Last July Sunday Funday

Our weekly vlog:

Check out the video of Sofia (click the option at the end of this video) when she was seven months--so crazy to see them change! 

I am still behind on videos, but they are coming now as all the boxes are unpacked, the shelves and curtains are hung, and the second semester of school has started. Last week Caid helped translate for a group of black belt level MMA people who did some awesome ministry, and then he flew to Sao Paulo (quite far south: like flying from Indiana to Florida) where he will be for the week, at a Biblical Counseling Conference. 

We are super excited he got this opportunity, as every year we try to make sure to schedule in academic and spiritual development of some kind. Us Fergie females will try to survive without Caid/daddy as we settle into our new home this week. 

Reads from the Interwebs:

1. Why Missionaries need to know their own wounds: YES please!

2. Inequality Problem: An interesting secular economic/political post. Honestly, I struggled a bit with this article: what he says makes complete sense, but I still want to get so much MADDER about inequality! But I thought it was very balanced, and much more practical than my (very common) inequality rants. 

"On the left, there just isn’t enough of an appreciation of unintended consequences. Many people think that you could reinstate 80% top tax rates today and it would have no downsides and it would reduce inequality a lot. I believe the reality is that you would be removing the incentives to take the big risk that might create the next Google. By doing that, we run the risk of reducing economic growth, which helps help the people further down that liberals tend to care most about.

Conservatives are much more attuned to the fact that a lot of what government tries to do to increase upward mobility doesn’t work. That shouldn’t be an excuse for not trying, but I think the left tends to not really face up to the fact that we don’t actually have obvious ways to expand upward mobility, and we probably need to do a lot more experimentation to figure it out."

3. Can we talk? Just really Talk?

4. Misunderstanding Stuff: a small random little incident that made me rethink stuff

Misunderstanding Stuff

We moved in a week: start to finish. Like "We had no clue we were going to move" to "Last box is empty" kinda thing. A very important part of that move was obviously the moving truck. Most of our friends, and people we knew with trucks were finishing up their winter vacation before school started, and so I went down to the local place where trucks hang out to be rented/used.
"How much does it cost to move us?"
"R$80"
I have never used a moving truck, and had no clue what was a decent price, but around USD$25 sounded like a great deal to me, and we told him to come at 8am on Saturday. He was there right on time (a plus in Brazil!), and we got down to it.
With the help of some friends (thank you Kervin, Victor, and Danicea!), we had all our stuff at our new place by noon. It took two trips to lug all our stuff from a three bedroom apartment--and now I just had to figure out how to fit it in a two bedroom house.
As Caid went to pay the guy, I noticed hands waving, and I joined the conversation: "He says it is R$160" Rachel." "Nope--I confirmed R$80."
Each. Trip.
What? My moving brain didn't function well, or happily, but we just gave him the money and sat down around boxes, pooped. A small thought came in my head and I asked Kervin: "How many trips does it take most Brazilians to move?"
"One."
I instantly understood and instantly felt squashed. As an American, when asking how much it cost to move us, I figured I was talking about the JOB of moving us. The compete work. The truck mover worked with us for 4 hours--paying him USD$50 was still plenty reasonable, but I felt the pinch of not being "normal."
I don't feel like we have a lot of things, but I am also looking at that as an American. It makes me sigh to realize we have twice the amount of stuff that most of my friends have. It makes me shake my head that even after being here for 15 years there is still so much room for misunderstandings.

We Moved Sunday Funday

Sunday Funday is on Wednesday again because we MOVED:)! Here is the video (By Craig Oslon) of our awesome week--two weeks ago (yes, I will be catching up for a bit still):

After our great week with Shelbyville, we had our last week of winter break.
Wednesday morning we found out our friends were moving out (to a bigger place) of Pastor Assuerio's home (he is renting it out as they are missionaries in Africa). It is a nice two bedroom home with a yard and place to park the car: something we've been looking for since Sofia has gotten older and so...energetic. It is also right next to some of our best friends in Brazil:).
Thursday morning we went and saw the house and decided to move
Friday morning I started packing
Saturday morning we rented a moving truck and had some friends help us move--we were in our new place by noon!
Tuesday morning I unpacked the last box--making it one week from the idea of moving to it actually being completed. We are so grateful and blessed--the moving went so smoothly, nothing was broken, and we even had the internet connected just when we arrived. Thank you to those who joined us in prayer for this big event:).

