We had a few very busy months at the end of last year,
so by the time it was Christmas we were more than ready for some holidays, rest
and no set responsibilities. The Christmas celebration of community center Casa
Semear was the last event of our work year and it turned out to be a wonderful
celebration!
Some 150 people came to the small Baptist church we
were allowed to use for the Christmas celebration; it was a great opportunity for
us to share the Gospel with these people! The kids also played an active role
by performing a musical that explains God´s plan of salvation.
And of course the handing out of Christmas gifts was a
very special moment too, it´s always amazing to see so many happy faces and the
great joy a simple present causes in these kids!
The following weeks were very relaxing and quiet. We
used our time well, resting lots and reloading our energies after the extremely
busy time we´d had. We spent Christmas and New Year´s Eve with Caio´s family
here in São Paulo and also used our free time to work on some of our craft
projects.
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| Christmas 2012 |
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| Caio´s craft project! |
In the second half of January it was finally time
for my parents to leave behind a cold,
snowy Holland and spend three weeks with us here in Brazil! The last time they
were here, was more than three years ago! We had a wonderful time together. We
tried to show them a bit of the normal, Brazilian life by, among other things,
taking them to the local market on Saturdays and having pastel for
lunch.
We also spent a week travelling along the shore to
visit several different beaches and small villages that are very beautiful and
famous amongst tourists. If you live in São Paulo and want to show a bit of the
Brazilian nature, you quickly turn to the northern beaches of the state of São
Paulo, they´re worth it! Together
we really enjoyed our holiday at the beach!
Joseline (who was also in Brazil during this same
time) and her boyfriend, Bruno, joined us at the beach for two days, so we were
able to celebrate together mum and dad´s 35th wedding anniversary!
Very special!
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| Celebrating mum & dad´s 35th wedding anniversary |
In February it was time to go back to work at
community center Casa Semear. Mum and dad were able to see a bit of our work
with the kids and also joined us in the program for a few days, and then the
time came for them to return to Holland.
Joseline also returned to Holland in February, so
now I´m again the only member of our family living at this side of the ocean
;0) But we´re very thankful for the wonderful time God gave us together here in
Brazil!
And now we are back to our normal, daily
responsibilities: the SuperWoman program started again two weeks ago and
besides that, running the community center in general, continues to be a huge
challenge with a very small team of 4 attending a big group of around 80 kids!
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| Doing home visits in the slum |
Caio has also returned to his normal, daily routine
of working for the Christian publishing house. He received his first whole book
translation job and is very busy with it right now. It´s a book by D.A. Carson
that needs to be translated from English into Portuguese. Caio is enjoying his
new job and we´ve been able to see God opening new doors and confirming him in
his ministry. Caio also finished his theology studies (Master in Divinity) and
we´ll be celebrating his graduation on Saturday, 2nd of March.
And, last but not least, something that has been on
our minds more and more is of course the arrival of our baby boy or girl and
we´re trying to prepare ourselves for parenthood as best we can. We´ve been on
the adoption waiting list for about 8 months now, time flies!! We don´t know
how much longer we´ll have to wait, but we hope that we´ll be able to welcome
our little boy or girl still this year. And so we´re gladly expecting...
God bless you! Love,
Caio & Dorothee
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