Archive for Bill & Sue's JournalTuesday afternoon, February 10, 2004
We were at the mall the other day, and all the stores were having summer clearance sales! Can it really be that time already?!
We’ve just finished lunch out on the back veranda, hamburgers done on the grill. Weather this past week has been beautiful, with temps in the mid-80s during the day, low-70s at night, and a nice breeze most of the time. That’s been a nice break from the upper-90s of the past several weeks. But enough about weather . . .
I've just finished working on a sermon for Sunday and finally getting prayer requests sent out. Sue’s at church right now working on a sign for the bazaar the ladies are having this Saturday. They are really excited about the sale and have lots to sell too, and are hoping to buy a stove with the money that comes in. Thursday they will be marking items and they have told friends and family to get there early the day of the sale. The young people have another fund-raiser going, collecting aluminum pop cans over the next couple months for activities of their own. Here, there’s no bottle/can return at the supermarket so that should be a good moneymaker.
Last Saturday at the youth meeting everyone had a great time with the first “Air Guitar Championship”. What air guitar is is to play an invisible guitar (or other instrument) to music soundtrack getting your motions to fit with the music. Most of the youth were reluctant to be a part, but they were happy to laugh and scream and cheer for those or us that did. Famous names were on hand, like Elfish, Barriga Verde (Green Belly), and Macaco Branco (White Monkey). Ben organized the program and Sue and I took part (figuring that no one else would initially). Sue did a great imitation of Elvis, complete with sideburns and even dressing like him. I was a Blues brother playing bass with a jazz group. I’m sure we would have embarrassed our own kids that night! There were comments like, “You mean that’s our pastor?!” But when Sue came out, there was complete silence, no one believing she’d ever do such a thing! But boy did she get the applause in at the end. Anyway, it was a great night of fun! The only bad part was that I failed to be a good missionary and forgot the camera, or maybe it was that we just didn’t want to be blackmailed by anyone in the future.
It’s been good to have numbers up again for services and Bible studies since the start of the new school year. Although, it’s been a little more complicated setting up discipleships since some of the disciples are back to class in the universities. Looks like we’ve reached the maximum number for Carnaval camp coming up in about ten days. Kids are really looking forward to it. We are thankful for the way everything is coming together for the Cornerstone soccer team visit. We are praying that their visas will be in hand by the end of this week especially after hearing of another ministry team from Detroit area had their applications turned down at the Brazilian consulate.
This month ten of our folks from church are having birthdays! That’s about 20% of our church family, and means parties every week. One of the guys that Ben is discipling had a party at church last night with a full Brazilian barbecue. There were about twenty-five friends and family out to celebrate. And there are still more parties (and birthday cakes) to come. Think I’d better close and go get some exercise. Tchau!
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