Cactus Flower

Last month we traded the dirt roads of Bahia for the smooth highways of the USA.  We took off four weeks to visit with family, see one son be ordained, visit with another in the new state where he and wife are living and see our youngest grandson turn 4! It was a fast trip, and every day was full to the brim.  So, calling it a "sabbatical" may be a falsehood!  Rest, we did not.  But, refreshed and just a little renewed, I think we are.  Stay tuned over the next week as I finish up a video letter all about our trip. The funny thing about such trips is the desire to plan the next one right way!  Does that take away from my call to missions?  No, not in the least, but it does make me consider how often we need to "go home" and "take a break" from what we do without the need to visit all our churches. Furlough and sabbatical are not synonyms.  Furlough means visiting a different church every week.  Sabbatical is supposed to mean rest.  I hop...

  This is from our latest prayer letter written by Byron and sent out to our churches and supporters. Why did the chicken cross the road? There are endless answers to the riddle, but it seems like a silly question to most people today. Living in a foreign country can sometimes open your eyes to things in your own culture that have been forgotten. Like chickens running loose in yards that suddenly and desperately want to be on the other side of the road. Chickens who are as equally certain they are faster than your car as they are wrong. Ever wonder where the idea for flat chicken patties came from?   “Rain drops keep falling on my head” takes on new meaning in houses in most of the world as many roofs get some splatter in a heavy rain and don’t have ceilings to absorb it. You can also learn a lot about your language by learning another. All that silly grammar stuff starts making a little more sense and even some words take on new meaning. Here are some examples I’v...

  Been feeling sort of well, old lately.  Yup, old.  I look at myself in the mirror and see wrinkles and crinkles.  In November I'll pass the 60 mark and hit 61.  I guess it's time to consider I may be older than I think.   Time has a funny way to getting ahead of itself and running away with all our plans before we even get there.   It just seems like yesterday that I was making curtains for the boys' new bedroom in our house in Sobradinho.  Now I'm trying to decide what to do with all the stuff they left behind:  toys, books, computer game discs, inline skates et cetera. Little by little, I guess it's time to face the facts and start preparing for the not so distant future.  I've already started cleaning out drawers and going through toys this past year, but I got stuck somewhere in the middle of all the memories and decided to leave it for a rainy day. Ah, but alas, it doesn't rain much in the desert Northeast.

  This month's video letter is not real long and it is a little bit late, but it's here and that's what counts.  Find out about what we've been up to by clicking the play button below.  Hang on to your hat!

  How does a missionary know when it's time to move along in a ministry?  Recently in one small community where we have gone weekly for Bible study with adults and children, we decided to throw in the towel, so to speak.  In the beginning we had been invited to have Bible study in a home.  The man and wife called in their neighbors and friends.  For a while there was a good number. I started staying outside with some of the children and playing some games and having a small lesson.  Those children called their cousins and friends.  Before long there was a good-sized group of kids.  They would arrive early and began to bug the lady of the house for water and even snacks.  She got tired of them and told them all to go away. She still wanted us to have Bible study for the adults, but she didn't want all those kids coming early to her house.  It was quite the sticky situation.  For a while Byron would go to her house, and I would round ...

Gramma Michele has been a little tired of late and got a little behind on her letters - video and mail.  But today, I sat down and got it done!  Hope you all like this one!   Don't forget!  I love you!

  I hesitated and wasn't sure I really wanted to, but it seemed it was time.  Time for new dogs!  The old ones haven't gone on to doggie heaven yet, but that was all the more reason to make it happen now, and the fact that our neighbor's dog had nine puppies!  My husband and I both remember how much harder it was with the last round of puppies we had.  Teaching them from scratch was harder than having an older dog who knew the lay of the yard and the rules of the house! So here we go with two new pups. We decided on names after asking our grandchildren and boys and daughters-in-law.  The choices were good, well some of them.  R2 and C3 didn't make the cut.  Miss Priss or Missy and Cocoa came close.  We finally settled on Sahara for the more yellow one. (Although it is still up for debate and might get changed.) It was a name that Byron had wanted when we got our other yellow dog, Tiny. And the marbled brown dog got the name of Ginger.  W...