excerpt from our life

God is at work in wonderful ways here -  I don't have it in me to blog about it so I am just going to post an email I just sent to my family. More to come when we can get a breather. Understand that the language used in this email was selected in part because one of the recipients was my sister who serves as a missionary undercover in China - her email is subject to being looked at so they request no overt Christian lingo. God is good, all the time. Here's the update -

We are in a final stretch of a string of back to back campaigns here - last week we directed a camp with a group of about 30 americans and 70 brazilians, it was amazing and we saw some incredible work that was not of us!  There are a couple newbies in our family now. :)

Today we dropped Carol off at the airport to fly back home after having worked with us for a year. She has been an intern of ours since the last bilingual camp, there is no good way to do a update on this part - we sent away a big piece of who we have become. 

We drove from the airport back to Itu where we had the first day of a medical campaign we have been organizing. 140 some people were attended by a mix of American and Brazilian dentists, gynecologists, psychologists, med-students... I pitched in with translating and crowd control. We also offer a time of sports, I taught a jujitsu class to the kids. It's been a great way to show the love of the great physician. 

Ali and I have a packed house during this week - 4 in our 2 bed rooms, 3 or 4 in the living room, and the rest in a tent that's set up in the garage. Last night we had one in the tent who left early this morning, and we have been trying to figure out all day who it was! The two guys who slept with him thought it was Bruninho, but he slept upstairs with Manu... crazy life! 

Okay, i'm going to get some sleep.

love you guys!

MOTION!

tomorrow at 10 am we will be loading 2 buses and headed to CAMP MOTION! there will be 100 campers, between americans and brazilians. 

please lift us up in prayers! 

*this is a big evangelistic effort, since several of the teens participating are not connected to a christian community.

*please pray for the health of the leadership. emotional, physical, spiritual wholeness. 

*please pray that our bodies will resist fatigue. we've been at hallucinating speeds for the past 5 weeks, and very little rest. 

the weekend we get back in our CHURCH INAUGURAL WEEKEND -- we will have a community party on saturday night and church celebration on sunday morning. then on monday we begin our medical campaign. 

so more prayer requests to come... 

much love to all of you!

ali, in name of kaisers

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

hello my friends -- i hope that you have not given up all hope on us and our tremendous inability to blog as constantly as we should.  

we have been hit by the winter wave. in more than one way. 

way one: we are living in temperatures that flutter somewhere around 40-50 degrees most of the day and night. but unlike the US, whatever tempt it is outside, subtract 5 or 10 degrees in the house. our home is mostly concrete and tile flooring, both of which absorb cold weather like a sponge. it makes for very stiff nights, and requires great courage in the mornings to get out of bed as you watch your breath spread in the air above your head. 

way two: our winter is your summer. your summer = campaigners galore in itu! we are amazed at all the activity that God has brought our way this campaign season! "greater things have yet to come" ... and arrive in 2 weeks! =) we have our BILINGUAL CAMP, our FIRST MEDICAL MISSION TRIP, MAX LUCADO will be spending a weekend with us and offering a seminar, and  ACCAPPELLA is coming for a concert at the end of the month.  

all this, my dear ones, will be happening within 30 days. 

and all the planning and developing and launching and marketing for each event happens now. 

this is why there has been less action in the blog world. well, that's our NOW excuse, anyway. 

please lift us up. 

we are in great expectation to see what God and His amazing power will do with each week that unfolds. 

we love you and miss you. 

more to come... as always. 

kaisers

backtrack about 3 weeks with me

hello blog!

as you know, we had a great month of March full of fundraisers and anticipation of our first youth group mission trip. on April 17th, we packed the Kombi + 2 cars, and ventured down to Praia Grande, where we met with the youth group of a brand new church.

there were 21 in our group, and about 11 in their group. it was a very manageable number to handle, which we were thankful for, especially during the afternoons at the beach (mark and i both have life guard training and experience, which makes it hard to relax with 30 teenagers at a beach). 

