more waterfalls

I've now updated my site with pictures from Emerson's camera and soon plan to include pictures from Bernardo's as well. It was truly a beautiful place and the pictures will help give you an idea of what small-town Brazil is like. Carrancas is the home to about 7 thousand, but I doubt it. It's that small. It's common folk legend that the first "explorers" that set eyes on the area of what later became Carrancas saw two rocks that looked like ugly faces staring at one another and thus the name: Carrancas. That's the name for the carved images carried on the front of fishing boats to scare away evil spirits. Or something like that. Enough history. Check out the pictures.

royal road trip

This weekend me and the family went to Carrancas, a semi-historic town on the old "royal highway" about 4 hours from Belo Horizonte. We didn't make it in 4 hours going or coming back. On the way we stopped several times and then we got lost on the way back.
The small inn we stayed at was pleasant and great for us since we spent most of our time at the surrounding waterfalls. I'm not sure how many they were and each one was called a complex instead of a waterfall because it usually contained several.
Pictured: me, Simão and Leo at the Complexo da Zilda.

ready to eat

Lucy ate her banana today sitting up in the high chair like a big girl. She was so proud of herself and had a lot of fun sitting at the table with the family... especially since her cousins: Ethan, Andrew and Kayla ate lunch with us today.

slideshow from project

Take a few minutes and watch some of the images from this year's beach project. Pray that God would continue to teach us as a body here in Belo about who he is and who we are in him!

project report

One word to sum up this year’s project? Transformation. As we looked at the process of immigration in the Kingdom of God (Col 1: 13-14), God did a work in each heart and life that was involved in the 3 week retreat in Saquarema, Brazil. Through daily Bible studies, training times, worship, soccer on the beach, a visit to a home for the elderly, eating gallons of ice cream, learning to body surf in the surf capital of Brazil, and a whole new depth of interaction with one another, God did more than we could imagine.

Danilo, a physical education student, is one of the students who began his process of immigration on the beach project and shared later how God brought him to cross the border and entrust his life to Christ. On the last day of the project, he shared a short testimony of how God was changing His life. The day he surrendered His life to Christ, Cristina (one of our staff), looked at him and said, “Wait, let me get my camera. I’ve never taken a picture of a new creation before.” Here is the picture from that day.

Rio pics

We took very few pictures of the beach project and have yet to receive the cd that's being prepared with a compilation of pictures from various cameras. But, I'm sure these several that are on my site will be suffice.

We took several with my parents as well while we were in Rio! What do you think - goatee or no goatee?

Juicy Lucy

Today Lucy drank orange juice for the first time. She finished the "whole" bottle! Gradually Amy is going to start introducing new things to her diet, a couple of days at a time to see how she responds to it... even beets!

we're somewhat back

Last night we rolled in from Rio at about 6:30 p.m. I dropped Amy and the kids off at home and walked them in, unloaded the car, and then went by Kent's to meet up with the room leaders from the project. Today I've felt like a zombie... in second gear... just tired. And Amy and I have headaches from the excessive caffeine we took in on the project (the inn we stayed at served coffee every morning... we aren't coffee drinkers).
It's good to be home. Hopefully we'll be up and running tomorrow and then we can fill you in and send more pictures and stuff. There's some really neat stuff we'd like to share from the project.