A New Home & Ministry

Brasil
Here We Come!

We lived at my parents house in Florida for over three months as we waited for our visas to be granted. We occupied our time with homeschooling, visits to the beach, quality time with family, a day trip to Disney, a weekend trip to Kennedy Space Center, and a whole lot of praying.

Finally the wait is over!

Our Official Visa in the passport!

We quickly made our plane reservations and arrived at the end of first quarter, on Field Day.

We had TONS of stuff for the airplane! I'm glad we didn't have to run to catch any connections...we would have lost something or someone for sure.

TAM Brasilian Airlines
The Magic Red Carpet ~ Taking us to our new home

We Made It!!!
We arrived at about 4:30am. After getting our 34 suitcases, trunks, & bags through customs with no trouble, we headed for our new home.

Our New Home
Belem, Brasil
October 11, 2006

Amazon Valley Academy

The High School Building

Elementary Building & Office

Elisabeth shows us the drinking fountain

Beautiful Elephant Ears growing by the school office

Caleb, 3rd grade, checks out his new desk.

Unpacking into a sparsely furnished home.
There was a table with 6 chairs, a bed in each bedroom, a broken love seat we had purchased sight-unseen from a family who left, kitchen appliances that the school owned, and a love seat that hadn't been moved yet by the previous residents of the house. Did you know? Travel trunks make very good end tables, dressers, & storage units...a very versatile item.
We looked in the storage rooms at school and were able to find a very old couch (which we later put new foam on) and a couple of end tables to use.

Not all things are the same the world around.
Can I make a round fit on a square? Yep...all things are possible when you are flexible.

Lots of cool vegetation all around us. Caleb shows us the banana trees in our front yard. Besides banana trees, we have coconut trees and mango trees. We looked forward to the yummy fruit we would enjoy from our own yard.
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Registering at the Policia Federal

We have to register at the Federal Police to have our visas verified and registered.

We went out for breakfast with some of the teachers before heading to the Federal Police.

Our transportation through the city...the school's VW Kombi!
We would come to know this vehicle well, as it was the only one that would seat our whole family.
We all had to be fingerprinted as part of the process.
The kids were real troopers with the whole thing. It was a long and boring process...lots of waiting, paper work, heat, waiting, more paperwork, waiting, sweat, and more waiting.

With everyone done, we are now official "residents" of Belem, Brasil.
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We would have MANY more dealings with the Federal Police during our years in Brasil. Each year we had to reapply for our visas. At one point, due to a strike at the Federal Police, our visa expired, making us illegal in the eyes of the Brasilian government. This made our process more difficult. But God was in control, and He allowed us to stay for all our years there.