(you may want to get popcorn for this one =)

Being one that prefers to err on the side of being over prepared rather than underprepared these past several weeks have been a real stretch for me.  And to be completely honest, confidence in my preparation was just one of the ways that I have felt stretched lately.   I also found myself for the first time responsible for the training and equipping of a new missionary family as well as leading teams of mostly teenage evangelists through some of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in one of the world’s largest cities. But through it all, God kept reinforcing one central lesson to me.  That lesson… will be the subject of today’s e-mail.

But first things first: let’s talk about these past couple of weeks.

The days between January 5^th and January 13^th have been marked on my calendar for months now as the days when the Almeida family would be with us for a week of intensive missionary training.  For those of you that don’t know: Paulo and Fernanda Almeida, together with their two daughters Laura (14) and Luana (10), are the first Brazilian family that has applied and been accepted to serve as missionaries in a different country.  This is very exciting to us as an entire organization, as OMS is increasingly trying to involve itself in this next great paradigm shift in world missions.  This shift involves us facilitating the sending of missionaries from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world.  The thing is, athough there is a great desire to see this happen through out our whole organization, much of our infrastructure is not yet geared to facilitate this.  So, it is new territory for all of us.  It is new territory for the Almeidas to be guinea pigs in this process It is new territory for Marla and I as OMS Brazil is serving as a sending agency and not just as a missionary field, and it is new territory for our international headquarters as they must decide the logistics of all of this.  Though it is new territory for all of us, the potential is tremendously exciting.

Well as January 5^th was approaching, I was hoping for waves and waves of e-mails from headquarters with pages and pages of training material ready to go; ready to be translated and simply delivered.  What I found out was that much of OMS’s training has been transformed into facilitated group discussions.  According to this training style, many topics are covered by a group facilitator who guides conversation by well thought out questions.  It is a training style that is both very effective and a form of art.  But it means that there aren’t pages and pages of material ready to be simply passed on.  So as the training dates drew increasingly closer, and I was in great contact with our training department (who helped as much as they could), I had far less material than I was hoping to have when the Almeida’s arrived.  Marla and I didn’t want our time with the Almeidas to be a waste of their time, and yet we felt almost completely unprepared to deliver the level of training that we desired to give.  We felt as the disciples must have felt when Jesus told them to feed the multitudes of hungry people and they only had 2 fish and 5 loaves on hand.  But how?  With what?  It isn’t enough.

And yet as the training began and progressed, it was amazing to see the little that we felt we had, being multiplied.  To sum it all up, we had a tremendous time with the Almeidas.  We had great times of training, great times of laughing, great times of investing, great times of worship and great times of prayer.  The training took various forms from conversations around the dinner table to skype conversations with the trainers at our headquarters in the USA.  And by the time they left we felt that we had been incredibly blessed by their visit and been a blessing in their lives.  But how?  We only had 5 loaves and 2 fish?

Well there wasn’t much time to reflect on this because the next event was quickly approaching, and I only had a week to unbury myself from the work that had been piling up in my office while we were training as well as prepare for the next week long event.

“What was the next week-long event?” you may be asking.  Well, it was a mission trip that the central church here in Maringá does every year.  Last year, as you may remember, we had gone a couple hundred miles north to the city of Campo Grande.  Half of our group had remodeled the church up there while the other half of us did some door to door evangelism.  Last year, I was responsible to lead one evangelism team of 5 people.  This year the church that was selected was in the city of São Paulo.  We approached this project with the same scheme as the last: half of us (about 25) would help in the remodel, while the other half help in evangelizing the neighborhood.  The church that was selected to receive help had been planted by OMS missionary Max Edwards and is pastured by an elderly pastor named Pastor Celestino and is in a very, very poor part of São Paulo, just a couple blocks away from a slum.  And this time, instead of just being in charge of 1 evangelism team, I was responsible to organize and lead the entire evangelism effort.  “Ok, I can do that” I thought to myself…. Little did I know…

