Monday, May 26, 2008

Life is sort of back to normal...

Almost a month has passed since we left Brazil, but with todays technology we manage to çommunicate either via msn, e-mail, or SKYPE almost everyday. Sure beats the olden days when we only managed to hear from one another every month or six weeks, especially when we were scattered between Brazil, Africa and Canada. Earl is busy helping out in Mozambique and won't be home the end of June, while I'm busy trying to get the yard spruced up for the summer.

Luke is living with Pat & Eric, and she is helping him get all his government required ducks in a row so he can work in Canada, he has already lined up a job, so things are falling into place. I'll be by my lonely self in our house when my sister and her husband who were house sitting, move out! Next week we leave for Edmonton to be there for the Samms banquet, and to attend Earl's niece (Bernice Grynke's) wedding. Pat and I will be driving down, a first for us. Pat is on long term sick leave, her health has improved somewhat, but she still suffers a lot of back pain and has two more surgeries to face. We would appreciate your prayers on her behalf.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Back Home Again!

Our six-week visit to Brazil was interesting, adventurous and entertaining… We took a trip to the interior in our Volkswagen mini-bus, a two-hour drive over the roughest dirt roads I can remember. We felt like eggs that had just been scrambled.
We spent a very interesting time visiting in this rural community where Mount Horeb has been working toward helping poor families. They go out there every Saturday, and spend the entire day there helping in a number of ways. The government has closed all the local schools and the kids now have to bus to school about an hour and a half each way. The roads are so bad that when it rains they simply become impassable. The school year started the beginning of February and so far these kids have only managed to get to school for 20 days. We climbed hills, stepped over creeks, and visited a number a families and drank a lot of “chimarao”. A national drink that boasts to cure you of whatever ails you, and if nothing ails you it promises to keep you healthy.
On the lighter side our good friends, the Camargo’s offered us (Earl, I, Lynn & Dwight) the use of their lovely beach house that has a pool in the front yard where we lolled for three days, played games, got in lots of reading, and took some long walks in the beach as a plus we got sun-burned in a few bare spots.
We managed to visit with most of our friends and spent a lot of time at the mission with our directors Bebeto & Suely, and the rest of the staff. It was just so great to be there and know that we are loved and appreciated for so many… at least that’s what they tell us. Frankly, we think they highly exaggerate on it… We are thankful to the LORD for the marvellous privilege of serving Him in this beautiful country with its wonderful people. We all went to the airport on April, 28th where Earl, Dwight & Lynn left for Mozambique and four hours later Luke & I boarded our plane to Canada. We all arrived in our destinations safely and are glad to be back on solid ground. Earl doesn’t come home until the end of June but I have a lot of yard work and gardening to do before then. BC hasn’t had a nice Spring so far, but the last few days it’s been sunny and warm and I couldn’t resist getting out and getting my fingers in the dirt. You will be hearing from me more often from now…