Draining in a different way

Having grown up on a farm and owned a business I understand being tired. Melissa and I both have been through long tiring seasons. In our business, our marriage, our family, our personal lives we have seen stressed and tired states. What I am finding is that life as missionaries is pretty easy compared to the grind of chasing dollars. We don’t have a normal, uninteresting routine to wake up too. Our weeks and days all look different. Much of our “job” is about building relationships. A friend and supporter joked with me before we left that I was becoming a professional socializer. It was funny and meant in fun but also largely true. Our job is to meet people and get involved in their lives.

At the same time as this makes our lives more interesting, more pleasurable if you will we have begun to see signs of the toll being a missionary can take. It isn’t that we are doing bad or that we are completely wore out. It is the little things, being more edgy with each other, quicker to frustration things like that. For the most part it is small things.

For me personally it is a little deeper. I happened t learn Portuguese a bit quicker and being the husband it has been my job to take care of the paper work with immigrating to Brazil, locating housing, negotiating, going out to pay bills. These things are normal but in a new culture where you don’t understand how to do things, often struggle with the language it is tiring.

During Christmas we went on a mini vacation with my parents who happen to be in Brazil. The had helped us move in November then went on to their duties with Calvary Chapel. They flew to Campo Grande and we picked them up, drove the 5 hours back home only to arrive home to a brownout and insufficient power to turn on our lights or to get our fans moving. Eventually I tightened all the breakers in the box and got sufficient power to run the fans. A couple hours later a storm blew in and it got cold (70) and we all regretted having the fans on.

		Christmas VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The next day we opened presents then went to a resort on the other side of the border in Bolivia. It was a real nice time there, followed up by a nice trip to a little town called Bonito. Bonito has a lot of little rivers with real clear water. You can snorkel and see a lot of big fish. We finished it off in Campo Grande where they have movie theatres, shopping malls and American fast food. We ate McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hutt. It was a great week.

The thing is I came home more tired and less refreshed. The other side of the vacation is asking questions in Portuguese, trying to find hotels, looking for places. It is little normal things but I find I am struggling to get refreshed. I love being here and am planning to work with Roberto to start kind of a boy scout program. We want to build a canoe with some boys, camp, build fires, and that kind of thing.

Melissa is wanting to start volunteering in Bolivia at the hospital and we plan to spend some time on the river alone as a family. God is certainly continuing to open doors and lead us.

What I am seeing is the need to visit the US. To spend time in our home church. To visit with supporters. To regroup, refresh and come back re-energized for another couple years.

Pray for us as we get a footing in ministry here in Corumba. We have gotten a start in Port Esperanca and our neighborhood. We want to see a couple more things get established. A better daily routine, Melissa going to Bolivia a couple times a week, and perhaps a boys club. Pray that we hear from God on Kids schooling and the timing for us to go to the US. The kids schooling has gotten more complicated then we thought it would be. There is a lot of bureaucracy here and we need to get a lot of paperwork to have them in school here. For homeschooling with English Material we would be behind because we had chose to put them in public school in Foz. Somehow that didn’t result in them having  the right paper work to re-enter school here and we are not convinced that is the right thing. This is an example of how life here can be draining. Lots of un-educated decisions to be made.

Weekend on the River

Our family got the opportunity to go out to Porto Esperanca this last weekend. http://g.co/maps/njpz3 The rains have started and it is no longer accessible by car so we met a boat at a bridge not to far from the town. It happens to be a little village a ways out of Corumba. Depending on your boat, if you drive a bit and meet a boat it is any where from 3 to 8 hours away. We happen to be praying about moving there at some point in the next year. It is still a part of Corumba and the pantanal but it would definitely be a change in lifestyle. People there make a trip to Corumba once a month to buy all the food they can’t harvest from the river or local trees and pay any bills they may have. It has a small school and there is a mine there that offers first aid. There is a military post about 20 minutes by boat that has ambulances about 40 minutes from Corumba. This was the first experiment to see how the family would do on the River. It was awesome, during the day anyhow. Night, just a bit scary.