So on Sunday morning of the 22^nd, at 5am, and extended cab pickup already packed to the gills pulled up to my house to pick me up to take us to São Paulo.  Our caravan of 2 cars (8 people) was responsible to prepare the way and “set up camp” for the larger group of 40 that would be arriving some 15 hours later by bus.  We arrived late afternoon to a church that was obviously in construction chaos.  The paint was falling off the walls in big areas because of water infiltration in the bricks, the rough concrete floor was littered with chunks of brick, paint and wood and everything was covered in deep dust.  The building was dark and dingy inside, and I thought to myself that there was absolutely no way that we’d be having service that night.  (Here in Brazil, church services are typically at night).  Comforted by this thought, as the electricians and the people who people who actually knew about construction, wondered around for a couple hours with their hands on their hips examining the condition of the building and planning their next move, I grabbed a broom and started sweeping.  Others followed my example and we made a lot of dust in that small church before we carried out about 3.5 gallons of dust.  Only when we moved to wiping down the church benches did Pastor Celestino informed me that we would be in fact having church and that he wanted me to preach. When Pastor Celestine asked me to preach I looked down at my watch and realized I had only 2 hours before church was to begin.  Though I agreed to preach and looked calm and collected inside, I began to panic inside.

Now just so you know, typically it takes me about 35 hours to prepare a message in Portuguese.  Looking at my watch, I had only 2.  Not only this, but I was filthy, I was exhausted, and I didn’t even have my computer.  Back to my 5 loaves and 2 fish.  My only consolation was that I hoped that the church wouldn’t have very many people.  As quickly as I could I locked myself in the pickup with a pencil and paper and began to jot things down from sermon that I had preached months earlier, but my thoughts weren’t very coherent and my mind wasn’t as sharp as I had hoped.  Now I only had 1 hour 15 minutes.  But wouldn’t you know it, by the time the service started, God had opened way for Marla to send that very message that I was trying to remember along with the accompanying presentation to me very unexpectedly.  The church was pretty full when we started, and God once again blessed the little that I had to offer.  It was a good service.

Only after the church service did I go down to reunite with the rest of my group who were busy setting up our camp about 6 blocks away.  Wow, what a scene!  It was about 10:30pm and people were spilling out into the narrow street from the various bars and parties that were happening all around.  There were a lot of people dealing and using drugs and one police car that was parked in the middle of a narrow intersection half a block away with its lights on.  The 4 policemen were not having much success trying to control the crowd that was obviously intoxicated.   After a bit, the policemen hopped back into their car, revved their engine and sped away.  The crowd, liking this reaction gave a spontaneous cheer and continued their parties to the extremely loud music.  This victory was short lived as the police car returned about 15 minutes later with three other police cars with it.  The cars parked in the middle of the street at various places and began shutting down the street.  The people scattered before them like cockroaches when the lights get turned on.  And yet in the same way, when the police left half an hour later after peace had been “restored” they returned to the streets.  Their music once again pounded our building, and the party once again resumed.

Now, in my ignorance, I thought the scene was pretty funny; and I as tired as I was, I had no problem sleeping that night.  The pastors leading the trip, however, had different thoughts.  They were more than slightly worried.  In fact, they had even considered calling the bus (already in route) and calling off the whole trip.  Only later did the gravity of the situation hit me.  In American context it would have been like taking 50 members (many of them teenagers) from a church in lets say Lake Oswego, or somewhere well to do, and putting them in the heart a place notorious for drugs and violence… lets say… south central LA for door-to-door evangelism.  (**note: Our method of evangelism was to meet people, tell them where we were from, and invite them to a special theatre presentation that would be taking place at the church next to the bakery.  Then, we’d ask them if they had anything that we could pray about.  Usually by that point conversation was either flowing or not.***)

In fact, before the trip, I had even been told not to talk much on the streets because of my American accent they didn’t want me getting kidnapped.  Now I’m not sure if they were joking or not, but not being one who prone to this kind of fear, I took their advice as a half joke. Then add to this that when Pastor Marinez had further divided the evangelism teams into 5 groups of 5, in my group she had put most of the prettiest teenage girls.  You know the ones that draw people’s attention simply by walking down the street.  The thought even occurred to me as our group was walking down some of these streets lined by guys drinking beer in the middle of the afternoon, “Do I really want to take these girls down these dark alleys where most of the people live?”

