Cactus Flower

Easter evening, 2018 Easter, the mission house on Triangle Drive was filled with grandbabies, in-laws, a few out-laws, grandparents, and invited guests.  There may have been 18 or 20.  It was great, but somewhere along the line I realized I had taken no photos and forgotten to give Papa and Greyson their chocolate bunnies early that morning.  So, I felt sort of let down.  And a wave of "missionary grief" began to rise. last week Fast forward to  Monday afternoon:  William, our oldest, who'd been "home" over the holiday weekend rushed to get his things together to go back to college.  He'd decided to ride the newly fixed by Papa motorcyle back to school.  It was so nice to think of him going back to school, just like a normal American family.  We haven't been around to "see" the college thing.  As he rode off into the sunset and waved good-bye, it felt good and sad all at the same time. at our house Move along to Monda...

Look for more photos soon enough and a new blog post...

Sarah Griffith Photography My mother really wanted some good photos of the little grandbabies, and honestly, so did I.  But a good photographer doesn't come cheap in Brazil or the USA.  Luckily we found one who is really good and not too expensive.  The results were divine...   We are joyfully caring for brother and sister two days a week while Mommy takes some classes at the community college.  It's investment time.  Investment in their futures!  I want them to know who I am, remember me, and know about my God and Savior. So with each stinky diaper and whiny day, I pray and hug and kiss and invest...  

So you're on furlough from foreign missionary service and someone asks you how you are enjoying your vacation.  At the moment you've rushed from an engagement that morning, to the home in which you are staying where you hurrily cleaned up the house for a small group meeting leaving your daughter-in-law prepping snacks and icing cupcakes, only to jump in the car to head off to an evening engagement an hour and a half away over mountainous roads... how do you answer?   Your whole week has been consumed with taking care of grandbabies, helping plan a wedding that will happen in less than two weeks, helping family with the care of an elderly grandpa, visiting your parents in another state for a day trip and lunch, studying a little for a continuing education class, doing normal household chores, making daily runs to take our teen to driver's ed at a big high school, visiting a far off grocery store looking for ingredients for the wedding shower, going out with family to tes...

During our wild month of Stateside tourism with our Brazilian neighbors we visited the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer NC.  It was a bitterly cold day!  But we all had a great time.  It was especially interesting for me since it was one of the stops I would always take my fourth graders way back in the day when I taught school before going to Brazil.  Fourth graders had to study North Carolina history and Spencer was a good place for a field trip even twenty plus years ago. As we walked about we came upon this lovely red antique pick-up with the word "Believe" on the windshield.  The truck caught my attention as I'd been thinking on what would be my key word for 2018.  "Hope" got repeated for me in 2014 and 2015.  My hope was renewed in 2016 when we saw our middle son get saved and right with the Lord.  I'm not entirely sure if I had chosen a particular word that year but "Grateful" and "Peace" were often on my mind all of the fa...

On December 7th we hit the ground running in Washington DC for this fifth furlough of our 25+ years of service in Brazil.  Tagging along with us were our best pals from Sobradinho... We did everything you can imagine that a Brazilian in the winter time in the USA would want to see and do... It was an unique change-up to our normal routine with lots of sightseeing and activity.   Andressa and Jonas shared in family holiday fun and got to meet almost all of our immediate family on both sides and then some! Things are quiet in the missions house today.  This week Byron will start scheduling meetings with our supporting churches and we will soon hit the roads to visit each one over the course of the next six months.