The Parker Family

Being Jesus

2006-09-12T21:13:00.000-03:00

Being Jesus

I met a friend today. I was walking to get lunch and I saw my friend. He was working – something all of us are familiar with. He has a wife and a lovely daughter. Alaelson is a great guy. He loves his family dearly and will do just about anything for them.

I first met Alaelson after church about two months ago. He was kind of hesitant to come into our church. He didn’t think he fit in, and he was worried about his clothes. We assured him that we didn’t care about what he was wearing and we didn’t care about status. That reassured him a little, so he brought his family inside. Even then, they didn’t sit on chairs, they sat on the floor.

Alaelson is homeless. He washes and guards cars outside Itaigara Shopping near our former apartment. At night he, his wife and 1 year old daughter sleep outside near our church.

Our church is helping this family. Alaelson wants to work – he loves his family and wants to provide for them. He just need a break. We are trying to help him with some sort of source of income and more permanent housing.

But what I have learned about being Jesus is something very different from what I have read. The one thing that has made the difference in Alaelsons life and our relationship with him? I believe it started with one thing – respect.

Looking him in the eyes, realizing that he has feelings. Common, everyday respect. One trait of Jesus we can all work on.

Happy Birthday Brandon

2006-08-16T11:03:00.000-03:00

Happy Birthday Brandon,

Well, today Brandon turns 3. It seems like yesterday we were sitting in hospital room watching a tough little 6 month old recovering from surgery, and now he is a happy–go–lucky character!

One of the things Brandon got for his birthday was a trip to the emergency room! On Sunday morning, Brandon was watching tv with Brock on the top of their bunk beds and – well – he fell off. He fell off onto the bed below and the bridge of his nose broke the fall. Amazingly, he didn’t break his nose! He has a nice bruise to show for it, he is a little sore, but that is the extent of his injuries.

One good thing is that we now know where the pediatric emergency clinic is!

We are supposed to sign the lease papers today on the house we are renting. We are so ready to be in a place where the kids can run and play. We live in a place with perfect weather and unfortunately the kids don’t get to enjoy it all that much. That is changing soon!

Our Canadian LST made it home safely. We are grateful for the work they did and now for us, the work is beginning. We have around 25 people we are continuing studies with and about 60 others we are putting into group classes. Given the religious climate in Salvador, we feel it necessary to show that our church cares for people. We don’t view them as a space on a pew or contribution in the offering.

Have a great day. Tchau for now.

New update

2006-08-11T08:26:00.000-03:00

New update

Hello blogger friends. Greetings from 13 degrees south. Hope that this finds you warm and cuddly (ha.) with your record highs. We are starting to warm up as well. The rainy season is making its exit and with it comes amazing weather.

As the large rain clouds leave, we are left with skies that are clear and blue. The shade of which is impossible to describe – I call it an “impossible blue” sky. With the sky overhead and the beautiful Atlantic ocean spread out in front you don’t know whether to run and jump, cry or just savor the moment. We have had to make some tough choices living here!

Speaking of living – Stacey and I will be moving to a house soon. We are really excited about that. This is a few steps down from where we live now. If you aren’t familiar with the Parker Motel, we have 4 bedrooms, an extra room, 6 bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and 2 maids quarters. Yes, we have storage out the wazoo (technical term – stay with  me). Yes, we do have rooms we normally don’t go in for weeks, no months at a time. At the same time, We hosted all 10 Park Plaz-ians and it wasn’t a big deal. We have had 3 LST’ers living with us for the past 6 weeks – again, no big deal.

This will be a change. We will actually have a morning commute again. We are also back to a house with limited storage. But, we have a yard, a giant bar-b-q, a huge area to play soccer and basketball, tracks for walking and riding bikes. And, oh yeah we are 150 meters from the beach. (of course our apartment is 2 kilometers from the beach now).

There are actually 2 things that really excite us about the house. The first is that we will be saving a TON of money on bills (our electric bill is unreal!), the second is that it is peaceful there. One of the things that we noticed when we came back on furlough was that it is really quite in America. Here, we live with the windows open and we live on a busy street. We are constantly being barraged with noise.

LST is doing a great job! One of the things that Stacey and I believe is that “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.  That is the same with Christ as well. That is why we believe that LST will be something that will impact this city for a long time. English is such a valuable commodity here. The fact that a church is offering free conversation “classes” (sorry Jamie!) is unheard of here. Churches are supposed to all about the bottom line – how many, how much, how often…  That is why we weren’t surprised that the first week, we only had 25 or so readers. We now have between 80 and 90 people attending either one-on-one sessions or group sessions. These are the “unreachables”. People that we wouldn’t or couldn’t reach through traditional methods, but through this program, they are in our church at least twice a week.

Many of these people are searching. Some have a history with churches, some don’t. All are friendly and grateful. Most importantly, we have expanded our circle of influence – we have new friends.  My friend Daren Mitchell says “you don’t marry your enemies”, and you don’t get baptized by them, either!

Speaking of… Wednesday night a friend of Mary, Lorena decided to be baptized. This was awesome for many reasons. Our Canadian LST’ers were able to be there, several people we are studying with were there as well. And, several of the ladies in the church were, as usual, there with open arms. It was great! I will have more on this later. I want to get pictures and post them. I should have them later today.

Well, this was a nice long one, sorry for the time in between. I will do better.

Happy Birthday Stace

2006-07-20T08:02:00.000-03:00

Happy Birthday Stacey

All the kids are at school and I have a few minutes to blog, so here goes.

Today is Stacey’s birthday. We have big plans tonight – to watch tv. Heh heh. Actually tomorrow night the Sass’ are going to watch the kids and we are going to the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean. We were fans of the first movie so this ought to be fun.

As you all may know, we are buying a car. (Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore) – funny, Toto and Kansas aren’t rock bands anymore either. Never again will I complain about going to the auto mall. At least there, you are done in two hours. Here, going on week 3. what a pain.

LST is going great. We have been having a number of no-shows, but the students that are coming are going deep really quick. The team is having conversations at a level that 2nd and 3rd year teams are having with other students. We are optimistic about the response both to the English classes and the fact that a lot of the students are “getting it”.

Gotta go. Time for Portuguese class. Yes, that tower of Babel incident is still hurting people even today!

