Cashews In Season

Cashews are in season right now. We are enjoying the two trees we have in our backyard. Not only do they get a pretty little pink flower on them they give us fruit as well. I planted one of the trees and it's taller than me! Even though it's not yet two years old it is giving us fruit!

Cashews are a fruit, and must be eaten as soon as they are mature because they spoil very quickly. Most of us know of the seed which we call a nut. This can be found at the bottom of the fruit as it hangs on the tree. The seed is protected by an outershell. Raw cashew seeds are poisonous and must be roasted to enjoy. Roasting them is always interesting because the are highly combustible!

Take a look at the pictures for more information, and think of us enjoying cashew juice, as well as cashew nuts into the month to come.


Cashew Taking Form

Mature Cashew

Airplane Door Falls On Supermarket

While we were waiting for our next part of our flight back to Palmas, we heard about the following news story. When I was entering the plane the pilot was there so I said to him, this isn't the plane that the door falls off of is it? And he replied no this the plane that's not working. (He was referring to the one hour delay for mechanical problems) Yikes!?! What a way to start off our flights in Brazil.


Jet lands safely after door falls off
From Australian Breaking News.
August 09, 2006
A JET owned by leading Brazilian airline TAM landed safely today after one of its doors fell off and crashed to earth next to a supermarket shortly after departure from Sao Paulo.

No one was hurt in the incident, a TAM spokeswoman said.

The Fokker 100 plane with 79 people aboard on route to Rio de Janeiro returned to the airport safely 18 minutes after taking off.

TAM has been replacing its Fokker planes since the Dutch aircraft maker went bankrupt 10 years ago. It still has 22, but expects to gradually eliminate all of them by 2010.

The same type of plane, also operated by TAM, caused one of Brazil's worst air disasters in 1996. It crashed in an urban area shortly after taking off from Sao Paulo, killing about 100 people, including some on the ground.

In 1997, an explosion of undetermined origin killed a passenger who was blown out of a TAM Fokker 100 during flight.

In 2001, an engine breakup on a TAM Fokker 100 caused two cabin windows to shatter and one of 82 passengers aboard died as a result of the depressurisation.

Back In Brazil

We made it back! We left the hot into the hotter, although it really hasn't gotten to bad here yet, just low 100's during the day. We sure are glad to be back home, trying to get things organized and back into some kind of routine. (If that is possible.) I want to say thank you again to everyone that prayed for Natinha and her greencard. God's timing is perfect and it proved to be through much of the process. It was nice to be able to see many of you while we were in the United States. Natinha now has a green card that is good for ten years, and after that ten years are up all she will need to do is renew it. Remember you can post comments here on the site by clicking on comments below these posts. Please keep praying for the pastors, church workers, and ministries of our churches here in Brazil.

She Got It!

Well, she finally got it! After three years and some months the United States government granted Natinha permanent resident status. We want to thank all of you who have been praying for us through this confusing and frustrating process. Now Natinha will have a permanent greencard that will only need to be renewed every ten years. Please be praying for our return to Brazil on August 7th. We are very anxious to be returning to our home and ministry. Thank you again, and God bless you.