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

Our trip to the shopping center!!!

Last Monday we took our niece and nephew, Mariah and Cassiano, to visit Santa Claus at the shopping center. They are only 18 months old, and they were really afraid of Santa! With them we are practicing to be parents! Check out the pictures! :)

Cassiano is not happy about it! He is not understanding anything! ;)

Mariah couldn't stay at Santa's lap, she needed to call her mommy Carlota to take the picture!

We also couldn't resist, as we don't have any pictures with Santa when we were kids!

Mariah was terrified by Santa! These mothers like to obligate the kids to take pictures!

Cassiano also needed his mommy Patrícia to take the picture, he also cries whe he sees Santa!

He didn't last 10 seconds on Santa's lap! He's thinking "Get me away from this crazy guy!"

Now you know a little bit more about our Brazilian family, these two little kids are very special for us! We want to be there for them, and be an influence and example for them to follow Jesus! They mean hope for us! We imagine that they can do great things and make a difference in the lives of people who and will surround them!

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these". (Mark 10:14)

Habitat for Humanity in São Leopoldo

Once upon a time in São Leopoldo (metro area of Porto Alegre) three little princesses lived in a very poor house like this one. One day, a group of Christians from many different denominations got together and decided to do something to make a difference in their lives.

This group of people are from Habitat for Humanity, above you can see Matt translating for them. They are Christians from different parts of the world, mostly USA, getting together to build houses for humanity. Instead of going on vacation, they travel to serve others!

In March I took a Saturday to help them to communicate with the real construction workers and a young engineer. I helped them to carry some bricks and also played with the three little princesses in the house, all the family was involved!

This is Pat, he came all the way from the USA with his wife just to serve and work hard, really hard! And he didn't need to speak Portuguese, there were times that he could communicate just with a glance, or some gesture! The universal language there was solidarity!

This is his wife, she is also Pat! They stayed in São Leopoldo for a week, and will be remembered for much longer in this family!

These are the three little princesses of the house! They were soooo happy with so many volunteers speaking different languages... But the important thing is that they will be fine and have more quality of life. They will have dignity!

This is the team of volunteers with the Brazilian family and the construction workers! Together they could do wonders, even raising up walls!

At the same time 39 houses were being built , after Easter more 240 houses were built this year in São Lepoldo, involving hundreds of Volunteers like Pat and Pat St. George!

I thank all of them for doing this. It is not easy. I just worked translating for them for 1 single day, and of course I helped by carrying bricks, by the end of the day I was so tired that I slept for 14 hours...

The three little princesses helped a lot, too! If I was tired after a day, can you imagine how tired they were? Maybe not. They were sooooo excited about having a new home that they might have forgotten to be tired!

This picture was taken yesterday, 7 months after. Adrielle (10 yrs old) is on the left, Adrianne (13 yrs old) is on the right. The house is ready! The princesses have their castle now! :)

Here it is! After an initial work of 40 days, with different groups working every week, and continued work by the Brazilians, it's finished! Together we can make a difference! I am happy that I could have a small part in this house! I am really motivated to work more in the future, and make more difference! We can work wonders in the name of Jesus!

"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another" 1 Peter 4:10