Who do we support?
Brazil Missions Team
Bill & Kathy Bacheller
serving with TEAM in Brazil
Tom & Julie Bolser
serving with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Papua Indonesia
Bonner Gospel Mission in North Idaho
Prem & Rita James
serving with Partners Int'l in India
Chuck & Danita Lovelady
serving with Missions Door in Utah
Edwin & Sylvia Caruana
serving with Partners Int'l in the Middle East and North Africa
Emmanuel Anukun-Dabson
serving with Partners Int'l in Ghana, Africa
Jonathan & Quynh Parlane
serving with Interserve in Bangladesh
Life Choices Pregnancy Center in Sandpoint, Idaho
Brent & Christine Ralston
serving with World Venture in the Philippines
Rob & Karen Sisson
serving with American Missionary Fellowship in Washington
Dr. B. E. Vijayam
serving with Partners Int'l in India and South Asia
Pauline Yeung
serving with Sisters in Service in China
The team is:(back row) Ken Smith, Alan Clayton, Art Fouts, David Wolfe
(front row) Angie Wolfe, Kathleen Clayton, Roselle Caesar
Day 1, May 31 2 PM
Well, God is already giving us a lesson in flexibility.
When we showed up at the Spokane airport we were informed that due to weather in Chicago we would probably be missing our connector to Brazil. So... here we sit... hoping that our plane shows up in time to make it to Chicago in time and that landings are not backed up too long in Chicago. On the bright side we already have a place to stay in Chicago thanks to Ken's daughter.
Talk about an update on the fly . . . they just announced that there is only one connector that this entire flight will miss, and it's not ours. Guess we'll see.
We are off to help Bill and Kathy Bacheller in Anapolis, Brazil build a foundation for a director's house at The Oasis Ministry, which is a Christian counseling center for ministering to "wounded soldiers" -Brazilian pastors, missionaries and their families.
Day 2, June 1 10 AM Central time
Now we know - our plane was delayed in Chicago waiting for a gate for about an hour. So Kat & Adam picked us up, took us to a fine dining experience at MickyD's. At near midnight they managed to procure sleeping supplies for us all and set us up in the church they attend, Village Church of Lincolnshire.
Getting ready to go to the airport
After a fabulous breakfast here at the church, we're probably off to check out Lake Michigan and I think we see Chicago-style pizza in our future for dinner.
We are scheduled to fly out on the same flight tonight, so we'll just arrive a day behind schedule.
More pictures can be found here at Angie's Facebook page. This folder is public so anyone can look at them.
Day 3, June 2
We are in Sao Paulo, Brazil but not all our bags are. Ken & Kathleen are both traveling a little lighter right now. Their bags never made it on the plane in Chicago.
After spending 5 hours in the Sao Paulo airport we flew up to Goiania via Brasilia and we are now at the Oasis Center. After having a light meal we are heading to bed and will update more tomorrow. These last three days have included precious little sleep!
Day 5, June 4 AM
Bom dia! We've discovered that our schedule is going to be pretty busy so our challenge will be to find time to post (and to do laundry!). Anything that's important here in Brazil doesn't begin until after 8:00 PM. So we had a fun night last night but didn't return to Oasis until midnight!
Yesterday begain with meeting the engineer and looking at the plans for the house. We walked over to the site, prayed over it and broke ground.
We have 64 holes to dig, some 5 meters deep (16+ feet deep)! The guys dug 6 holes while the women mapped out where they should dig.
Fausto (the engineer), Bill, Art and Roselle pour over blueprints
Praying over the site
It gets dark here around 6:00 so we cleaned up and went to Bill and Kathy's house at the seminary in town (Anapolis) to have a party with Bill's seminary students. Some of the students made two HUGE pans of chicken lasagna and we played games until 11:00.
None of the students spoke any English to speak of. We had lots of fun playing Round the World Ping Pong and introduced them to the game Pass the Pigs. It was a blast! It's amazing how much you can communicate even without speaking the language.
Oasis Center
Art got to drive half of us home last night - his first driving experience in Brazil - at midnight in the dark! He did just fine.
Ken and Kathleen's bags should have been delivered to the Goiania airport last night and we are hopeful they will be delivered this morning. There will be much rejoicing!!
Playing Pass the Pigs
On another note, David says thank you for your prayers for his back while flying. Though sore, the pain was well within bearable for him (much less than anticipated).
Day 8, June 7
We have been crazy busy. The work here is hard and it's plenty warm.
Friday night we got together with the parents of the pastor of the Sandpoint Christian Center. That was a fun evening and I think it was very meaningful for both of them but especially for Millie (who is from Careywood). We were able to deliver a few things to them from their son Wes and are returning with some things for him also.
Kathleen & Roselle with Millie & Sylvio Ribeiro
Angie with Millie
Saturday we went to the town of Pirenopolis (apparently quite the tourist town). Wandered through shops, had an old-style homecooked lunch (like served on the old ranches), and hiked up to several waterfalls where many of our group swam and jumped off the rocks.
Pirenopolis
Art with an interesting sign!
Sunday morning we went to SS at 9:30 then we were split up by 2's and 3's to spend the day with Brazilian families in their homes.
Dave and Angie went with Fernando and Ilsa. They had a very nice home. Fernando works at Asas de Socorro (Wings of Mercy, has ties with Mission Aviation Fellowship). Another couple from Asas spent most of the day with us - Stephanie and Jeyson. Stephanie is from NJ and Jeyson is from Ecuador. They all knew about the Kodiak planes and were extremely interested to hear that we live in Sandpoint and see the planes flying all the time.
Ken and Art went to the pastor's home - Philippe and Wyara. They visited an orphanage while they were them. Kathleen and Alan went to a different home and were taken all around the town - to the open air market, the park, for ice cream.
We shared the lunch meal with our families and a snack later and were returned to church for their Sunday worship service which begins at 7:00 PM.
The service lasted for 2 hours and then some of us went out for pizza while some went back to Oasis. Pizza was great - they don't use tomato sauce but have many other familiar toppings but the funniest thing to us was that you could get the crust around the edge filled with chocolate. Very tasty, and don't worry, it is eaten separate from the rest of the pizza.
During SS and the worship service, Bill sat in the middle of all of us and roughly translated what was being said. It was a joy to worship with fellow believers and to sing some very familiar songs with familiar tunes but very different words!
Today was a long day of hard work but we have now dug a total of 34 holes (buracos) out of 64. There is even rumor that tomorrow we might do some concrete and rebar in our completed holes just to break up the labor.
Cooling off between digging and lunch
Ken & Art at the orphanage
These guys are so strange!
