Something for your Enjoyment

Our British friends, Mike and Daveen Wilson, live in the bush about 30 minutes from Mossoró. When the rainy season starts, these lily like flowers bloom all over the landscape. They last only a short time and only bloom once a year. Daveen brought me a "bouquet" of these gorgeous flowers which graced our table for about a week.




Ken took this video of some of the smallest monkeys in the world. They live in the trees at the home of friends of ours (about 3 hours from Mossoró). Just in case you doubted whether or not monkeys like bananas....

Acampamúsica 2010

Mara teaches pre-school music at ALPHA on Monday mornings, goes to the university during the week to get her music degree and plays flute in her church's orchestra.

ACAMPAMÚSICA literally translated is CAMP - MUSIC...just our version of Band Camp. This year was our first attempt at such a venture. It turned out to be a great experience.

Gisele is also getting her degree in music at our local university. She got the percussion section started reading music and learning some of the different instruments they will use during this next year.

The kids arrived at "band camp" (our house!) Friday afternoon for orientation and then had their first REAL LIVE lesson. Various teachers taught the students how to put their instruments together, basic care and how to make their first music or "noise". :)


Milton, my co-teacher at ALPHA gets the reed instruments (alto sax and clarinet) going. Since we have so many new students we now have two bands...returning students and new students. He directs one of the groups while I direct the other.

Swimming, eating, playing games and just plain old hard practice took up the majority of the time.

Marcos came to give a mini-presentation on the clarinet, trumpet and saxophone (not all at the same time!!!) He plays first trumpet and is the assistant director of the city band in Mossoró.

It always helps to have a little window into what the future holds, so we wanted to give the beginning students an idea of what they will be able to do if they are dedicated. Several people graciously came to play for our audience of beginning musicians.

Daniel, a former ALPHA student and Alicia presented a clarinet/trombone duet.

Ron prepared the devotional for Saturday morning.

Part of being in band means that the kids have one of their practices while their homeroom is having Bible class. These kids have Bible at a separate time every week.

ALPHA'S Beginning Band 2010

We May Never Know...or Will We?

Dan meeting with the Stucky Team one last time before heading back to the States.

Four years ago a large group (23 all told) came from Marysville, Washington, to minister with us for 10 days. It was the most incredible and intense 10 days on record, which included 8 presentations that the group put on for two weekends running.

Several in that group had fallen prey to drug addiction BC (Before Christ). When the opportunity came up to visit a drug rehab just outside of Mossoró, they were more than willing to share their testimony of Christ's love and the victory that they each had had over drug addiction. Ken took them out to visit these guys, sing, share the Gospel and give them hope of a new life in Christ.

zipping ahead to the present...

Dan, the pastor who organized that group, was just here in Brazil for 2 weeks doing a Team Stucky ministry evaluation. Hours were spent interviewing students, teachers, neighbors, business associates, and then writing the assessment and suggestions.

Just before leaving, Dan was at the mall buying a few gifts for family and friends. Standing in line at the check out, a man turned around, looked at him and said, "Hey, I know you! You're a singer and a drummer!" Dan's first thought was that this guy was at one of the presentations at ALPHA. But that wasn't the case. "No, you came out to the drug rehab, sang some songs and told us about Jesus Christ. I will never forget it, because that was the day that my life changed. Not long after that I accepted Jesus and now I am a missionary. Just yesterday I was out at the rehab preaching to the guys there."

Wow. Speechless. Only God could orchestrate an encounter that would serve to be such an unbelievable and incredible encouragement after 4 years. I am reminded again how important it is to keep my nose to the spiritual "grind-stone" and let HIM do HIS work in HIS time. I may see results, or I may not, but that isn't the point. My job is just to be faithful.

Books I am Reading

Current read...written by twin 19 year old brothers. A must read for any teenager in your life. The authors challenge teens to rethink the low expectations that our culture places on youth and gives them hope to reach higher than they ever thought possible.

