oop's.....

Here is something funny for you...turns out Liliam and I are living in sin! Yep that's right...the country of Brazil does not recognize our marriage. Even though we where married here. Seems that most Latin countries require a civil ceremony and leave the religious ceremony optional, or at the very least, you have to fill out certain forms and get them notarized. Since we lived in the US, we where supposed to go to Houston to have our marriage validated. But we never knew that, so Brazil looks at us as two single people who have had two children together. So we have two options....wait till we are back in the US and go to Houston...or go downtown to the court house and get married...again....and in case you are keeping score...that would make it THREE weddings for the Gardner's! Of course, Liliam wants to get married….again….seems two weddings were not enough for her. I wonder if I can get more presents out of this?!?

Fortunately, this does not complicate any visa issues for me. In Brazil, it is much easier to get permanent residency on the basis of being the father of a Brazilian child that it is to be the spouse of a Brazilian. (Brazil is famous for its immigration laws with regards to children....man criminals on the run from their government will flee to Brazil knowing that if they father a child, then Brazil will not extradite them. Ronald Biggs, the famous British Train Robber, is a perfect case in point. He lived in Rio for decades, known to everyone. He even had tourist into his home for a fee. But because he had a child with a Brazilian, the government, Brazil would not extradite him.)

A trip to Wal-Mart & Sam's Club

walmart4flickr1
Originally uploaded by Mobilizing Brazil.

I took a bunch of photos today of our trip to the Wal-Mart and Sam's Club of Goiania. It felt like I walked from Brazil right back to the United States. The store layouts were very similar to the US stores, but most the products where Brazilian. The Sam's Club did have a small section of US products like bbq sauce, Heinz ketchup, French's mustard, and even tortillas! Most of the products where reasonably priced...except for the tortillas...those where $12 for 20!
By far the coolest things was the flat escalator for shopping carts. The carts all have some kind of magnetic or gravitational lock that prevents the rolling down hill. I had fun!

Futbol Update

I did not have my camera with me when I scored my goal this past Saturday...but I found a picture that looks exactly like what I did.

When in Rome...

So I had the opportunity to play some Futbol (soccer) with a group of guys from my brother in law's church. It was a lot of fun. Of course I was the worst player out there by far. Even my wife's two 12 year old cousins who played barefoot where sailing past me. I did manage to score a goal. I was pretty proud of myself. I would have had two, but my brother in law totally fouled me!

Bem-vindo A Brasil!

Well, we've made it to Brasil I guess know that I "local," I better get used to spelling Brasil with an "s." Our trip was pretty much uneventful. No lost bags, missed connections and I haven't been deported yet; so you could say we are off to a good start.

Currently we are Goiania, Liliam's home town. We will be here for a few weeks while we begin getting our documents and such in order. After that, we will travel to the city of Braganca Paulista. Braganca will be our home and base of operations for at least the next two + years.

Over the next few days I will try and post some pictures of our travels. (hey, why wait till furlough to bore you with our missionary slide show!) We continue to pray for all of you and are so grateful to all you folks have done and are doing to make our dream of Mobilizing the Brazilian Church for Missions are reality.

In His Service,
Jason

We're Off!

Just a quick post to say that we are getting ready to head for the Airport. To give you a rundown of our travel itinerary, our flight from Tulsa leaves at 3:00. We then fly to Dallas/Ft. Worth. At 5:30 our flight departs for Sao Paulo Brazil. We will arrive in Brazil 7:00 am local time or 3:00 am Tulsa time. Unfortunately, we have a long layover till our flight to Goiania so we will likely grab a cheap hotel room to rest up
All in total, it should take us around 24 hours to get to Liliam's home town. But for all of you that will come to visit us (hint hint) never fear, you can knock of the last leg of the trip because our home base will be very close to the Sao Paulo airport.
This next month will mainly be set up time. We will be setting up a bank account, looking for a place to live, getting drivers license, and all other pertinent documents. Hopefully by the second or third week of February, our shipping container will have arrived and we will be settled.
After that, it is off to language school for me and Liliam will continue to focus on carry that baby of ours and putting finishing touches on our new home.

We love and will miss you all!
Jason & Liliam