Monday, September 7, 2009

3 WEEKS TO GO AND 42 YEARS AGO

WE'RE DOWN TO THE FINAL THREE WEEKS. All our financial support is in, all the library books for the M.K. school have been purchased, and all the "goodies" requested by missionaries already in Portugal have arrived and are packed in suitcases ready to take to Portugal. The next blog up-date will be shortly after we arrived in Lisbon.

But first, we wanted to take you on a short trip to Brazil. It dates back to 1976 when God allowed us to go to Sao Paulo for nine years, teaching missionary children during the week and working in one of the local Brazilian churches on the weekend. It began when we were appointed by the sending organization, The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE). It was exciting to receive our commission at the end of our 30 day training period.

We had originally planned to travel to Brazil on a Japanese "ocean liner" but at the last moment the U.S. government disallowed travel since the safety railings were painted the wrong color. Knowing now how sea sick Bill gets, we are pretty sure God had a hand in this. That "ocean liner" was pretty small. The next photo shows us getting ready to take off on a flight to Brazil--our oldest son David in hand.









While in Portugal next month, we are hoping to find a street market similar to those in Brazil where we made our first household food purchases. We really loved shopping (and bargaining) at those markets.



We close with our final image of those days in Brazil: Bill along side his class of 4th grade students. Oh, to be young again !

And so until we reach Portugal, we bid you a fond 'ate logo, which means until later. We love you all and thank God for your prayers for us.

In His service,

Bill and Cathy