Merry Christmas From Brazil

Hey Guys!

We hope this Christmas Season has been good for you and your family. I’ve got to be honest with you though... it doesn’t feel like Christmas here at all. And it’s not just because of the warm temperatures (I’m from South Florida and I can remember warm Decembers), or the lack of Christmas decorations everywhere (even though MJ has the house all decorated-up), or the fact that we’re not doing Christmas presents at all this year (flying Michael, our oldest son, here is what we’re doing instead). And I'll tell you what it is... It’s the absence of friends. We miss you guys! Really, we do. We Love you and our prayer is that Jesus will be more real to you and your family than ever before this holiday season.

We’re going to be taking a break from blogging until the New Year and I’ll tell you why. I was reading a blog the other day and this particular blogger, that I read regularly, had a great idea. He said that since people are busy during the holidays and not really reading a lot online that what he does is re-post some of the top posts from the year. This gives him an opportunity to rest the blog (it takes a lot if time, believe it or not) and to let people see which blog posts had the most traffic during the year. When I read that, it made sense and so that’s what we’re gonna do starting tomorrow, OK? Sweet. Just be ready for some good stuff in 2012. We’re excited about what God is doing here in Terra Boa and we’re glad that we can share it with you: ) So, until then, know that we love you and have a great holiday season!

The pictures up top are of 2 outreaches that we were a part of here in Terra Boa. One was where a church from Jardim Paulista came in and gave free haircuts/lice treatments (gotta love lice!) to the local people here on the mountain. And the other pictures are from where we partnered with a local business in Curitiba to distribute food to some of the poorer people that we minister to here on the mountain.

Love You Guys!

Jim, MJ and the Whole Dunn Clan

A Quick Blog

Hey Guys!

Sorry about not blogging that much over the last week. On Wednesday we sent home a family (The Robinsons from the U.S.). They were here with us on a short term mission trip, on Friday we received our 40’ container (that we had shipped back in September from the States) and we also had a Youth Camp Friday-Sunday with a group of students from a church in Curitiba. It’s been a crazy-busy week for sure. We’ve still got all of our stuff to put away (from our container) and we’re trying to finish a couple of work projects so I won’t be posting again until next week. We really need to take this week off (from blogging) to catch-up with everything here at the camp and we’re also planning for our new discipleship classes that we’ll be starting in 2012’. And, if that wasn’t enough, we’re trying to get ready for Michael (our oldest son) who will be here from the U.S. in a little over a week. So have a great week and we'll see you next Monday: )

The pictures are from the Camp we just held. The students were a youth group from a church in Curitiba. This was their 3rd time coming over the last year. It’s very encouraging to see a church make repeat visits here: )

Please continue to pray for us as we plan for ministry in 2012’. We know that it’s gonna be a great year and we want God to be glorified in everything we do: )

We love you guys and we’ll be up and blogging again next week!

Love Ya!

Jim and MJ

Having to Always Be On Guard

If there’s one area of my life that’s totally different, here in Brazil, from how it was in the U.S., it’s the area of “having to always be on guard”... on guard against insects, that is. It’s like as soon as I let my guard down, bam! There’s something that crawls on me, bites me, dive bombs me, hisses at me, etc... because when you least expect it, that’s when they get you. Here, let me give you an example:

Sunday, before service, I was all alone up at the pavilion setting-up the sound system (Thank You Tony and Jackie Doyley at Pro Music Outlet in Atlanta for donating our sound system to us!!) I was just minding my own business, praying and worshipping God a little by myself before anyone arrived. I had just hooked the speakers up and walked over to the soundboard to sit down. Then, right before sitting down, I looked at the base of the bench that I was about to sit down at, and there it was... one of the angriest looking spiders I’ve ever seen. It was orange and brown, it had huge teeth (yes, teeth!) and it was pretty big too. And it was just waiting for me to come sit down so that it could attack me (I’m just sure of it!). I mean, why was it even there? And of all the places for it to be, why was it sitting at the foot of where I was about to sit down. It could’ve been anywhere in the pavilion but where was it? That’s right, right where the only human (me) was in the whole place. Coincidence? No way! I believe it was on a carefully planned covert mission to attack me. And nobody can convince me otherwise. So, I grabbed my camera, took it’s picture then I killed it with a broom (like any manly-man would do, lol!). End of story.

But, when you think about it, that’s kind of like the devil too. In I Peter 5:8 it says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” He’s just waiting for us to put our guard down in different areas of our lives so that he can capitalize on our lack of “watchfulness.” Here, let me be more specific... if there’s an area of your life where you’ve won a battle or overcome some kind of sin, you still need to be watchful and on guard in that area because as soon as you think you’re safe... bam! You fall right back into that thing again. I Corinthians 10:12 says, “let anyone who stands take heed lest he falls.” It’s great that you’ve won the battle but you still need to stand guard over that area of your life so that the enemy doesn’t catch you sleeping, pounce on you and the next thing you know you’ve fallen prey to him. So keep your eyes open, stay alert and “Always Be On Guard.”

We’re getting ready for a camp this weekend. It’s a youth group from Curitiba and they’ll be staying with us over the weekend. Please pray, that in addition to having a great time, they’ll all experience Jesus. That’s really our main goal for being here in Brazil... that people will know Jesus.

Standing Guard,

JIm

The Mother of All Meltdowns

I’ve got to confess something to you. I am a spoiled, ungrateful, unthankful jerk! Seriously, I am. Let me explain...

