July 4, 2006

Greetings from Caraguatatuba,

Home again! As we were packing to travel back to Brasil we discovered that we had more "things" than we were allowed to carry in the plane. Needless to say, we paid for extra baggage, so goes life.

On the trip home I had one of the worst flights that I have ever had, and it had nothing to do with the plane or the pilot. Around four o'clock in the morning way up high in the sky, I started passing a kidney stone. There was absolutely no way that I could get comfortable. Not standing up nor sitting down nor walking around the plane nor going to the rest room. After two hours or so of excruciating pain we landed-then we had another hour of getting through customs. When we got out of customs, our planned ride back to Caraguatatuba was nowhere in sight. We called them and they were another hour out so I camped in the restroom in the airport while Barbara called another missionary friend in the next town to arrange for me to go to the hospital. When our ride finally got there, the arrangements had been made and we were on our way for another hour ride to the hospital. On this ride I began to get some relief and when we arrived at the hospital I was no longer in pain.The Doctor that attended me there in the hospital was the son-in-law of our past Portuguese teacher. This is just one more proof of our Lord being in control of everything in our lives. Sometimes it is just amazing as to how little our world is.

Well with that horror story over with, we traveled on home with the visitors that had traveled with us from the States. Barbara and Lonnie Steadmon from Virginia Beach came to spend ten days with us here in Caragua. Lonnie is a fireman and we have become great friends over the past ten years. We were able to show them our mission field here in Caraguatatuba and also the big city of Sao Paulo.

I want to share with you that we have started some minor work on the mission point that was damaged by the rainy season and the standing water from the river nearby. We have removed the bathroom that was attached onto the side of the building and have started some digging. We are now waiting on the engineer to be able to continue. The mission is continuing to hold services behind the building as they are afraid to have many people in the building. The attendance is not going down but is going up. Praise God for this.

While we were away, the principal Church has continued to grow, we will be baptizing five new members in the following Sundays. Now this is what it is all about!! It is not about us at all; it is about out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Sunday School program is continuing to grow also: this Sunday we had 200 people in Sunday School. God is AWESOME!!!

As Barbara and I are ministering here in Caragua we would like to invite you to visit our mission field and see what the Lord is doing in another part of the world.

In His service,

Aj and Barbara