June in Review

June was a great month for us! We are completely assimilated into our routine and we finally feel like we are making meaningful impacts here.

Classes

Our classes reached record attendance! We had to get additional chairs to seat all the children and we are trying many different ways to get more tables to accommodate all the kids.

Some kids have had to stand up for activities because we don't have enough seats!

The reason we have so many children this time of year is that the kids are on their “winter” break. Most of the time the kids go away to the “interior” (country) to visit relatives and celebrate a successful harvest for the feast of São João (St. John the Baptist).

The kids drew pictures of what São João Festival is like

It’s like our Thanksgiving, but it is one of the largest holidays here. They decorate with banners and eat corn on the cob, boiled peanuts, corn bread, and other fall foods. But, because the economy isn’t very good (inflation is at 8%), not many of the families in our community could afford to travel. Of course, that is mixed with the fact that our classes are just awesome. Kids are bringing their friends and their siblings and cousins.

Typical decorations of this time of year

We celebrated by going to the historic center this year, but after the first hour it was too crowded to even see the concerts or hear any music so our night was pretty tranquil.

Typical banners for this time of year

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We have settled into a new routine for the classes. We have different classes for each day of the week. 

• Tuesday: Art  
• Wednesday: Film
• Thursday: Music
• Friday: We have a volunteer, Sonia, who comes to do an extra-fun activity
• Saturday: Catechism and Games

Sidewalk chalk outside

Kara with Gabriel and Giovana
Coloring the new popular kind of coloring pages here

Irma Dulce

In addition to our work with the children, we are volunteering at one of the largest nonprofits in Brazil, the Irma Dulce Center. Blessed Irma Dulce (soon to be Saint) is like the Mother Teresa of Brazil… and she is from right were we live. 

She started a social service agency that is extraordinary and huge. A network of free hospitals (which we used), a bakery, services to the homeless, single mothers, elderly, you name it. We are privileged to be able to partner with them to teach English as a second language in the historic center of Salvador on Saturdays. We have fifteen adult students.

Our House

As we said before we had a mold infestation in our house, which we controlled with bleach and vinegar (at one point toxically mixed). This worked for about a month, but it is back. We’ve gone over a week with constant heavy downpours every day and the water is seeping into our walls again. This made our wardrobe as well as most of our clothes grow mold. But, we cannot clean it until it dries so we can wash everything.

Mold in our dining room.

But, the mosquito situation is improving. After we went away for a week, most of them that were in our house died off and we have been extremely careful about keeping every last one of them out. We wage a serious war on those that sneak their way in with little electric racquets.

Our electricity keeps burning out, but we are looking forward to the power company coming and connecting a new line this coming month. Maybe we can have a warm shower without burning our wires through. Hehehehe. 

The white wire powers our entire house. 

We celebrated our three-year wedding anniversary in June. We went for a romantic dinner next to the beach. It’s been a crazy-fun adventure. Looking back we have no regrets. Even though our life is absolutely insane, we couldn’t imagine it any other way.

We are coming home for some doctors appointments for two weeks at the end of July. We will then have more to report after that. Thank you to all who have been supporting us and our mission financially and with you prayers. Keep it up, we depend on you all to carry Jesus to these far parts. Love you all.

Recovering from Heartbreak

We were planning on making this blog post a pregnancy announcement, but as many of you already know, we unfortunately miscarried our dear baby. This is our second miscarriage since our wedding three years ago this month. Miscarriages are seriously one of the most difficult thing that a human person could have to endure. 

Thank you to the many of you who expressed your sympathy and for those who took time to write to us with encouragement. Many people asked us why we announced our pregnancy to so many people so early and the reason is that our baby's life is worth being celebrated, no matter how short. Life is a blessing and even though we are suffering now, we do not regret telling anyone about the life with which we were graced for 11 weeks.

Because of the difficulty of the process and the many many medical procedures we have had to endure, we took a week off from the mission and spent the time allowing Kara's body to recover, grieving and sleeping, processing all that just happened, and also we were able to plan for upcoming weeks. It would be most helpful to us if you would continue to pray for us as we grieve. It seems to be the most helpful thing anyone can do to help. 

We also want to give everyone a heads up that we will be returning to the US for two weeks at the end of July/early August in order to get some added medical advice. Please pray that we are able to continue our missionary endeavors while growing our family. 

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Here's what happened in Alto this past month...

Our Portuguese skills went through the roof as we did all of the courses for the children for two weeks... alone... all in Portuguese. We were scared for nothing. The children were incredibly patient and thoroughly enjoyed all of the projects we planned. 

Some of our projects included: 

• Teaching the kids how to make pizza
• Pentecost headbands and coloring projects
• Learning the story of Esau and Jacob 
• Playing ping pong (thanks to those who donated to help us get the set!)
• Sidewalk chalk and soccer outside on a rare sunny day
• Leaning popular songs

In addition, we are able to send 25 to 35 young people on a youth conference this month thanks to several of you who donated! THANK YOU. The cost was $2 per person and for the young adults here, that is a lot of money. What a blessing to have our friends pull through and help us out. 

A minor problem happened when the rain didn't stop for three weeks straight and our walls started growing black mold. We rapidly got a major mold infestation in our whole house. Our office had a twin bed in it, but in just 48 hours the entire bed because green, so much mold that the bed frame was beyond being saved. Our walls are block and cement, so we were able to bleach the walls clean and we used vinegar on the floors and all of our clothes. After three days of working and God's grace with two days of significant sunshine we are now safe from the mold! The rain has let up. Although it rains every day, it is just a little and the sun in out a lot more now. Our neighbors helped us out by making a drainage hole in our retaining wall to let the flood waters out (keeping it out of our basement floor). They also cut down the trees that were in the front of our house which lets a lot more sunshine down below to dry out the cement for soccer games!

It was my turn for Zika Fever. It's a strain of Dengue fever that has become an epidemic here in Brazil. When you get bit by an infected mosquito you get a fever, headache, dizziness, and an itchy red rash that covers your whole body. Kara had it last month and it was my turn to overcome it this time. It wan't as bad as I anticipated, and now that I got it, I think I am immune from getting it again. 

Thanks again for your prayers, stay connected to our Facebook page and Instagram page so you can see pictures of the kids and more about what we're doing here.