Cactus Flower

It's not on the roof, and the roofs around here are tile, not tin.  But isn't she pretty walking up high.  Sometimes she meows like she's in need of help getting down!  I was very hesitant to have a cat here in Brazil.  Seems there are so many stray cats and I wasn't sure if one would actually stay at home. Our cat does wander some, but never too far.  She's a funny delight to our days. The video below is not exciting at all just shot from my Front Porch for this Friday post.  I think it's interesting because all three of our new pets, the two new dogs and the cat, are all playing around together.  For the most part they get along and when the cat wants, they play together - sort of tag game!  I nip you and run away, and you nip me!  

Some very happy cows chowing down on a neighbors cut grass thrown out in the field in front of our house.

not a great photo but good to see the beautiful blue color Dalton found this snake on the island during a retreat in 2010.  The boys decided it was some sort of tree snake and not truly poisonous.  Seems most tree snakes have rear fangs.  They swallow small birds, bite with their fangs to inject a little fast-acting, paralyzing poison and then swallow them down. What do you think?  Poisonous to boys?  Or not? Look back next week for a longer story.

Perhaps you've heard the old saying:  What goes around comes around?  Quite a few years ago we met a special couple because of the island camp.  They had met on the island and after they were married, they traveled back once a year to participate in retreats.  One was an American and the other a Brazilian.  They had married and moved to the U.S.A. Their shirts say, "I met my spouse on Treasure Island." This year when they made their annual trek to Brazil they came to "see" us in spite of our lack of an island camp.  They came with a whole team of workers and helped our congregation realize a three-day Vacation Bible School here in Sobradinho.  Since there has been no island, they've come back each year since and participated in missions work.  We were very glad to be included on their agenda this year! We had a great event with lots of participation on the part of our young people and some of our adults as well.  Each da...

Today starts the beginning of a new series of blog posts.  Every Friday I plan to put up a single video or photo shot directly from my front porch here in Sobradinho, Bahia, Brazil.   Today's clip is from last week.  I was actually standing on the sidewalk and not technically smack on the porch, by the way.  Our region of Brazil is very dry and receives a limited amount of rainfall every year.  Once every forty years or so, that amount shrinks substantially making for extreme drought conditions.  We have been in a drought of about three years.  Imagine living in a place where it rains about one time on one day once a year.  This January we had some of the biggest total annual rainfall of the past five years - yes, all in one month's time!  There was much flooding to say the least.  And our grass began to grow again after how many years?  We water it minimally with run off water from the washing machine.  But we rarely...

Last week I told you the rest of the Hit and Wait story.  After hours of waiting, being hungry and thirsty, the police finally gave back all my documents and said we were free to go. A few days later, someone called our house asking for me.  It was the beer truck man!  I was never sure how he got our number.  I don't know if he had written down my name, or if I had given him a tract, or if I actually gave it to him for some reason or another - I don't think so on the last one.  Anyway.  He said that he had some expenses for medicine and wondered if I would pay for the medicine.  Ok.  Hmmm. And what to do now?  I talked to Uncle Byron who suggested that perhaps we should and that the amount wasn't that much so it didn't sound like a trick.  I agreed to meet the man.  I said that I would meet him at the beer plant where he worked. I took David's mother with me.  I had asked the man to tell me the name of his supervisor.  Whe...

Here's a photo of David's family.  He was a little older than this when he had the problem with his legs.  I took his mother all over Fortaleza to all kinds of doctors and for all sorts of examinations as we looked to find the reason for his problems. Well, last week I left you hanging and ended my story with me arriving at the hospital with the man who jumped out in front of my car.  Let's be careful here not to say that I hit the man or that the car hit the man, because in all reality the man hit me.  These little details are important.  Especially when you find yourself in front of police.  And, if you boys remember, police in Brazil often walk around with machine guns and can be very scary. And that is exactly where I found myself as soon as we arrived at the hospital - with two gun toting police men with full body armor waving me down and asking for my documents.  The police men said we would not be allowed to leave the hospital premises until ...