The Happenings (Joshua)

This past week has been much of the same day in and day out. We are definitely in a routine and have found our place in the system. This morning I mowed with a handfull of the boys for about an hour. Some of them worked for a full two hours mowing alone side of me. I probably could have got more done on my own but that wasn't the point. The main purpose was to teach and be an example of what hard work means. These kids do not have anywhere else to learn what it means to work hard. If they do not observe it from the missionaries here, they may not understand how to work when they get into the work force as adults. Part of what CLM does is to try to prepare the children to be able to provide for themselves when they leave. So while I wish I could have mowed on my own and gotten a lot more done, I was glad that I could instruct some of the boys. The reward for those who did work was swimming. Each one is expected to work a different amount of time based on how they usually work and how old they are. So while some of them only worked for half an hour but were able to swim because they are younger than ten, one of the boys worked for just under an hour but was not able to swim. Swimming works nicely as a reward and as a punishment. I think the kids would swim for an entire day if they could. Something about the water just makes them go crazy.

The afternoons are still filled with whatever is going on. We played volleyball yesterday and a few other times last week. I really enjoyed that and some of the older kids are pretty good at it too. Steven and I play frisbee sometimes as well. We hope to do some biking later this week back in the fields depending on how my knee feels. 

Probably some of my favorite times are spent just reading. I have been reading a lot of different books. One that I have found very helpful has been The Disciple's Prayer by Don Williams. He walks through the prayer that Jesus models for his disciples. It has been really good to understand some of the ways that I can pray "better" or rather redirect my prayers so that they aline more with Jesus's model. I also just started Radical by David Platt and am slowly working through Icons of Evolution by Jonathan Wells. 

Now, before you think I am super awesome because I'm reading so much, don't think that all. One of the ways I believe God will teach me and show me more through this time is through reading. If I was at home, I would surely not be reading this much. In a way, God has put me here so that I can experience a different culture and language to gain a better perspective as well as teach me through reading (among others).

So, as this week continues onward, we look forward to how God will use us in new and mighty ways and hope that we can learn something along the way.

Me and Gessica

Me and Gisieli

Romolo

Simply Beautiful

(Steven)

     Looking back on the last 2 1/2 weeks... it's all blending together and I can't figure out what in the world to post about (Josh didn't think I should use "heck" and if I go by how I was raised I guess I agree). Anyhow... um... most of this past week I either mowed or cut firewood. (I'm ashamed to say I probably violated every rule of chainsaw safety I've been taught all in the name of keeping the saw running. I'm getting as bad as the un-professionals back at home). It's always interesting working with the boys. A couple of them are hard workers most of the time, others it's hard to get them to lift a finger. I just have to keep reminding myself to look back on myself and my own work ethics when I was their age.
    In the afternoon I've gone swimming most everyday unless it's raining. My primary role in the pool is acting as the jungle gym to about three or four kids.
    In the evenings we've been staying up later spending time with the older kids which has been a blast. Usually it's playing wii or watching a movie and one night we played Uno with four of the girls.

    I'll try uploading some pictures now. Hope you enjoy

 Children's Church in the family room sunday morning

 Church in town on Sunday evening

    Mary's nephew Jeff and his wife Joy and three kids were here for about a week and did a Backyard Bible Club with the kids. Joy took good care of us while they were here and is the one to be thanked for most of these pictures

The Pizzeria  

 Josianie got hitched

Rice & Beans. Yum! 

(Joshua)

The Candy Goes Into the Middle

Rock Hunt

We have been here thirteen days now and slowly but surely we are getting used to the changes and challenges that a new culture and language bring. This week so far has kept us fairly busy. We mowed in the morning till lunch time with some of the older boys. We've gotten quite a bit done, but with the daily rain and hot weather the grass grows about as fast as we can mow it and thicker than I'm used to as well. It's a challenge too with the boys because they often do not want to work very hard. We get them to work for about an hour or so and then they get tired or bored. Overall, they work decently though. I've been push mowing each day so far and Steven and Andy have been on the riding mower and weed wackier. We work until about 11:30 or 12:00 and then go and eat. If there is one thing that is consistent in all of our time here it is the food. Without a doubt, there will never cease to be rice and beans and beans and rice. Good thing I like them.

