A Typical Week

Over the past few weeks we have gotten into a groove somewhat with our schedule: A typical week looks like this. (keep in mind every week is subject to change so I use the word "typical" losely)

Monday/Segunda: Staff Meeting-We meet every Monday with all the staff to talk/plan/update.

Tuesday/Terça: Usually study Portuguese in the AM and then class in the PM.

Wednesday/Quarta: Campus day, we spend the later half of the morning on campus and have lunch with students, using this time to cultivate and go deeper in relationships.

Thursday/Quinta: The busiest day for us. Campus in the AM, I am currently studying the Book of John with two Engineering students+lunch with them. Portuguese class in the early PM. Late PM-Discussion Group or Futsal depending on which week.

Friday/Sexta: AM: Different from week to week. PM: Usually spent with other people/students/community doing various things, dinner/birthday party/etc.

Saturday/Sabado: AM: I (Brian) go to campus to do a Bible Study with a student studying Economics. PM: Relax

Sunday/Domingo: AM: Relax/Read/Listen to a sermon in English. PM: Church

•Abbey is studying the Bible with a few girls but I think they study on a different day every week.
•This schedule is subject to change

Thanks for reading.

BH

Dia da Independencia

Last Wednesday was Brazil's independence day, the 7th of September.  Throughout the day I was congratulating all the Brazilians on having independence and everything that goes with that.  Turns out it was a bloodless revolution, I was more excited than anyone I talked to. So no one was too excited about the holiday but people were very excited because we had a Church Day on the same day.  It was a day where the whole church spent time together, we played games, ate, and had a worship service where 21 people joined the church and 4 were baptized.  It was a great day with friends and family and a great day to celebrate the power of the Gospel.

New Members

Comunidade Horizonte

Back to School

That's right we are going back to school, although we have a car now so we don't have to ride the bus and we also buy our lunch at school, we are cool like that.


Classes are starting back at PUC-MG and we are excited about what the Lord is doing post-CCP.  We have several people that are interested in studying the Bible.  Which is something that is really neat to see. People that have never opened the Bible or much less own a Bible are studying the Bible. That is really cool. It is amazing to be a part of what the Lord is doing here and being able to see Him work and its even more refreshing to know that it doesn't depend on me.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. "
                                     -Acts 17:24-25

Thank you for reading.

Recap

For the past 7.5 weeks we've had a group of US college students from Campus Outreach Memphis here in Brazil working with us.  The group left last Thursday night.  While they were here they did a great job of stirring up a lot of action on the campuses of PUC-MG and UFMG. New people are involved in the community from the summer, some are Believers, many are not. Please pray that the relationships can continue to grow and mature especially during the month of July while the students are on break.

Caio and Marco Tullio are freshman Engineering students at PUC.

Clarissa is a freshman Engineering student at PUC and she is friends with Caio & Marco Tullio.

Ana Luiza is a Psyschology student at PUC.

Matheus is a law student at PUC and is involved with the community, Wes was one of the students from Memphis.

Group shot from the Final Retreat.

Thank you for your financial support and prayer. God has been teaching us a lot lately on the power of prayer and how helpless we are without Him. Continue to pray for us, we thank you more than you know.

The Land of Holidays

This past Thursday was Corpus Christi day here in Brazil.  When I asked Brazilians What is Corpus Christi day?  Most don't know and say its some kind of Catholic Holiday but since most everyone gets off work for Thursday and Friday no one seems to be complaining.  Below is a list of the Brazilian holidays, you can click on the name of holiday to find out more about it.