Actually, I thought the whole situation a great opportunity for the people of our church to have a true cross cultural experience.  I had outlined a series of devotionals for them to challenge each of their spiritual walks.  Though it did take us a few times of hitting the streets with people Pastor Celestino’s church to get comfortable in those neighborhoods, we were completely shocked at how well we were received.  Even those who looked like hardened drug dealers showed respect for Christians and even let us pray for them.  We entered into neighborhoods and houses the likes of which most on our team had only seen on TV.  We walked up the steep paths of the shanty towns and entered many “houses” that we wondered how they kept the rain out.  We heard every kind of story imaginable.  From a guy who had died for 28 hours to a father who had intentionally moved into such an impoverished place to help take his son out of his other friend group and a life of drugs.  There were single moms and people whose family members were addicts or in prison. We prayed with people, we cried with people, and we were encouraged by many Christians who live in those neighborhoods who’s light for Christ is brightly shinning.  It was FANTASTIC!

Also, I had great chances to invest in the lives of these evangelists.  I led a devotional time every morning.  Also, I lead bible studies, game times, times of sharing and times of reflection.  Being in such a cross cultural situation, it was a time when we could see almost visible signs of spiritual growth.  As we concentrated on listening to God and following His guidance, I heard over and over people say things like “I felt like I should…” or  “I think God was telling me to do such and such… but I’m not quite sure.”  It was great to hear people beginning to quite down enough (some for the first time) to intentionally listen for God.  And then it was great to hear how God was speaking; how God was challenging and how God was changing people.  It was great, and it was exhausting.  Between working with the teams, working with the leaders, preparing times of training and devotionals, it wasn’t until Friday evening that I had time to call Marla and the girls for the first time.

On Thursday night a team of 7 of us got into 3 different cars to drive an hour and a half across the city to do a midweek church service for a church plant that Pastor Celestino’s son had started about a year ago.  We brought with us a worship leader and some teenagers to sing in the worship band, and won’t you know who they asked to preach?  Yup, that’s right.  At least this time I had been informed a couple days before that I’d be sharing.  But unfortunately, up until that time, I hadn’t had any time to prepare.  So I thought to myself… “at least I’ll have 1.5 hours in the car to think of something.”  But while in the car, I heard God tell me just to relax… that I needed the rest… and that He’d help me when the time came.  Well, happily, I sat in the car and pretty much zoned out for an hour and a half.  Because or traffic, we arrived 2 minutes after the service was supposed to start.  The worship band jumped out of the cars and took their places, and when they began their first song, I took my notebook and went to the back of the church.

“Ok God, what do you want me to say?” Here I sit, 5 loaves and 2 fish again.  I scribbled down some things, and by the time the fourth song ended, I was ready to preach.  The message went out, and I was surprised (considering how tired I was) how well my Portuguese came out.  The message was well received and I even saw people wiping tears from their eyes as I shared.  God made my mind return to phrases that I had said earlier and tied everything together perfectly at the end as if I was a pro.  Even the song that the worship group played directly after I shared seemed to tie in perfectly with the theme of the message.  And as I sat down after the end of the message, I thought “man God, I would have liked to prepare more.”  And God said “being anointed has a far greater effect than being prepared.”

In ministry, and perhaps life in general, it becomes so easy to place a great emphasis on being prepared; on having our ducks all in a line.  But without anointing, where is the power of the message.  I think that it is interesting that after Jesus spent 3 years training and preparing his disciples for ministry, he told them to wait for the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes it’s so easy to seek to be prepared for God’s work, but do we seek in the same measure to be anointed… to be empowered by the Spirit?

