January Sunday Funday

Our weekly vlog:

We are finishing up our time in Connecticut, and squishing in as much time with as many people as possible (except when kid meltdowns interrupt, which happens too). Friday we are heading to Ohio, where we will be for a week, as we share with churches and supporters there. We have had some extra large expenses come up the past month, and with each one, God has been so good, and some amazing people have given special gifts to cover the costs! I've been in missions for 15 years, but I still manage to be sufficiently worried and then surprised when things work out financially (come on, I really should have caught on by now).
We also have some dates for our trip to Illinois in February, and our return date--we are heading back to Brazil May 13. We have lots to fit in the next couple of months!

Reads from the Interwebs:
1. Meet me in the Middle: beautifully written (hand raised for a me too!)
2. Ferguson Money Stuff: if you like graphs and want to know about our financial issues in detail, here is that post! Otherwise, ignore it:).
3. Best of 2018 Stuff from Rachel: Best Blogs, Best Vlogs, Best Pictures
4. Goals for 2019: do you do this? I like to choose a year "word" and verse (well, verse yet to come), and normally just tweek my goals from the year before, adding a little to try to get out of my comfort zone. I would love to see your system!
5. Really Jerry Falwell? In my experience in missions, it has (almost) never been the rich who I've seen supply and reach out to needs--but rather those who are financially about one more rung up the ladder than me, or those they are helping. Countless times I have been moved to tears by the poor Brazilians who have sacrificially given to even poorer Brazilians and made a difference. 
6. Fight, Flight, Freeze: such an important conversation I'd never really heard about before! YES!
7. I'm not breaking my kids: a good read
8. The Myth of Calling: a lot of really important points made here

Goals for 2019

2019 Goals for Rachel

Word of the Year: 2017 Bright, 2018 Appreciate, 2019 Redeem

Verse of the Year: 2017 Hebrews 6:19, 2018 Micah 6:8, 2019 _______

As a Woman:
1. Personal: know myself
a. Blog and vlog once a week (Sunday Funday)
b. Have a book (or kindle) always available—catch up books/music in USA
c. Publish a book or project
d. Learn a skill/get specific training/Lifelong learning: teaching English/church
e. Get my memories all organized on “Fergie Famories”
2. Spiritual: intimate connection with God and my heart
a. Morning Moment with God (reading Bible)
b. Once a week family worship time
c. Sunday Family Prayer time
d. Jesus book and prayer with girls
e. Study and Memorize something
3. Physical: strong with energy to thrive not survive
a. Drink more water and eat healthy
b. Workout 4x a week, 45 minutes each
c. Set up a home workout center in Brazil
As a Wife:
a. Every other week Date night
b. Focus on Caid in the evenings after kids are asleep
c. Plan and make healthy meals—always strive for better
d. Keep the house clean and light: deep clean once a week
e. Plan a Sabbath each week
As a Mom:
a. Daily Snapchat/appreciate my daughters time (each one)
b. Weekly Sunday family phone calls
c. 2girlsncurls Instagram updated, and learning more hairstyles
d. Speak Portuguese more with the girls while in USA
e. Ana: do some home-preschool in USA, start Sofia in morning school in Brazil (full?)
f. Jessica: weaned, start 3 times a week at school in Brazil, sleeping through the night
As a Missionary:
a. Vlog once a week (find/plan "missionary" ones to make)
b. Upkeep LS and FMF websites and e-newsletters and Instagram (monthly)
c. End of and beginning of the month reports for LS and FMF
d. World Help paperwork done timely and well
e. Sports Weekend Fundraiser done well
f. All the churches and individual supporters met and updated
g. Teach well at the International school
h. Do taxes and have all important documents updated
i. Get health insurance worked through and work done
j. Jan: CT and Ohio, Feb: Anna, Illinois, settle in, Mar-May: all meetings/plans/training, June/July: STMT, settle back in Brazil, Aug: school/LS start up, Sep: all LS pictures updated Oct: Children’s Day and sports weekend fundraiser, Nov: End of the year reports/videos, Dec: finishing up/celebrate holidays well

20 Best Pictures of 2018

We were definitely blessed last year with beautiful pictures. I was thinking about making posts of my favorite shows (we fell in love with Brooklyn 99, Black Lightening, and Lost in Space), movies (Black Panther, Guernsey Potato Pie Society), and books I read (Overturning Tables by Scott Bessenecker) in 2018, but to tell you the truth, there weren't enough of any of those things to warrant a whole post. Perhaps next year, when my girls are a little older, and I am out of "Don't let them die" phase. 