After lunch is kind of whatever. We have had some small projects to do like building a trophy for the volleyball tournament and cleaning up the mechanics shop. Yesterday we were able to move into a bigger room because the people living there had left. So, we moved all our things down the hall into the next room. It has two windows and is twice as big as the one we had. That has been really nice to be in the new room. Every day the kids go swimming at 3:00 until supper in the evening. However, we eat in the short termer's kitchen for breakfast and supper. Pizza has been our food of choice in the evening and for breakfast we eat eggs. Yesterday afternoon I went on a hike with about half a dozen other people back through the bean fields and on a trail through the forest to a spot where there are some cool rocks so I got one big one to take home. The hike was a lot of fun too. It took about an hour one way and it rained on us while we were coming back. It was a good trip though.

So, I am adjusting much better than last week. I have learned some Portuguese and am understanding more our purpose in this trip. It's not an easy ride yet and I don't imaging it will be, but God has proven to be there always and I have learned many things through the difficulties of a new culture. I do ask for prayer that both Steven and I would learn more and more through our time here and that we would grow closer to God. Also, I have been having some problems with my knee because of different stresses to it and ask for prayer for healing for that too. Tomorrow will probably be much of the same but I am looking forward to what I can learn throughout the day.

(Steven)

    Hey All!
So much has happened this week I hardly know where to begin. Monday- Wednesday we spent the mornings clearing large shrubs and I FOUND A SCORPION!... ok... that was random... sorry... anyway, we cleared shrubs, had a wholesome meal of rice and beans and some other random thing, then at three either went swimming or watched a movie with the kids. Getting to know the kids has been both exciting and challenging. Learning to speak Portuguese sounds like about the most wonderful that could happen to me on earth right about now. I was especially feeling that the other day when there was dispute on who's turn it was to play wii. Let's just say there were a couple kids mad at me for the rest of the evening after that. Well I'm sure you're all tired of my rambling and would rather I just upload some pictures so I guess I'll do that.  Oh yeah.. one more thing... I have several dozen burrachutas's bites and four wasp stings.

Josh blocking my view while I was trying to take a picture.... I guess I did ask him to.

I thought this was just cool

Favio with Luana, Gessica, and the stupid dog

I'll have some more pictures at some point, but these took forever to upload so I'm switching to 8MP versus 12MP HQ

Lose of Security, Lose of Control (Joshua)

I was reading John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life and I found some very interesting concepts that he talked about. He was speaking on risk, and what that means for followers of Christ. It was very convicting to read about as I deal with some of those ideas here in Brazil. Piper says that a life without risk is wasted. Many times we think that we have security in our lives. However, as I have hear many times, we could get hit by a car in a week or have a heart attack or get poisoned or really many different things could happen. I can't begin to imagine how real this idea has been for the Rumbold family with little Jada. But it's true, we could have a calamity happen to us at any point. Piper would argue that even though we think we have security we actually do not have very much at all. I have really been feeling this in these last few days on arrive here. I thought that I had control in America and so I wasn't nearly as worried about what might happen. Then, I lose control and I think that I have lost it all when in reality I never had much control to begin with because God is the one in control. I only had more knowledge about different situations in America than I do here. Then, I get very stressed and believe that God will not provide or that I will somehow come to much danger here. But, Piper says that we as Christians should all take risks. Not stupid ones, but ones that will help us make much of Christ. I've had a hard time believing that God will provide all that He says He will. In the book, it talks about how God will provide what we need. What do we need or what do we just want? I think that we often want more than we need. And what do we need? Piper says all we need is whatever it is that will still allow us to make much of Christ in our lives and in the lives of others. That's hard, because I want things and I want security and I want control. When I don't get that, I get very anxious and trusting God becomes hard to do. These are just some thoughts that I have been thinking and reading about lately and have helped me with dealing with some of the difficulties of living in a completely new place.