Also reading currently...I had read the author's first book in both English and Portuguese, so already knew the basic subject about how we all have a "language" that speaks love to us in ways that other things don't. This is incredibly insightful into the mind of a teenager besides the basic love languages. I guess it has been a while since I have been in a teens shoes and (amazingly enough) times are a bit different than they were 20+ years ago.

I always thought those personality types were made up by some modern day psychologist, but discovered that that is NOT so...Hippocrates (2500 years ago) nailed down the 4 main personality types. I have really benefited from reading this book, because I not only understand my own strengths and weaknesses more, but I see my co-workers and family with new insight into their unique personalities.

Wow...talk about convicting... I finished this book some time ago (read it every day before my nap time) and am still trying to put this priceless wisdom into practice. Ok, I'll admit it...I won't ever get it ALL "right" as a parent, but I am determined to move in that direction. Fantastic book that all parents need to read.

Not too long ago I finished reading RELUCTANT MISSIONARY by Edith Buxton, C.T. Studd's daughter. Sorry, no image was found...I think it was last published in 1968. It never fails to amaze me all that the pioneer missionaries endured and how much they sacrificed to spread the gospel. Then there are some things that they didn't sacrifice...British missionaries always made room in their luggage for tea and had one precious cup a day. So maybe I can have a wee bit of dark chocolate once a week? :) I pray that God would use me like he used those great men and women, who were just as human as I am.

Gone Fishin'

A few of my adolescent Sunday School boys (Berg, Julian, and Victor) out fishing for their first time.

After finishing our Sunday School quarterly, I wanted to do something special with the kids who had had faithful attendance for the last 4 months. The girls came over to our house Friday for a sleep over complete with pizza and a moonlight swim. This morning, Milton, one of our deacons from church, helped me take the boys on a wee fishing trip just outside of town. Here are some shots of our time out.

Awesome, beautiful, refreshing...in the middle of a very dry land.

We fished mostly for minnows, but I happened to hook a slightly bigger dude...since he was of the bigger variety, we threw him back in.

Milton got a tilapia with his net...we kept this one. :)

We've got company...thankfully downstream.

Our MINI fish...took them home and fried them up for lunch. MMM MMM!

How to Eat a Tanajura

Another addition to the previous "instructional" post...here's a video for your educational entertainment. If you are ever in the area, we will try our best to cook up a few of these babies for you.

Tanajura: Giant Leafcutter Ant

How to Change a Tire

At least we didn't BLOW it!

This July, our family + Ken's folks and our school secretary, drove almost 6000 miles round trip to the Everglades of Brazil. It was quite an experience to say the least. We actually crossed over the boarder into Bolivia for several hours.

Ken spent months planning this trip. Aside from making reservations, buying maps, installing Lazy-Boys in the back of the van (no joke), calling friends to see on the way, and finalizing the itinerary, he decided to buy two new tires. One of the tires was put on the spare rim and the other got stored under one of the bench seats in the van...just in case.

After reaching the point farthest from Mossoró, we started our week long treck back to the north-east. That's when it happened. A deafening noise came from the right, rear of the vehicle. Sure enough, it was time. Ken's preparedness had paid off. Time to put on a NEW tire.

Just in case you think this very thing might ever happen to you, I thought it might be helpful to share my instructions on how to change a tire when you are 3000 miles away from home. Feel free to even print it to save in your car so you, too, will know what to do.


Step 1: Act very dramatic for the camera as 8 people's luggage is removed from the back of the van so the spare tire can be removed.


Step 2: Ask yourself, "Is this for real?" Add other comments like, "This is making me hungry. Hope I don't have to use the bathroom anytime soon."

Step 3: Have the big strong men traveling with you jack up the car and remove the old tire.


Step 4: While the new tire is being installed on the car, add a little more drama for effect.


Step 5: Finally, find a truck stop (at 10 p.m. on a Sunday) that will put the other NEW tire (stored under the bench for such a time as this) onto the spare rim. None of those fancy pneumatic tire changin' machines here, ...flex those muscles!