Little Miracle...

God created everything in such a wonderful and mysterious way. This Saturday our ostrich laid it first egg and this morning one of our ponies had a baby foal. Looking at all this it is impossible for me the imagine that there are people who say: There is no God! Here is a picture of this little miracle. We named him Alex, after a wonderful volunteer from Holland!!

FINALLY ..A SUNNY DAY!

Today, we finally have a sunny day in Brazil. It is nice that the babies can finally play outside! Malachi 4:2 says, "But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall." We pray for continued emotional healing for some of our children that they can walk and live in the freedom that God has for them.

ANOTHER RAINY DAY....

Today the baby house survived another rainy day, playing inside, and doing a little bit of art work. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring some sun so that we can ride horse at the other farm. God continues to amaze me with how much grace He has poured out on Paul. There are so many difficult situations that can come up with the adult who work with the children. Sometimes adults are more complicated than the children, but God continues to pour out His wisdom. Whenever, we don’t know what to do in a certain situation, we wait on God to move and act, and He always does.

NICE SERVICE.....

Tonight, even with the cold rainy evening there was a good turnout at our Brazilian church. I have always been so impressed how warm and loving the people are, always hugging and greeting everyone who comes in the doors. The sermon quoted from Romans, “if God is for us, who can be against us” and also encouraged us to walk with God and to enjoy more of His presence. On the way out, we see all of our friends that we haven’t seen through the week, more hugs, and “God bless you” until we reach the door and it is time to go back home. In Brazil, everyone calls everyone, ”brother” in church, and it gives one a nice feeling that you are among family and friends when attending there.

“If God is for us, who can be against us”

“If God is for us, who can be against us” is a verse that in Brazil is quoted and memorized over and over. It is a verse that got me through some difficult times when I had to remind myself that God is for me. It is during those difficult times, however, that I learned to walk alone with God. When you learn to walk alone with God, you really learn to walk with God. When you are in a situation where no one seems to have good advice, or seems to understand what you are going through, it is at those difficult times that God speaks his truth and reveals His dreams for your life. And those dreams are almost always higher and bigger than anything you have imagined for your life thus far.

Turning the other Cheek

Turning the other Cheek—this day was a challenge at the baby house as it was the third consecutive day with rain. This means that the babies have to stay cooped up in a small living room with barely enough space for a few meagre toys to keep them occupied. When it was time to put the toys away, one of the little girls refused, grabbing the Barbie clothes out of my hands, then unexpectedly slapped me across the cheek. I carried her to the room for her time-out, and after she apologized she came back friendly and ready to play nicely. Next, her little brother was throwing toys and hit one of the other children. I picked him up and carried him to the next room for his time-out, when he suddenly slapped me on the other cheek. Jesus says to turn the other cheek, when someone slaps you or insults you and to not to return evil for evil. Sometimes when working with these little precious ones, we have to have patience beyond our own human nature, but at those difficult moments, Gods grace kicks in and we are able to continue to love.

MAKING MESSES

Making Messes—Sometimes our cleaning help at the baby house must sigh when she sees me coming. With ten toddlers, activities can become pretty messy. If one messy baby decides to leave finger prints on the clean table, there are sure to be at least five other handprints on the table during paint time. Walking through muddy manure on the farm, leaves lots of footprints on the cold cement floor of the little baby house. When we decided to plant a container garden, the babies loved putting their whole arms into the black dirt while taking the little plants in and out of position. At the end, they were so dirty; the monitors took each one directly into the showers. It seems the messier the activity, the more fun that it is for the babies, and luckily, they clean up with soap and water.

two kids who need love...

V. and her brother D. came to the baby house some months ago. When they first came, we were all amazed how quiet they were. Slowly we began to notice different behaviours that caused us concern. Sometimes it would seem that V would do things on purpose that she knew to be wrong. Then when we would give her a time out, she would scream and shake and cry hysterically. We discovered later their family history. It seemed that their mother had decided one day that she didn’t want them anymore and began to mistreat them so the social worker would come and take them away. She would leave them on the streets alone. She would let them go for hours without food, and left them in dirty clothes. Finally, the social worker took them away, and so began their lives in different homes until they came to Lar Feliz. Please pray for these two whose emotions need to heal. They have come a ways with us, but there is still more healing to go.

DO NOT LET YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED.....

