Bom Dia!

We have arrived in Brazil safe and sound, and will hopefully be posting a bunch of pictures tomorow so we can show you the amazing views of our litle house! And all of our adventures along the way! We have been so busy meeting new people and learning names and how to shop its just crazy! We have realised that aside from our teacher, once the other missionaries leave on monday, we will really be in an entirely portuguese enviroment... there is very few people who understand ANY english at all, let alone can converse in it. For the first month I think it will be very frustrating and tiresome, but once we have some question words we know, and can introduce ourselves, and some verbs and vocablulary, we should be able to at least have a basic conversation!

Here is the promised pictures from last time. (Caleb... you know which one is for you! )

This is Calebs crazy hockey guy he gave Rick... he is travelling the world with us, a silent companion in our luggage.. he came out for a few minutes at Toronto Airport to look at the planes and get some air!

Goodbye for Now

So here it is, the tears have been cried, friends and family hugged, and we are finally off pursueing God, and His call for our lives. What an exciting feeling to know that without God you truly have nothing, and without Him, there would be no passion, and no purpose. Well, as exciting as all that sounds, at the moment, I am just here in the Toronto airport, reflecting on the day. Ahh, who am i kidding, i am sitting here, totally beat, and tired, but yes, i am still excited. We don't yet have much to add to this blog but a thanks to those who have prayed, and supported, and loved. We appreciate each of you more then you know. A special thanks to all who called to say goodbye. It means the world. So, to all, Good Bye for now. I say for now because i am expecting a visit, so start saving. lol. sorry no pics. internet issues. lol will try later

WE'RE OFF

Well, we have finally got our computer fixed and are ready to give updates on all that has been happening in our lives. Basically God is good. We have sold all of our "Stuff," quit our jobs, moved out of the garage and are ready to head for Africa, and God has been blessing us incredibly every step of the way. A special thanks to all those who have been part of that and who showed up in incredible support at our "Sell-ebration" on March 30th, as we sold most of our stuff, and raised some incredible moneyto help us when we head to Mozambique. I have a quick update for all those who have been praying for us in these last weeks- We were incredible blessed with our "sellebration" as we beat our target of $2000 by 10. Not $10, but $10, 000 over our expectations. God is definitely good. That means that not only did we finish paying off our debt, we put $10, 000 towards the work of SAM Ministries and our upcoming expenses. Thanks again to all who showed up at the event or prayed for us beforehand. God is faithful.

Another awesome praise report recently has been that we finally got our visa's approved for Brazil. For those who were not aware, our first application was put on hold and we were worried that it wouldn't happen. But thankfully, as many people prayed, they decided to finally give us our visa's which arrived just 5 days ago. That was close.

Anyways, we are now in New Brunswick staying with Heather's parents until April 17. We have been busy visiting family & speaking at various churches and Awana clubs. We were able to travel over the world famous Confederation Bridge to PEI, in 100 km/hour winds- which blew our little station wagon all over! We head home until April 22 when we leave for Brazil. Things are definitely getting crazy. We would also like to thank the Oteno's for a great performance at our fundraiser (i will post your video on facebook soon). Well, that is all for now, we will try and add a post again soon.

Sellebration Update coming

Hey all.. our computer is being repaired, but as soon as we get it back we will do a real update with pictures and stuff! Thanks to all who came out... check back soon for more updates! Rick and Heather

ALMOST GONE!!!

Spring is a time of change and renewal- this spring in particular is a time of change for Rick & I. We are so excited to have booked our tickets and will be leaving for Brazil on April 22. After four months of learning the Portuguese language we will be heading to Mozambique. We arrive in Africa August 19th.

As we head in to this spring it is amazing how many changes we are facing! We are looking at selling all of our belongings in the next few weeks at our "Sell-ebration." (Talk about Spring Cleaning!!!) It is amazing how much we have to sell, donate, store and pack. We are also planning to leave our home (at this point our "garage"), and visit with family for the first part of April before we leave for Brazil. It is somewhat scary to think that we need to have all our paperwork, packing, shopping, errands and visiting done in the next two weeks!

This spring will also be a time of new surroundings, cultures, languages and friends. As we are approaching all these new things it is easy to be overwhelmed and scared. We have confidence though that God is going to guide us and get us thru each new experience. Of course there will be times when we are sad, lonely, scared and frustrated, but just knowing that we have so many people praying for us & encouraging us and God guiding us is enough to keep us going!

We are also realising that our time with family and friends is growing short, and the thought of saying goodbye to so many wonderful people ...... well... i keep trying to avoid thinking about it!!!

Please continue to pray for us, for safe travel, and that our support level will continue grow. We are nearly 2/3rds of the way to reaching our monthly support goal, and our personal loan is nearly paid off. God is so good!!

We hope to update again before our big auction, and before we leave! Once we depart, we hope to be able to update more regularly with pictures and stories of our day to day experiences.

God Bless,

Rick and Heather