While there we seen a 7 or 8 foot alligator, tons of parrots, parakeets other birds, giant otters, capybara, the pastor and another guy seen a big snake, frogs, bats, fish, just a seemingly endless supply of animals. I got the opportunity to preach Saturday night. The way the villages work is that when someone is able to be there they a service and someone preaches, someone does worship, someone does Sunday school. It reminds me of stories of the old circuit preachers. Any how as I was preparing to try my hand at preaching in Portuguese, with no English speakers available, I was reading Genesis 1. How amazing to read the story of creation in somewhere that is surely a glimpse at the garden of Eden. Sitting in cities or towns where everything is buildings, concrete and shopping malls creation can loose its marvel. It can be easy to wonder if it matters how it came to be. Easy to think maybe God used evolution, maybe it only matters that you believe in God but don’t have to literally believe in the account in Genesis. I agree to be saved that probably isn’t important but sitting in that location looking at the incredible diversity around me I can only attribute it to God. The thing that really struck me was the separation of water and air, land and water, the abundance of plants, animals and fish that God put on earth. Genesis 1 describes the Pantanal. You all really need to come see it.



I managed to get through the preaching time ok. Pastor Altair, Andre and Rodrigo all encouraged me that it made sense and people understood. They seemed genuinely encouraging that it went well. Praise God. I prayed a lot that afternoon. I am not really someone who plans word for word what I will say and memorizes it. I need to interact with the crowd, respond, flow freely. It is who I am. If I was the other it would be easier, I could write it out in Portuguese, confirm it with someone and memorize it. It really felt like a confirmation that we are to spend more time on the river, perhaps live there and go out to other villages to do services. This will require a boat. I have one I am praying about.

On our way home Moriah said to us I really didn’t want to go out there and visit. I asked what she thought now. She said she liked it. I asked if she would want to live there, her eyes lit up and she said a big “that would be so cool”. We will see. I had to go under the church to get my hammock down in the dark. We were short a mattress and I needed to put it up in the church. I was so scared I was going to get bit by a snake. They are very plentiful and it wasn’t an unwarranted fear. Here in Brazil people always stay places late into the night. There as soon as it gets a little dark the locals bolt for home. Last time we were there one of the guys who stayed a little late had a poisonous snake try and bite him as he went up the ramp to his house. Him and his wife had to go out with lights to hunt it. His wife ended up killing it. People there are tuff. Douglas a boy Altair and I got to talk with had wounds from a knife fight that were still healing. There I found myself in pitch black under the church trying to reach up and untie a hammock. The next morning a snake got chased from the bottom of the ramp, where I was, to the river.



Sunday morning we had another little service, Altair shared, even referred to some of what I shared the night before, so apparently at least some of it got through. Then we all went down to the river for a baptism. It was beautiful.

Our kids did awesome. We loved it. We are praying. We looked at a house for sell there for about 12k dollars. I have to say we really need prayer. This wouldn’t be a little step or one to take lightly but this is where the need is. The people need disciple. Other villages need reached. I as a missionary need to be willing to go where the need is, where the average person in the church can’t easily go. Once a month isn’t enough time to disciple the young Christians. The boys end up alcoholics, the girls, many of them work as prostitutes and strippers during the fishing/tourism season. Lots of women and kids came to church, few men. To stand in the gap for those girls, for those boys someone has to go live there. Teach them love them. Lead them to go out to the others. Why not us?


The house for 12k



Anyhow, be praying. We will probably be sending out another letter soon with information on a house fund and probably a boat fund. In the mean time if you want to begin monthly support you can do it here.

http://shepsstaff.org/lyon.aspx

		It was awesome VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Really this was probably the best time we have had in Brazil. Our whole family was engaged in the ministry. Melissa helped with kids and food, I preached, the kids served and interacted, we visited homes. It was truly beautiful.