Hey blogger friends

2006-07-17T19:36:00.000-03:00

Hey blogger friends,
Sorry about not updating, things have been pretty crazy but it looks like they are starting to settle down a little bit. As many of you know, Stacey’s friend Nancy lost her son to cancer a few days ago. It has been really difficult not being there, both for Stacey and for Nancy’s sake. But it is amazing to watch Stacey minister to people, some she hasn’t talked to in several years – and most of this is being done by internet. I can remember thinking email is going to revolutionize the way we do mission work. It truly has.

We are also trying to buy a car. We made it over a year on foot, taking busses and taxis. It is now time to join the modern world. As you might expect, trying to do business in a foreign country can be difficult. Doing it here has proved to be slightly insane. We are thankful our neighbor has taken us under his wing and helped us cut through the bureaucracy. We are hopeful that tomorrow we might be able to take delivery.

One other thing happening…LST. Let’s Start Talking has arrived and is in full swing. We were really worried. Many things happened to set back this ministry activity – delayed and canceled flights, low numbers of people signing up and general skepticism, but God is good and LST is now really going.

When the LST people arrived we had 23 people signed up-but had room for 40 more. After a week of doing their thing, word got out that this is really legitimate and we now have well over 50 readers and 35 people coming to a first time (marginal English skills) class. We are really excited. We are now planning our follow up.

Gotta go.
Tchau for now

Another reason to hate france?

2006-07-01T18:12:00.000-03:00

Well…. It’s over. Brazil is officially out of the world cup.
There are a lot of disgusted fireworks going off. These aren’t the normal fireworks. Those are accompanied by horns honking, and cheers and shouts of joy. These fireworks are different. They are serving as a loud and popping disgust – mostly focused at the Brazil national team’s impotence against France.

So from my expert opinion – it will be Germany playing France. Germany will win. Probably 2-0. (if the home team is fairly decent, they will make it to the finals, and this year Germany has a good team.)

Good news though, tomorrow is Bahian Independence Day. (Bahia is our state) So, at least our neighbors will be able to use their fireworks tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see the mood around town tonight and tomorrow at church. Normally, we show the games at our building but because there are so many people traveling this weekend and the workload for Sunday, we decided not to show it at church. But, the mood should change seeing as how we had a baptism last night!!!

excellent news

2006-06-30T23:46:00.000-03:00

Just a quick update. We had some exciting news today! Giseline, a single mom who has been attending our church (ICOS) for the last 2 months was baptized tonight. I know you will be interested to see more so… go to

www.missionsalvador.com/baptisms/baptism.wmv

the file is about 10 meg. I will try and get up a smaller file tomorrow.
More tomorrow hopefully with an update on the world cup. Gooooolllllllll!

a new commitment to blog

2006-06-22T12:26:00.000-03:00

Well after about 6 months or so I am finally dedicating myself to updating our blog. I know a lot of you enjoy finding out what is happening here and so I am rededicating myself to keep you informed.

We opened our church the first week of April. The local churches in our city turned out their services to support ours. With all guests included we had over 300 people at our inaugural service. Our best estimates were that we could comfortable seat 250, the key word being comfortable. We don’t have air conditioning yet so let’s just say it was pretty hot. In fact we have dubbed that day as “Sauna Sunday”.

So far, our normal attendance is around 50. Not bad for our first two months. We have a group of 15 or so people that we consider to be “really committed”. We are working on formalizing their commitment and getting them more involved in the life of the church.

Now for the Big question I know all of you are dying to know about: what is world cup like in Brazil?

In one word – amazing! Imagine the super bowl, world series, nascar and the 4th of July taking place for a whole month – affecting everybody. Brazil played at 4pm – the city shut down at 2. Quite literally, all the businesses closed (except for the restaurants and bars). The streets were deserted and the city was like a ghost town. I walked back during halftime and you could hear shouts and horns and fireworks. When Brazil scored, you would have thought a war broke out with all the fireworks. I can’t wait to see what it will be like when we get out of the selection and into the final tournament.

Christmas Update 2

2005-12-24T19:14:00.000-02:00

Christmas Update #2

Hopefully this finds you spending time with friends and family, maybe watching a little football, A Christmas Story or the 12 Days of Bond – guys can’t get enough of 007. Some of you have been asking how Christmas works here, especially since it is so hot, so I thought I would share a little of how it works.

Basically, Santa either wears shorts or a very lightweight suit. In times past, he used to wear shorts, but now with the improvement in fabrics it is easier to find clothes that breathe more and allow him to stay cool in the lower latitudes. He does add more clothes as he returns north towards the United States. Remember that we are 2 to 3 hours ahead of the U.S.

Today was a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle. It was cloudy and it rained this morning. That means it was cooler today. Really nice! We also had our shopping done, so we didn’t have to brave the malls. The mall by us opened at 8 on Friday morning and didn’t close until 6 tonight (Saturday). That is some heavy-duty last minute shopping!

All afternoon the kids, especially Lauren, cleaned the house (Santa likes good helpers). Now we are getting ready for supper. After supper, a little play time, a story about Christmas and then off to bed.

We are expecting Brock to be up by 5:30 or 6:00. He is an early riser anyway, and with the thoughts of sugar-plums and presents, he will be wide awake early.

I am kind of looking forward to listening to the Vatican’s Christmas mass tonight. In Brazil, it is usually broadcast in Latin – and since Portuguese is based on Latin it will be interesting to see how much we can understand. When the new Pope was installed, we were able to understand a lot of what was said.

Again, we wish all the best for you this holiday season.

We miss you all – wish you could be here!

Keith

Merry Christmas

2005-12-24T18:53:00.000-02:00

Merry Christmas,

The internet is a wonderful thing.

Here in Brazil, we don’t get much American contemporary music, so I am listening to KLOVE online. They just played a new version of “We are the reason” by David Meece. David is amazing in many ways. He was Contemporary Christian before it was profitable to in that business. He was one of the pioneers of the industry. I am glad to hear that people are still singing his music. David lived across the street from us in Lawton. His wife Debbie was a very talented Viola player and they had a son Christopher. The last I heard, they were in Arizona.

Little touches of home. That is big for us! I know for Stacey and me this is the first Christmas (holiday season) away from family, so these little touches of home mean a lot. We are grateful to Donna Millican, Georgia Freitas and the Quirey’s for toting stuff for us to make it a little better.

