Think Big!

Last week this photo came up on my facebook news feed. Wow! It may look ordinary to you--a simple wedding photo, but no, this is huge! Our God is so big!!

The little lady in the long blue/green dress....she is the start of this big story--that is really God's big story, of course. Dica (Gee-kah) is her name and the last time I saw her she was a young mother of 7 or 8 children...the oldest around 12. She is a typical "ribeirinha" or "river person" who grew up way interior here in Brazil, deep in the jungles on a tributary of the Amazon. She lived close enough to the tribal group my parents served as missionaries that she entered their world when she married one of the young men from the tribe.

This little lady not only gained a new culture and language by mixing with the tribal group, she began to hear God's Word being taught by the missionaries in her new village. She was the first one to truly say "Yes!" to the gospel and then began years of learning and struggle to raise her many children in a culture that was filled with blatant opposition to the truths of God's Word she was learning. The last time I saw this lady, I was spending time helping her oldest daughter learn to read. I remember overhearing a conversation she had with my mother about her concerns for her 12 year old daughter in the culture that demanded immorality as an expected "norm". I remember wondering what would become of not only her oldest daughter, but the whole string of children, at that time ending with this young groom in the photo above.

Bira (Beet-a) was the baby when I last was there in the village. Several of Dica's children over the years have been able to leave the village to attend a Brazilian high school and then go on to study at a Bible School. Bira met his beautiful bride at the Bible School and they have completed the course and now are headed soon for missionary training school. Bira and Patricia have a deep desire to minister to Bira's own tribal group to see many more of them enter into the family of God.

Just seeing this dear jungle lady in her long beautiful dress watching her son marry a pastor's daughter and with a goal of coming back to serve his own people...Well, I got choked up seeing this photo. I don't think any of us who knew her 25 years ago would ever have thought this photo would be possible today. God is so much BIGGER than we think!

This is where we are at right now in our lives--a hallway, but ours is tropical, muggy, rainy, and beautifully green! Over the last couple of years God has been working in our hearts to change our original idea that we would be teachers or care givers to mks here at our little boarding school on the Amazon forever...or at least until we molded and decayed enough to retire.

We began to seriously make plans for a move last August, and though we are now headed back to Minnesota (I know, as opposite from the jungle as you can get) in June, we still don't really know what our next "assignment" will be. We are still in the application, gathering info, wait and see stage. Now, this is not my style--this waiting thing. Just ask my husband and kids if you doubt that. And probably even my little group of 1st graders....If something needs to get done, let's just do it...NOW! It is so uncomfortable and scary and boring and hard to wait!!

But there is also so much to learn in this hallway of ours. A friend told me, "Oh but there is so much to learn in the WAIT" and she is right!

 1)We are learning to trust God to open up just the right doors even when those we want to go through are shut. A godly, trusted mentor advised us that God will either give us the desire of our hearts in ministry or we may be surprised with how he changes our desires for something totally different than what we might think.

2) We've seen communication with our kids open up as never before. The girls are having a very hard time, naturally, thinking of leaving their home and not being PQQ mks anymore...Crying, praying, and grieving a coming goodbye together has pushed us together as we lean on Christ.

3) Already we have been so surprised and encouraged by others here in the hallway with us...For some it is not their hallway...it is their living room, and yet they are behind us and supporting us even while their faith is being tested to trust God to provide for the holes we will leave here. We have had friends we haven't heard from for many years, and even strangers who had happened upon us in this hallway, who have said just the right word to keep us going in the wait.

So, yes, I will praise God in this hallway and thank Him for the wait, knowing "blessed are all who wait for Him." (Isaiah 30:18a)

January 2013 Update

As many of you have just been through a week of sub zero weather, we
are enjoying our “winter” here—rainy season! The 70 and 80 degree
rains and cloudiness almost feel like there could be a chance of snow to
our jungle acclimated bodies. We started our semester off at school this
week having “Snow Days”, in fact. We had to use our imaginations but
had a lot of fun. You can see in the drawing what a tropical snow day
might look like!

 

What did we do over the
break? We enjoyed having
almost all of Kerry’s family
here with us...you can imag-
ine the amount of noise, con-
fusion, laughter, and coffee
involved…

It was a special time for us as
we realized this would be our
last Christmas in Brazil.

While we had a green, tropical
Christmas, our oldest, Reece, sure
had a white one. He was able to
stay at the Bible School and con-
tinue working over the break. He
enjoyed a fun cook out and sled-
ding in the WI snow! Thanks so
much to the staff family who took
him in and shared Christmas with
him.



In mid January we were busy helping get our
grounds ready for the annual field missionary
conference. The photo to the right shows our
field director speaking to us on the conference
motto: “Fully Set Apart for Him”.



So….we are off and running into our last semester serving as teachers here at PQQ with
many mixed emotions. We have tickets ($3500) to fly back to MN June 18th. We plan to
leave our oldest daughter here to finish her senior year. We will be leaving many close friends
and family so would really appreciate your prayers for these coming months. We will continue
teaching and serving as sponsors for the junior class while also sorting and packing, We are
trying to leave things at school and our home ready for others, as well as make plans for our
return to the US. We are pursuing a ministry with college students and plan to base in south-
ern MN, but are going back on our regular “home assignment” time and will need housing
and a car to use, as well as the many other details involved in a move. If you are interested in
helping with any of these expenses, please contact us and we can give you the information on
where to send the funds. Also, if you have any leads on a ministry opportunity for us please let
us know too. We are seeking to find some new people and churches to partner with us for
our future ministry, so contact us if you would like to schedule a visit. Though transitions are
always tough, there is also growth and excitement in stepping into the unknown, following our
Lord who always knows and directs our steps.



Serving together with you,

Roger, Kerry, Janae, Shaina,
Briel and Kelsey Thelen