With Obstacles.....

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

-Joshua 1:9

Business Life:

I will spare the photos on this one. Without a doubt, the most difficult sector in this endeavor is finding the right people for the success of this project. Normally, I write it off as culture shock when someone just does not make it here. Today, however, was a bit different. I joke around a lot about waking up every morning and wandering what catastrophe will come that day.

I went in this morning after picking up our newest teacher from the airport. She seems like she is going to be a great addition to our faculty at GE. I began working on her new schedule. Before I locked in some of the classes for sure, I needed a solid update from another one of the teachers who was scheduled to come down some time next week or week after. I called, but no answer.

An hour or so later, right before lunch, the phone rang. I answered and was introduced to a sweet lady who informed me she was the mother of the guy getting ready to come down to teach with us. She simply told me," I am sorry my son's face was bitten off by a dog and he will be in reconstructive surgery for the next 12 months or so, they are going to use the cartilage in his ear to rebuild his nose. He will not be able to make it to Brasil".

First, we should pray for this guy. I have never met him in person, but to have your face bitten off by a dog right before moving to a foreign country equates to some prayer time, I am sure. Secondly, it makes the scheduling situation pretty hard. If you know anyone interested in teaching English in Brasil, let us know. We will help with the legal visa process and transitional obstacles along the way!

Strength For Success

"OH LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress."

Family Life, Missions Life, Business Life:

I know it has been a while since I have updated the blog. It makes it harder to follow, I understand. I wish somehow I could have put our lives on some sort of auto-scribe for the past few weeks, but not an option available yet with technology.

Needless to say, these past few weeks have probably been the most trying times since we have been in Brasil, and with that, honestly since our lives have begun. There are a lot of things we can't post openly online from legal perspectives and confidentiality purposes, how I wish I could share the story in full.

The first thing that should be pointed out is how awesome my wife is. If you could only be here to see it in action, you would stand in amazement at such stalwart. I know no woman on the face of this earth (nor man for that matter) willing to take on the challenges she embraces day-to-day. We stand side-by-side one another through all things. Lately, we have juggled the challenges of a 3 month old, running a business in the 8th hardest country in the world, teaching, and missions work. It gives you a new perspective on family and the value there is in being close to them in times like these.

We had a team from Charleston Southern University come down from August 1st-10th to begin laying the ground work for a project they are developing with the ENACTUS (www.enactus.org) group at CSU. The team, formally known as SIFE, came to do the initial legwork for a cutting-edge, business as missions project that will bring economic opportunity while supporting the missions work of the Greve's for 7 communities located along the Amazon River. The team completed its purpose and arrived safely back home to continue the work Stateside until their next trip. Thank you to everyone one who contributed to this team's success by gathering funding, medical supplies, school supplies, Bibles and other forms of aid. There were 16 decisions made during the team's outreach project. The team is making a movie to highlight the trip, I will upload it as soon as it becomes available!

 I had the opportunity to speak at the 1st Baptist Pedreira spiritual retreat last weekend. Liz and I are still in the development stages with the church on the Sunday English Service. I got to "bust out" some old missions stories from Santee State Park, Waffles House, Ethiopia, etc. for those of you who have heard the stories or were apart of the action. The opportunity to speak at the spiritual retreat gave us and the church the chance to get to know each other a little better. This past Sunday was the church's 84th anniversary! God is doing some awesome work through the ministry there and Liz and I cannot wait to be a bigger part of it. We will keep you up to date as things progress!

As far as Global English is concerned, we are going through a big transitional period right now with employees. For the sake of privacy, I can't get into details. What I can say though is that the visa process is a daunting one. Liz and I went through similar challenges, fought our way through some tough obstacles, and faced big sacrifices in the midst of getting to Brazil with legitimate visas. Despite what people said and the actions of others we stayed committed to the calling God placed in our lives- we want to thank those of you standing with us and being willing to stay committed to His leading. We would also like to welcome our new team members, those who have made it and those who are still battling through the legal issues of making it to Brazil. We look forward to working with you all, and may God bless you!

Just for fun :)

The comedian James Gregory used to have a line where he talked about warning labels. He would say "some time in the past, some nut, told his wife, you know honey....."

Well I just thought I would share one of those moments with you:

Some time in the past, some nut, told his wife, you know honey I wonder if it would be quicker just to jump down this elevator shaft......

Journey to Citizenship

Family Life:

Lea is the newest edition to both Liz and I's families. Yesterday was her second month of life. Unlike we originally thought, American babies born abroad do not come automatically with US citizenship. The actual process is not difficult to go through, the hard part is not having a solid understanding of how it works ahead of time and getting to the Embassy to begin with.

Lea at 2 months:

First off, I want to prop my daughter. I know it is pretty cliche to speak highly of your child, but I have been on many planes. Lea did not cry once, she sat calmly the entire 4 hours on the flight.

Needless to say, Brasil is typically an expensive country. Taxes are high, which drives drives up prices on two fronts, the consumer side and the manufacturer's side- driving things even higher. That coupled with the factor of low ease of access makes a normal trip stressful at least. The plan was to use our trip to get Lea's citizenship as a mini vacation. We left Tuesday afternoon, and currently, we are waiting in Brasilia Airport to board our 3 am flight back to Belem.