The thing that makes it tough, though is that, at least in Salvador, Christmas is another holiday. It seems that at least 2 to 3 times a month there is some festival celebrating some saint or religious figure.

I know that there are some people that feel that Christmas isn’t the “actual” birthday of Jesus, or He commanded us to remember His death not his birth. I know that, and I also understand that. What I would like to offer though, is that there is more to Christmas than the veneration of some saint, it is more than presents, carols, parties, fat men in red and yes…family.

It takes a little bit of all of that and sometimes it is easy to put one in front of another. We all know the commercial aspect that is associated with this time of year. But, Christmas without Christ is just another empty celebration with no purpose. I believe I understood that, but I don’t think I fully got that until now.

So, what makes Christmas so special? Well it has to do with love, joy, peace and hope. If you really want to get in depth, I suggest you do a study on Advent. The four weeks leading up to Christmas deal individually with these themes. But in a nutshell, God loves us and He saw we were hopeless. He sent His son to be a perfect sacrifice so that we could have the hope of salvation. Because of His great love, we now have hope. Because of that hope we have joy. Because of that hope and joy – we have peace. We are now reminded to share that love that has been freely given to us. None of this could have happened if Jesus hadn’t come. (sing song: “He Still Came”)

I pray that this Christmas you will make it a point to share the love, joy peace and hope that only a relationship with Christ can bring. And, if you don’t know Christ, let me know, we can talk!

So, what is new here? Well, we are gearing up for Christmas here. All the stockings are hung – no chimney, so we will leave the window open. I don’t know where we will put the reindeer food, but we will figure something out.

Oh yeah, we got a pet for the kids. Actually 2 pets. A pair of African Love Birds. One blue with a peachy – pink head and the other green with a red beak. Really pretty! The kids love them.

Hopefully on Monday I will be able to update you on what all Santa brought. For now, from my family to yours we whish you a very merry Christmas. May you have peace, love, joy and hope in the year to come. With love, Keith, Stacey, Lauren, Brock and Brandon.

2005-12-19T00:02:00.000-02:00

This is the front of the building we are renting. It doesn't look like much right now, but inside it is awesome!

2005-12-18T23:59:00.001-02:00

Donna with Brock and Brandon

2005-12-18T23:59:00.000-02:00

What a great smile!

2005-12-18T23:57:00.000-02:00

Stacey really enjoyed the cards from Park Plaza.

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here we are all dressed up. Hope you enjoy this one - it is usually too hot to dress up here.

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Here is Donna at the Sass's house for breakfast. We really enjoyed having her here.

2005-12-18T23:43:00.000-02:00

Brock got a hockey stick for his birthday. Yes, we did bring the boys hockey jerseys to Brazil.

2005-12-18T23:42:00.000-02:00

Brock and one of his birthday presents.

2005-12-18T23:36:00.000-02:00

This kids at the pool.

Blog Update

2005-12-17T22:46:00.000-02:00

Blog Update

‘Twas the week before Christmas…

Ok, I know it has been a while since I updated last. And, really and truly I am sorry and kind of embarrassed. I am still learning that missionaries stay really busy – and usually really exhausted. You may hear stories that “be prepared, things take longer in foreign countries.” But, until you experience it, there is no way to be prepared for it. I personally feel that that is a major factor of exhaustion and burnout in missionaries. What would normally take us an hour in the U.S., literally takes at least 3 hours. There is no such thing as a quick trip to the store, and if you are doing government stuff – forget about it!

With that said, we do have some really big news. We have come to an agreement to rent a building! For me personally this is HUGE. I hope you get the opportunity to see it, because I believe that it is a big blessing that God dropped in our laps. The building was home to two other churches and a restaurant. Inside, it has nice big open spaces (with no pillars blocking your view) and a gigantic kitchen.

At the first meeting Stacey and I went to, we joked about starting a “church on the beach”. Laughing about having church in our bathing suits. Well, we are across the street from Pituba Beach – literally 100 yards away. The street that you cross is one of the busiest in Salvador taking people from the tip of the point (the Lighthouse) all the way past the airport. Stacey and I were coming back from the mall last night at about 10:00 p.m. and traffic was really heavy – this bodes well for using our location for publicity.

For Brazilians, the building is key to anything. And for the class of people we are trying to reach, this will prove to be a crucial factor. The facilities need to be comfortable, safe and attractive and we believe we now have that.

Well, Christmas is here. Of course, the only “chestnuts roasting” are the chests of tourists on the beach, and “White Christmas” refers to the sand on the beach. Some things never change though, the malls are packed and traffic is heavy.

The kids are out of school on summer break. The boys are out until after Carnival in February and Lauren is out until January. They are all loving school. The boys have picked up Portuguese really well. At their school, the teachers only speak Portuguese to them. Lauren has done really well also. She is reading at a third grade level right now and has moved out of the PFL (Portuguese as a foreign language) class into the regular Portuguese class. That is a big relief for us knowing that our kids are thriving.

What is hard to get used to: walking everywhere, no Wal-Mart or Sam’s, our laundry souring while it’s in the drier and how much quality things cost. Really, I feel that we have adapted to the culture pretty well. Because of our children, we have been invited to many birthday parties and that has led to us making a number of contacts we never would have been able to make. We enjoy the food and the music – and of course the scenery. This really is one of the most beautiful places we have ever lived and we consider it a blessing to be able to work here.

2005-10-30T17:56:00.000-02:00

Keith and Stacey Parker

2005-10-30T17:47:00.001-02:00

This year another Disney classic.

2005-10-30T17:47:00.000-02:00

Snow White and goofy and dopey

2005-10-30T17:44:00.001-02:00

Snow White and 2 of the 7 dwarfs

2005-10-30T17:44:00.000-02:00

can you believe it? we have domino's pizza!

2005-10-30T17:43:00.000-02:00

Alicia and Brandon eating pizza

Island trip

2005-10-26T22:21:00.000-02:00

I guess it is a good morning if you are a White Sox Fan.  Growing up in Oklahoma, I never really enjoyed watching baseball on tv. My dad played baseball while growing up – even played on his company team when he was in the army during WWII. I learned a lot of respect for the game and I can remember watching (or at least my dad watching) baseball on tv. (Monday night baseball?)  The problem for me at least is that baseball doesn’t translate very well to television.  The cameras are focused on the pitcher and then the batter and eventually the pitch and swing.  You rarely ever get to see the defensive shifts and alignment, the crowd and all the subtleties that make baseball a great game.

