English? Yes please.

Life became normal for me last week as my English classes started in earnest. I was happy to continue one of the longest running ministries through Evangelical Church Missions here in Brazil by going out into the rough neighborhood of Vila Esperança to give English classes. Last week Cris and I went to three classes out of the four we will regularly go to. We were called before the Wednesday morning class and told that there weren't any students in the class, last year Wednesday morning classes had the most students. In all, there were 22 students, ranging from beginner to advanced. I anticipate that throughout the next few weeks there will be more students to register and we will go out 4 times each week.

My classes also began at Life English Center. I have one VIP student on Monday evenings, 6 students in a class that meets Tuesdays & Thursdays, and 4-5 students in a Saturday morning class. I am not used to lesson planning and organization but I have put together a good template that makes things easier.

We have been looking for ways to connect our church to some of the other ministries of Evangelical Church Missions-Brazil. Last night, Monday, was the first of weekly Bible studies in the classroom where I teach English in Vila Esperança. We have encouraged the students in the classes to invite their families to the Bible study, last night 16 people attended. Tonight, Tuesday, we begin a Bible study in Life English Center, this study will be done in English and will be practice for the English students to read, listen and speak.

We appreciate your prayer and support, here are some ways you can keep us in your prayers this week.

• For good relationships to be developed with my new students.
• For Izabel's Citizenship process
• Good attendance at all 4 of the weekly Bible studies.

Happy New Year!

I started a post with this title last year but I never really got around to finishing it, I guess I'm stealing my own idea then. What I have been told before is that the new year in Brazil doesn't officially kick off until after Carnival so I'm a little bit early in spreading my New Year's wishes. Carnival is later in the year than most years so some thing are getting started before this major holiday here.

Izabel and I on the beach with our Brother-in-law for New Year fireworks

It has been quite a ride since late November as both Izabel and I, along with Aaron and Cristiana Brakefield, have been working on documents for Izabel and Cris to become U.S. Citizens. This process has included required trips to the United States for Izabel and Cris in order to maintain their Legal Permanent Resident status.

Izabel met extreme cold on her trip north...

The process is moving smoothly so far for Cristiana, but Izabel is working on her third try for submitting the application and hoping that this one is the charm. Once they are accepted we anticipate at least one more trip for Izabel up to the States and potentially two more trips. We see many benefits for Izabel becoming an American Citizen and are using those benefits to help encourage us as we continue to resubmit the application.

and had the other extreme upon her return.

We spent our second Christmas as a family here in Brazil and all that I can say is that it is completely different than our Christmas traditions up North. The weather allows, even encourages, people to stay outside as we are in the heat of summer and the air is usually quite hot and stale inside. It's common to celebrate from Christmas Eve into early Christmas morning by visiting friends and neighbors and by lighting off fireworks. I felt bad having a hard time staying energetic and finally used the excuse of needing to get Samantha to bed in order for us to go home.

I have taken a break from lesson planning in order to give an update about what is going on down here. Although it is one month before Carnival, the year has commenced for me. By the time this is published I will have completed my first class teaching at Life English School in 2014. My days will be busy planning lessons or giving them. Since Shelly moved back home to Washington (way to go Seahawks, by the way) I have taken over the classes that she had been teaching. I will be teaching three classes at Life along with going out to Vila Esperança twice a day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support. Here are some specific ways you can keep us in your prayers this week:

• Pray for the Citizenship process for both Izabel and Cristiana
• Thank God for protection and safety, we should thank Him even more when he keeps us from danger we may not even know about.
• Pray for David beginning classes at Life and in Vila Esperança.

How do you say 'straw' in Portuguese?

I meant to get this out on Saturday but things always seem to get in the way. Since the last week of November it has
been extremely busy for all of us here in Brazil. That shouldn't be news to any of you since Thanksgiving, Black Friday and all the preparations for the Christmas season make everyone's end of the year busy. Here is what has been keeping us busy.

• Aaron, Cris, Izabel and myself took a trip to the U.S. consulate at the end of November to file papers and have questions answered. Even though Cris and Izabel are Permanent residents, the U.S. powers that be expect their permanent residents to reside inside the States, since Izabel and Cris do not, we went to file papers to keep their residence. While there however we were all told that the U.S. Consulate couldn't help us because they didn't qualify for those specific papers.
• Believe it or not, in Izabel's case we were advised that the easiest and ultimately cheapest way to preserve Izabel's residency was to have her make a trip up to the States. We left this morning to take Izabel to the airport for her trip to Minneapolis. While she is there she will work on some of her documents and help Barbara Kochendorfer around the house (not that Barbara needs help).         
• To tag along with the previous bullet point we have a visitor arriving tomorrow to help Shelly Fuehrer in her final week here in Brazil and her trip back. Instead of making two airport trips in two days I decided to find a hotel in São Paulo to stay at. So far Samantha and I have explored Walmart, a big shopping mall, drove through busy traffic to a zoo that didn't look like it was open...or fun, and checked into our hotel. We also explored a big outdoor shopping area close to the hotel but I got tired of holding Samantha and she got tired of the heat so we came back to the hotel. 
• I've been on my own all day long with no one to help me with the language and I've done alright. Samantha interrupted me before this bullet point saying she was hungry so I successfully called and ordered some little pizzas to be delivered. I forgot to bring a straw with us on this trip so before I went to the restaurant in the hotel I typed into google "how do you say 'straw' in Portuguese?" I also successfully asked the front desk for a crib for Samantha that has now been delievered. Many times I still feel lost with Portuguese but other times I can look back and see how far I've come.
• We had Shelly move in with us a couple weeks go and we're getting her apartment prepared to turn back over to the owners. We are still looking for someone who knows how fill an air conditioning hole in her wall. Please pray that someone can be found shortly.
• There have been many other things going on and we appreciate your prayers during this busy yet rewarding time of year.

