Look at all the cars in the church parking lot! It's a beautiful sight.
Look at how everyone is bundled up!
Here Marilsa and Lia help to stir the big pots of canjica.
The Nunleys In Brazil |
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It was cold and rainy last Saturday but that did not stop 130 women from coming to attend the ladies' meeting of the Curitiba churches (SOPASBRE). It was held at Igreja Batista Vitória, where we attend. Look at all the cars in the church parking lot! It's a beautiful sight. There were ladies from almost all of our sister churches. In spite of the cold weather, a special warmth was there as we sang and fellowshipped together. Look at how everyone is bundled up! Of course, the time of greeting each other helped to warm us, too! The special speaker was our missionary colleague, Ellen Farlow. She gave a wonderful devotional about having our lives strong on the Rock, Jesus Christ. We completed the time together by having some canjica, which is made from corn. In this case it also had sweetened condensed milk and peanuts. Here Marilsa and Lia help to stir the big pots of canjica. Vanessa dips some out for me to taste-test. Oh yes, I'll gladly do that for you...! It was the perfect food to help warm everyone up. Little lembrancinhas which the Vitória ladies made were given to each woman who attended, beautiful little bookmarkers to remember this special event. At each of these meetings (about 3 times per year) a special project is done. This time it was to bring gifts to give to Laura and Giovanna, the young daughters of a pastor in São Paulo, who lost their mother to the swine flu last year. It was so touching to see the table filled to overflowing with gifts from all of these women who have a tender and loving mother's heart.
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Caden Matheson Thorp One of the main difficulties of being a "foreign missionary" is that we are usually far away from family and loved ones. While we were on our trip last week-in fact, while we were sleeping in a little town where no one could get in touch with us-our eigth grandchild (5th grandson) was born. Upon arriving at our destination on the next day, we quickly checked our email and, sure enough, little Caden Matheson Thorp had arrived the night before. We thank God that all went well with the homebirth and mother and baby are fine...as are the rest of the family. Well, we'd do better if we could see the little fellow but...we'll wait for the Lord's timing as to when that can happen! Check out the rest of the Thorp family by clicking here. It was a VERY long trip to the state of Minas Gerais where we were in meetings for 4 days. We had some delays going there which made it longer so the total roundtrip was about 32 hours. We had to stop at about 32 toll booths...no kidding, but I guess that helped to keep us awake! The scenery was beautiful and varied along the way... from eucalyptus (seen in this photo) and orange groves to coffee plantations and fields of sugar cane, corn, bananas and sunflowers. The states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais have very rich soil! We finally reached the small town of Vargem Bonita which sits only a few miles from the Serra da Canastra seen in the distance here. The church is small and the town is laid-back...definitely with the small, interior town feel to it! We stayed with the pastor and his wife who are seminary graduates, Luiz Miguel and Débora and their 11-month-old daughter, Agnes. Come now, Agnes, give us a smile, please... ...there you go -Thank you! We enjoyed being with those who attended the services. The theme of the conference was about the family and there were several families there. It seems that everyone adopts little Agnes! On Saturday we went to visit a 186-meter-high falls, the Cachoeira Casca D'Anta, the main tourist attraction in this area. Sorry, but you only get one photo of it. We have many more but there isn't room to post them all! Today we celebrated the birthday of our Homeland on the 5th of July (since the 4th was on Sunday, an inconvenient day to celebrate together). There was a total of 25 of us, including 9 children. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and had plenty of side dishes as well as a CD playing American marching band songs...we felt like we were in the US of A for a little while... Afterwards, we celebrated the coming birth of the baby of our colleague, Erica, by giving her a baby shower. Erica's husband is studying at the seminary. Let's take a closer look at that pretty cake...Isn't it lovely? It was ordered from a local grocery store. We didn't want to cut through that loveliness, but cut we did...although we left the roses intact for Erica to take home. Lots of oohs and ahh's as she opened each gift. Here are the 8 ladies who had such a great time together: Christen, Mary Ruth, Sharon, Erica, Jan, Rena, Susan and Ellen. Friday began with much excitement as Brazil prepared to win their game against Holland in the quarter-finals of World Cup Soccer. That's "Brazil", as in, the whole country and not just the team! I (Rena) decided to go downtown where a big screen has been set up during these games and "experience the experience" of watching this one with the thousands of people who were there. I was not quite prepared for the emotion I would feel as I followed the crowd and neared the location of the showing of the game. I did't even have to ask where it was as everyone was headed in the same direction! Many police were all around to control things...just in case that was needed. At one time I counted about 30 of them just at the end where the screen was. The crowd was huge,.. and as I squeezed through... I was finally able to get pretty close to the front. Some people were watching from the windows of the nearby buildings... or from inside the stores (which had all closed), many sporting the yellow, green and blue of Brazil... ...but all with their eyes on the screen and their hearts in one direction: to win the game! (As a missionary, I also had other thoughts during this time...) It looks like things are beginning to go the wrong way here...Oh no, Holland is ahead! And so it ended, with Brazil losing to Holland 2-1. No happy smiles or scenes & sounds of cheering as we leave the game. This is the sad atmosphere we'll have to take into consideration during the next several days as we continue with our ministries here. But not to fear. Brazilians adjust (and we do, too) and life goes on! |
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