I really love going TO games and watching. I have spent many happy hours down at the Brick (Bricktown Ballpark) watching college and AAA games there.  But I say all this to say, I have really enjoyed watching baseball in Brazil.  I don’t know if that is the culture shock talking or just a little piece of home – or just the fact that soccer isn’t football.

For all that’s worth – congratulations to the White Sox.  It looks like they will clinch the World Series in strait games.

Things are heating up here.  As we quickly move from spring to summer, there really is no telling between the two. Usually by the afternoon, the clouds all move off revealing an impossible blue sky, cool-ish breezes and a sudden longing to just ditch everything and go to the beach.  Of course, we are right in the middle of doing all the set-up work for our church so those thoughts remain only thoughts for now.

Speaking of beach – some of our teammates gave Stacey and I an incredible present. They gave us a weekend without the kids! We were actually able to get away and have some “married time” which was great.  We have never been ones to get a sitter and go out for an afternoon or evening – partly because with 3 kids it would cost a mint! But also, we enjoy our kids and actually like doing things with them, but that can mean husband/wife time can be sacrificed.

So anyway, Stacey found a cool little hotel on an island about 2 hours south of Salvador. It is called Hotel Anima which is near the village of Morro de Sao Paulo. We had to take a boat to get there and that was the beginning of the adventure.

To start off with, the boat that we were on that was to take us to the island had engine problems about 40 minutes out. By that time we were out of the bay and into the Atlantic in about 4 to 5 foot seas.  Needless to say, our 2 hour quick trip took just under 4 hours…and did I mention that Stacey gets motion sickness? Basically, Stacey doesn’t remember much from the first day.

When we arrived a travel agent met us at the dock and escorted us to the taxi. On this island, personal cars aren’t allowed.  The hotels are able to own vehicles to ferry people and goods back and forth over the one (that is correct, 1) road. This road is sand and not very smooth. About halfway to our hotel, we got stuck in an island traffic jam.  A tractor that is used as a taxi lost both (yep, both) its’ front wheels blocking the road.

Needless to say, we sat for about 45 minutes while more and more people gathered. By gathering, they didn’t really do anything – just look and point.  Finally, they figured out that they could move the trailer and unblock the road. We were on our way again.

Arriving at the hotel was incredible.  Phillipe was a great host. He showed us to our bungalow and allowed us to unwind.

Going back, we decided to take the catamaran which is decidedly bigger – and more reliable.  We made it back with no ill effects this time.

We are grateful to our friends for watching our kids!

2005-10-26T22:00:00.001-02:00

Stacey and the boys

2005-10-26T22:00:00.000-02:00

a tired little boy

2005-10-26T18:44:00.000-02:00

Brock and mom having a little breakfast. Is that Brock or Blake?

2005-10-26T18:38:00.000-02:00

kids on the beach

2005-10-26T18:37:00.000-02:00

Jenn and her helpers making a pumpkin pie.

2005-10-26T18:36:00.001-02:00

Brandon looking a little more pale than usual.

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all covered with flour.

2005-10-26T18:34:00.000-02:00

breaded Brock

2005-10-26T18:33:00.000-02:00

look who I see!

2005-10-26T18:32:00.000-02:00

Stacey and the boys getting ready for the turkey and dressing.

2005-10-26T16:53:00.000-02:00

Lauren with Travis and Alicia at our new, first annual, traditional Canadian American Thanksgiving feast-o-rama.

2005-10-26T16:42:00.000-02:00

Here is the whole family. We are at Guarajuba beach north of Salvador.

2005-10-26T16:40:00.000-02:00

Here are the kids posing for a picture at the beach.

2005-10-26T16:39:00.000-02:00

Brandon and Matt working on a puzzle.

2005-10-26T16:38:00.000-02:00

Here is Brock in his very masculine pink innertube. The kids really took to water.

2005-10-26T16:34:00.000-02:00

Here is the team posing for a picture at our retreat site.

2005-10-26T16:32:00.000-02:00

Remember the birthday party invite? well here is the "goody bag" Lauren got for attending the party.

2005-10-23T16:53:00.000-02:00

Have you ever seen a baby pineapple?

2005-10-23T16:51:00.000-02:00

The gate to the city of Morro de Sao Paulo

2005-10-23T16:50:00.000-02:00

Another view of First Beach

2005-10-23T16:49:00.000-02:00

Keith and Stacey with our wonderful hosts, Philippe and Silvana. Not only do they own the place, they are great cooks, too. (She is due in December)

2005-10-23T16:44:00.000-02:00

this is the view from just below the lighthouse. In the fore ground is a zip line that goes into the ocean (about a 300 foot drop). where all the building are is First Beach, followed by Second Beach, then around the corner to .... Third Beach followed by...can you guess?

2005-10-23T16:43:00.000-02:00

A pretty view of an old church

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an interesting view down an alleyway

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We thought the palm trees hanging over the beach was pretty cool

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Nice view of an old boat on the beach at low tide.

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High tide view to the left. this is looking toward the fourth beach on the island.

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High tide view to the right.

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Here is our Bungalo.

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Here is the place we stayed at. It is called Anima Hotel.

2005-10-23T16:34:00.000-02:00

Here is a traffic jam during rush hour on the island. Incase you can't tell - the tractor's wheel fell off blocking the road.

2005-10-23T16:33:00.000-02:00

Tractors!!! that's correct. the third means of transport.

2005-10-23T16:32:00.000-02:00

There is only one road on the island. There are 3 ways to get from one place to the other. Walking is one, donkeys and horses are number two...can you guess what number 3 is?

2005-10-23T16:30:00.000-02:00

this is the Lighthouse above the fort.

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The old fort near the village of Morro de Sao Paulo

2005-10-23T16:28:00.000-02:00

This is an invitation to a birthday party for one of Lauren's friend's

friday

2005-09-23T18:06:00.000-03:00

I hope you don’t pass out but this will be the second day in a row I have added to my blog.  I was listening to a pod cast about pod casting – and the point of the cast was the future of pod casting.  The comments were that most of the pod casts are just re-telling the same information. Usually political or sports in nature, I can see how pod-casting is becoming the blog of today.

