Hello Friends of the Niteroi Mission Team! Thank you for visiting the Gotcher Blog. We arrived in Niteroi, Brazil in November and have been taking language classes and settling in as we prepare to plant a church. We will attempt to keep the blog updated as much as possible and you can also find both Wes and Carrie on Facebook. Again thank you for visiting our blog and please keep the church plant and our family in your prayers. We understand that we will not have any success apart from God's desire for this chuch so please pray that we will speak only his words and that his truth will fall on fertile hearts.
The view of Niteroi from our balcony
I wanted to send a quick update to all of you to let you know how things are going in “Brasil.” We are doing well and are still living in the hotel because we, or should I say “I,” am having trouble choosing an apartment. We had to move rooms last night at our hotel and ended up having to sleep together in the smallest hotel room I have ever seen, with a twin bed—it was a funny night! We are back in a regular room tonight. Please pray for us about the apartment. We really want to live where God wants us to and where we can best do our ministry. But, in the meantime, God has blessed us with getting to know the people who work here at the hotel—they are precious and are trying so hard to help us! Last night before we found the “mini suite” room one of the girls here offered to let us stay at her house!
A couple funny stories:
It has been overcast all week–they said this is pretty unusual. It is springtime here and has been raining quite a bit. We went on Monday to look at this GREAT apartment that is on a street with a little canal through the middle of it. On the way there our taxi driver told us and Georgia that that particular street floods often when it rains and that he lived by there and ended up moving because of the flooding. We went to see the apartment and agreed that it was so great. We said, “how bad could the flooding be?” We went downstairs with Ron and Georgia and looked outside to see it raining pretty hard……it kept raining….and raining….The street filled fully and cars were getting stuck! Eventually the canal began running over into the street! We had to stay there for 2 hours and wait for it to go down enough to walk back to our hotel! I love when God gives us immediate answers! (We aren’t getting that place)
Wes and I have been enjoying trying to speak Portuguese. We find ourselves trying even to speak to each other. Today we had been feeling pretty good about how our language was going. We have been able to order more easily at restaurants and even have some basic conversations. Then, tonight we were riding in a cab and the guy said in Portuguese,”You guys speak really slowly.” Thank you?? We just laughed. Brazilians can be brutally honest. Then we got back to our hotel and were talking with a girl who said, ” You guys sound like you are speaking Spanish.” So, no need to feel overly confident yet! We have a lot of work to do!
We will keep posting as things progress. Please also pray for us to find a good language teacher who will bless us and help us to communicate our best.