Back from retreat

I want to thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support, it is hard for us to be productive here in Brazil without a good support team back home. We had a major event this last week as we took a group of 13 teenagers from the English ministry that we assist from the tough neighborhood of Vila Esperança.

We attempt to have some sort of reward each semester for these students but this was much more involving than other rewards, we haven't taken these students on a multiple day retreat for several years. Us missionaries left Wednesday afternoon to prepare the rental house and then the children arrived Thursday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon. There were fun activities, a few hours at the beach, much time spent in the pool and a lot of good food to eat. I believe that our main goals were accomplished, safety, fun and times to present the Gospel.

This was also a time that Shelly was able to use to say thank you to the students for many years of taking classes with her and an opportunity to say goodbye as she returns to the States in December. On the last day of the retreat I sat down with the main teacher of these classes and with Aaron Brakefield and we discussed the future of the classes. We agreed that I will take over as the American assistant beginning next year, continuing a partnership that has been going for over 10 years. I've never thought of myself as much of a teacher but now I get the opportunity to test myself and develop relationships with many young people in a difficult neighborhood to grow up in.

We have used these classes to help teaching English with great success, we have also had great success in teaching these students about God and the Bible. Our desire is to draw a connection between these classes and a church that will challenge them to grow in their relationship with Christ. We would love to have them come to our church but it is unrealistic to expect them to come walking or by bus from the other side of town.

Please pray for commitments made and seeds planted during these few days to remain strong and to grow. Activities were mentioned to connect our church and other ministries to these young people, pray that these ideas can come to fruition. We didn't bring a camera on this retreat. As pictures get posted from others we will share those so you can see the faces of some of these young students.

Success!

A typical Portuguese class

I've been stressed out the last few weeks because I committed to preach on the last Sunday of September and then again on the first Sunday of October while our normal preacher is in the States for meetings. I am happy to say that the church got through both of my sermons and even though I felt like I was preaching for a long time I ended both weeks on time! Those of you from Park Place know that didn't always happen when I preached there. Adding to my nervousness was that for the first time in my life I was going to lead Communion, which I felt afterwards was a great spiritual blessing.

Being told in the past that going and playing soccer with a group of Brazilians will help with learning Portuguese, I have been very loyal to play on Wednesdays. Last Wednesday as I was driving to Santos to play I was rear-ended by a car who was rear-ended. After getting out and seeing no damage at first my initial thought was to get back into the car and drive off so I wouldn't miss playing. After taking a closer look I saw that the bumper was damaged so I waited to see what the other two drivers would do. Seeing them immediately get on their cell phones I got on mine to call people who I thought would know what to do. The three of us proceeded to the police station for them to take our statements; instead of practicing my Portuguese by playing soccer I ended up practicing my Portuguese by giving an official statement, making me arrive to the soccer field at the time that everyone was leaving. Everyone I have talked to assured me that I did the right thing and the person at fault has already filed with his insurance company and his insurance has already started the process for us to get our car fixed.

We celebrated Samantha's 2nd birthday twice, once with Izabel's family before church and one with our church family after the service.

Earlier today, Tuesday, Izabel and I drove to Santos to accomplish three things, each one of them was accomplished.

• At the end of last week I received my health insurance card for our Brazilian insurance; Izabel's and Samantha's have already been sent twice, yet not received. They told us that they would send our cards again. 
• We also went to the car insurance agent so we could know where to get our car fixed, thanks to a traffic detour and Izabel's eyes we drove straight to it and have a shop close to our house to take the car to. 
• While I was at the police station making my statement they told me that my international driver's permit was expired (even though the permit says it's valid until December) and they pointed out that my temporary Brazilian Green Card was expired (my permanent one should have arrived by now). Thankfully later that evening the officer came back and said that my driver's permit is still valid and they didn't make a fuss about my temporary Green Card. Izabel and I waited over an hour at the Federal Police today to ask about my Green Card only to find out when we got to the desk that it had arrived and we walked out of the building with it.

