“Typo” is not a Blood Type

It takes me a while to think through what to say and I’m glad to have a computer that helps correct spelling errors. I really thought that I would have more time for this blogging, but almost another week has gone by without a blog. My wife tells me that if I’d just write less it wouldn’t be so hard to do. Sue just dropped me off after an afternoon mission meeting, and she’s over at church for an ESL class now. We were to start a new small group this evening, but the home it was to be held in didn’t work out so we’ll be working that situation out during this week.
Last Thursday afternoon, I got frustrated with some work I was doing so decided to stop and watch Shrek the Third on an internet site. I found had the film on a site that had it divided in three parts, so I started watching and got through parts one and two, but then part three wouldn’t play for some reason so I never saw the end – frustrating! When Sue got home from classes in the evening she said it served me right since that was a film she wanted to see and I didn’t wait for her so we could see it together (and we still haven’t seen it).
Friday morning we got an early phone call. It was from a friend Rosa, Claudia’s mom. Claudia met Ben Loftis while he was working here with us for a year and a half in a short term ministry. In January of last year, we were one of the "padrinhos" in their Brazilian wedding ceremony. After a complicated visa process, they now live in the states. Early Friday morning Claudia gave birth to Lucas Benjamin and we were among the first to know here in Brazil. And from their pictures, wow, does that baby look like his dad!
Friday afternoon after delivering donations collected by the church to a homeless shelter, we had friends Reginaldo and Ester and Roberto and Lucia in for Mexican food. Brazilians are not used to spicy food, at least not Mexican style spicy, but they said they liked it so we took them at their word. I know for sure that they liked the Snickers ice cream pie Sue made for dessert though.

We had a good time visiting and always seem to get to laughing once the stories begin.
Much of the day Saturday went into getting things set up for starting our Family Month at church. There are maps of Brazil and the world up on the walls so folks can mark their favorite family vacations on them. Then there was making sure bases were covered for family greeters, special family presentations in services, refreshments after the service made with family recipes, plus the things I needed for illustration for the message. That evening there was a good teen group out (15 kids) and we had a good time with a game matching Biblical principles with scripture references in our study.

Several rehearsed a group reading about the body of Christ to be presented in the Sunday service (that went well too). Each teen got a piece of bubblegum when they came in that they were to chew during the study time, afterwards they took their gum and each one had to mold it into the shape of a different animal. The person that shaped an elephant won (not the easiest thing to do with one piece of gum) and the prize was…a fresh piece of bubblegum!

Our daughter-in-law Lynne is just as petite as they come,

and she couldn’t believe that I didn’t think she was growing

much after our webcam visit, so she sent a shot of herself

holding our grandson. Guess I was wrong - she is growing...

or he is...or they both are! She and Joel are wondering if the baby will have "synesthesia" since Joel has it and so does Sue. Not sure what it is? It is seeing numbers and letters in color in your mind.

And the neat thing is the video of Lynne's baby shower just came in the mail this afternoon! That was something hard for Sue to miss (along with other Grandma-to-be stuff) so we can watch the video tonight!

Our daughter Natali is spending this holiday unpacking from a move into a new apartment. She made the move on Saturday before going in to the hospital for her weekend shifts. On the one hand it makes me tired just thinking about it, on the other it’s hard to be so far away when she could use some help. Whatchagonnado?