Oh, That Explains It.

It’s Summer here in Brazil and it’s hot. And when I say hot, I mean very hot. And, to make things worse, there’s no A/C. The fact that I’m still alive is a miracle within itself. Those of you who know me, know that I love A/C. That’s right, I love Air Conditioning. I’m not ashamed either and I’ll shout it from the mountaintops (just like that Ricola man in the commercial) “I love Air Conditioning!”

I use to get in a struggle for control over the thermostat with all the secretaries in the office (at the church I served at) over the temperature. The same thermostat that controlled their offices also controlled mine and it was a power struggle of hot vs cold year round. They use to keep it soooo hot that it was torturous. It literally felt like you were walking into a kiln (one of those things that fires ceramics) every time I would walk in the door. It was crazy-stupid how hot it was. So I would “accidentally” move the temp down, then they would move it up. I would bump it down and they’d bump it up. This would go on year round, every day. And it (the struggle for control) was actually at it’s peak in the Winter. It would get so hot in my office that I’d have to open the windows so the cool air would come in. Even though it was in the 20-30’s outside, with the windows being open, it still wouldn’t drop the inside temp of my office below 70. Crazy, huh? But I was the weird one, right?... whatever: P

Anyway, back to my love of Air Conditioning. I really love A/C and the only problem with that is that “we don’t have any!” That’s right, no A/C in the house, no A/C in the car, no A/C anywhere. What’s up with that? And it’s really hot. I’m totally convinced that we’ve GOT to be closer to the sun here or something... for real. I was born and raised in South Florida and I’m use to the sun and the heat but it’s different here. If anyone knows if we are closer to the sun, if that’s even possible, just let me know.

We live about 2 hours inland from the East Coast of Brazil, and since we’ve been isolated on the mountain for almost 5 months now (and we haven’t been anywhere together as a whole family except for ministry related events), we decided to drive the kids to the beach for a for a much needed break. So, we loaded-up 2 vehicles (our car and Brad and Carolyn’s van) and we (all 23 of us) made the trek through the mountains to the coast. When we got there it was absolutely beautiful. The water was so clear, the beach was really clean and there weren’t hardly any people at all. It was a perfect time to just get away for a few hours. It’s just what the family needed: )

But the other thing that was there was “the Sun.” That flaming ball of explosive gases, with it’s angry UV rays... just there hanging over our head all day. With the breeze blowing it didn’t seem that hot though. I could tell that I was getting a little burned so I put on some sunblock. It was SPF 30, it was waterproof and it was a name brand sunblock, so I thought everything was all-good. About 3 hours later everyone started looking at me funny and asking me if I needed to sit in the shade and if I felt burnt. Then when Maryssa walked up and said, “Dad, you look purple” I knew something was wrong. So I re-applied another thick layer of sunblock just to be safe. I felt pretty good about the massive amount of sunblock that I had lathered all over my body (not a pretty sight, but I didn’t know anybody and my family had to love me no matter how ridiculous I looked, right?). Then another hour or so went by and I could tell something was wrong. I could feel the burning of my skin with each passing moment. How could this be? I had so much sunblock on that I was surprised that I was getting any sun at all much less getting burned! So I looked at the sunblock bottle again just to be sure it wasn’t tanning accelerator or something crazy like that... and there it was, on the back of the bottle at the very bottom. Three little words that explained everything...“Made in Canada.” I wish I was making this up, but I’m not. Why would they even manufacture sunblock in Canada? I mean I can see if I was buying hockey pucks or a flannel shirt or a truckload of snowballs... but sunblock??? Do they even need sunblock in Canada? I mean, I’ve been to Canada in the Summer and it’s a beautiful country but the water was freezing cold when we tried to swim, we were burning wood at night to stay warm and I never remember feeling like I was in danger of the suns rays there. So why are they manufacturing something that they don’t need or use (or understand, obviously)? That would be like going to Jamaica to buy snowshoes. It doesn’t make sense and now I’m paying the price for it. I’m sitting here with one of the worst sunburns in the history of mankind and all because the sunblock I was using was from, you know... go ahead and say it with me C-A-N-A-D-A! Now I’m definitely not hatin’ on Canada. I loved it when I visited but man!... why did you have to manufacture something that you don’t understand??? Oh well (deep breath) I feel better now (except for the pain I’m feeling because of my sunburn).

