In Rio do Sul, 11.6.09

We made it! I apologize for the delay in getting anything posted there was no internet available between Miami and here at the church. Our travel time was 38 hours. Omaha to Chicago to Miami to Rio De Janero to Florianapolis followed by a 5 hour bus trip (supposed to have been 2) at night through the mountains of south Brazil. We all felt like Andrew did in the Rio airport after our 8 hour overnight flight


We made it to our host homes last night around midnight local time (10 PM CDT). It felt much later. The families and the people are absolutly fantastic. We had a brief time this morning of devotional and prayer. We also had a meeting with the local pastor, Johnny, as he laid out all that we will be doing in the next few days. Now we are preparing for the English camp and the rest of today.

Portuguese is somewhat similar to Spanish, but different too, there are awkward times of silence and communication struggles in the homes when we are without our translators but the people are very gracious, nice and welcoming and we are all very refreshed after a night of sleep in a real bed as opoposed to the airplane.

We ate at a Brazillian steakhouse in Rio de Janero yesterday when we got into town. It was great. Here is a picture of the team outside the steakhouse.




Other than the English camp, today's big event is that the local news station is interviewing Abby for a broadcast about our visit. We have a camera going along to document the experience and we'll be posting some pictures up here either tonight or tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the local church we are helping with. More pictures of the people to come later.







If anyone knows how Dan's surgery went, Bambi would really like to know so post it in the comment section and I'll relay the message.

bw