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!

September and October 2009

Vitor playing Jenga during our picnic after SS to be able to get to know the new pastor. And now that I am posting the fact of a new pastor it dawned on me that it might be good to have a picture of the new pastor! OOPS! I will have to do that shortly.



Some of the ladies in our church dressed up with hats as it was the theme for the annual ladies get together from various churches. (Francisca, Aline, Marcia, and Luciana)

Children's Day is a holiday here in Brazil so we had a special day for them during our Sunday School time.

I dressed up as an ant and used the ant as a spiritual ilustration. Here are some of the famous brigadeiros that maybe you remember eating at your church in the form of an ant. No matter what the form, they are delicious.

This huge anteater that we were able to borrow from the zoo would agree with me, too. But his perspective would be different. He would say that ants no matter what flavor are delicious! :)

We did a SS trip to a Chocolate Farm because Andrew and Ana Shae are soon heading back to the States. (Andrew, Ana, Caio, and peacock)

A picture taken during our SS time in thanks to the team that came down to paint our church right before the induction service of our national pastor (who I need to get a picture of! :)

Jordan's birthday party.
We were sad to see Shawn and his family go, but thankful for how the Lord used them at Hope Baptist Church, and we are looking forward to working with them again in the next church plant.

This picture right here has nothing to do with ministry, but is a reminder of how your prayers are important on a daily basis. When we go through trials we remember to pray, but prayer on a normal basis is important.

I wasn't paying attention as much as I should have been, an orange cone like this appeared directly in front of me. I tried to swerve to miss the cone, but the front left wheel grabbed the curb and van went up on the curb. I tried to brake and keep one wheel on the tar as we balanced on the curb for quite awhile as I fearfully noticed the tilting embankment, also remembering that Sabrina was on that side of the van in her carseat. Eventually, I couldnt hold the van on the road any longer, but fortunately the van had slowed enough and came to a rest as you see it now.
How the van did not tip over after hitting the curb at 70 miles an hour was an amazement and a testimony to all those that witnessed it. We passed Sabrina through the window to a man that stopped still fearful that maybe the van would tip over as we got out. That man told us that as soon as he saw us hit the curb, he said to his wife, they are going to tip over. God's hand made sure that it didn't! We are appreciative of your prayers everyday!

July and August 2009

VBS-"Whiter than Snow"
Our snowman and tree painted with snow and cottonballs and dangling snowflakes from the ceiling helped make it more of a believable winter wonderland!

One thing that was really neat was to see the VBS basically being run by the people of our church without our help

My cameras was stolen right before our mission's trip, so no cool pictures from Diamantina, but we were able to reenact the play we did for VBS in Diamantina in our own church as we came back and reported the many blessings during our trip.
Carlao and Marcia. No special activity, just another member of our church inviting some people over for lunch. Fellowshipping one with another.

Hanna, one of the missionary kids, came back for a visit from college. (Joice, Hanna, Abigail)
Caio, one of my wife's SS students, turned 5 years old!
Donna has helped out a lot of the people in the area of music and piano. We will miss her when they go back to the States. Here is Adrielle learning to play the piano. Her sister already plays during our services, maybe someday Adrielle will do the same!

May and June 2009

MOTHER'S DAY BANQUET
Mother's day was a little bit more special this year for me since my mom was able to come down to visit us with my father. But it was more of a visit as a grandmother! than a mother. :) Mariana, Mariana 2, Abigail, Tatiane, my mother, Natali, and Lais

We had a special Sunday School Mission's Competition. The ones who won went on a trip to Santos to visit an aquarium. (Abigail, Joice, Dani)

Felipe and Rodolfo. Rodolfo didn't win in the competion, but he is studying in Santos so we were able to encourage and visit him while we there.

Dani and I with Santos in the backdrop.

On Brazil's equivalent of Valentines Day, we did a banquet with two of our churches where the couples were supposed to come dressed up as certain famous duos. They did an excellent job with their costumes and our special speaker that evening eventually in the months to come became the pastor of our church! :) (Lili and Silvio disguised as Mario and his princess)
Pastor Shawn and Donna, our co-workers, as ...... well, I think the picture already lets you know. Definitely, a classic couple.
You won't know who this couple (Nuvia and Marcio) represent, but any Brazilian seeing this couple with one holding a teacup and the other with flowers instantly knows them of a famous couple on an old TV show called "Chaves".

Marcia and Carlao disguised as Cinderella and the Prince. Marcia made this dress especially for that evening, and Carlao shaved off his beard! :)

Sidenote: Somehow Dani and I got stuck with being Donald Duck and Daisy, and since I am the one responsible for putting the pictures on this site, I decided to leave that picture out! :)
Can't forget the teenagers. Well, this was not a Valentines Banquet but late on we had a special night for our college age group.