View from My Front Porch

Today starts the beginning of a new series of blog posts. Every Friday I plan to put up a single video or photo shot directly from my front porch here in Sobradinho, Bahia, Brazil.

Today's clip is from last week. I was actually standing on the sidewalk and not technically smack on the porch, by the way. Our region of Brazil is very dry and receives a limited amount of rainfall every year. Once every forty years or so, that amount shrinks substantially making for extreme drought conditions. We have been in a drought of about three years. Imagine living in a place where it rains about one time on one day once a year. This January we had some of the biggest total annual rainfall of the past five years - yes, all in one month's time! There was much flooding to say the least. And our grass began to grow again after how many years? We water it minimally with run off water from the washing machine. But we rarely have to cut it. So for the first time in about three years, Byron had to cut the grass! And that's the view this week from my front porch!

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The Sun is Not Yet Set

Byron, the guy in the white helmet, turns 61 today. That's our son, Byron the Third in the black helmet. He'll be 30 on his next birthday at the end of the year. My husband and I were close to thirty ourselves when we had our first son. Lately it seems that every other day or so someone wants to know "When we are going to retire?" Sometimes it feels more like, "When are you going to leave" is the real question, but that's a story for another post sometime. Has the sunset on our work and ministry in Brazil? Is it time to hang our hats and pack it all up. Are we too old? Too old for what? Too old to tell others about the love of God? Too old to preach and teach? Too old to ride a motorcycle on dirt roads? Okay, you may have us on that last one! It took a few days to recover from our 8 days of motorcycle travel with our oldest and his wife last month. It took a few weeks to recover from all the bumps and aches of our ...

My Promise Verse

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. This verse has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager. When I was a high school senior at a Christian school in Virginia, Job 23:10 was chosen as our class theme verse. At our graduation commencement, the valedictorian and saludatorian in their addresses that day divided the verse in its two natural parts as a basis for the core of each one's address. I was the salutatorian of my senior class that year. I chose to speak of how God would one day reward our faithfulness and thus, we should always strive to remain true. For many years though, the first part of the verse haunted me in a way. As a missionary especially when times were lonely or difficult, I assumed it was my "trial" or "test," and as such must be accepted in all humility. As I have grown older, I have begun to look more toward the pearly gates and have reconsidered the thr...

Old Film, Same Message

A missionary colleague recently uploaded some old films made about the work in Brazil by Baptist Mid-Missions many years ago in the 1950's. Yesterday I was able to watch the first of the series. All I can say is "Wow! Things haven't changed much in Brazil. And things haven't changed too much with the work of missions in Brazil either!" There are still donkey carts in the street. They have better wheels nowadays! There are still people who live in grass huts and high apartment buildings, too. Bicycles are still many people's only means of transportation, if they are that lucky! Many roads in the interior towns are still paved with cobblestones, if they are paved at all. And yes, chickens are everywhere, even in big cities. Brazil still needs missionaries! That's right, Brazil is not evangelized and in no need of foreign missionaries today. It still needs workers to spread the Good News of the Gospel and the Risen Saviour! Sadly that part of t...

Cactus Flower

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