What’s funny is that I do the same thing with God sometimes. Rather then going to him (because He knows everything from my beginning to my end) for direction or guidance on even the small stuff, I cop this attitude like “I got this God” and try and do things on my own and in my own strength because I think I have everything figured out. The problem with that is Proverbs 3:5-6 says:

“trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on you’re own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.”

I’m suppose to acknowledge God in ALL my ways and He promised He’d make my paths straight. Straight is way easier than crooked or rocky or just flat out jacked-up, so why do I trust in my own understanding, or even worse, somebody else’s? He knows everything and He knows where the best route is for me and my family. It’s the equivalent of going to Canada to buy my sunblock... it just doesn’t make sense. Canada doesn’t know about sunblock (see the pic up top... we’ll just call it exhibit A) and I don’t know what the best direction is for my life, He does. I know, I know, that analogy is stretching it a bit... sorry. But I’m so sunburnt right now, I can’t think clearly and I don’t even care. Haha. Bottom line is this... If you’re in the midst of making decisions for your life, always consult God and you won’t (pardon the pun) get burnt : )

Boycotting All Canadian Sun Products,

Jim

PS- The pics up top are of some of us at the beach. My father-in-law was the smart one... he stayed under an umbrella all day. Note to self: stay under umbrella= no sunburn. The picture of the sandwiches are of what it looks like to feed a bunch of kids at the beach (PB&J)... and that was just the first round: )

The Dolphins Win the Super Bowl!!!

In my dreams, right? Actually they did win the Super Bowl... January 13, 1974! haha! And they’re still the only team to go undefeated for an entire season (the 72’ team), so take that! Bam!

Anyway, yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. That was always a big day for us when we were back in the States. The church we served at would put a huge 20’ inflatable football in front of the church and we’d have what we called “Jersey Sunday” where we would have everyone wear a jersey or the colors of their favorite team (not just football either) to service. It was a casual Sunday and was actually really cool. We’d really push for people to invite someone who didn’t know Christ and make it a special service geared around the Super Bowl. Then we’d serve beer and nachos after service and everyone would bring their grills and we’d “tailgate” out in the parking lot. lol! I’m just kidding. There was no beer, nachos or tailgating! haha. I was just seeing if you were awake: )
Super Bowl Sunday is (from what I read) the biggest sales day for beer, chips, dip and stuff like that. Major corporations spend literally millions of dollars advertising their products during the Super Bowl. There were record numbers of people who watched last year’s Super Bowl (the most to watch an event in television history) and when the figures come out this year I’m sure they’ll be huge.
The weird thing is that yesterday I didn’t even know it was Super Bowl Sunday. No I’m not trying to ‘Jesus Juke’ you, don’t worry (if you don’t know what that is click HERE). It’s just crazy how something that was so important to me in the U.S. wasn’t even on my radar here in Brazil this year. I mean come on... it was Super Bowl Sunday. But I survived. I’m still here and in 10 years nobody will be able to tell you who won yesterday, right?
Do I love football? Absolutely. Is football evil? No. Unless of course you’re a Patriots fan, then you have reason to doubt your salvation because I heard that they’re the devil’s favorite team... just sayin. OK, I was just joking... well, kinda: )
Anyway, I can say with all certainty that not one person here in my town bought a bag of chips, some dip or even one beer and sat down with friends to watch the Super Bowl yesterday. There were no headlines on the front of the paper this morning declaring “Giants Win!” It was just a normal Sunday and today was just business as usual. It’s a totally different world here. But that’s cool.
There’s no point to today’s blog. Sure, I could have gone off on a tangent about how we put so much time, money and emotions into something as temporal and fleeting as football. Or I could have sermonized the fact that if we were that excited about our relationship with God (as we were about football) that the Gospel would be preached everywhere and Jesus could finally return... but that would have been a definite “Jesus Juke” and I told you I wouldn’t do it: ) I just wanted to tell you about it because it was just so bizarre that I didn’t even know it was Super Bowl Sunday yesterday. It was weird. Well, that’s all for today but come back tomorrow... we’ll hopefully have something with more substance.

Predicting the Dolphins Will Win the Super Bowl Next Year,
Jim

PS - hopefully I didn’t offend you with my Patriots Fan = devil worshipper reference. I was only joking since they’re like a thorn in the side of my "Fins." But having said that,
Bill Belichick actually might be the anti-christ described in the book of Revelation.

