Happy 6th Birthday Emmi!

What a joy it is to see your babies growing up! Today we celebrated our baby's 6th birthday! Wow! I can't believe it! Time truly does fly when you are having fun!

Emmi, my little princess, is developing into quite the gymnast. She has enjoyed both ballet and gymnastics over the past year and her mother wants her to be able to continue both! She really is talented at both. She was invited in gymnastics to join a special class for the gifted! It has been a real blessing for her physical and social development! She loves the interaction with the other little girls and loves the activity and work! As you can imagine it has also been a great outlet for the tons of energy with which God has blessed her!

She loves playing with her brothers and has become a master of pester! If they are doing anything she thinks it should revolve around her, so she works to make it that way. Most of the time her brothers are understanding and enjoy her involvement, but there does come a time when enough is enough! LOL!

I praise you Lord for your loving hand that has brought our family together from around the world to experience your love and care together! You show us so much about your love and care through our love for our children! Thank you for the many many special blessings!

Congratulations Cale and Leah Long On The Arrival of Hunter!

We are proud to announce the arrival of my great nephew Hunter Edward Long, born January 25, 2008 at 2:o8 PM EST in Charleston, SC, to my nephew Cale Long and his lovely wife Leah. We are so proud of them!



Hunter weighed in at 6 lbs. 11 onces, and measured 21 inches long. Mother and baby are doing well! Hunter has a bit of fluid still in his lungs and they are treating him for an infection, but all prognosis are good at this time!

My brother Scott Long and his beautiful wife Lisa are bubbling proud grandparents! They are traveling up to Charleston, SC from Powder Springs, GA to be with Cale and his family as I write this! Praise God!

Thank you for celebrating with us on this joyous occasion! May God bless them and direct their steps as they enter this new phase of life and family! And may God's grace and love fill their hearts and their home for His glory and our good!

Cookout In The Jungle

Arnaldo is one of my dearest friends here in Brazil. He and I have been seeking God together all year through God's Word, through serving others, and through our relationships! That's what makes this past Saturday so special!

Arnaldo invited me and my boys to come along with him on a day event he had planned to bring together his brothers and an old friend! Sure fun was part of his plan, but more importnantly was Arnaldo's desire for his brothers and friend to be drawn to Christ! It was great to see a young leader in action!



He had planned for everything! We had a great cookout, hiking, jungle games, and even some survival training! It was a blast! My boys and everyone else loved it! And throughout the day Arnaldo and I had the privilege of sharing our lives with them and how Jesus has and is changing us!

This is what its all about! Helping men take the light of Christ into the lost world! Thank you Jesus! Thank you that I have the privilege to do this along with Luke and Levi too! What a privilege!

Happy New Year!

People often ask us about the differences between living in the USA and Brazil. Holidays are one of those things! In the USA Thanksgiving and Christmas round out the big holiday season at years' end. In Brazil however we don't have Thanksgiving and it is New Years that is even bigger!

Christmas is a traditional time to spend with your immediate and close relatives, while New Years is a special time to celebrate with all your friends and family as only Brazilians can! A typical Christmas celebration starts at midnight the night of the 24th with a big supper followed by the exchanging of gifts and a party that lasts until the wee hours of the morning! New Years however may be a party that starts sometime around the 31st of December and goes on through the 1st of January.

This year the families from our small group ministry wanted to pass the new year together so they planned a New Years party that started on the 30th of December and went through the 2nd of January! It was great! What a blessing! We ate together, played together, camped together, ate together, worked together, hiked together, ate together, and we prayed together! Did I mention that we ate together! One wife commented that it seemed like we were eating something every few minutes! We even killed the "fattened pig" and ate that too! What a blast!



Thank you for your prayers and partnership this year! As you can see it has been amazing how God has worked in our lives and in the lives of those around us! Through your partnership men and women are being reached with the gospel and developed as disciples of Jesus Christ!

We are trusting God to raise up leaders from among these families who will help us shepherd and disciple other families! Some men are already beginning to lead, but it is a very important phase of development for the ministry among the families! Please be praying about this with us!