Dear Friends and Family,

Happy 2009!  We hope that you enjoyed the holidays and were able to spend them with your loved ones. 

We spent Christmas Eve with our good friends in São Paulo, Christmas day with a fellow Sepal family, and then we headed down south to visit Wes’s extended family.  The trip down south, despite taking 14 hours, was well worth it. We had a fantastic time!  We haven't seen this family in years, mainly because they live so far, but it was relaxing and very enjoyable.  We sat by the pool (it’s summer in Brazil, remember!), took their boat on the lake, ate great food, and enjoyed good conversation.  It’s too bad we don’t live closer. 

There is still one major holiday to go in Brazil before things really get going again, and that is Carnaval.  While people have returned to work, and Wes to the ministry, there is still a holiday feel about things.  Everyone seems to move a little slower.   But Wes is back in the office, as is his team, working on the site and planning for different events that are coming up.

Here are some ministry goals for 2009 – please keep them in your prayers:

• Reprogram the entire Leaderança website (our main site)

• Launch the new Recursos website (multi-media ministry download site)

• Increase financial sustainability of the ministry (70% of expenses this year covered by revenue)

• New short-term missionaries (2 new people to work with the digital ministry)

• New support for us personally (one or two new churches, or several individuals; +$1500/month)

On a personal note we just finished another entire round of In Vitro hoping to have another child.  This round started back in June and we finished last week with no pregnancy.  It’s a hard disappointment to deal with, so please pray for us as we continue to battle infertility. 

We love you and are always thankful for the relationship we have with you.

...A few more pics and highlights from the last few months...

Before Christmas we landed in the hospital twice. 

The first time Caleb had some kind of allergic reaction that caused swelling and redness all over his body!  We've never felt so thankful for modern medicine.  It looked SO bad (we didn't get pics at it's worst - we were scared and ran to the hospital) but within 30 minutes of taking an over-the-counter allergy medicine he was fine!

The second was for the surgery we wrote about in December. 

If you remember our "Christmas Tree" story from last year, you may enjoy knowing that we did NOT make it to the tree farm this year.  With Caleb's surgery we just didn't have the time, or energy, to try it a second time.  It was a little sad, though, fighting the hot sun in the middle of a parking lot to pick up a tree with a grocery cart! 

We enjoyed being a part of a Christmas event offered by Restoration Ministries to children from the slums.  It was a crazy event to organize but hopefully it was special for the kids.  A group from the US was here who sponsored the lunch (500 kids were served).  The day started with games and music, then a gospel message was shared, followed by lunch, dessert, and gifts.