What Are You Doing In Brazil?

This particular blog is going to be strictly informational. Because some people are wondering, “what are you guys doing in Brazil?” we wanted to tell you about what the “actual mission is”, so here ya go...

MJ and I have been married for over 22 years and we’ve been in the ministry since 97’. We served at Kenneth Hagin Ministries and RHEMA Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 4 years. Then we were on the pastoral staff at a local church in the Atlanta area for almost 10 years. We served and helped grow that particular church from around 100 people on a Sunday morning to over 1200 people on Sunday morning in the first 6 years. We were the Associate Pastors over Outreach Ministry, Couple’s Ministry, Assimilation and even served as the Youth Pastors for 2 of the years we were there (whazzup Revolution?!). We thought we would work in a local church forever... we love the local church. But after we adopted 5 children from Brazil in the Spring of 08’ we began to see that God was shaping us for something different... the foreign mission field.

To see the whole story you’ll have to go back through the blog and read about it, but basically in the Summer of 09’ we were given property in the jungles/mountains of Campina Grande do Sul, Brazil. In the town of Terra Boa. It had formerly been a Children’s/Youth Camp and already had a handful of cabins, 3 primitive houses, a unfinished commercial kitchen and a covered pavilion that could seat around 200 people. After taking a trip from the U.S. to take a look at the property our brother-in-law and MJ’s sister (along with their 11 children and MJ’s Mom and Dad) decided to move to Brazil and start establishing a ministry while MJ and I continued ministering in the States. There was no evangelical church currently in the town of Terra Boa, only 1 Catholic church. Over the last 2 years they’ve been able to begin weekly discipleship meetings on the mountain as well as begin ministry in the schools (teaching English) in Terra Boa.

After a trip to Brazil, in the Fall of 2010’, MJ and I felt that it was time for us to move our family to Brazil too... it was God’s time. So, we started preparing and moved our family of 9 (we had to leave our 22 year old son in the U.S. because he’s in college and he's in the U.S. ARMY) to Brazil in September of last year.

The fact that there's no strong-disciple-making evangelical church here is definitely something that we feel needs to change. But for right now we really think that it would be better to assist someone who’s Brazilian to start a church rather than trying to plant a church (and pastor the people ourselves) because of the language barrier.

(We were actually given a facility to use, to start a church in, in Terra Boa and construction had even begun but that door has closed on that right now. We really think it was God’s will that the brakes were put on that for us and we’re still praying that another opportunity will arise as God’s will permits.)

As far as ministry goes, we’re currently holding discipleship meetings each week and have held youth camps over the last year.

It’s Summertime here in Brazil so we’ll continue the discipleship meetings and we’re also focusing our attention on providing Gospel centered children/youth camps on more consistent basis. We have a group of around 70 coming in 2 weeks and our last camp had 40 students.

One of the things that we’re aiming for (and hopefully will begin in April), and that's going to make our camps a little different, is that we’re going to be going into the orphanages and into the slums and bringing children out to the camp and allowing them to experience a Christian camp for free. We feel that this is a great way to get the Gospel to kids who might never be able to experience it otherwise. We’re also partnering with the local schools here in Terra Boa this year and offering the camp to them to use as an incentive for the students to maintain good attendance and good grades. When the kids are here, at the camp, they’ll experience the Gospel in addition to having a great time.

We have future plans for starting an orphan care program here on the property but we’re having to navigate through all the legal aspects of that before we can begin. You can go to our website www.HopeAndLifeBrazil.com and see all the ministries we currently have going on.

But ultimately the bottom line on why we’re in Brazil is this... “to glorify God while making disciples of Jesus Christ.”

That’s it. It’s pretty simple. Our methods may change, but our message and our focus will always be the same... “to glorify God while making disciples of Jesus Christ.” and since over 50% of the population of Brazil is under the age of 18, for us, it all starts with the children and the teenagers.

Hopefully this blog was informative. We’ll be back to our normal stuff next week. We just thought, that with some of the questions we’ve been getting, that we needed to give a clearer picture of what God has allowed us to begin doing here in Brazil: )

Passionately Following Jesus,

Jim, MJ and all the Dunn Kids

This is Serious!