We booked everything a couple of weeks in advance: the hotel, the rental car (because taxi's are way too high), and the flight. As I mentioned earlier, the flight to Brasilia was pretty smooth. We picked up the rental car, and outside of the ridiculous process of picking up the car, we were off on our way. Liz's parents got her a GPS that they brought down this last trip. It helped, but with all of the newly changed roads and construction in Brasilia, we got lost a lot. It was kinda cool though, we got to tour the city in a way that we otherwise would have never seen. An hour and forty-five minutes later we made it to the hotel. When we got there the gentleman behind the counter was really nice- he upgraded our room to the suite, at no charge.

The room:

Lea got to spend some time in the Jacuzzi- which was her first time in an actual bathtub! We had a great night, but were woken up pretty early the next morning to drilling and hammering. A couple minutes later the reception desk called and said that they would be sending someone up to talk to us. Come to find out they were actually sending someone up to kick us out of the hotel. Not going to lie, we were pretty aggravated, but we held it together pretty well, especially considering the World Cup games were in Brasilia at the time and hotels were hard to come by. So we went from exquisite to this:

  












So we ventured out into Brasilia in the search for the new hotel. Our plan was to use this day to go and visit the city, visit museums, the cultural center in order to learn more about Brasil. It took all day to find the new hotel, and by the time we got checked in to the Comfort Inn it was too late to visit the attractions.

The next morning we had just enough time to get everything ready for the trip to the US Embassy. I miss how easy things are in the US. We went in, talked to the gentleman at the Embassy, got sworn in, signed the papers and we were out. It was an awesome experience for sure!

The next day we decided to rest, but we did decide to take Lea on her first trip to Wal Mart!

All-in-all the trip was successful! Lea got all of her paperwork in to be an American Citizen! Hopefully, it will all get to us OK, and there will not be any roadblocks! God is awesome!

Thanks for all of the prayers during this process!

We are now back at home and all is well. We even decided to let Lea go swimming this afternoon for the first time:

The Real Deal

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service."

-Romans 12:1

Mission's Life:

In 2010, during our first stages of mission work to the Amazon, I had an opportunity to meet a truly solid missions family. If you have ever been to Brazil to visit us, odds are, you also had that opportunity. Saturday we had plans to go out to the village this family lives in to help out with the boat they use in their ministry. Sadly, some things came up on their end, and we were not able to go this weekend (we try to go out every weekend, when possible.) Since I do not have a story to share for this weekend, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce to you the Wilson family, the vision God has shared with them, and how God is fusing Liz and I's ministry with theirs.

This is Wilson and his family Lalita (Wife) and Noah (Son):

In 2004 Wilson decided to heed the commission God has placed on all Christians to GO and MAKE disciples. Wilson worked as an extremely skilled mechanic earning a solid wage in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest and most progressive city.

Sao Paulo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo

His wife Lalita worked as a teacher. Together, they had a well-established income living the "good life" in a city as modern and advanced as New York, NY. I am not sure of every detail and step it took Wilson to get to where God called him; I just know he was obedient to the call on a large scale. When you meet a guy like Wilson, you really have to step back and think about the seriousness of Jesus's command is in Matthew 28. This man uprooted his family, leaving behind their house and security of life to move into the jungle and establish a ministry that would make disciples, teach, preach the gospel, baptize, and essentially participate in the furthering of God's kingdom.

Wilson's vision is amazing, and the heart he has for God that drives him is largely unseen in today's world. In a nutshell they started a church in a village called Caicaua in 2004 under a thatch canopy. Only a couple of people showed up and stuck around, but they remained faithful. The vision was (and still is) to plant a church in a large Riberino village, build a physical space to use as a hub for reaching the surrounding communities which are only accessible by boat, creating a sustainable model to give the villagers access to education (largely to teach them how to read), and make disciples who, in turn, would follow a similar model. Pretty much the Great Commission :)

Since 2004, their outreach has grown exponentially. In ten years they have planted a church with over 150 participating members, they have established a boat ministry taking the church to more than six villages (the furthest being a 4 hour boat ride) on a weekly basis, they have built a missions base where short term missions teams from all over the world come to participate in the ministry, and built a library and school for folks of all ages to learn to read and write so they can study the Bible on their own.

As I mentioned earlier, we have the opportunity to visit Wilson and serve in this ministry on a regular basis. Saturday before last I had a chance to sit down with him over a cup of coffee and just talk about life in a Proverbs 27:17 kind of way. One thing he told me stuck with me and really bothered me, a lot. Essentially, he said I don't understand. I don't understand why people don't support God's work like they used to. We are here serving His kingdom for His glory. It makes me sad there are people who know the needs of God's kingdom, but turn a blind eye.

