Terrific Tennessee

These beautiful flowers are just off the front porch of the Pott's home. Just beautiful and so relaxing.

We enjoyed seeing the Potts, Dan, Sara, and the boys, as well as Bob, Janelle, and Olivia for a couple of days. They surprised us with a going to Brazil-themed party complete with fantastic food as well as green, yellow, and blue decorations. We always enjoy playing with the kids and the park had lots of playground stuff. The time went by too fast!

We are going to try to contact the consulate in Brazil next week to check on our visa process. Some decisions must wait until we have the visas in hand. Thanks for praying for us.

My mountain named Brazil...

Jim recently preached from 2 Peter and I was thinking about 2 Peter 3:14. We are to be diligent, even facing the mountains in life, because we look for the return of the Lord.

So we are still putting one foot in front of the other as we pack and finish getting ready to move to Brazil. Please pray for our visas to be granted soon.


"Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless..." 2 Peter 3:14

Moving, waiting, and packing

We have returned from our trip to Maryland and Virginia. Dan was officially ordained last Sunday, and our family was able to spend some wonderful time relaxing on the beach at Sandbridge, Virginia.

Last evening Jim reported to our home church. It was so good to talk with many and be encouraged in the Lord to move forward with our plans to go to Brazil in August.

We will go down to Bob and Janelle's tomorrow to help them move from their current apartment to a different apartment in a better location. It is an exciting time of change.

We are waiting to hear from the Brazilian Consulate that our visas are approved. When that happens we can buy plane tickets and pack our container to go to Brazil. It's a busy time.

We thank you for praying for us.

Big mission accomplished!

We got some more papers from Brazil yesterday.
We stayed up late to copy and organize all of the stacks of visa paperwork.
This morning we took another trip into Chicago to visit our friends at the consulate (who are now starting to remember us....)

And they took all of our papers today!

They said all papers were in order and can be processed to get our missionary visas.

This has been a big job and we had been warned by others that it is a picky and long process. So we will pray. We won't hear anything from them until the middle to end of next month.

Thanks for remembering to pray for us.

Travels continue

We will be traveling to Maryland for this coming Sunday. As always thanks for remembering us in your prayers.




Psalm 109:21 "But You, O GOD, the Lord,
deal kindly with me for Your name’s sake;
Because Your loving kindness is good"

The last few weeks have been busy....

Since I last updated I went to Dan and Sara's to watch the boys for a few days. Sara was able to travel to her brother's graduation and enjoyed seeing her extended family. I have also been with Jim to a couple of meetings in Iowa and Indiana.

Last week, Bob and Janelle were told of some possible problems with her pregnancy so Jim and I wanted to be here in Ohio to help if possible. It may be that the problems have resolved themselves and Janelle will continue with a healthy pregnancy. I am still in Ohio. Jim is traveling this weekend to Virginia to be present at Dan's ordination examination.

Jim and I also made a trek to Chicago several days ago. We had stacks of paperwork, passports, money, and prayers for being able to submit all the required items necessary for visas. As it turns out we came very close to having everything. We are now waiting on two more pieces of paperwork from Brazil. We will go into Chicago again very soon to try another submission.

I am tempted to feel discouraged because I do not understand the details and timing of things. We are grateful for prayer.

Getting close ...

We have received the documents from Brazil (in Portuguese) that will be needed to apply for the missionary visas. We are still waiting on some paperwork from Alabama and some paperwork from Bob Jones University. We will be going to Chicago within a week or two with all of the papers to see if we meet their requirements for formal application. We hope to have everything in the correct order and with the correct legalizations.

Psalm 107:9 "For He has satisfied the thirsty soul,
And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good."

Unshakable Hope

Jim bought some roses for me on Tuesday. He was happy to have me come home.

While in Virginia Dan gave me an extra copy of the book, This Momentary Marriage by John Piper. We are to remember how an earthly marriage is a mere shadow of the glorious marriage between Christ and the church. I thought one statement (p. 99) in the chapter called The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission, caused me to think about praying for what I need.

A Biblical portrait of a woman: "Unshakable hope in God. Courage and fearlessness in the face of the future. Quiet tranquility of soul. Humble submission to her husband's leadership."

And we are not to faint in our praying, even when we don't always see the results we expected to see.

Jim and I will be in central Indiana for a meeting next week.

visa prayers

I have been in Virginia for a couple of weeks trying to help Dan and Sara with the boys, doing some cooking, etc. Hopefully Sara got some extra rest. I am happy to see them and sad that we will be gone from them for the time we go to language school in Porto Alegre.

We are deep into the paperwork processing of missionary visas. Please pray specifically that we will be able to dot all the i's and cross all the t's with the correct legalization submitted. The consulate in Houston legalized everything we sent them, so that is one part of the paperwork. We still need to get papers through the consulate in Miami, and then finally the entire stack of papers from all the consulates goes in all at once to the consulate in Chicago.

The language barrier adds a challenge, but we are confident we can do this with the Lord's help. Also please pray for more support to come in and for us as we take care of the house and household items. Thanks for those prayers.

A helpful book

Depression: A Stubborn Darkness by Edward T. Welch

I recently saw this book recommended on no less than three blog sites. I was not particularly looking for a book on depression, but the three bloggers recommending it are pastors and the author of the book is a man. I have read some good and helpful books by women, and I was interested in reading from a different viewpoint. I know this author has written other good books and he is not new to writing.

Anyway, I would say this book is hands down one of the best books I have read on the topic of walking with God and how we form relationships with others. It will be a good book to read again, and I will keep it for a very helpful reference; (i.e. it's probably going to make the cut for books I will be taking to Brazil!)

Please pray for upcoming meetings in February and for our visas to be approved soon.