Well, I hope that I am not just retelling the same old information. My goal has been to provide a first person account of what it is like to be missionaries in a foreign country trying to adapt, learn and still be effective.  Pretty tall order but we are trying to do it.

First off the bat, I don’t know if our friends the Rickard’s read this blog, but we are thinking about them right now.  Their girls are Lauren’s best friends. And she still misses playing with them.  David is a mild mannered title lawyer by day and a long haired, metal loving 70’s and 80’s music geek with a great, pointed sense of humor – that occasionally he lets slip out.  He is also a good golfer. His wife, Susan is sweet and loving – needless to say, we both married up!

Anyway, they moved from OKC right before we move to Abilene.  They moved to Houston. I hope they managed to make it out of the big city and avoid all the traffic.  From what we can see 5000 miles away, Houston is getting ready to get it.

Of course New Orleans is getting it again.  All I can hope for is that all the rain they are getting will wash out some of the yuckie stuff there.

I just got back from taking Lauren to the dentist. No procedure, just paperwork.  In Brazil, you have to get all your insurance approved first BEFORE you get any work done.  I should have capitalized YOU as well.  Because there are no insurance specialists that work there.  Basically, you go to the dentist, they write up a work order, you take it to the insurance office, you bring it back to the dentist at your appointment.  But wait – that was just for x-rays, now that they can tell that you need more work, you have to repeat the procedure all over again.  Now we are doing sealants.

Well, on a lighter note, I guess you better get your state fair cotton candy, corn dogs and cinnamon rolls tonight.  Looks like you will be getting rain for the next week – at least if you can believe the weather men.  Also pretty exciting news for OKC about getting the NBA team, if only for just one year.  That wouldn’t have mattered to me, seeing as how I don’t really care for the pro game.  But, it is good for the city (and state). Looks like the other three pro sports franchises in the state are down as well (the Sooners, Cowboys and Hurricane).

Gotta go and find out what’s for supper. More later

Ahoy Maties

2005-09-22T10:23:00.000-03:00

Ahoy Maties,

Hope this finds you high and dry. Evidently our home state is getting ready to be under a hurricane watch. That is pretty bizarre. I guess that means that the state fair is going on. Oklahoma never gets rain until they plan something outside. So, the lesson there is there really is no excuse for a drought in Oklahoma. All you have to do is plan a gigantic international festival and it will rain.

On a different note: we are heading into summer here. With summer comes warmer weather (what’s that?) and of course fresh fruit. Hopefully this picture will come out and you can see what a real pineapple looks like. Notice how it is yellow? That means it is ripe! This particular pineapple actually tasted like candy it was so sweet. This is what you have to look forward to if you come and visit. Of course our mouths have sores right now from eating all the fresh citrus - but it is so worth it. I guess you don’t have to worry about us getting scurvy.

Things are going good here. The kids are doing good – actually really good. Lauren is really starting to pick up the language. In fact she is quite adamant that she speaks and understands more Portuguese than she lets on. Her mom and dad are relieved to hear he say that. The boys are fired up as usual! They really love being outside and playing basket ball, riding their bikes and playing soccer.

We have a new arrangement with our language classes. After a fall-out with our language school we have recruited a teacher and are having classes in the “Parker school of Portuguese”. The classes are great, our teacher is wonderful and I really think that this new arrangement is great. Plus, it is costing us a lot less – and the teacher is making more. A good arrangement the whole way around.

I will write more later!

Wednesday September 7, 2005

2005-09-07T14:53:00.000-03:00

Wednesday September 7, 2005

Today is Brazilian independence day.  That means everyplace is closed and everybody is at the beach.  No really – that is what happens here on holidays.  Usually the restaurants are open, every place else is closed.

Ron and Georgia Freitas are here this week for our teams 6-month check up.  Continent of Great Cities, who trained us, checks up on us to make sure things are progressing well, we are adapting and providing support and any advice we might need. We are grateful for that and we love hanging out with Ron and Georgia. Ron actually leaves this afternoon for Fortelezza which is in North Brazil (really close to the equator).  They have a great church there.  They are doing some really great things with their worship and small groups and we will be borrowing (copying) some of the things they are doing.

The weather is starting to get really nice.  The days are warm, almost hot.  We aren’t getting too much rain and there is a constant breeze blowing in off the ocean keeping things cool.  I don’t know how they have managed to keep this place out of the mainstream tourist destinations but I don’t know how it will last much longer.

We are starting to do some interesting things church-wise.  We are working on naming the church and we are looking for facilities.  There have been about four places we have been keeping our eye on while we count down the days until we can actually think about renting a place – so far all but one has been rented.  So it goes in real estate.  The one that is still open is a cool location.  It is on the ground floor of a shopping mall, looks like it could hold 300 - 250 really comfortably.  Is has mall access and outside access and is on a really busy street. Sounds good? How much? That is the question I am scared to ask – this would be a perfect location if our budget will allow.  Hopefully we will find out soon what they want for rent.

We are narrowing down names right now as well.  After we get the top three or four, we will do some studies on the cultural impact and relevance of those names.  Some things just don’t translate well, and some things have been used here and have different connotations.  For example – the “Christian Church” or more literally “congregation of Christians” is not your typical Disciples of Christ – cousin of the Church of Christ.  Nope, they are a very, very conservative brand of Pentecostalism. The women wear head coverings, they are required towear dresses, men wear suits – they even segregate the men from the women in church!  In Latin cultures a name is very important.  Because of that, we want to be very intentional about what we call ourselves.

We are keeping track of what is happening in New Orleans.  What a tragedy and what a mess.  I actually had a blog commenting on what was going on there – but I didn’t post it.  I felt that it might be too raw and maybe a bit too political.  One thing I did say, and I am glad to see is that the churches are stepping up in a big way.  We may never know the full reason tragedies like this happen, but I believe that one reason they do is so that the church can become what she is supposed to be – the literal body of Christ. His hands, His feet, His compassion.

I also find it interesting that the mega-churches in America are pledging more support than most countries.  Lakewood Assembly in Houston is pledging $5 million.  More that France, Germany, Italy, England and Japan – combined! What a joke this is…. I am saving a whole political rant about this – maybe one day I will start a political blog page – I might call it  “veins a popping” or “they should be shot!”. I don’t know, I will develop it and see what happens.  Maybe my buddy Ray Carter in OKC can join in and we will have a radio show of something.

