Adventures in the kitchen

WARNING! This whole long blog is about food and cooking. Greg, I understand if you don't want to read it, I know how you hate talking about food and cooking, but since it is one of my favorite subjects, I must share!
Those of you who know me know that I enjoy cooking from time to time, so, I am excited to have the experience of cooking in a foreign country. I really wasn't sure what to expect. Would I find the same ingredients in Natal, Brasil that I am used to using in Russellville, AR? Would I have the same equipment and tools? Would the difference in another hemisphere change the way some things tasted and reacted? Well, for the most part, I can find the staple ingredients that I need. The packaging is often completely different and of course it was a challenge to locate what I was looking for because I couldn't read the package. Most things that I want to cook I have to make from scratch because if I find the convience foods that I am used to, they are very expensive. Many of the Brasilians want to taste "American" dishes so my challenges where before me and of course I don't have time or resources to do a practice run on the things I was making. Now, don't think I'm complaining, not at all! This is the kind of challenge that I love. But, I have been often defeated!
My sweet husband, who prefers to stay away from the kitchen, has graciously looked up and emailed several recipes for me. First I must locate the necessary ingredients or at least an acceptable substitution. Then, I go about the business of translating from cups, pounds, farenheit, etc. to grams, ml, celsius (or celsinheit as I called it one day), etc. My measuring has definatly been off!
The worst creations to come from my foreign kitchen have been chocolate chip cookies (but we served them at one of the parties and everyone loved them and asked for the recipe, believe me, no red blooded American would have called this a chocolate chip cookie!), and birthday cake (this one went in the trash because when I went to grab the package of sugar out of the refrigerator [tropical location, many ants and bugs] I must have grabbed the wrong bag and added 4 cups of salt instead of 4 cups of sugar, YUCK! Thankfully I knew it didn't bake right and tasted the toothpick that I used to check for doneness and noticed this disaster before I served it at a party with 50 people.), and I don't want to forget about the banana pudding that wouldn't set (I could tell from the package that it was not instant, but even with the help of a translator, I still did something wrong in following the directions. When I pulled it out to serve, it was liquid vanilla with floaties in it. This I was serving to the missionaries, and those crazy Brasilians and Brian ate it anyway!) There have been a few success, chicken and dumplings, roast, biscuits and tortillas. And despite the fact that it was humid here, we made some pretty good fudge for the christmas party.
I can now recognize a few food and ingredients in Portuguese and translating the amounts and temperatures has gotten a little easier, but if I ever come back, I must have adequet measuring utensils!!! It has been a lot of fun cooking here, but I look forward to turning on my stove and oven without trying to use a damp match or risking explosion.

Belated Update!

I didn't realize I had been neglecting my blog. The time just got away from me. We have had an unusual amount of rain here. Natal usually gets rain every day in June but it normally just rains for about 15 minutes each day and stops. We've had several days of almost constant rain. When it rains here, the people don't like to get out and sometimes the buses don't run regularly. So we have had some readers who had to cancel their reading time. But the sun has returned to Natal and our days have gotten back to normal.
I am working on a blog to introduce you to some of my readers. I now have some very special friends in Brazil and I want all of you to be praying for them. I know the Lord is working in their hearts and I want to keep bringing them before His throne.
Love to all!

More Comunidade De Cristo

Comunidade De Cristo

I want to share a little more about the church here. They are so wonderful. They work hard, love greatly, and serve faithfully. I've mentioned to a few of you that this church is the poster child for LST. They have hosted a team for seven years and many of the members are former readers. When we arrived they already had enough readers ready to sign up and they had thought about and prepared for our every need. This program means a lot to them, probably because so many have been through it and know that it works. Many of the members are young (early to mid 20's). They host a variety of classes to the community; a cooking class, Enlish class for children and adults and of course Bible classes. Most days there are people at the building meeting for various reasons. The missionaries work hard and so do many of the members. At least to an outsider, it looks like they are very good at sharing the work load. We are so blessed to be at this place at this time. I am so thankful to God for the opportunity to get to know this christian family and I am so thankful to them for allowing us to be a part of it. I will always remember my brothers and sisters working and worshiping in Natal!

Parties

Wednesday nights we host a party at the church building. The purpose of this event is to introduce our readers to the church members and give them an opportunity to start developing a relationship. It is very important that the readers have a connection to someone from the church. When we leave the church will continue to contact the readers for follow-up. This will be more successful if the reader already know them.
So far we have hosted two parties. The first was an Arkansas Shindig where we introduced them to our home. We had a skit talking about some stereo types of Arkansas, played some games and taught them to call the hogs. The second was an American Christmas Party. We made ornaments, decorated cookies and served fudge. Both parties went well and we had really good attendance. The church members seemed pleased. They really like it when we serve food from home or have things that we brought from America.

Half Way

I can't believe we are half way through our trip. In some ways it seems like we just got here. In other ways it seems like we have been here a long time. But either way, the feelings are positive and I am so grateful to be here. Of course I miss my loved ones at home and don't completely feel whole without Greg. But I am really enjoying the opportunity to experience a different culture and I love the work we are doing.
Most days are full with 7-8 readers. I have already had some reading sessions where I have been able to share my faith. Two in particular went really well and I can tell those readers are searching. Please continue to pray that God will work in the hearts of all my readers and that He will give me His Words.
On a personal note to any of the Stamps family reading this blog: I know we are all feeling the loss of Aunt Lou. Although I can't be there for the funeral and to share in those times together, I am there in spirit and am continuing to pray for Uncle David and their kids and grandkids. I love our family so much and am grieving the loss of our dear Aunt.

The Work Begins

The day after we arrived in Natal we had an information meeting to sign up readers. We had a good turn out and scheduled our first reading sessions. We all have about 15 readers and we have a waiting list of people who want to sign-up. Hopefully we will be able to fit everyone in. The people here who are learning English are very excited to spending time with Native English speakers and so many of them are excited about reading the Bible during our lesson time. One of my readers told me the other day that he hasn't read his Bible in over a year and he is really glad to have this class as motivation. It is exciting to see how the Lord will use us during these few weeks. Please pray for these readers: Roberto, Sonia, George, Andre, Amanda, Tatianna, Fernando, Emanoel, and Andrea.

Team Pictures

I added a picture of our team standing on the balcony of our apartment. Scroll down the page to see it.
There are also more pictures of our trip at www.facebook.com.