The building that was the orphanage is a day care center now. We met with the Mayor of Delta and the Directors and Culture and Education. We expressed our commitment to help them shape the children of Delta and try to work together to affect a generation of citizens there. The mayor is a Christian and really supports Pastor Marcos and his efforts. We had some great pictures for you, but our camera was stolen at the mechanic shop where our radiator was fixed. Thankfully we have a backup camera, which we used at the Christmas outreach.
Our Christmas was definitely different this year! We traveled 5 hours to Pouso Alegre to help out with a children’s outreach. Silvana is a Brasilian woman who is a TRUE missionary, bringing Christ’s hope to hundreds of children in the city who live in poor areas and are easily caught up in the hardships of life here, including drugs and violence. She asked a school in the city, which is known for its high violence, to give her the names of the poorest children attending there. She sent them all invitations to come to the school on Christmas morning where we broke them up into groups according to their ages and told them about Christ.
It was our plan to tag on to another missionary who speaks fluent Portuguese or to join with a Brasilian, but Silvana, who speaks English grabbed me (Jennifer) to take the 10 and 11 year old girls and tell them about Jesus by myself. She said it would build my confidence with the language and that they would be very quiet when I spoke because I’m a foreigner! So I did it. Thankfully we had material to work with and the girls didn’t mind reading aloud some. I did call Floyd over, another IMB missionary to help me with some translation because I didn’t want the importance of what Jesus did for us to get lost in my simple Portuguese.
After the story, the children were given a good Brazilian lunch of beans and rice and chicken. They even were given a piece of cake, which was a real treat! In one of the photos you can see Nathan helping the ladies serve the food. He was such a big helper! There was a gift for each child and some bigger gifts were given to some of the children in a drawing. One way we saw how God works even in the tiny details, was when a young girl’s name was drawn and she got a beautiful pair of purple shoes. The shirt she was wearing that day happened to be purple and they matched perfectly. You could see how pleased she was with the special gift. I included the picture.
Christmas night we had an American meal at Monty and Janis Thompson’s house, where we stayed while in Pouso Alegre. Floyd and Sylvia Wingo and their two girls, other IMB missionaries working in Pouso Alegre joined us, along with Sylvana and her husband, who is a pastor, Joao (John). The food was AMAZING and it was a huge treat to want to eat until we were stuffed!! Janis even made yeast rolls. This made Jon very happy. He IS from Down East, you know. All in all it was a really meaningful way to spend Christmas.
We have had some real challenges with our car. We’ve had many things break and just when we think not another thing could go wrong, it does. We are thankful to have managed to stay safe through them all. We have one more big trip coming up in the next month, when we have to travel to either Rio or Sao Paulo to get Josiah’s American birth certificate and passport. Please remember us in your prayers. I can’t tell you how important that is when we are traveling!
Jon is joining the Intercession team here on the base and we have another English seminar coming up. Carnival is in February and the base will be doing their annual ‘Impacto’, where they pray for people and evangelize during the activities. If you don’t know about Carnival in Brasil- google it. It’s quite an event. We’re also praying about how we can use basketball to reach kids and adults here in our own neighborhood.
We’re looking forward to an Upward camp in July in Uberaba and Delta. They are really excited about the camp and think it will be an exciting new idea for reaching Brasilians for Christ. We have a possible 3 locations we could hold camps if we have the numbers, but will scale down to 2 if not. Let’s have the biggest impact we can. Please be open to coming if you feel like God is leading you. You will never be the same. It’s a fantastic way to get out of your comfort zone and seek God in a whole new way.
It’s hard to believe that 2009 has reached its end. What a truly trying year for our family. Many extreme highs and extreme lows. I can see God’s miracles in each one.
*Nathan’s mysterious illness and 2 surgeries ended in a cure! Praise God!
*Mom (Alexis) told she had esophageal cancer, surgery proved it benign! Praise God!
*Arrival in Brasil, finally! Praise God!
*The birth of our son, Josiah Davis! Praise God!
*The death of my grandfather, John Brighton Schuyler- a big loss for our family. But he’s at home with Jesus, so we can still Praise God!
We celebrated Nathan’s 10th birthday on January 1st. We were hoping to take him to a local water park, but the rainy season is making it difficult. He was a little down and really misses his friends and family. I think the birthday made that more prominent. Please remember Alex and Nathan in your prayers.
We really want to be able to put the boys into a Christian School starting in February. This will cost us an added $400 per month. We are praying about how we can work this budget out. We feel that it will help them socially, and also improve their Portuguese. Also, it should help with them getting involved with a soccer team here. Two of the boys from our base go to the school and Nathan even visited on ‘friend’ day and really loved it.
We hope you all had a ‘Feliz Ano Novo’ (Happy New Year) and pray that you seek His kingdom first in 2010 and for all your years to come!
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