Speaking of that, Russ (Quirey) and I are going to start a podcast.  Hopefully, we will host it on our website and have links on our respective blogs. The goal at first was to try and see if somebody would donate us an IPod.  But we thought this might be a good way to talk about some current things in a little more humorous way.  We will keep you informed about that as well.

Prayer requests: here are some things we would like for you to remember in your prayers. Our building and naming process, the dollar (the value is really low), our language studies, our families and friends back home, the people we are meeting on a daily basis, all of the other “getting ready” stuff we have to do.

2005-09-02T08:12:00.000-03:00

first supper at our new table

2005-09-02T08:11:00.001-03:00

untangle the knot

2005-09-02T08:11:00.000-03:00

team building exercise during one of our "mini-retreats".

2005-09-02T08:09:00.000-03:00

Brock and his class at school

2005-09-02T08:07:00.000-03:00

Lauren and friends. It is AnaMaria's birthday

2005-09-02T08:06:00.000-03:00

Lauren and AnaMaria at AnaMaria's house.

2005-09-02T08:04:00.000-03:00

a tired boy

2005-09-02T08:03:00.000-03:00

Brandon and Brock open some of Brandon's presents from his school party

2005-09-02T08:00:00.000-03:00

Brandon gets hugs and kisses for his birthday at school

Thursday August 25, 2005

2005-08-25T23:41:00.000-03:00

Good evening friends and family. Hope you are having a great day – Things here are going good. First things first! For all of you praying for us to get internet service, our prayers have been answered! Special thanks goes to our neighbors who took pity on us. But, they are letting us attach our wireless hub to their internet connection and we are pitching in with their bill. This is an awesome solution. And now, we finally have good, dependable, reasonably fast internet service.

So now the only question is: who is going to sponsor our “O Zone” membership so we can watch OU football every weekend? (www.soonersports.com) Anyway, people always told us that when you adapt to a new culture you miss crazy things. One of the things I miss – and I don’t think it is that crazy is OU Football. I miss game days, crisp autumn days, the smell of hotdogs and popcorn and the roar of the crowd. Of course I also miss the commentary of Al Eschbach and that could be considered crazy!

So what else does this mean? Well, it means no more excuses for not updating the blog! So, I am wanting to update it each week – I don’t know if I would be able to do it every day like some people do. I really don’t know what you all would be interested in. Of course what seems mundane to us might be the best thing for you – if you have any ideas, let me know.

As far as team stuff, we are in the throes of committee assignments; culture studies, language studies, writing our bible study lessons… There is nothing really glamorous – just a lot of work that has to be done. We are making good strides in our language. Stacey has a really good grasp. And I am surprising myself every day. On Tuesday I had a conversation with a guy for an hour! (baby steps, baby steps) I know I made several grammatical mistakes and there are a lot of words I don’t know – but I am looking for victories wherever I can find them.

Many of you are wondering about culture shock? We are all going through it in one form or another. You don’t wake up one day and discover you “have it”. For me, it fades in and out. It makes me hyper-critical and very picky. The best cure for me is to get out and do something active. Lately we have been playing pick-up basketball on some city courts. We are doing this for two purposes really, one – to actually get some real cardio work in each week and two - to get out and meet people! There are several guys we have met who come back and play each week. That is really neat!

Well it is getting late and I have laundry to hang up. So talk to you soon.

2005-08-06T21:45:00.000-03:00

Brock and Lauren entertain with a puppet show.

2005-08-06T21:42:00.000-03:00

Lauren models the clothes sent from the Mayfair Ladies Class for Stacey's Birthday.

2005-08-06T21:40:00.000-03:00

Official home of Sooner Club South.

2005-08-06T21:39:00.000-03:00

The doll house made it! Neil at RSI in Dallas did an awesome job packing all our stuff.

2005-08-06T21:34:00.000-03:00

the best birthday present ever?

2005-08-06T21:33:00.000-03:00

Brandon with the beater

Wednesday August 3, 2005

2005-08-06T21:22:00.000-03:00

Wow, I can’t believe it is already August. Here, the weather is nice. Here it has been warm and a little on the rainy side. We can tell it is getting ready to warm up, though. I know back home the weather is hot and dry.

Yesterday, we got our shipment!!!! The truck came at 9:00 am and by 10:30 is all in our apartment. Most of what we shipped was for the kids. We shipped most of their toys. We also shipped books and Christmas stuff.

I am really glad we shipped all the toys. First and foremost, we have room for them in our apartment, so they aren’t out all over the floor. But, toys are very expensive here and if you get good quality stuff it is very expensive. You know the cheep generic toys at Target and Wal-mart? Yeah, that is really expensive here.

We are really happy about having our books here, too. We were really starting to miss them.

Also, Neal and his crew at RSI Crating did a great job of packing everything. I think we only had a light bulb break. Not bad, eh? The kids wore themselves out playing with their stuff last night. Understand that at least half of their toys were boxed up when we move from Guthrie well over 2 ½ years ago. The other stuff they haven’t seen in at least 5 months.

Rachael Carter – the doll house made it just fine. We have pictures of the crate Neil’s people made and we will upload it soon. Needless to say, the doll house has been a great conversation piece – especially for Neil.

Last Friday, the team went out to a small church out by the airport to paint their church. This has really paid dividends just in the few days since then. On Sunday, Christians all over the city had heard about what we did and it really has helped our relationship with them. As somebody once said “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. Very true!

The kids are doing great. Lauren started school on Monday. She absolutely loves her school. the teachers are great and we really feel that her education is every bit as good or better than she would get in the states. The boys also love their school. Brandon is turning out to be Mr. Popularity – or Norm from “Cheers”. When he walks in, all the teachers hug and kiss him and he just loves it – of course Brock plays the shy one, not wanting all the fuss.

2005-07-31T15:48:00.000-03:00

Brock's new bike!!!

2005-07-31T15:47:00.000-03:00

watching tv and smiling

Wednesday July 27, 2005

2005-07-31T15:33:00.000-03:00

Good Wednesday every body. I hope you haven’t gotten too bored with my blog. I am sorry to keep complaining about internet but it is really true. We cant just go to Panera and hook up to their wireless hub. In fact, in Salvador there are only 3 or 4 hot spots.

