Sixth Anniversary of Igreja Batista Bereana

Sunday, June 20, 2010, our church celebrated its sixth anniversary with a praise service and slide presentaion. We had plenty to praise the Lord for as with all He has done in the past six years.We had 100% attendance of the congregation plus visitors. The 70 plus people were crammed into our little building with several sitting outside the front doors. Besides congregational singing we had many special music numbers from the children, teens, and adults. A very special treat for all of us was the participation of Mauro, from Cuiabá to play

for the service as well as sing some of his original songs. As always, Wanderson did a great job leading the service. At the end Don Peffer read a passage of Scripture from Ephesions 4 then presented to the congregation Adalberto and his family who will be coming up to Campo Verde every weekend from Cuiabá to minister to the church while Don and his family will be in the US for a few months.

Brazil is in Festa!

There is no time more exciting to be in Brazil than during the World Cup Soccer games that are being held in South Africa right now. All the stores, streets, city squares, and houses are decorated in green, yellow, and Brazilian flags. At the games, faces are painted, horns are blowing, and flags are waving. When the Brazil team is playing everything shuts down...banks, stores, offices, and schools so that everyone can watch the game and people gather in the streets or outdoor restaurants with big screen televisions to watch the games together. It is no fun to watch it alone. No one is more passionate, more emotional, and more serious than the Brazilians about soccer and especially the World Cup. It is impossible to live in Brazil and not join in all the excitement. And all with reason as Brazil is the only country in the world that has won five times and played in every World Cup. The excitement is rising since they have a good chance to win again this year making it their sixth, the hexa. And more exciting is the fact that the next World Cup in 2014 will be played in Brazil and Cuiabá is one of the 12 subcities.

To kick off the World Cup this year I had a "Festa de Futebol" as a kick off party with the Cadets, my adolescent group. They had lots of fun with team competions of dribbling and kicking goals. To make it more fun and challenging we used and American football for one of the games and also to play soccer. It was so funny to see them trying to make a goal and the ball go off in a different direction. Of course I had to let them play real soccer before going inside for another team competition. This time they had to burst a balloon and answer the question about the World Cup. We ended the party with hot dogs, yellow juice, and green and yellow ice-cream, prizes, and much anticipation for the months of June and July. Go Brazil!

Pizza at Napolis

After several months of intensive study on dating, I took my 9 teens to a special pizza place where they could have all the pizza and pasta they could eat. It was quite a fun experience for us all. They waiters served all kinds of pizzas and pastas. Pizza in Brazil is very different than in the US. Here they served beef stroganoff pizza made with file mignon and shoestring potatoes on top, chicken with corn and cheese, four cheeses, kiel basa sausage, canadian bacon with peaches figs, and pineapple, and a cheese with dried tomatoes and rúcula (a bitter salad green seen below). There were also palm heart, ham, bacon, tuna, and shrimp pizzas. A variety of pastas were also served: pasta with four cheese sauce, pasta with tomatoe and meat sauce, pasta with brocoli cream sauce, and spaghetti with oil and garlic. You can't stop yet. Here come the delicious dessert pizzas: banana, cheese, cinnamon; guava and cheese called Romeo and Julieta; chocolate with strawberries; chocolate with coconut; and chocolate with candy (like M&M's). We all left the pizza place extremely satisfied. If you come to Brazil, going to a pizza rodizio is a must and an unforgetable experience!

Brazilian Car Accident

Saturday May 15, 2010, I went 10 miles out of town to Taperinha to pick up the teens for youth group. It turned out there Eder was the only one who came. As I got back to the city and turned onto the cross street another car coming parallel to the main road hit my car and pushed me into the corner lot where there were cement pillars. Although hitting them caused more damage than the collision, it was good that it stopped the car from hitting the house. Fortunately the other car just hit the right front corner and not the passenger side so no one was hurt. It was dark and the corner was unlit and unmarked, and the vision was blocked by tall grass so I couldn't see any car coming. It was a big surprise!

I do have insurance, but it took two whole weeks before they did the evaluation of the car and decide to fix it or total it. The car is a 10 year old Ford Escort. Just the week before I paid $300 for the yearly road tax and car registration. The insurance company decided to fix it, but I still don't have the car back yet. The repair shop has finished the job on the body of the car, but is now waiting for the insurance company to come and evaluate the mechanical part and give them permission to finish the job.

After two frustrating weeks without a car, I was able to borrow a car which I am still using. One of my fellow missionary workers who retired and went home to the states has his car for sale, but it hasn't sold yet. For me this was God's grace and I pray that as soo as I get my car back, his car will sell.