Hope, no matter what....

Sadness. That is the feeling that I get when I talk to people about what happened. (the rain/flooding in the Rio area, see previous post for some pictures of what it caused) As I process and pray about it, I know that sadness is not the final word. Hope is.....It is very sad for many reasons.... Today, I saw some of my English students as I took Jude to work this morning and let Joel run around and play with the kids at church. The project is meeting at the church right until the safety of the building that we normally meet in can be guaranteed. It has been over 2 weeks and there is still no word. My heart aches for them every time I think of what they lost, but I pray that they would have hope for even better things. I pray that they would trust God in this instead of blame Him. I hope and know deep down in my heart that if they look for Him, they will find the Lord right there by their sides in the thick of this muddy mess that they are still trying to make sense out of, or just trying to forget about. They (my students) don't seem to talk much about it unless asked, but I guess that makes sense, English class or whatever activities we have for them are a nice break from thinking about it. Our church served as a donation center for the flood victims up until last week, as well as hosting the kids from the project until the building at our normal location can be used again. You can imagine it is a little chaotic, our Pastor gave up his office for the Project staff to use and work out of, and the tiny church kitchen is now producing meals..... Sadness is not the final word in all of this. That was really in the air initially, but Hope is alive in Jesus, and here. There are numerous posts around the city that are accepting donations, everyone seems concerned about what happened, and it has forced the politicians here to look at some serious issues involving housing in lower income neighborhoods. I believe it has also awakened people to God. Disasters break down our pride and self sufficiency and help us look beyond ourselves. Patricia Paranhos, our Pastor's wife and one of the teachers at the Project, always talks to the students about not being content with less than they know they can achieve when it comes to their futures and what they dream about for their lives. Dream big, look beyond what you know, let God show you what He can do. Persevering is happening right now, persevering and hoping in our amazing Lord to see what He has in store for these precious children and families. He loves them perfectly. I know we will never go wrong, trusting in God. Wherever you are, trust in Him. Cling to His Word, The Bible, and call out to Him in prayer. For your family, for your country, for your children and their future, for Brazil, for more to come to know Jesus, we don't have to look far to find a reason to pray....

Well, this has gotten very long, but I just can't end this post without saying that Jesus is the only way to heaven. I think that most of my readers are already christians, but in ministering to the people here, Jesus is the biggest and most wonderful hope that I have to offer to them or anyone in the midst of difficulty. Romans 10:9-10 says, "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord, "and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Read what the Bible speaks of earlier in Romans 8:35,37-39 , "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Jesus is Lord over everything. He is our hope daily, and He is the hope that we offer to all those that we interact with.

Mudslides near the Project

These pictures are from the houses of some of our kids that were affected by the mudslides.

The picture above shows where the roof caved it at Luan's house. He is below with his mom and stepdad who are about to leave to try and buy cement so they can make some repairs in between rain showers. The picture below is of Gustavo. He is standing in his bedroom. He was asleep here last night when mud came crashing in at about 2:00 am. His little brother was almost crushed by the mudslide.

I am standing on the front porch of Mateus' house, one of our students. He and his family had to leave because of mudslides. This house could come down at any minute, especially if the rains continue.

The picture below shows how the back of the house has already caved in. This photo shows just how far the house could fall. I took this picture from my office window at the project. Mateus' house sits directly behind the project. The building in the center of the picture is home to the projects classrooms and on the right is our cafeteria.

