It's Official

The church in Springtown, Texas has agreed to become our sponsoring congregation. Now it's time to tell everyone we know that we're planning to move to Natal, Brazil in January 2008.

We're Back

We made the fun-filled, twelve-hour drive back from Texas yesterday and again have access to high-speed internet. Allow me to fill you in on the latest developments.

We spoke with the elders at the Springtown Church of Christ in (you guessed it) Springtown, Texas. They were all very positive about becoming our sponsoring church to send us back to Brazil for more mission work. John preached there last Sunday. My mom, her boyfriend, and my grandmother were there. The kids behaved themselves beautifully, and it was a good day. Now we're waiting to hear if the congregation meets the challenge of raising enough funds to support a family of five (John, me, Jonah, Andy and John's mom) in Natal, Brazil.

The plan was to come back to Nashville last Thursday but we extended our stay to drive to Austin on Sunday. The mission committee was meeting that evening and wanted to talk with us again about our idea to go to Natal and open a Bible school. They gave us their official blessing to go and work along side the church that they oversee there. We are going to put our plan in writing to share with them and anyone else who wants to see it very soon.

We're shooting for a January departure date so we have a lot to do between now and then.

Our Neighbor is Out of the Hospital

Tony's follow up test was clear. They told him his heart looks great. He's home now so we left for Texas this morning at about 4:00am. The trip took about 13 hours with all the stops but the kids did remarkably well. Thank you for your concern and prayers for Tony.

Our Neighbor is in the Hospital

We had planned on pulling out of our driveway at about 4:00am this morning to head for Texas, yet still here we are. We were running our last minute errands like getting the oil changed in the car and picking up snacks for the road when I got a call from David, our neighbor. He told us that Tony, the guy he lives with, was in the hospital. He was having trouble breathing and called David to take him to the emergency room. We left the kids with Bobby and Melanee and went to the hospital.

Tony seemed fine but said he felt a little strange. They had put him through a stress test and had run dye through his heart earlier in the day. It seemed he may have a blockage in his heart. They plan to run the same dye test today to confirm that. Tony said he believes in and appreciates prayer on his behalf, so I'm taking the liberty to tell about his situation and ask for prayers.

We should know more this afternoon and I will keep you posted.

Our Weekend: Dinner and a Yard Sale

This weekend was action packed. We had our neighbors over for dinner on Friday night. By neighbors, I mean the people that live on either side of us. To our left we have a single guy and to our right we have a couple of guys. We have, without a doubt, the best neighbors ever. I made an all-Brazilian meal and we sat and talked for four hours. Time flew by.

Then we had a yard sale on Saturday morning. We are doing our best to streamline our lifestyle so we can be ready to go at the drop of a hat. We don't know if we'll be moving to Brazil in a month or a year, but we believe it's in our future.

Ego Strokes From Natal

I know all this can get confusing so let me set this up for you.

1. We went to Natal last year.
2. Our Brazilian friends (sole leaders of the church) asked us to come help them.
3. We made plans to move there and become part of the work.
4. The overseeing church in Austin asked us to wait until we could all work out an agreement.
5. In the meantime, another Brazilian family moved to Natal to help out.
6. We met with the Austin church and agreed to the idea of a Bible school.
7. Austin asked the two Brazilian couples if they needed and wanted our help.

That's about where we left off last time.

Now... we've heard back from Austin saying that the response was positive. Hallelujah, somebody wants us! We wouldn't be working as church leadership but as administrators of a Bible school attached to the church. We love that idea! We're going to talk to the church in Springtown, Texas (the one interested in sponsoring us) to see what they think about it.