What have you been up to these days?

For a while now, I have been avoiding the little button on the options bar of my Safari that reads “Blogger.” I knew I needed to blog. I got the hints that were dropped by various family members and/or friends. I knew I hadn’t blogged since my brother’s birthday.

I just wasn’t feeling it.

I like blogging when I have something to say. I was under the impression I didn’t have anything to say. I like blogging when I have new, radical or exciting words. I believed the words I had were boring, ordinary and lame.

It’s a little difficult picking up where I last left off. A lot has happened since the last time I sat down to write. Life has evened out for us here in Sao Leopoldo. We have a routine. Definitely not a rut, but a routine. Things are just life now.

In no way does that mean that each day is the same old same old. There are new laughs, new questions, new discoveries everyday.

Since the middle of April, I’ve been to new cities with my family. I got to spend the extended Easter weekend with my family’s family in Três de Maio. One of the coolest things is being able to meet your host family’s extended family members and see the city where they grew up, hear the stories from their childhood. Last weekend, my family and I went to Canela for a retreat with the futebol club Marcos, meu pai, plays with. We ate amazing food – ohhh, the dessert - and spent time in a beautiful park.

Since the middle of April, the Hannah’s, Stewart, Renato and I have gotten heavily involved at two universities, Unisinos and Feevale. Students and staff know us on each campus. They expect to see us talking with other students or teachers. They know we love to snack at Happy Station and dine at RU. They stop to play a couple rounds of Uno or Jenga with us. We drink chimarrão together. We’re part of the universities’ communities.

Since the middle of April, we’ve gotten leaps and bounds better at Portuguese. I have to say… Hannah West and Stewart are really good at Portuguese. They know the most random and silly things. Stewart has learned sayings the old Gaúcho men say from his host home pai. Hannah West has a large vocab of both slang and grammatically correct Portuguese. Hannah Morrison and her little Brasilian sister point to objects in their house and say the name in both in English and Portuguese. Morrison and her pai work on her Portuguese homework together every week.

Me… Well… I understand a good amount. I can listen to Brasilians talking to each other and catch the majority of what they’re talking about. My speaking is alright. I have a hard time wrapping my tongue around some Portuguese words, which keeps me from saying a lot. However, one of my most fond memories of my time in Brasil was one night at Unilinguas. It was a Monday night, and we were playing Jenga. My Brasilian brother, Tales, had just gotten out of his English class and was waiting on Fabi to pick him up, so he joined us playing. When Mãe, Fabi, and Denis, my other brother, got to Unilinguas, they ended up playing with us. During this time, I was talking with my brothers. Just little things I knew would make them laugh. After they left, Renato told me he was really impressed and that I knew more Portuguese than he thought I did. That simple statement was the encouragement needed to push me a little further out in the conversing world of Brasil.

Since the middle of April, I’ve been to the hospital multiple times. *Gasp!* Actually, both Hannah West and I have been. No, not because of health reasons, but because of an English class. We go to an English class with a teacher we met at Unilinguas, Anae. Anae teaches a group of employees from the official World Cup hospital in Porto Alegre. This has become one my favorite things to do here. I love driving to POA with Anae and Hannah. We talk about everything under the sun. The students in the class make me laugh uncontrollably and hold a special place in my heart. I burst with pride when they say what they want to say, and correctly. During one of the classes Hannah and I weren’t able to make, a couple of the students typed out an invitation to the last day of class for a little celebration. I can’t wait for June 9^th when Hannah and I can go celebrate these people and what they’ve learned, when we can go and offer that last bit of encouragement.

Since the middle of April, we’ve started Free Hugs at Unisinos. I’ll admit, Free Hugs is still a little difficult for me to do. Standing with a boldly colorful sign and essentially yelling “abraços” to people walking by is not something you’ll find in my comfort zone. It’s difficult to get in the mood to hug complete strangers when the first couple people you offer a hug to turn you down flat. But once you feel the first tight embrace, with a touch of desperation, your heart melts. After some time, you find yourself enjoying the hugs and smiles you receive rather than give out. A simple hug does wonders.

