The Last Few Months...

All of you were invited to come for Scott's 40th Birthday Party and it was a HUGE success. Check out Caleb's expression on the pizza picture and Scott with his cake (and no, the cake picture is NOT overexposed!!!) We had over 60 friends join us, which is an amazing show of God's faithfulness in the past year and a half that we are living here in Schroeder.



After 10 years, Scott's parents returned to Brazil joining us for a double celebration. Scott's birthday and their anniversary! We took 2 weeks of holidays and spent 9 days at the beach with them. Here we are on a boat ride to a fisherman's village for lunch. Dwayne and Shannon's family joined us for 4 days as well.


In April we had the privilege of hosting Becky Patterson and Amanda Pyl, two friends from our Medeba LDP days in Ontario. We had a memorable 2 weeks with them, protecting them from bugs and tropical storms. One memory worth recording was Quest's Murder Mystery party. Based on a rodeo theme, our "multi-purpose" room outside was transformed into Slim's Saloon. We had so much fun playing in two languages. Left to Right: Renan, Scott, Dwayne, Lidi, Carol, Patsy, Jessi, Becky, Shannon (yes, Shannon) and Amanda.


Here she is...our little precious baby! At least that what Scott calls her!!! The kids are ALL cat lovers and so is Mommy and we are enjoying her so much. There is never a dull moment in our home!


We thought you would enjoy seeing one of the teams we worked with recently. This dear old man is 84 years old and has a lot of enthusiasm and motivation. He really impacted our team positively.


Thanks for dropping by. We love to hear from you. Thanks again for all your support.

Family Pics from Summer Camp

Welcome to another update of the Buhler's adventures!

On Christmas Day, we travelled about an hour from home to explore a beautiful, rugged trail following the path of a river with 14 waterfalls in it. Hannah was a trooper and we made it up and down in about 4 hours. This picture is proof of survival!


We enjoyed a "once in a lifetime" experience at Christmas. What made this experience so unique??? We were alone as a family of five for the first time ever at Christmas. After kindly declining several invitations for Christmas parties, we were really looking forward to this "family time". BUT, after all was said and done, we decided that we'll stick to the old adage...THE MORE, THE MERRIER. You are all invited to join us for Christmas this year!!!


On January 20th, our family was off to camp. This was Hannah's first camp season as a camper and her absolutely favourite activity was archery! They tell us she outdid her older brother...now that's something to write home about!


Muki loved the social environment and was not about to be called "Chicken", so he joined in the fun of campers and staffers alike.


Instead of having one speaker throughout the week, we took turns teaching every day. Patsy taught the first day of the subject of SIN. Take a really close look to see if you can spot the serpent just waiting to tempt Eve on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.


Scott had the privilege of teaching servant leadership principles to our Camp Sam campers. On the final morning, one of the male campers started crying and shared that he had always heard about "servant leadership" and was interested in learning more about it at Quest, but what had really brought the point home for him was one morning when he was up early and when he entered the bathroom he saw Scott mopping the floors and cleaning the toilets. He thanked Scott not only for his theory, but for leading by example. Praise God!


The food was fantastic at camp! Shannon and Patsy had decided to throw in some North American meals that went over very well!!! See if you can find Caleb sitting with his cabin group.


A first camp season has it's challenges and it's beauties. One thing we really enjoyed was the simplicity of the praise and worship which was lead by our very talented staff. Kids truly love raising their voices in praise and adoration to our God! Our kids are no different and are all in the front row in this picture!


Scott and I, who have very limited stage experience, were called upon to be the parents in one of our favourite skits called "Pai, tou mal", or "Dad, I'm not well".


The area of camp that took up a lot of our time. We are already looking for volunteer cooks for our next camp seasons.....any takers???



Thanks for all your prayers and support. We are OFTEN comforted knowing that we have a HUGE team behind us supporting us in so many ways. May God be pleased through all of our efforts!

Rain, Chickies and Haircuts...

"Rain,rain,go away, come again another day...Hey wait, go away and please don't come back for a LONG time..."

That is how we felt. We had 3 months of straight rain. Actually, that would be lying, so I will say that in the 3 months we did have 3-24 hour periods of no rain. To say that we were soaked, drenched or waterlogged would NOT be an understatement! Just last weekend the sun reappeared...it was a miracle! We removed all of our mattresses, pillows, blankets and cushions and put them all out in the warm sunshine to dry out. After that we went to work wiping out all of the mold built up in our wardrobes. No word of a lie, GREEN wardrobes!!!

This past week we have had sun every day and we feel energized to do everything we possibly can OUTSIDE!

On a recent trip to Pelotas, RS to speak at a regional youth retreat, the kids were each given a little chickie. Let's just say that it was a good thing we took this picture last week because now we only have 2 chickies. We're not sure what happened to the other one.

Our house is situated about 25 meters from a LARGE banana plantation, which of course has it's benefits (FREE Bananas) but also has it's downfalls. With the banana plants come little microscopic bugs whose bite leaves a TERRIBLE itch. During the rainy season they are not very active, but after 1 hour of sunlight they come out in full force. Here is a picture I took of Scott's back after sitting outside getting his hair cut by yours truly. Half an hour outside and look at the number of bites he has from our little friends! Notice the exact line of where the haircutting cape came to on his back. By the way, the property that Quest wants to buy does NOT have banana plantations anywhere nearby, nor does it have these friendly neighbours!!!

We love to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment or send an email at any time!

Kreative Kids...

