Who Is the Brazil 2010 Team?

The Brazil 2010 missions team is made up of 16 team members from Cambridge, Midvale, Council, Indian Valley, and Mann Creek Idaho. We have 10 adults and 6 teens and are sponsored by Cambridge Bible Church, an independent, non-denominational church located in Southwest Idaho.Our trip will be focused on helping a local missionary in Pacoti Brazil, near Fortaleza.
We will be assisting Al and Nadine Piecrschbacher, missionaries with Brazil Gospel Fellowship, as they build a Bible training center in the mountains near Pacoti. Our tasks will include painting, trim, and finish work, etc. We will also be involved in Sunday church services, providing music, puppet skits, balloon art and sports activities aimed at bringing the gospel message to the people of Brazil.

Friday, April 2, 2010

More pictures.












































































































































































Some pictures of the work.


















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































We are Back!!!

We are back in the states. We left Fortaleza about 9:30 last night and arrived back in Atlanta at arround 5:10 AM EST. Left there about 9:30 and arrived here in Seattle around 11:45 and are now killing time waiting for our flight to Boise at 5 PM. The trip went very smooth, but we do have several funny stories, some involving overzealous customs agents, Morgan in lingerie, and banana disposal. I will let the various ones fill in the details. Kaycee was feeling a little poorly this morning but is doing fine now.

Ron



I am sitting here in the Seattle airport just watching the people go by and observing what is happening with the team We are occupying 4 tables in the food court, waiting for the seats at our gate to open up. One table is full of card players, one with kids doing homework, one with Luke reading and our table we have Linda doing crossword puzzles and Ron and I and Crystel just sitting watching. We are all wondering if the weather will hold and let us get out of here on time. Lots of wind and rain. I don 't think any one wants to stay any longer then necessary. I have decided that night flying is not really that wonderful. I was sandwiched between Ron and Josiah so sleep was not that easy, but did manage to get a little in. Lee and Donna sacrificed their seats and sat in the back of the plane so Linda could have a row to herself and get some rest. She has done amazingly on this trip, but I think we pushed her limits the past couple of days. All for now for the team.

Kris

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Wednesday 3/31/2010

Linda: I haven’t written for several days for a number of very good reasons. The major one being that we work very, very hard and then we play even harder!!!! The result of all that hard stuff is I barely have enough energy at night to get myself ready for bed let alone write on a blog. Monday my job was to turn dirty, smelly laundry into fresh, clean clothes. The on-the-job hours were longer but it was MUCH easier on my feet and legs than crawling around on my knees all day at the “upper house”. I had 16 loads, 2 washers and 1 dryer and thankfully a sunny morning. It started raining just before lunch and was too humid to line dry anything after that. Put the last load into the dryer just before bedtime so didn’t finish my Monday job until Tuesday morning.
Yesterday afternoon we went to a privately owned zoo not too far from here. If I have the correct info it is the largest privately owned zoo in Brazil. There were lots of very beautiful birds. Julia and Kris got to hold a sloth, Scott and Morgan held a snake and several got to hold white cockatoos. I had decided I really should experience traveling in the back of the pickup at least once. Once was enough but I am glad I did it and the kids were proud of me but they really laughed at the hair do I wound up with!!!!
I have met my match in Josiah!!! He is sharp and quick!!
Today I did more laundry, but less than half of what I had to do on Monday. The last of the painting and LOTS of clean up was done at the “upper house” today. Once rooms were clean the boys hauled up bed frames and mattresses, preparing the rooms for the retreat that begins tomorrow evening. I think that is really cool that a large group is coming and getting to enjoy the fruit of our labors while it is still fresh and clean. The plan is that we are to leave for Fortaleza ‘early’ in the morning; which usually means 1 hour later than we were originally told. The plan is to go shopping and out to eat before going to the airport. Our flight leaves some where close to 9:30 p.m.
Please, please, please pray that there will be lots of empty seats on the airplane so that all who want to (me, for instance) can have 3 seats to themselves and get some sleep. We are all getting very tired!! It is a good tired though. Thank you for praying for us!!

Kris: I love following Linda in the blog because she tends to tell most of the story already and I don’t have to say quite so much. Tonight I am so tired I don’t really want to type too long or I may be asleep.
It is really sad that today is our last day, but I also know that we need to return to our world sometime. This has been a wonderful experience and one I hope I won’t forget. I really enjoy the Brazilian people and watching the kids. Yesterday, we spent some time in Pacoti and I really liked standing on the street and watching the traffic go by. School had just let out, so lots of kids and teens. The school bus went by and Kaycee waved at the kids in the bus and really made the day of one young Brazilian teenage guy. We thought it was pretty funny. This has been a real learning experience for these teens to understand how boring a 9-5 job can really be. It is good “real world” experience.
I can’t believe the progress we have made and that we actually accomplished as much as we did.
Everyone is really tired, and sore, but we haven’t had any big disagreements yet. That may change tonite as the girls and guys have been planning some pretty amazing pranks for tonight. It will be fun to see who wins this one. Pray for safety as we go home tomorrow, that planes will be on time, and we actually get some sleep. Love to all at home.
P.S. the sloth was really, really, really, cool.. It was like holding a little baby that wanted to hang on to everything. They are so soft and gentle. That was about the best thing I have ever done!!!!!!,
Devan: hey everything is great down here. I don’t want to leave, because it just so much fun down here. The people love us and Al is just a great guy. I really can’t wait to come back well see you all soon at home.