These past couple of weeks, over and over again, I felt as if I had nothing to give.  And over and over again I felt the pleasure of God using me.  I have felt the power of your prayers.  It made me remember the example of a pipe.  A pipe that is full of itself carries very little water.  But a pipe that is all but empty, can carry a lot of water to people who need it.  In the same way I also remembered an equation that our pastor always gave in his messages.  He always told us to remember:

God + 0 = God

Let us continually remember to be the 0 so that what others see will be God.

Training time with Almeida family

The girls

Almeidas and Routons

External view of church in Sao Paulo -before

External after

External after at night

Church inside- before

Church inside- after

In the neighborhood with team

Talking with kiddos

My team

Our whole team

For Christmas this year we decided that rather than buy presents for each other, we’d take a family vacation to a beach on the coast of Brazil.
It was a….

4 am alarmin’
Car seat sleepin’
Christmas carol singin’
I spy playin’
Coffee drinkin’
Peanut munchin’
Backseat colorin’
Potty break stoppin’
Downpour rainin’
Silly story tellin’
12 hours travelin’

to arrive at Barra Da Lagoa on the island of Florianopolis for 10 specatcular, perfect, much needed days of,

Sand castle buildin’
Sunscreen slatherin’
River floatin’
Seafood eatin’
Family hikin’
Friend makin’
Wave jumpin’
Sweet surfin’
French fry eatin’
Crab huntin’
Shell collectin’
Lake swimmin’
Movie watchin’
Bunk bed sleepin’ (the girls LOVED it)
Late night gigglin’
Internet/phone lackin’
Ice cream lickin’
Suntan gettin’
Sand everywhere-in’
Dune climbin’
Early morning walkin’
Guitar playin’
Family hangin’
People watchin’
Sunset enjoyin’
Picture takin’
Memory makin’
Fantastic family vacation. I’m thinking’ this needs to be a new tradition….

View of Barra Da Lagoa, the beach where we stayed. You can see the river emptying into the ocean on the farr right of the beach.

French Fries!

Great, fun night...those whose talents were in the kitchen brought YUMMY snacks for after the show=)

Micah sang a David Crowder Band song "Only You"

Dance of worship

Such a special lady

We even had a special apperance from Jonah!

Women of the Harvest (WOTH) is a non-denominational ministry of support and encouragement for women serving cross-culturally. I was completely blown away by this organization, which by the way I’d never heard of before! The love and commitment of the staff and volunteers with WOTH was remarkable and inspiring. These 20+ women came from the states to pour into, love on, encourage and invest in missionary women from all over Latin America!

God used these ladies as well as the other missionaries to bless my soul, lift me up, bring me to tears and realign my heart to HIS. This included hearing from the Lord through His Word each morning as the retreat speaker talked about “our identity in Christ”. My tears flowed as I sang my heart out in worship and spent time in quiet with my Lord. Not just tears, but also laughter as giggles erupted when we heard stories of silly or embarrassing things that have happened to fellow missionaries. My mouth smiled as I sat at the table with my small group and saw just how perfectly God had placed us together. Peace filled my heart in times of prayer with intercessors. My jaw dropped at the lavish generosity of the gifts brought from the states (coffee creamer, chocolate chips, bath and body works, peanut butter!…) The nights got late as my roommates and I stayed up taking and talking and talking. My muscles relaxed under the hands of a fabulous masseuse. My doubts were laid at His feet through quiet meditation. My home was at peace with my fabulous, handsome husband there loving on, taking care of and playing with our girls. My waistline was expanded with chocolate everywhere I turned. My skin was tanned sitting by the pool chatting with new friends. My gratitude overflowed as I saw the Lord turn hurting hearts into healed hearts. My mind rested as others took care of details. I was reminded just how small the world is as again and again connection were made, “you know so and so? Really, she’s from my hometown, he was my teacher, my son went to school with them…” My spirit was refreshed and renewed through conversation and affirmation. My heart was filled with joy at His marvelous works, attention to detail and perfect timing.

