Monday 27 August 2008

Rudson's birthday party.

Farewell Service Saturday night. Giovanni seeting up the sound system and testing the mic.

Lourena and Caio.

The welcome sign that greeted us when we arrived in Dr Fabio.

A common sight - horses/mules roaming the streets eating whatever they could find.

The view down main street taken in front of the new church.

Typical scene - kids playing and flying kites.

Some of our friends from the Dr Fabio Free Methodist Church.

Mary, Rudson, and Bill before leaving for the airport. He became like a 4th son.

Pastor Ney and his family: Veruska, Rebeca, Ciao, Ney, and Camile.

Our host family: Vanessa, L0urena, Cida, Evaldo, Janine, and Priscilla. They were great.

Saturday 25 October 2008

Today was a rest day. No one was at the work site. I am unable to post any photos because this blog is not allowing it at this time.
Bill and I spent alot of time talking, kidding, and sharing with our host family. We also worked on preparing gifts that we will be giving tomorrow before we leave. All of our notes needed to be interpreted on paper and Rudson spent alot of time on that task.
The girls pampered me with another pedicure and manicure! Later in the afternoon Evaldo and Cida took us for a walk in a beautiful large park downtown. It was quite tropical both in appearance and temperature (100 degrees at 5pm). We saw many small monkeys in the woods and a variety of plants and trees.
The big election for mayor of Cuiaba is tomorrow (Sunday). During our time here there has been considerable campaigning with loud speakers from cars, people waving flags, and fireworks. Each of the candidates has their own theme song and we now know those by heart. It sounds like Mendes #22 (each candidate has a #) may be better for the Dr Fabio community.
Last night Bill shared at the men´s tea and I shared at a women´s tea. It seemed to go pretty well we think, maybe ...
Tonight there was a farewell church service. It was quite touching for all of us. The people that we have met here have been the most amazing people. They have sure been a blessing to us.
Giovanni (Joe Funny) has a message for Dave Parham: He misses you and has not forgotten you. You are living in his heart and you were a blessing to him.
Mary

Friday 24 October 2008

The first person to correctly name this animal that we saw at the zoo yesterday wins a Brazilian dollar! He-she was very cute in a homely sort of way.

Driving in Cuiaba is not for sissies. It is crazy. I think the auto repair shops must do a great business. Motor cycles ofter drive on the white line separating the lanes.

Here Bill is adding another row of bricks to the wall above the windows. He learned to lay bricks today and passed the test according to Joaquin.

This dog Leone (who we call Leon) adopted Bill and I. He follows us everywhere and sleeps outside the door of our house until we get up. He actually belongs to Francisco, the praise and worship guitar player.

This photo was taken thru the window of the new church, looking at the neighbor´s house. She is doing laundry at her outdoor laundry sink early in the morning.

Pastor Ney on left (wearing his Clark lake Run t-shirt) and Joaquin laying bricks. Pastor Ney really has to reach high for the top row. They are very skilled and quick at this job.

Last night (Thursday) we went to programs at the church. There was a program for teens, one for elementary age, and one for adults. It reminded us of JFM, but on a much smaller scale.

When we went to bed last night at 11pm or so, it was 92 degrees! Today at lunch it was 99 degrees in the house. The fans make it all quite bearable !

Gotta go, Mary

Thursday 23 October 2008

"A página não pode ser exibida"

The above phrase appears in a pop-up about 15 minutes after I try to upload a photo to this blog today. It usually takes several minutes to upload but today I am unable to upload at all. (At least that is my interpreation of the Portugese above!!!!!!!!!!!)

Last night we had a birthday party for Rudson, our interpreter. He turned 18. It was a surprise party (anniversario supresa festa or something close to that!). We had pizza and cake with candles. This group of Brazilians love pizza and it is very good here. They also have cakes with candles to be blown out. The group was familiar with the Happy Birthday song (in Portugese).

This morning at the work site Joaquin and Pastor Ney put the headers over the windows. This is done by stringing re-rod along the top of the bricks and wiring it to the re-rod in the columns. A temporary bridge is constructed across the top of the window and the re-rod is laid on top of this. Then a brick row is added on top of the re-rod. It sounds impossible but apparently it works well. I have photos in the camera.

We are now going to go shower. I think it must be 100+ degrees here right now and full sun. You can pretty much sit and sweat doing nothing. There is very little humidity and that is great.

Bill and I have just found that we each will be sharing separately at the men´s and women´s teas tomorrow night. I will be talking about how to be a good wife (!) and Bill on how to be a good husband. This will take considerable thought (for me). For some reason they seem to think we are good examples, maybe ....