Julia, this is the first time I’ve written on here because it has always been so busy and everyone else was writing. But now with only a little time left I think it’s about time that I had something to say. This has been a really great trip. We have gotten everything done with the painting that was possible to get done. It has been very hard to work around all the other workers. Kris today painted a spot and then the one worker came over and smoothed some cement in that spot so she had to paint it again. What good times.
The flooring is all done to the point that we had planned. There was only beams and now there is a solid floor in 5 rooms and a hallway. It took us the whole 2 weeks. We finished the this morning with the last 2 boards and then spent the rest of the day cleaning yucky dirty bathrooms. They were really gross, but they are all finished and ready for the retreat that starts tomorrow. We leave tomorrow morning and will shop with all day and leave in the evening. I’m sad to leave and I’m going to miss having my meals made for me  but I’m ready to see Naddy and Seven and to be home in some comfort. I’m also not going to miss the constant wet. The humidity is sooooo high here that nothing ever dries and the sheets and mattress are damp all the time. Anyway, I really am happy with everything that has happened. The greatest part of the trip was getting to go to South America’s largest private zoo. It was the highlight for me, because I got to hold a sloth and I got to hold different kinds of birds, big and small, older and baby, and I got to hold a couple snacks and I got to sit on a llama.  It was so fun to go to a zoo that I got to touch the animals in. I praise the Lord for the blessing of coming here, it has been such a neat experience.

Donna: It is hard to believe our time is about done here. It has gone fast. It is amazing to have the job basically done, it didn’t seem possible last week. We are tired but satisfied. The retreat center is so big, and has many rooms. Seemed like I was discovering new rooms daily. I think we will be masking and painting in our dreams for a while! Yesterday’s excursion to the private zoo was fantastic. One main event for me personally was that I finally got to see a parakeet in the wild sitting still. There were also some macaws there in the wild which I don’t think we would have seen elsewhere. Our time in Picoti on the way back to the retreat center was interesting. The “traffic” is hard to believe. The roads are small and there seems to be no rules, zip this way and that, motorcycles passing wherever. While we were at the corner getting some meat on a stick from a vendor, we watched the traffic. Al was parked on one side, a bus was trying to get through, and a couple of motorcycles were impatient and going around the bus next to the vendor, while a guy on a bicycle tried to do the same and ran into the vendor’s bbq wagon. Meanwhile, a dog was laying in the middle of the street taking a nap and a guy on a motorcycle stopped, got off his bike and woke the dog up and got it moving. It is hard to describe the chaos, but it seemed like the locals took it all in stride. Today I had the privilege of spending time with Lohana. She is 10 years old. Alisa served as our interpreter while we had tea and made bracelets. We spent a couple of hours together, it was a good time building a relationship that I am hoping to continue. She comes from a broken family. She is so sweet and loving. It has been interesting and fun to try communicating with the local workers. Some warm up to us faster than others. It is a privilege to represent Jesus to them, and pray that they come to a saving knowledge of our Savior.

Lee: Well we made our last working day. We really got a lot more done than I had thought we would. The crews were staggered working on different phases of the painting process(doing 4 to 5 coats on everything). It took us 4 days before we finally were able to finish a room. Along with this the plaster men were working in various places and it seemed that when we got a room painted all of a sudden here would be a man coming along with a bucket of concrete making a mess of the paint. Some of the rooms we probably cleaned up a mess as many times as we painted. It has been a great experience. Today we finished all the walls inside and out, more than I ever thought we would get done.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Driving in Brazil