We are renegotiating with our language school. their teachers have been good, but we can tell that the school is not giving them any sort of guidance in instructing us. They promised us the moon but really haven’t delivered and they have raised our rate every month. To be fair, we have added an extra class – but that doesn’t make up for the fact that we haven’t received many of the extra things they have promised us.

We feel like we can contract our own teachers for about half the price. And if anything, we can get the same thing we have now for less.

we are starting to make the transition out of full time students to part time students and full time ministers. It is pretty exciting, stressful, (fill in emotional response here……) to think that in just a few months we will be studying with people, opening our church and doing “churchy” things.

Monday July 25, 2005

2005-07-25T15:31:00.000-03:00

Greetings to all from Salvador.

Well, first the weather then the sports. We are enjoying great weather. I told Stacey, “this is what I signed up for!” J In June, we had 3 weeks strait of overcast skies and rain. It was actually warmer in Seattle than it was here. That is very wrong! Now we are in a really nice cycle of rain in the morning and clear skies by noon with pleasant temperatures. What that really means is that during our summers, it will be really hot and really humid and we will be longing for one day of ice and snow. It reminds me of a spiritual we sang in chorale at OC – “come and dip your finger in the water come and cool my tongue for I’m tormented in the flame” Ok, not yet – but soon.

Now in sports. Ronaldo, arguably the best soccer player in the world is not on the Brazilian world cup team for 2006. AND nobody in Brazil is upset! During the Confederates cup, Adriano subbed for Ronaldo and …well, showed up the superstar. Allowing Brazil to keep it’s number one ranking in the world and giving it the easy bracket in the tourney next year.

We are doing good. Stacey’s birthday party last week was great. She got lots of nice presents including a Dr. Pepper. (now if we only had a Sonic) In Brazil, there is no such thing as a Dr. Pepper. So just getting to see a can is a privilege. Actually getting to partake of the “healing elixir” is something else. Thank you to the Porters for their great gift.

Brandon is a little parrot. He repeats everything you say – even in Portuguese. All the kids are amazing their parents with their language learning. We are trying not to force them to learn it – knowing they will pick up far more than we could ever teach them.

Lauren starts school next week. Hard to believe her summer/winter break is over.

Tuesday July 19, 2005

2005-07-19T15:30:00.000-03:00

Well, the perfect weather of the weekend is now officially gone. Today we had cooler weather and rain. We also had the same gloomy overcast clouds. The last time this happened it was like this for almost 3 weeks.

We read notes from the first Salvador team where it rained for an entire month. Needless to say we are kind of ready for summer. Maybe not the heat, but definitely being able to see the sky!

Stacey’s birthday is tomorrow. We will have a party with the team for her. My birthday party was during a team meeting – I do not plan on doing that to Stacey!

The kids are fired up tonight. I don’t know why. I guess because they all had naps and now all they really have to do is play. There are some other children in the building that want to play with our kids, it is just hard getting together with them right now. Hopefully that will change soon.

That’s all I know for now.

Monday July 17, 2005

2005-07-17T15:26:00.000-03:00

First things first – I am sorry for not updating sooner. Not much out of the ordinary has been happening. We are in the middle of winter which means it usually rains every day. Most of July has been cloudy and rainy and actually kind of cool. There have been several times we have actually been cool - meaning we can wear jeans without sweating.

The past 2 days have been incredible! The sky has been perfectly clear, light breezes and highs in the low 80’s. Now that is winter!

Heather, a friend of the team from Abilene was on a mission trip with Highland church and decided to come up to Salvador and visit us. So, today we took the kids along with the Porter’s and Heather to the Pelourinho. What an incredible day!

We first went to the Mercado. The mercado is the former market place where slaves from Africa were sold. It is now a market where you can buy leather items, souvenirs, art and other things Brazilian. The United States brought in 1.5 million slaves, during this same time 1.5 million slaves passed through Salvador – another 2-3 million passed through other cities as well.

Also this morning we got our “green cards”. They are kind of pinkish-orange in reality.

We are still studying Portuguese every week. We have class every day but Monday. (which is why we were able to pick up our cards and go do some cultural stuff). We are now in the tedious part of language learning. We have picked up a bunch of new phrases and words but now they are starting to come more slowly. We are in the tedious phase of learning grammar, verb conjugation and adding words to our vocabulary. This is the non-fun part.

Aside from that, we are in the process of really figuring out what makes this culture tick. What are people looking for in a church? How to have community? What is the appropriate worship style for this culture? How formal? All very good questions that we have to answer.

Our apartment building just installed a new security system this past month. I really don’t know why, after all we have 3 armed guards on duty at all times. The chief of the military police lives in our building. But anyway, we now have security cameras all over the place and they have piped in the security feed into the tv cable for the building. Needless to say, we feel very safe here!

Thursday, June 30, 2005

2005-06-30T12:58:00.000-03:00

Good Thursday everybody. I apologize for the lack of updating that we have been doing. Or is it not doing? Anyway, I hope things are good where you are and getting ready for a nice independence day. We have a celebration here with the American society.

Speaking of celebration, Brazil won the Confederation Cup last night. They beat Argentina 4-1. they just literally had their way with them. It was amazing to see the complete domination and the return to Brazil-esque soccer. Needless to say, there were fireworks going off all night last night.

Of course, in Bahia during the month of June there are fireworks every night. It feels like a war zone sometimes.

We sent out an update on Wednesday. I hope everybody received one. if not, let me know.

More later

2005-06-28T23:50:00.000-03:00

Brock

6-24-05 Friday

2005-06-24T12:39:00.000-03:00

Last night we went down to the Pelourinho to check out the Sao Joao festival. It was absolutely amazing. Brightly colored banners, lights, good food and lots of music filled the historic district as the people celebrated. It was amazing to us that this is really the city that we live in. It is so easy for us to get removed from the culture of this city in our daily routine. We stay in the same area to do everything – which is good for church establishment but we miss out on a lot of the culture of this city.

We were looking at a map of our state recently and were truly amazed. Our state is one and a half times the size of Texas. In our state are pristine beaches, coral reefs, whale watching sites, sub-tropical rain forests, mountains and mesas, and arid desert climates. Basically, with the exception of cold weather sports – you can do it all here. I know that we have a job to do, and we are getting ready to get real busy real fast, but I really hope that I get the chance to travel through our state.
Brazil is playing in a soccer tournament in Germany that is the precursor to the world cup. Basically, this sets the seeds for the world cup tournament.

