[pictured: (back row l-r) Ethan, Simon and Duncan; (front row l-r) Pedro, Andrew and Braden. 
Pretty cool that my blog received visitors this past week from all over the world. Even though they didn't actually mean to visit my blog.
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.
For Braden's seventh we watched Shrek the Third at Diamond Mall with a few friends. I was immensely disappointed with the movie theater. The sound was off and it wasn't one of the renovated rooms. But the kids enjoyed it. One funny thing was that we went to see the English version, which no Brazilian kids go to because they... don't speak English. But many of the adults prefer the original language and they just read the subtitles. So they always do a double-take when they see small kids. Afterwards we had cake here at the house. Amy made a Shrek head out of red velvet cake (or cornbread... but I'll let her tell that story). Thank you for the messages you left over the phone and by email. He loved them.
Braden turns 7 today. Simon colored this picture for him yesterday. Our plan is to go see Shrek the Third this afternoon with some friends and then have cake (giant Shrek head) here at the house afterwards. It's amazing how fast the time has gone by. You can email Braden a birthday wish if you like.
Congratulations to my brother Jad and his wife Lena on the birth of their daughter Elizabeth Anastasia! Can't wait to meet her.
This past weekend the campus ministry held it's annual investigative retreat to encourage students to think in a deeper, more inquisitive way about a relationship with God. From here several discussion groups will start to help the students dialogue about their doubts and preconceived ideas about faith. Pray that new, pure thoughts about God would come from this time and that these new "investigators" would be embraced by the community here.
Saturday we met with pastor Tom Irby and talked about relationships, our gifts and the message of Christ. After consuming 10 large pizzas in record time we sat back down to talk more specifically about the importance of our gifts and talents in the body. The graduates that make up the group are a young bunch (myself and Amy somewhat included) and I felt like Tom's words pointed to a distant future that sounded good yet out of reach. We are at the beginning of a learning curve in the journey and I feel God is giving us little glimpses of what lies ahead.
We had a churrasco tonight over at Brian's. The meat was excellent as was the company. The original intent was for Candace's dad to meet everyone but his flight didn't make it in on time after some problems in Miami. But boy, the meat was good.
Monday the family and I took some time off and went to one of our favorite spots two hours or so from here and 14 km of dirt road off the highway. We had a great time hiking, riding horses, hot tubbing (Lucy even learned how to say 'hot tub'), and sitting around the fire. It was really cold both nights, so cold you could feel the fire go out at night while we slept. The farm hotel isn't exactly in the Amazon but it is located within a patch of Atlantic rainforest (but still doesn't explain the cold... some one help me on that one). I'll post a link later of some of our adventures.
Last night our family went to our annual June festival. We had cotton candy, popcorn, bean soup with pork rinds, meat on a stick, hoe downs, dosey does, bonfires, pony tails, missing teeth... Simon confessed to 8 portions of cotton candy all by himself. The kids had a great time. They're sacked out as we speak.
