25 Things About Me

Ok, I'm going to give this a try. Enjoy!

1. I am the oldest of 6 - 4 girls, 2 boys.
2. I got saved when I was 19 years old in Augsburg, Germany.
3. I have been married for 10 years.
4. I was in the Army for 4 years.
5. I taught at MBA for 5 years plus a lot of substituting.
6. I have a Master's Degree in Education Administration.
7. I love to cook...and eat. :)
8. I like to travel.
9. I grew up in Rockford, Michigan.
10. I like to watch NCIS.
11. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a temper.
12. My favorite time in my marriage was our trip out west.
13. I have the cutest and smartest nieces and nephews!
14. My first pastor was Rick Kelley, now a missionary in Guam.
15. I like to keep things simple.
16. My favorite food is lasagna.
17. My favorite restaurant is Cracker Barrel.
18. I enjoyed our time working with the youth of MBC.
19. I love going to camp.
20. My favorite age group to teach is junior high.
21. I like to play board games.
22. I enjoy listening to music.
23. I like to look for short-cuts, within reason of course!
24. I know how to sew simple things, and would like to someday finish a quilt!
25. Last, but not least, I am privileged to serve God in Brazil.

Walking by Faith

Since I finished reading the biography of C.T. Studd, I have been thinking a lot about the idea of walking by faith. Truly, it has always seemed an insurmountable task that results in frustration
and disappointment. Only those heroes of the faith have successfully attained it. Then it dawned on me. Maybe it isn't such a huge mountain to climb after all. Could it be that it is really simple? Maybe walking by faith is merely taking God at His word and trusting Him every day. You know, living life according to the Bible with God's help. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone else. All of a sudden, walking by faith looks a lot easier to me.

Biography of C.T. Studd

I just finished reading "C.T. Studd: Cricketeer and Pioneer" by Norman Grubb. I first heard of C.T. Studd when I was teachng history at Madison Baptist Academy (MBA). I was interested but way too busy to find out more at the time. The book was really good. C.T. Studd was a man of faith that accomplished great things for God. For those of you that have not read about C.T. Studd, I will not summarize the book or give away the story. Here are some things that were an encouragement or a good reminder for me:

1. If you want to be a successful Christian, then you have to be completely surrendered and sold out to God. You have to be willing to give anything, go anywhere, and do anything.


2. You have to live by faith.


3. You have to walk with God.

While this seems obvious, how many of us can honestly say that we do or will do those things listed above? We all like to think so. Does our walk match our talk or thoughts? I know that I definitely have some areas to work on. Read about C.T. Studd. He was a great missionary and an example to be followed!

2008 in Review

2008 was an interesting year for us. It was our first year in Brazil. We have been learning Portuguese, and continue to do so. God gave us a great house to rent. My sister, Elizabeth, gave birth to Quinn in January. My dad's mom passed away at the age of 95 at the end of January. Then God provided the money to buy a car. Woohoo! In April, my nephew, Jack (Melissa's) arrived. Our container finally arrived at our house at the end of April. It was so much fun to officially set up house! It was like Christmas, as we rediscovered what we had. We had a couple of visitors from Alabama in May. Tim started preaching short messages in Portuguese in August. We also had the privilege of visiting a couple of public schools and presenting the Gospel during August. We had more visitors at the end of September, when Nita had her baby. We started the adoption process in September. Now we are just waiting for God to give us the child(ren) that He wants us to have. I organized the food for the International Banquet during Mission Conference in November. We visited Leandro's family in Araras in December. We ended the year with Christmas parties and a watch night service. It has been a good year and we have much to be thankful for. Can't wait to see what 2009 brings! Happy New Year! Feliz Novo Ano!

Christmas 2008

We had a nice Christmas Eve service. The youth put on a short program. Everyone looked sharp.

On Christmas Day, we went over to Charlie and Isabel's. We had an awesome meal and played a lot of Clue! We also watched a movie with the girls - The Christmas Card. We ended the night with a game of Monopoly...Charlie won!

On Friday night, we had the youth Christmas party at our house. They seemed to have a lot of fun eating and playing board games. It was a lot of fun to teach them how to play the gift exchange, where you have the opportunity to take somone else's present. Some of them were too nice, but they got the hang of it!

On Saturday night, we had the adult Christmas party at our house. We taught them how to play Pictionary. That was a riot! We had a lot of fun. They also learned how to play the gift exchange game. They weren't as worried about being nice. It was hilarious to see which presents were taken by other people!

All in all, it was a great Christmas! Fun was had by all!

Trip to Araras

Last week we had the opportunity to travel to Araras. We visited Leandro, Bruna, and their new baby, Kevin. Leandro is currently taking care of a work for an American missionary that is on furlough. Tim was able to preach and Charlie translated. The services went well. It was a blessing to see the work there and to see how well Leandro was doing with it.

Please pray for Leandro and his family. Their son, Kevin has had a rough time of it. When Bruna had her first ultrasound, the doctor noticed an abnormality. It was discovered that he had an opening in his stomach and some intestines were outside of the body. They monitered the pregnancy and scheduled a C-section. When Kevin was born on Nov. 6th, it was determined that he would not need surgery. The opening was small and the doctor was able to put the intestines back in and stitch up the opening. Because his iron was low, they gave him a blood transfusion. This resulted in Kevin getting a staff infection. The staff infection caused him to go into cardiac arrest. The medical staff worked for 40 minutes to resuscitate him. As a result there appears to be some brain damage and he has started having seizures. Only time will tell how extensive the brain damage is. He is on medication for the seizures. God is the Great Physician and can take care of all of these problems or choose to use them for good. Please pray that God would heal Kevin and give wisdom to the doctors and parents.

Christmas Tea

Every year there is a Christmas Tea at the church here in Formiga. We had a really good turnout this year! I'm not sure what the exact count was, but I'm pretty sure there was around 80 people there tonight. There were a lot of visitors, many of which were lost. Isabel gave the devotion. She spoke about the birth of Christ and His gift of salvation. I don't think anyone got saved, but at least they heard the Gospel. The food was great and the fellowship was fun. Here are a couple of pictures.