The kids are on break from school. Lauren is out for 2 months and the boys are out for 2 weeks. I think they are enjoying not being in school – but they do love school! I wish the weather was better so we could do some stuff outside. It has been rainy here for 3 days – and it is pretty cool also. Pretty cool is 70. Yeah, I never thought I would say that – but we are actually able to wear jeans without sweating right now. Of course it is really humid – but at least it is not the sauna it has been.

Wednesday 6/8/05

2005-06-08T12:36:00.000-03:00

I sit here watching Brazil play the worst soccer (on the international level) I have seen. I can’t imagine how frustrated the Brazilians must be watching their arch-enemies the Argentines literally wipe the field with them. Maybe they will play better in the second half.

Today for class we all went on a field trip to a mercado near where we live. This was one of the neatest places I have been in Salvador. This market is primarily a market for fresh food. Booths were loaded with fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and fish. It was truly amazing. Needless to say we were starving when we left. One of the coolest things was that many of these vendors deliver – for 3 reals (right at a dollar).

Other booths were loaded with woven baskets and rugs, wooden spoons and bowls. Ok, I am not a bird guy – they smell and are loud. Anyway, we saw the prettiest birds today – one day we may be owners. They were African parakeets, one was green with a yellow neck and a red beak. One was yellow with an orange head and read beak and one was light blue fading to white with a white beak. They were really pretty!

It is half time and Brazil is down 3-0. Of course remember the EUFA championship where Liverpool came back from 3-0 and actually beat Real Madrid in penalty kicks 4-3. It was an incredible game. One of the players for Brazil’s national team was on the loosing side of that game – hopefully his experience helps us out tonight.

Can you believe I just wrote a whole paragraph on soccer (uh, football)?

Anyway, we are thinking about creating a video titled “Eating your way through Salvador”. This would be required viewing for anyone wanting to visit or do LST work or whatever. Basically, if you go hungry here, it is your own fault.

Tuesday 6-7-05

2005-06-07T17:43:00.000-03:00

Good Tuesday to you all.

I just posted pictures of the kids all dressed up for Sao Joao. This is a festival native to the North East of Brazil - especially in the interior. People dress up in their "country" costumes and party. It is named for John the Baptist - even though the festival it's self has no religious connotations. Basically, it is an excuse to party for the month of June.

Friday we woke up to water all over the floor of our bathroom. Evidently, the hot water heater - which is conviently located in the ceiling - decided to start leaking. We have wood panels in our ceiling causing hot water to rain down all over the bathroom. NICE

We called a plumber. He came out and fixed the hot water heater. But, the thermostat stopped working as well. This caused the heater to boil the water creating a nice steam bath - or dangerous gysers in our bathroom.

As I type this, the plumber is leaving - and all is well. (cue mysterious music) For Now!

Sunday is Valentines Day in Brazil. How about that, Stacey gets 2 valentines day presents this year.

We do have 2 specific requests for you to be praying about.
1. Joyce Goodman who so generously let us live in her house while we were in Tulsa, was in a car accident this week. Evidently it was pretty bad and she is really banged up. She is in the hospital in St. Louis.
2. Our church family at Park Plaza, and the Ellards.

Hope things stay well. Looks like our refrigerator (brand new) just quit. Talk to you soon.
Keith

2005-06-07T17:40:00.000-03:00

All the kiddo's

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Lauren

2005-06-07T17:38:00.000-03:00

Brock and Lauren dressed up for festa de Sao Joao

Wednesday 6-1-05

2005-06-01T17:41:00.000-03:00

I hope you are all having a great day, things are good here. There are several things I need to update you on so I will do that first and then get on with the fun stuff.

Internet – Well it seems that we are doomed to dialup until we move or something. I called yesterday and the company said we are restructuring our installation department so we have taken you off the list. So, I went by their office yesterday and talked to a really nice lady and she hopefully got me back on the list and I am waiting for their call today.

Phone – so I called the house yesterday and 30 min. later our phone wouldn’t work. I asked the porter if there were any problems in the building and he said no. so I asked him if there were problems in the neighborhood to which he replied; “sempre, sempre problemas”. (there are always problems with the phone here) That made me feel better… so anyway, the technician came out and fixed the problem. We again have a phone.

Shipping – it looks like our paperwork is in order, they are just waiting for the money. A big thanks to Cliff Albright for selling our Explorer. And just in time to send the money to Sao Paulo. Now, we are waiting on the bank to notify the company that the money is in their account. Amazing how banks will charge you the second you do something wrong, but it takes them days to wire money. Shouldn’t we be able to charge them? Pray that this goes through quick.

The Dollar – the dollar is still near 2.4. That means for every dollar I sell, I get 2.4 Reals (the Brazilian currency). When we were here a year ago it was 3 to 1. So needless to say we are taking a hit right now. It is not necessarily the U.S.’s fault either. The dollar is pretty strong. the problem is the Brazilian economy. I understand that they have lowered interest rates here. That basically means that the Real is really strong. But in the long term that is making the prices here look inflated and since Brazil exports A LOT that could have far reaching effects on the economy here. Pray for stability!

Language – Language school is going really well. Stacey and I both really love our classes. I think Stacey is a little frustrated in that she really wants her class to move faster. But, the good thing is that she (and me too) are learning a lot. We can understand most normal people (the Bahiano accent is really tough. They sound like they are mumbling.) And we know enough now that we can communicate with them. Stacey is doing really well at that. The true test is that we always get where we need to go and we haven’t gone hungry! I would say we are doing ok. Pray for our language skills.

To our friends and family just a quick note to say we think about you often! I apologize for not being able to write all you personally so far. Things are really busy right now – and not having dedicated internet is really making that tough. We have several updates getting ready to come out and we also have plans for some other things to allow us to communicate with you.

There are times we really wish you could be here to witness in person what God is doing here. Lives are already starting to be touched. People that were strangers just a few weeks ago are starting to ask questions about the God we serve. But, at the same time we miss “normal” church, real potlucks and we really miss Ed cooking for us on Wednesday nights.

2005-05-28T19:32:00.000-03:00

The kids in the Pelourinho

2005-05-28T19:30:00.000-03:00

bigfoot