Back Home Again In Indiana

Here it is October 1. We arrived back home yesterday afternoon a little before 2 in the afternoon. That was over two hours earlier than when we had origanlly been scheduled. So that meant all the planned welcomes didn't happen as planned. I had called a friend early in the morning when we arrived in Miami that the time had changed. However the church people that had planned to come meet us could not come earlier. So we were at the airport, had collected all our luggage, and were waiting on our welcome home party. It was still good to see friends and meet a new baby we had not seen before. It was so good too to talk to people and have them talk back and we all understond each other. I understand how lonely some missionaries are when they go to the field and don't know the language. We were very thankful for the Buckman's.

Speaking of our friends, Fay and Larry Buckman, I can not thank them enough for letting us share the last three months with them. You know you are true friends when you spend that much time together and still be sad to leave. It was hard to say good-bye. Their lives had become ours. Our prayers for them will now be with greater understanding. When they left us at the airport they took their truck to Paraguay to have it serviced. We had put many, many hard miles on the truck and it was showing the strain. I talked to Fay today and she said it cost over $700 for the parts to get it in good running order again. You might remember them as they leave again on October 9th for another Indian conference in one of the area we were in in August. (where I slept in the hammock)

I thought you might like a couple of more picture of the Brazilian countryside. I took these two pictures as we were going on a little dirt road detour around an accident. The birds were at a town. They are a reminder of the main birds of Brazil, two macaws, a parrot, a toucan and the gospel bird. I did finally see on the last day a toucan flying. It was low enough to really see that it was a toucan with their large yellow beaks. Couldn't get a picture however. I don't know the name of the kind of tree that is in the picture but we saw several of these. They really are interesting with the "roots" (?) growing down from the branches. I think I will have to do some investigating on what type of tree it is.

It was good to get home after a supper with all our friends that had come to the airport. Cal hadn't driven for three months except to take a bride about three blocks to the church in Larry's truck, so enjoyed his car again. I was glad too I did not have to climb into it. The house and yard had been well taken care of. An aftermath of hurricane Ike had come through our area with a very bad wind storm one Sunday morning. We had some limbs down off our one big tree. Our microwave didn't survive that storm either. I guess there were areas around that were without electricity for some days. Seems strange since Indiana is a long way from the ocean.

Cal's Sunday School class had come and changed our sheets, stocked our frige, left chocolate candy, had a meal ready for us to fix and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. All were wonderful surprises.

I am sure you are all wondering. I have unpacked all the suitcases and gone through all the wrappings and nooks and crannies and there is NO little pink flash drive. So we have lost all the pictures from the first two months of the trip except what you have seen on the blog. We have the memories. There are several sources Larry is working on from part of the boat trip and the Complei in Manaus of people that took pictures there.

Thank you again for your prayers and encouraging words. We have had a number of people ask us if we would do it again. Yes we would. We would go prepared in some different ways. Even though there may have been some things that were not comfortable doing, everything was doable. If you are doing what God wants you to do He will help you do it.

My work is not finished. We have several young men from several different tribes working on other Bible story pictures. Larry will send me their sketches via e-mail and I will see if they are usable in our Bible story picture set. I will be doing more writing of the outlines and stories too that go with the pictures.

So this is all for now. I don't think I will be posting any more about our trip. Thanks for traveling with us.

Last Night in Brazil

Our last day at the beach Cal and I took a double bicycle ride. We rented the bike for an hour so rode along the beach both ways. That was fun. We saw people flying kites and had seen where to purchase them just that day but didn´t have time to fly them. Then as we traveled the next day the landscape was again the huge fields.

We arrived at Iquazu Falls Wednesday evening and found a hotel. We discovered it was not the best or quietest place we had stayed but several others had been full. Thursday we got up early and headed for the falls. This is an area where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay all meet. I had seen on the internet that there where lots of butterflies at the falls. Buckman´s had been there twice and had never seen any. There are lots of cappybaros (racoon like animals) there however. Well it was a beautiful sunny warmer day. There are many falls and you walk along a path until you get to a lookout over the major part. That is where the pictures of Cal and I by ourselves are standing. Where we are together is not more in the middle of the trip. Well if you stood still in the sun butterflies would land on you. It is not easy getting their picture with their wings open but they were fun to see. Fay could get them to land on her finger often. Once she had a little boy transfer one from her finger to his and he was so excited. His mom got a cute picture I´m sure of his wide-eyed expression. Buckman´s were so surprised to see the butterflies. They sort of hadn´t believed me. They kept saying we would see lots of cappybarros. Well you believe we did not see one. We decided it was the different season that we were there from when they had been before. It was a long morning of walking but very beautiful.

We decided to drive over to Paraguay for lunch. They go often to Paraguay to shop but in a different town closer to where they live. We almost got to the border and Fay remembered she had not put her passport in her backback. So we found a neat restaurant in the town in Brazil for lunch. Then we got her passport and headed to Paraguay. Well it was awful. It was rather scarry when we first crossed because there were people everywhere trying to sell stuff. We did not even want to get out of the car. We drove farther into town and found another market area that looked not so scarry. Cal, Fay and I walked around a little circle area and bought some apples and pears. Larry stayed with the truck. We decided that was enough of that area for us. We found a mall in Brazil to shop in that was very nice. Later that evening we found an ice cream store to round out the day.

