Asas Graduation '07

After we went to the orphanage that day, we ran home, showered, left the kids with a babysitter, and headed off to the Asas de Socorro graduation. There were four graduates...Cesar, Heber, Felipe, and Rodrigo. All of them have been here at least 4 years, some 5.

People starting to gather in the hangar for the ceremony.
Rocindes is the president of Asas...an incredible man. Josemil is over the school and is also an incredible man...he and his family go to our church. These 2 both had a great career in the Brazilian Air Force before they joined Asas.
Rodrigo and Lailah. Rodrigo is one of the 3 biological children of that couple I posted about a couple of posts ago who adopted over 30 children.
Heber (left his practice as a dentist to join Asas) and Felipe (his parents are also missionaries...they have a boat that takes trips on the Amazon for all kinds of outreaches; in fact, some of our friends from Teen Mania are planning to come for a trip this spring to work with them).
Felipe and Rodrigo.
Heber's wife, Suzilani, and Cesar's wife, Kathrim.
Joel ran all the power point for the night. Here are some of the "head honchos" talking about the order of the night...Milton, Rocindes, Edna (Rocindes' wife), and Josemil.
Josemil and Milton...both in leadership at Asas.
Kathrim has a beautiful voice...love to hear her sing. They had a few worship songs and special music. The guy in the back with the trumpet is Emerson, also a student. And Suzilani is playing the keyboards (she actually studied music in Europe and is a classical pianist).
This is a pastor here in town who spoke that night. He has actually spent some time in the states too, pastoring a church. His daughter goes to Harvard and is in medical school there.
The main leadership of Asas de Socorro...Steve is the flight instructor. Josemil is the coordinator of the school. Rocindes, the president. Milton is the head guy over maintenance. The next guy (I forgot his name) is a doctor here in town who is on the Board of Directors. Side note: He is also married to a lady whose family (Mom's side) is all from Mississippi. :-) She was born and raised here though. Then the last man at the table is the pastor who was the guest speaker.
All the graduates...Felipe, Heber, Rodrigo, and Cesar.
The husbands were surprising the wives with something. I think they were a little scared about what they were getting. :-) The girl second from the left had just gotten engaged to Felipe that day (she looks young, but is actually almost done with medical school). Poor thing...every time they called for "the wives" to come forward, she didn't know what to do. They were telling her to go and I could see it all over her face...SUCH a new title for her (and one that didn't quite fit yet technically). It was funny.
The wives all got roses from the husbands. Felipe forgot to get Talita roses (he had a lot on his mind I'm sure)...so he stole one out of Rodrigo's bunch as they were walking up the aisle. It was very funny.

Be praying for these 4 and their families. Although this phase of their training is done, there is still more to do.
Rodrigo - Will actually be sticking around for another year working as a flight instructor. Then the plan is for them to head to Boa Vista. They have family in that area (Lailah's parents...also missionaries), so that will work out great.
Felipe - Will be going to Manaus for some time to do some more specialized training. After that, he will probably be getting married (Talita will be done with medical school) and then they hope to move to the base in Santarem (where his parents are also based).
Heber - Will be sticking around here for 6 months, concentrating most of his work in the maintenance area of Asas.
Cesar - He and Kathrim left in December to go back home to the south of Brasil to raise support. They hope to be on the field in Manaus by this summer.

Orphanage Pictures

So I mentioned yesterday that we had gone to an orphanage before we went to graduation. I wanted to post a little about that.

There is a man that is good friends with our good friends, Pastor Jefferson and his family...Carmen, Acsa, Bia, and Pedro. This man grew up in an orphanage and now, along with his family and whoever wants to help, he visits this orphanage at least once a year. He brings a whole party with him...they have a churrasco (pronounced shoo-ha-sko by the way), bring lots of presents for everyone for Christmas, have a humongous cake and lots of other goodies. So, this year Pastor Jefferson let us know about it so we could participate...and it just so happens that this orphanage is only a couple of streets over from our house, literally.

So, here are some pictures of our time there. There are lots, but that's because I just wanted to show you all of it. It's amazing to think of the life of an orphan. There are many horror stories of orphanages. This is not a horror story place. The kids are very well taken care of and provided for adequately. But, even in those conditions, the fact remains that they just don't ever get to experience family. When we went, there was a little boy, 4-6 years old probably...he just kept staring at me. The ladies with me asked him what he was thinking about. He wanted to know what was in my belly. :-) He kept asking to see the baby. He had no concept of pregnancy and what that meant...that he couldn't just see the baby. He probably just never had been exposed. If you think about it, most of what we are initially exposed to and learn from is family and family members (a mom or aunt being pregnant, a grandmother dying, etc.). If you don't have that, you just don't learn those and experience those things. Of course they've experienced alot in their young years, but not necessarily the normal, everyday things that we take for granted.

Anyway, really cute kiddos. Here are the pictures so you can see for yourselves. Suggestion: Pray for these kids as you scroll through the pictures. Many of them need some major healing from things that have happened in their past. And they all (no matter how old or how young they are) need homes.

They really have a great place there...gorgeous view. We had the churrasco, played a bit (here they are jumping rope), and then went inside for the presents and cake.


We had the picnic under this massive amount of bamboo...it was all around us.
The orphanage buildings.
Again, look at that great view...right on top of a great hill overlooking lots of farm land and rolling hills. There is Acsa in the middle of those kids...she had prepared a little fun activity for them to do. Acsa and her mom, Carmen were actually leaving just a few days after this to go to the states. She is now going to Gordon College near where Joel's parents live. That's where Joel's dad works and all of Joel's siblings have gone to college. Pastor Jefferson and his family have lived in the states on and off for several years, so they are completely fluent in English and the "American ways." She was excited.
Pastor Jefferson manning the grill.
Bia and 2 of the 4 daughters that belong to the man who puts this all on.
This is the man that grew up as an orphan and now brings this party to the kids every year. That's his wife talking to him.
They have a nice court area.
When we made it into the room where we would have the party and cake and pass out presents, everyone sat down at tables. So I just went around to each table and took pictures.















This little girl was SUCH a ham. She wanted me to take her picture over and over in different poses. :-)


Eissa hanging out with Bia. Bia reminds me SO MUCH of Auny (Baker) Gill. Oh my gosh!! Bia's family is such a fun family.

The room all decked out for the party.
The youngest baby there I believe. Her name was Gabriella and that girl holding her is her older sister...they also have 2 brothers there.
Pastor Jefferson shared a word with the kids and then here he is praying over the kids. The lady that runs the orphanage is to his left.
This girl was such a feisty little thing. She would just talk and talk to me...in Portuguese and then in the few words of English she knew. So very cute. She was something else.