Skip to main content

May Flowers

 

May?  How can it be?  March winds have blown us right past April and threw us into May without a thought.  Yet, here we are. 

March was full of crazy Covid restrictions here that changed every week and were different here and there.  It seemed the rules were modified according to the breeze of the day.  Now official curfews and travel limitations are based on the percentage of available ICU hospital beds.  That number fluctuates but at least it isn't so random.

Currently we are on the road every Tuesday and Friday.  On Tuesdays we go to one community named Abreus.  It's about two hours down dirt roads.  The distance is only about 50 miles, but the roads slow down the ride.  We usually go in our 4x4 Mitsubishi Pajero and take 3 - 5 young people along from the congregation in Sobradinho.


It's a community with about 60 houses.  Recently the skies have been beautiful with big clouds as our rainy season has been trying to hang on a little longer than usual.

This past month Byron started recorder lessons for the kids.  We had no idea that teens and adults would also be interested.  We've had a quite an assorted group lately!

Each afternoon we present a Bible lesson, teach and sing Sunday school type songs, and review a memory verse.  After the Bible time and recorder class, the teens that  go along play games or walk down to see nearby creek.

photo by Vinicius

Sometimes dealing with all the little kids, the long ride and the burden of delivering the Word of God well can be quite overwhelming, but we press on and continue to pray for the people of this small interior place.

photo by Vinicius

On Fridays we are making 6 stops on our 150 mile route. That is on a good day with no cancellations!  Sometimes with Covid mess and just the fact that every day life often moves things around, we can't make a particular visit.  Our ministry is different on this big trip.  We visit in homes and Byron presents a Bible study lesson following the books with the Good Soil Evangelism project of ABWE.  

At one house, I keep my eyes open for kids out and about and tell Bible stories on the porch.  Some children are starting school work via their parents' cell phones!  So kids have been scarce for the past three weeks.  

Soon, soon, I hope to finish the study with one family that I visit in the small town of Lage and use that time to start Bible stories with children near a big soccer field where lots of kids gather in the late afternoon.  Help me pray to that end - soon!

We thank God for our continued health, and pray for missionaries and friends who are sick right now this week here in Brazil.  May God bless in the crazy mess and allow for the sweet fragance of May flowers to touch our hearts and remind us of His goodness.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Everything New

I'm reading a book for old missionaries about all the crazy things people go through in returning from their field of service to spend time in their home country.  One of the chapters is all about how tough it is to "go home."  Things change and the missionary ends up out of sync with what's new since their last "home" visit. "Coming home" this time has been smooth in some ways and a little crazy in others.  Byron and I haven't had a real furlough for six years.  On one hand our recent short visits pathed the way for an easier transition.   But staying for a longer this time around means we don't have to feel as rushed to go and do and see, even though we are always reminded of that the pages of the calendar are passing by. Keeping in touch with our friends in Brazil is uniquely easy nowadays allowing us the privilege of almost instant contact, real time decision making and even seeing regular photos of my cat.  We can send money quickly an...

Sabbatical Time

  Furlough, it used to mean getting my boys all prepped with new clothes, all ready to attend classes in real schools, and all set to interact with Americans.  Today, it means finding someone to take care of our Brazilian pets and hoping the grandkids remember who we are.  I didn't even buy any new clothes! Thankfully we found who I hope will be the best house/petsitter ever, and I think my grandbabies already know who I am.  Tying up all the loose ends of ministry and house took more effort and time than ever, but we made it to the aiport on time and so far so good.  I am sitting unstressed in the largest airport in Brazil this afternoon typing away with few concerns. Hopefully this sabbatical furlough will be just that unstressed with few concerns.  We need to visit around 25 churches, see as many loved ones as possible and go to Walmart as often as we can.  We also need to rally support for the missionaries that are joining our ministry efforts in t...

Quitting

This fall I posted about a camping trip my husband and I took with our boys. Our oldest was getting set to head back to Brazil without us and we wanted to get away together with just the family for a few days. When it came time to get in the car, our middle boy refused to get in. We were leaving for a weekend with reservations in another state. It was a tense moment as he started walking away from the car and house and down the road away from us. It was just one of many such moments that occurred over the past two years as we watched our boy slip farther and farther away from us and our values. I worked literally day and night to find help, look for counsel, and often searching for our missing boy.  Nothing we did seemed to change the direction in which our son's life seemed to be going. Many times my husband and I felt like giving up.  We prayed.  We asked others for help and advice.  I remember one night in particular as I was chatting with a...