I just sat and listened as a servant of God willing to do what most refuse, in a house without energy, yards from the Amazon River banks, poured out a sincere heart of a word indescribable in either Portuguese or English of the reality of Christians participation in God's Kingdom. We have forgotten what sacrifice is. Merriam-Webster defines it as, "the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone." More importantly, the Bible defines it in Hebrews 13:15-16 as, "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." The examples of sacrifice in the Word of God are abundant. Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service." It is not even that we must kill ourselves in obedience to sacrifice as a member of the body of Christ- simply live it. Sacrifice hurts. It takes from us what WE want, and hands it to another, this prayerfully, to the glory of God. Imagine, as you sit in acknowledgement of God Almighty, can you honestly say you have seen sacrifice. The truth is we have masked true sacrifice for something appeasing. We call going to church over watching a football game a sacrifice, while our brothers on the mission field go without food. We get in one of our cars, while our brothers paddle a canoe to far away villages- because the boat is broken, and there are no mechanics on the river. We ignore others as we converse on our smartphones, while our brothers sit months with little to no communion with the body of Christ (meaning us as Christians). We do not know sacrifice. Accordingly, the Word tells us not to neglect this, we should obey.  

August 1-10 we have a team from Charleston Southern University coming to lay the groundwork to expand the work in Caicaua. It is a business as missions team composed of a business development team and a Vacation Bible School team. Pray for the team as they prepare their hearts and minds to adhere to God's calling for them in Caicaua!

No Escape From The Rain

"Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness; Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, And righteousness spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it."

Isaiah 45:8 NASB

Family Life:

So I realize this is the rain forest and rain is to be expected, but in the house, really?! 

When Liz and I started the Global English project, we actually did not have a place to live in Belem. The project was started with a fairly small budget and we wanted to make sure that all of the resources were used wisely. A place to live, just did not fit in the budget. However, God always provides. In the school building there is a classroom at the end of a separate hallway. In fact, we actually did not have a bed either. We were able to purchase a mattress with a loan from our bank with no interest for 6 months. We bought the mattress and moved in what is now the children's classroom. The problem with living in the classroom was, there was no shower except in the apartment building adjacent to the school. Although, we have the rights to those apartments- our Brazilian partner at the time, Junior, and his family were living in the 2nd floor apartment and there was no floor in the 1st floor apartment. After a year, we had the opportunity to finish the floor on the 1st floor and move in. To put the first floor apartment in perspective, the classroom was much larger. The mattress we bought (slightly smaller than a queen size) did not fit well in the bedroom and we actually had to step over the mattress to get into the bathroom. More than likely, most of you reading this post have a closet in your house larger than the apartment. Here is a quick pic of the entrance to it:

Left door= 2nd Floor : Right door= 1st Floor

Anyway, after a year and some change went by God opened the door for us to get a larger apartment. I told Liz that I would like an apartment with a view of the Amazon River- I prayed about it, she laughed at me. She responded with something like maybe God will get you an apartment in heaven with a view of the Amazon, or something like that. Junior and I walked all over the city of Belem looking for Liz and I a place to live. About the time we were ready to give up we noticed a building to a company that manages properties. They were packing up to go home for the day but allowed Junior and I to come in and see what they had available. The manager told us they had a property that came available the evening before. She continued to tell us that the property was furnished and had access to great amenities. I told Junior there was no chance this was in our reach. Before she would give me a price on it though she said I had to go look at it first. At this, I am thinking the same thing I think when I see "Market Price" in a restaurant menu- yea right! We went to check it out. We were met at the gate by some guards, the gentleman continued to show us the property, it was really nice. We got to the elevators and he hit 17. No way, this is impossible. We rode to the 17th floor and he opened the door to the apartment. It was perfect- everything about it was perfect. I walked on to the balcony and there it was, the view of the Amazon River, the jungle, the city, all before my eyes. It was a surreal torture really. I knew there was no way. We walked back to the property management company and got the price. It was about 600 a month higher than we budgeted, not possible. I shook the ladies hand and told her a little bit about myself and what we were doing in Brasil. She smiled at me and said my daughter studies at your school, I can discount our agency fee of 600 a month for you. That does not happen. Liz and I didn't have furniture, much less the ability to afford it. You don't get furnished apartments in Belem. It was a miracle, a gift from God. It has been a blessing everyday we have had the opportunity to step inside its doors. We have been able to host guests that have participated in the missions projects and business projects necessary to make this work. 

When we first moved in we noticed a leak in the light in our bathroom. The leak soon turned into filling the entire light socket up with water. We called the property management company and they had the buildings engineers come out to repair it. This was June 2013 or so. They tore the bathroom ceiling out a number of times and it was never repaired. Today, it has become a waterfall and we are still working on getting it fixed. I am not sure the exact source of the water. Since it has begun pouring in at a higher rate, we have noticed chunks of food in the water. Hopefully, it will get fixed this go-round. 

Welcome to Our New Blog!

We would like to welcome all to our new blog. Hopefully, this will act as a platform to share what God is doing through this work he has called us to in Belem, Brazil. Please take a moment and go through the tabs above. They share about our purpose and calling, a little bit of the history of how we got to where we are, and why we feel this is God's commission to us for His glory and kingdom's growth. There will be an awesome mixture of crazy international business challenges, mission endeavors into the Amazon Rainforest, and the ups and downs of raising a family in a foreign land. We pray that these stories and photos are a blessing, eye-opener, and encouraging to your faith.