The Last Blog of 2012

This year has been filled full of almost every emotion possible. Good, bad, happy, sad... wait a minute. Let me stop rhyming like I’m in some type of Dr. Seuss book. I’ll start over... 

This year has been one of the most rewarding and yet one of the most difficult years of our lives, hands down. And the problem is, that when things are difficult in our lives, it’s easy to only see the difficulty and lose sight of all the great things that have taken place. And this was soooo evident to me the other day. Here, I’ll tell you how it happened...

I was putting together a video for all of our supporters who’ve allowed us to do what we do here in Brazil. I wanted it to be a re-cap of all the things that have happened in 2012 through their prayers and financial support. And I wanted it to be a tangible way for them to know what an impact their partnership with us was making here in Brazil. So, I went through all the events that occurred and looked at the photos from each event over the last 12 months. And while I was doing it, I was amazed and encouraged. 

Amazed, well because it seems like most of our life consists of just trying “to live.” And a lot of the time it feels like we do things that don’t really mean a whole lot (i.e., maintaining 110 acres of property and several buildings, weed eating for hours on end, fixing the water, burning our trash, etc.). So when I was able to see all the ministry we’ve been able to do, it was a huge eye-opener to the reality of what had happened in 2012. 

And I was encouraged because, well... to be honest, I was feeling very discouraged at the time. And, because of all the difficulty we were in the midst of, we were even doubting that we were making any difference at all here in Brazil. Pain and struggle have a way of doing that (making us lose sight of reality, that is.). It’s like you can only see the struggle and not the results of the struggle. But after I finished putting together the video, it helped bring everything back-in to focus. Sure, there were major battles and painful things that happened this past year. But there were also major victories that occurred as a result of the battles. 

God was so faithful to us in 2012. And we’re humbled that He’s even allowed us to be involved in His activity here in Brazil. So, here’s the video. We hope you enjoy it and that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed and Happy New Year! See ya in 2013: )

Click HERE for the video.

Love Ya,

Jim. MJ and the Whole Dunn Clan

We Had a Field Day!

Well when I say, "we had a field day" I literally mean we had a field day: ) 
Sorry, cheesey I know. But I couldn't resist. I've used that as an expression before but never literally (so I didn't want to miss the opportunity, lol!). But that's exactly what we did in Columbo, a suburb of Curitiba, a week ago. There's an orphanage that we've been able to minister at several times this year. I think we've been with either the kids or the house mothers at least 7 times since April. Which is a lot in this type of ministry. But that's what we want. We don't want kids to just see us once then we're gone. We want to  be able to really develop deep relationships with them as we love on them and as we share the Gospel with them. They're an amazing group of kids (around 40+) and house mother (6 ladies).
We've visited them at their facility and we've had them out to the camp this past year. And every time has been great.

What we did this last time, was allow the younger kids (9 and under) do a paint project with one of the girls that was here on the missions team while all of the older kids (10-19 years) were outside for a field day that we put on for them. Amber Berkley (one of the girls that was with us for 3 months on the missions team) was the coordinator of the field day and the kids had a great time! We divided all the kids into teams and had them compete against each other. It's was a blast. We also had a few of our brazilian friends helping us (and one friend from Argentina, haha!). This was the last big ministry event we're going to be able to do before Christmas and it was a great note to end the year on.

Thank you to all of our supporters who allow us to do what we're doing here in Brazil. We couldn't do it without you: )

Love Ya,
Jim