In previous messages, I have mentioned Noèlia, who is here as a seminary student, and is also working as the secretary in the Webb language office. I have found out that they are apparently in danger of loosing her because she isnĄt actually paid for her employment. She actually receives financial credit from the seminary for the work that she does here, and this is applied to her schooling. The problem is that she can not live here on financial credits. Therefore, she has started to look for actual employment elsewhere. The Webb school really does not want to loose her, but the money that would be used to pay her must come out of the seminary's funds. The Webb institute itself does not have any money of its own. Therefore, the seminary must decide if it wants to hire someone or not. The Webb school asked me if I happened to know anyone in the USA who might be willing to contribute some money to help them provide a salary for Noèlia for next semester, until they know for sure or not if the seminary is able to provide them with this money. The total amount needed is about $100 per month. They would really like to hire someone for the afternnons as well ( right now, Noèlia only works in the mornings ). If anyone is interested in trying to help in this manner, please let me know. Having a secretary here may not be as obviously important as having good English teachers, but the work that she does do is fairly important for the continuing operation at Webb.

Our last English worship service of the semester will be on December 3. We will also have a Christmas Party on December 15.

The decision has been made as far as my method of returning home: it will be by bus between here and São Paulo. I could go by air, but according to Noèlia, for most of the distance the trip is quite beautiful. It is also far cheaper to do this also. At this point, the conservation of money is a good thing.

I continue to help out in several classes. Some of these classes I am not teaching, but I help out in other ways. Because there are seminary courses, elementary school classes, and the English classes all happening in the same classrooms, many times things need to be rearranged, and I have been helping some of the teachers do that before their classes start. I have also helped Jan several times in grading papers. In these cases, she determines the ultimate grade, but I mark the obvious mistakes so that she doesnĄt have to spend as long on each one.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration last week Thursday. We all went out to Acampamento Shalom. The Wycliffe missionaries as well as a couple from one of the large churches in town joined us OMS missionaries. Thanksgiving was also celebrated in several of the English classes. We included some basics on the early New England colonists who started the tradition.

The seminary offered part of the perimeter wall on J.K. for advertising, if we would get it fixed and painted for them. Therefore, a small group of us did just that a few days ago. The paint that was on it was peeling off anyway. It has been patched, and given a fresh coat of paint, and it now awaits the person to paint the advertisement.

Yesterday, Boulivar, Diogo, Ariadne ( a woman who volunteers her time at the pre-school portion of the Evangelica grade school teaching a few simple English things to the children there. She speaks very good English, as she attended Bible college in London for four years. ) and I got together for lunch at a local restaurant. During the conversation, Boulivar talked about how he originally did not want to work with the adolescents of the church. Adults he could talk to as equals, but not the adolescents. What he found was that what they flourished on most was not lessons, but just having people love them and spend time with them. He now likes his work a great deal, and under the management of him, Noèlia, and Diogo, the group seems to be doing extremely well.

It is hard to believe that there is just two weeks left of my stay here. It is going to be hard to leave. I am going to be leaving here on a Continental flight out of São Paulo about 2 in the afternoon, and it will get into Houston about 5 in the morning. The flight to Portland gets in about mid-afternoon on the 19th.