This morning we went to meet the rest of Uncle Byron and William’s family at their home and to have some fun with William. We ate a breakfast of French toast with mamo (papaya) smoothies and at about 9:30 we jumped in the car to drive to Sobradinho, Bahia, another city in another state about more »

Today was such a great day of ministry. It started when we woke up, ate a quick snack of bananas, and left the house shortly after 7am. We drove about an hour away to the small town of Ouricouri, the location of our morning ministry. On the way there we practiced our music for the more »

After the normal routine of waking up and eating breakfast, we had another round of classes, this time only with Uncle Jim. He talked to us more about missions in Brazil and the theology and philosophy of missions in general. Some of these things I remember from my missions classes, but other things were new, more »

Romans 12:15 says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (NKJV). Today was one of those days when I saw both themes in action. It began with much rejoicing, and most of the day was that way, but it ended in sadness. Danae and I practiced our trumpet/violin duets sometime after more »

1:30am- The guys are sleeping outside in our hammocks and it starts sprinkling on us. The sky had harbored storm clouds all day long on Friday, but they did nothing more than float overhead. Well, now they were slowly falling on us. It was a light enough rain that I wouldn’t have minded to just more »

There isn’t too much to say about this day. There wasn’t a lot that happened, but it was kind of a significant day anyway. Okay, well, it’s not really that significant, but it was a sad day for many of us. Today was the day that Stephen, Sarah, and Olivia left. I just met Olivia more »

Ahhhh! What a great day this was! It easily ranks up there as one of the most exciting days of the year for me. We had our first of three orchestra concerts last night, and the other two were today. Our first concert was this morning at Batista do Novo Juazeiro, the largest regular Baptist church more »

Stephen and I slept in until almost 7:00 before getting up and going to breakfast. Breakfast is at 6:30 and the first classes begin at 7:30, but we knew that we had plenty of time to go eat before Stephen taught his violin students. When we got there most of the food was gone, but more »

After waking up really tired again, I think I decided not to run anymore until Monday. I know I’ll lose some of the strength I’ve been building up, but I’d rather have that energy from exercising to finish out this music week. As the photographer, I also do a lot of walking around in the more »

Ugh…I woke up so tired this morning! Not from going to bed late, but simply from being worn out the day before. I set my alarm to wake up early for a run, but I quickly put that idea aside when it sounded. I would rather be at my best throughout the day than to more »