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.