Unbeatable

Here's what we looked like September 22, 2011 as we were leaving Atlanta for the mission field of Brazil

This was us this past Sunday (a little over 5 years later). Man, how the kids have grown!

To say that our life has been crazy over the last 5 years that we’ve lived here in Brazil would be an understatement. If you would've told me that we’d be experiencing all the things that we’ve experienced I would have laughed in your face. We’re just ‘city folk’ with no desire to live like Swiss Family Robinson or The Alaskan Bush People. We like living comfortably and safely just as much as the next guy- we’re not crazy. 

But, it’s like, as soon as something occurs in our life that we think could never be topped- BAM! Something else happens. And believe me- we don’t go looking for things either. We would love to have some mundaneness (that’s an actually word- I looked it up).

Just like this past week, for example; right smack dab in the midst of all the drama we normally have, coupled with the busyness of trying to renovate the new place and maintain ministry, all at the same time-  things just keep happening. 

As most of you know MJ and Maryssa are HUGE animal lovers. We all love animals but they REALLY love animals. Maryssa is actually going to start taking some veterinary courses because eventually that’s what she wants to be- a vet. They've rescued and adopted out several animals over the last 5 years and it’s been very inspiring to see some of the work they’ve done here (on top of all the other things we have going on).

Well, a few weeks ago, Maryssa and Kevin were driving to the new property to do some work (before we moved-in) and they noticed a dog sitting on the side of the road, out in the middle of nowhere. It was just sitting there like it was waiting for someone. 

They passed this dog, just sitting in the same spot, several days in a row. So, Maryssa started bringing it food and water each day as they passed by. Later that same week Me and MJ passed by and there the dog was, sitting on the side of the road, in the rain, like it was waiting for someone. It reminded us of that movie Hachi, with Ricard Gere. 

It was so sad. Obviously this dog was dumped-off on the side of the road and it was just sitting there waiting for it’s owner to pick it back up. Literally sitting for days…

So Me and MJ pulled the van over and called the dog and it jumped in the van with us. It was a pit bull/lab mix and was actually a beautiful dog. It had a huge open scar on the back of it’s neck, like it had been abused or something, but other than that she looked great. We named her Scarlett (because of the scar).

This is where the dog sat for several days- just waiting for it's owner to come back!

We brought her to the new house and let her stay there with Matthew for a couple weeks (he was living there by himself while the renovations were taking place). And when it was time for the whole family to finally move to the new place we decided to bring Scarlett back to the Camp to live with the guy that we’re paying to guard and maintain the property until it sells.

This was Scarlett the first week we had her. She was such a great looking dog.
How could someone abandon her like that?

There have been several more murders and break-in's, on the mountain, over the last 6-7 months so having another guard dog there is a good thing. Plus, with all the wildlife that lives there in the jungle- the more dogs the better (for keeping other animals as well as the criminals away).

Well, we were (and still are) having to go to the camp every day to continue to do miscellaneous things trying to finalise the move. And every time we were there Scarlett  was always so happy to see us. 

One day MJ decided to bring her 12 year old Boston Terrier, Lulu, (that we brought with us from the States) to the Camp. And while we were in the kitchen doing a few things, Lulu wandered in. The only problem is that Scarlett was there and Lulu walked up behind her and startled her. It’s like a switch was flipped in her mind and she turned into a different dog as she turned to attack Lulu.

As she was about to latch on to Lulu’s neck, I jumped in and grabbed Scarlett on both side of her head to pull her off of Lulu. It was crazy! She bit my left hand and then turned and bit my right forearm. But this time, when she bit down, locked her jaw and started flailing her head from side to side- sinking her teeth deeper and deeper into my arm with every move. 

The blood started to pour out of my arm and she wasn't letting go. It felt like my arm was being crushed in a vice. I kept screaming Scarlett’s name, yelling for MJ to get Lulu out of the house and trying to pry the dog's mouth open so I could get my arm free- all at the same time. It was mass chaos. The kids were crying, MJ was trying to get the kids and Lulu out of harms way and my arm was spraying blood all over the kitchen. As I looked down at my arm, still locked in Scarlett’s jaws, I saw something hanging out of my arm that looked like a broken guitar string. I thought it was a ligament or a tendon but it was my radial nerve! It was just hanging there (about 6-8” long). Great.

Then, out of nowhere, Ana ran in with a bucket of water and threw it at Scarlett. As soon as it hit her she released my arm. I grabbed a metal chair and kept Scarlett back so that she didn't attack me or one of the kids as we tried to get outside the gate. And then I could see that this was bad. My adrenaline was pumping so much that the blood was spraying out like it was being pumped out of water hose. The wound was deep and was gaped open and you could see everything in my arm- fat tissue, muscle, tendons, everything. MJ quickly wrapped a towel around it but it wouldn't stop bleeding. We took my belt off and tied it around my bicep like a tourniquet and got the bleeding to at least slow down a little. 

My concern was that I was going to lose consciousness because I was losing so much blood. We were still a good 30 minutes from the hospital too, so time was of the essence. The other problem is that MJ can’t drive a stick shift so I was trying to drive with an injured arm (that was still spewing blood) down the mountain. I could tell that I wasn’t going to be able to make it so we pulled over and asked one of our neighbours (who doesn’t have a drivers’s licence, I might add) to drive me to the place on the highway where there was an ambulance.

He jumped-in and got me to the ambulance- who then took me to the hospital. What a fiasco.

I just went to the surgeon on Monday and he told me that since they cut my radial nerve off at the hospital (there was too much hanging out of my arm to re-attach) that I won’t have any feeling in my thumb and the top of my hand for the rest of my life. He also said that the constant pain (it feels like a combination of fire and being shocked) that I’m feeling in my hand and arm will pass with time. Great, huh?

