Joel and Charlotte’s Weblog

I have read many books about missionaries of long ago; Lottie Moon, Amy Carmichael, Adoniram Judson and The Elliots and Saints to name a few. They suffered through various trials. One of them that they all have in common was leaving their family behind in order to serve the Lord in a foreign land.  When I felt God’s call on my life as a teenager, I remember reading those missionary stories from a different perspective. I read them thinking about what life might be like living without close contact with my friends and family in the US. I was once told by a man that God does not require us to make any sacrifices to serve him.  I thought “yes He does” I will be leaving my family that I am close to. Also, I  will be taking my children away from their  grand-parents.

BUT, we live in the 21^st century and technology is wonderful.  When Abigail ate her first baby cereal in April, we were able to go online and talk with all of her grandparents while she ate her cereal. Even though they are far away they were able to watch her take her first bites of food.   We have also joined Charlotte’s family for Christmas and Easter get-togethers via skype video.

Another 21^st century blessing is international mail. We were blessed with a package from our church in Tennessee.  Abigail has a booster seat/high chair to sit in at the table and Joshua has a new booster seat for the car.  God is Amazing!

We have been in Belém for 9 months today.  It is hard to believe that we have been here that long.  We have enjoyed the “winter”, raining season and are getting ready for returning to the hot “summer” season.  The girls only have 4 weeks left  to complete their first year attending school. Over all is has been a great 9 months.

Sorry I have not posted much lately.  Life has been pretty busy.  Joel is gone this weekend with Rachel on the annual Jr. High Retreat to the beach (about 3 hours from Belém).   We have been busy with the children and with language learning. 

Starting Monday Joel and I will be returning to the school for classes after having classes at home since the birth of Abigail.  Joel and I will be in separate “classes”.  Since we will be in classes by ourselves it is more like a tutoring than a classroom setting.  There is one other IMB couple that are also taking classes at the same school. Since all 4 of us are at different levels, we are each with different teachers.

Thanks for your prayers for our family.

Sarah is doing much better.  She went to school on Tuesday and although she came home tired she had a good day at school.  Please pray that she can get over her cough quickly. 

Joel and I completed our language evaluations on Saturday.  We already know that they want to split our class.  So very soon we will be returning to the school in downtown for our classes.  They will allow me to take Abigail to class. 

Rachel and Rebekah’s play went very good on Friday night.  They did a great job.  We were very proud to be the parents of two of the three main characters.  They both spoke very slowly and clearly.  The message was shared and now we are praying that it impacts the lives of those who heard during the two performances.

Now Sarah is doing good but this morning,  Joshua has started running a fever.  Please pray that he gets well soon.  After a long weekend, Joel and I will start back to classes on Wednesday.

Please pray for Sarah. Joel took her to the doctor yesterday and she has pneumonia.  This is the second time she has had it in two years.  There is a holiday on Monday so that will give Sarah an extra day of rest this weekend.  Please pray that she will rest and heal. Next week the school will have standardized testing so she needs to be able to attend all week.

This morning Rachel and Rebekah will be performing their school play “Old Clothes, New Lie”. They will also perform it at 7:30 tonight.  Rebekah’s character will be sharing the plan of salvation.  Please pray for Rachel and Rebekah because many of the parents that will come to the play this evening are not Christians.

Tomorrow morning, Joel and I will be evaluated by the Language School in Campinas (this is where most IMB missionaries go to for Language School). We will be given an oral evaluation.  Please pray that we use the language correctly and can show all that we have learned. Pray that the evaluator will get a good picture of where we truly are in our language learning process.

We had planned to spend the day at the beach on Monday but since Sarah is sick we may just stay at home to help her get healed.

 Sometimes when living in a developing country, just living life can present unusual challenges.  It is during these times that I like to reflect on the small victories of life so that I can keep plugging away.  As a reminder to me, I wanted to share a few of my small victories in life.

 Charlotte and I have been losing weight, on purpose.  I have recently reached a benchmark goal of mine - 100 kg.  (220 lbs for those of you who have scales in pounds).  My ultimate goal is to reach the 90 kg mark (about 198 lbs), which would put me within the “normal” range for the Body Mass Index (BMI).  To see where you fit in, check out http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm and let it do your calculations for you.  One of the reasons for continued weight loss, I believe, is a change in eating habits.  To understand how one eats in Brazil, see Trevin’s blog on snacking vs eating at www.trevinwax.com  and even though it is a different continent, the habits are very similar.  Basically, one large meal in the middle of the day, and a snack (usually of leftovers) in the afternoon and evening if one gets hungry.  Another reason for this victory, is exercise.  In my case, it is swimming.

The way I understand it, if you swim fast enough to stay away from the piranha, the crocodiles won’t bother you.  But of course, you would know that is a jest because the crocodile’s here are small and won’t bother you anyway.  But seriously, swimming is a very popular sport/exercise here in Belém.  I was very excited when I learned that pools were accessible.  I swim 2 to 3 times per week for my health, and I walk 1.3 km to and from the pool to burn extra calories in case I want a snack.  Besides the fact that I go swimming regularly, another victory was swimming more than 15oo meters in an hour.  My best distance is now at 1600 meters in one hour.  I keep trying to tell my instructor that I could go further if we could do more freestyle, but he is there to give us a complete workout.  So I suppose the backstroke, breaststroke, and others will remain in the workout plan.  No matter how far I swim, it is always a good hour of heart building fun.

    My last small victory may seem a little strange, but I will share it anyway.  Cold showers. . . even though I have a choice.  Why do I consider this a victory?  Simply because this is a small step to better understanding brazilian culture.  Most Brazilians do not have heaters on there showers, even if they have enough money to do so.  As we eat, speak, and commute like those here in Brazil, I thought a good next step would be to learn to enjoy a cold shower.  And my understanding has increased.  I now understand how Brazilians can take 3 showers per day and still use less water per month than we do.