Trusting in God (Joshua)

Trusting in God is a concept that I have never understood in its entirety. And, though I am learning more, I never will fully understand it. Every day in our lives we have opportunities to trust something. We trust that when we wake up in the morning, we will have food in the kitchen; when we sit in a chair, it will not come crashing down under us. We trust in people, we trust in money, we trust in possessions, we trust in this and we trust in that. But, most of these things we have control over. We trust that their will be food in the kitchen because we have worked for it or someone else has worked for it and earned it. We trust that the chair we bought will hold us up because we tested it to make sure it was worthy of sitting in. We trust in people because we have seen that in the past they have done well. But, in all of these things we have a high degree of control. I so often put my trust in things that I have control over and not the things I don't. When I lose control of a situation, I have a difficult time trusting. Maybe I have misunderstood the meaning of trust all together. I should always be trusting in God but I never give him all of my trust because I often times still have some control.

When we were traveling down here, in several different situations we had no control over what was happening. We had been traveling all day and on our finally trip on bus to where we had to get to. For some reason the bus driver stopped in a different place than we were supposed to get off. We tried to communicate with him about where we were supposed to be and we showed him our bus tickets and then he just kind of nodded and pointed us to get back on the bus. We had no idea where he was going to take us. All we could do was to trust that he would take us to the correct bus station. And, he did. We made it safely and without any trouble after that.

Nonetheless, I have been having a hard time trusting God in every situation of my life. I tend to trust in Him only when I can also trust in my own strength as well. I think that this trip will challenge my thinking about trust in a new way. I will definitely have to trust Him and not rely on my own understanding as this adventure continues.

Arrival (Steven)

Hey everybody,
    Steven here. We now have a blog setup thanks to Josh's sister Joanna,  and a cool title thanks to Josh's mom, Mrs. Litwiller.
     Well... after having first one flight then the rescheduled flight from Bloomington both canceled. We hopped into the Litwiller car at about 4:15 p.m. Tuesday and drove to Chicago O'hare to catch our flight at 9:30. We arrived around 7:00, got our bags checked in, got ourselves checked in, and got on the Boeing 777. At 10:30 we took off and everything went smoothly with our flights until we reached our final flight destination. At that point Josh's bag disappeared and while trying to figure out what to do, our ride waiting for us thought we missed the flight and and left. We didn't know what was going on for awhile and finally with the help of a car rental employee, Josh got a hold of Kevin and about 20 minutes later our ride came.  After a bus ride and car ride we reached our final destination (CLM entre rios) at 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
       Now here I am... on Monday afternoon... trying to think of what to write about. I suppose a good way to start any conversation is to talk about the weather and surely that works just as well for a blog post. It's high 70s with moderate humidity and mostly cloudy.
       Now that I've covered the weather I can tell about what we've been doing. We spent Thursday getting a feel for the place and and did a bit of grocery shopping with one of the other missionaries, Patrick. Later we got started on getting to know the kids. I found the best way to do that is throwing them in the pool at swim time and giving them rides on my shoulders.
       We were going to clear a couple acres of brush so that hopefully it can be planted next year, but we didn't have some of the tools we needed so we tried to stay busy with other things. Later we went to church for the midweek service and after that watched a movie with some of the boys.
      Saturday we went to the local small city Guarapuava and did a little more grocery shopping at the super market. While driving around with my brother Kevin, we had a good conversation with him about many of the questions we had been asking ourselves which Josh will be talking about in his post. That night the church youth group came out for a bon fire.
      Sunday we had sunday school at the home and later I went on a bike ride and got to see some of the landscape. Down here many times the church service is at night so that's what we did that night.
      Today we got started on clearing the brush.
      That should give you something of an idea about what we've been doing since we got here. So hope you enjoyed reading. Please come again! :)