Relaxing Sunday morning

We are in the second week with a new format at Vida em Cristo. Based on research that some have done, and observing those same results here in Brazil we have decided to strongly emphasize getting each church member to attend an activity twice each week. We know that there are few who come whenever the church doors are open, but most people work, have family, and many other busy schedules only have two time slots each week. Traditionally Vida em Cristo has had Sunday school in the morning and then Sunday service in the evening, prayer service and youth group on Wednesday and Cell group on Thursdays. Our desire is to increase the amount of Cell group offerings, and hopefully, through various days and times, provide cell group access to everyone in the church.

To replace the traditional Sunday school teaching time the church will have different classes offered at different times throughout the year. There was a lot of thought and discussion that went in to these changes and we came to the decision that what is missed by eliminating everything but service and small groups can be made up for by having consistent groups who have the confidence to confide in and grow with each other. We are approaching the beginning of the first session of classes, which will begin in the middle of September, and we really appreciate your prayers. There will be one group located in downtown Cubatão on Wednesday nights, Aaron will host one group on Thursday nights, and Izabel and I will host a group on Saturday afternoon.

We have had guests to the field down here, but they are no strangers to anyone down here, Aaron's parents are visiting for a little over a month. Also, a friend of theirs has been able to make a shorter length of trip and we have the pleasure of hosting her at our house. Samantha loves any opportunity to have somebody new to play with, so while we are happy to use our house to help others out, Samantha is extra happy.

I remember writing updates and afterwards realizing that I had forgotten to say that I've begun teaching a VIP student at Life English School. It is a good opportunity to spend more time at the school getting to know more people. I've gone regularly to the Saturday morning English exercises and been able to get to know many students, I also see many others when I show up for my Portuguese classes which are held in an unused classroom. Cris Brakefield hosts another activity that I have been able to attend since the time for this activity was moved ahead one hour.

I've been feeling more confident to talk with people in Portuguese but I know that I still have a long way to go. I still drive in to Santos every Wednesday to play soccer. This was originally meant to be a time that I would have fun, but Aaron encouraged me to make it a time to work on my Portuguese too. I quickly learned that it is not appropriate to yell all of the things that they yell at each other but it has given me a group that I can be a good example to. I have more freedom now to stay after the game and talk with them since I don't need to hurry back to Cubatão in order to make it for the prayer service.

We appreciate your prayers, Izabel has had a nasty cough for a few weeks and within the last couple days Samantha decided it looked like fun to start coughing. We don't like when anyone in our house is sick so please pray that these go away quickly.

I apologize for the lack of pictures on this, I rarely plan ahead to bring the camera to activities and it is usually when I am already somewhere that I realize it would be a good photo opportunity. I will try in the future to plan better.

A distracted review

There was a group from Life English School who were touring the United States the last couple weeks. Aaron was in charge of the groups planning and traveling. While he went north with the group the activities down here continued, church, prayer group, Bible study and Sunday school. Two weeks ago I was able to preach my first sermon in Brazil since Izabel and I visited in 2010. Last week one of the Brazilians Rodrigo did a great job preaching the sermon. Even though the group and Aaron arrived back in Brazil earlier this week I will be preaching the message tonight since Aaron had many other things to be doing other than preparing a message. Whenever I'm preparing to preach, especially when it's imminent, it is hard to focus on other things; hence the distracted update today.

At the beginning of June I was asked to take on a private English student as his classed with his previous teacher were coming to an end and I was looking to get a little bit more involved with life down here and at the school. We have had 4 classes together, he is a very inquisitive student so a lot of our class time is spent in dialogue, forcing his English which is pretty good already. The thing that makes it hard is that I am teaching principles that I know but they are things that I've grown up with so explaining why and when to use certain tenses is difficult. I am enjoying the time that I get to spend at the school getting to know some of the students, I hope to hear good stories from the ones who were able to visit the States.

I am continuing with my Portuguese classes. When we began almost 6 months ago I felt like I still needed to learn a lot but at the same time I felt like I knew quite a bit. Now I know a lot more than I did back then but I have come to the realization that I have no idea how much more there is to learn. To illustrate this,
       Imagine exploring a house that you do not know how big it is. Having explored what you feel are a lot of rooms you cannot imagine the house being larger. You come to a door and you think to yourself that it must be the exit but when you open the door you realize that you were just touring the guest area and that the house is much larger than you expected.

I knew that I had a lot to learn before I started but now I am learning that I underestimated how much it was that I actually had to learn. There is also a common illustration about peeling off layers of onions. Portuguese, just like peeling onions, the more layers I peel off the more I want to cry.

On Tuesday we will be going with a group from the English school in Vila Esperança to the zoo in São Paulo.

I almost forgot to give an update about the protests. They were receiving attention during a soccer tournament here and using that tournament as a good platform. Once the tournament ended there was one mass protest the next day and I thought that was the end of it. This last Thursday, the 11th, there was another mass protest organized and we were surprised to find that it went through our neighborhood. We were on our way to the Bible study and had to take a detour because the protesters were blocking the road we wanted to take. We are all still safe and I don't think anything will happen to us. We receive warnings from our consulate to stay away from the protests while they are happening, so we do.

Thank you for your prayers and your support, feel free to share this around.

Dave, Izabel and Samantha