A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The weather has been in the 80's and 90's this week with rain showers at night that cool it down nicely. It seems so strange with all the sun and heat, having come from Michigan, to see Christmas trees and decorations popping up in some local stores. Church picnics in mid-November are a novelty to us too. Equally new and exciting is to sit at my desk, look out the window and see small monkeys playing on the telephone wires and many varieties of hummingbirds enjoying the spring flowers. What a great Creator! Pray that as we labor here the people of Brazil would recognize His worth and find salvation in Him.

Some Family Prayer Requests:

1. Please continue to pray for Melissa's pregnancy. We glorify the Lord that the minor complications that she was having at one point have cleared up completely.

2. Please continue to pray for the girl's adjustment to their new culture and language. Myla is really starting to catch on and speak Portuguese (and correct our Portuguese) in our home. She usually won't acknowledge people who talk to her outside our house though. Ellie responds better to people who talk to her in Portuguese and there is a mutual love between her and our Brazilian friends. Her red hair and fair skin are a novelty here.

3. Please continue to pray for our language training. Next week we begin our second 12 week trimester.

PICTURES! I think if you click on them they can get bigger.

Our front yard has a row of tall beautiful bamboo that Melissa and the girls are standing in front of. Also, the homeowner planted many exotic flowers and plants in the yard. (Right) Our language school took a field trip to the Sao Paulo Zoo for a language/cultural experience. They invited the families of the students. Myla and Ellie thoroughly loved it! Except that Ellie, we think, got into a swarm of biting gnats that left her face covered in red dots making her look like she had chicken pox. They have since healed.


These kids at the zoo were by themselves and they thought it'd be fun to get in a picture with a foreigner.

The young man in the blue with the tie is the son the of the Pastor of the church we attend, his fiance is on the left, and her parents are on the right. Caiu (I think he resembles Tiger Woods) and Elaine plan to get married on December 8th. People usually stay in the youth group until they get married here, so it we'll be sad to lose him from the youth group. They asked me to play trombone in their wedding so I'll have to start practicing and get the rust off!