My belated June blog post...we spent 15 days in Brazil

It is almost a blur...it was crazy to get ready to leave the country, then it was stressing me to pack, then we were on a plane (actually 4 planes to get there) to Crato, Brazil on a missionary trip 6/4-6/19/12.  It was our first out of the country missionary trip.  Jim and I plus our 2 kids and 5 others from our church went on this trip.

It was different that I expected in some ways.  I didn't expect it to be so physically challenging.  The whole trip was eye opening for us all.  We discovered that we take a huge amount of rights for granted in the USA and that was a good lesson.

God loves people of all colors and shapes and sizes around the world even people that speak other languages than we do.  LOL!  We learned a little Portuguese in our 15 days there.

We helped white-wash this parsonage (inside and out).

White-washing is the most messy project I have ever done.

We laughed in the middle of all that work...a merry heart is good medicine.  I had white-wash on me from head to toe.  It turns out lime is not so good for the skin.  I am still nursing a sore spot on one finger.

We landscaped in front of the chapel with the most crude tools.

To turn this pile of compacted hard red clay that they call dirt

into this

We did street evangelism in Ouricuri Brazil.  Hosted a couples breakfast there.  We gave the men a chocolate heart shaped favor to take home.  We gave the ladies a fabric heart with cinnamon potpourri in the center to take home.  See I did get some crafting done in Brazil.

We spent time in 6 different churches ministering with music, teaching, and testimonies of how Christ changed our lives.

We chased toads out of the house where we were sleeping.  We shared our bedrooms with lizards and various other bugs.  We ate rice and beans and then beans and rice with the Seminary students.  We shared wonderful meals with missionaries our church supports who have dedicated their lives to bringing the Gospel message to the Brazil people.  We drank gallons of warm water.  We travelled over hundreds of speed bumps in the roads.  We avoided hundreds but not all of the pot-holes in the roads.  We saw the sun rise at 6 am and set at 6 pm every day because we were so close to the equator.  We got to see the southern cross constellation in the sky.  We met spider monkeys in the trees.  We ate freshly picked bananas, guava, papaya, and passion fruit.  We ate avocados that were so big they looked comical to us.  We learned to travel in groups for safety at night.  We learned why every home had a wall around it along with other protective measures.  We learned to live without some things we thought we couldn't do without...like TV.

It was good to go there and good to get home.

<^..^> Lori