The house you see above is where I live in Anápolis. It was really the Lord's blessing that I found this place, which is just over two minutes walking distance from our office. I moved in at the end of the second week in May, 2008. In this view the car gate is wide open, allowing you to see the house itself, which is completely surrounded by a wall, as are most houses in Brazil. Across the road (behind me as I took this picture), the lot is empty, and cows often graze there.

There is a corridor which goes around the house to the left. In back there is a covered area where I store my bicycle and other goods, as well as where I keep my washing machine and hang my clothes up to dry. Most of the interior yard is paved, except for a small corner out of sight to the left. This is also typical of many houses in Brazil.

Sadly, the yard is too small to keep a pooch. I have always felt that a dog should have plenty of green grass and space to run around. I know that many people feel differently and keep dogs in small kennels, but I am not one of them. Perhaps someday if I move to a different house (and I will almost certainly do so after furlough, since the landlord certainly will not reserve the place for me for a year while I'm gone!) it will be different.

Inside, the house has two bedrooms, one of which I have converted into a study where I keep my library and home computer. The window you see in the wall at back is my bedroom window where I sleep. The floors are neatly tiled and easy to clean

All in all, it's small, but comfortable. And most of all, convenient!.

The above building is the main SIL office in Brazil. It started life as a dormitory for Missão Novas Tribos do Brasil (New Tribes Mission of Brazil), but when things didn't happen as anticipated with their families, they were left with a building without a use. When SIL began sensing the Lord's leading to move our operation to Anápolis, they quickly offered us the use of this building for our offices.

Being originally a dormitory, we had to do a fair bit of restructuring in order to convert it into an office building. Part of this involved running nearly three kilometers of network cable, a job which I and three others accomplished in March, a couple of months before we began actually moving. We also had to convert an apartment into the accounting department and install temporary walls in a couple of locations, as well as change a large number of electrical outlets from two-prong to three-prong. (Voltage in Anápolis is 220 instead of 110, which required a number of adaptations in and of itself!) But in the end, it became an office.

You cannot see my office window in this picture. That's because I don't have one. A window, that is. Both my office and workroom are the two rooms in the entire building that came without windows. I think that is rather ironic, given that I'm a guy who loves the outdoors! But I did end up having the first air-conditioned room in the entire building. Not for myself, but for the rack of computers that power our network… and generate plenty of heat in the process.

Incidentally, the building just beyond the main office is our new storage shed, which we had built just prior to moving in. When I return to the States for furlough, all my goods will be stored there.

This is a picture of Igreja Batista Central de Anápolis, or Central Baptist Church of Anápolis. This is the place where I have chosen to worship, until and unless the Lord leads me elsewhere. A medium-sized church, it is very missions-oriented, which is something I can definitely appreciate! Service begins at 9:00 on Sunday morning and usually lasts until around 11:00. As I write this, I have only attended a few times and still haven't really gotten to know anyone, even though I'm beginning to recognize familiar faces. As time passes and I become a "familiar face" myself, I expect to become a part of this congregation of the family of God.

As you can probably tell from its name, the church is located in the central part of town, what we would refer to as "downtown". Fortunately, it is quite close to the central bus terminal, so it is easy for me to walk out to Avenida Brasil and catch a bus to go to church, then walk over to the terminal to catch another one to go home. And wanting a change of pace from my own cooking, I've begun the habit of getting off the bus one stop early and having lunch at a por kilo restaurant (one where they weigh your plate and you pay for your food by the kilogram), then walking home from there.

Wycilffe Bible Translators

Three-Fold Challenge

This is a graph showing the current percentage of the Wycliffe mandated support level that I am currently receiving. Since this percentage will change from time to time, depending on new quotas set and the actual level of giving by donors, I will update this picture as necessary to reflect reality.

If you are interested in reading about opportunities to support my work, or the work of Bible translation and missions in general, click and see my Three-Fold Challenge.