Yesterday, Sunday, was quite a day. We started with breakfast at 6:30 and then waited for our rides to Fortaleza. They were later than expected. We loaded up for the trip and took off. I was driving a little black VW Gol. (In the US we have the VW Golf but I think they are smaller here so they dropped the f.) Anyway, I had Julia, Luke, and Morgan in the back and Kris and I in the front. Al says the Brazilians drive fast and mad (angry), but I think they’re just trying to keep up with him cause he drives fast and mad (crazy)!!! So we were off to the races, with me trying to keep up with Al and not make Julia and Kris sick, impossible. To make matters worse, about 90 % of the cars here are about the same size and shape as the VW GOL and all shades of silver or black so picking Al’s GOL and mine from the rest can be a challenge. We also had intermittent heavy rain showers. Sometimes you would come to water running across the road. Going through you didn’t notice anything wrong until the wheels caught on the other side. During one of the particularly hard downpours Morgan decided he needed to add to it and got very desperate so we pulled over and fortunately there was plenty of tall grass to water. The rain had let up a little so he wasn’t totally soaked. A little farther along we came to a bridge that was limited to one lane of traffic. (As Roger would say more on that later.) There was less traffic on the road then when we came out, which I very much appreciated! When we got closer to Fortaleza we stopped for fuel. These VWs run on Natural Gas (not propane) which is stored in 2 tanks in the trunk under 6000 psi pressure. Sounds like we were driving a bomb. Driving in Fortaleza wasn’t too bad but I was glad I had driven for a few days in the mountains first. We went to Al and Nadine’s apartment and then left for the beach. After the beach we returned to the apartment to shower and get ready for church. Church was from about 6:30 till 8:15 then we headed back for Pacoti (said “paco che”) at 9:45. But there was a hitch, as we came out of church Al informed us that the bridge I mentioned earlier had collapsed and that we would have to take the back road. “It is shorter but not as good a road.” This turned out to be the understatement of the statement of the century. I have been thinking all morning trying to come up with a comparison to something at home but I can’t think of anything bad enough. It was just potholes connected by mud holes. As we left the church there was a huge Catholic church letting out at the same time. There was a traffic “fight” at the first intersection with no stop signs (Stop signs are only a suggestion in Brazil.) and we were on the minor street trying to turn left on to a main street (6 lanes). Al and the Guy I was following got across during a lull from a stoplight farther up the street. I kept edging farther into the street until I was blocking the first of 3 lanes. My passengers kept yelling to just go which would have put me right in front of a bus. We finally got across and into the traffic going our direction. Fortunately the Guy we were following was driving a white Chevy Bonanza (like a large Blazer) and we spotted him half a block ahead turning right onto another street. We managed to cross three lanes of traffic and make the turn 6 cars behind. We managed to keep him on sight till we stopped at a filling station on the edge of the city. We fueled up and got ice cream, snacks and drinks. I got a large Pepsi Twist (they don’t have Mt. Dew here) to help keep me awake, it turned out to be unnecessary cause the road was so “exciting”. We headed out and quickly had the windshield fogging up so we turned the a/c onto defrost which turned out to make it worse because it cooled the glass which made the humidity condense on the outside worse than ever. We finally just turned the a/c off. Soon the road deteriorated into something I can’t quite explain. We finally got back to Pacoti at about 12:30.

Driving here is interesting to say least. I have noticed that there are only 2 traffic laws that are obeyed here. One is stoplights although that one is iffy in the country cause when we stopped at one about 5 people passed us. In the city though most obeyed. The other is “Fiscalizacao Electronico” written on the road followed by a number. Which means in so many meters we are going to take your picture and if you’re speeding you will get a ticket in the mail. So you could be flying along at 110-130 kmph and then come down to 60 for the camera and then right back to twice the speed limit.


Well I will stop now and let someone else tell you about the Beach and church and stuff.

Tomorrow we are going to the largest private zoo in South America.

Ron for Brazil 2010

Friday, March 26, 2010

Friday 3/26/2010

Hi everyone, it’s Friday night!!

It’s been a long week. We have been working 8-9 hour days. We have made a lot of progress, both on the painting and the flooring. My team has been working on the flooring in the lofts of the third floor. Julia, Peg, And either Siah or Elliott have been on my team. We cleaned and cut the wood in the basement and then carried it up three flight of stairs and then lifted it into the loft. Here is something that will surprise Dad. We started working in room 201 which has a large window opening that looks clear down to the basement level (4 stories) and I was the only one that was not bothered by working in the rafters over that windows. We have 3 lofts done to the last few boards and have started the last 2 rooms today. I think we will finish this project in the next couple of days, which is a good thing cause we don’t have much more wood than that left. Both Julia and I have sore toes from missing the board when driving boards together. Mine is just a little discolored on the tip but Julia says hers is pointing a little to one side.

Painting has been moving along well and we are seeing that it just might be able to finish that project too. We changed types of paint and are able to spray more of it. Masking tape is in short supply and doesn’t always stick well in this humidity. The crew is tired but moral is high and you have to watch out for wandering paint rollers. I even ended up with roller marks and I’m not even on the paint team.

Tomorrow we are working till 11 then will help with Good News Club. After lunch we are going to go sightseeing but not sure just where yet. Sunday we will go to Fortaleza to the beach and the mall then attend church there.

Peg is the latest on the list of people to take a tour on Antonio’s motorcycle.

Today Donna and Kris did their puppet skit for the Brazilian workers during their break. They clapped and laughed a lot.

