Note: If you are interested in hearing the full report and highlights.

We will be sharing about the trip for 20 minutes in each service (8:30, 9:45, 11:15 ) on Nov. 30 at Jackson Free Methodist Church.

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.