In October our team and family were invited to run a children's camp in Curitiba. During our time there, Muki learned how to play Ping Pong and wanted a table so badly when he got home that he set up an old, shaky table made out of boards with cracks between them just so he could play. That's how it all got started. Any time the ball hit a crack and flew out in any wild direction, it was officially a "reserve"! Since then, our ping pong table has come a long way! We built some shelving for footwear and had some plywood leftover for a "mini-ping pong" table. It has already served for hours of fun. It's not only our family that uses it, but the neighborhood kids come by even while we're in school and help themselves to our table. We thank God for the simple pleasures we share as a family.


Notice the workmanship involved in taping together our "net" which actually took the four of us to put together!!!


Hannah's ping pong skills are being strengthened every day, but being our "princess", she still prefers to walk around the yard taking pics of herself (typical girl!) Here is one of her most recent poses!

Thanks for dropping by. Feel free to leave a comment, we love hearing from you all.

The Buhlers

SPRING IS IN THE AIR...

Orchids are in bloom all around our house. We feel spring in the air. The weather is getting warmer and we are back to wearing chinelos (flip flops)which feels so good!



Just to give you an idea of how the kids are growing, here is a picture of Caleb and I back to back. He is sprouting more than the flowers and truly is blossoming as his own person. It's been a really neat season for our family. Next month we will officially be parents of a "teen".


Our homeschooling class did a mini Olympics on our yard consisting of artistic gymnastics, archery, rifelry and wrestling. We had a blast! In total standings Muki squeaked by with the gold, Jaden with the silver and Caleb the bronze!

An unexpected striped guest...

God's goodness is always full of surprises! Besides the beautifully striped guest that appeared during our final game at the camp, we have had many incredible surprises over the past 2 weeks.

God handpicked 18 campers for Quest's 2nd training camp. We have now trained 33 young people as future summer staffers! We had participants from 5 new church contacts, which was very exciting for us. We need to continue building positive relationships with as many churches as possible in this region.

Most of our campers were hearing about "camp ministry" for the first time in their lives. As so many others that we have trained in the past, their eyes were opened to a new and interesting way of sharing Christ with youth.

On the last night, during sharing time, several people mentioned how impacted they were by seeing our families all involved in the ministry together. Our kids ran the tuck shop, helped with cleaning and in skits. Children bring an innocence and a transparency to any group setting. We praised God that our families could bless so many of our campers who come from broken homes and have not had the privilege of seeing a healthy Christ-centered family role model.

Speaking of family, here are some pics of ours during our last camp...




Hannah with cousin Jasper enjoying the sunny afternoon on Quest's "future property", Lord willing.



Muki, Caleb and cousin Jaden played the role of guards, protecting the "Sword of the Kingdom" during our Indiana Jones game at the camp. They were the most patient guards, as the game took almost 3 hours to play!



While guarding the "Sword of the Kingdom", the boys were visited by this beautiful false coral snake.



Scott, Patsy and Lidi entertaining the campers with a skit. Sometimes I wonder who laughs more, the campers or the actors!



Caleb and Patsy sitting and facilitating the final game of the week. These campers struggled to grasp the fact that Jesus calls us to cooperate and work together, even though the world forces us to compete, always putting ourselves ahead of everyone else.



Here they are...our 18 campers and staff that made up our 2nd training camp. Our hearts are full of gratitude to be a part of the work God is continuing here in Jaragua do Sul. All glory, honor and praise to our King!!!

Meet our MAD SCIENTISTS...

I never did imagine myself as a homeschooling mother, never mind running a science fair in my own home. Yes, it has come to that! There were definitely challenges for our young scientists, such as lack of written resources and learning to surf the web as most of their information was taken either from Encarta Encyclopedia or from the Internet. There were even greater challenges for Shannon and I as mothers and teachers. It's been a "few" years since I have participated in a Science Fair and the world has changed tremendously since then, but thanks to a fantastic website called Science Buddies, we were able to figure out what needed to get done! There were a couple of days when I thought I'd pull my hair out and I turned to Caleb one day and said, "If I EVER consider doing one of these Science Fairs again, talk me out of it!"

BUT...once the day came and I saw the hard work put in, the many hours of research, the beautiful display boards and more importantly the knowledge gained, I was proud of them and who knows, I MAY EVEN ATTEMPT IT AGAIN IN THE FUTURE!!!(The distant future that is)
Hannah's project was called Ham it up with Hamsters. She did an amazing job and is now pestering Daddy for a Hamster!
Thanks to all of you who replied to Muki's science project. He had a total of 36 responses to his experiment and was able to prove his hypothesis wrong using his data. It was a really neat experience for Muki, who had never worked with graphs before and had a hard time sitting still long enough to get them done. If any of you are interested, Muki discovered from his data and through research that age doesn't slow down reaction time at all until after 80 years or so. Gender makes no difference at all and here's the interesting part; most dominant hands have a slower reaction time than non-dominant hands!!! Thanks again to all those who participated.
Caleb is our electronic "techie" and did his project on radio wave powered Crystal Radio Receiver Sets which were used greatly during World War II by soldiers who would create them using recycled materials they found around them. Caleb learned a lot about the composition of crystals and the role they play in radio. He built a radio and was so frustrated that the day was cloudy and it didn't work, but we assured him that the effort made to build it was already impressive.

Through the whole process, I for one, learned a lot about all four topics. My nephew Jaden, who I also teach, did his project on Volconoes and so to finish off our Science Fair with a grand finale, he set off his volcano and it worked perfectly!!!

Thanks for visiting our blog...hope to see you here again soon.