although the weekend brought about several unexpected factors (1.their group was significantly younger than ours;2. some rainy days; 3.a few adolescent radical, unpredicted mood swings-- to the fans of Animaniacs, we had Katie KaBoom along for the trip) we were very proud of our Kaiseres (the name of our youth group) and how they entered into the new dynamics of the event. 

mark and i presented 3 discussion themes. first, "who is Jesus"  exploring the deeper meaning to the text "i am the way, truth and life". second, "wall or trampoline" a beautiful metaphor originated by Bell to explain the roots and consequences of legalism in our hearts. third, "what now?" helping them understand the next steps of faith. 

our next big youth event: JUNE 7TH : VIRADOS PARA FORA - Turned InsideOut. The group *not us* is planning and organizing a weekend with all the regional youth groups. we are anticipating hosting over 60 kids in Itu. the Kaiseres are preparing homes, meals, classes, games, sports,  Sunday service.... it will be a fantastic weekend! please pray in their favor. 

thank you for your interest in our lives.

we know the blessing of having friends and family that are in tune and supportive of the life we lead in the name of Christ. 

with much love -- 

ali

directly from maceio

hi everyone!

i am sorry we have dropped off the face of the Earth.
right after our youth mission trip we ventured up north to participate in the North Eastern church conference. mark and i were invited to speak to the youth. it was incredible!

we made a road trip out of it, and have visited several good friends along the way.
we are headed home today, but it will take about 6 days to get back to Sao paulo.

as soon as we arrive we have pics and stories galore!

we appreciate your prayers for our safety... and the impact that the message has had in many young hearts arond Brazil!

talk to you at the end of the week --
ali

preparing for our first mission trip!

can i just say that our youth group is amazing? we've had a great start of 2009 with them! we spent some time helping them develop their ideas for ministries at the beginning of the year. 

april will set our biggest challenge yet with them : we are taking our first mission trip. 

they have been working like crazy people to raise the money to cover the expenses for this trip. we've sold pizzas, baked 300 cookies, made hippie jewelry, planned a Japonese dinner for the community and baby-sat for families at church. 

we are joining with another young youth group (in existence for about 1 year as well), and our kids are planning a youth retreat for our time together.  some of the youth is getting together tonight to discuss the theme and classes for the retreat. 

we've stressed the importance of being Christians who GIVE BACK -- not just sit back and receive. they took it to heart, and began planning ways to serve out of their box. 

we are so blessed to be a part of their lives! 

please pray as we prepare to leave on the 17th of April. 

more news to come...

ak

celebrating mark's life

it'sbeen a couple of weeks now, but mark turned 28. wow. 28. carla claims mark is finally catching up to her age (carla is the older sister). ha!

mark is 1 year older than me. the main advantage to this is that he gets the shocking high age a whole year before i do -- so when it's HIS bday we are stunned at how "old" we are getting, but by the time January roles around, we are used to the number. he does not think it's as good of a deal. 

mark and i had a very hard week preceding his bday. just lots of difficult situations and conflict. 

so i planned a great celebration: i packed his bag, cancelled his appointments for the next 2 days, rented a couple of really GUY movies, and we headed off after church on Sunday. he had no idea where we were going. 

anyone who knows me knows that i am TERRIBLE with surprises! i LOVE to be surprised, but i am bad at holding it in, bc i know the person will be so happy! guys -- i actually was able to keep it a secret until after we got in the car! victory for ali!

well, i took mark to the beautiful b&b where we spent our honeymoon...almost 5 years ago!

it was such a fun getaway! it's on the beach, so we enjoyed the warm days in the water, ate lots, slept in, and watched movies in the afternoon. 

every day i am reminded of how blesses i am to have Mark walking thru life with me. 

he has been my best friend, my favorite story-teller, my favorite running partner, my favorite road trip buddy...my favorite companion in ANYTHING and ANYWHERE for almost 8 years now. 

mark's wisdom and kindness has changed my life and taught me to serve from the heart. 

you have also been a big influence on who mark is/becoming. 

i thank you for the love you have given him.

ali