Brennan Manning

Editora Mundo Cristão, in São Paulo, Brazil, has just published my translation of Brennan Manning's The Rabbi's heartbeat (Colorado Springs, NavPress). The Brazilian version was titled O obstinado amor de Deus [God's relentless love]. If you happen to speak Portuguese, read more about the book here. If you desire to read the first chapter, click here.

Caio is 10 today!

We are so grateful to God for Caio's 10th birthday. Caio (ky-oh) is our second child. He has been a huge blessing to us and a source of joy.

Caio Barrios Medeiros















Caio's cake had on its top the edible picture of our favorite soccer team
from the South of Brazil: "Internacional". Caio is a big soccer fan.

God provided for us to have some fun last Thursday evening, together with some of his boy friends from Espaco Cristao (our church here in Rio Grande, south of Brazil) and from his class at school. Our daughter Larissa (11) served mom and dad at several points in the party. Iago (3) and Talita (1) were also present and had a lot of fun!

The boys had supervised internet access for games, video game tournaments, table soccer matches, board games and a few fun activities... Surprisingly, what was not an option at all in our list of activities ended up catching their attention, and they also had speed competitions using... my treadmill...

Caio has grown in his love for God and has also matured... I have also grown in my friendship with him and I am amazed at God's wonderful work in him and how He uses him to bless me.

Happy birthday, Caio! We love you very much!

Please take a look at the pics from his birthday party. Some are not that good though... Álbuns da web do Picasa - Fabiani Medeiros - Aniversário Caio

Yes, this is still Winter!

Thankfully, at my brother's place, where I am now living with my family, on the beach (which makes cold feel much colder!), we have a fireplace!

It not only warms us up on the coldest days, but grants us the opportunity to remember our American friends when we go for some s'mores. Semi-American s'mores, I should say, since the crackers are not Graham crackers, and the chocolate... well the chocolate is the Brazilian chocolate - delicious, though! But the marshmallow is American!! We still have some that have been sent to us by our dear friends Mike and Juliana Gaines, from Gilbert, now in Texas... And don't worry, we do have marshmallow in Brazil! And it is really good...

But peanut-butter here is really different. I like it myself, since it is sweeter than the American version, but Caio still prefers American peanut-butter, now an addiction.

In the picture, you can see Larissa holding a s'more. The guy wearing a T-shirt is not me. It is David Turner, a great friend from Akron, Ohio, who was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but has been raised in the USA. His parents are Americans. And his love for Brazil led him and his sister, Rebekkah, to come all the way from Akron, where they attend one of Sovereign Grace churches, down here to spend some time with us serving the church we are now at. Rebekah stayed here for about ten days, typing songs in a Word file so that slides could be generated for our newly acquired projector, a blessing to this church, now already used to an overhead projector. Rebekah served us so well, and she even translated Brent Detwilers' message The 50 fruits of pride into Portuguese. And she did it amazingly well with the Portuguese she learned in the US and in Rio!

In one month and a half, Dave not only helped Rebekah with the typing, but he also generated the very slides for projection in use now at our services, having also worked on an index to help us locate songs by first line and/or by title! He also taught some English classes and spoke to our youth. Plus, having him around, was simply a delight. Friends here are still asking about him and some have created Orkut communities in order to keep his memory alive! Oops!

They were a great joy to be around! Thank you, guys. Thank you so much for all the devoted service to God and to the church here in Rio Grande. And thank you, Robert, for sending us your wonderful kids.

The Turners

Waiting for a newsletter from the Medeiroses? You've got a blog!

After many months here in Rio Grande (lit., "Big River"), in southern Brazil, we simply miss our loved new friends from Gaithersburg and Gilbert so much (and those who are now scattered all over... the world even, including places as near as Bolivia)!

I have wanted to work on a newsletter to send to all my friends in the US and elsewhere, but in response to encouragements from folks in Gilbert and from my dear friend Mark Converti, I decided to go ahead and create a blog! I know how challenging it will be to keep blogging new posts on a consistent basis, but on the other hand everything is ready for me here at Blogger... no need for technological expertise (which fits me just right) and... plus... we will be able to keep those we deeply love posted in a very neat way. Another fun thing about this blog is that you don't have to keep reading it everyday (unless it is part of your Bloglines or it is your desire), but you can just come back to it whenever you find yourself wondering which paths God's amazingly sovereign grace has led my family and the churches here to...

My second challenge is the language, which was one of the reasons why I was putting even the whole idea of a newsletter off a little bit. But here again, I know I will count on your patience and mercy. Yet another challenge will be time. So please know that I want to keep a record here of posts through which I myself can recount God's mercy and sovereign grace in all he has already done and will be doing in our lives here in Brazil, but I will be super busy with my family and my church here (hopefully in that exact order!) and will probably experience times of greater demands and pressures that will hinder me from posting consistently...

Now in this first blog I just need to say there is simply too much to tell y'all, which is just great. So let us proceed with each piece of information at a time.

But I just want to start by sending you all our updated pictures and letting you all know how deeply engraved in our hearts you all are. We can still remember your faces, hear your voices, recount input and expressions of love in action.

Blessings to all our new friends and the churches we have been to and have continued to be in close contact with: Gaithersburg, Richmond, Gilbert, Pasadena and Akron.

Marcia and the kids at our last visit to the Ocean Museum.
On the farthest bank of the lake, you can see the
Ilha da Polvora (Gunpowder Island).