Seed Sowers: Gospel-Planting Adventures!!

Hello and Merry Christmas to you all from Dallas, Texas!

I just wanted to let you know what one of our supported WA Staff in Dallas has been up to.  John, Gwen and their 7 children moved to Dallas just over two years ago...and have added one more to their clan since moving, making it 8 cute kiddies!  John is the Associate Center Director of Facilities Maintenance at the ILC, and Gwen homeschools the kids, and is also a writer.  She writes homeschool articles for a blog and also has a family blog that she updates, among other things. 

When they arrived in Dallas, she started interviewing the missionaries that have served around the world that have "retired" in Dallas, specifically those living in the Cowan Apts (Wycliffe "retirement" apts).  She has written a book of their missionary stories.  There are 21 short stories (chapters), and it is family friendly.  The book is called Seed Sowers: Gospel Planting Adventures.

Seed Sowers is available for purchase on amazon.com for $12.55.  Right now the Kindle version is $3.99.  Below is the link to both the book and the Kindle version if you are interested in getting for yourself or as a Christmas gift.  Sorry I didn't get this sent out sooner!  If you are in the Dallas area, you can also get them from John or Gwen and will save a couple of bucks.  I am getting copies for my nephews and a few other family members as Christmas presents.  What a great way for people, especially children, to learn about missions work around the world!!

http://www.amazon.com/SeedSowers

If you would like to know more about their beautiful "little" family, I have attached the web address to their blog:  www.toliverstotexas.com/.

If you would like to know more about the book, Gwen has a website with more details, and it is http://seedsowersthebook.com/

So now that I have pumped you full of ALL kinds of information, I will let you go.  :~)

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and I look forward to seeing some of you after the new year!

Paula

Portuguese Aug/Sept 2012 Update - Português agosto / setembro 2012 Atualização

Antes de continuar .... Este foi traduzido pelo Google Translate. Se algo está errado ou ofensivo, por favor me avise para que eu possa ter certeza de que é alterada imediatamente!

Olá! Como você sabe, eu fui ao Brasil em julho para cerca de 3 semanas para trabalhar no Centro de Treinamento AMMI para preparar e servir em CONPLEI (a Conferência Nacional de Pastores Evangélicos Indígenas e Líderes-é assim que se traduziria em Inglês). Foi uma viagem fabulosa! Não há espaço suficiente em sua carta a informá-lo sobre todas as coisas que me impactou ...

Tudo começou com um rápido namoro de 45 horas no Rio de Janeiro, onde eu vi muitos dos locais turísticos e onde meu amigo trabalhava no ministério para os 40 anos, ela era um missionário lá. Meu site favorito era, é claro, "Cristo Redentor" pé da estátua de Jesus 130.

Então eu estava indo para a Chapada dos Guimarães para se encontrar com dois grupos de igrejas e do resto da equipe WA para se preparar para a conferência. Trabalho manual foi o nome do jogo, uma vez que chegou lá, e para os primeiros dias de escavação e pintura parecia ser a minha sorte. Nós também montou tendas para estandes, pendurado fio elétrico (sim, eles me deixar trabalhar com eletricidade-assustador pensamento, hein?), Servido comida, pegou o lixo, e uma variedade de tarefas variadas. Foi um trabalho difícil, mas eu realmente gostei. Uma vez que a conferência começou o trabalho abrandou um pouco, então nós servidas refeições, limpa, e fez outros trabalhos pequenos que vieram em nosso caminho. À noite fomos capazes participar da conferência e foi traduzido para o Inglês. Uma das minhas coisas favoritas estava assistindo e participando da dança. Foi incrível ver tantas tribos que literalmente usados ​​para estar em guerra e matar uns aos outros fazer danças tribais juntos como um testemunho de como o Evangelho de Jesus Cristo mudou suas vidas e agora eles são irmãos e irmãs em Cristo!

Enquanto eu estava na Ammi I se hospedaram no dormitório da menina. Honestamente, o pensamento não me emocionar muito. Ele provavelmente teria uma cama dura, duchas frias, e um grupo de meninas que falam Português e eu não ... Eu estava certo ...

