Juli Anderson, from the Oregon City Evengelical Church, had just sent a message to us in Brazil talking about their trip home.

The journey home from these types of trips are seldom easy. As usually happens, many on the team became quite close friends, but then everyone had to go back home. Juli's message talked about the trip home (which went well), but they had a real problem when it came time for everyone to break up into their separate groups and head back to their various states. It always feels like this occurance should happen over the course of some time. In this case it could not, because connections for some of the team members were quite close, and some of them had to take off running in order to get to their flights. However, despite the (brief) time taken to bid farewell, eveyone made it to their connecting flight.

It was a pleasure to get Juli's letter saying that everyone from the English camp team had made it to their connecting flight.

For the past few days I have been helping to build a few new fences at the seminary. Apparently when they turn the kids from Evangelica ( the elimentary school that the seminary started to help offset operating expenses ) loose in the yard they have had the habit of running into trouble, among other things. It is hoped that this effort will help contain them a little bit better. The project has been somewhat harder than expected because the sections of fence were welded together by someone who didn't take into account the exact shape of the existing cement walls. Therefore, we have had to remove sections of wall with hammer and chisel. Although they are not completely finished yet, right now the sections of fence are at least cemented into place. There is a little more cement to install on one wall section, and another section needs to have a gate put on. Other than that, they are nearly finished. Tomorrow (Sat. ) we were supposed to do some painting over at the new church plant ( I think it is located in Igapo, but I am not certain ). However, they have changed the type of ceiling they are going to put in the church, and this means that they are not going to want it painted until much later. However, there are still a few things ( such as pick up supplies and deliver them to the church ) that I will be involved with tomorrow.

David Roof makes some modifications to the seminary in order to fit one of the fences constructed to help control the children at the Evangelica school.

"Wecome to the newest church in the Igreja Missionària," I was told on my first visit. The rental agreement had just recently been signed, and there wasn't even a sign in front of the place to indicate who the new occupants would be. The floor plan of the place is quite simple: two small office-like rooms perhaps five feet by ten feet sit atop eachother in the front entrance area. To the left of those are two bathrooms, one on top of the other, and a small staircase connecting this very small one room upstairs and bathroom with the rest of the building. Behind this is a larger room, perhaps seven feet by fourteen feet, that only has a window into the warehouse floor area. The warehouse floor area is windowless, except for a skylight.

Yesterday, I went to Maringa with a few of the missionaries here. We spent a considerable amount of time, including having lunch with, Pastor Jacau of the Central Missionary Church of Maringa. He does know a bit of English, and we therefore delivered some of the English-Portugese Bibles ( contributed by the Gideons in Indiana ) to him and his church. There are several people in the church there that are learning English, and at least one would like to attend seminary in the USA. However, Maringa is an hour and a half drive from the Webb English program here in Londrina, and therefore it is a little harder for them. The extra Bibles that we gave them will probably be put to good use there. Pastor Jacau is also exercising a few of his other skills. One of the items that he let us listen to was his re-writing of the hymn "Amazing Grace". In his opinion, the current Portugese version of that hymn doesn't quite do justice to the English version of the song. My current skills with the Portugese language are still very limited, and so I can't comment too much directly on the results. However, two of the missionaries that were with me, who have been here since the 1950's, said "This could become very big here, because we have never had a good version of this hymn here." Unfortunately, he still doesn't have much of anything for that last verse, with the "When we have been there 10,000 years", because apparently there isn't anything that he has been able to come up with that comes close to the English version.

It doesn't look like much from this angle, does it? Yet on Sunday evening several thousand people cram into the Central Missionary Church of Maringà - twice ( there are two services on Sunday evening). Mid-week evening services are popular too, and even Thursday evening sees such a full service that the aisles of the church are completely filled with people.

Also, Pastor Jacau has apparently been using his new digital camera quite a lot. This camera was a gift from the Albany Evangelical Church ( of North America ), which he recently visited. It was very good to see that one of our own ECNA churches was thoughtful enough to give him a gift that has come in so useful in the ministry of his church.

Jan (the person who was running the English camp) and family have taken off for a few days of R&R. Well deserved in my opinion, since the English camp went so well. Therefore, the suggestion that I help tutor people in English at the Webb school are on hold for the moment. However, apparently that idea will be well-received. Already Pastor Jacau over in Maringa would like me to spend a week over there helping them learn a bit more English.

I hope to be able to write a bit more later, and give a few more details of everything that has been going on here. In Mat 9:37-38, Jesus states that "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." The more I see of Brazil, the more I realize just how true this is here. The fact is that there is no shortage of things for me to do while I am here, and the problem is being able to decide what to do next, and to be able to set proper priorities for my stay here.

You may notice that there is a different e-mail address in the "from" field. This is because I am now staying with a different missionary family here in the city of Londrina proper, and not out at the Acampamento Shalom grounds. I think that this will stay my e-mail address for most of the rest of the time that I am here.

Thank you all for your prayers and support while I remain here.

Always keep your eyes fixed on the new thing that God is going to do for you (Isaiah 43:18-19)

-Glenn

During that time

Here we are with the new book case in the Webb office. Until that time, there was only one book case in the Webb office. Left to right it is Rod Dormer, myself, one of the Webb helpers (seated), and Kay and Lamar Ziegler. I had helped, to a very small extent, move the bookcase (behind) into the room.

As humble as the activity of doing wood working might be, the fact is that God used Lamar's skills to help, in a very small but effective way, the ministry at the seminary. Few may remember who built the bookcases, but they remain in daily use. I came to know enough about Lamar to know that he is satisfied just to help in the ministry there in Brasil in some small way.

Furthermore, that one bookcase was inadequate to provide space for the books the Webb school has. So, with no finances available to buy a book case, the books had simply piled up in a number of locations.