We have officially celebrated our first Christmas in Brazil. I think it was a success. It was certainly different. This was our first Christmas ever without our families. We most certainly missed them! Christmas eve was particularly hard for me, but, we were praising the Lord for technology as we talked with everyone on Skype-I don’t know what I’d do without it! It was also different because the temperature was around 90 degrees-that is certainly new! It made it very difficult to get into the “christmas spirit”. To be honest, I was a little bit of a grump. The constant sweating and lack of relief (we don’t have air conditioning) was really getting to me. I’m not supposed to be this hot at Christmas unless I’m sitting by a fireplace drinking hot cider!!! Then I woke up on Christmas morning and God reminded me, “Excuse Me Teresa, but why are you so concerned with feeling the ‘christmas spirit’ and not concerned with making sure the birth of my Son is being celebrated in your house??”. It hit me like a ton of bricks. While its a bummer, its ok that our families are far away, its ok that we’re hot-that doesn’t change why we celebrate this holiday!! It was such an attitude check for me and the day totally changed. We had a great time reading the candy cane story by Max Lucado to the boys and having little talks about what Christmas is. It turned out to be a great day. We tried to celebrate like we did at home-lasagna for dinner, cinnamon rolls and hot cider for breakfast (yes, hot cider in 90 degree weather!!), the sweet treats our mom’s make every year. The boys didn’t skip a beat, they had a great day. We are soooo thankful that our container was released from customs to the boys could have their christmas gifts. Their grandmas and grandpas were so generous, the boys were so excited!!! Santa surprised us with a pool for our patio so we can have some relief from the heat (there aren’t public pools here), it has been a great blessing the last couple of days!!!

Yesterday we had our first brazilian visitors for the weekend. We have made some friends with some of the teens (age 14-25) in Gravatai, a city nearby where some missionary friends of our serve. Yesterday, 3 of them took the bus and came to our house for the day! It was so fun! We hung out and spoke lots of portuguese since they don’t speak english. It was really nice to entertain again, and we were right in our comfort zone with college age people(except for the no english part)!!! It made me get an itch to get language school done and get on with ministry!!! Next fall can’t get here soon enough!!

Até mais…

As I write this, I’m eating a yummy bowl of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. This is the super healthy dinner that was preceded by a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches and peanut butter spread on cookies. Yes, it is as unhealthy as you imagine, but it is also better than you could imagine. Why, you ask? Its just mac and cheese and peanut butter! But for us, it is a taste of familiarity. Skippy and Kraft never tasted so good!!! As you have probably gathered, we finally got to access our container contents today. It has been a long and tedious process, but better than its been for some!! We did not bring everything back to our language school home because this house is already furnished, so some stuff is in storage. But, we thought since we are constanly surrounded with so many things that are foreign to us, it would be a relief to come home at the end of the day to a place that feels familiar. We ended up bringing a little more than we thought we would, but the Kombi proved its worth!! It functioned like a truck as we packed stuff into it. All in all, it only took 4 trips! Now we are unpacking and trying to find a home for everything. It may seem crazy to go through all this to live here for another 10 months, but we think it will be worth it!!

Today marked the end of 9 weeks of language school. We are now on summer break, or in portuguese, férias. We will not have any school for 7 weeks. That has its pluses(no studying) and its minuses (no formal learning). We are looking forward to having some time off to explore our city and surrounding areas. We have definitely learned a ton in 9 weeks with even more yet to learn!! The last 2 days, we have been reading a short story about these silly, slow moving turtles. We read the story at home, then today we discussed it and had to answer some questions to check comprehension. We were able to comprehend quite a bit of it, but there were still alot of words and verb tenses we didn’t know. I asked our teacher, Pri, where she got the story…it is from a 3rd grade reading textbook!!! Slightly humbling, yet at least it wasn’t a kindergarten textbook!!!

Bom fim de semana!!!

I just ventured out, by myself, to a grocery store about 15 minutes away. It was a great 15 minutes. I decided to put on a little Chris Tomlin “Arriving”. As I was singing along with my buddy Chris, it was as though God said to me, “this is what you have been missing”. In all the hustle and bustle of new city life, new language, new culture, new people(pretty much new everything), taking care of the kids, school, house, etc., I had forgotten about the way God uses music in my life. I have been reading His Word, but something has been missing-until my ride to the grocery store. As I cranked “God of this city” and sang at the top of my lungs, tears flowed down my cheeks. I ended up sitting in the Kombi in the parking garage because I didn’t want the music to end! How could I forget the connection I get with God when I worship Him in music??!?

Its amazing how when we lose just one portion of the means God has given us to grow in our relationship with Him, we can completely lose the ability to function in a God glorifying manner. The last couple of weeks have been filled with some difficulties that have, at times, pushed me over the edge. The shouldn’t have pushed me over the edge, but it was as if I had no ability to think rationally. I know now it was because of a lack of worship in my life. I think God uses different modes of worship to speak differently to each of us. For some, it is the study of His Word, for some it is sermons, for some it is a good book. For me, it is music. Having the opportunity to be alone with God, not cleaning, not getting a snack, not studying-just me, some music, and God.

God spoke to me today. It wasn’t through the specific words of Chris Tomlin, but through my act of worshipping Him through “Arriving”. I am so thankful for that 15 minute drive to Bourbon Shopping Country where the Creator of the Universe, Who was with me in Iowa, reminded me that He is right here with me when I feel so far away from everything familiar. I guess I’ll have to ride around by myself in the Kombi more often…