Date Week Day Name January - 01 Saturday New Year's Day March - 05 Saturday Carnival March - 06 Sunday Carnival March - 07 Monday Carnival March - 08 Tuesday Carnival Tuesday April - 21 Thursday Tiradentes April - 22 Friday Good Friday May - 01 Sunday May Day June - 23 Thursday Corpus Christi September - 07 Wednesday Independence Day October - 12 Wednesday Our Lady of Aparecida November - 02 Wednesday All Souls Day November - 15 Tuesday Proclamation of the Republic Day December - 25 Sunday Christmas Day At first glance you may be thinking that this is not a very long list. The amount of days on the list is not much but you need to add a day to most holidays and keep in mind that everybody takes holidays here in Brazil. Once you add in the months of January and July the two big travel months for Brazil you now have the Land of Holidays. Our Sindica put it best when she said, "Do you know of another country that has as many holidays as Brazil", she said this as her family was packing to visit their country home for the holiday.

Origin

The theme for the CCP this year is called Origin or Origem in Portuguese.  This past weekend we kicked off the festivities by watching the movie Origem or Inception in English.  We used this film to drive the talks and discussions. Here are pictures from the weekend.

Group Shot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pricisila & Abbey

Presentation

June 14 2011

Its been a few weeks since we last updated the blog.  We are in our busy season, a group of Americans from Campus Outreach Memphis have been here since the end of May and we are swamped with time on campus, language classes and transitioning to life here in Brazil. Things are going well. God is giving us favor on campus and we are meeting new students and some seem very interested in what is going on with the Americans and the community.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.

I will write more later and try to post some pictures from last weekend.  Last weekend we had a weekend away in the interior of Brazil with the community, new students, and the CCP(Americans).

The Americans are Coming, The Americans are Coming...

Actually they are already here and have been since the 13th of May. Every year a group of US college students visit Brasil for two months and labor with us on the campus.  The name of this program is called the CCP or Cross Cultural Project and this year we have 20 students from Campus Outreach Memphis.  The schools represented in Brasil are U. of Memphis, Arkansas State, and Murray State.

This is a big time for the ministry and a busy time as well.  Our time right now is spent in two main areas, campus and language.  We are visiting the campus 3-4 days a week right now and have language class 3 days a week.  We are very busy but we are excited about the new challenges and responsibilities.

There could also be a third category as well: Driving.  We are driving a lot more since we have a car and it is nice. What is not nice is the traffic here in Belo.  We live 10.8km away from the campus of PUC, that's around 7 miles.  It takes us about 25-30minutes going to campus and sometimes coming home can take 40-50 minutes.

Pray:
Please pray that the Lord will provide us with energy so that He can better use us to glorify His name.

Thank you for reading and for your prayers and financial support.


BH

Friday the 13th

 We've been a little busy lately and I have not updated our blog in a few weeks.  A group of US College students arrived today and will be here for the next 7 weeks. They will be working with us through the summer and it will be an exciting time for all.

We bought a car last Friday.  A few hours later were the most stressful hours of our time in Brazil as we were parking the car in our parking spot, which is located on the ground floor of our apartment building.  As the automatic gate was shutting on our car Abbey found reverse and our car just got a little paint on it from the gate.  We tried again and it was a success. Our sindica came out and showed us how to park and we have been getting better everyday.

This is our car, well not exactly. We have a black one but its pretty much the same as this. Its called the Volkswagen Voyage.

We want to thank all of our supporters who give financially to our ministry here in Brazil.  It means a lot to us to have a team behind us.  Thank you!


BH

BOXES or should I say CAIXAS

We got our boxes yesterday. One of the more exciting days in my life in the past couple of years. It was kinda like Christmas, except you know what you are getting and you really like everything you get and the things you open already have special memories to go along them. So its even better. I would even suggest to all the parents out there, take your child's favorite toy or stuffed animal away from them around early October, wrap it up and give it to them for Christmas.  You'll know for sure they will like it, they will miss it dearly, but when Christmas Day arrives they will be filled with so much joy it will be magical. I know it sounds unorthodox but you never know you could create a new tradition.

60 Minutes & Brazil

What is the capital of Brazil?.....If you said Buenos Aires, you are wrong.  As a former Geography teacher I will not tell you the capital or where Buenos Aires is located. You must find the answer for yourself. 

