58 Days Back

Well, well.  We've been back from our big furlough for 58 days.  What's been happening in Brazil?

First of all we had to buy a new washing machine.  Seems the girls staying in our house must have washed a lot of laundry.  

The poor old machine wasn't wishy-washing anymore.  All it wanted to do was spin around and around.

It took a while to order the right one.  But it's great.

For the first few weeks we were back I felt like I was spinning around and around, too, and getting no where fast.  All of our vehicles needed major repairs and I needed some major dental work.  My teeth all got fixed at my local dentist, the cars are still getting taken care of.  Our "truck," the Mitsubishi Pajero is at a shop.  The Fiat Uno, our spare car, got new gears and a few other new parts.  The newer sandrail had some fractures in the metal tubing that hold it all together and needs a few other repairs.  Byron is working on switching the motor out with the boys' old sandrail. 

Ah, and tomorrow we may, just might, have a buyer for the old camp boat.  How many years has it been since the camp closed?  Mercy me, let's not count, but it's been a few.  What were Byron's famous last words, Sell it all or don't sell at all?  All the stuff left from the sale of the island still haunt us.  Praying that the old boat will be sold for a favorable price this week!

What about Lage?  Why are there no kids' clubs right now?  Every week some boy or girl send me a message about kids' Bible clubs.  Since all the clubs stopped in our absence, we weren't really sure about restarting them all.  Most had lost their adult Bible study companion ministries.  Many had lost most of the kids.  And some, well, the kids just wanted games and candy.  So, for the time being we are focusing on the main Bible study in Lage.  This month I did start taking the kids out back for a lesson during the preaching time.

We had some guests from another Brazilian state visit our work this month.  They are interested in bringing a big team in July of dentists and doctors to Lage.  We'll have to wait and see if they will choose our location for their summer project.

And we have a missionary man and a missionary woman living in Lage.  They have started a weekly youth meeting at their house and are visiting people all during the week.  They also run a soccer school ministry every Saturday morning. So far so good.  We hope to move our Friday night adult Bible study to Sunday soon. We might just keep Friday night as casual study with Sunday as more of formal church service.

Byron and I continue our weekly runs.  We leave out for Lage from Sobradinho every Friday.  We make several visits along our route arriving in the late afternoon.  Friday there is the main Bible study with adults in Lage and Saturday we go to a nearby community for another adult study.  Byron takes care of the clean water project each week checking all the filters and filling all the tanks.  I take care of the kids on Friday, sweep and mop the little church building, and talk to lots of people that pass by during the off times.

That's about it for now.  Ah, I catch small frogs for fun!