Fall 2000 est. 01.01.92 {3244}

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Serving the Lord as Teachers in São Paulo, Brazil @ Pan American Christian Academy {PACA}

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Hi J. Thought I might share some of the topics that I have most recently written about as they are the highlights of the past couple of months.

We are once again coming out of a couple of weeks were Matty has been sick. Not Mono this time but a bronchial infection of some kind. He is beginning to feel better so we now can think of things outside of school and home. The wonderful spring like weather is terrific! (Remember our seasons are reversed) Spring to me means many things - far fewer clothes to fuss with and wash! Seeing baby's toes almost for the first time uncovered. Hanging laundry in the sun. But mostly, warm weather means KIDS OUTSIDE from sunup to sundown. Ah, the great outdoors!

Grading period means that Matty has plenty to do. We celebrated the first day of the second quarter as he handed over the PE class he was subbing for when the 6 missing teachers finally arrived. Their arrival was a small miracle since the Brazilian government said they would not issue visas because of the low salaries and then made an exception for PACA. We’ve seen the Lord work in the hearts of the officials. This has now given him more time to plan and work in the computer lab as well as on the curriculum for the school.

How about a typical day in the Mckinnon house? It may look something like this. We were keeping Rebecca (3) and Jonathan (7) to help another missionary family who work at Transworld Radio. On this particular day Rebecca, Nolan and Evan played happily until the school kids joined them adding 3 more. Shortly after, Matty went to the pet shop with some kids to see if they would take the 4 kittens we needed to give away. Then we swirled into supper, devotions and getting everyone somewhere to lay their head. In the midst of this, I got one of those "didn't you know" calls to send goodies to Ian's class party the next day. So when all were in bed, I made Caramel Popcorn while Matty helped wrap a few gifts for Teacher's day. Who has time to look at To Do lists? We work on the To Have Done lists instead!

We have one more story of God's goodness to tell

Our car was stolen one afternoon as we were parking in our garage. The young men who took it said they were armed and kept telling us to hurry as we were trying to take all 4 kids out of the car. The police quickly found the bashed up car abandoned with only a few items taken but not Matthew's wallet with all his documents. We are so thankful that no one was hurt and that the insurance covered most of the damage. Praise the Lord with us.

We didn't have time to take in that the car was gone before it was back. The kids were shaken but are doing well. Evan has been coloring everything black "to get those bad guys". Ian says what he would do if he met a robber and we quickly tell him to do everything they say and pray for them too. And we do.

Thank you for standing with us in prayer. Pray for continued safety and continued peace to be able to go on working for the Lord right here.

1) To rearrange the room making it more functional for students and teachers.

2) To build curriculum using different approaches.

Have you read Dr Seuss' The Foot Book? It's my favorite now that I can READ!

I love Kindergarten. We get to have center time and do the weather chart each day.

Now I'm the oldest at home helping Mommy take care of Nolan.

I love it when Daddy throws me up in the air and makes me giggle. I've learned to hold out my arms to be picked up whenever Mommy tries to scoot by.

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Field Address: MATTHEW & SIMONE McKINNON, R CASSIO de CAMPOS NOGUEIRA,393

04829-310 SÃO PAULO, SP BRAZIL

Mission Office Address: BEA, PO BOX 22, MEDWAY, OH 45341

E-mail Address: msmck@attglobal.net PHONE NUMBER: 011-55-11-5667-5875

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To be better stewards and to speed up our Prayer Letter distribution, we are asking for folks to sign-up for the "E-mail Edition"of the McKinnon Messenger. The content will be the same as the hard copy version with attached pictures. Plain text (no graphics) will be made available upon request. You will be able to open this in Wordpad with Windows 95. We will keep all "snail mail" (regular mail) addresses up to date for sending Prayer Cards etc.

If interested, Please send your e-mail message to: msmck@attglobal.net saying

1. "We would like to help save postage costs by getting the e-mail Edition at (your e-mail address) -OR-

"We would like to get the e-mail Edition at (your email address) but please keep mailing the letter as well"

2. "Send us the text-only version" -OR- "Copy with graphics is fine"

Also, please include your name since some e-mail addresses leave no clue as to who the sender is. Thanks