Skip to main content

A Gift from Uncle Bill



Uncle Bill K snapped this photo of the family back in February.  Aunt Vicki  passed it my way.  Uncle Tim and Uncle Gary made the conference thing happen for us.  Uncle Danny was even there from the States.

So glad for the missionary family full of aunts and uncles for my boys.  Our trip to Triunfo and the conference of our missionary friends with BMMB was delightful and hence all the smiling faces.  I think the best part was our boys having opportunity to see all their missionary aunts and uncles and fellow MK's again after a few years' hiatus.  One missionary lady even told me about how one of my boys just out of nowhere come up to her and gave her a great hug once during the week.

Calling missionary adults "aunt" and "uncle" is more than just a  term of respect for my boys in a land where the equilivants in Portuguese are well used to refer to adults.  It's a term of endearment and relationship.  I'll never forget one furlough when one of the boys without knowing any different called the mother of a young playmate - "Aunt So-and-So."  The woman just looked at my little feller and said, I'm not your aunt!  Without knowing it, she crushed my babe's little heart as he figured she was an aunt since we spent a good amount of time with their family.  She later relented to the boys constantly callling her aunt and allowed herself to be their aunt after all.

Missionary aunts and uncles are just as REAL, just as loved, and just as important as blood-relatives.  I'm thankful for all my boys' blood-relative aunts and uncles, but so glad for the incredible cloud of missionary witnesses they can claim as friends and examples.


Thanks for the photo, Uncle Bill Kettlewell.  Thanks for wrestling with one of my boys during the conference.  Thanks for sharing in our lives over the years and in the life of Byron when he, too, was an MK boy in need of a few good uncles!  And thanks to all the wonderful Aunts and Uncles my boys have in NE Brazil and all around the world.

Uncle Danny
boys and some more MKs

By the way, I have a "real" Uncle Bill.  I love him very much.  So sad that I can't be nearer to him, but glad for the good memories my boys have of him and a crazy four-wheeler during our last time in the States!

Comments

  1. Yep, this is a good thing and I appreciate this very thing in my own children's lives. Being soo far away from blood relatives for soo many years at a time makes it pret' near impossible for kids to know them. I have been ever grateful to and for those dear adults who have loved my children even though they are not by blood. They are related "through the blood of Christ".

    http://www.inafarplace.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for stopping by! Leave me a message if you would.

Popular posts from this blog

My Promise Verse

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take:  when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. This verse has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager. When I was a high school senior at a Christian school in Virginia, Job 23:10 was chosen as our class theme verse. At our graduation commencement, the valedictorian and saludatorian in their addresses that day divided the verse in its two natural parts as a basis for the core of each one's address. I was the salutatorian of my senior class that year.  I chose to speak of how God would one day reward our faithfulness and thus, we should always strive to remain true. For many years though, the first part of the verse haunted me in a way. As a missionary especially when times were lonely or difficult, I assumed it was my "trial" or "test," and as such must be accepted in all humility. As I have grown older, I have begun to look more toward the pearly gates and have reconsidered the thr...

Old Film, Same Message

A missionary colleague recently uploaded some old films made about the work in Brazil by Baptist Mid-Missions many years ago in the 1950's. Yesterday I was able to watch the first of the series.  All I can say is "Wow!  Things haven't changed much in Brazil.  And things haven't changed too much with the work of missions in Brazil either!" There are still donkey carts in the street.  They have better wheels nowadays! There are still people who live in grass huts and high apartment buildings, too. Bicycles are still many people's only means of transportation, if they are that lucky! Many roads in the interior towns are still paved with cobblestones, if they are paved at all. And yes, chickens are everywhere, even in big cities. Brazil still needs missionaries! That's right, Brazil is not evangelized and in no need of foreign missionaries today.  It still needs workers to spread the Good News of the Gospel and the Risen Saviour!  Sadly that part of t...

Core Memories: Furlough 2018

  I happened upon an archive of old home video from our furlough in 2018 while transferring items to a new laptop.  Oh, what fun to watch!  Decided to put them in a little video collage.  Making important memories while in the USA with our grands is important!  It takes a little effort and a little intent.   Enjoy! In memory of Papa Potter