Health

Well, again, I have failed to blog weekly, what is new? :) I have been researching the past few weeks on eating healthier. What I have found out is that I am farther from eating healthy than I would like to believe. I have often thought, "I need to care of my family as best as I can" or, "What can I make tonight that will be a good/healthy lunch/dinner." Especially since we have a family history of diabetes this has been more at the forefront of my thoughts. With that said, here is what I have found out. The reason that people don't do it is because it takes work and discipline and time. All things that our society does not really value when it comes to preparing healthy food. We value speed, convenience, and taste much more. The little that I have learned over the past few months has really helped us to make some simple changes to be healthier. We still have some things to work on, one of mine being that I love sweets and chocolate a little too much, but even there we are getting much better. Yesterday for instance, I was running some errands and picked up a small chocolate bar to snack on. After a couple bites I realized that it just didn't taste good.... I guess because of all the sugar (it was milk chocolate) and I found myself craving instead just a square (okay, a couple of squares) of dark chocolate, it has a much richer flavor and it satisfies my hunger for "something chocolate". Some of our new favorite more healthy choices are apple and banana smoothies, homemade granola, soaked whole wheat pancakes, veggie and chicken pizza, veggie and chicken or beef stir fry with rice pasta or whole grain rice, rice pasta with cream sauce and steamed veggies or a salad, I could go on, and maybe I should post a few recipes, but for right now I am not that organized, still getting used to soaking grains and thinking ahead of time for what we are going to have. Keeping healthy snacks on hand has been a challenge, but again, we are taking baby steps. As I work on this area of our lives and try to create healthy habits for our family, I think of this verse, Micah 6:8 " He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." I know that God sees that I am trying and I can rejoice in the steps that we take, because they are in His strength but also fall back and enjoy the grace of God as I walk humbly in Him. I can know that I don't have to get it all right or become a gourmet/all natural cook overnight, but that I can keep trying daily to get better!

Swimming on the Balcony

Here are some pics of Joel swimming on the Balcony! We are loving his new little baby pool! He plays with his toys, and even counts, 1,2,3, woo-hoo for his little squirter animals to jump in. His version is ___, two, tree, wooo... it is adorable! The swimming pool fits perfectly on our balcony, which has recently become one of my favorite places in our apt. Besides hanging out at the baby pool, we now have a daily routine which has really helped us enjoy our days more. If you are a stay at home mom or a parent, then you can probably identify with little pockets of time where you just aren't sure what to do. The toys have been played with, you have gone swimming or to the playground already, you have already read numerous books, and repeated every nursery rhyme that you know, now what? Let me just say, that I have thought about writing out a schedule for us before, but I really resisted it, thinking that it would be a pain and annoying to follow. We do not follow it exactly all the time and it is definitely NOT annoying to think, hmmm, you seem to be tired of playing with your toys, lets go see what is on the schedule for right now, "ohhh, let's play play-dough", or "let's go downstairs and water the plants, or run around and get some energy out" it is amazing and takes the stress off when you can't think of what to do. I left built in times where we could either do one activity or we could run errands when I need to get something done. All that to say, the schedule is going great and I highly recommend it. Back to the balcony, one of my favorite times of the day now on our schedule is our hammock time. After dinner we set up the hammock and enjoy the marvelous view and play as a family. It is so wonderful to just sit and enjoy the view ( I will try and post a picture soon) and play with Joel and relax, okay, maybe we can't relax too much or Joel will throw an elbow or knee us as he gets into or out of the hammock, but still it is wonderful!

The $1.99 Store!

So, this week we went to the $1.99 store, much like the $1 store in the U.S. and may I just say it is my new favorite store. I know that sounds silly, but finding anything in Brazil at a good price is so rare. I don't say that to complain, I just think that everything is really expensive. God always provides for us so well, so I don't have to worry about buying things, but it is so rare, that I think, wow, I got such a good deal on that. I love being a smart shopper and doing that here has been challenging. If you remember my post about the cheap grocery store, sometimes getting things cheaper has it's down sides. Anyway, I love the $1.99 store. I went to look for a watering can for Joel since he loved watering plants with my Mom when we were back at Christmas. Not only did we find that but we found several other useful items and all for a grand total of $16.95, if I remember right. Ahhhhhhhh, what a great feeling the feeling of getting a lot for your money, I had almost forgotten what it felt like. I got 2 buckets, a lighter to the light our gas stove, a battery, the watering can for Joel and a pizza cutter. (We love having homemade pizza, I make a killer whole wheat crust for anyone who wants to come over and eat pizza with us, but anyhow, our other pizza cutter broke a while back and I just kept forgetting to get a new one.) They had several other things that I almost bought, a tambourine for Joel and a little sand shovel/bucket for Joel to play with at the beach $3.95), which by the way I later saw at another store in the mall for $19.99. All these prices are in "real" by the way, which is the monetary unit in Brazil. One dollar right now is worth about 1.80 reais. So, I just had to share all about our successful trip. Joel was even quiet in the stroller! That sounds like a great trip all the way around to me! Not to mention that it did wonders for the bargain hunter in me. :)

Hot, hot, hot!

