2008 South American Missionary Conference

No, this is not a fake photo...this is the type of natural beauty we enjoyed during our week in the mountains at the beginning of the month! Each year, missionaries among Churches of Christ in South America take turns hosting a conference for our spiritual renewal and fellowship. The past two years, our team has been responsible for planning & organizing the gathering. This year we were blessed to have Dr. John Willis as our keynote speaker. Dr. Willis brought some tremendous lessons to us from the Old Testament and we were all energized by these reminders of how great our God is!There are plenty of fun moments during the conference as well. One of the highlights was the banquet, which this year was a murder-mystery play. As you can see, there are quite a few characters among these missionaries! We also enjoyed playing sports and taking time to just visit with one another and catch up on happenings around the country.

Waleska and I were also privileged to spend a few days of sightseeing after the conference with our friends Antenor & Phyllis Gonçalves, and their daughter and son-in-law Alice & Mark Kaiser. I first met this family when I was doing Let's Start Talking in Itu, Brazil in 1997 & 1998. Antenor has been a great mentor ever since then, and he was one of the officiators of our Brazilian wedding ceremony. They love to come to southern Brazil whenver they have vacation time, and we make it a point to see them. God is really using them to bless the people of Itu!

We were also privileged to make the acquaintance of Dottie Schulz, a missionary for many years in Holland and now working for Missions Resource Network in missionary care. Dottie came to the conference to serve as the women's resource speaker. She stayed with us the night before we went up to the conference, and she & Waleska really hit it off, became good friends. It is wonderful to be able to meet people like Dottie who have so much wisdom and experience to share, and enjoy sharing it with such enthusiasm!
The southern Brazilian mountains have a certain charm, and we were certainly charmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in so many different ways...through the people we met, the friends we saw again, the powerful messages we heard, the conversations we had, and the amazing scenery around us!