Please keep the Dr Fabio FMC in your prayers.. These are very special people.

With Love, Mary Spencer

Futbol - not for Americana

They play every night at dusk right in front of Pastor Ney's house,
and everywhere for that matter.

I attempted it once and lived to tell about it, barely - they must all be related to Pele!


FREE GAS


Actually gas was far from free, that's just the brand.


It was about $5.40 a gallon for gas but much less for alcohol based.

Saúde! Obrigada Quatro Amigos!


We had a lot of fun together these guys and the team.

The hand signs mean "I love you."

Wednesday 22 October 2008

A man and his horsedrawn cart are a fairly common sight in this neighborhood. This photo was taken from the front of the new church.
This is Joaquin the building supervisor pouring wet cement into the forms for the columns that support the walls. Many more rows of bricks will be added. The new church will have a very high roof.
This shows the forms containing the wet cement. The forms are removed the following day.

Bill and Pastor Ney (Pronounced NA with a long A). Bill Alexander gave Ney the Michigan hat. He has been wearing it with pride ! Also in the photo is Caio, Ney´s son who is 5 years old.
Tuesday afternoon we went to neighborhood houses inviting people to the Tuesday small group meeting.
The Tuesday night Small Group singing songs to Francisco´s guitar.

Tuesday Oct 21

Bending rod into rectangle frames for the re-rod columns.
Mary has spent much of her time doing this. Only about 70 more need to be made. The process is simple but ingenious really.

Standing in the front doorway of the new church. Mary, Rudsen our interpreter, Joseph, and Bill. this morning. Sunset last night

On the left the men are putting up the forms for the concrete columns. The columns stabilize the brick walls. They are reinforced with the re-rod that you can see sticking out above the froms. around the perimeter of the church walls there will be many columns. We are anxiuous to see exactly how the concrete makes its way into the column as the opening is about 10 feet in the air. The chance of a cement truck coming is nill. I guess we will find out tomorrow morning.

NOTE

Just make matters more interesting, the Microsoft operating system is in Portugese here. Every word on the screen in MS Explorer, etc is Portugese. It is a challenge ! I just try to remember where things were located on the screen in the US. Bill A bought Veruska a new keyboard and that has been great. I know they appreciate it !

Monday 10-20-08

Joaquin, the bricklayer and supervisor. Very nice man and very hard worker! His daughters go to the Dr Fabio FMC. Below is Pastor Ney and Bill working on the small area next to the church. We leveled the ground (somewhat) and then staked out the foundation for the other building thyat will house 2 bathrooms and 4 classrooms in 2 stories. They use a long plastick tube of water to mke level marks on the stakes.

You can see the new church wall on the left and the small tree that provides shade for our water breaks.

Some Photos

Mary is having a pedicure on Saturday at the home where she and Bill are staying. The young lady doing the pedicure is Mariella and she is one of the people who was baptized on Friday. Next to Mariella is Pricilla who is the 3rd daughter of our host family (Cida and Evaldo). She was also baptized and is such a neat kid. My pretty toenails will be a souvenir.
This is Bill with a neighboring pastor friend of Cida´s. He is a ballo of fire. Everyone kids us about eating a pig´s head, but he is the 1st person to actually offer us one ! (We declined)
This is Saturday morning when Dave, Bill A and Pastor Dan left for the airport. There were tears shed on the steps of Pastor Ney´s house!
Bill A often held Pastor Ney and Varuska´s baby daughter Rebecca!
A Macaw that we saw on our trip to the Chapadas with Dan. They are found in that area.

Update

This is a photo from the baptism service held Friday . 3 teens and 1 adult were baptized in a river near Dr Fabio. The service was very similar to our service, including the singing and clapping. Pictured is Dan Owsley and Pastor Ney and Priscila. She is one of the 4 daughters in the house where Bill and I (Mary) are staying. She is a really neat young lady. After the service we all went swimming. The water was very clear and cool with a great current. The kids had a blast! For me is was very refreshing after all of the heat.
The only thing missing was the FM sandwiches and desserts!




Dave:

There is too much to say in the little time I have to get this done this morning.

Pastor Ney and his wife Val and their children are very special to us.

We are having a blessed time that they have been preparing for months for.

I have especialy been relating to the youth here and we went to get ice cream last night after the service.

One boy in particular has been my best buddy and we have had a great time learning to speak to each other.

from mary

Weds-

Where do I begin? It has been an amzing trip!