Friday we got up and went to Argentina. It was so much nicer. We shopped in a number of stores there and Cal and I each found souveniers for ourselves we liked. We ate in a restaurant recommended to us by the man at the border crossing. It was an old restaurant, old by having lots of history. After lunch we headed out of town on our way home. We decided to break the trip up so we would not have such a long days drive. It was again a beautiful day.

WE got to a little town on a river that was having a fishing tournament this weekend and a loud rock concert in the town. We did find a hotel that was a little away from that noise. WE walked and found a place to eat a bit of supper and then went back for a good nights rest.

Today we left at 8 and headed for Campo Grande. We got here about 3 and checked in at a favorite hotel. Larry went to get the rest of our luggage that had been stored at a pastor´s house. We needed to repack things.

Now a prayer request! Larry wanted to copy my pictures I had taken from my camera of this last trip. Since he had lost all his on his computer. I had also been downloading all my pictures onto Fay´s computer. But before we had left Taunay on this last trip I had downloaded all my pictures from my camera onto my flash drive. When we had the computers and my phone stolen and a disk from Cal´s camera I had not been too worried because I was sure I had not brought my flash drive with me to the beach. I was sure I had left it in my suitcase at the pastor´s house. When Larry wanted to go copy my pictures from the camera I wanted him to copy the ones on the flash drive for Fay. I couldn´t find the flash drive! So either I forgot and had taken it with me which means it was stollen also or it is in something we have not checked in the suitcases. Cal and I have taken all the suitcases apart but one and have not found it. The one we did not take apart has been packed since Peru. I did check the sides to see if it was in there. So please pray that we have just overlooked it or otherwise I have lost all my pictures for the first two months.

Of course Buckman´s have lost so much more I just can´t imagine. It is easy to cry about it all but it is only things. I trust you have enjoyed what has been on the blogs.

It is getting late and I need to turn in. We have to be at the airport tomorrow at 9 am. Neither of us are looking forward to this trip home. There are long flights and four airports with customs, etc. Just pray we do it all right and get home safely. It will be hard to say goodbye but I am sure Buckman´s will be glad to have some time to themselves. They leave again on the 9th for an indian conference so they won´t have much time at home.

Thank you again for following our trip. I will let you know that we have made it home safely. There are several who have said they are coming to meet us at the airport. I am anxious to see them all.

Last day at the beach

We had found out on Monday that there was an island we could get to so we decided on Tuesday to make a special day of it for Cal´s birthday. It was a beautiful sunny day but a little cool when we left at 9 am. We had to take the ferry we had taken earlier over to the peninsula and then drive aways to a boat. You guessed it, another boat for me to navigate. This one was a medium boat but the waves were large and you felt like you were on a roller coaster ride. The island we went to does not have any motor vehicles allowed on it. There are only paths to walk that the sandy beach.

We walked to a grotto or cave in the rocks by the ocean. The one picture was as close as Cal could get to it to take a picture. When the tide is down you can walk farther into the cave. The waves were splashing on the rocks all around us. Everyone but me got wet from the splash.

We then walked over to another beach and from there were going to climb some rocks or walk on a little path of sand to get to another beach. Fay got through and Cal made it most of the way. However when I started a wave came in around a big rock and I got my shoes and the bottom of my pants wet. I decided I did not need to see the other beach that badly. We walked back the trail to the little village. The man where we had parked our car had recommended a restaurant on the beach. So we went there and ate right along the beach outside. It was beautiful, windy, sun was warm. Cal and Larry had a seafood soup type of thing with all sorts of shrimp, oysters, fish and I don´t know what all.

The island did not have many visitors since this is not peak season right now for them. We looked in a couple of stores that were open and then headed back to the dock to get the next boat back to the other side. This trip back was bumpier but still fun. However getting out of the boat this time was a little harder. We had to climb up on the seat and then up on the dock. I finally did it and did not fall but my knees are not made to do that anymore.

It took a while to drive back. When we got home Fay and I took the truck to go get Cal a birthday cake. We had seen place to get one earlier but Larry had discovered a place closer to our house.

When we got home and walked in the door Larry said to us, "Where is my computer?" Thinking Fay had put it somewhere. Well we discovered that we had been robbed while we were gone. They took both Fay and Larry´s computers, my cell phone and Larry´s watch. We think they had to leave in a hurry because some men painting next door had returned. They left the light on in our bedroom and my suitcase open on the bed. They did not take our airline tickets, Cal`s flash drive or some Brazilian money we have given to Fay to pay for some things back in Taunay. They had gotten through the neighbors walkway, over a low wall and into our walkway, opened a kitchen window and gotten in the house. They did not harm anything of the house or of the people that own it. They knew what they were looking for.

