Happy 2010!

As we reflect on last year and look forward with hope and anticipation to next year, one word comes to mind. The word is "grace." God has brought us to where we are by His grace, and we trust in Him to lead us into the future by His grace. Since our last post, much has happened. The pictures give a quick run-down of some major church and family events.

In November, we celebrated Myla's 6th birthday and Daniel learned how fun it is to talk with grandparents on the phone.

In December, we celebrated Christ's birth with a special Christmas service at the Island church. We also had the opportunity to stop by the world's largest floating Christmas tree with our colleagues, the Patefields and Joy Hunt.

In January, we had our last regular service with the wonderful people of the Island church. We have now have embarked on a new church plant in our neighborhood. We were also able to spend some time with our friends Pastor João and Daise who have just completed their first year of pastoral ministry in Rio de Janeiro.

Oh, and one more thing. . . we found out this month that God has blessed us with a baby girl who is due in June! Thank you for your love and prayers - without God's grace we know that we can do nothing.

New Mercies Every Morning

Myla, Ellie and I went around our neighborhood
getting pictures of Children's Day here in Rio.
There were fireworks and parties in the street
all day long. As we were walking, people handed
bags full of candy to Myla and Ellie which
they gladly accepted!




Below is a recent picture of Daniel. Nobody can
believe how big he is for his age of 1 1/2. Please
notice that he is wearing my camouflage Detroit
Tigers hat (the team that played valiantly this
year but sadly fell one game short.)



We had the opportunity to take Melissa's Aunt
and Uncle to a scenic overlook of downtown Rio
while they visited us. We live about 35 minutes
inland from the location in this picture, but still
within the city limits. It was a beautiful, clear day.
We thank the Lord for His calling to this great
city. It is a beautiful city but a city of great
spiritual darkness and confusion. Pray that God
would cause the light of the Gospel of Christ to
shine in people's hearts (II Cor. 4:3-6).

July and August

The following pictures tell the story of some of the things that have happened here in Rio over the past couple of months.


It's been a huge privilege to work with the youth group in Sunday School and with special activities. Many have taken steps to deepen their relationship with Jesus. Pray for their continued growth in Christ and involvement in the work of the ministry.


The church organized a Vacation Bible School last month during the kid's winter break. The threat of the flu and the cold, wet weather didn't dampen these kid's spirits! Some have come to church regularly since VBS and the church is following up with the families of the kids.


Ellie celebrated 3 years!!! She's brought us a lot of joy.


This picture was taken on a helicopter pad with the Tijuca National forest of Rio in the background. There were several cameras clicking between our colleagues so we didn't know where to look! On the right is our good friend Carlos who joined the church with his family recently. Thanks for your prayers for the ministry here!

Two Years in Brazil!

Two Year Recap:

We arrived in the huge city of São Paulo, Brazil in May of 2007. At that time we started language school in the center of the city. Upon completion of our studies, in August of 2008, we moved to Rio. In December of 2008, we were able to find a house to rent in the neighborhood of Rocha Miranda. Since that time we've been working in a church on the Governor's Island in Rio and making contact with people in our neighborhood for the purpose of planting a church here. We give thanks to God for His calling and enabling. We thank all of you for your friendship.

In June, there is a series of holidays Festa Juninha which celebrate various Spiritist and Catholic saints. This inevitably means thousands of loud fireworks exploding throughout the day and night (it literally sounds like a war zone and Daniel is terrified of these), countless drunken parties, and the launching of homemade hot air balloons that crash throughout the city and often cause fires. Many in our neighborhood pray to St. George (his holiday was celebrated recently) and have stickers of him on their cars hoping that he will protect them. Pray that their eyes would be open to Jesus, the one true God and giver of eternal life.

Here are some photo highlights of the last several months in Rio:

The teens at camp during a game time and Daniel's first birthday.

The baptism of a teenage girl and Easter morning breakfast.

Ellie helping in the kitchen. Ellie - 2, Myla - 5, Daniel - 1

Summer's Here!

It has been in the 90's a lot lately and the kids are spending a lot of time in an inflatable pool on our front porch these days. The pictures below are from December to the present.

Myla had fun participating in bell choir for the Christmas program.

Daniel likes to ride piggyback with friends.

Myla and Ellie don't look too unhappy to be behind bars.

For for the New Year, Myla and Ellie rode their first roller-coaster together.

We had this incredible Brazilian feast at our friend's house for New Year's.

This is our friend Italo who has been coming to our church and his parents.

Close to our house we saw this sacrifice of flowers and food to appease

the spirits and bring luck for the year.

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!

On the Move

Preparations for the move are being finished up and goodbye's are being said. Though moving itself is not exciting, it is exciting to see the vision that the Lord put in our hearts to work in Rio being fulfilled. Thank you to those who pray for us. Please continue to pray for His enabling grace as we begin in Rio.

Our "flower children." We had fun at the Patefield's trying on their sunflower hat. Daniel didn't know what to think at first but Patricia Patefield got him smiling again. The girls are becoming quite the helpers around the house.

Here are some pictures from Vacation Bible School. The first picture gives you an idea of the area in which we were working. The VBS was held in a school gym/party hall in the center of a slum area in Rio. Each day the children heard the gospel and a Bible story, participated in a game, and made their own handcraft. We thank the Lord for opening up this opportunity.