Last December, 60 Minutes did a little story on Brazil and its growing economy.  Brazil had one of the fastest growing economies last year and it looks to continue this year and even longer as the World Cup and the Olympics will both be in Brazil in the next 5 years. As the Dollar is weakening the Real (pronounced Hey-al) is gaining strength. 

Still don't know the capital of Brazil?  Watch the video and then search Google or maybe you own a globe.

Thanks for reading

BH

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7143554n

Music to our Ears

Some people might be interested in what we are listening to right now.

Red Mountain Church is located close to downtown Birmingham.  We actually had our wedding reception at the church.  They've been doing exciting things with music, they revamp old hymns. We've been listening to All Things New, the newest album from them. Click on the link and you can listen to all the songs for free.

 Listen to the whole album for free here.

Check out Red Mountain Church here.

Thanks for reading.

BH

The Tour Stops Soon

I thought it would be a great idea to give you guys a tour of our apartment. The tour of our apartment ends a little soon because the camera I am shooting with needs to be charged. The thing is the charger to this wonderful camera is in a box somewhere in Brazil being shipped to our apartment.  Back in February when we were packing items around the end of the packing we started just throwing things in. Well, we threw in the cord that charges this camera. So we have the camera we just cant use it till we get the cord to charge it. Right now its a wonderful paperweight.   Hopefully we will get the cord to charge the camera soon and I can finish the tour.

Where We Are

We are a little over six weeks into life here in Brasil. Most of our energy during the first 6 weeks has been used on transitioning and studying Portuguese. The biggest news we have to give right now is that there is now furniture in every room.  Thats right, furniture in every room.  Over the past week and a half our apartment has transformed from what looked like a college dorm to what is now a respectable apartment.  I know I should post pictures so everybody can see but I haven't done that yet but I will.  What I will do is leave you with a 13 minute video about Brasil.  Brasil was featured in a 60 Minutes piece last December.  It talks about the wealth of natural resources and the challenges facing Brasil.  It also give a pretty accurate view of the culture.

Click on the link below to watch the clip.

Brazil's Rising Star-60 Minutes



Thanks for reading.

BH

Passado Semana/Last Week

On Monday and Tuesday of last week everything around us was closed. I mean everything.  It was Carnaval here and its a lot bigger than Mardi Gras in the US.  Most of the people that could travel, did just that.  The city was very quiet.  While the rest of Brasil was dancing the Samba and enjoying friends and family during the holiday, we decided to paint our apartment.  We will show some before and after pics later.  We also had Portuguese class on Tuesday and Thursday and bought mattresses Friday.  The company we used was Mil Colchões. Which translates to 1000 Mattresses.  Its a great company and they delivered and set up the mattresses the next day.

Oh I almost forgot to mention. Last Saturday was my birthday. 28 years young or old depending on how you look at it.  The picture below is from the restaurant Abbey and I went to along with two other staff couples for the big celebration.  Donna Margherita, its a pizza buffet unlike any other. This is no Cici's Pizza!. The place was packed, I think everyone was there for my birthday.

Thanks for Reading!

Happy Birthday!

101 Rua Artur Joviano Apto. 302

Earlier this week we acquired our apartment and then spent the week getting it set up.  Yesterday we ordered appliances and earlier today to our surprise the stove and washer were delivered. With the help of our síndica, Fernanda, she helped us hook up the washer and stove.  What's a síndica?  From my understanding the síndica is kinda like the manager of the building you live in. Fernanda is our síndica and so far she has been a huge help.

Here are a few pics of the apartment:

Sala de Estar/Living Room

Sala de Jantar/Dining Room

Cozinha/Kitchen

Quarto/Bedroom

So You Wanna Be A Missionary Part 1:

The Metric System
While you don't need to know how to convert inches to centimeters in order to share the Gospel, its definitely nice to know how to convert inches to centimeters when looking for housewares to put in your apartment. Or to know how many liters of gas your car takes.  Or to know how much food weighs on your plate when ordering by kilograms. 
When shopping for furniture this week, Abbey and I were constantly looking at each other and trying to figure out just exactly how long things were when we were told the measurements in centimeters. If you want to be a missionary, learn the metric system.