Reads from the Interwebs:
1. Mambo Sawa Sawa: "It seems to me like there's something within my generation's American Christian culture that assumes, God would never let that happen to me. Is it because of our optimism? Or entitlement? The sense that we really are in control of our lives?"
2. I am peculiar here, might as well embrace it
3. Three words can stop what is stealing your joy: (secret: the words are  "I get enough")
4. Second half of life organizations: I would like this to be a good long conversation I have with my close friends. Let's see if my mommy brain will remember it.

Wednesday Sunday Funday

There is no video. Because last week was amazing and so much happened and I haven't organized the footage and all that. And BIG things might be happening soon. So there will be multiple videos posted...when they are posted:).

Sorry about that.

Not sorry about the amazing week! We loved having our friends from Shelbyville Community church here! It is Wednesday already because we have been taking seriously our rest and recovery days before next week, when another group comes and school starts!

Reads from the Interwebs:
1. On welcoming the third culture kid
2. Pregnancy loss when you are far from home: she also wrote an article for how to help someone dealing with pregnancy loss
3. How much it costs to have a baby in every state: this is crazy guys! Have you heard of medical tourism? It is where you travel somewhere, have a great vacation, get dental (or whatever )work done--all for less than the price of just the dental work in the USA (often, even with insurance!) Good thing we had our children in Brazil! It saddens my heart to see how messed up medically things are in the USA:(
4. Is Silliness a sin? This article hit the bulls eye for me, in finding balance for a Sabbath (and most all biblical disciplines).
5. Dear Powerful People--Invest in Little People: so excited for every new piece of information about how important it is to invest in the pregnant/first months of life, and what a difference it makes!

Sunday Funday July

here is our weekly vlog:

Last week we celebrated the 4th with some fireworks, went to the zoo with friends, and unfortunately, saw Brazil eliminated from the World Cup. We also were very excited to see and play with our friend Renato, from the trash dump community: thank you so many who have been praying for him! Here is the update. 

Sunday our friends from Shelbyville Community Church arrived, and we are so excited to spend the week with them, at Living Stones and doing VBS in Cajueiro Claro! 

Reads from the Interwebs: 

1. How to hold the sadness in your heart: super practical and important (about grief)

2. Growth as a community around racism: a life overseas important article
3. Fourth of July--who are we? A super interesting quick look at "We the People": “The question of ‘We, the people’ has been our ongoing and unresolved conflict in American identity,” Cobb said at a Chautauqua Institute talk in upstate New York. “We’ve never sufficiently understood and defined who is included in that term.” Ever since Thomas Jefferson’s passage famously decrying the transatlantic slave trade in the Declaration of Independence was cut, American democracy has been characterized by a boom-and-bust cycle, Cobb said. “An expanding concept of ‘we,’” followed by “a contracting, fearful idea of who ‘we’ should be.”
4. Want to love your job? YES:)
5. In praise of being washed (basically, how to gracefully move from 20something to 30something): a fun secular read to all those who realize that their youthful potential and "glow" is gone.

July Sunday Funday

Our weekly vlog:

We celebrated Ana Sofia's birthday on Monday, and Caid was busy translating for two short term mission trips that were here in Brazil. One of the mission trips, a group from New Jersey, always (for the last three years) runs English camp for the International school, and has a special time for all the women in general, and for ministry leaders (women). The women leadership time is the only time we really get all the pastor's wives and women leaders together all year for all the Community and Friends churches--it was a lovely and refreshing time. Brazil is also doing well in the World Cup, which is a really big deal here (seriously, EVERYTHING stops for a game that Brazil plays in).

Reads from the Interwebs:
1. Asking the right question: about citizenship (from a missionary perspective, not the hot button current topic...but if you want to talk about how that overlaps...)
2. For all the anniversaries and weddings: Ann Voskamp
3. On the yoga mat as it is in heaven: I enjoyed reading this
4. Four ways to avoid the white savior complex in Missions: an important subject that is covered well here! (not completely, as it is a big issue--but a good beginning place!)
5. Brazil's plan to fight poverty: a little nervous about getting too excited about this too soon!
6. Ted Talk: This woman!