Larry had spent the morning today reporting the theft. The police seem to know who it might be. That is the price to you pay for having homes in a resort area. The neighbor man told Larry that another man using this same house had had his computer stollen not too long ago. We did leave the kitchen window unlocked and the outside shudders open so that was our fault but we sure did not realize we had needed to close them.

Please pray for Fay and Larry. The loss of their computers is great, not the computers but the info on them. So many documents they use in their work. But the Lord knows all that happened and how it will be resolved.

Needless to say that discovery put a damper on our birthday activity. We did have the cake and ice cream and sing to Cal and play some more dominoes.

Today we have taken three loads of clothes to the laundry mat we found. It has cost us $50 to do the wash. Another tourist trap. Right now Larry, Fay and I are all at an internet cafe (not the one we had been going to because we wonder if it was someone from there that could have been involved in the robbery) and waiting for Cal. He went for a walk on the beach the other way, which was a long walk and I did not want to do it. Then he is walking here to us and we are going to eat at a nice resturant for lunch.

We plan to leave tomorrow morning for the falls. I am not sure when I will get to do another blog but will try from the hotels we will be at. Cal is here now so I had better go. We are all hungry. Thanks again for your prayers.

Another sunny day

Hi everyone, thought you might like to see where we are staying. It is a duplex. You can see Fay sitting in th breeze way with her laundry, front of the house with the truck and the inside living room,dining room, kitchen combination. Cal and Larry are working on fixing the kitchen sink. It leaks. They had to climb a ladder to get to where the water shuts off in the attic. Different isn't it. They did find parts to fix it so now the owners don't have to worry about their tank running dry.

It was a pretty sunny morning so we all walked down to the beach. Each couple went their own way. I wanted to go back to the rocks we had been on the first day when it was so dreary. We sat there awhile and watched guys surfing. You will notice how strong Cal has gotten while we have been here. He is holding that bolder up so it won't fall down. While Cal was taking the picture of me where I am standing next to a boulder the water came up around the rock and got my feet wet. We didn't realize it came up that far.

Fay and I went to a little native jewelry store later and got several gifty items. Then we ate lunch at a favorite restaurant. This afternoon we dropped Larry off so he could go to the internet cafe. It really isn't a cafe because you can't get coffee here. It is about a 10 x 12 room with 11 computers. Some of them are not connected to the internet so Larry and I use the computers we brought and the guy hooks them up for us.

Anyway Cal, Fay and I went uptown to the square to do some shopping. The house we are staying in has a really different double boiler that Fay was interested in finding one like. Larry asked the neighbor where we could get one and sure enough that store had not only one but two sizes.

After walking around there we came back and I headed here to check e-mail and do the blog. When it gets dark the guy turns on this blue light and it is really hard to see your computer or type so I wanted to get this done in the daylight.

That is all for today. We plan to be here until Thursday morning. So we have a couple more days to enjoy the weather and nothing that we have to do.

Tell you more later.

Sunday at the ocean

Hi everyone from a sunnier, warmer beach vacation. At least warmer if you are sitting in the sun.

Yesterday afternoon we decided to try a little adventure. We took the ferry over to the large city we kept seeing across the bay. At least it looked like a large city. We had been told the only way to drive there was to go way back to Curitiba (1 1/2 hours away) and take another route. The ferry ride was only about 15 minutes. We discovered it is a resort spot with lots of high rise places to rent. It was rather deserted. However we walked the beach and picked up lots of shells. The picture of Cal and I is from that beach. It still was not a sunny day and was quite cool. We had an enjoyable day. Then that evening we finished a two evening Mexican Train domino game. Fay was the winner by a substantial amount. Guess we will have to try again.

Cal and Larry had driven around yesterday to find a church for today. They found a little Baptist church. So we got up this morning and went to church. We were welcomed warmly. It was former German speaking church that had converted to Portugues but many of the older people were German. When they found out Larry was a missionary they had him say a word. We then went to a differnt place for lunch.

The guys left at 1:30 to go back to Curitiba to a soccer game. The sun was shining today so Fay and I took chairs and our books down to the beach to soak up some sun. It did feel good to get warm and even take off our jackets. When Fay takes off her sweat shirt you know she is finally warm. Well we were sitting there almost two hours, reading and watching the silly people going into swim in the cold water. All of a sudden the wind changed and the sun went behind the clouds. You were quickly reminded it really is not warm here.

We went back to the house. I had washed some clothes out yesterday and had them hung in the walkway. With out sun or wind and it had rained all night they were not dry this morning. But with the sun and wind this afternoon they had dryed. So Fay decided to wash some things out. We did find a laundermat in town with real washers and dryers if we get desperate.

After taking a little walk we came to the internet cafe. Fay called her granddaughter on the computer to wish her a Happy Birthday. So I decided to do a blog.
That is about all that has happened since I last wrote. We will probably be here several days next week until we head for Iguazu Falls. Then gather the rest of our stuff from the pastor in Campo Grande and head for home in a week.

Pray for some nice weather and that our fellowship will be sweet. We are getting anxious to see everyone and to tell you about our trip. Just a note. This coming Tuesday is Cal's 62nd birthday. Please feel free to wish him a happy birthday via the blog or e-mail.