Keep It Up!

After everything that’s gone on in recent days, it’s suddenly quiet around here. Sue just left for her afternoon ESL (English Second Language) classes and then a ladies’ prayer group afterward. The ESL program she uses is Bible-based. She has a waiting list of students who want to get in.

Aaron and Rachel should be leaving Iguaçu Falls in south Brazil about now, heading back to the states.

Since Saturday, I’ve had plans to write another blog, but other things kept coming up that needed to get done on the priority list. As long as it’s quiet right now, I’ll try blogging. I was amazed at the response to the first one! Now I’ve got to keep it up so folks will keep checking back.

The evening before Aaron and Rachel left for Rio we all went out for a last supper together. It was at a very nice restaurant, but we went early (8 o’clock) since they hadn’t even started packing. Oh, here eight o'clock is "early-bird" time to eat.


Packing required some time since they were traveling inside the country and were allowed less baggage weight. They made it within the limits though, and only left a couple pairs of shoes for us to take up later.

We got them up “dirt early” (4:45am) the next morning for flying down to Rio. With fifty degree temps and gusty winds, Sue and I stood by the fence watching our kids’ flight take off.

Funny thing, a weekend of walking the beaches in the rain down at Guarujá, rafting and goofing around in ice cold water at Brotas and then standing in the early morning cold wind in a tee-shirt at the airport…I woke up on Saturday morning with a sore throat and cough. At least I’m doing better today and my wife didn’t get it.

We had a full church again on Sunday and several regulars who weren’t there. Two new families and a single girl came to visit. The one family and the young lady live right in the neighborhood where we’re located. Everyone is getting excited about family month coming up at church in September. They loved the different activities we did last year and are looking forward to some new things again this year. Every Sunday there will have a different theme and greeters, special music and presentations will be done by different families each Sunday during the services. This year we’re trying a Saturday road rally with clues around town. No one here had ever heard of such a thing before so it should be interesting.

This morning, Sue and I spent part of the morning at the Banco do Brasil opening a savings account for the church. The church is getting ready for buying either a building or a piece of property, and that bank is the only one that can transfer US currency to Brazilian legally.

People have asked what our apartment building is like. Here it is.
Sue’s waving from our balcony in the 16th floor.

I just got an e-mail from our son Joel to do a webcam tonight. Soon he’s going to be a dad, and they wanted us to see how the baby - or his mom - is growing. Should be fun!

This is enough for today. Tchau!