Couple's meeting March 8th

Here we are again, discussing with couples about how to communicate. This was our first couples meeting of 2008. I think we were the ones who learned the most! The topic of the meeting was comunication! So we started with an practical example: have you ever played wireless phone as a child? That's what we did as adults, and we were terrible, everytime we pass on a message we change words and consequently the meaning!
We shared experiences and ideas based on the Bible! e.g.: 1 Peter 3:7, Ephesians 4:26-27 and 29-30, Proverbs 18.2, and Ephisians 4:15 and 25 .
We had a great time chatting about these topics, then we had a meal and spent some time together! It is a great pleasure to open my apartment for God's purpose, everybody seemed to be comfortable and felt home. I love the home environment!
Above you can see Regis and Conceição Signoretti (left couch), they're moving to their new house soon, and they offered to open it and inaugurate in the next couple's meeting. It is a way to thank God for this new acomplishment of their lives! Next couple's meeting will be on April 26th!

Please pray for this ministry, Matt and I felt discouraged during the week of the meeting, I almost gave up this ministry, but thanks to my husband and the joy of people from the team of Viamão bringing me words of wisdom I kept on. I thank God sending "Angels" to keep me standing!
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephisians 4.29

More plans for 2008!!!

Yes, that`s right! I'm starting a newspaper for the church, I don't know when it is going to be ready, but I have good intentions to unite our ideas. I want to include a message (from my husband, of course!!!), what's going on in the house churches, social projects, classifieds, personnals, comics, sudoku, interview of members of the church, praye, and things like that! I don't have much experience, so Juaneila and Mark White from the team of Viamao are helping me, they're good friends, and they are always there for me! :) If you have any suggestions I would be glad to know, any help is welcome! I just don't know how I find time to do these things...:) It might be God providing everything I need to serve and glorify him!

This is Luzia! She comes to our house church! She has just adopted Mateus. This is a picture of her getting a blessing for her son. He is her first son, he is two years old, just a cute little boy, but very active! :) As we don't have any children in our house church, except for Joca, Clarice's and Joao's son (they're our best friends that Matt talks about on his blog). Their son goes to the Blumes house church because he would be the only child here. So in order to keep these families coming to my house, I decided to have a children`s worship in another room in my house, so while Matt leads the adult group, I could be with the children telling stories while playing with them. What I remember most about my childhood in the Lutheran church was my time at the children's worship where my mom was the teacher; it was a really meaningful experience for me, and I want to pass this on to the children in our church. I see how God has given this fruit in my life; because of this Christian base in my life I accepeted to take the challenge to marry a Christian minister. Therefore, I would like you to pray for me, it is difficult for me to find time and the necessary help for that, I hope God can send me the right person. I will need to search for appropriate material to start. Right now, I have Mateus, 2 years old and Joca 8 years old . That will be a big challenge as children are much smarter nowadays thanks to the technology.

Brazilian Carnaval

This is the Carnaval we know in Brazil! People love to dance in parades, have fun and just enjoy!
That's our tradition! It's part of our culture. Brazilian carnaval is known worldwide for this national party! These images represent what come to our minds when we think about Carnaval. This is what Carnaval is like in Brazil! Funny, huh?

Instead of falling into this temptation, during Carnaval our church spent two days on a mission work, we served others! As you know, the Salgado family has just moved to a new town called Cachoeirinha, part of the suburbs of Porto Alegre. Actually we are not sad for this. Now we have a new house church in Cachoeirinha. But in order to call people's attention to go to this house, we took the opportunity to paint the public day care for the children of the community, this way we could integrate the community and talk about the Salgado family house church. Unfortunately we did not have many people interested in us, at first. But we have surely planted a seed in that community. Check the pictures:

Paul Morrow
The Blumes
I was working in the kitchen! That's a good support!( Mom, I'm wearing the apron you sewed for me!) Painting is not my talent to serve! I prepared cookies, cakes, coffee, etc... As a way to keep everybody well fed while working!

Sascha Terry
Ines! She comes to our house church!
Joao Spencer, our dear friend!









The Blumes kids!
Rute Salgado! She's our hope!









My husband is sooo cute when he's working! :)
I love these girls! Ansley Blume helped me with the cookies!
The kids were taking a break!

This is Paulo Renato, a true servant of God!

Together we can do wonders in the name of God! It was really worthy to trade Carnaval for this! Now it is time for some rest and relaxation!

happy Carnaval!

My Personnal Connections!

Hi, here I am in Camaqua, where my sister and her family live. I was there on February 1st to honor her. She is an accountant and she was sworn in as the new Secretary of Culture of Camaqua (a city with 60.000 people. We had a ceremony where the mayor and my sister gave a speech. It was nice to be there. I'm very proud of her! I am a person who values the family ties! :)
I hope to use this connection in favor of our missionary work, through campaigns, cultural events, etc. Now with this house church model the gospel has no limits!

Carlota is giving an interview to the radio!

She is like Evita Peron, everywhere she goes in Camaqua, she is recognized, and everywhere Matt and I go there, we say we are related to Carlota, it is amazing how people treat us better because of this! hehe!

Thank you for the Bibles!

First, I would like to thank for the bibles, especially to Jeremy and Erin Bodager, and all of those who offered to help me in this ministry. I hope we can make a different in people's lives. I have already given bibles to two of my students and the reaction was pretty good. I will help them to read and clarify English questions about the grammar and structure, and of course we can talk about the content! :) For the other students, I will wait for an opportunity to give it, when they open up about their lives, a birthday, or at Christmas. I want to feel the soil first. Pray that God will bless me with this and that I will know the most appropriate time to give the bibles! I will continue updating to you new pictures of my students.

I accept suggestion, too!

May 2008 be the year of planting the seeds! :) Happy 2008!

My family vacation

For a wife, especially when you are a foreigner, one of the most important things is to get along with your in-laws. In my case, I don't have to make any efforts for that. I have loved them all since the first time I was introduced to them. I really feel I am a part of this wonderful family, they are all very sweet and intelligent people ( I'm surprised they liked me!) With them I don't feel just welcome, I feel accepted! And I say the same for the North Beckley Church of Christ where I found a cozy environment and very nice people!

Now, enjoy the pictures!

This is Virginia, our good friend!

This is Ruth, she enjoys sending us cards!
My sister in law Angela!

Above, my family game night!

We all like to spend time playing games. :)

Aren't we cute? hehe

This is the adorable Grandma Boyer

teaching Matt how to play Sudoku!

We had a great time with them!
I really feel part of them!

I

I am sooo blessed with my new sister!






She is so patient to teach me how to sew!

This is Charley, he is also a member of the family!

This is Grandpa Boyer teaching me Sudoku! It's addicting!
We spent magic moments together!
I thank God for blessing me with such a wonderful Christian family!

2008 Plans

We are dressed up to work for God! :)
This year our goal is to continue the couples' ministry. for the first time our church is going to have meetings once a month from March on (January and February are vacation months)!

Please pray for Davi and Katia (my students) and Cesar and Viviane (our friends)!

This year, we are working for the health of the couples, because if they are not well, the church won't be healthy!

May God bless this ministry!

"Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor". Ecclesiastes 5:9