The area in red is the area that the radial nerve controls (sensitivity/feeling)

Here’s the reason why I’m telling you this story- so stay with me for just a few more minutes. I know that this may seem like a horrible situation but actually I feel good about it, I feel empowered and honestly, I feel “unbeatable.”

Bad things will happen in our lives and we can either let those things shipwreck us or we can do something that will allow us to rise above the situation victorious- no matter how bad something is. And the thing I’m talking about doing (that allows us to rise above) is “being thankful.” That’s right, being thankful.

When something bad happens in our life we can either focus on all the negative aspects of what's happened (which changes nothing), we can try to place blame on someone for what's happened (which changes nothing), we can even get mad at God for allowing it to happen (which changes nothing), or we can look for a way to be thankful in the midst of the calamity (which changes everything).  By having an attitude of thankfulness, it allows us to find peace and keep moving forward in spite of any circumstance. 

Now don’t get me wrong… I am by no means saying that I’m an expert at this and that I always keep a thankful attitude about everything bad that happens in my life. Believe me, I fail often. But for some reason this time I felt good about things. And as I was trying to figure out how and why I felt good about what happened, that's when I noticed that it was all because I was thankful. Not thankful that my arm was mangled and that I was in pain, no.

I was thankful that it didn’t happen to MJ. I was thankful that Scarlett didn’t kill Lulu. I was thankful that it didn’t happen to one of my kids. I was thankful that God allowed me to spend about an hour and a half, by myself, with a paramedic (who spoke perfect English) talking about the Gospel and how much God loved him! This guy had been offended in church 20 years ago and hadn’t been back ever since. But I believe that God, in His infinite mercy and love for this man, allowed this calamity to happen to me so that our paths would cross. And for that I’m truly grateful. 

You see, the enemy wanted to use this situation to destroy me. But God has, by me keeping a thankful attitude, looking for the positive in this situation, and keeping my joy set on Him and not what’s happening in my life- it's only made me stronger. It’s made me unbeatable. 

What about you? Has something happened in your life that’s trying to sidetrack or even destroy you? If so, give thanks to God in whatever circumstance that you're going through and see what He can do through a person with a thankful heart. Because when the devil throws his best shot at you and you still keep going because you're thankful and grateful to God for all His blessings in your life and when your joy is terminated on Jesus and not just on life’s circumstances you’ll be unbeatable too: )

"give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”                  

                                                                                    Thessalonians 5:17

Love You Guys!

Jim

Here's me with Scarlett yesterday when I brought her food  to her in her pen.
I gotta be honest with you... not a super comfortable situation.

Even Though We've Moved- It’s Still Brazil!

After a long-gruelling-painful-tiring (feel free to inject every other negative adjective you could use here) 2 1/2 months of literally working ourselves into the ground it’s finally happened… we’ve moved into our new home and are no longer living on the mountain and in the jungle! That’s right, after 5 years of “roughing it” we’ve moved closer to the city and will hopefully get a break from all the craziness that has 'been our life' here in Terra Boa, Brazil.

When we signed the contract for the new place, on September 16th, we totally underestimated the amount of work and finances that it would take to actually get the house in a liveable condition so that our family could move in. I guess, if I was going to compare it to something in the States, it would be like buying a HUD home that had been vacant for a long time and not really taken care of when people lived in it. But after countless hours of painting, cleaning, plumbing, building and renovating-  we are officially moved-in to the new place. 

It's weird. We're able to take hot showers that actually stay hot the whole time and the water doesn't cut-off even once! And now MJ has hot water that comes out of the kitchen sink to wash dishes with (rather than having to heat water in a tea pot), we have internet (via radio waves) at home, our cell phones work (we haven't had any type of phone at home for 5 years), we're able to drive to town to get food in less than 5 minutes and I don't wake up in the middle of the night because of being bit by spiders! Sweet, huh? And those are just a few of the things that we've noticed: )

But don’t get me wrong- “Just because we’ve moved, we’re still in Brazil.” We’ve already had a porcupine attack on the dogs (which = another visit to the vet), I was attacked by a pit bull (I’ll write about it later) and am having to have surgery on my arm because of massive nerve damage, one of our dogs back on the mountain was attacked by a puma or a leopard (not good), Maryssa had a bat in her room last night, Robert killed a brown spider (extremely venomous) on my back as I was driving down the road yesterday… and the list could go on and on.

The point being, “we're still painfully aware that we’re still on the mission field.” But just moving closer to town is going to relieve so much of the pressure and stress that we’ve been carrying the last 5 years- so we’re very grateful.

We’ve especially been running ourselves ragged over the last few months. Trying to maintain a ministry, taking care of our family and getting the house ready to move-in to has taken everything we’ve had in the tank. I’m not gonna lie to you- we’ve been battling serious depression, fatigue and  stress trying to get to this point. But we’re finally here. Sure, it’s not perfect and there’s still a good bit of work to go- but it’s liveable and it’s not the jungle. 

Our prayer is that by making this move that we’ll be able to work in the orphanages and favelas even more than we have over the last 5 years and that we’ll be able to proclaim the Gospel to even more people than ever before. 

And we just want to take this time to say that, "we couldn't have made this transition without Graystone Church USA and all of our faithful supporters who gave toward this new endeavour.”  

So, thank you to everyone who helped to make this happen. We couldn't have done this without you guys!

Love Ya!

Jim, MJ, Maryssa, Matthew, Ana, Diogo, Gabriel and Robert