E eu estava errado ... Deus tinha fornecido. A imagem à direita é minha amiga Lucia. Ela é brasileira, mas fala Inglês perfeito. Ela estava ao meu lado no dormitório e um dom de Deus, de muitas formas! Além de ser um grande tradutor para mim e me ensinando um pouco de Português (e algumas das meninas um pouco de inglês), ela foi um mentor para as meninas no dormitório, tem as meninas juntos todas as noites para rezar (e me incluiu), e todos encorajou ela conheceu. Ela não é um estudante, mas foi durante o verão para um estágio. Ela agora está de volta na Holanda recebendo seu M-Div. com a esperança de voltar ao Brasil para ter aulas de Linguística e começar a trabalhar como tradutor da Bíblia para uma das línguas indígenas ainda a ser traduzidos.

Eu poderia dizer muitas histórias sobre as meninas no dormitório que passei aqueles par de semanas com. Eles são todos incrível de maneiras diferentes, e tocou a minha vida de maneiras diferentes ...

Geane é um dos meus amigos e AMMI um estudante que mora no dormitório. Ela é Tukano tribo na Amazônia. Há muito poucos cristãos em sua tribo e sua família enfrentou perseguição por causa disso. Uma noite, tivemos uma longa conversa. Eu acho que ela estava no lugar onde você sabe que você foi ensinada toda a sua vida, mas agora você está aprendendo a Bíblia e ver a Deus e as pessoas de forma diferente. Ela estava sendo esticada de forma significativa, e eu poderia dizer que foi difícil para ela. Nós conversamos sobre lutando com sua fé, guerra espiritual, e nós conversamos sobre as coisas que ela foi dito quando ela estava crescendo. Ela foi informada povos indígenas são o tipo mais baixo de pessoas e que os brancos são o egoísta e mesquinho. Uma das últimas coisas que ela me pediu que a noite era: "Como você pode vir aqui e pegar o nosso lixo, e ser feliz?" Falar sobre o sentimento humilde.. Eu respondi a sua pergunta, mas não sem lágrimas ... No dia seguinte, antes de ir para a pausa de inverno, ela disse, "Eu nunca pensei que eu gostaria de um americano, mas eu vou sentir sua falta." Mais uma vez, as lágrimas ...


Você nunca sabe como o Senhor vai usar algo tão simples como a coleta do lixo para mudar a opinião de alguém do mundo.

Por favor, orem para o povo Tukano, eles, e muitos outros, necessitam de nossas orações, e conhecer a Cristo.

Você pode conferir outras fotos / vídeos que eu postei sobre minha viagem ao olhar para postagens anteriores do blog e um pequeno vídeo de alguns cantando na cozinha. :-)

August/September 2012 - BRAZIL Update

Hello!  As you know, I went to Brazil in July for about 3 weeks to work at the AMMI Training Center to prepare for and serve at CONPLEI (a Conference for National Indigenous Evangelical Pastors and Leaders—that’s how we would translate it in English).   It was a FABULOUS trip!!  There is not enough room in this letter to tell you about all of the things that impacted me…

It started with a whirlwind 45 hours in Rio de Janeiro where I saw many of the tourist sites and where my friend worked in the ministry for the 40 years she was a missionary there.  My favorite site was, of course, “Cristo Redentor” the 130 foot statue of Jesus.

Then I was off to Chapada dos Guimaraes to meet with two church groups and the rest of the  WA team to prepare for the conference.  Manual labor was the name of the game once we got there, and for the first few days digging and painting seemed to be my lot.  We also set up tents for booths, hung electrical wire (yes, they let me work with electricity—scary thought, eh?), served food, picked up trash, and a variety of miscellaneous tasks.  It was hard work, but I really enjoyed it.  Once the conference started the work slowed down a bit, so we served meals, cleaned, and did other little jobs that came our way.  In the evenings we were able attend the conference and it was translated into English.  One of my favorite things was watching and participating in the dancing.  It was amazing to watch so many tribes that literally used to be at war and kill each other do tribal dances TOGETHER as a testimony of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ changed their lives and now they are brothers & sisters in Christ!!

