March and April

Not Adriele's usual dress for SS, but we are in the middle of a SS campaign with two competing teams. Adriele is a part of the clown fish team (aka nemo). They are currently winning.
Our youth rally at our church.

Krista along with other teens painting the map of the world.

The green that Krista picked out came out very nicely... especially compared to....

....the pale blue that was peeling off and also ruined by us putting in a new door in the room.

Some of the children and teens presenting a special music number as Faith Baptist Church celebrates one year.

Three of the teens that wanted a picture taken after the service.

Dani and I celebrated our 5th year anniversary by going to a nearby tourist town for a couple of days. Here is one of the beautiful sights in the mountains.

Yes, Sabrina went with us! No grandma nearby to take care of her! One is 5 hours away, and the other one is a whole country away.

The tourist town called Campos do Jordão had various things that reminded us of Gramado where we spent our honeymoon including these hortensias.

The newly painted front of the church along with the stainless steel letters as our sign gave an extra professional look to our church.We were also able to put up a marble table in our foyer.

January and February

February Carnival Retreat

I didnt have a lot of time for taking pictures but here were some pictures of dressing up as different characters on the third night of the camp

Two of the counselors won third prize dressing up as some well known character of a TV show called "Chaves"

Tatiane and Abigail (two teen girls from our church)

Paulinho and Vitor

Barry Webb an evangelist came down to Brazil and was a blessing to our church as well as other places that he ministered to. You can see one of his many talents with his chalk drawing.

It is already hard to translate in another language. Imagine trying to translate a ventriloquist in another language as he uses puppets! :)

We were able to have a getaway (kind of the meaning for the word retreat) retreat for the pastors and their family. Just spending time with the family. I am looking too big for the swing and Sabrina is looking too small for the swing! :)
Sabrina was both fascinated and scared of the somewhat loud turkeys.

We enjoy special times when teens just decide to stop by and visit us at our house like Paulinho sitting with Sabrina.

November and December 2009

A group shot of the visitors on Seminary Day where we took a group of teens from our church.
Making Christmas cookies for the teen activity.

Ivone and Renata (pastor's wife) at the Ladies Christmas Party

Nuvia and Aline at the Christmas Party
Some of the ladies at the Christmas Party

Cauane and Enzo


Rafaela (our church) and Tiago (Calavary Baptist) are a dating couple that took part in our Christmas party.
Two of our younger teens in our youth. Washington and Marcinho at the teen activity.

Abigail and Krista. Krista is a girl that is visiting from the US. I used to be her elementary school teacher when she was in first grade!
Caio has the letter R representing one of the letters that his family pledged to buy for our sign out front which will spell out Igreja Batista Esperança.
Isis with the letter A. (Her middle name is Aline, thus the choice of "A")
"P" for Paulinho and also the third letter in Esperança.
Graduationg ceremony at our church.

Mateus, Ariel, Vitor, Isis, Guilherme, Lucas, and Binho.

Dani and I were able to be a part of an orphanage visit with another church called Igreja da Fé. The kids (who come from needy homes themselves) brought gifts for the kids.
In their presentation, they sang and did a simple presentation of the nativity scene. They did an excellent job.
We had 7 new visitors that came walking up to our church, but they were too "chicken" to come in! Sorry, guys, just couldn't resist.
Abigail, Joice, and Ana are three girls that have befriended our new visitor, Krista.
Our Christmas cantata which included a small kid's choir for a special number was presented in four different churches in Sorocaba.
Pastor Wendel (my first official picture of our new Brazilian pastor!) :)
We were able to take a trip on New Years Day to another city about 4 hours away to visit a former pastor of our church. This is a part of the group that we took, a few people are missing in the picture. Paulinho, Sabrina, Dani, Joice, David, a visitor from Pr. Wendels former church, Abigail, and Krista.
Pastor Celso who loves horses and the country took us to a farm on a dirt road for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then we had to walk a half an hour to get there, and then nobody was home! But Pr. Celso rounded up some horses anyway and teens took turn riding two different horses.

No nicely paved path to make it to the watefall here in Brazil! :)

But definitely worth the hike!