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

it's a boy!

NO -- i am not prego. calma! (calm down!) 

but we do have some news. 

we have a .. well... sortava "son". 

his name is Manu (short for Emanuel). he is 24 years old.

here is the story: manu and i were camp buddies from many moons ago (early 90's. i was 2 years old. ha!) we never kept much in touch, but we'd see each other a couple of times in a year. when i moved to Abilene for school, i completely lost contact with the guy. 

fast forward to December 2008. a mutual friend of ours, beto, was to be married and manu was invited to the wedding here in itu. he came, spent the night in our home, and before we knew it, he had been here for 6 weeks! he saw something that made it worth staying. 

mark and i talked, and encouraged him to begin culinary school, and invited him to live with us during the course. 

so now we have a sorta son. 

he is loving school, and working at a restaurant from 5pm to 1am everyday.

manu is a great kid to have. no diapers. no bottles. he helps clean. and we are not his taxi. 

jokes aside -- 

i am amazed that we, thru God, have had such an influence on his life now. 

we love to walk the journey with people. 

ak

we survived the trip!

here is what mark looked like when we left for the adventure :

this picture was taken in the emergency room about 24 hours before we piled up 3 vehicles with 17 kids and began our journey. 

(mark was on a strict schedule of antibiotics and alegra and fever meds) 

the trip from Itu to Belo Horizonte is about 8 hours. normally. 

but our Volkswagen van broke down 2 hours into the trip .... so we were on the road from 3 pm on Friday till 1 pm on Saturday.  now here is the crazy thing: we are so glad it broke down! we had no idea how to get to the camp, so had we done the trip in 1 day, we would have arrived in BH at 1 am, with no one to receive us, and no beds to sleep in (there were not enough places at camp) .... but since the van broke, we had a nice night at ATIBAIA, where some of our good friends live who kindly let us invade their home. 

(our fave van!)

we got the kids up at 4am, and watched the sun rise on our journey. 

great conversations, and snacks, and laughs,  and stories... and we finally arrived in Belo Horizonte! yay!

(zacca in my car. love this kid!)

the camp was full - about 250 people! 

our group was incredible! the energy and joy that the 16 of us brought to the site was contagious! the other teens were asking where in the world we had come from, followed by "when is your camp??" =) 

(chapel)

(part of our group after first night of "sleep") 

the Kaiseres (what our youth group calls themselves) have chosen a theme for this year: TurnedInsideOut. they talk about how they want to be a group that looks for ways to help people and not be so focused on their own belly button. they inspire me.  .......... so at camp, each day they chose what piece of clothing we were going to wear turned inside out. hillarious. shirts the first day. jeans the second day. and when people asked what on Earth we were doing, they'd explain the perspective of the group. nice. 

(all the young adults that accompanied the youth) 

so guess what? the volkswagen van broke down on the way back, too. minor this time, compared the the broken clutch on the way there (Little Miss Sunshine, anyone?)

so it was all very unforgettable. 

our next venture is a city wide youth rally in March. no vans involved. 

we are blessed!

kaisers

Prayer Request

Right now is youth group time for us, but instead of being with all the kids I am sick and in bed! My wonderful wife, who is always ready to pick up the slack, is meeting with the kids at the church building (they usually fill our house). I am getting better now, for the last two days I have had a fever, and last night I spent from 4am on sitting up on our couch because laying down had become unbearable. So later this morning we went to the docs office where they gave me some meds by IV and more to take home with me. Now my fever is better and my throat is getting there, but please pray that I will heal quickly.

 It's Carnival time here in Brazil, time to make a retreat with the youth or lose them forever! :) Okay that's a joke... mostly. Carnival is 3 days of huge parties in the streets. It's the time of year where anything goes with anybody. So we try to provide an alternative more fitting to the life styles our kids are choosing to lead. With that in mind, tomorrow in a 3 car caravan we will be driving 10 hours north to meet up with a gathering in Belo Horizante. I will be driving an old Volkswagen van with 7 kids in it, so I really need to get better!

Thanks so much for your prayers, at times like this it is great to have the support of the body of Christ!

Mark

from 2008 to 2009

thought i'd present you with a fun update of all the amazing times we have had in the last couple of months!

in December we had our BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING campaign, and distributed over 200 baskets containing a monthly supply of food to poor families in our city. 

PAUL & BROOKE arrived for the holidays, and we had great times together over the next month!

for CHRISTMAS my dad's entire family rented a ranch, and we spent 4 days together, enjoying the sun, ping pong, card games, soccer, row boat rides, food, food, & food! 

 for NEW YEAR, we had a fantastic and eventful day! My family has the tradition of running a 15k race downtown Sao Paulo with another 25,000 people on New Year's Eve. It was a grand adventure this year since a cousin of mine decided to join the race a couple of hours before the running started -- she had never trained before! an absolute Goncalves hoss!

after the race we showered, ate, cramped up, then went back downtown to welcome in 2009! there were 2.5 million people on the main avenue; a celebration similar to NY Time Square.

It was spectacular! we danced and jumped and sang along to the live shows until 4am. My cousin had much difficulty getting up/walking/sitting/standing the next day! hilarious. 

itu hosted the MISSIONARY CONFERENCE this year! we received 25 missionary families from all over brazil, and even a couple from Paraguay. it is a week when great bonds are formed between families who really "get" each other (an example in our life: the Blume family. keep reading). we had the blessing of receiving truth from Don McGlaughlin, who taught our classes for the 5 days. he inspired us. 

after the conference, my family  escaped our surroundings to spend some quality together. we enjoyed the beautiful mountains and vineyards of southern brazil! and of course, we ate like it was going out of style. it was, once again, an unforgettable few days with the stories, laughters, skip-bo games, and dreams for our futures. 

Paul and Brooke are moving to Korea this summer. we will miss them tremendously, and we eagerly await our next time together. 

well, after saying our good-byes to P&B, we crashed the BLUMES house for a week! we met this crazy cool family last year at the missionary conference, and they fell in love with us right away! (right, kevin?) it was an amazing time to visit, jump from crazy high waterfalls (Carys, the 10 year old, showed me how it was done. insane!), eat pastel, live with 6 children, and meet their perspective of ministry and life. (ps -- we are trying to get more pics from the CDs)

we returned to Itu and found our new little INTERN, Mary Lou, along with 6 living at our house. love it. ML is well... adjusting to the language and culture, but enjoying the journey. 

that reminds me, please keep praying for CAROL's return. she is planning to come back next week, and we can't wait!

oh yes, it was also my BIRTHDAY on the 24th! wow! what a night! i welcomed 27 years with 22 friends! (on the 23rd, the youth group had a surprise bday for me! so sweet)... we went to Sao Paulo, enjoyed a friend's wedding, then celebrated my birthday at a very loud, vivacious, delicious italian restaurant! amazing times and amazing friends!

and so here we are. maybe now i will feel [somewhat] caught up with blog world. 

mark and i are well. in love with our ministry and purpose we have found in Brazil. 

your prayers carry us thru. 

we love you very much and can't wait to be with you again! (visitors ALWAYS welcome)

greater things have yet to come -- 

ali