Very special prayer request

Sigh...where do I begin?

It's been one of those weeks...Our family has been bombarded with so many different things...and it seems like the whole world is falling apart.

I have to admit, I am tired and weary, my heart heavy for so many problems.

Yesterday was one of the hardest days, the hubby had to witness in court against someone very close to his family. It was a hard and heartbreaking day for us. I don't like to go into much details, but the hubby's 9 year old niece was molested and there's a lot more complicated things involved in the story. It is just devastating that a child that young has to go through what she's going through! I write this to ask for you to pray for our family. This is just the beginning of what's going to be a hard and long process. Please pray for all the ones involved.

I feel so helpless in this situation. Please pray that the Lord will give me wisdom to minister to the little girl whose life has been broken! Pray for her emotional healing most of all!

I am anxious for the day that sin and sadness will be gone! What a glorious day that will!
We covet your prayers during this trying time.

Slowing Down

Whew! What a crazy, crazy, crazy week...I'm glad things are finally slowing down and returning to "normal"...whatever that is!

We finished our VBS on Friday! It went great! We had 95 kids on the last day and 10 kids were saved. We're so thankful for the wonderful time we had. After we finished VBS, we cleaned the church and then had a farewell party to Daniel Bishop, who left on Saturday morning to return to the US.

During the farewell party, we received a saddening phone call that my 22 year old cousin had been killed in a motorcycle accident. We rushed to be with my uncle and family...what a painful, painful time for all of us. The family is devastated with the loss of my dear cousin. It's so hard to believe he's gone. He was my closest cousin and it's just been so hard.

What's even worse....we don't know whether he was saved or not...

Nothing can hurt worse than this...not knowing.

How I wish I could have asked him is he was sure of his salvation!!! The whole family who's saved has been so burdened and devastated...trying to take comfort in something...

If the Lord brings the Duarte family to your mind, please pray for them. We're going out to be with my uncle and his family today...please keep Leonardo & Anaide, my cousin's parents in prayer, and his sibling, Naomi and Luiz as they are grieving the loss of their dear son.

These last few days has left me engrossed in so many thoughts....

to enjoy every minute with loved ones...because we never know when we'll see them again...

To witness and pray for the salvation of our unsaved loved ones... before it's too late!

Do you have unsaved loved one?!?! Are you witnessing and praying for them??? I sure hope so... do it before it's too late...

With a burdened heart,

Aquarium fun and random musings...

The little prince got to see our town's aquarium for the first time today. We were out and about and decided to stop and see it. It's really small, but the prince sure enjoyed looking at the fish.

A "pira-putanga" fish.

He was in awe!!

The minnows were definitely his favorite fish! He could have stared at them for hours! It was so cute to watch him try to touch them.

After the aquarium, we went out to explore the old town fish market, which is now a museum. It's painted really bright green as you will see in the next pictures. It was pretty and nice to have a place for the prince to waste his huuggee amount of energy while mommy stood in the shade and enjoyed the pretty scenery.

Doesn't he look so small compared to this huge door?!?!

I'm feeling much better today, so I'm so thankful for that!

These next few days, I am just relaxing and taking it easy, as the doctor ordered, praying and hoping I will be feeling up to par for our church's VBS next week! I'm so excited about our VBS, please be in prayer for that. Pray that we will be able to reach many children and their families during the next week. We're all looking forward to a blessed week.

I hear it's been very warm in the US lately. It's been very hot here too...It's 97.9 here right now, and 20% humidity...quite warm! So, how hot is it in your neck of the woods today?!? It's supposedly our winter here, so no, 97 is not acceptable as winter in my book!

Hope you all are enjoying this nice and warm Wednesday!!!

Josh's owie

I have debated whether to post this picture on here, or not. but hey, here goes! If it makes you sick, just don't look at it too much! My little man suffered an accident on Wednesday morning. It was such a scary time for all of us. I wasn't close to him when the accident happened so I did not see exactly what happened. I know he tried to pull up on a very heavy wooden chair my parents own and the chair came down on his little fingers. It cut off one of his fingers and hurt two more. We went to the ER but it was too badly hurt to place stitches in. We're thankful that no bones were broken, yet we're still in shock. I am just trying to keep him as comfortable as possible, but he seems to be in a lot of pain. Prayers are appreciated for a fast recovery! Thanks!