hail storm!

Braden, Simon and I were looking out their window tonight at a storm that was blowing in over the mountain. We had the windows open but then it started to rain. Just as we closed them I started hearing this "ting" noise against the metal grates that cover our windows. It got heavier and then I started noticing these little white things bouncing off the road... it was a hail storm! We don't get too many of those here in Brazil. I picked up one piece and it was the size of a gum ball. The boys were slow in going to bed... they didn't know what to think about it. Braden even put a sticker on his calendar - his first hail storm.

more bees

I'm not talking about just a few bees... maybe hundreds. We have a porch-like area above our garage, which serves as our yard for barbecues, hanging up clothes to dry, and playing basketball (I'll attach a picture later). The porch is covered in bees!

natural phenomenon

It's raining bees! This past week the strangest thing has been happening around our apartment. Bees have been falling from the sky and dying everywhere. Simon stepped on one and got stung... he didn't have an allergic reaction or anything. The boys think it's neat and go out and clean them all up with a broom and a dustpan.

weekend's end

Duncan and Meg Dempsey came over on Saturday and played with the kids while Demps and I caught up. We hadn't seen each other since I left for the States!

Tonight I did part two of the series on the life of Paul. Tonight was about Paul's conversion. I learned a ton from the preparation. It's been a great study for me to do. I've mostly been just using the text and reading The Apostle. It's been a great resource.

The talks are online but only in Portuguese (obviously). And some of the songs from the services as well. This week I'll only be able to add a text file because my computer froze up with only 4 minutes remaining in my talk. Ugh!

Only 2 days left to finish my novel. I made a list of all the loose ends I have to wrap up before then... I guess we'll see. One way or the other I hope to finish it. Depending on how the rest of the week goes I hope I can do a general editing job to get it presentable enough to print it out and let Amy read it.

the baby room

Lemon and I worked on the baby room today after our Bible study. We mostly worked on patching up some old holes in the wall and then painted over it. Tonight we are going to put up a new shelf when the paint dries.

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In just a few hours we are expecting around 30 guests here at our apartment. We are going to eat Sloppy Joe's and then later have Chico lead us in a moment in the Word and then later we are going to sing some worship songs. Our prayer is that God would continue to form us into a community that truly reflects His love among us and to others.

6 and counting

Tonight I crossed over the 40,000 word mark. In just 6 short days my novel will be "finished". Lots of people have been asking about what "finished" means. It means that the story will be complete. But I won't have done any editing or filling in after the 30 days are up. So, I plan to only let the most loving friends and family read it for now.

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Last night was a rough one for me. I watched almost every hour pass on the clock: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... I have been fighting a cold lately and last night my nose wouldn't stop "leaking" and it brought on a serious headache. Today I've been okay but I'm hoping that I'm not in for another night like last night. It seems like when I lay down it gets a lot worse.

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Sunday I preached about the life of Paul at church. I talked about Paul's life before his conversion. I tried to mostly set the context by sharing about Paul's upbringing (what growing up in a Pharisee family was like) and then I told the story of the stoning of Stephen. I felt like the major lesson for us was are we testing our "religion". Paul was in the right place, among God's chosen people, but he didn't recognize the Messiah.

the baby shower

Larissa and Maggie hosted a shower for me and some other moms from the team today. Candace is due in October and I'm (Amy) due in September and Wendy just adopted Emmi who's 3 (and who was also the hit of the shower)! The food was delicious and we got lots of fun new clothes and linens. All pink, of course, and plenty of diapers as well. It was fun!

Save-Ums

Today I was working in my office using a highlighter on a text I was reading when Braden decided he would come in and color too! He's been working on a set of Save-Ums pictures that I downloaded for him off the internet... something he's seen on Discovery Kids!

Birthday/Holiday

This past Monday we went over to our friend Giuliano's house. It was his birthday (and some kind of religious holiday) and a great excuse for everyone to get together and have some cake and pizza.
I always particularly enjoy going to Giuliano's: his father is a pilot and always seems to have a good story to tell, both Giuliano and his brother Marco like to play the guitar and so we sometimes "jam" together (which we did yesterday... I took the mandolin!), and last but not least, he has a great basketball court. We got to play a few games yesterday before soccer won over on popular vote.
Here's a picture of Amy and some of the girls from the community (L-R: Amy, Gisele, Aninha, Roberta and Jussara and of Simon course pretending to be a panther and eating his own arm!).

novelling

I "jumped in" today and now I feel like I'm "out of the woods"! Week two supposedly is the hardest of the 4 week trek to 50,000 words. I'm almost through; only one day left.

Current Word Count: 22,146

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Yesterday, Braden, Rafael, Lemon, Luke (more on him later) and I went to see the United States or should I say a United States basketball team participate in a round robin with Brazil, Argentina and Canada. The US team was awful even though they eventually won the game versus Argentina. Brazil was pretty fun to watch in the 3rd quarter, but other than that it was just sloppy basketball.

Luke is a student from Tennessee Tech visiting for several days. He's about to graduate and is considering going overseas someday as a missionary.

Kent, our director, went today to see the US play Brazil (lost by 10) and experienced the highlight of the tournament. He got his picture taken with Dennis Johnson! Many of you may remember him from the Larry Bird days of the Celtics.