OK. Today’s blog is going to be a serious one.

I’m fed-up and things are going to change. They’ve got to. Let me explain...
Have you ever tried to push your finger through a latex glove? It’s like you push and push and you can see that the latex is stretching and that you’re getting closer to breaking through, so you keep pushing and pushing then finally, bam! You poke through. You know what I’m talking about, right? Well that’s what it feels like living here in Terra Boa, Brazil. Everything we do feels like we’re trying to push through a latex glove. Everything. And it’s difficult. Even simple of things. I guess that’s what’s so frustrating. Nothing is easy. And I’m tired of the constant pressure and struggle just trying to survive. It’s alright experiencing difficulty every once and a while, but all the time? "Forget about it" (said with my fake Italian accent)!

Now, I’m probably going to lose some of you when I say this but that’s OK. You can come back for our next blog. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what we’re experiencing is all spiritual. The oppressive funk that the entire town walks around in is ridiculous. It’s actually tangible. From the people at all the stores, to people walking down the street... everyone looks either mad or depressed! And it’s not like that in the surrounding towns, only here on the mountain and in Terra Boa. It’s crazy. You can drive 20 minutes up the road to the next town and it feels totally different. People actually smile and you don’t feel the “weight” that you feel in Terra Boa. There’s such a spirit of oppression on this place and we need “change.” And I believe it’s going to come through prayer. So my question is this... “will you please pray with us?” Will you pray that the spiritual strongholds will be broken over this place? We need breakthrough... these precious people need breakthrough, and they need it now.
I know this isn’t a typical blog but we need your help. In case you didn’t realize it, this blog is read by thousands of people in over 20 countries each month. That’s potentially a lot of prayers being offered-up on behalf of Terra Boa, Brazil. The devil doesn’t want to relinquish his hold on this place but, through prayer, the Kingdom of God can be advanced here. So will you just take 1 minute and ask... no, beg God to pour His Spirit out and send revival to our city? One minute, that’s all.
Thanks. We appreciate everyone who follows us on this blog and we pray that God pours His Spirit out in your life as well: )

Love Ya,
Jim and MJ

“I Caught Me A Big One!”

Robert, our 6 year old, loves to fish. We have a couple little ponds on the property and he’ll stay gone pretty much all the time (if we let him), with his little homemade fishing pole, fishing. He’s so cute. With his little rubber boots and his little loaf of bread in hand, he’ll ask me to tie a hook for him and then he’s off to go fishing, all by himself. The pond he likes to fish at is kind of out in the jungle too. But he doesn’t care and he’s not scared because his love for fishing outweighs his fear of being in the jungle alone. He’s even started this thing where he’ll catch a fish then he’ll transfer it into the pond that’s in front of Grandma and Papa’s house. I’m probably gonna have to stop him from doing this though. That’s the pond that we use for swimming at the Camp and nobody like to be nibbled on by fish as they’re swimming, right?
Anyway, we’ve just started doing some renovations at the pavilion (the building where we hold all of our services at the Camp) and I was walking around last night looking at the work that had been done and I looked way down at the pond (it's below the pavilion) where Robert fishes and sure enough, there he was, all by himself fishing. He was just having a good ole’ time too. So, I went back to looking at the pavilion and then as I was leaving I heard Robert crying and talking. Now, when we only had a couple of kids I’d usually go running to make sure that everyone was OK (if someone was crying). But, now that we have 8 kids, I wait until I see blood, hear a gunshot or something explode before I go investigate. Actually, when I heard him yesterday, I thought one of his brothers had shown-up down there and they were arguing or something. Again... when we only had a couple kids, I’d referee. But now I let everyone handle their own disputes until they try to involve me... my parenting skills have evolved, or devolved, depending on how you look at it. haha. Anyway, I heard him crying and talking and I was just about to leave but my gut told me to check on him. So I walked over to the edge of the hill (the pavilion sits on top of a big hill that overlooks the valley where the pond is) and I yelled down to him, “Robert are you OK?” And then he yelled back, “I have a hook stuck in my leg!” What’d you say? You have a hook in your leg? “Yes,” he yelled back. So I yelled down to him and told him to meet me at the house. (I couldn’t get to him from where I was.) So, he walked through the jungle trail and met me at the house. When he got there his fishing line was wrapped all around his right leg about a thousand times and the hook was dug deep into the lower part of his leg. So I cut the string (and bobber) off and then I tried to pull the hook out with a pair of needle nose pliers... nope, that thing’s not coming out. Man, I felt so bad for him too. He was being so brave. He was crying but it was just a small whimper... nothing over-dramatic like some of our other kids (or me, lol!) would have been doing. At that point there were only 2 options. So I explained them to him. I said, “Robert, we’re going to have to push the hook all the way through your leg so it pokes out of the skin and I then I can cut the barb off and pull the hook out or we can go to the hospital and they’ll do the same thing.” He chose the hospital because he said, “they’ll put me to sleep there.” I told him they don’t put you to sleep for stuff like that and he was pretty disappointed. I was feeling pretty helpless at that point because I did NOT want to have to drive him to the hospital, that’s one thing I was sure of. Brazil+hospital waiting room+ no air conditioning= misery.
I had thrown-up one of those half-hearted Hail Mary prayers as soon as the whole ordeal occurred earlier. You know the kind, right? It’s one of those where you say something like, “God please help me,” and that’s pretty much the extent of the prayer. You don’t stop to think about it or even really feel like there was any real “faith” attached to it. But you ask God nonetheless. You know what I mean, right? Well I had thrown-up one of those prayers and now I had nothing else to do except go to the hospital. But then I felt like I was suppose to try pulling it out with the needle nose pliers one more time. Even though it was sunk deep into the muscle and the barb wasn’t allowing it to “back-out” I felt like I was suppose to try. So I gently gripped the hook with the pliers, and barely put any pressure on it at all and it slid out. It actually freakishly slid out. Like a hot knife moving through a stick of butter. It came out so easy that I knew that God had answered my half-hearted prayer. It was awesome and we all stopped to collectively thank Him. Nobody had to say anything to the other person... we all literally thanked God out loud at the same time. We just knew it was Him who helped us: )
It sounds trivial, I know. But when you know that God mercifully hears the small cries for help (not just the long orations that we put together sometimes), it amazes me. He’s so good.

