And so Christmas begins...

My week in summary...

Thursday:  Thanksgiving!  I made macaroni, mashed potatoes, banana pudding, and Mark's grandmother's chocolate chip pound cake.  It took me all day Wednesday to prepare the food!  Apparently, it is more of a challenge than I thought making American dishes with Brazilian ingredients.  We spoke English practically all day! (We celebrated with the American family on our team, invited our Brazilian teammates and some Americans that work at the American school nearby.)

Friday:  Gabi is a really sweet P.E. student in our community.  She always comes to events we have at our home, helps me cook, and is discipled by Pri.  She came early on Friday to help me begin decorating for Christmas.  Her mom made this Christmas tree...

 

...We watched the Iron Bowl and ate a second Thanksgiving dinner!  Almost 30 students came.  We had to introduce them to 2 very important American traditions, football and Thanksgiving.  Mark taught the basics of football while I explained how to eat the Thanksgiving foods - everyone wanted to know the 'right' way to eat the food!  The picture below is of some of our Team Bama fans.  (Surprisingly, we had a significant turn-out of students wearing orange and blue using Auburn posters!  Ugh.  I guess they wanted to remind us what it was like to watch the Iron Bowl in AL by creating some healthy rivalry!)

Saturday: I helped out with a "Lingerie Tea" we had for two girls at our church that are getting married in December and January.  We had so many people at the shower, and it lasted for over 4 hours!  We played games too, as you can see... Poor girls!  Everyone had fun.

...We also received our Brazilian driver's licenses on Saturday!  Now, it's official... I can drive!  Well, at least I can officially begin to learn to drive a stick in this hilly city!

Sunday: Cleaned the apartment.  Dishes.  Laundry.  Cooked.  Church in the evening.  

Monday:  We had a staff planning meeting all day.  We're in the middle of planning our big, annual retreat for January.  Praying for at least 40 people to come.  That evening, Mark and I hunted for Christmas lights (no easy task).  I waited in the check-out line at the third store we went to for almost 30 minutes only to be told by the cashier that the voltage of the lights I wanted to buy was too high!?  So basically, the girl told me to buy lights at another store.  I still don't understand why a store would sell lights you can't use in Brazil!  

Tuesday: I found Christmas lights!  Grocery store.  Cooking.  Laundry.  Put up our tree.  Evaluation meeting with our director in the afternoon.  Gave shot in the evening. (I have been giving weekly vaccine injections to one of my friends. It's fun to have an opportunity to use nursing! And I think she is going to start using me to give her cat shots too.)  Did you know you can't buy real trees here and the artificial ones are usually small?  Believe it or not, our tree is considered pretty big!  

Wednesday: Portuguese class until lunchtime.  Then, rushed to my English class!  Taught for two hours.  Bus ride home (1 hour).  Hurried to make meatloaf, cheese grits, and peas for Mark and his small group, Flav and Japa.  (They're going through a Tim Keller study on Judges.)  Dishes.  Laundry.  Read for a minute.  Then, off to babysit the Dempsey kids!    

 

Today: I'm preparing for our weekly discussion group meeting today by cooking and cleaning before tomorrow, and before Portuguese today.  The discussion group is definitely a weekly highlight for us.  We love having Brazilians in our home.  I'll be making tacos, burritos and cookies!  Tomorrow:  a day full of Portuguese class, lunch on campus, English class, and then discussion group!

Encouraged.

Since Monday, there have been a number of things that have reminded me of God's tender care and love for me: 

• Two supporters and dear friends called, made my day; 
• I received a really sweet e-mail from another friend/supporter, made me cry; 
• Two other supporters and friends sent me very practical suggestions about games and ice-breakers I can use for our upcoming January retreat, socials in our home, and upcoming wedding showers; 
• We continue to receive updates from couples from our small group at Oak Mountain about new babies and pregnancies!
• A Brazilian friend spent 2 entire days with Mark and I, helping me pick up my finally finalized visa - with the clearest instructions we've yet received about what we need to do to renew it - and helping Mark and I get all the documents to finally request our Brazilian driver's licenses; 
• I had an encouraging conversation with a friend and student last night (30 minutes!) about why Mark and I moved to Brasil and what we do here. (This was especially encouraging because I couldn't go to her birthday party this past weekend since the party started really late at some club and I had no one that could go with me.  I felt like I sounded silly telling her no, not expecting her to understand my reasons why, but our conversation last night reminded me it's not up to me to maintain our relationship or even to make her like me.  I see God's hand.);
• I was able to make Taco Soup (a.k.a. Santa Fe Soup) the other night with taco powder I got from some American friends, a taste of Fall and home;
• And last but not least, rainy season has started.  I like it a lot, when it's not down-pouring!  Not only is it cozy, but it also helps it feel a little more like Thanksgiving and Christmas are approaching!

These are just a few of the many things I have to be grateful for.  It's easy for me to struggle with doubt, guilt, and a critical spirit all too often, so I thought it was only appropriate to call attention to sweet grace from God.  I've felt really special and loved, carried almost.  Thank you all for "holding the ropes" for us in prayer.

