Everytime time I see this picture, it makes me think of the pasage in Philippians 2:9-11 that says:

"Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name wich is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Is Lord, to the glory Of God the Father".

On a personal note, He transformed my life, giving it purpose and meaning. It's a MIRACLE that He just wants to keep loving you no matter what you do, say or think. He will be there and love... love... love you. I know His grace and His mercy have no ending. His determination in loving me makes me fall in love with Him more and more every day. I pray that no matter what we go through that I will always remember His Love for me...... yesterday today and forever and that this same love will be passing from me to others.

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Matthew 1:21

And this is our gift from God, JESUS.

This relationship between man and God, that Jesus makes possible, is the most important decision of our lives... Through it, God gives us forgiveness of sin, eternal life and a relationship forever with Him.

Now, isn't that the best present ever!? Thank you Jesus!

Love you all!

Today we took care of the second part of the paperwork to get our Brazilian identification card which included getting our fingerprinting done at the "Oficina de Estrangeiros" at the Department of Immigration. While there, I met Sheila a Brazilian gal that was renewing her passport so she can travel to Italy to visit her mom for Christmas. I was able to communicate with her. It seems that everywhere we go there's someone always with enough patience to talk with us.

Anyways, these last days we've been quite busy.........getting a cell phone, internet access, bank work, meeting our neighbors, meeting with the principal of our kids schools, Portuguese clases, barbeque with new friends, church service, getting bread at the bread store down the block... mmm...good, well seems like we are doing good. It's quite exciting for us and definetly we've learned to laugh at ourselves.

God has put a deep love for this country an its people in our hearts. Please pray that we can learn the language so well that they will think we are one of them.
God is so good! " Count your blessings name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

We are finally here!!! Thanks to all of you who have been praying for our trip here to Brazil. We made it with no problems at all and even our luggage made it too. Right now we are getting all set up in our apartment. It has three bedrooms and 2 little bathrooms. We live on the fifth floor and yes......there's an elevator!! I'll post some more pictures next time. As you know we are in the city of Ribeirao Preto for language school. Ribeirao Preto is located four hours northwest of Sao Paulo and we will be here several months learning Portuguese. It's summer here and it really does not feel like Christmas at all until you go to the stores and see all the decorations...

(Santa wears silk and not flannel.....ha ha ha).