Thanks for reading!

BH

The Apartment Search is Over

Most people will tell you to not get the first apartment or house you look at when looking for a place.  Well...that is exactly what we did.  We looked at an apartment about a week and a half ago and liked it but decided to do the rational thing and look at four more.  We like the first one so much we put an offer on it and it was accepted.  We signed the contract late last night and today we had to authenticate the signatures on the contract and then pick up the keys.  Pictures of the apartment will come soon.  For now enjoy some pictures of a storm we had here yesterday. 

All of the pics were taken by Abbey.  We had a lot of lighting here yesterday and she picked up her camera and started clicking. I think they are pretty cool and I am not just saying that because my wife took them.

Our First Full Week

Last week was our first full week in Belo Horizonte and it was packed with meetings, acquiring our CPF card and looking for apartments.  Last week all of the campus staff met for four days last week to plan for the whole year, we also were stimulated by Tim Keller's Gospel in Life small group study.  A study we did about a year ago with our small group in Birmingham.  It was great to do it again in a new setting.

We also acquired our CPF card.  Its much like a social security card that you have in the states.  Our day last Wednesday started at the Federal Police where we had our visas validated.  A short car ride to the center of the city and three lines later we had our CPF card.  Now we can get an apartment.

We looked at three apartments last week and are looking at two more tomorrow.  The leading candidate right now is an apartment located on Rua Artur Joviano.  We will keep you up to date on the apartment search.

 

This is Belo Horizonte

We're Here! Part 2

Sorry for the shaky camera and the copious amounts of "ums". Next time I will get a cameraman and write a script.  For now sit back and enjoy the show.

We're Here!

Here is a picture from out the window in our room, its the southern part of the city.  I took some video as well but I am having a difficult time uploading it. I will try to post the video later.  We are here safe and sound with all of our luggage.  We had dinner with the staff and had an orientation meeting and today we are having a welcoming party with staff and students.

We want to thank all of our supporters, friends and most importantly our family for supporting us in this journey.

Tchau


BH

Moving Day

Boxing Your Life Away
Last week was spent boxing most of belongings into four foot tall boxes, preparing them to ship to Brasil.  It was quite comical packing the items into these boxes, we started out organized as we could be. We would weigh everything to make sure nothing was overweight and write down what items were in what box but by the time we got to the 7th box we were just throwing things in, a sock here, printer cables(that go to the printer thats in box #4) a shirt, Abbey's wedding dress(just kidding, no wedding dress).  We know it will be very interesting when we open our boxes, we will pull out pots and pans alongside t-shirts alongside sewing items alongside the alarm clock we put in there that I am really missing right now.

The Company
Do you have any shipping needs to Brasil? Visit BR Courier at brasilcourier.com.  This is the company we are using and so far have been very impressed. Ask for Renata.

The Moving Truck
 Below is my truck loaded down with our belongings.  On the other side we have three boxes and a dryer.  I was very impressed with the F-150s capability to handle this load. 

The Clock is Ticking

Here is a quick update:

February 8th is coming soon.  We still have to finish some paperwork and set some things up before we leave.  Yesterday we found a shipping company that we will use to ship some items to Brazil and we are figuring out the best to pack things that will most likely not be handle with TLC (and no I do not mean the music group from a few years back). We are getting things checked off our list (literally) and we can not wait to be done with paperwork, which looking ahead will be a while.

Thanks for reading.


BH

Happy New Year!

We are get closer to departing for Brazil.  The Lord moved in an amazing way in December with our support.  He brought in $600 last month and we already have $230 committed in the first six days of January.  We currently need $375 a month and then we can leave for Belo Horizonte, Brazil.  It has been a privilege to see the Lord work, and I know that might sound kinda weird or off but it really has been a privilege to see the Lord move complete strangers to join with us.  Its not always easy but I can honestly say that I feel privileged.

I just want to say thank you to all our supporters.  We really appreciate you all.

BH