I could go on and on and one about the blessing from this four day retreat. The WOTH retreat really truly was a retreat in every sense of the word. I feel like I was pampered as a whole woman. In my emotions through supportive conversations, in my body through massage and a pedicure, in my spirit though time in the Word and prayer, in my mind through rest and reflection. As I boarded the bus for the 10 hour ride home there was much to reflect upon. Not the least of which is how great a blessing and privilege it is to be a woman living the life God has called me to. Working and serving here in Brazil, praying for wisdom as we raise up our girls to know, love and follow the Lord. Learning to support, encourage and walk beside my husband. In a word the joy it is to be one of many, many Women of the Harvest!!

PS. Check out Women of the Harvest at: womenoftheharvest.com and tell all your missionary friends about this wonderful ministry!

The pictures below are from this retreat.

Best small group ever!

White elephant

Soaking up some sun

I just wanted to give an update on the two prayer requests that I send out a
couple weeks ago.

#1. Thank you for praying for Marla’s little brother Josh and the tests to see if
the skin cancer had spread.  The tests all came back cancer free and the
whole family is breathing a breath of relief. He said that until this
experience, he had never known personally the “peace that passes
understanding.”  He attributes that to the prayers of many, and wanted us
to specifically thank you all for those prayers.  So thank you!

#2. Our trip to Mozambique was better than even I expected.  All the travel
details went well, and Marla’s throat as well as Pastor Sandro’s wife’s
sickness cleared up shortly after we had arrived in Mozambique.  The
meetings went really well, and there have opened up many potential places to
partner.  One of the greatest felt needs of the young churches in
Mozambique is the preparation and training of their leaders.  There are
also great physical needs and potential evangelism projects around just about
every bush. What we had hoped to accomplish in this initial visit is establish
a relationship through which some of these concrete actions could be
facilitated in the future.  And beyond simply establishing this
relationship, we also came back with the green light to begin several different
projects.

The young leaders in Mozambique seemed to be like sponges soaking in as much as the
wisdom gained through 50 years of church experience as possible.  What is
great is that this partnership is between sister church organizations.  It
will not be simply one partner pouring into the other, but both churches
learning from and contributing to each other.  These are certainly new
days in world missions.  Everyone, from the missionary leaders to the
national church leaders to the Brazilian delegation, left the meetings feeling
very positive.  We do recognize that working on projects involving
participants from three or four completely different cultures is a lot easier
said than done; but certainly we have already begun to lay a good
foundation.  And these first concrete steps are certainly worth
celebrating.

On a practical level, I was much more involved in translating that I thought that
I would be.  I also did my best to begin helping our Brazilian brothers to
understand some of the dynamics necessary to be successful in cross cultural
ministry.  God’s timing was so evident through out these meetings, and it
was impressive to me that what we specifically prayed for, God made happen.

Thank you for helping make this all possible!

For
the only Cause that matters,

Micah

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Just a short note today and a few pictures.  Three things:

1. About a month ago, I was asked to preach / give my testimony to a group of young people at the central church.  What I didn’t know when I agreed to such a thing was that they were planning that night as a special service.  There was actually a lot of work that went into that service, from decorations to fasting and prayer.  Well, God was definitely present and even though all my notes disappeared after I had already taken the stage, God gave me the right words to say.  At the end of the night there were a lot of people that made decisions to follow Christ.

2. My tickets for Mozambique have been purchased.  I’ll be leaving Brazil on Oct. 6 and  returning the night of the 13^th.  Thank you all who contributed to this fantastic opportunity.  Please pray for clear communication as we meet to discern God’s will in all of this.  Pray for our health as we travel (I haven’t been quite able to shake a cold for about a month now) and for our families in our absence.