ATTENTION GIRLS:  Brazilian Dresses!
A girl from our church, a clothing designer and make-up artist, just released her 2011 collection.  Wanting to use a "blonde" I think, she asked timid me to model some of her dresses.  For those of you that know Ana Luiza (girl that became a Christian after Mark's 2005 trip to Brasil), was our photographer.  I would love to help promote her business since being an entrepreneur in Brasil is very difficult because of the political climate and corruption.  If any of you girls see dresses you like (on my Facebook wall or on her website listed below), let me know.  They're really cute and around $30.  

Visit Arabela's Website: www.arabelarios.com.br

Cooking, Entertaining, and Cooking...

We had an American visitor these past 10 days, Melody!  Melody is connected to our ministry in a number of ways: a member at Briarwood, visited the ministry in Thailand 4 times, and became a Christian through the ministry when she was in college.  She supports us as well.  This was her first trip to Brazil and we put her to work!  By the time she left, she had taught cooking classes, sewing classes, spoken at a mini-retreat, "lunched" and/or "dinnered" with 80 percent of the girls at our church, rock climbed, babysat, tried a variety of very interesting and delicious Brazilian foods, as well as cleaned my kitchen numerous times!  Here are some of the pictures from Melody's trip:

Shopping for all the needed ingredients for the week, i.e. fresh cheese!

Fixing homemade fettuccini alfredo for our team

Part of our team - those in town- came over to meet Melody and enjoy Italian food.

Cooking class with students: chicken marsala, mashed potatoes, and broccoli

Cute recipe cards Melody made for the girls that came

Our discussion group topic for this past Thursday with students was "How good is good enough?"  We had incredible discussion about the gospel through using an analogy of a very common Brazilian drink, chocolate milk!  We agreed that when chocolate powder (sin) enters a cup of milk (mankind) - regardless of how much or how little chocolate powder is added - the result is still the same, chocolate milk (sinful man).  The milk cannot separate itself from the powder on its own.  The solution?  Add more pure milk (Christ's righteousness) to gradually decrease the amount of chocolate.  The more pure milk added... the less chocolate tasted (sanctification process).  The students were so interested and excited about the analogy that everyone who came wanted to take a picture of themselves with milk and chocolate powder to put on Facebook.  College students!

Helenice, me, and Monick learning to quilt.  Thanks, Melody!

Melody sharing her testimony with Cláudia translating during our Women's Retreat 

Craft time!  Each girl drew a name and we each decorated a box with colorful napkins and paint for that person...  

We also wrote a note to our person and committed to pray for them for a year.

Some of the women/girls from the retreat

Life

Typical southern Brazilian lunch: beans, rice, chicken and okra, Guaraná, and homemade cheese bread

The Coffee Overlook: a bed and breakfast where we spent 4 days with our team resting, planning, and self-evaluating the past year.

Me with goodies from Bath and Body Works, earrings and pictures of Evan!  Many thanks to my sweet mother-in-law!

This is a sweet handicapped boy I met while volunteering with the foster care ministry, Criança Feliz, on Children's Day (a national holiday).  He wanted to show me the presents he received from his Samaritan's Purse box.  With a significant tremor, he held up a picture of Jesus.  And I quote, "He... he lives here [pointing to his heart in a very matter-of-fact manner]."

Mark bought a bug-zapping racket.  It's definitely his new toy and certainly a conversation piece in our apartment.  These rackets may not be available in the U.S. because they emit a 100V shock whenever they touch bugs and/or human flesh! The racket's package actually says Let's Kill Mosquito Together.  This is but one example of some excellent English translations available here!

Update!

Friends, so sorry for my recent lack in postings.  We're excited about looking into website options and having that available in the near future.  Since we began talking about websites I've fallen very behind blogging.

August:

-I began teaching English to 2 coworkers of our friend, Ana Luiza, once a week.
-We began a bible study on campus with freshmen studying various encounters of Jesus in the Gospels of John and Luke.
-Bought a car!

September:

-Justin and Jess came to visit for 10 days.  It was wonderful to spend time together introducing them to the culture, our friends, our church, and our life here.  Though the trip couldn't have been better, we find ourselves missing family and familiarity a little more now.  We wish we could come home for a just a weekend!  One highlight - of many - was getting to watch Alabama's first game of the season with J and J.  Roll Tide!

September/October:

-This month I'm teaching English 2 nights a week and will be going to campus to spend time with a couple girls I met this summer 2 -3 days a week as well as participate in the freshman bible study.  I'm getting closer to Pri and find her to be such an encouragement.  I'm baking more than ever since Brasilians love American desserts and we love having people in our home.  I feel like I'm finding my place on the team and in the community here more and more as time goes by but it still can be a struggle.  Mark and I are continuing to grow in learning to set boundaries too.  Mark's been getting us to plan our weeks on Sunday and to prioritize things that usually get overlooked like planning our sabbath, work out days, and date night.  We can already tell a difference in just 2 weeks of doing this.

