A few months ago Bella wanted to plant some tomatoes. We went to the store, bought some seeds, and they started to grow. Now we harvest about 20 tomatoes every day, and every time I eat one I think, “This is the best food I have ever tasted”.

One of the neighbour boys pulled a Bird of Paradise flower out of the ground and gave it to Deanna. We planted it, and now it is blossoming along with the Iris we gave Dee for Mother’s Day.

Every year it is part of the cultural tradition here to have a Harvest Festival. Every makes special food to sell, and maybe they donate clothes or get prizes to auction off. It is a fun kind of fund-raiser, community party for the church.

Here are some photos from last night.

Bella took these photos of Emma, for a school PE report. This sport is called “slacklining”. It strengthens your core, and helps with balance…plus it’s fun.

The girls found a geode down by the river. We cracked it open this week. Sometimes geodes are filled with crystals, or sometimes they have nothing. This one had a light purple sand. When we wet the geode, the inside becomes a deep purple color.

Slack-lining has become one of the new favorite games. The idea is to walk across a 10 meter herc strap. Emma and Bella can walk about 5 meters now, without support.

As church-planters, we are trying to build community. This involves so much more than attending a service where you “like the preaching”, or you “like the worship”. It involves playing together, working out differences, loving God by loving one another. It is challenging, and it takes time.

This is the beauty of missionary life. We live among people, and our lives are the message. This is sometimes scary, and we would rather just hide, but we take courage, and ask God to let Himself somehow shine through our brokenness.

Anni turned 21 on Saturday! To celebrate Anni, Via, Janaea, and the Brown family went to the Scottish games in Washington state. Here are the photos.

When Anni was born I was with Deanna at the hospital. I went to work that day. I was a grader operator for a paving company. I felt like I was walking on clouds. I think that feeling lasted for about three days. And Anni has brought us immense happiness ever since.

Anni was one when we moved to the Amazon as missionaries. Now she has completed one year without us, in Canada. We are so grateful for all the good choices you have made, Anni, and to God, for the great environment of supporting friends and family!

We drove to Pacajá and back yesterday. The team there had a few questions about setting the steel for the bond beam on top of the foundations. Ivanildo talked to the engineer here in Marabá. Then we drove out, helped them get started for a couple of hours, had lunch with them and met the team from Columbus, and then drove home. We left the house at 6 a.m., and got home at 6 p.m. It was a good day.

On the way home I crested a hill in an area in an area where the TransAmazon Highway is almost like a tunnel through the trees. Suddenly there was a truck stopped on the steepest part of the hill. He was trying to pull another truck up backwards, one that had stalled halfway up the hill. As they all discussed endless options, the traffic started backing up in both directions. A bus passed all the cars and trucks from the other side and was coming up close to the broken truck when the cable broke. No brakes! The broken truck picked up speed going backwards. The bus picked up speed going forward to get out of the way. The bus missed getting broadsided by about 2 inches. The truck ended up in a washout gully and twisted it’s frame. The driver’s door wouldn’t open. I felt sad for the driver.

As we drove past there were some flowers alongside the road that were backlit. I took a picture our of the car window with my phone, and somehow the light reflected the flower into the tiny lens. I’ll include the photo. You can see the original backlit flower in the brush in the background.

A new semester: Over 50 Sunday School teachers and helpers sign up in seven teams. (The regular church attendance is just over 100 people, counting all the babies). You only get to help one time every seven weeks.