Cactus Flower

After I posted this last night, Dalton and Destinie were already on their way to the hospital for an early Christmas gift!  Baby Mariya Jane Atha was born early this morning in North Carolina! Christmas traditions in Brazil look a little like home when you go to the big city malls.  You may see some blinking lights hanging on a porch.  Most cities have some sort of decorations.  Churches have presentations and maybe even some parties.  But overall it's just not the same.  Even after 20+ years of living overseas, my longings for all the things that make up a good old traditional American Christmas are strong if not visibly muted. This year at a new mall in the big city We decorate a "real" fake Christmas tree.  And yes, it came over in a container from the USA quite a few years ago.  It's slap full of decorations that mostly came from America with some handmade things, some things from Brazil and even one thing from Niger!  I put out ...

Yesterday our congregation with "down to the river" for a baptism.  Technically this time we went to country house with a swimming pool that belongs to the parents of two of the baptismal candidates.  Usually our baptisms are held in the Sobradinho Lake but due to extreme drought conditions and the low water level this year, Byron thought it would be better done in a place with more water.  Interestingly enough when locals go to the lake to swim or just to have fun they almost always refer to it as "the river" and not "the lake." There were six yesterday that were baptized... Eveny Taynara Agnum Raiane Pedro Henrique Bruno Eveny and Agnum are brother and sister.  They along with Taynara live on a little street that's one block long.  Pedro Henrique also lives on this same block!  One of their neighbors is a frequent church go-er who often invited them and brought them along to Sunday School and Bible clubs....