Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Feliz Natal- Merry Christmas from Rio!

After the unusual rains we've been having, the heat has finally come. This week it is in the 90's. It's Christmastime! There is no official Thanksgiving holiday here in Brazil, but we recently got together with friends for a feast of tacos (we know it's not traditional but they generally don't eat tacos in Brazil and we all had a craving for them!). At our gathering we told the kids the Thanksgiving story and we praised the Lord for His incredible goodness to us. One common theme for all of us was our thankfulness for Christ and for our brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world who mean so much to us. For all of you who pray for us and have a part in the ministry here, "Thank You!"

Family News: Since our last post, we celebrated two birthdays. We celebrated Melissa's --th in October and Myla turned the big "5" in November. Ellie has unlimited reserves of energy and Daniel has 4 teeth that he is very proud of and he began to crawl last week. As our colleagues said, now that we have three very active kids who can move around we'll have to go from man-on-man defense to the zone defense as parents.

Another item of news we are very thankful for is that we'll be able to spend Christmas in the house that God provided for us! We know many had been praying and for that we are very grateful. Although it was frustrating at times to see several of the options of rental houses that we had chosen fall through "mysteriously," now we can see just how God was orchestrating every move we and the realators made to put us exactly where He wants us. The location (very close to our co-workers), the price, and the layout of the house seem ideal. And we know that over time we will discover even more reasons why the Lord chose to put us in this location.
May you have a blessed Christmas and New Year.

The kids in their new sweaters from Aunt Barb. Myla and Ellie having fun.


The first picture is the apartment building that is in front of our house. The
apartment and house are on the same property. If you look through the gate
of the apartment our house is at the end of the corridor.
The second picture is of our house.


This is Rua Corumbiara, the street that our house is on.
The second picture is of Erik and Myla. Erik showed us the house
and really loved the kids. We invited him over for a BBQ once
we get moved in. Pray for his salvation!

3 comments:

Melanie said...

Hey - I found your blog! That's a fun way to send out update "letters" because then you can get comments.

So glad to hear you found a house.

Anonymous said...

Praise the Lord for your new home!
Also, thanks for the updated pictures of the kids! They are all so adorable and precious. We miss you all! :)

Anonymous said...

Hello friends!!
I am so excited for you all. God really does have perfect timing, just hard to wait sometimes. =-)

Happy Birthday Melissa - Kinda wierd turning the big 3-0 huh?!

God Bless you and your beautiful family.