I’m getting our first E-Newsletter of 2012’ ready to send out tomorrow to all our ministry partners. So, if you don’t already receive them, shoot me an email and I’ll add you to the list. (The email address is HopeAndLifeBrazil@gmail.com)
We love you guys and we’ll talk to you later.

The Mighty Prayer Warrior,
Jim : )

PS- The pictures at the top are of the pond that Robert fishes at (as you're looking down at it from the pavilion) and the other one is of him right before he went fishing this morning... all by himself, of course: )

Community

It can get lonely on the mission field (go ahead and cue the violin music... haha!). No, seriously, it really does... at least for me anyway. Getting use to being a missionary and not on a pastoral staff in a local church is taking some time to adjust to, that’s for sure. I’m use to being in a “community of believers” that are always encouraging each other and that are there for each other all the time. And not being in a “community of believers” (because right now, we ARE the community of believers) is one of the biggest things I miss here in Brazil. We do know other people (who are believers) here in Brazil, but they all live 45-60 minutes away (in the city) and we’re way out here in the mountains. But building a community of believers has to start somewhere, right? That’s why we’re here... to raise-up a community of Christ Followers. It’s not easy starting from scratch either, especially when you’e still trying to learn Portuguese as well, so please pray for us.
There was something I heard someone say a few years ago that stuck with me and you may have heard it too. They said (or it was similar to this, anyway):

“if your church left the community would it be missed? If your church closed it’s doors, would your community feel a void because of the impact that you’re making in it?”

