Last night my parents left from spending two weeks with Ali and me, and we had a great time sharing our world with them!  Looking back, it doesn't seem like two weeks should be up already, but they did get to see a ton!

The day they arrived they took part of one of the weekly lunches at our house for young professionals,

And the next day they joined our youth group as we started a campaign in our neighborhood of gathering food to be given to needy families this Christmas

We had a lot of fun showing our city to them. Itu is known as "the city where everything is big," – (like this 2-foot Q-tip mom found for dad)

Here and throughout Brazil, we Kaisers have a name for ourselves, sooo –

 mom got a pose in with the more sought after Kaiser of the region. 

One of their favorite experiences was joining me to the “Sitio Shalom,” a drug rehab program I regularly work with here. While I was busy helping one of the residents, Marcinho, format his resumê, 

mom and dad ate lunch with the other residents, and than dad gave one of the guys a lesson on how to play “Sudoku.”  Watching them get by without a common language was hilarious, but they did it!

We also got to take mom and dad to the “Lar Cristão,” an orphanage nearby with some kids who are very dear to us. They got to sit through what must have been an incredibly boring meeting (all in Portuguese) between the new director, Ali and I, and to meet Eleizar (a boy I have been doing a Bible study with), 

and lots of other beautiful children who were excited to have new visitors! 

Last Friday we had a taste of home with a Brazilian twist, we went to the American Footbal game of our friend Leandro. Not common at all here in Brazil! It was funny to see Brazil give it a go though, notice the lack of helmets? You go with what you got. J Leandro, or “Mini”, is the 2^nd from the right in blue.

Besides all the events, we packed the time with some of the best people in the world, new foods, sights and experiences and as little sleep as possible. Mom and dad, thanks so much for coming and being a part of our world here! We love you guys, and look forward to the next time. But for now… try not to hurt your shoulders again shoveling snow back in Ohio! J

early TGIVING

as i write this post, there is a group of 9 wonderful ppl at my parent's house (they are out of town... don't tell them we are here! haha) and we are preparing for an early, amazing TGIVING feast tomorrow. we are taking advantage of mark's parents being here to celebrate the holiday the REAL way: turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, pies galore! for 15 ppl, there will be a total of 7 deserts! yuuummmmmm! 

we are thinking of you and hoping you are enjoying the arrival of the holiday season. 

please, whoever is in Abilene, give my parents a BIG hug for us! we miss them!

hugs and kisses to you all- 

ali

ps - pictures of the feast will be proudly posted very soon.

hungry draculas

our youth group was excited to have an american party here at our house!

halloween is not a brazilian tradition, so they really enjoyed the face painting, the bobbing for apples, the treasure hunt in balloons! 

and this video absolutely cracked me up!

it shows well the great sense of humor these guys have, 

and how they are patient with the crazy youth ministers! 

and here are some more masterpieces created by Ro during his stay here!

also, check out www.rodiaz.com and www.euforialive.com

Ro in Brazil

Ro's show in the Itu mall - a great, beautiful crowd!

Mark, Ro, Carol and myself crashing a birthday party in Rio

Rolando using our guest room as a studio - what a cool transformation!

we first met Rolando Diaz in June when he came with the Highland campaign for the camp....

Ro painted an incredible mural in our church named "the praying angels of Itu".

 

Ro is a very talented artist. he lives in Dallas, but is originally from Cuba. 

he has a young, crazy, energetic, sporadic spirit that entertains all ppl!

Ro knows how much the church in Itu needs to finish the construction, so he decided to share his talents! he came on a 3 week trip to Brazil to put on several live painting shows and decided to donate whatever proceeds were gathered. 

we had fun being his stage crew, p.r. representatives, studio managers, material gather-ers, crisis calmers, and audience applauders =) 

it was a great success! we made contact with several big artist names in Brazil and Ro charmed them all! 

may we all have the vision to serve others with our talents!