The Ups and Downs of October

October had some ups and downs but that’s how life goes. This post is full of random tidbits from throughout the month.

Some of these ups and downs are quite literal. The Vinde kids and I are working on our song for the Christmas party. Of course, I had to get up on the desk to illustrate the significance of telling the good news on the mountain, right?

I went back to the doctor and my test results were good. No cancer, but I now have this big ugly scar on my shoulder. I have to apply a cream for 6 weeks to slough off the skin there, but no cancer.

Since it’s October, preparations for the Christmas party are well under way. So, of course, I had to decorate the house and watch Christmas movies while I made over 400 pipe cleaner candy canes and another 85 for centerpieces. Brazilians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving so there’s nothing slowing me down from decorating (except Trevor).

Interestingly, Carol went to the post office and was told she couldn’t mail a package to the USA. This is stemming from the tariff issues between the US and Brazil. By law the post office was not allowed to do that; but they did. We will see how all that pans out in the coming months. Lots of prayer regarding our visas would be greatly appreciated, seriously. The country could decide to not renew our visas given the current political situation.

We have a sweet little boy that has started coming to the program last month. He and his mom are in a tough place right now. When I asked how school was, he responded that he didn’t go, hasn’t been going, and was probably expelled for missing too many days. I reported this to Liandro (who, of course, was already aware of the situation). He is working with the mom to get the paperwork sorted out to get Vitor back in school. It’s so heart breaking when the kids suffer for the actions of the parents. What’s even worse is that the boy doesn’t even seem to care that he’s not going to school or learning. Education is not highly valued here. He’s such a sweet kid; it hurts my heart.

The boys had fun hanging out and playing games with David before he headed back to the US.

Trying to get the kids to practice lining up for the Christmas program proved harder than I imagined. But then Julia asked Cianna to take her picture with me and “our” lego house. Difficult or not, I love these little stinkers.

Our intermediate English kids are doing great. They are working on a semester long project. One day we took the opportunity to make cookies using a recipe written in English using standard measurements instead of metric. The teens had a blast and the rest of the staff were excited to sample their hard work.

English classes and devotions. I love working with this ministry and I love the opportunity to serve with my husband and my kids.

They are so invested in the program. It’s heart warming.

The kids were so great during devotions. Normally, they are kind of crazy but the did such a good job listening and participating.

Learning God’s word isn’t the only thing that happens here. The kids also get tutoring and physical activity among other things.

October meant Vinde camp. We have mini weekend camps almost every month, with kids coming from different places, but this month camp was just for our kids here in the program and they loved it.

Mason was even invited to help with camp, along with Eduardo, Marcella, and Giovana.

Mason worked backstage while the teens were counselors. Even with all the rain, it didn’t put a damper on the activities. They moved the “bonfire” inside and kept smiling.

While at camp, a table top fell right on top of Mason’s big toe. It looked a lot worse after this picture was taken. It eventually swelled so much the toenail finally gave up the ghost and fell off; the whole nail. Poor fella. If something is going to happen, it’s going to happen to him.

It is wonderful to see all four of them grow in maturity and in their walk with the Lord. They took this opportunity very seriously. Eduardo said that it was amazing to be a counselor. He used to be right where those kids are and now he’s getting to help them navigate things they’re going through in a Godly way. Sometimes God allows things to happen in our lives so that we can help others in such a personal way that others may not be able to and to see him recognize that and lean into it is awesome. I know God is going to use this young man in a mighty way.

The boys Bible study is going well. They all enjoy the weekly meetings, even if it means they clean up dinner dishes afterwards.

Brazilians celebrate their daughter’s 15th birthday in a big way; and I mean big. It was like a wedding. When a family has a daughter, they start putting money aside from birth for this event (or they can choose a trip). We were invited to attend this party for Nicolly, Marcella’s sister. She had something similar to bridesmaids and a maid on honor (except in this case it’s your friends and sister, respectively). The party invitation said it started at 5pm, but we know by now that we weren’t showing up until 6 and even then we were one of the first ones there.

There was food, cake, daddy daughter dances, choreographed dances with mom, a DJ, a Photo Booth, speeches. I mean, really, it felt like a wedding.

Nicolly looked like a princess and it was such a honor for our family to be invited to this special moment.

Of course, Trevor had to gloat over the fact that Daniel comes to him instead of me…every…single…time.

Since the teens have been working so hard on their English project, I took them out to lunch to McDonalds. They were so excited. As we were walking in, Aisha said, “Tia, let’s only speak English while we’re at lunch.” They were talking and laughing the whole time. They are excited and nervous about their presentation next month but I know they are going to do well. They are so precious to me.

Brazilians don’t really celebrate Halloween like we do. But we are still keeping our tradition of scary face pancakes (although this year there were no faces just whipped cream, chocolate, and candy) followed by a trip to the store to grab candy to eat while we watch It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and the Garfield Halloween special.

The berries are starting to get ripe. There are berry trees throughout the public spaces in our neighborhood so it’s free game as you walk along.

Our roof is still leaking. The roofer has been out so many times and still can’t get the upstairs leak fixed. He has stopped returning the landlord’s phone calls. It looks like this is how it will stay. Luckily, the downstairs leaks all seem to be fixed for now.

Like I said, this post was random. The next two months are going to be busy so I better go take a nap. Tchau.