While I was at Ammi I stayed in the girl’s dorm.  Honestly, the thought didn’t thrill me that much.  It probably would have a hard bed, cold showers, and a bunch of girls that speak Portuguese—and I do not…  I was right…

And I was wrong…God had provided.  The picture to the right is my friend Lucia.  She is Brazilian but speaks perfect English.  She was next to me in the dorm and a gift from God in so many ways!  Besides being a great translator for me and teaching me some Portuguese (and some of the girls some English), she was a mentor to the girls in the dorm, got the girls together every night to pray (and included me), and encouraged everyone she met.  She is not a student but was there during the summer for an internship.  She is now back in Holland getting her M-Div. with the hopes of coming back to Brazil to take Linguistics classes and start working as a Bible translator for one of the indigenous languages yet to be translated.

I could tell you many stories about the girls in the dorm that I spent those couple of weeks with.  They are all amazing in different ways, and touched my life in different ways…

Geane is one of the AMMI students that live in the dorm.  She is from the Tukano tribe in the Amazon.  There are very few Christians in her tribe and her family faces persecution because of it.  One night we had a very long talk.  I think she was at that place where you know what you have been taught your whole life, but now you are learning the Bible and seeing God and people differently.  She was being stretched significantly, and I could tell it was hard on her.  We talked about struggling with your faith, spiritual warfare, and we talked about the things she was taught by her tribe and the world.  Indigenous people are taught that they are the lowest type of people and that white people are mean and no-good.  One of the last things she asked me that night was, “How can you come here and pick up our trash, and be happy?”  Talk about being humbled.  I answered her question, but not without tears… The next day, before she left for the winter break, she said, “I never thought I would like an American, but I am going to miss you.”  Again, tears...

You never know how the Lord is going to use something as simple as picking up trash to change someone’s view of the world. 

Please pray for the Tukano people, they, and many others, need our prayers, and to know Christ.

You can check out other pictures/video I posted about my trip by looking at previous blog postings or clicking  here, here, here, and a short video of some singing in the kitchen here.  :-)

 

Brazil 2012 Pictures!

I went to Brazil on a work trip July 7-25 to prepare for and serve during a conference called CONPLEI (The Council of Native Evangelical Pastors and Leaders - English Translation).  The purpose of this conference is to encourage indigenous Christian pastors and leaders to take initiative to reach the Indigenous people of Brazil (and all of South America).  It was a great trip!  I don't think their are words to express the impact this trip had on me...

I am not going to go into a lot of detail now because I am going to do an update in the next few days that will give a lot more of the detail.  Below are a few picture of people and things from the trip.  :-)

The sign says "Welcome."

Lucia and Geane - two young women that lived in the dorm.  Lucia was an intern at Ammi, and Geane is a student.  I will have more to say about them in my update and later on my blog.  God is using both of them in a big way!!

 The dinner serving line.  There were around 3,000 people there and 6 serving lines for food.  I was pleasantly surprised at how fast the lines moved.

 

 

Big pot-o-beans!!

Lettuce....lots-o-lettuce!

I think this was dinner one of the first nights we were at AMMI.  

It was REALLY good.

 

Chicken Coop?  No...  Throw a little plastic around the front and back, and then put a post in the ground and some plastic around that and attach it to the building so no one could see in.....  Viola! Ladies dressing room! 

 

The multipurpose room became sleeping quarters for many that attended the conference.  It was too cold and windy for many people to sleep outside.

My sleeping quarters....the girls dorm.

Wouldn't change that arrangement for anything!

 

Scary, but true...  This is the light switch and where we plug in our phones to charge (below) and the fan switch (top).  The nice thing about the loose wires is that you don't have to let your phone dangle down, you can just shove it in behind the wires and it holds perfectly.  #lookingforthebrightside 

 

There is a reason they call these "widow makers."  

I thought this was a little funny & scary until I saw the one in the girls dorm...

#hotwater

 

Girls dorm shower....not so funny...

#nohotwater

Actually - the cold water wasn't bad after working outside all day...

 Cute little kiddos I hung out with one morning.  

 

WA Area Director, the dude over the Portuguese speaking countries (I am sure he will appreciate the formal job description there :-), and the new Site Vol Coord for Brazil (currently in Portuguese Lang School); taking a break and having coffee in Chapada.

 Hanging out in Kay's kitchen.

Kay and her husband, Dave, have been missionaries in Brazil for 30+ years.  Karissa is their daughter.  

Kay made coffee and breakfast for the WA team and whoever else showed up at her house in the morning.  Good cook and good friend!

 

Tapioca - It is some kind of stuff sprinkled into the pan that firms and sticks together when heated (a crust).  Then you can fill it with whatever you want...meat, cheese, fruit, etc...