For the last 2 months we’ve been trying to adapt to a new culture. And as we’ve been trying to adapt we’ve also been getting use to living on top of a mountain, in the middle of the jungle, getting eaten alive by every insect imaginable, we don’t have a vehicle and we’ve been walking everywhere, we don’t have internet, we don’t have our container yet (which means we’ve been living out of a suitcase for over 3 months now), we’ve been stripped of everything that is familiar or that has even the semblance of being comfortable, all of the friends that we usually lean on in hard times and most of the people we love are back in the States... I could literally go on for at least 10 more paragraphs, believe me, but for the sake of time I’ll get to the point.

I was doing great for the first month, but as soon as we started on month number 2, I started melting down slowly but steadily. I was able to keep it concealed fairly well, but then I absolutely lost the ability to hide my frustration. I just got to the point where I was done and I let everyone know it by officially having an epic meltdown. I just got tired of walking up and down the mountain, hitching rides just to get to the internet or the grocery store, not being able to speak fluent Portuguese (I miss ministering without a translator), we’ve been under a massive spiritual attack where you can literally feel the pressure in your head and on your chest, nothing is easy here... and I mean nothing. And I had had enough!

It officially started when I pouted like a 2 year old for almost an entire day. Then I started blasting every one close to me with my witty banter (actually sarcasm can be funny or mean and I was just flat-out mean the other day). Have you ever done that? Have you ever said stuff, acting like you were just being funny, when in all actuality you were just trying to insult somebody “under the radar” by acting like you were just being funny? I’m awesome, huh? Man, I’m such a jerk and I’m ashamed.

It’s funny though (not funny ha ha, but funny weird) how you can be going after God wholeheartedly (at least in your own eyes) and then God will pull back the curtain and show you something in your heart that’s wicked,sinful and broken. It just totally crushes the spiritual cockiness that you’ve got going on too. I hate it when that happens. But it’s a good thing though. It actually proves that we’re a son/daughter of God because He only disciplines sons/daughters (Hebrews 12:5-8), right?

And man, talk about whining... I’ve been complaining about not having all the things that I feel like we’ve needed here like God “owed it” to me or something. I would never say it out loud but I was definitely thinking it. I thought that since I’d abandoned everything to follow Jesus that I was “entitled” to all the things that I was praying for... and I was entitled to them now! How arrogant is that? Lord, forgive me.

But God convicted me of my attitude as I was laying in bed the other morning (wanting to go back to sleep so that I could try and escape all the junk we’ve been up against), and as I was laying there, I could hear Robert (our youngest son) upstairs laying in his bed, singing. Singing like everything was just hunky-dory and like he didn’t have a care in the world. He was singing. This kid who’s had to walk everywhere I’ve walked, eaten everything I’ve eaten, slept in the same conditions I’ve been sleeping in, he’s been getting bit by the same bugs I’ve been getting eaten by... everything’s the same. The only difference was that he was laying in bed singing and I was laying in bed feeling sorry for myself. Same conditions, different perspective. He was happy, I was sad. He was thankful for another day, I was mad and frustrated at God for where He had led me and my family. For real. I felt convicted and ashamed. Why? Because anytime we’re not content, and we feel like we’re missing something in our life, it’s like saying, “you know what God?... you’re not good enough for me. I need you + ____________ to make me happy. I need __________ + You to truly fulfill me and give me joy.” Forgive me Lord.

Then, I was listening to a podcast last week (Beau Hughes from the Village Church in Texas) and he made a statement that stuck with me (actually it was like a spiritual spanking). He said, “ultimately we struggle with being content because of our lack of trust in God.” When I heard that, my heart sank. At that moment it hit me (really hard too) what my discontentment was revealing about my heart toward God. And that’s a part of me that I want to change. Think about it... by not being content with what God has blessed me with, it’s like saying, “I don’t trust that you’re giving me everything I deserve and everything I need. I don’t believe you’re a good enough Father and you’re not doing what’s in my best interest so I’m not going to be happy and content until I get __________.” It sounds crazy when you think about it but we all do it. I think that’s what Paul meant in Philippians 4 when he said, “he had learned to be content in whatever the situation was because he could do all things through Christ.” That’s the key... finding contentment “In Jesus” and not in anything else. Because placing our contentment in something else will always let us down and will eventually disappoint us.

Bottom line is this... God knows what I need and when I need it. My contentment should be grounded in Jesus and not in having transportation or having fast internet, or any of the other things I was complaining about. Contentment is a funny thing though. It seems like we either strive for something we think will make us content and never get it so we’re frustrated. Or we strive for that “thing” that we think that will fulfill us, and when we do get it, we become frustrated because it doesn’t satisfy the way we thought it would . But “things” were never meant to fulfill us. Only God was meant to fulfill us and make us content. It’s something we have to fight against constantly.

So where am I now? Actually I feel really good. I feel content. All of my circumstances are still exactly the same but my attitude is different. I repented, confessed my sin to my family and I’ve resolved to the fact that since I trust God (and I trust that He’s a good God) and that He’s not withholding anything good from me... everything will happen when it’s suppose to. Take that devil!

The Robinson’s (the Family that’s been here for the last week on a short term mission trip) will be leaving tomorrow for the U.S. and it was a good week for everyone. Dean (the husband) possibly broke a rib while doing a work project, Tamara (the wife) received a special surprise when a frog jumped out of the toilet (as she was sitting on it) to greet her and Blake (the oldest son) is officially fed-up with black beans and rice but God was glorified through them this week. They definitely got a taste of what it was like being a missionary in Brazil and experienced life here on the mountain. Whether it was in the school, at one of the churches we attended, in one of the houses they visited on the mountain... God was glorified. Even though it was tough at times, God was good to us this week. Now, it’s time to get ready for a camp this weekend: )

Still Learning to Be Content,

Jim

PS - The pics at the top are when we went to Morrettes last week to visit a family who is working with an orphanage there. It's nestled way up in the mountains and is kind of like a Brazilian version of Helen, Ga. and it's absolutely beautiful there.