Update – November 09

 

This month must start with a huge praise report as I received word a little over a week ago that my religious visa application had been approved!  Please praise God with me for His faithfulness and mercy in this process of moving onto the field!  I realize more and more each day my inadequacies and utter dependence on Him in all aspects of my life.  This visa was no exception.

So I write this update on Monday night from the seat of a 757 between Miami and Chicago on my way back home to get the visa.  I’ll be staying with my parents for three weeks while the Brazilian Consulate in Chicago processes the paperwork.  I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving with my family, time to visit family and friends, and of course receipt of my visa.  Plus my time will be busy with the final preparations of moving.  My official move date will now be December 13th.

I ask you all to join me in my prayer for transportation wisdom.  In the coming months, I will be searching for my own method of transportation around town.  I want to make a wise decision and be sure that whatever I purchase is also a blessing to my ministry and the mission.  In addition some type of wheels, I will also be considering my next place of residence after I leave my host family.  This will most likely be an apartment of some sort, but choosing a good locations may prove difficult.  Plus there is also a balance of price and quality.  I will also be furnishing the place, which will be many extra expenses.  Most apartments in town do not come furnished.  If you would like to support either of these financial challenges, please let me know!  I’m trusting in the Lord to cover these one-time expenses!

This past month I also had the chance to travel twice, once to a village  on the Tapajós River and once to a village on the Amazon River.  The first trip was a return trip to Piquiatuba to help with some construction.  This was the village where I visited with my friends Logan & Ashley.  On that trip we hauled materials and built and raised the trusses for the roof.  Now on my second visit, I went with a small team of men from the community of Alter Do Chão.  We were there with the sole purpose of finishing the roof and getting the concrete floor poured.  And after three days of hard labor, we accomplished those goals!  (We had to stay one extra day to do it, but we did it none the less!)

The second trip was to the village of Piracãoera with the water filter team.  This was a great experience for me since I had never worked with water filters.  The main purposes of this trip were to deliver materials to do maintenance and repair existing filters.  We spent the time going house-to-house to check on the filters.  We were also training new men from the village on how to do the maintenance so that after we left, they could continue the work.  A trip like this really makes me think of how when in the states, I took for granted all the clean water that was available.  Just turn on the faucet and there it was!  No need to go the river, dip it out, carry it home, let the dirt settle, and then pour it through a biological filter…

With the Thanksgiving holiday just around the corner, lets all take some time to really contemplate what we are thankful for in our lives.  Be sure to take it beyond the token answers of family, friends, and health. This always takes me back to the life saving work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary and God’s mercy and extension of grace in my life!  Now that’s something to be thankful for, both in Brazil and in the States!

Praises
- My religious visa has been approved!
- Chance to visit friends and family in the US.
- Excellent progress in language learning.
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Increased dependency on God in all aspects of my life!  He is Sovereign!

Prayer Requests
- For the ability to continue to study Portuguese while back in the US.  It is important that I don’t slip too much in these three weeks!

- Blessed time with family before I leave again.
- Wisdom in making decisions about methods of transportation around the city and it’s impact on my ministry.

Thanks again to all of you for your support and love for me in this mission.  I am extremely grateful for this band of supporters back home in the States!  You are the backbone of my existence in Brazil!  I praise God for you all!

Grace and Peace to You!
JAE

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Back to the States!

Praise God for He is so good to me…earlier this week, I received word that my Type VII Religious Visa for Brazil had been approved!  Amen!  This is an answer to prayer and the final step to being in Brazil long term with PAZ!

Tonight I’ll be leaving Santarem and heading back to the states for three weeks.  During that time I’ll be waiting to receive my visa.  I will be staying with my parents in Cissna Park and will definitely enjoy some holiday activities while I’m there.  Of course I’ll also be doing my last minute shopping and preparations for moving on the field long term.

Praise God for His faithfulness in this process of leaving the states!  I know that there is no way I could have accomplished this on my own and I give all the credit to Him.  He alone deserves the glory!

 

God Bless,

JAE

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Pork ‘n Cheese, aka Portuguese

In the process of catching up with folks back home, usually within the first couple minutes of conversation I get this, “So how’s the Portuguese coming?”  While I get tired of hearing this – mostly because this is my life right now and since I am learning, I wind up talking about this with almost EVERBODY, all the time – I understand that it is a pertinent question for somebody who moved to a country whose official language is not English but Portuguese.

When I say that this is my life, I mean that this is my only “job” right now.  Since we all know that conversing is the primary form of communication in most any social setting, then we all understand the importance of language learning.  Of course in the mean time, it’s amazing what you can accomplish with a limited vocabulary and a little impromptu sign language!

Using a multipronged attack strategy, I seem to be learning quickly.  At least this is what I’m told by people as I attempt to converse with them.  Usually I get a comment like “Really?!  You’ve only been here two months?”  So praise God for this!  I owe it all to him.  I think back of my time in high school where I spend three years in Spanish and never could speak a lick…

My days consist of about 4-5 hours of study – 2 with a tutor, 1 with the father of my host family in conversational language, and then 1-2 alone studying.  I also spend time watching movies in Portuguese and listening to Brazilian music.  One area of learning that I’m really enjoying now is being able to go to church activities and sit under the teaching there.  This provides several hours per week of active listening to spoken Portuguese.  The exciting part is that every session I can pick up a bit more!  Seeing progress is such a boost!  Lastly is time spent with friends here.  As a group, everybody speaks Portuguese, so when I’m socializing with them and just having fun in the evenings, I’m soaked in exposure to the language.

I just had one of the missionaries make a comment to me last night about the number of missionaries who did not take the proper time to learn the language in the first year on the field and then five years down the road, loaded with ministry responsibilities, were wishing that they had time to study the language more.  The moral of this is that I really need to dedicate as much time as possible to learning to speak, read, and write Portuguese so that I will be able to communicate at an appropriate level in the future.

I understand the importance of this and my hearts desire is to be able to communicate in this language at a level that brings glory to God.  This is what motivates me day after day to keep involved and pursuing an active learning role.  It’s all for His glory.  I know that is the ultimate outcome of this segment of preparation for life on the field. 

It’s easy to put this in context of the Tower of Babel and look at all the negative aspects of how language differences have caused barriers for the Gospel and the modern missions movement.  (Note here that language is not capable of stopping God from fulfilling his promise for global missions.  After all, he created languages and he created missions.)  Then when I put this in the context of Revelations 4 and 5, I realize how actually the idea of multiple tribes, languages, peoples, and nations brings more glory to God…how awesome it will be to hear myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And then to hear every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And then to see the four living creatures say, “Amen!” and finally the elders fall down and worship!  (See Rev 4-5)  There’s going to be a lot of different people there for this party!

So in the mean time I”ll be eating up as much Pork ‘n Cheese as possible…

 

JAE

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