Weekend adventures

Our weekend was great and here are a few pictures from our adventures.

One saturday we had a beach day and had marvelous hot sunny weather all day. A fishing boat that we saw with miles and miles of beautiful beach behind it.

Our "camp" with plenty of umbrellas to keep us from getting burnt.

Beach botchy (like botchy ball but with discs), a game braught by Ron that kept the boys plenty entertained most of the day.

On Sunday/today we went to a few site seeing spots, including this "mountain" in the middle of Florianopolis, this is one of the many incredible views.

The team and Ron our translator.

We also checked out a beach on the south east side of Florianopolis. Ross, Jeff, Karen and Ron feeling rather hot as it was another scorcher today.

Now for a little reading...

This is a story of Jonas, the local brick layer that we have had the privilege of working with at the rehab center. Jonas has adamantly been inviting us to his home since we first arrived at the center for his duaghter, Suellem's birthday today. We agreed but had no idea of how we would beimpacted by this generous invite. We agreed to a time of 4:00pm and arrived shortly after to an amazingly warm welcome. All his children were waiting and waving as we drove up. Jonas and his wife live in a small, and not North American small, think 3 room small, with their 7 children ranging from 12 to 1. He and his family we overjoyed to have us over. They had made a couple of posters to welcome us to their home (see pictures below). They had worked from early morning to prepare all the food for us and had purchased an amazing birthday cake for the special occasion. They were overwhelmingly generous with the little they had. And, of all things, Jonas thanked us constantly for being there.

He told us a little of his background while Ron translated. Just over 7 years ago he was working in Paraguay on a farm where they grew corn, soy bean, and rice. He had worked his way up and had become a farm manager and had worked for 5 years making a good wage. He had a furnished home and was living well. He felt called by God to come back to Brazil so they left everyone and everything they had and came back to Florinaopolis. One of the main reasons he felt called back to Florianopolis was to witness to his family.

Their parents gave them a small piece of land to live on. He was going to put up some tarps to make a shelter for his family to live in, him, his wife and 5 children at the time. Shortly after members of the church came to him and offered him all the supplies to build a house in town. A bunch of the church members came with the material and built his home with him together.

Now he has found work as a brick mason which is how we met him. He works long days, gone from home from 6 to 9. Jonas is slowly building his "life" back together; still living off very little with 7 children to provide for. Yet his joyful spirit is contagious and his faith is unwavering. Within the last year many of his family have come to know Christ. Jonas and his family are active in a church that is a 10 min walk from their house. He loves to sing hymns, often singing at work and their family even sang 2 for us while we were there. His family was much more a witness to us then any of us expected.

We came bringing a small gift for Suellem and a few drinks yet left with so much more then we could ever imagine. It is a harsh reminder that so often those who are rich materially are rarely the most generous with those blessings. We were truly blessed today as God showed us his joy and blessing in a whole new way.

The sign they had made for us.

The birthday girl Suellem with her cake. First we sang in English and then they sang in Portuguese.

Jonas and his family, missing one, in front of their home and the weclome sign.

The incredible spread they had made for us.

Jonas and his second youngest child.

Suellem and her youngest sibling just before we left.

So hopefully you can tell through the photos and story that we have had and indescribable expereince this weekend. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray as tomorrow it is back to work at the rehab center.

Anita

(with help from Jeff)