn!

We have 10 adults from 5 Guajajara villages,

and one Xikrin family from Para state.

Thank God for all that He has provided and continue to pray for monthly financial support of the students as well as for all of us missionaries involved in the ministry.

CHRISTMAS in Barra

We have enjoyed some cooler temperatures as the rains have begun to fall in our region of Maranhão. The trees in front of our house that were so bare and dead-looking when we arrived are beautifully green and full of leaves now. The weeds and grass that were dormant in the very dry soil have also sprung to life!


We had a CrossWorld coworker here for a week over Christmas. Bron works with Guajajara in another area of Maranhão state. We enjoyed fellowship with her. She works with Brazilians so she had opportunities to talk and pray in English!

She even made some Christmas cookies with us!

I made some Swiss braided bread to give as gifts to our some of our neighbours.On Christmas Eve we went to church, where Robert was the speaker. He talked about the crises that Mary and Joseph experienced that first Christmas and the joy that they and the shepherds experienced with the surprising message from the angels.

We exchanged gifts on Christmas morning and had a turkey meal together at noon with our team members at Irene and Ruth's house (actually, outdoors, in their garage!)

We were able to talk briefly to our three adult children and to our parents at Christmas time. J is now far from her siblings, helping a good friend in the southern USA get ready for her wedding this weekend. She also is far from the very cold weather that Canada is experiencing!

We attended a New Year's Eve service at Tamarindo church last night. At midnight fireworks sounded all around us. They enjoyed the cake and coffee that we took, and then we were invited to one of their homes, where they began to barbeque meat! It was 2 a.m. when we returned home! We had the privilege of locating the Southern Cross constellation in the dark, clear sky before we went to bed! Maybe we had always been looking for it too early in the evening.

I will try to write more often in 2009. We have been unable to get the internet to upload pictures, even small ones, so I guess I need to write a thousand words!

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Preparing for Rain

These days we're preparing for rain, with an eye on the clouds in the sky.
Robert is working to help the water drain from the low back yard to the higher front yard and out to the street.

Even the ants seem to know that rainy season is coming. They are building dirt up in pretty mounds around their doorways!

A New Stage of Life!

We have entered a new and interesting stage of life - our eldest daughter announced her engagement last weekend. We are grateful for a little opportunity to get to know Ralph, when he made the great effort to visit us in Brazil in May 2008.
Now ... So many things to think about and plan for in the coming months!
The happy couple lives in Northern Alberta - a long way from either of our living parents, her grandparents. There will be a lot of traveling needed during our next home ministry - 2009.

It rained!

Yesterday it rained in Barra!
Robert had gotten home in time for a late lunch - from his trip back to Belem to renew his driver's license. He was here to be able to see that the trench that he has dug (hoping to guide water from the low-level back yard out to the front where there is drainage to the street) REALLY WORKED!

Barra do Corda and our new Ministry

We made a visit to the village of Sardinha for one day of the retreat being held there.
It was great to see how many young people are interested in following the Lord. Too many of the older Christians have backslidden or grown more interested in money from government jobs .

On Tuesday we had a planning meeting - here at our house, for the first time. We finally got enough barrels and boxes unpacked and organized that we could arrange chairs and invite people in! That is "order and progress" as our flag states! Thursday we met and planned the schedule, the classes for the first semester of 2009, Feb - May, how many hours of class time we have to prepare for, what classes we each would teach and what we still need to find a teacher for, etc. Robert may be responsible to oversee the gardening, caring for raising animals, etc. besides the daily maintenance of the property where we all live. I may teach a class on Devotional Life and I will plan to organize the Portuguese classes. Hopefully Dorilene, Bendito's wife, will help to teach Portuguese the first semester and carry on in the next one. So, we are getting into our new responsibilities, and we are grateful for your prayers.

Friday our team met for prayer and then walked up to the Training Center and around the property - to decide where to build a playground for children, a workshop, a chicken house, etc. Benedito, the director and our team leader, has done a lot of work there since we were here in November - a big field has been cleared and is ready for planting when rains come - corn, manioc, beans, etc. They have dug big holes and are now putting better soil into the holes and planting fruit trees - but they have to be watered every day. At the Center they have extended the big tabernacle to include some bathrooms and an office. The kitchen and the two classrooms have been done and painted. The dry brush still needs to be cleared back from the fence that marks the property line at the back, so in case a fire comes through again, there is less chance of it going on through as it did last year. It will also allow us to have someone walk around the property occasionally for security.

RJ is going to have to renew his driver's license in October; it was issued in Para state. He has to take some first aid and defensive driving training classes, since these requirements have been added since he first got his license, or study the materials and take a test, before getting an eye exam. It is also just at the time of elections (October 5th, Sunday), which can be very tumultuous here - often candidates spend money on parties and buying votes, and services to the public just go by the way! Please pray that he will be able to get it done quickly. He will eventually have to transfer his license to this state, but he was advised not to try to do that just now - it could take a very long time, and he needs to get it renewed to be able to legally drive.

The "wildlife" in the house is diminishing. We have poisoned a lot of cockroaches, the small frogs are still getting in sometimes (I do not like sharing my shower nor my kitchen with them!), and yesterday we found where a lot of mosquitoes were breeding, so that has been cared for - maybe they will be fewer now too. The other night a felt a "woosh" past my ears several times - a bat! That scares me, too. We certainly need to sleep with a net, because they are out and about at night. I guess I am calmer about these things than when we first came - one month ago this weekend.

The temperature here has been high! Several days ago I needed bread, so I made bread in the afternoon. (I can not easily go to a bakery nearby.) The thermometer read 99 degrees F in the house before I started baking!

We celebrated 4 weeks here with an ice cream cone in town!