Parrots, bugs, Waterfalls, and Termites OH MY!

A pond near the waterfall


A termite nest



A parrot near our hotel

The bottom of the waterfall and a bridge crossing to the other side

A huge bug

Another bug--but a video! Can you believe this bug? Natalie picked it up too! IT IS SO LARGE!

Some Pictures and Videos of the Mission Trip

I am going to post three videos about my bus adventure. First, the men are waiting to push the bus. Second, they are pushing the bus without the women's weight in the back of the bus. Third, the women are in the back of the bus weighing it down. They tried 10 times to get the bus out the sand. We almost wrecked into the tree several times and the women were on the bus at the time. The three pictures are:

1. The bus stuck in the sand

2. The tree we almost hit

3. Lunch anyone? This is how lunch is prepared.

Mission Trip to Sao Miguel do Guama

My trip to Sao Miquel do Guama was an amazing experience. We had a group come from AL. There were 8 Americans and 10 translators. As a team of 18, we shared the gospel many times. Our typical day consisted of breakfast, evangelism in the morning, lunch, evangelism in the afternoon, dinner, and an evening worship service. I love rice and beans! We went to two different cities--Sao Miguel do Guama and Irituia. We had about 40 decisions and follow-up visits. The church is going to do discipleship training and they are going to give out Bibles to those people. I shared my testimony and helped in translating. I even shared Christ in Portuguese to two girls on the street. They had already accepted the Lord. Anna, my roommate, led one person to the Lord in Portuguese! Praise the Lord! We had some great worship experiences and some fun too. Our bus got stuck in the sand and all the men on the team and Brazilians pushed the bus about 10 times before the bus was out. The women were on the back of the bus to weigh it down to help get the bus out. We almost hit a tree and I was on the most exciting roller coaster of my life. Who needs Six Flags or Busch Gardens? We went to a school and I got to meet some amazing children. We are so blessed. I was humbled by the conditions of the school. I will never complain again about what I have here or in the States in a classroom. We were treated like movie stars and I signed so many autographs because these children had never seen a foreigner before. Wow! Thank-you, Lord for your many provisions. Let's see..I got a blister on my leg but God provided again because we had a RN, named Crystal was on our team and she bandaged it up twice a day! Thank-you, Crystal! What did I see...a parrot, two large bugs, buses, motorcycles, donkeys and carts, palm trees, ladies dressed up for a famous June festival, coconuts, acai trees, meat hanging from a clothesline, chicken bones on the street, waterfalls, ponds, team members sharing the gospel, embracing, and most important of all..tears from people who have accepted the Lord. It is the great to see true repentance and happiness in the Lord!!! Thank-you Lord for this awesome experience! I have many pictures! It will take a while to upload but keep checking back in the next week or so!

Humbled and In Awe of God's Drawing,

Nova

My Brazilian 30th Birthday Party

My Brazilians Friends!


Can you say I am thinking hard in Portuguese? I was thanking my Brazilian friends and sharing my heart in Portuguese.



Bible Study and My 30th Birthday Party

They made it a Brazilian and US party theme. There are two flags on the cake. Isn't it cool?

Hi everyone,

I hope you are well. I thought you might want to see my pictures from my Brazilian birthday party. They sang Happy Birthday to me in Portuguese. I even cut my own cake which is tradition for Brazilians. They served cake, guarana (Brazilian soda-mix between ginger ale and Sprite), lemon sorbet, flan, orange juice, etc. It was delicious! The theme was Brazilian and American combined. They put a Brazilian flag and an American flag on my cake and they bought yellow, green, blue and red cups. Yellow and Green are the colors on the Brazilian flag. They bought red and blue for the American flag. They are so great! I had a great time!

Thanking the Lord that He has given me the opportunity to fellowship with Brazilians and to come to their country and worship with them in Portuguese!

I thank God for another year of service!

Thankful!

Nova

Pictures and More Pictures of My New House

My Office


My Birthday Party at School

My Bedroom

My House

My Kitchen

My Water Box

My Water Box again

My Plants and Trees

The Park Outside My House

My Place where we had a Slumber Party!

