We arrived in Brasil safe and sound on July 13th, 2002.   We've made it through a few rough times of culture shock and appear to be on the brighter side now. Keep praying for that though, because I hear there are different stages of culture shock at three months, six months, etc...

The last week in September  was our eighth week of Portuguese language study, and as our co-worker so aptly put it after listening to our three and four year olds converse in English: "We're somewhere about six months to a year behind them in Portuguese." We are feeling settled into our apartment now, and had a break from our classes in September. We took the opportunity to get out of the city and be refreshed in the country side of Brasil. It was indeed very good to get away from São Paulo. It was a much needed break from the racket, and hopefully we are able to head into this next semester much more refreshed.

We were able to renew our visas for another three months. Thank you for praying. This is a major blessing.

We have learned the hard way that not all words are created equal. For example did you know that baba and babá are two very different words. The only difference when spoken is in which syllable has the emphasis. They mean "drool" and "babysitter/nanny". - Be careful when you ask your neighbor if he/she has (a) baba(á)!! Also, coco and cocó have very different meanings! coco is coconut and tastes very good on a tapioca pancake with condensed milk dribbled on it. On the other hand, cocó is the word for what we leave behind in an outhouse, and will definitely draw some looks if you ask for it with your tapioca pancake! Please pray that we will be able to keep our sense of humor and also a keen desire to keep learning and talking with people in spite of our 3 year old vocabulary, and misuses of words.

We really appreciate your love, letters, prayers, financial support, phone calls, and know that we couldn't be here without you! Although our average support for the past year is up to around 67%, giving over the last couple of months has petered off a bit. Please pray for more people to join us as regular monthly supporters. Thank you all so much.

Church Bulletin Blooper:

The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference includes meals.