The Kindness of Others

Today is our 32 anniversary

and this is what we were greeted with first thing this morning!

Keren delivered this beautiful basket full of
wonderful breakfast items.

A gift from Calvary Curitiba.

We feel as though we are the ones that should be giving to them.
We have been so blessed here.

Thank you, church!

And speaking of blessings:

I don't often take a picture of my hand
but this was after another, previous blessing.

3 of the girls from the church gave me
the gift of a spa afternoon a few weeks ago.
I had a facial, manicure and pedicure.
They finished the time with tea and bite - size indulgences!
A most enjoyable afternoon.

Poor Warren, I think he

painted that afternoon!

That's right, he and a few of the guys have been doing some painting
around the church. Inside and outside.

I've done a little but my knee continued to limit
the amount
of time I could be on it.

However, it is much better now
and so I'm finding myself doing more and more
each day.

To Warren's relief!

We just finished our 3rd week of Portuguese lessons.

Pricila is our teacher and what a joy she is.
I actually look forward to our class time -
although, I can't say that about the homework yet!

And this weekend's homework is a killer!!!!

Ricado (the go to guy here at the church!)
young electrician, the boss electrician!

While John (the pastor of the church) is away
the people here have a mental list of things they want to accomplish
while he's gone.

The electricians came for several days and although they didn't
speak English "boss" guy
and I tried to communicate and had fun doing it!

You would have heard a combination of the two languages -
or at least the attempts!!!

The younger electrician? Well, he was more shy and kept a distance from me.
I know, I probably scared him into thinking he'd have to speak English with me,
or worse yet, he'd have to try and understand my Portuguese!!!

And by the way - he's the one that went through the roof and ceiling!

No, I don't usually wear a hat - but this was a special occasion.
Marcellie invited me out for English tea
and to make a long story short, Warren and Pricila ended up joining us.

We loved their company.

Warren felt that the place was a little bit girlie
but he was a sport.

(He even put on a hat but I'll spare you that picture!)

Marcellie,me and Pricilia

The hats were there for picture sake, I think.
A most delightful tea time with lovely company.

(I thought I would use some adjectives that sounded a little bit "British"!

Ju and her mother.

They invited me over for a
wonderful afternoon last week.
I was able to hear their testimonies.
It is always such a faith builder to hear
the amazing things God does in people's lives.

It was a wonderful time of fellowship and, once again, food!
These Brazilians know how to entertain!

I wouldn't want to end this portion of the post without
telling you that this is just a small taste
of the ways Warren and I have been blessed since
we are here.
Unfortunately, I don't always remember my camera
(I know, whip me with a wet noodle)
but there have been dinner dates,
invitations to homes,
gifts, and visits that have meant
so very much to us.
And I hesitated to mention any at the risk of minimizing
any of the other times spent with the people here.
They have all blessed us.

John and Flavia's house.

Although we had decided to stay at the church
we did use their house a couple of times to do some laundry
and to have a quiet place to study
when we knew the church was going to be busy.

Adam, Natalia, and Brad

More of our friends as we made our way out to lunch
after church last Sunday.

We've had the blessing of using John's car.

We really hadn't taken it out very much
(we finally had to put gas in it on Sunday for the first time!)
but now that my knee is better we decided to get out a little bit more
this past week.

And then there was yesterday -

We decided to go to one of the malls just to get out of the house
(it's been cold, really cold!)
Our plan was to walk around looking for a while and then grab some
dinner before heading back home.
We were about done with the walking part when
it was realized that we had lost the parking ticket.
A sudden rush of anxiety.
We knew that would be problem because:

1. We didn't know the language enough to communicate what was going on.
2. We knew our documents (passports) and the car documents (registration)
wouldn't match in name.

oops!

It took some time but we got it taken care of.

They had sympathy on us
and
with the assistance of a
smiling, helpful, non English speaking, Brazilian man
we got by with a small parking fee.

He let us take the car home
(much to my relief!)

Thank you, Lord.

We didn't stay at the mall for dinner....