on fire

I guess you could say that Amy and I ended the year "on fire" and "with a bang". Saturday morning I woke up with a fever and have been out of commission for the past few days and earlier in the week the garage door closed on Amy's arm. She has had to wear a sling since. Not exactly the best conditions to prepare for a three-week retreat.

It was crazy the way it happened with Amy's arm. I had taken the boys out for a walk down the street to see a bulldozer that was doing some road work. On the way back Amy came out to meet us. For the past few days our garage door has been acting up, closing on its own. Amy opened it up wide so that if it closed while she waited on us she'd have time to squeezed her arm in and push the button that makes it stop (she thought). So sure enough, it started to close and Amy being the "bendy" person that she is somehow managed to turn run backwards to the door and put her right arm in over her head. So when the door shut it got her right at her elbow and hit a nerve. There was nothing I could do but get my keys out and open another small door built into the garage door to get in and open it back up. It left quite a mark.

Today we will be traveling to Saquarema (close to Rio de Janeiro) for three weeks along with our staff team and 60 students from the ministry here in Belo. Our theme for the trip is THE GREATEST TREASURE. Please pray that we could "see and savor Jesus" (as Piper wrote about) as our one true treasure.

One interesting fact is that the beach we are going to is like Brazil's major surfing point. That's pretty cool, but it means that we are going to have to be extra careful when swimming. The waves are super big and the water gets deeper real quick.

Amy and I are feeling very depleted going into the trip and the project can be tiring. Please pray that we could soon get back to health and that Amy and the boys wouldn't catch whatever I had.

I'm feeling better today, maybe 80%. Just not having fever makes a huge difference. Before my body was aching all over and now it's just my throat which I can live with (and hopefully drive with). Today we'll be driving for around 8 hours, but somehow we always take longer. I think I just don't drive as fast as the Brazilians. That's my plan this time as well. It will be fun to see the countryside. Brazil has some of the prettiest mountains along the coast. Brazil puts to rest that age old question, mountains or beach.

We will most likely be without email over the next three weeks, so when you think of writing that could be a good reminder to pray.

I hope you have a good start to 2005!

Jeff, Amy, Braden and Simon