Prayer for our political days

From a Life Action Revival Ministries prayer guide:

"Pray that Christians will seek the face of God versus the hand of God. That our chief concern would be His approval versus His blessing."

Material things don't seem to last or to continually satisfy. I would like to be approved by God more than I would like to be blessed by stuff.

"As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness;
I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake."
Psalm 17:15

We are continually helped by your prayers. Thank you.

Miracle of Grace

I have just finished reading The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges. The author reminds me as a Christian that I am now a miracle of God's grace. All saved people are miracles of grace no matter how good or bad their actions have been. It's easy to say, "Yes, I have heard that so many times, and what's new about that idea?"

For me the reminder is that there is liberty and freedom in loving and serving God. I have righteousness in Christ already, and I am constrained to serve Christ with grace towards others...every day.

"But may it never be that I would boast,
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"
Galatians 6:14

Thank you for remembering to pray for us.

Christmas contentment

Olivia was so good to pose for some Christmas pictures. She had different things for props but we know what really puts a smile on her face...!

Hopefully we all remember to be thankful and happy with the small gifts each day brings.

Feliz Natal!

This is for Olivia.
I have spent some extra time with Bob, Janelle, and Olivia lately. I really enjoyed talking with Olivia about the star on the Christmas tree. She seems to understand the star shows where the baby Jesus lies in the manger. She knows it from her own tree at home and also when she sees other trees, stars, and nativity displays. It is good to think about Christmas again through the eyes of a toddler!

Isn't it wonderful to have childlike wonder and belief in Bible truths?

Maybe this post isn't so much for Olivia as it is for me....

I have been trying to learn Portuguese vocabulary. One helpful daily link is "Word of the Day." Quite a number of foreign languages are offered. I choose Portuguese and each word is pronounced and then used in a sentence. Granted, these are baby steps, but remember how good it is to think in child like ways!

So today's word is "natal" pronounced something like "natouw." Anyway, Merry Christmas!

Thanks as always for praying for our support to come in. God is faithful.

In God's Time

We were in Iowa two Sundays ago and had a sweet time with the folks there. Also, Jim was invited to share a short devotional with the international students (Campus Bible Fellowship in South Bend, Indiana) for their Thanksgiving dinner. We met some new friends and enjoyed catching up with some old friends.

We have some meetings scheduled following Christmas and we need to schedule more. We are going to apply for visas in January and would appreciate you praying for the papers to be approved and the visas to be granted. We understand this process usually takes a few months. Once the visas are given we will have to enter Brazil within 90 days. We expect to try to get to Brazil sometime in the summer of 2009. We are asking for God to time this for us as He times all of His creation.

"The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter." Psalm 74:16-17

Thank you for praying.

Increasing support

We were informed that one of our supporting churches is increasing its regular support amount. Also a friend from our home church has told us of starting to give us support beginning in December. This puts us at 63%

In the middle of all this voting and economic messiness we are reminded by the Lord of His care for us, and we continue to move forward with our missions calling.

Jim recently spoke to a man at a Best Buy store about his need for the Lord in the light of a recent terrible cancer diagnosis. The man was ready to take the tracts given to him. Please pray for that man's salvation and encouragement.

We go to Ohio this weekend and to Iowa the following weekend. Thanks for remembering to pray for us.

Sustained and encouraged

We returned home last night following the closing service of our annual Baptist World Mission meeting. We left the Milwaukee area and drove through Chicago at about 1 am. It's a pretty good time to get through without fighting so much traffic! We got home and received some good news on the phone answering machine. A pastor from Iowa had called to tell us they wanted to begin supporting us.

So...drum roll please...we have broken the 60% level!

Tomorrow we leave to go to Virginia and will be there all day Sunday. Then back home to Michigan.

Please pray for that Virginia church and another in Michigan (where we recently presented) to take on supporting us.

I also wanted to praise the Lord for several key people we got to talk with at the Milwaukee meeting. We have a new field director and were specifically helped and encouraged by some other veteran missionaries. Their insight is exactly what the Lord needed for us to hear. We also spent time with the team leadership couple we will be most directly working with in Porto Alegre. The Lord has given us so much this week...the cup overflows. We are grateful to have gone.

"May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ." 2 Thessalonians 3:5

Fall blessings

The fall is pretty in Michigan. We were in Sturgis, MI for a missions emphasis Sunday at Fish Lake Bible church yesterday. The folks are so friendly and we enjoyed a great meal with them Saturday evening. Time was spent praying with small groups and we were blessed.

We will be in Wisconsin and Virginia for the last two weeks of October. God hes kept us going safely on the roads and we are at 58-59% support. We continue on and thank you for praying.

For who in the heaven is like the Lord?

"And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.... The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them." Psalm 89:5-11

Recently a missionary spoke with me in order to encourage me and he said, "God can shake the clouds in the sky to meet the needs of your ministry and the needs of your hearts." It is a simple and profound reminder of God's limitless resources. He does not leave us hopeless or helpless because He is not limited to my personal resources.

We travel to Maryland this weekend and will follow that meeting with a quick trip to see our family in Chesapeake, Va. Our daughter and granddaughter will come with us.

Pray for the clouds to be shaken! Thanks.

Waiting, rejoicing, and trusting

Psalm 33:20-21 reminds me, "Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name."

We are so grateful for many flowers, cards, and prayers on our behalf for my dad's homecoming to Heaven. The Lord is all we need.

Our son-in-law and daughter also suffered a miscarriage within hours of the time my dad died, and maybe there was a very sweet fellowship of great grandparents and great grandchildren that day in the tender arms of Jesus.

I trust it was certainly to God's glory and for His highest purpose.

We have received more support and are now at 58%. We thank you for faithfully remembering to pray for our needs. None of us can do well in the absence of prayer.