The day Jesus met Jesus

Sunday night we had a young man (25) named Jesus accept Jesus as his Savior. We were so excited seeing as that Stephen had witnessed to him when we lived in Brasiléia. He lived there too. He had came to church a couple of times but nothing more than that. Steve met him a couple of weeks ago in a store here called Ronsy. He had been transfered to Rio Branco. Stephen started witnessing to him and invited him to church. Friday night we showed the movie Fire Proof and he came. Then he showed up again on Sunday night. Sunday night he accepted Jesus. Pray for this young man. His wife left him with 2 girls. For now, his mom is taking care of the girls in Brasiléia. He is working here and living in a room with some other guys he works with. Pray for him to be a witness to these other men and pray for his family.

Couples Retreat/ Easter Sunday

We recently had a couples retreat. I am like the worst at getting pictures though I am trying to do better. Seems like a never get a good one. We had a good time. Missionary Mark Trimble was our speaker and his wife Beth had a time just with the women to answer questions. He is a 2nd generation missionary and was born in Brazil. They have been married 40 years and most of their married life has been here in Brazil.

Mark Trimble and his wife Beth

This pictures are of our Easter program. If you look at this first picture the girl with the blue dress on is making a funny face. The program was at night and she had spent all day trying to memorize her lines. She had even said that she was not sure if she would be there at night for the program which I reminded her of her That night she was up in front mouthing "Tia, eu não sei" translated, "Aunt, I don't know." I am not her aunt but that is just what the kids here call you. She was worried for nothing and remembered everything.

More flooding pictures

Thankfully the water is going down and the rains seemed to have stopped other than an occasional shower. The are predicting rain for the next 15 days so we will see. But below are some pictures that we took I believe on Wednesday.

Part of a road flooded

I just thought this was a neat picture. The guy looks really loaded down.

I wish you could have seen the fire department trying to get the wood out of the river. There is always a lot of wood in the river after we get heavy rains. Then the fire department has to get it out from around the supporting beams of the bridge. They were trying to get it out on this day and were using a thick rope and a cord with a tractor. Steve kept saying if that cord breaks someone is going to get hurt and he advised us to move further away. The rope did break while we were there, but not the cord. The rope hit a man on the arm and took off the skin where it hit. Later that evening we drove back across the bridge and they had successfully gotten the wood out. (Sorry I do not have a good picture of that!)

Rain Rain Go AWAY!

We have gotten so much rain this month of April and it is supposed to be the beginning of dry season. They are predicting rain for next week too. Rio Acre, our big river in town, is over flowing. There have been already 560 families that have been forced to leave their homes. Because we live rurally (we have not moved to the training center and will not until after furlough) one of our roads was washed away. Thankfully our other entrance is still accessible. We had thought for a couple of days that we might lose that entrance too. I am thankful that that is the least of my problems and that our house sits on high ground.

This is where the one road completely washed away due to poor planning by the city.

Another view

And if you see the road you know that we live on a dirt road. We have always enjoyed living in a more rural area so the kids can have a nice yard to play in. So, we have to deal with mud in the rainy season. Well, at least it adds for a little excitement and a car that stays dirty.

The Courter Family

We were recently blessed with a visit from part of the Courter Family. For those of you that do not know this family, they are a large family of 11 children. Mr. Anthony Courter spoke at several services and the people here enjoyed it so much. They were also able to do some work at the training center when it was not raining. (We have have so much rain this month and we are supposed to be entering dry season) You can learn more about this family at their blog anthonycourter.blogspot.com.

Here are my boys with 2 of their sons, Aaron and Josiah

Here is Hannah with their daughter, Esther.

Stephen translating for Mr. Courter. Stephen has a puzzled look on his face. He does not exactly like to translate but does a great job at it.

Jessica, Aaron, and Rebekah singing. Jessica also plays the harp and Rebekah the violin. I wish you could of heard them sing. They all have beautiful voices.

5 of their 11 children singing at the rural work, Guajará.

Josiah and Esther also had chicken pox while here. Thankfully it was all cleared up before they had to travel.

Marlete

Seems like I can't get my act together on posting more. This was a really neat story so I wanted to post it. Marlete has such a good heart. Steve had been challenging our people do more witnessing and even gave them a study they can do with an unsaved person. At the end of the study the person either rejects or accepts Jesus. Marlete did the study with her neighbor who is 81. She had been praying for her for years. The study is 6 weeks and praise the Lord her neighbor was saved. All it took was her going next door.