June 18 - What a difference a good night's sleep makes

Bom Dia (Good day),

Hello again. I'm writing this as we are meeting before the start of the first day of official ministry. William F., Jordan and Tahner just finished sharing their devotional on Philippians 2:3-8 on the attitude of being a servant which fits in well with our theme this year of "I'm 3rd". Now we're starting on our team devo reading which is 1 John.

Well we are looking much, much better this morning after a great night's sleep. [It was so nice to finally sleep on a mattress after having spent the last day and a half trying to find the best way to sleep in an airplane or bus seat. : ) ] We met at the church last night to join up with our host families and go home with them. It was so fun to see some old friends again and and also to meet new friends (who, as I think about it, are really brothers and sisters in Christ).

I briefly mentioned last night that we arrived several hours late because we were diverted to another airport due to high winds. Our last flight was scheduled to arrive in Navegantes (here is a link to a map, that if it works, should give you an idea of the rough location of some places - http://maps.google.com.br/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=pt-BR&geocode=&q=navegantes&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Navegantes+-+Santa+Catarina&ll=-26.985724,-49.266815&spn=0.619224,1.757813&z=10 ), but the winds there were gusting anywhere from 50-80 km/h and it wasn't going to work to land (more on that in a minute). We circled for a while to wait and see if the winds would dissipate, but they didn't so we flew onto another airport (which I don't know the name of). We had about 45 minutes or so after we landed to grab our bags and a small bite to eat. While we were waiting Liz told me the reason we couldn't land was because the two planes that had tried landing prior to ours had problems. The first sustained damage to the plane and the second was waved off during landing and had to go to another airport. So we were thankful that the pilots and airline staff were being cautious and not taking chances.

From there the airline chartered a bus to take us (now 32 people with the addition of Steve & Liz Spellman and someone from the church in Rio de Janeiro) and several other passengers to Blumenau. This was about a three hour bus ride and our team was now divided between those who were exhausted and wanted to sleep (front of the bus) and those who apparently had energy to spare and were talking and laughing non stop (back of the bus.) We finally reached Blumenau (about 11pm Brazil time, btw we are two hours ahead of CT) and once again we unloaded our bags and waited for our bus to ferry us to Rio do Sul. The original plans called for a bus to take us from Navegantes to Rio do Sul, but the bus instead met us in Blumenau for about another 1.5 ride.

Today we have some orientation and then I believe we start English camp later tonight. It should be an exciting day and I'm guessing there is a fair amount of nervousness as we begin and encounter new, unknown circumstances. But God is great and we know He is able. We would love yours prayers (even as I know many of you who are reading already are) for endurance for the long days, boldness in proclaiming the gospel (and boldness in starting conversations with people we don't know in a language we don't know), and for love and unity.

I have taken pictures and will try to post them if possible - I'm still trying to figure everything out with the blog, computer, and camera. Some of you have already posted comments, and please keep doing so, I will try my best to pass them along. But Brock we don't need those comments you left...maybe we won't miss you after all.... I kid, I kid ; ). Seriously keep the comments coming, anything and everything is welcomed. Until next time...we love you all.