12 Best Vlogs from 2018

1. When Ana Met Jessica
2. Dedicating Jessica to Jesus
3. First Carnaval in Brazil
4. A Fergie Week
5. Crazy Crisis in Brazil
6. Acai Adventures with Anna and Liberty
7. Moving Week
8. Caid's Testimony
9. Building Things in Brazil
10. What Missions Means to Me
11. Fergies 2018
12. First Birthday Ever

11 Best Blog Posts from 2018

Most of my blog is Sunday Funday, a quick review of our week, and some good internet reads to check out. But I have posted some other things as well, and here are my 11 favorite (10 just didn't work)
1. First Goodbyes: Sofia is now old enough to start feeling the pain of goodbyes.
2. Doing Short Term Missions Well: this is an important ongoing discussion we should all have.
3. Failed Missionary Thoughts: some thoughts about a podcast that hit the missionary world.
4. Fair Trade Guilt: yes please!
5. For my Woke Folk: Juneteenth and World Refugee Day
6. Yarns and Pins: remembering old missionary boards
7. Write me Down: thoughts about my birthday
8. Applying Overturning Tables: Quotes from a really awesome book!
9. 15 Posts about Missions in 15 Years
10. Choosing Last: How to Live it: the chronological study through the Gospels
11. What Doing Missions Means to Me: the series

For Transparency's Sake (Money Stuff)

Here is my annual post about finances and such, which most of you can just pass on by, but it matters to some. Like me.

Basically, all said and done, we have been spending around $20,000 a year (except for big things like birth and buying a car) and had right about the same for donations. BUT: we are now a family of 4, and below USA standards of poverty. We haven't had medical or life insurance. We do have an emergency fund, but not enough to cover plane tickets for our whole family, if that is what was needed.
When you break it down, after taxes and administration fees, we receive around $1400 a month. We need that to be closer to $2,500 a month for the four of us and the ministry costs that come up. Please pray with us, as we are looking to almost double our funding. This is important and necessary, but hard, especially for me, as there are so many other needs that we see day in and day out. As we speak at churches and with individuals, please pray that God would connect us with people who really desire to give specifically for our family needs.
God bless, and now we are done with that most difficult subject! (for now)

First Sunday Funday of 2019

Finishing out 2019, we have Jessica's Birthday vlog, and our Christmas vlog:

and

We have been in Connecticut with Caid's family, enjoying introducing Jessica to everyone (she is not very social) and Sofia is bossing around her cousins (she knows better than to boss her aunties). We have had Make your own pizza Monday, Taco Tuesday, Spagetti Wednesday, Rice and beans Thursday, Lasagna Friday, Tuna Mac Saturday, and Stir-fry Sunday. I feel like I am getting this cooking for everyone who shows up thing down (it is only my 5th year of trying). It is really great (as always) to get to go to Caid's childhood church, telling Sofia "This is where daddy went when he was little Caid." 

We rang the New Year in at 8pm, put the girls to bed, and were sleeping before midnight because that is the current phase of life we are in. I consider January (while in Connecticut) to be a slight extention to 2018, so I can organize my 2019 goals, as well as "best of" 2018 things (books, movies, vlogs, blogs, pictures...). Hopefully that will happen in the next couple weeks. We are grateful and mostly all healthy now, but with Jessie starting a new round of teething, we are still not having great sleep at night (for anyone, as we 4 share a room). 

Happy New Year!

Reads from the Interwebs:

1. Fun free printout for the New Year by Ann Voskamp

2. Marrying Across Cultures: No two families are the same cultures, so everyone should read this. But especially for those of us who marry someone (even if you seem like 99% on the same page) from quite a different culture. 

3. Goal Setting: some alternatives to New Years Resolutions: personally, I think your New Years Resolutions should already be grounded in some basic goal setting skills so you are doing actual practical work instead of golden-eyed baseless dreams anyway...but go ahead, mix it up:).

4. What an Abolitionist taught me: This really gets to me

5. Go ahead and Criticize Missions (Constructively): This is very important to me. There are problems in missions. Big problems we need to fix. But. In the right way. I remember I read two books really close together: "Toxic Charity" and "When Helping Hurts." The first book was easier, faster, and more fun to read. The second bogged me down again, and I felt like it kept going in circles and repeating itself a lot. I liked the first one better, hands down. I went to a training conference, and they were promoting "When Helping Hurts." I asked them what they thought about "Toxic Charity" and the teacher wisely said something like this: "It might be an easier read, but it doesn't give us anything to work with. It points out the problems, but then stops. It doesn't work toward any solutions." 

This made me see things differently. No, "When Helping Hurts" isn't my favorite book, but it is more helpful and in the long run, I have used it ten times as much as the other book. The secret is this: it is pretty darn easy to point out problems, in just about every area of life. It is a lot of really hard, painful work to not give up and keep hammering out solutions and ideas and failings and getting back up and trying again. It takes humility and grace to point out problems and not put a period on it, but a comma. To continue the discussion. To remember to be grateful and still see the good in things. 

I just finished reading "The Very Worst Missionary" by Jamie Wright. It was a good read with many insights. I have heard her speak, and I just started following her Instagram. But after reading it I have put her in the category of the first book, rather than the "When Helping Hurts" group. This isn't a bad thing, it just is what it is. And it is important to make sure that I have a balance, and both kinds of resources. I consider "A Life Overseas" a resource in the second group--an ongoing discussion of "what now?" for the missions community, and I hope that Jamie's next book goes in that direction.