Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Porto Alegre!

The Christmas Feast

For Christmas dinner we eat turkey, Greek rice with raisins and carrots, Greek potato salad, dressing, and a cake. I made some Texas pecan pie not to feel too homesick!

The Other Half of The Family

The Better Half of the Family

A Present for Felipe

I drew Felipe for our family Christmas gift exchange this year. Some of you may remember that Felipe helped me a lot with learning Portuguese when I was settling in to Porto Alegre in 2003.

Noite Feliz

This is a movie clip of everyone singing Silent Night at Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve- the tradition here is to eat at midnight.

A Family Reunion

For the first time in 15 years Ana´s father, Luiz, and his brothers Pedro (left) and Orlando spent Christmas together. This was the first time Ana and her brothers and sisters met Pedro, who also came with his children and grandchildren from the state of Santa Catarina. Maybe you read a blurb in the news about the terrible flooding in that state. The Lord was watching over them as their family was not directly affected by the floods. It was so good to unite with them and make many lasting memories.

A Marriage Blessing

Daniel and Miguelina were married in the Catholic Church a number of years ago, but because of several obstacles they were unable to register their wedding with the city clerk. They were finally able to do so in November of this year. So they asked me to do a marriage blessing for them at our December Celebration.

It Only Takes a Spark

For our Christmas Celebration I chose a combination of new and old songs. We sang Silent Night and that devo song we usually sing around a campfire that starts like so, ``It only takes a spark….``. Of course we were not around a campfire but that song speaks about evangelism and the importance of it.

A Creative Gift

I received a refrigerator doll made by my secret friend. He said it is supposed to look like me, so I guess I´ll let you be the judge of that. What do you think?

A Thoughtful Gift

For her present Ana received a colored rug made by hand by her secret friend. I don’t know how many hours her friend spent, but much work was put into it. This is the kind of thing we loved to see- people putting their heart into the gift, having little to do with actual value, but with sentimental value.

House Church Gift Exchange

We too, like many others around the world, like to have a gift exchange at the end of the year. This year each person in our house church drew one name. The goal was not simply to purchase a gift. This year each person had to "make" their gift by thinking of the personality of the person and creating something that the person would like.

Out-of-School Party

Here´s our version of an Out-of-School Party for teens (here the spring semester ends in December). Brazilians love to have parties at the end of the year, so in keeping with that tradition we wanted to do something fun with the teens who meet in our house church, so we chose a Friday night to take them to a pizza buffett called Al Capone´s. It was fun talking with them about what 2008 meant for them and what they are looking forward to in 2009.

Vitor, Ana´s brother, gave a testimony about what the Lord has done in the lives of he and his wife Loiva. They have wanted to be parents for the last four years, but because Loiva has endomitriosis she has not been able to become pregnant. She has taken several medicines to help her get pregnant but it has not worked. Their doctor recently told them that their only chance to get pregnant was if Loiva had the In Vitro procedure. With a lot of help from above she was able to set up an appointment for this procedure in February of 2009 when normally the wait is 2-3 years. The Lord has done an amazing miracle in their lives and we are praying that He will see them through to having a healthy pregnancy next year.

Here is a shot from our church offices/ministry space, which is a house. We call it the C.A.S.A which we use as an acronym that stands for House of Support, Service, and Activities. We had just concluded a bar-b-cue and Bible study with our adult ministry when this photo was taken.

We had a new family visit this past Sunday (Ricardo and his wife Jaqueline, and their two kids Marine and Pedro). I was very impressed that the kids were so well-behaved. Please remember them in your prayers.

This is from our most recent house church meeting. And yes, we put up our Christmas tree in early November! There is no Thanksgiving here, so we can do that!

We praise the Lord that it was a tight squeeze in our apartment this Sunday.

Felipe gave his first adult Bible lesson on a recent Sunday morning. This young man is talented in many ways, and teaching is one of them. Oh yeah, he´s already an English teacher at a language institute the age of 19!

This day the youth discussed three aspects of the theme- The Meaning of Life. We shared about commitment, significance, and pleasure in light of Colossions 3:4-5 that says, ``When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature...``

Here is our Celebration worship service. The theme was Unity in The Body of Christ. Several people encouraged us about how this theme has helped them mature.

Here is our German friend Oliver. He recently arrived from Germany to study what it is like to be a foreigner so that he can go back to Germany and help resolve the segregation challenges that exist there with the foreign churches and the domestic churches. His goal is to find a solution that will unite these churches. We are glad that Oliver is here and he has already shown his caring heart. He likes soccer but had never been to a match, so I invited him to go to one- the best socer team in the world- Internacional. Da lhe Colorado!

