We had the rare privilege of having the very first funeral service
at a brand new funeral home. The occasion? A funeral of course, but quite
different from the "run-of-the-mill" variety Valmor's relatives had previously
seen!
Yes, Valmor is now with the Lord and we had the privilege of giving his
memorial service, attended by almost all his unsaved relatives. Stefanie,
Cynthia and Karina (a good friend) sang special music to the accompaniment
of a friend's guitar playing. I (Steve) was able to bring a hard-hitting,
evangelistic message based upon Valmor's final testimony of God's love and
grace. We thank the Lord for the opportunity to speak of Christ and for the
chance to hold out His message of grace and salvation to these people. Surely
seeds were planted that day!
After a steady stream of overnight guests for several weeks, we left on a
whirlwind, 2000 mile trip and returned to Chapeco about 5 days ago. During the
trip, we spent 2 days with friends on the coast, then enjoyed 2 more days on
an empty beach a few hours to the north. From there, our wanderings took us up
through the giant city of São Paulo, then 4 hours travel north to the home of
Dan and Beth Templeton, Sonia's brother and sister-in-law (next door to
the "Peniel Bible School").
Soon after arriving and discovering Dan and Beth were still traveling, we
received an urgent phone call for help from Beth's mother, Cora Taylor. Living
by herself in a small town nearby, Cora (88 years young) had fallen on a
recently replaced hip and broken her upper leg in several places. She fell in
front of her house and passerbys helped her into a chair and brought her the
cordless phone to call for help. We rushed the 3-4 miles to her house and
found her sitting in the middle of a crowd of concerned neighbors. She was in
much pain, and when the ambulance finally came, Clay (Dan's oldest son,
studying at Peniel), Sonia and I accompanied her to the hospital for
x-rays. Her orthopedic surgeon left his soccer game and rushed to the
hospital to read the x-rays and confirm the fractures. After deciding to
return Cora to her home (little could be done for the breaks), Sonia and I
spent the next week caring for this dear old pioneer missionary. Dan and Beth
returned very late that same night and Cora is now staying out at their home.
Pray for them, as all three will have to make some difficult decisions for the
future.
We hit the ground running on our return to Chapeco. I literally got out of our
car, opened my office door and immediately started working on our 2002 US
Federal Income Tax forms, and Sonia met with the bride and groom for a wedding
on the following day! We've finally started getting back into the swing of
things, but too much seems to accumulate when you leave!
Our trip to the USA is still somewhat in limbo. We are lacking the funds to
make it happen, but know the Lord has His timing in everything. We decided to
set May 31st as a "cutoff date", so if we do not have the funds for the
passages by that time, we will put off our trip until the end of the year (or
until 2004).
