First Days

Ron

Hi everyone,

As Linda, told you we arrived safely Thursday morning about 5:10 AM with everything except Luke and Josiah’ carryon bags that they had to check. Immigration and customs went very smoothly. Al was a little late but showed just after Julia and I had managed to purchase a phone card.

Devan made a quick recovery but seems to be allergic to the mold in the buildings. He has been wearing a dust mask and that seems to take care of the problem. Josiah was sick last night but I hope he was just tired and a little dehydrated. Please continue to pray for our health.

Linda told of the drive up and I got to ride in the same car with Ricardo. He has a burden for the people of Brazil and wants to see them turn from the “statues” of Catholicism. He also wants to better his English so we taught each other on our drive.

Crystel they are feeding us very well here and we are abliging by eating very well. The fruit is great and lots of it the bananas have so much flavor nothing that we will ever get at home. They have their own fruit trees here at the retreat banana, lime, tangerine, orange, bananas, mango and papaya. Yesterday we were treated to Al’s Brazilian BBQ and we just gorged ourselves, we probably won’t lose too much weight here.

Linda: We are making much progress on the 3^rd floor of the retreat center but have been hindered some by the “competition” by the Brazilian workers for some of the rooms. The rooms are normal height the side facing out onto the balcony but some slant up to twice that high on the back wall (some have flat ceilings); with two rows of rooms back to back. In the upper part of some of the rooms they are making a loft area that will eventually be an observation deck, which will be used as a classroom and also extra sleeping for kids when they have large retreats. Guess the loft was in the original plans, then scrapped and now added back in; therefore the Brazilian workers are knocking holes in the brick and mortar walls of some of the higher walls for doorways. Seems like just when we get a room or hallway cleaned and ready to paint that is the exact area they were ready to knock the next doorway in. Or, we will get one coat of paint on and then they are ready to knock a hole in that room. The broken brick and mortar has to bucketed and then lowered by rope bucketful by bucketful to the ground. Kaycee has done much of the brick and mortar clean up and carried many heavy buckets to Morgan who does the lowering. We are working hard but also having lots of fun. Alisa had 13 kids for her Bible time yesterday morning and there was a nice size group at the retreat center for an evening service last night but I will let others share about those.

Mom, I am still alive. *Carinna*

Donna: Yesterday we had two opportunities for interaction with the Brazilian people. Kids came in the morning for a Saturday lesson taught by Alisa. We did the puppet skit and then tied balloons for them. It gave us a chance to connect with some of the kids despite the language barrier. Alisa did lots of translating for us. Then last night was church here at the retreat. Little Lahana sat with me and held my hand through the whole service. After the service some played football with the kids and others Frisbee. I’ve been able to identify a couple of birds here, they are so beautiful. I don’t have much time for birding, and this morning when I did have the time it poured rain, so I did my birding from the balcony. There is lots of work to be done here on the building, and someday when it is done it will be a very sweet retreat center. We worked hard yesterday but it seems like we didn’t get much done. Hopefully Monday we will make more progress. My allergies are doing better, Lee and I sleep outside on the balcony.

Lee: Things are moving along on the project. The painting process is real slow because of the different (and very labor intensive) way of doing things here. Back home things are pretty standardized(same size walls, same primers, paints, etc. But here it is kind of doing whatever works. Every door is a different width, different ways of painting and finishing walls etc. The crew is working real hard and I think all are feeling the wear from that work, but it is going great. We have Ron and a crew working on cleaning and prep for the wood flooring so that when we get a room painted we can start installing the flooring. The painters are in different stages of the 5 coats of paint.

Scott: Brazil is a crazy place! Just being here makes you crazy. For example, after dipping her paintbrush in the paint can and placing the paintbrush on the wall, Linda realized she had not taken the plastic cover off of her paintbrush. But I am proud to say I have not yet had to use the shock collar on her.

Kaycee: Things here are really great, if you don’t mind fearing for your life every time you get into a vehicle. I don’t think I have ever seen such bad drivers in my life. People here cross the road like they are in a Frogger game, and I, having never won a Frogger game in my life, decided that I would not be crossing the road by myself. Besides the bad driving though I have been enjoying myself. The weather is really warm and humid, kind of like a sauna, which I have been enjoying immensely. The people here are really friendly, and despite the language barrier, we are able to communicate through actions and Al’s translations. Yesterday the children came up in the afternoon for their Bible study and we did our puppet show and balloon animals, which were loved by the children. It was very rewarding to see all of the children enjoying our company. The wildlife here is also amazing. There are all types of different birds, bugs, moths, toads, frogs, and of course wild hamsters. I have yet to see one of these acclaimed wild hamsters but Al assures me they exist.

Devan: I’m feeling great now. 1^st day here I got sick. Then the next day I felt good again. I have been wearing a dust mask because some thing down here I’m allergic to. It’s a lot of fun down here and Al is just a great guy. I hope I make it home at this rate of sickness and allergies I will most likely die in a week. Pastor Roger if I don’t come home I’ll see you in heaven and we will have a talk.

Kris: I am so blessed to be here and the thought of leaving is just too hard to even think about. I made friends with a little boy yesterday at Alyssa’s children’s Bible study yesterday. While we were making the balloon animals, I noticed he was the class clown. His name is Carlos and he and I hit it off. We had a great time and I had Alyssa translate telling him I had 4 boys so I was going to watch him!! Last nite I played Frisbee with several other little boys and they had so much fun. I really think I could live here, but I will have to rid our room of the resident bat first! He made his first personal appearance this morning, but he leaves us evidence of his presence every evening. The work is hard, lots of blisters forming and sore muscles. My back is not too bad, just stiff. Crystel and I are on the same team and our job the first day was taping up the windows and doors for paint. Yesterday, we painted and the paint is like marshmallow cream. Very hard to work with. Elliott was our first casualty as he fell 10 feet the first day from the top of one room into the bathroom below. He is ok just skinned up a little , Scott almost came down from the ceiling too, but caught himself before he fell. We decided they both need to keep both feet on the ground.

Well I will sign off for now. We are going into Pacoti this morning to the open market if we can ever get Elliott out of bed!!!!

Ron:

Hope you enjoyed these notes from the team,at the bottom of the page I have added a slide show of some pictures of the first few days.

Enjoy,

Ron for Brazil 2010