3. This Saturday we’ll be holding our final “revival event.”  Following the same format as the other events that we put on, this one will only be a lot closer to home.  About 10 minutes from our house.   The past events were marked by a tremendous sense of God’s presence where God also confirm His calling on many people’s lives into full time ministry.   We would ask for your prayers for more of the same at this event.  One of the big differences in this event is that instead of  having 300 to 700 people
signed up like we did at the last two events; we have 1,700 already signed up to attend!  Needless to say, I’m trying
not to get nervous as I prepare what God would have me say in my 15 minutes.  Pray that God would use me and
Pastor Jacó (principally Pastor Jacó) as His mouth piece.  Pray that He would already be preparing people’s hearts.  Pray for the worship band and for all logistics of managing a group of that size.   We have great excitement and expectations
for this event, and I’m already excited to report back to you in a week’s time.

Well what do you do if you accepted Christ at 6 years old like I did?  Click the following PDF to read some of my processing through the questions: what was I saved “from” and how is my life now different.
Before and After

Daddy brought home two kites!
We went to a park with Gramma and Grampa Oregon to fly our new kites and it was FUN! My favorite part of the whole day was when my Daddy had to climb up high in a tree to get the kite out. Mommy took some pictures and here they are….

Faster Daddy

This is the coolest thing ever!

...up to the highest hight...

Gramma, look at my kite!

Uh Oh...my kite got stuck in a tree and Daddy went after it just like a monkey...and he got it!

 

I'm on top of the jungle gym

Playing in the sand

Noelle is two years and two months old and a total riot!

She runs everywhere she goes and pumps her little right arm to grandiose proportions. The loud slap, slap of her feet on the tile floors precedes her big entry into whatever room she’s heading. She’s got these big beautiful eyes that look up sweetly as she says “peeeeese” (please) and those same big eyes produce some big tears and lots of snuggle time when she’s sad. Noelle is my wake up slowly, snuggly time on mommy’s lap is high priority little girl. Temper? Yes! Foot stomper? Yes! Usually both feet alternating. Seeing how Samara never stomped her feet and neither do Micah or I, we’re not sure where she picked that one up. Noelle is just starting to talk more and she mixes her English and Portuguese together. “Mais juice por favor” or “Sis brincar with me” lately she’ll come into the kitchen grab my hand, look up and say “mahahn.” This mean come on!! She’s blessed with a kind of deep and super loud voice.
Noelle’s favorite person in the world is Samara or “Sis” as she calls her. They are super great playmates, and it’s fun to listen in to the conversations they have while playing together. Noelle loves to “go out” for walks. She is always picking up sticks and rocks and stuffing them into her pockets. She is forever thrusting handfuls of flowers in various states of mashedness into my hand, and she has reminded me just how cool ants really are. The cupboard in the kitchen where the mixer lives makes a little squeak. When Noelle hears me open that cupboard she comes running, knowing there will be beaters involved. Noelle loves to wrestle and rough house and climb all over her personal jungle gym, aka. Daddy. Noelle gives the BEST hugs ever, and always kisses people on both cheeks. This little bundle of laughter and energy brings endless giggles and noise to our home and joy to our hearts!

Samara is four years and one month old and is a very sweet and very busy little girl.

