WE ARE IN BRAZIL! We have been so overwhelmed with how loving and generous all our churches have been on our deputation. We took a calculated leap of faith purchasing our tickets, and God proved Himself once again! Our deputation is finished, and we begin our work in Caxias do Sul. January certainly was a whirlwind of events. When temperatures dropped at the end of December, we managed to pack everything and move in with some friends of ours to keep warm and have running water. These friends have blessed us tremendously throughout our deputation and have helped make our time in the States much easier. With our stuff packed and ready to go, we worked through our final month of our deputation.

Not surprisingly, no one scheduled us for a meeting on New Year’s Day. But we did get a meeting in Lubbock on Wednesday the 4^th! We got to see some familiar faces from Heartland, and had a wonderful meeting. We visited some of our dearest friends, and then headed back to Fort Worth. I won’t bore you with the details, but we sorted through our final documents and suitcases with plenty of time to spare. We had another meeting in Justin, TX on Sunday. It was my last time playing our special, and for some reason I completely forgot how to play the song at one part! I thank the Lord for keeping me humble, but still…that wasn’t fun. 

The following week, more sorting and preparing, and then our last meeting on the 15^th in Haltom City, TX. The pastor did a brief interview with us for the Sunday School hour, and we loved having that as an addition to the service! He asked about our testimony, our calling, and our field, and even a couple of simple doctrinal questions (with “yes” and “no” answers). We loved the idea and had a lot of fun with it. At the end of that meeting, and with one week before our departure, we hit 97% support...SO CLOSE! But we trusted God and His timing. On Monday, one church contacts me that they’re raising their support: 98%. On Tuesday, another church calls me to inform me that they’re taking us on for support: 99%! On Thursday, I get one more phone call from another church…101% SUPPORT! With less than a week before leaving for the field, we exceeded our goal for support!!! God has been so good to us on our deputation, and His timing continues to amaze me.

With the pressure of support off our chest, a new pressure mounted…ordination. On Sunday the 22^nd, I had my ordination council. Pastor Gillit gave me a list of the questions he was going to ask several weeks ahead of time, for which I was very grateful. For weeks I studied the things that I already knew and had been trained in. As the day approached, I felt confident and prepared. As I stood in front of 8 men and pastors I greatly respected, I sweat buckets! For an hour and a half, I was questioned on my doctrinal beliefs, and a few philosophical beliefs on some modern-day issues. The men on my council were so loving and gracious, and helped me where I knew I stumbled over my words. And… I passed my ordination! Following the council was a beautiful sending service with an encouraging charge from our pastor. We said goodbye to our church family and friends, had cake and punch. It honestly felt like our wedding all over again! Somehow it was almost more stressful…probably because we were leaving the next day…I don’t know. On Monday, everything was ready. We slept a full-night’s sleep, we lined up our bags, and we departed for the airport in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Most people complain about long layover times, but I have never been so grateful for our long layovers. We arrived at the DFW Airport at 2am, just to sit and wait until the check-in counter opened at 3:30am. We boarded our first flight to Houston, TX and had a 3-hour layover. Because of some stormy weather, our flight was delayed about an hour. When we finally took off, I had never reached 10,000 feet so quickly! I think because of the storm, the pilot was told to get over the clouds as quickly as possible, and he took that to heart! We climbed so fast, and it was the most turbulence I have ever felt in my life. It was like a rickety wooden roller-coaster! We landed in Florida and had about a 5-hour layover. We were grateful for lounge passes that provided us lunch and comfortable chairs. Joneia was able to lay down and sleep for a bit. Neither one of us have had much luck with sleeping on planes, so any chance we could get to sleep, we would take. We boarded our flight to São Paulo, Brazil, and miraculously, we both managed to sleep for several hours of the flight. Praise the Lord! In São Paulo, we had an 8-hour layover, so we got a small hotel room to get a shower and a couple hours of sleep. Then we took our last 2-hour flight directly into Caxias do Sul, where Joneia’s parents were ready to pick us up. We were home! 

After 35 hours of travel, and only a few hours of sleep…we went to church! Incredibly, I was able to understand and speak a lot of Portuguese! But then on the second day when we went to town…I didn’t understand any Portuguese. I remember in college studying language learning, and we were taught that there would be some days of peaks and other days of valleys, and this was a valley day. There was so much on our plates, and a lot of work to be done right away. We’ve been here for a week, and it already feels like it has been a month. We have day-camp in two weeks and are working hard to prepare the property for our campers. Please pray that this will be an impactful camp, and that decisions would be made to serve God.

On a final note, many people thought that I would be dealing with culture shock, and Joneia would be just fine because “she’s going home.” But guess what, Joneia has been dealing with harder culture shock than I have. Since our survey trip two years ago, I almost feel like we never left. Now that Joneia’s returning home to stay, everything has changed from when she was a child, and it has been more shocking to her than anyone could’ve thought. I’m sure I will deal with some culture shock at some point, but it honestly hasn’t hit me yet. Be praying as we deal with our thoughts and emotions in this brand-new chapter of our lives. Please pray for us as we begin our home renovations this month. Also pray that I will learn the language quickly as we dive head-long into our life and ministry in Brazil.