“The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.” Ps. 29:11
We are happy to greet you from U.S. soil this month. Actually two months have whizzed by since my last e-mail update. We have been in the U.S. for almost a month now. Before leaving Brazil a myriad of activities blur together in my mind right now. I know we did lots of visiting, lots of packing and cleaning and organizing to get out of the house, and lots of preparing to be gone for seven months. It is always bittersweet to leave our friends and ministry in Brazil to spend time in our home country.
But now that we are here, we are enjoying everything! The weather has been gorgeous, the food tempting, and the roads a welcome tranquility. It has been fun to see so many friends in the short time we have been here. The greatest history-maker was our family reunion. Our daughters and their husbands and the two granddaughters all were blessed with air passes to travel from Brazil to the U.S. for 12 wonderful days! We were all together for Matthew’s graduation from Bible School followed by an unforgettable week at the lake cabin in northern Wisconsin with all of the Dahlin side of the family (there are 2 missing in the photo). Have you ever heard of 80 degree weather in May? We even went swimming every day! We had special times of fellowship and a meaningful service of blessing led by my dad to bless each one of the children and grandchildren. These are all reasons for praise and thanksgiving to our great God for His many blessing to us. The following weekend we drove to Fergus Falls for our niece April’s high school graduation. Unfortunately her parents were not able to come from Brazil so we pretended to be her parents and share in all the fun festivities, ending with a nice party for her on Sunday.
We have been pretty much on high speed since arriving as we needed to make contacts with pastors and churches to arrange our furlough schedule. Then we needed to get our presentations and music ready to do our first programs the beginning of June. Yesterday we arrived at the cozy Mission house in Osceola. It is a wonderful place to come for relaxation and re-grouping. Our lovely neighbors, the Hills, welcomed us with a clean house and a welcome back supper. We are now organized here so that when we have a chance to stop in between our travels we can just settle in and rest.
We hope to be able to see most of you while home. Our desire is to visit all of our individual supporters while we are home. Each of you has a special part in our lives.
While we are here life and ministry continue in Brazil. We ask that you continue to pray for Brazil. The church in Campo Largo voted to join the two groups and they recently elected a new council. Pray for the adjustment process of the two becoming one. We also ask you to pray for an important meeting to be held on Wednesday at the Mighty Fortress church in São Braz where they have been facing many challenges.
We have had great times with our boys and with our parents and we’ve enjoyed many special hugs and conversations with good longtime friends. We look forward to much more of the same. It is a blessing to belong to the family of God! Hope you have a great summer!
Hoping to see many of you in the next months,
Paul and Becky