I uploaded more pictures on Facebook from Justin and Jessica's trip!  

   
Almost famous! During J and J's trip, I was interviewed by a global news TV station in our state. Click here to see the clip!

Social Action Day!

We spent the morning with a ministry called, Criança Feliz (Happy Child).  The children of this ministry are either orphaned or have been removed from their families because of a temporary or long-term, home-life need.  Our church does many functions with this non-profit, faith-based foster care program.

We had soccer, nail painting, and pool time!  The children called every adult "Tia" or "Tio" (pronounced chi-ah and chi-oh)--meaning aunt and uncle.

Endings and Beginnings

The final investigative retreat of the summer with the Americans from the CCP (mid-July):

We discussed a different parable of Jesus during each discussion group time.  We had 6 groups and divided the students between their campuses.  This is Mark's group.

Gabriel (freshman, 1st CCP), Priscila (PT major), Barbara (freshman, 1st CCP), Lyndsey (from Arkansas), and Weslley (1st CCP)

P.E. students, and the staff and Americans on the P.E. team at the retreat

Last group shot with 5 sweet Americans that spent time with the Phys. Ed. students this summer... and of course Barbara (middle) and me!  

Saying goodbye:

Large turn-out at the airport to say goodbye to the gringos.  Circle time of prayer and last words...

Sweet girls singing a Brazilian song to Katie (right-back) before she left.

Jessica (freshman, 1st CCP) saying goodbye to Charity (right)

Couple we've gotten to know this summer, Leticia and Gabriel.  Thankfully this isn't a goodbye picture!

Spent a whole day at Weslley's house this week.  His mom cooked a delicious Brazilian feast.  We watched a movie, listened to music and looked at pictures of Weslley and his family.  Wonderful day.

Team time:

Priscila, Alan, Mark and me:  The P.E. Team! 

(We spend time with the P.E. majors at UFMG, large public university)

We are truly looking forward to growing with and learning from the Brazilians we met over the past couple months... we'll keep you updated!

The Fourth

My apologies for my recent lack in postings.  It's been more difficult recently to steal away to use Mark's computer for long periods of time.  We've been spending much of our time outside of class with Brazilian students and the Americans at social events and in our home.  Only one more week until the CCP ends and the Americans return to Memphis.  It will be hard to see them go since we've become especially close to the students on our team. (Our team's focus is in the P.E. dept. at UFMG.)

We celebrated the 4th of July at our apartment with the Americans on our team and a couple Brazilians.  We had burgers, mac 'n cheese, sweet tea, a cake decorated like a flag, and ice cream while we watched the ever popular and memorable The Patriot.  The night went well.  Mark and I weren't as homesick as we expected to be since we were able to enjoy a couple comforts from home.

Our rendition of the national anthem...

Making a Home

 Cleaning Tips and Tricks:

• In my humble opinion, newspaper cleans windows better than paper towels.  (And it's free!)  
• Gel alcohol works well for the stove top and kitchen sink.
• To reuse zip-lock baggies: wash them and rub the baggie upside down against the backsplash of your kitchen.  They will stick and dry out quickly.
• We've been washing dishes with coconut bar soap instead of liquid detergent.  It's really sudsy and natural.  For those of you that will come visit, you have to try it!  

Etiquette in Brasil:

• Greet people with a hug and kiss
• Hold any type of sandwich or hamburger with a napkin
• Offer food and/or gum to others
• Open a present in front of the giver the moment you receive it
• Thank you notes aren't necessary (actually nonexistent)
• And above all else, when you'd like to make a friend, bake cookies.  (Brasilians love them!)

Overdue Pictures of Our Apartment:

What a blessing!  Our very own home... We have 1 big, open room (living room, then dining room, then office), 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms.  The apartments and houses in the city have tile in the bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms, and marble or granite counter tops and hard wood floors.  These give the apartments so much character (and make the apts. easier to clean too!).  Looking forward to having American visitors one day!

May Pics!

Vivi (our pastor's wife), Marcela, and I made over 500 typical chocolate Brazilian candies (brigadeiro) for Rebekah's 3rd Birthday Party!  Prince Charming and Princess Fiona came to the party.  Marcela, Princess Fiona, another friend, and myself blew up each balloon you see in the background.  I learned a lot about decorating for children's birthday parties! 

Dinner with friends from church, our teammates and friends visiting from the States...

Some kind of political protest in Centro...

"While there is a man homeless, without bread, without education, all progress is false." -translation by Michelle (be generous, friends)  :)  


May has been a blessing.  We continue to take the same number of hours of Portuguese class 3 days a week and go to campus 2 days a week.  We feel like we're still acclimating to life in the city by taking the bus and learning our way around.  The last couple weeks have been especially encouraging for us because of the presence of the students from Memphis that arrived mid-May.  It's a gift translating when we can and relating to Brazilians with the Americans on campus and at events.  It's been busy but fun.