Cactus Flower

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Back in April two of our young people decided to take on a huge task.  They hoped to participate in a missions team effort of area churches to go back to the children's work in Mozambique where William went back in 2013.  Here on this blog I presented the testimonies of this two -Werica and Anderson.  Both are faithful members of our congregation with strong testimonies. Recently both have decided to change their original plans to go to Mozambique later this year.  The costs of the trip are very high - about US$2000.  Both wondered about how to make it happen when another opportunity arose that is much more viable and applicable to the learning experience both wish to gain on a missions trip. Anderson (see original post for his testimony - Anderson ) and Werica have been presented with the chance to accompany Wordless Ministries on a missions trip to the Amazon region of Brazil.   This trip will be July 1 - 11 of this year. ...

Yesterday the Olympic Torch came through our little town of Sobradinho.  Today I'm going to tell you a little bit about how it all went and what we got to see.   First of all it was very difficult to get a real fix or confirmation of what all would be happening on the actual date that it was stated for our city.  The official Olympic website told what day but didn't have any specific times for our city.  The official Facebook page of the city mayor's office only announced some times on Wednesday afternoon.  Basically nobody seemed to know, but everybody had some idea.  And of course, it didn't really matter because everybody knew it would be late because this is Bahia.  It's just a part of life. We heard that the torch was supposed to be at the new statue above around noon.  So we decided to go down to the general area around 11 am.  There were lots of booths set up with different things about the area and food to sell and crafts.  ...

That's us on our first furlough in 1998.  Byron was 33 and I was 32.  No gray hairs, no flab, two cute little MK's.  We'd been married for about 10 years and on the mission field for 4.  We stayed in Winston-Salem that year at one of the mission houses of Pleasant View Baptist Church.  We stayed for a whole year.  Byron worked some for a friend with a automotive repair shop that year and I stayed at home with William who was almost 4 and baby Dalton who turned two while we were there. We traveled together to visit all of our churches that year and made several big trips to Georgia and Maryland to visit with family. Our first term of service on the mission field had been rough.   Language school, learning the ropes, figuring out how to deal with colleagues, two new babies, low finances.  Somehow we had made it through together.  We were okay and things were alright.  Now we were first term survivors on our way back. C...

Today I'm going to read you a book with a story that you probably have already heard - The Three Bears.  I'm going to add in some Portuguese words here and there.  Here are some of the words I'll be using along the way: urso = bear mingau = porridge tigela = bowl quente = hot menina = girl fome = hungry frio = cold cadeira = chair cama = bed casa = house quebrou = broken três = three

A few years back when the island camp was still in use, Uncle Byron called me around midnight one night.  He was out with a group of men on an all night fishing trip.  He said, "Come to Algodões quick!  A man needs to go to the hospital."  He didn't have much time to talk and it was very hard to hear with the wind and waves.  But I got ready to go. All the boys were in bed already.  I debated as to what to do with them.  I decided to wake up William and tell him that I was leaving just so that if anyone woke up they wouldn't be scared thinking I had disappeared.  Then I got dressed and went out to the car.  I noticed my neighbor was still up with a light on.  So I clapped at her door and told her what was going on.  That way if she heard loud screaming children she could come over and see what was what.  I would have been better off to have just locked the door and left Good Ol' Blackie dog guarding the house! My neighbor decid...

William and Granny Mother's Day is just around the corner.  It can be a rough day for P.O.M.s all over the world.  Parents of Missionaries.  This year I'll get to feel a little of what my mother and my mother-in-law have over all these years with two of my sons on another continent.  Thankfully there isn't all the hype with this holiday as I might would see in the States and we don't have television to see a constant reminder through commercials with products for this and that for mothers. William, Mom and Dad   Nonetheless it is Mother's Day this weekend just like in the USA.  Father's Day is celebrated here on a different date than the States, by the way.  And many holidays that the US has we don't and vice versa.  Mother's Day must be universal?   Can you imagine never winning a prize at church on the Sunday of Mother's Day for having all your family present?  Can you feel the pain of listening to all the goobley-go...

Well, Hello out there to all my little nephews  and some not so small nieces, too!   You know who you are!   Welcome, welcome to another edition  of Aunt Michele's Stories for Friday, May 6, 2016. When your Uncle Byron and Aunt Michele arrived to start working in Brazil in 1994, the first thing we had to do was start language training.  Now Uncle Byron had lived in Brazil as a teenager.  His parents came to Brazil to be missionaries when he was fifteen .  He had a real interest in learning Portuguese.  Probably so he could talk to pretty girls.  I'm just guessing there.  Anyway, his father paid for an older MK boy to tutor him.  So when we came to Brazil, Uncle Byron did his Portuguese lessons very quickly.  In fact, he took a test to see if he could skip the lessons all together.  By the time the teacher got around to checking his test he had already finished the work for half of the 30 required lessons.  H...