The week ahead

We are leaving today, Tuesday the 30th to attend our prayer retreat with the other IMB missionaries from Northern Brasil. We will be there until July 4th when we will return to Belem. Rachel and Rebekah are going to fly to Brasilia (the Capital of Brasil) for a MK camp with other IMB missionary kids.

Please pray for us as we travel and as Rachel and Rebekah are away from the family. Please pray that they Lord will use this time away to strengthen us and renew us as week continue to learn the language and develop our ministry.

Joshua’s Birthday

It is really hard to believe that Joshua is now 5 years old.  A lot of our friends said that when he was born (having three older sisters to mother him) that he would not walk or talk until he was 4.  But even though he is a little spoiled, he is not rotten.  He has turned out to walk and talk for himself.  For those who have not seen him lately, boy can he talk.

Joel and I had decided  that we were not going to have big birthdays this year for the kids but Joshua just did not understand it.  He started talking about his birthday, after he attended a party for a little boy from church.  So we decided that we would give him a birthday party.  He wanted the theme to be “Spiderman”.  We made this a family project.

In the process we discovered that Rachel is an excellent cake decorator.  I made two cakes and Rebekah made the icing and Rachel decorated the cake.

Rachel and Joshua and the SpiderMan cake before the birthday party.

Joshua also requested a smiley face cake.

Joshua had a great party.  A lot of our friends from church attended and some of our American friends were  also there.

These are three friends from his Sunday School Class at church.

Our Friends, Neighbors and church family that attended Joshua’s Party.

We gave Joshua a somewhat traditional Brazilian birthday party.  Complete with the traditional birthday foods of vatapá (a shrimp sauce that goes over rice) and a traditional rice and chicken dish.  We also had candies (dulces) and salty snacks (salgados).  We were thankful that our maid was available to help make all the special foods that we needed for  the special Birthday.  Joshua  and our maid have a very special relationship and we were glad that she could participate in the party.

Baptism at Nova Timboteua

Wow! May was such an exciting month! One of the highlights for our family was Rachel’s baptism. Rachel has been attending a new Christians class since January.  In March , our pastor came  to me (Charlotte) and told me that he wanted to Baptize Rachel at one of the missions of our church (Nova Timboteua pronounced “NO-va  cheem-bo-TAYU-a).  This new work has been started in the last year and a half and they had 18 members that were ready to be baptized.  He later asked Joel if he would help with the baptisms also.

We started out the day meeting our group at the church at 6:00am.  Then we had a two hour drive from Belém to the community of Nova Timboteua.  The community was much larger than we expected.  The mission that our church started is the only baptist work in the town.

Here is the front of the mission building.

We ate a light breakfast and then Rachel and her friend Nathalie each shared their testimony in Portuguese.

Then we all got in cars and the large bus that the church had chartered and went to the creek/pool.  We went a good way on a couple of rough roads to this creek and the pool that was built to make the water deep enough to bathe in.

This was a new experience seeing 21 people baptized at the same time.  They started out with three of the pastors baptizing their own daughters.  So each one of them individually baptized their daughter (Our pastor baptized the daughter of the seminary student that is leading the work here in Nova Timboteua)

Here are the baptismal candidates and pastors and missionaries getting into the water.

Rachel and Joel just before Rachel was Baptized.  Between each of the first four baptisms we sang one stanza of a Hymn.  This was proving to be a slow process.   After the first “set,” the candidates were baptized 4 at a time, one per pastor.

This was such a joyous occasion.  We are certainly blessed to have been apart of this memorable event in the life of this new church and in the life of our oldest daughter.

To see more pictures of this day you can follow this link to our drop shots page. http://www.dropshots.com/joelcharlotte#date/2009-05-23/05:50:12

Sunday Morning Fun!

The services at our church here are in some ways just like our church in the States.  But in some ways it is VERY different.  On Sunday morning we have Sunday School just like churches in the States.  It is somewhat informal though.  Most people wear slacks or jeans very few women wear dresses.   After Sunday school we have a very informal service.  Sometimes the Pastor reviews what was taught in the Sunday School classes and sometimes the children will perform a song or a class or group will have some type of presentation or one of the Sunday School teachers will review the lesson.  Then on the third Sundays we have a business meeting.  During all these times we have a few praise and worship songs or hymns that we sing.

But this Sunday was something totally different!  We came in as always, sang a few songs and had a few announcements just like any other Sunday, and then it began.  We had a Bible Quiz. The left side of the church against the right side of the church.  There were people of all ages on both sides. The music minister had a game board all set up (similar to the one below that was used for the Easter Retreat).  As someone answered the question a circle on the projection screen was marked.

They made Joel move to the other side because there was already one “pastor” on our side and the other side did not have one.  Brazilians are very competitive.  (I mentioned this in the Easter Retreat post).  It was very interesting.  The girls and I were sitting in the back observing everyone.  One lady left because she said that the “pastors” were answering all the questions.  Another Brazilian missionary came in after we started and he sat down by Joel so then there were two missionaries on the other team.  This lady thought that this was not fair so she left. We laughed as we imagined First Baptist Shelbyville having such a competition on Sunday morning after Sunday School.

I tried to take a picture but my memory on my phone was full. If the team answered correctly they all jumped up and cheered.  There was complaints from the other team about one thing or another. We found this to be somewhat entertaining.  In the end the side the girls and I  were on won after a tie breaking Pictionary/Charades competition.

Easter Retreat

This last Friday our family went with our church on a retreat. This was an interesting experience for us. We had some really good praise and worship time.  Our friend Baia was the preacher for the weekend. He speaks very clearly and slowly and is easy to listen to and understand.  It was a blessing having him share with us each night.

They even blessed us during the recreation time by playing music in English one day.  Rachel, Rebekah and Sarah  had some really good times in the pool where they were forced to speak Portuguese. Joshua made friends with many of the teens and young adult (jovens) girls.  Abigail was spoiled and loved on everyone.

Some of the unusual events were as follows.

• We had one room in which to sleep. So many of us slept in hammocks on the porch.
• We had to bring our own plates, cups and silverware to use at each meal and then we had to wash them after we ate.
• This was a retreat that was mainly for Youth and young adults (jovens). Joel teaches once a month is the young adults (like our college and career in the states) and Rachel and Rebekah are in the youth class. But people of all ages were there.
• A member of our church paid for the soccer field to be cut (by a man with a weedeater) after we arrived so that we could play on the field.
• Our pastor shared that the reason that Brazilian Baptists don´t celebrate Easter is because it is a Catholic holiday and that it is not the “real” Easter. This has given us something to think about, but we did celebrate Easter at our house.
• Brazilians love competition between girls and boys.  They really take it seriously.  In the end after three days of competitions the guys won and boy did they celebrate.

Over all we had a really good time. We enjoyed being with our church family.