dancing

She wakes up with her mind already full of the things she want to do. Play dress up, make a pretend cake, dress dollies, organize her closet…so much fun to be had that she has to get going right now! No time to snuggle for this girl, time’s a wasting. (never was a snuggler, more like holding a bag of antlers) Samara skips everywhere she goes and usually has some sort of song on her lips. Many of them are original compositions in either English or Portuguese. Samara is creative and is forever making up games like “tumble bumble” where we take all the cushions and pillows from the couch and cover the floor then “tumble and bumble” in them. She loves to draw and color and practice writing the alphabet and her name. We do lots of crafty things that involve glue and glitter and buttons and markers and stickers. As she says “I’m pretty good at making messes!” Samara is happy to stay home and play, often not wanting to go out, but always ends up having loads of fun finding bugs, and beetles and pretty flowers on our walks. She likes to “help” mommy around the house and is a great little window washer and laundry folder. Being a big sister makes Samara pretty important around here, she totally loves Noelle and is a very sweet, protective if often bossy big “Sis.” Samara loves stories, and we have lots of books that are well worn. She also loves for Micah or I to make up stories or tell her stories about when we were kids. I once told a story about a little horse named Sparkle and I’m certain I’ve now told hundreds of Sparkle stories as he has become her favorite character. Having devotions in the morning is something Samara never forgets, running to place her little Bible on the table at breakfast time where we spend a few minutes reading and praying together. She often likes to “read” Bible stories to us or to her grandparents via Skype. Dressing up in her princess or ballerina clothes always brings out the dancer in Samara and it’s off to crank up the music and twirl around the living room, usually sweeping Noelle up in the excitement of dress up.

Two girls, so different in so many ways and yet so special and dear to one another and to me. I would love to add some more little ones to our quiver… but God knows better than we do and thus we trust Him and are overwhelmingly thankful for these two sweet, busy, happy, silly little girls that we are blessed to be entrusted with. I thank God for every smile, giggle, tear, pout, fit, hug and moment that I get to be their Mom.

Somehow, I found myself smiling with a little chuckle under my breath all day long. How could I not be full of joy after the sweet, sincere Portuguese Bible lesson on Skype that began my morning. Just like she did it every day, Samara got her Bible and explained that this part was in English and this part was in Porgutuese and wanted to read me a story in Portuguese. I couldn’t understand the words, but the eyes and hands told it all. This was an important message! “Now I will tell you in English,” my tiny teacher offered. I heard about God’s name, his love, his death on the cross to forgive me, and that he loves14 and 22 hundred people all at the same time! I was informed that I would die and go to heaven first, then she would grow up to be a grandma and come to heaven and we would be together EVERY DAY…but maybe she might die first…we really didn’t know. I was instructed to be sure and tell Grandpa ‘Laska that he would be in heaven with us, too. And Gma and Gpa Oregon…and Noelle…and Uncle Josh and lots more people. When I sugggested Samara tell her daddy the story she just told me, she informed me that he already knew all about it.
Then the topic turned to the Israelites as Samara thumbed through the pages looking for the right place. The Portuguese version of the story was quite lengthy, once again filled with expression and gestures and was followed by an English translation. Those Israelites marched around SEVEN times and that wall just fell right down. “And this is a TRUE story!!” she emphasized. After that came the Porgutuese counting lesson way past seven…all the way to thirty.
Noelle joined her sister in front of the camera with a pile of books of her own. So eager to be like big sister, Noelle’s storytelling is on its way! The dancing eyes and big smile tell it all. After the 5 minute warning that it was naptime for the girls and work time for Grandma, Noelle blew kisses and we said out goodbyes. I logged off and was preparing to leave for work when a Skype call came right back to my computer. “Never forget, I love you Grama’Laska. Bye.”
“Never forget, I love you Samara, Bye”
I think everyday in heaven with you will be almost too good to be true!

This was the girls Christmas present from Gramma and Grampa Oregon and Gramma and Grampa ‘laska.

They were just a LITTLE BIT excited!! A few minutes later after we’d explained that this was a present from their grandparents, Samara got a funny look on her face and asked “How did they fit it in a box?” She thought that like all of the other great suprises and presents that have arrived in Brazil from Grammas and Grampas that this playhouse must have come in the mail. This little pink house has been the location of many a giggle, a kitchen for making cookies, a nursery for armloads of dollies, a jungle gym for Noelle as she climbs in and out of windows, a hopital for sick stuffed animals and it was even caroled by Micah and I on Christmas eve as we “visited” the girls with a plate of cookies singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas. And I have a feeling that this special delivery will keep on delivering fun and laughter for years to come.