My House again

My 30th Birthday Party! Sorry the Picture isn't good!

Mother's Day Chapel

My Kitchen again

My Living Room

My Laundry "Room" or Porch

My Dining Room

My Burned Ceiling where the fire happened...We took out the fan!

Check out my stories on the post below!

Nova

Internet Finally!

Hi everyone,

I know it has been a while. I have recently moved into a new house and I didn't have internet for a while and the school internet has been down too.
Story #1
Let's see..the last month has been very busy and an adventure. I have had an electrical fire in my house. My ceiling fan caught on fire. My roommate came in my house and I was in the shower about ready to go to church when she told me to get out of the shower because there was fire. The other missionaries came to our rescue and there was no damage. Thank the Lord!

Story #2
I was at another missionary's house when there electrical box caught on fire too. Their 4 year child was in the shower, so I rescued him and it was pitch black. We all had a slumber party at my house because my house had power. Sam, the four year old, said, "Wow, mommy there are fireworks in our backyard!"

Story #3
Anna, my roommate and I have a waterbox that feeds water into our house. It uses God given gravity to feed it into our house. Well it was broken for the first 2 or 3 weeks in the house and it would overflow and would sound like a waterfall outside my bedroom window. My neighbor was disturbed greatly by the waterfall and so he decided daily that he would turn our water box off. He was told several times not to mess with it but continued to do so. Several days in a row our showers needless to say were interesting freezing cold or scorching hot. Praise the Lord that we had water though. There were a few days that we had very little water.

Story#4
I was out with a Brazilian friend of mine and I went to a 50 wedding anniversary party. The party was great. I just fell across the busiest street in Belem and my friend held my hand after that. Also, it was raining really hard when I returned from the party and the roads were flooded with about a foot of water. The buses moved up for me so I could get off the bus. One of our missionary friends had to rescue us because we could not walk in the flooded streets. I think I will purchase some great boots!

Story #5
I was taking a shower this week and I have a stool that I sit on while I take a shower. Well as I was about to get out of the shower it broke into about 20 pieces. I fell to the ground. My stool had mold on it and I think that is why it broke. Praise the Lord I was not hurt!

Story #6
Happy Birthday! I just turned 30 years. I praise the Lord for his faithfulness and I thank him that I have the opportunity to serve him and through Him I can do anything! His hand is truly is on my ministry here because I have met so many new friends and I am really enjoying a new Bible study and fellowship with other Brazilians. My life is guided by Him and I want to Praise him for electricity, water, friends, stools, missionaries, my roommate, Anna, and slumber parties. Oh yeah, my students and I celebrated my birthday too and one of the other teachers made me a homemade carrot cake it was delicious!!


Praise Him always,
Nova

I will post pictures soon!

No or very little internet and iguanas

Hi everyone,
I hope you are well. I have been without internet for a while now. I have not been able to update my blog very often. Wow, it has been a great month and a long one too. I have moved into a new house with my new roommate named Anna. She was in language school for 3 months prior to coming to live with me. She arrived on Tuesday. She is so awesome. She will be teaching upper elementary at AVA. The missionaries here have helped me in so many ways with the move. They moved my personal belongings, furniture, etc. Also, they repaired my water box, my electricity, toilet, shower head, sprayed for fire ants, the list goes on. Thank the Lord for them. My house's electricity works on phases and it runs the water too.

Also, I had a very unique experience at school last week. One of my students asked to go to the bathroom and then he came back a few minutes later and said there is a lizard in the bathroom. He said it was in the trash can. I said, "Have you washed your hands?" "No." I said, "Go back into the bathroom and wash your hands, the lizard won't bother you." He said, "okay." A few seconds later, I heard a lot of noise outside. I went to see what was going on. There wasn't a lizard in the boys' bathroom but a 2 or 3 feet iquana. I told him to go around him but the Brazilian children said no because their tails whip. But eventually he walked toward and it was scared away. Only in the tropics, would I experience an iguana at my school. I am just waiting for the snake now.

I will post pictures of an iquana and my house soon.

Blessings,
Nova