We arrived at about midnight Saturday night . As our car pulled up, there was screaming, a banner and fireworks ! Yes , they purchased 4 firecrackers and lit them off when our car appeared. They also had a big spread of food (FM style) and they all introduced themselves to us. The names were a bit overwhelming but we gradually learning names. In all there were about 40 people and they are members of the Dr Fabio Free Methodist Church. There were alot of teens and they were all enthusiastic to meet us.

Dan Owsley is our watching out for us and doing alot of translating. He is great and you can tell that the Portuguese people love him and he loves them. We also have another interpreter. His name is Hudson (pronounced U son or something close) . We don~t have the same sounds that the Portuguese do, so they laugh alot at us. It´´s pretty funny. Hudson will be the interpreter for Bill and I after Dan, Dave and Bill A leave tis Saturday. He is involved with YWAM Youth with a Mission and is a missionary. He is passionate to learn English so is very excited to have the opportunity to work with us. He knows some English. He is from Brasil and is 17 years old.

Over the last 2 days we spent about 9 hours or so visiting the Dr Fabio Public School. Dr Fabio is the name of the neighborhood where we are working. It is named after DrFabio who gave the land to the people. It seems to be a few square miles at least. In each classroom from about 3rd grade to adult, we did a presentation. There were about 15 classrooms that we visited. The Pastor spoke (Pastor Ney, pronounced NA with a long A) , Dan spoke, then Dave Parham spoke about why we are here and telling the students how wonderful they have been to us. I brought a photo album of our church, our family, our house, etc and explained that and passed it around. The students found the photos of our church and house quite unusual. The structures are very different here. They asked alot of questions about our weather and found it very funny that our lake freezes and we go skating and ice fishing. Note that it was 106 degrees here yesterday. What do you think of that, Judi Ransom??? They have never experienced cold or even cool weather. It was in the upper 80s when we went to bed last night. (Don´t feek bad for us - we are blessed with an airconditioned bedroom - I never expected that) . I have to go - I will be back.

Later- Bill S talked about his teaching job and our puropose. I apolize - this ccomputer keyboard has a mind of its~´ own and when I hit the dele te back button, the whole thing erases. So bear with my typos. After Bill S spoke then Bill A gave his testimony. All students were rivited with this. Pastor Dan of course translated all that we said. At the end Pastory Ney talked about accepting Jesus and several students raised their hands. Remember - this was a publicj school! and the principal and teachers wanted us there. There is a photo of the kids prayingh. Pastor Ney and his wife Veruska have it on their hearts and are passionate about bringing the youth of this community out of their cycle of drugs, vices, prostitution, etc etc. They feel that having an in at the school with us, was very meaningful. It was very meaningful to us.

Linda Parham asked me to watch over Dave so that he wears his sunscreen, remains safe, etc. Bill and I have found Dave to be a handful! I just want you to know that. And we love it! Dave is the kid magnet, both at the school and at the church and in the neighborhood. It has been great. You will see a photo of Hudson with his finger raised among the photos that Dave has already . dave nicknamed Hudson "Obama". That caused a big laugh! More later. Gotta go.

ola from cuiaba - be calma

okay, we started working mon. and i know why no one moves real quickly down here, because it´s around 110 in the shade.

the site is in a location up the street from the place they are currently renting. so this is going to free them from that cost and give them double the space. we carried blocks and bent wire that was for the supports of the walls at the ends and sides.

all the brasilians have figured me out and want me to calm down.


calma is the term that they use for me since i´m sort of a hyper type A.

the rest of the folks from jackson are much smarter than i in this regard, but am learning to relax. out of necessity.

what we came for...

street football, and schoo visits

i played with this dude - they know all the prise songs that we know. at the end of the sunday evening service we jammed on \i could sing of your love forever/ it was a G0d thing that you had to experince, awesome!

man these are the most genuine and real people, we are amazed by the warm and caring love that we get at the worksite, at school and in their homes.

get this, they live in places we wouldn´t consider but don~´t have any concerns or hesitations to give whatever they have and be humbly aware of others first, what a concept...

we actually have a obama look alike (hutson) from the brasil wyam who looked at his own likeness against the candidate and gave his own impression, above.

more to tell....

Sunday was childrens day and we had a service/celebration that lasted over 5 hours!! With the assistance of some WYAM students we truely experienced their love and blessings.

Wessed to be a part of the family of God here. There are so many wonderful people, each with their own story of salvation. It is humbling to know that we have been prayed for by several members of the church here prior to our coming for several week.