We are back in Corumba after 2 months abroad in the States. First we had a great time with my family in Kansas City. We went to Colorado, we went swimming, we ate a lot of American food and I was even able to see my brother become senior pastor of his church after many long years of being on staff there.( God's timing always amazes me.) His church which is called Cross Points was the church where I (Melissa) received Jesus as my Savior. My parents attended this church when they were married. I went on my first outreach to Mexico with this church. It has a lot of Memories for me.So I was excited when my brother asked the Missions board to interview us as a new missionary family.
After that we headed to Oregon where we stayed with Ben's parents (who are moving to Brazil in October to help be the pastor to the pastors in the Calavary Chapel churches of Brazil ) We had a wonderful time with our church Willamette Community, we had the privilege of sharing one Sunday morning and a Thursday night. We also got to meet a lot of new people there and made many new friends. We got to go to the coast, to a friends cabin, Ben even got to go tuna fishing and we went camping. We did many fun and relaxing things there. We also helped his parents with a garage sale and moving out of their house so they can rent it. On our way home we ended up in Miami for a few day to recoup. Other than losing a computer and someone taking 300 dollars from us we had a great time. Miami is a very interesting city where very few speak English and you have endless options of authentic ethnic foods. The beaches are beautiful and the people are very friendly. It was a great time before we headed home.
We left Miami for Santa Cruz, we had ten bags of luggage and some carry on bags plus four kids and a stroller. We were diffidently a sight. Thank God we had help in Bolivia. We meet an American missionary there who is fluent in Spanish. He picked us up at the airport and drove us to New tribes Missions base were we stayed the night for super cheap. What a God send he was, we had lunch with his family at Burger king and meet the rest of his family. They have been in Bolivia for 12 years now and he is the pastor of a church there. The next day we headed home by train to a border city in Bolivia called Puerto Suarez. It took 12 hours over night. It felt good to be in South America again. When we arrived Riccardo picked us up and his wife had Cafe da manha ready for us. What a blessing. Upon arriving in Corumba we noticed that everything was dead and brown. The beauty of this place was gone. With out rain for 2 months it had caused fires and drought. The streets are really dusty and Ben's Asthma started up and temperatures have been around 100 to 103 all week. Pray it rains not only for the regrowth of plants and trees but for Ben's asthma as well. Our house too was covered in dirt even the inside was covered in dust. We spent the whole next 2 days cleaning dirt off everything and we had an infestation of cockroaches in our house. I mean hundreds of these nasty guys everywhere. If you know me you know I hate them more than anything. I've had them crawl on me in the night and in the shower I just despise them more than anything. Anyways we think we have the problem fixed cause we keep finding their dead corpses everywhere.
Other than the mess and bugs it was good to be home, I got to drink terere with my neighbors, play with the kids by some salgados and talk with my friend Kayla and her brother Wallace and her mother. Even had a barb-b-Que in Bolivia with our friends Rico and Larissa. They got us up to speed with the work they are doing there.
The kids started school again, with the missing computer Daniel has had to wait till the girls are done to start, but don't worry I've put him to good use :) So things around here are getting back to normal for the most part. You could be in prayer over the following
1. Our house situation, do we stay and keep renting or look some where else.
2. We are moving the tags on our Kombi from Foz to Corumba, So pray for easy transition as you have to have the car in good working order for them to approve.
3. The kids school, they would finish the year well and that I would have patience.
4. Our family to be united together in ministry as well as spiritually.
God bless you all and I look forward to life and ministry here in the Pantanal and keeping you updated on all the stuff the Lord does. Melissa
We love hearing how God is working in your lives. Praying for wisdom and rain!
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