In John 14, it says several times "do not let your heart be troubled." "Trust in God, and do not be afraid", "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, I do not give as the world gives." Sometimes in our busy lives at Lar Feliz, it is easy to loose one's peace. Working with people and so many difficult situations to resolve is a real test to guard our minds in the peace of Jesus. But Jesus tells us not to be troubled. The world brings tension and dissension all around, but in the midst of it all, we can have a promised peace offered to us by Jesus. Whatever situation you may find yourself in today, look and hold unto the peace.

TELL IT ALL....

Sometimes, I stop by the baby house unexpectedly in the afternoon after nap time or the evening. When I come into the living room, they all cluster around to meet me and tell me all of their news, now that our babies are learning to talk. They tell me if they had to say sorry to one of the other babies. They show me their new shoes. They show me where they got bit by a cat. They tell me all things of great importance to them. Sometimes, we need to come near to our Heavenly Father and tell Him everything, what we need, what we are doing, and what is new in our lives.

GETTING OUR TEENS READY....

Many of you know that we have a lot of kids and teen-agers living with us. From the age of 14 we try to prepare them for a job. Often that happens by giving them a little job here at Lar Feliz and paying them a little something. The teens think about the money, but we think about getting them ready for when they leave.
We have about 4 teen-age girls working in the kitchen, where they are learning how to cook. We are also talking to some business men about turning our green house into a place where we will grow trees and they will be send out all over the state. How exciting!!

SUNDAY MORNING...

I am so glad to tell you that our two teens F. and D. have calmed down a bit. Sometimes we do not know how to resolve some kids behavior. But prayer is so powerful.
Some of you have been praying for us and thinking about us when we had to go to court last Friday. In about one month we will hear the verdict.

NEED FOR PRAYER....

Today we have a prayer need. We have a worker who worked very good for us and seemed to enjoy her work at the baby house. She has since left and has decided to sue the project for thousands of dollars. She is pregnant and is unable to do the heavy load of taking care of the babies, so we offered her a new position of doing laundry during the day shift. She decided to refuse this job, and rather than work, take the easy way of making money and suing a Children's home to get enough money to live by. Unfortunately, this is something that takes place regularly in Brazil. Please pray for Paul and our lawyer as they go to trial today.

THE BABIES ON ANOTHER OUTING....

Yesterday we had a fine sunny day, and in the morning, I and two workers, with the 5 Dutch volunteers took the whole baby house out to the park for an outing. There were 12 babies and toddlers in total, and what a joy it was to see the babies have this nice experience. They enjoyed playing on the playground, walking alongside the lake. The kitchen manager, Sandra made a fabulous picnic lunch which contained little sandwiches, cakes, cookies, chips, and Pepsi, all special treats for them wrapped up in a basket with love. Those babies thought they died and went to heaven it was so nice. All of them played really well and listened, and then went back home to Lar Feliz where they took very long naps. God, in his love for us, prepares wonderful things. Most of those times when we receive his goodness, wrapped in love, it is beyond what we imagine or dream.

HELP...I NEED SOME HELP.....(THINK OF THE SONG)

Today we received a visit from a children's shelter located about an hour away from here. They wanted to know how it is done. When I look at our problems with some of our teenagers I think; WHAT? look how it is done? This week we need your continued prayers for F. and D. Two teen-age boys going wild this week. Look at the picture and you know that there are days that we need a lot more prayer!! pray for our staff too.
But in general we thank God for such wonderful kids we have and pray for Him to move mightily. We have purchased the material for the Alpha course and are hoping to start it soon. The ALPHA course is a course for those unfamiliar with Christianity and it will present the Gospel in a real clear way.

MISSIONARY LIFE....

Sometimes people think of missionaries as poor souls who live in mud huts and recite their Bibles all day, but things are really different in this day and age. Last week, for an example, our family suffered two hardships, not being shot by flaming arrows of local indiums or anything like that. Our old gas dryer bit the dust again, and we were without internet at home. Maybe it sounds very modern to some of you, but hanging out all our wet clothes, then having to iron all of them and not having any contact with our friends and family from other countries was somewhat difficult, not that we are complaining. It is a great blessing and helps our work to be more effective and efficient to use these modern conveniences. Finally our internet is back for all of you who were missing the contact, and tomorrow our new dryer will arrive, thank God for these not so small conveniences.

Beautiful....

Even though the place we went to spend our two days was very simple

and out in the middle of nowhere, and there was no internet or even signal for our mobile phone, it was absolutely amazing to just be around God's creation. The nature was beautful with waterfalls, parrots flying around etc. It was wonderful. Now we are ready to go back to work!!