8-hour bus ride

Tommorow morning at 6 a.m. we are all loading up on a bus for the investigative retreat. We'll meet up with the groups in Belo Horizonte at Centro Dom Bosco for a weekend of discussion, "lectures" and probably a lot of soccer. We are going to center the theme around the World Cup since it kicks off tomorrow. Unfortunately we'll miss the opening ceremony, and neither the US team nor Brazil play this weekend.

Today is our last day on campus. I pray that today we can see most of the students before the long weekend and that many would decide to go with us even though there's not much time before we leave. 7 students have already signed up to go. Pray that we could that this trip would mean a lot for our friendship with them and would help us to understand the culture more here, but more than anything that while at the retreat that we could all understand better where we are at in our faith.

some barão

Amy took several pictures of our house and the kids during our first few days in Barão Geraldo. Be sure to check them out! We also wanted to introduce Streed. Streed is almost two and is living with us here in Barão with his mommy and daddy (Chip and Shelley).

be careful what you ask for

Let's just say that the party was a little bit more than I expected. About 45 people more than I expected (I thought maybe 20). About 3 more hours than I expected... 1 a.m. instead of 10 p.m. A lot more headnods than I expected... when I talked about that as a group we wanted to grow in our faith and talk about our faith, the response seemed really positive from the Brazilian students. After the party... that's right, after, half of the American students went to a festa junina and the other half went to a party on the campus. They had fun but the festa wasn't as traditional as normal. I think it was more just a name for the party, a reason to get together.

Today we went to a churrasco with the freshmen chemical engineering students. It was great to meet some more of the students and to "re-see" some we already knew. One interesting thing they did that I had never seen before and which was so "student-ish" was that they bought a lot of french bread. Everytime some meat was ready... sausage, beef, chicken, etc... you just took your bread up to the grill and they served it in your bread. Pretty cool.

meet the americanos

Tonight we've invited over all our new friends we've made at Unicamp to meet the whole group of Americans that are here for the winter. We're doing our best for it to be a good party. We bought little flags today that are traditionally used at the Festa Juninas in Brazil. And we are making a lot of American sweets and some fancy little sandwiches. Our plan is to parade everyone up front to hear their name and where they are from and then tell the Brazilians about why they are here (and why I'm here). We also hope to invite them to the retreat we are having next week. Please remember us today and ask that tonight the house would be full of God's love. 

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...