Cactus Flower

  This time last December Byron and I were winding up our trips to the interior and all the various home Bible studies to get ready to head to America for Christmas with our family.  This year seems a little too quiet and somber without that rushed feeling of packing and prepping.   I wasn't even sure if I should bother to get out any of my old stash of Christmas decorations or hunt for our artificial tree.    I finally decided against the tree but did search for my trunk of ornaments, nativity scenes and Christmas houses.  In a quick flurry of decorating I removed all the miscellaneous things from the top of our big buffet cabinet in the living room and turned it into a Christmas village.  And I started pumping out Christmas tunes on my little Internet radio to make the moment bright. But my mind has been wandering back to Christmases past when our boys were small.  William here was demonstrating his leadership skills at a young age telling ...

 

  Goodness, what a year!  After two years of no international travel with all the Covid mess, this year we hit the air running making two quick trips to the USA and one trip by plane to another state here in Brazil for a wedding.  I saw snow four times in January and lots and lots of rain in our semi-arid region of Brazil as all of Bahia saw record amounts this year.   The Covid bug caught up with us in July and Byron ended up spending one night in the local hospital right in the middle of a missions team trip from the States.  We have used our guest room this year over and over with visitors from Petrolina, Virginia, Lage dos Negros and other varied spots. We have run the backroads of dirt and mud more times than I can count and added more stops to our regular route this year and more activities all around our target area.  We have hauled young people, wheelchairs, puppies, guests, missions teams, benches and all kinds of crazy things on top of a...