This one had banana, cinnamon, and sweetened condensed milk.  Breakfast!

We are at a lookout point about 8k from Chapada.  See pics below.

The WA work team that went to Brazil.

Matt, me, John & Horace

I am standing on the center point of South America.

That hill is as big as it looks, and the bus to take me home is at the top. ;-)

The view!

 

Yes....this is exactly what it looks like.  

There is video, but I want to protect the face of the innocent...

One of the adults joined in too...it was all his idea....

he had to bribe the younger ones to do it by promising he would do it.  

There is video of this one too...tempting...  :-)

 Kissing Post?  NO...surly you know me better than THAT!  It was "measure by Paula day."  You've never heard of that?  Me neither...  There was one morning when we had two different projects where we needed things set at a consistent height.  In this picture we were putting up clothes lines.  It was decided that we would use my face as a way to measure where to put the holes in the posts to run the string through.  The second project we were hanging electrical wire between posts.  It needed to be high so that people wouldn't hang clothes on it, but we didn't have enough ladders.  Since I was the tallest one working on the project we hung the wire "as high as Paula could reach to keep tension in the wire."  So I stood on my tippy toes holding tension in the wire as high as I could while someone else hammered in the staples.  Whatever works, right??

The last night of CONPLEI we had the Lord's Supper together.  The bread and Acai were brought from the Amazon especially for this.

(If you are wondering about the marks on her arm...they are the marks the Surui (sue-do-we) people put on to mark a celebration.)

Praying together after the conference (CONPLEI) was over.

Some of the students living in the dorm.  My new friends.

Cira, Bete, Natalia, Eliana, Lucia, Claudia & me

 

The Last Supper.....in Brazil.  Churrascaria!  In America that would mean DELICIOUS food from a Brazilian Steak House.

  

SMILE!  Because you are having dinner at a Churrascaria...

and even better....with friends!  Kelly, Dave and me

Fresh Maracujia Juice - my favorite in Brazil and Peru.

 

Dessert options.  Cakes and custards and flan....oh my!

 

My choice - chocolate coconut cake.  

Just in case you are wondering....it was fantastic!

 

All topped off with a little shot-o-coffee.  Mmmmm...

"Glory - Jesus is GOOD!!" Jammin in the kitchen at Ammi!!

hanging out with cute lil punkins this morning. :-)

Brazil - Week One

Warning.  This could potentially be a really long post.  There is so much to tell about this trip!  For starters, it is A.MA.ZING! 

I spent the first two days in Rio de Janeiro seeing the two schools (seminary where my friend Margaret worked for many years), the hillside ministry she helped start, the beaches, shopping at Copacabana, and of course, Corcovado.  Oh, and eating fabulous Brazilian food!

Sophia, Lucia, Natalia, Cira, Eliana, Paula

On Tuesday I had 3 flights to Cuiaba, and then was taken to the Ammi Training Center near Chapada dos Guimaraes.  I am staying the the girl's dorm with the Ammi students.  I'll be honest...the thought was very intimidating.  I was going to stay in a room full of Portuguese speaking women, how are we going to communicate or get along?  It has been great!  It turns out that their are two girls that know English very well, and don't mind interpreting & teaching.  So the girls are learning a little bit of English and I am learning A LOT of Portuguese....and quickly!

The work has been going well, too.  I have done a variety of work here.  I've done painting, digging, putting up posts, more painting, more digging, cleaning, using my height to help hang electrical wire (not an abundance of ladders here), and most frightening, stripping wire and installing light sockets.  Yup, they let me work on electric and everybody lived. :~)  I do have several battle wounds to prove my work and that I am in a mosquito/bug/ant infested country.  I have bruises, sunburn, blisters, and so many bug bites it would be embarrassing to post a picture of my legs.  But as we say, "it's all part of the experience!" 

This last picture is how "we" fixed a light fixture that had no was to support a ladder.  It is Brazilian style and NOT OSHA approved.  We tied a rope to support the ladder on both sides and two guys held it up.  All went well...so well that he was doing little tricks at the top of the ladder waiting for someone to bring a light bulb.

There are so many stories to tell, but I won't try to tell them all at once.  That's all for now!

Tchau!
(pronounced "chow")