This day we learned how to make chocolate cake, which here they call "nega maluca."

Here´s Marcio gently guiding the cake mixture into the pan.

Needless to say there were no leftovers after this taste test!

Part of our youth day consisted of decorating a picture frame for each family in our house church. We put a photo of our house church in each one. Ana made it interesting since we drew names to see who would get which frame. Here is Felipe working diligently.

Raquel looking for just the right color.

The final products! What a talented group of individuals!

One of Ana´s friends recently graduated from college and she asked me to make a cake, so this is how is turned out! It was quite a bit of work but well worth it!

On this youth day Ana´s brother Vitor taught how to make the Brazilian version of flan. It´s made with condensed milk, eggs, and milk. The broth is make of pure sugar! Goes perfect with that afternoon cup of coffee!

Couples´ Bible Study

Once a month the couples from our house church get together to share in feeding our bodies, but more importantly our souls.

Couples´ Bible Study

We had a wonderful lunch and Bible study together! Those participating were ourselves, Luis, Irotilde, Daniel, Miguelina, Vitor (taking the picture), and Loiva.

Bar-b-cue at Couples´ Bible Study

One of the many things I have learned to do in Brazil is prepare bar-b-cue, gaúcho style, charcoal and all. In the next shot you will see how it is prepared.

Brazilian Bar-b-cue (Churrasco)

Here we have the sausage and garlic bread roasting to perfection! Delicious!

Gaúcho Independence Day

The state of Rio Grande do Sul celebrated their anniversary on September 20th. On that day in 1836 the farrapos, the leaders of the region, delcared the Republic of Rio Grande do Sul. It was a republic until 1845 when it was absorbed into the empire. A certain state in the United States has a similar story. Now what state would that be?

Botas and Bombachas

These are the gaúcho boots (botas). The pants they wear are called bombachas and they are tucked into the boots to give a very distinctive look.

Teens 1

This is one of three pictures from our teen Bible study on Saturdays. After each Bible study we always have an afternoon snack. On the menu this particular day were tuna hors d'oeuvres. Here is the recipe:

1 can tuna (drained)

1/2 onion (chopped)

1 tbsp. mayonase

1/8 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. olive oil

1 dash black pepper

Your choice of garnish

Mix all ingredients. Serve on your choice of cracker. Also makes a good sandwich!

Teens 2

Ana pays great attention to detail in everything she does, whether it's making a snack or teaching a Bible study. She says, "It's all in the presentation." As you can tell, the hors d'oeuvres that have the cute little greenery on top are hers and mine are the plain ones.

Teens 3

The end result!!!!!!!!!! YUM!!!!!!!!

Ana´s College

Ana recently received her college ID card. She was ecstatic! She is enrolled at IPA University, the Methodist university in Porto Alegre. Her major is physical education and her favorite class is a tie between religion and gymnastics and the most difficult is biochemistry.

Site of Future Morrow Home 1

The Lord greatly blessed us with the resources to purchase a small piece of property on which we plan to build a house. Please be lifting this goal to the Father as we submit our plans to Him and His will.

Site of Future Morrow Home 2 (Brimberry Family)

House Church with the Brimberrys 1

House Church with the Brimberrys 2

Here we are during worship. We had a lesson about how the ideal church family presented in Romans 12 is not only the ideal church, but is the church that we are called to be. So the church is not only the ideal, but is the actual representation of what a family is all about.

House Church with the Brimberrys 3

Hacky Pine Cone

Here's my brother-in-law Felipe with Jeffrey Brimberry. These two got into a hacky pine cone contest. Apparently Jeffrey is quite the hacky sacker, which seemingly will help with soccer skills. Anyway, Jeffrey didn't have his hacky sack with him at the moment so he used a pine cone- not exactly the same thing, but why not? What what am improvisional guy!

House Church July '08

Here is the picture from the house church we had last Sunday. We had several visitors with us- the Brimberry family (Don, Terra, Jeffrey, and Elise) from our sponsoring church, Westover Hills Church of Christ, was here to visit us and the work for five days. What a great encouragement they have been to us and our ministry!

Youth Bible Study

We had a really good first Bible study on Saturday with the teens in our house church. In addition to the study, we taught them the American brownie recipe. They all loved the brownies and expressed a desire to make it in their homes for their families.

House Church May

We had a record 23 people at our house church the first Sunday in May. We put out all the chairs we had in the house, and even still one of us had to sit on the floor. What an amazing blessing from above to have these families participating in the Lord’s work!