Ron

Peggy: Thursday morning started early (5:00 am). Al was gone so I got up to help with breakfast. All of a sudden there was this stomping going on like someone was doing an Irish jig then shhh, you are going to wake them up. When I got to the kitchen Nadine and Alisa were killing a swarm of flying ants that had invaded us during the night. We spent the next 10 min killing them before breakfast could be started. Have enjoyed working on the flooring with Ron’s crew. My title is head gopher which is very appropriate since my name in Portuguese means To Get  Elliot and Julia keep a lively conversation going. Josiah has joined us and I am extremely grateful for that as he has saved me many trips up and down the 64 stair steps from the basement to the third floor. Antonio has been giving motorcycle rides through the countryside so decided to take him up on the offer. Before we left Alisa translated for me my mission, pictures of cavolos (horses) and passaros (birds). I was not disappointed. Pray for the Lord to soften Antonio’s heart so he can know Him personally. Chow

Kaycee: Today was a long day... I masked and unmasked rooms for almost the whole day. I was very very thankful when Lee assigned me to another job at the end of the day! Several interesting things did happen in the workplace today though. While taping off the hallway, minding my own business, a crib, several metal cabinets, and about 10 doors fell down the stairs! It was loud and shook the whole building (Kris actually thought that we were having an earthquake and started to shout something about get in the tub!). Luckily no one was under the stuff and although it was loud no one was injured. Another kind of exciting thing that happened, I got to help clean out the tool room! It was like a really bad yard sale, the kind where most of the stuff you find is just plain junk but there are a few good treasurers! I found a sling shot, goofy sunglasses, and a Clint Eastwood movie in Portuguese! Tomorrow Al says that he has a surprise for us, wonder what that could be…

Lee: Things are going well. We have changed our plan for painting and instead of 5 coats total we are now down to 4 coats and 3 of them can be sprayed. Al got some new paint and we are straining it to keep from clogging up the sprayer. Everyone is working hard or seem to be when I am around anyway??? We went to a bible study at a home in town tonight. It was fun.

Linda: I was in waiting mode for awhile this morning (waiting to be able to do my assigned task -- putting a special finish on the top ledge of the tile ‘baseboard’ ). So, I was busy sweeping the big hallway on the 2nd floor (where the big crash took place later) and then wanting to put the switch and plug in covers back on. There was a large pile of covers on a work bench in the hall but no screws. I took a couple of the covers (minus screws) and went to 3rd floor where to get a cover with a screw in it. I was hoping to find the older gentleman who had caught the bird for Donna the day before. He seemed eager to please us and was gracious with us even after he had to halt his work for the umpthteen time for us to pass underneath his scaffolding. I couldn’t find him so tried to communicate with another guy. A very unsuccessful venture. I told him abridgada (thank you) and went again in search of the older gentleman. I found him coming up the stairs with a bucket of plaster on his shoulder. I motioned for him to follow me and he dutifully obeyed. He understood what I was wanting and went to Kaycee’s bad yard sale area and began searching for screws. Then I noticed that whoever had taken the covers off and put the screws back into their hole, so I had to go tap him on the shoulder and motion for him to follow me again to show him that I had found the screws. I am always excited when I have tried and succeeded in communicating with a local. Thanks for praying for us!!

Donna: It is late and past bedtime, and exhaustion has set in. But a good kind of exhaustion. One highlight of the day was this morning when Kris and I “practiced” our puppet skit conveniently in front of the local workers (only 2 of them are believers). They enjoyed it, clapped and laughed, so we felt it went well. Another highlight was that my little friend Lohana came. We all went to a bible study tonight. She sat next to me holding my hand and hugging the whole time. Then afterwards we went outside and played hide-n-seek in the dark. She is such a sweetie. Last night one of the workers came to me and said something, and I have no idea what it was. He walked away and I turned and told Kris, I don’t know what he said but it sounded like he asked me out to lunch! Much to my horror, he turned around, came back, pointed to his watch, shook his head no and said lunch, meaning it was not time for lunch! Who knows what was really communicated but Kris and I got quite a laugh out of it once I got over the embarrassment. Communicating is quite challenging, but we do our best, and mostly just try to let them know we care. Good night friends and family, 5:30 will come early.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

3/25/2010

I think the Brazillian workers are finally getting more used to us and we try to comunicate with them. Today, Carinna either was asked if she liked one of the workers music, or if she wanted to thow up on his radio. We are'nt sure which it was, but her answer was yes!!!! Also we had a new casuality on the team today. Linda had to sacrifice her pantihose to be used as a paint filter. Her comment was "If the Lord has need of them, I will gladly give them up'" They were greatly appreciated by the paint crew as we are trying to get the paint to go through the sprayer and save some time.

Donna is waiting to get on so I better go. I am very tired and pretty sore. Time for bed!!
Kris