So, how hot is it in Niteroi? Let's me see if I can explain in my terms. I am horrible at guessing the temperature and while I know that it has been about 40 degrees Celsius, not sure how to spell that word, but anyhow that is about 104 or 105 Fahrenheit I think, but don't go by that, because numbers are so hard to imagine in terms of what they feel like..... Go by this.....

It is so hot that at 1:40 in the afternoon after I quickly swept up the house and wanted to take a shower to cool off I was unable to stand under the water because it was so hot. Our water tank is on top of our apartment building and so the sun heats it up so much that it is too hot to take a shower. It does cool off around 6:30 or so, so we get to take showers, don't worry!

It is so hot that yesterday when Joel got up from his afternoon, I took him to the mall, because it was the only activity that I could think of that involved getting out of the house and air conditioning.

It is so hot that all I wanted to eat today for lunch was a popsicle.

It is so hot that our 16 month old son has learned what the air conditioner does and the other day he coaxed me into his room and stood right under the air conditioner just looking at it, as if to say, come on mom turn it on, it is too hot. When a busy little boy says it is too hot, then it is!

That is my weather report for today. I am sure that all the math lovers out there hated my assessment of numbers and their lack of meaning for me, I actually don't mind math, but come one, my stories paint the picture much more vividly.

news

10 things that I am enjoying this visit back to the U.S.- 1. Family – it is such a wonderful thing. People who always love you, even when you decide to up and move to another continent. 2. Using a dryer. Drying clothes in the dryer is infinitely easier, and they come out all warm and toasty. Although, on a hot day in Brazil, they are warm and toasty as well, they just take longer than 50 minutes. 3. Having time with Jude and Joel, all of us together. Jude is at work during the week, like most, and I am so enjoying all the time we have to do family things or just relax together. 4. Starbucks. I don’t really need to elaborate on this, but I will say that we did try to take Joel to McDonalds to play on the playscape, and got a coffee just to buy something while we were there, big mistake. It was really gross, and reinforces the fact that I do not like McDonalds. So, Starbucks, yes, amazing. Peppermint Mocha.....mmmmmmmmmm. 5. The grocery store. Grocery stores in the U.S. are so luxurious. The grocery store by our apt. in Brazil is very clean, but it is small and being able to buy diapers, wipies, and all the grocery items at one place, plus a random item or two, is amazing. 6. Catching up with friends. We went to our “old” church, old in the sense that we went there when we lived in Kerrville, and it was so fun. That plus my college roommate lives down the street from Jude’s parents, so walking out the front door to visit with her is awesome. Jude got to catch up with some buddies as well, which I know he really enjoyed. 7. Seeing Joel say more words in English. He now answers the phone in Portuguese, which he did before we left, but now he says bye in English. It is really cute, and perfectly bi-cultural! 8. Times reading the Bible. As anyone would, in a time away from work/regular life…. You just tend to analyze and look at your life from a different perspective. God has encouraged me again and again, in His calling on my life, and how He is always faithful. I just need to have faith. I am challenged that I need to have more faith for God to take care of things when we go back to brazil….. where to live (the contract on our apt. is up in March), and a babysitter for Joel, among other things. 9. Different food.....Mexican food, and my dad’s brisket! That doesn’t really need an explanation either. Brazilian food is REALLY good, but it is definitely not spicy, and everyone knows that Texans make the best brisket! 10. The cold weather and being able to bundle up. I love the change in the seasons and cold weather is something that Rio does not get. The most we get is a cool front with rain, but it isn’t cold it is just cool. I love that we are bundling up and sitting in front of the fireplace and drinking hot chocolate and eating soup to stay warm. Something about sleeping in cozy pajamas, fuzzy socks, and lots of warm blankets just feels good. Happy New Year. I know that God has amazing things in store for this year. Now it is up to us to follow after Him with all that we have, and trust Him to show up, which He always does. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1