u.s. visit

I forgot to post the page of some of the pictures from Amy's trip to the States. It's basically from her first week or so. Enjoy the pictures.

pizza and a riot

We packed into the Doblo Saturday and headed to o Majestoso (the Ponte Preta stadium in downtown Campinas). The crowd started out the game pretty upset; they had lost 5 to 1 the previous week to Cruzeiro (the team I dislike severely from Belo). They cursed one of their own players for the first 15 minutes of the game which proved to be quite a lesson for the visiting American students with me. They cursed him until he made a beautiful goal to tie the game one to one (I think). After halftime Paraná, the opposing team, came out and scored 3 more goals to defeat the Monkeys (Ponte Preta) 5 to 2. On the way out the fans took out their anger on the turnstiles, kicking and knocking them over until the mounted police intervened. We'd just gotten out and only admited from afar thank goodness.

We had a great time with our new friend Guilherme (top 5 tennis player in Campinas and chemical engineering student) who took us out for all-you-can-eat pizza after the game. We ate palm heart pizza, corn pizza, even ice-cream pizza. Jason, Jeremy, Sam, Sean, and Katie loved it.

first day

Today was our first day to spend more than a few hours on campus. For my group it was quite interesting. We started off by going to the bandejão, the main cafeteria. "They" say that they serve around 6,000 lunches aday and 4,000 more meals at night. It was packed and we picked a seat next to Kobe Bryant. We noticed this guy right when we walked in from a distance since he was the only one wearing a Lakers jersey. The conversation didn't really progress passed "Kobe is the king!" Afterwards we walked all over campus and couldn't find anyone with whom to talk. So we walked across the street to the campus "bar" and snack place. No one was inside except for one "giant" table of 20-or-so students. We sat down at a table not too far away and over the next 10 minutes another 20 seemed to walk in. They were singing drinking songs and giving toasts to one another (we learned later they had just finished a big test). After a few minutes one group started playing cards so two of the guys (Jason and Jeremy) walked over and asked if they could watch and learn how to play truco. Within minutes everyone gathered around and was asking who we were and why we were in Brazil. It was great. We met most of the class and got invited to a Ponte Preta game on Saturday.

Wandson

Amy and I are making final preparations for the cross-cultural project team that will join us this "summer" in Campinas to investigate the campus and city as a future ministry site for our team. I wanted to ask you to consider being a part of this with us through prayer and through giving. I have one specific request. Wandson Santana is a friend of mine that came to Christ at UFMG back several years ago and has been a part of a discipleship group with me ever since. I have asked him to join me this summer not only to help with some of the logistical needs but also for his own personal growth, as the experience will challenge him to walk by faith. I am including a letter here from Wandson where he shares some of his desires and his needs:

I’m going to serve in this CCP, joining Jeff, in this
ministry, and I’m very excited to know more from God
about my place in the Jesus reign through the CCP
project, and to serve Him with the CCP team.

We’re trying to gather U$500,00 more as support and I
want to make you as part of this ministry and I would
appreciate any help you can give us. But more than
that, I want you to make us part of your prayers to
seek in Jesus love our unique motivation, and to be
prepared by God to share it with Unicamp students.

God bless your lives with His treasures,
Wandson

I hope you will consider how you can help. Please contact me by email to get the specifics about giving. I will update everyone shortly about how everything is going here. The team arrives on Wednesday!

reunited

At 9 a.m. Tuesday morning I saw Amy waving over a stack of suitcases coming through the doors of the customs office. Then I saw two little heads shooting by with their carry-ons in tow. So I got my hugs after a month of being a part. Lucy was in the stroller all snug in a little white onesie that even had little footies on it. She didn't cry at least when she saw me. But she's been all smiles and grins since, showing off her two bottom teeth.

Yesterday we went to Parque Dom Pedro (rumored to be the largest shopping mall in South America) to celebrate Simon's birthday. The boys got to play at a really large play place in the mall with slides and pools of balls and computer games. And then we went and ate at T.G.I. Friday's. Simon liked his brownie but didn't like the singing for his birthday. And when they tried to get him to stand up in a chair and dance, he just crossed his arms and furled his eyebrows. He didn't like his present (the movie Soccer Dog) because he said... "it's got a bad guy in it". Apparently the dog catcher in the movie was just a little too scary.

So we are settling in now to Campinas-life. We are staying in a three-bedroom house three blocks from "downtown" (which isn't saying much). We are enjoying the slowed-down pace after Belo's 3-million-plus pace. Most everything is in walking distance (for normal people) and the house has a yard which is great for us apartment folk. I bought a table today (we had been eating sitting on the counter top in the kitchen with the kids on the floor) for R$80... that's less than $40! It is sky blue with two sky blue chairs that match and rotate!

super interesting

I'm writing from a Lan house in Barão Geraldo (Unicamp). This is my second day here. Today I was able to close on one of the houses. It was the house I wanted from the other week when I visited with Lucas. The Superman house didn't work out. It was just too expensive and they wouldn't let us put enough people in it. What's really interesting about the house I rented is that the "owner" of the house is not only a student at Unicamp, but he also attends a very interesting church. The church is a sister church of Redeemer in New York (Tim Keller's). I went to a neighborhood Bible study tonight and really enjoyed meeting the people. They are interested in what we will be doing this summer. Tomorrow hopefully I will hear something about the second house. Until then I have a lot of furniture shopping to do, cell phones to get, transportation to arrange, etc...

superman’s house

I plan on posting soon a more official announcement of sorts about what is going on with our project in Campinas, but until then here is the house I want to ask you to pray about for us. It is a very large house with strange architecture (thus Superman’s house). I am considering if we could all fit (2 families, 4 children, 9 girls and 9 guys). There are 8 bedrooms, two of which are suites. Please pray with us. I am planning to leave tomorrow to go down and finish the preparations. The main obstacle I see right now is that the realtor helping me look for houses told the owner that there would only be 7 people living in the house. Now I’ve got to go back and clarify that he was off by just a bit.