It was a good question. And at the time I could definitely say, “yes” because our church was very involved in the community. We were feeding approximately 1500 people a week through our food ministry, we were involved in the public schools, we were involved in local civic groups, nursing homes and even volunteered with the local habitat for humanity... we were definitely a part of the community. But let me take that question a little further. If “you as an individual” were taken out of your community would you be missed? If you moved out of your subdivision or your neighborhood, would there be a void left behind that people would notice? Because, really, there should be. I wish I could say that there was a void left behind when we moved to the mission field and out of our subdivision in Georgia (we lived there for over 10 years), but I’m not really sure that there was. It’s sad, really. People knew that we were pastors but I was usually so tired when I was at home that I didn’t make a real conscientious effort to be involved in people’s lives like I should have been. I can blame it on the American culture (where everyone hides behind closed doors and some people don’t even know the name of the people they’re living next to) but that’s just an excuse. We’re suppose to be Christians first, not people who let culture dictate how we relate to people, right?
When I was here in Brazil last year something happened that really encouraged me (as far as the ministry here in Brazil). I was at Brad and Carolyn’s house and this grandmother and her granddaughter came up their driveway and the granddaughter was crying. After Carolyn spoke with them she found out that the reason the girl was crying is because she heard that the “Americans” were leaving the mountain. Wow, really? She was one of the teens that had been coming to the outreach meetings and she was sad because these people, who had only lived in the community for a year, had made such an impact that she didn’t want them to go. Of course it wasn’t true but how many times has that happened in your life or in mine? Ha! Not often. But that’s how it should be.
I really don’t have any point to make except that we really miss our family and friends back home and that we really need your prayers as we make disciples and build a community of believers here in Terra Boa.

Passionately Following Jesus,
Jim

PS- the picture at the top is of the sky last night. It may not seem like a big deal but we're in rainy season right now and the fact it wasn't showering down water on us (it actually rains an average of 1.5-3.5" a day... all day) was pretty amazing. Thank you Lord: )

Being On The Other Side of Airport Security

Question. Has anyone ever taken you to the airport and stayed with you until the very last moment just to say goodbye to you? I mean, they stay while you check your bags and get ticketed then they walk with you all the way to security (because airport security won’t let them go any further without a ticket) just to get one last glimpse of you and wave goodbye at the last possible moment. Has that ever happened? Here’s how it works... they wait to make sure you get your luggage checked and you get your ticket. Then they walk with you to security. Then you hug, and say goodbye to each other on the “staying side” of security. Then you pick-up all the carry-on stuff that you had to lay down on the ground to properly hug, you corral all your kids (if you have kids with you) and then you hand your ticket to the first security guy standing there at the entrance to the security area. Then they (the people left on the other side of security - “the staying side”) usually stand there and watch you from a distance as you make your way through the metal detectors, put your shoes and belt back on, pick-up all your stuff off that little conveyer/roller thing and then as you’re rounding the corner to go to your gate you throw up one last wave at the last possible moment. Poof... then you’re gone, out of sight. You know what I’m talking about, right?

Well we’ve had to do that 3 times in the last month. Once with a family that was staying with us on a short-term mission trip and twice with our oldest son (he got bumped from stand-by on his first attempt going home so we had to say goodbye twice to him... awesome). We’re not use to being the ones on the “staying side.” We’ve always been the ones leaving and someone else was always being left behind. So, for us to have to do it, was surreal. We stood in the exact same place that other people had stood in and had “waved us off” from. It was weird being left standing there (especially in another country) while your family and friends were leaving you behind.

When we (Me and MJ) got back in the car after dropping Michael (our son) off at the airport (for the second time in 1 week), the thought ran through my mind that “this wasn’t fair.” The fact that we can’t even be in the same country as our son doesn’t seem fair. Sorry, I guess I’m not spiritual enough or something, but that’s just the way I felt. But then, when I actually stopped and thought about it, there’s “the call”... that’s right, “the call.” And sometimes God calls us to do things that don’t seem fair from our perspective and it’s difficult. But that’s when we have to make the decision... are we gonna actually Follow Jesus and trust God, because He has a greater purpose for our lives than what we could ever comprehend? Or are we going to do the easy thing and do what seems right and comfortable in our own minds? Trust... it all boils down to that one word. So, what about you? You could be going through the same situation right now with your job or with a relationship and it doesn’t seem fair (and it probably isn’t) but it’s what God has called you to do and deep down you know it. Are you gonna just press through because you trust Him or are you gonna take a different path? The choice is up to you.

As far as Me and MJ?... we’re gonna keep standing on “the staying side” of security until God says otherwise. People’s lives are counting us and we want to be where God wants us. What about you?

There’s nothing like Following Jesus: )

Waving From This Side of Security,

Jim and MJ

PS- Not all of the insects here are dangerous ones. Sure most of them bite you, leave scars or (at the very least) are super annoying, but some of them aren't. The picture at the top is of this bug that lives here. It's absolutely beautiful (sounds weird I know) but it really is: )