Since the middle of April, we’ve started Zoe em Casa. Finally! This is what we came down here for! “Zoe is a Greek word that means ‘abundant life’. We get it from John 10:10, where Jesus comes to offer life more abundantly.” Something to that effect is said every Saturday night when Zoe meets. Zoe em Casa starts off with food and conversations, with music playing in the background. This leads up to us reading a Psalm or two. After some discussion about that, we finish it out with the same question week after week. “Where did you see God this week?” Americans, Brasilians, followers, non-followers, all alike, answer this question. This is a humbling experience for me. I love hearing what others have to say about God in their lives. It’s caused me to think about how much I am probably missing, how unaware I am. Many Brasilians have come to Zoe and said, “I thought this was church.” We love answering this question. It is a church, but we do things differently. We do things based off the first church. We think there should be celebration about the things and areas God’s been apparent in. We think we should gather together and talk about the Word and spend some time in prayer. Zoe is geared towards the believer, but more times than not, there are more unbelievers than believers in attendance and who share about where they saw God. Zoe em Casa. Boom.

Since the middle of April, we’ve experienced spiritual warfare like no other. Oh man. Thing after thing after thing was flung our way. Melody lost her dear and near aunt and had to fly to the States for a while. Chris’ car was broken into while he and Michael were inside a restaurant getting dinner. They weren’t harmed, but their privacy was invaded, and they lost many items. Hannah Morrison had her iPhone stolen. People were sick, snappy and salty. Little things that normally wouldn’t faze us were highlighted because of all the other things going on. We were having major successes with Zoe, and the devil knew that. He tried and tried to attack us from each and every angle. Our armor lost a bit of shine and gained a few dints, but never once were we conquered. During those crazy weeks of spiritual warfare, we, as a team, spent an abundance of time in the Word and prayer. We grew as a team as well as individuals. I saw Chris and Melody encourage and support each other through difficult times with thousands of miles of separation. I saw my team band together. Whether it was in the form of a meal, time sitting in the federal offices waiting to renew visas or in the form of a passionate and demanding Nerf Gun war, we stuck like glue.

So yeah, since the middle of April, life has evened out. Things are normal and familiar to us. We no longer get lost on buses or trains. We can hold conversations with strangers. We eat rice and beans everyday. But mano, things have happened. I get on the same bus every night with the same bus driver. Last night, I didn’t ride that bus, but he saw me on the curb. He gave me a head nod, honked the horn and waved at me. Talk about being blessed by the little things. In a city of over 200 thousand, a bus driver remembers and notices little ol’ me. Zoe is seeing hearts changed. We bought a baptistery – a fish clad kiddy pool. We are becoming more confident in answering those tough questions, in asking questions that could potentially lead to awkwardness. We are still meeting new people who are excited and curious to hear about Zoe.

Yesterday, we spent some time playing the tourist and buying souvenirs. I’m excited to give the gifts I bought away, but no way am I ready to say bye to my friends and family here in Sao Leopoldo. Since the middle of April, time has ticked away, but there’s still a job to be done.

We are currently preparing for a large group of International World Changers (IWC) arriving on June 13^th. We’re setting things up to host Brasil game viewing parties. We’re still talking with English classes; we’re still taking Portuguese classes. Zoe is still in the early and impressionable stages.

I ask that you read this and see the prayers needed. I ask that you pray for Brasil. The Coppa starts soon. Pray for the people of Brasil who aren’t excited about, ready for or wanting the Coppa. Pray for the people of Brasil who are going to be dealing with tourists coming to watch the games; pray for the hospital, Mãe de Deus. Pray for the Brasilians who work in transportation.

Lord, thank You for the changing times. Thank You for the weather change. It’s weird that the first of June is tomorrow, and I’m wearing sweaters and eating sopa. Thank You, God, for what’s happening with, through and in Zoe. God, I pray that I will be more aware of You throughout my week. I lift my teammates up to You as we start our last month here. Help us to make the most of our time here. Set our minds on the Spirit. Be with our families who are chomping at the bit to see us again; give them the patience and comfort needed. I’m forever grateful for the laughs I have each day here.

Gung ho,

Taylor Lea

For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind 

set on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:6

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may 

abound in every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:8

So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing 

in the knowledge of God.

Colossians 1:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that 

they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10

Not Just Tax Day

When I save pictures to my computer, I am also able to tag faces in the pictures. (Thank you, Steve Jobs and your minions at Apple.) Some times at night, I go through old pictures tagging faces. I find it relaxing.  

One night, I was tagging a bunch of pictures of Carter. It was then that I realized he has the face of a man. He’s not this little, tee ball-playing boy anymore. He’s grown.

Where did my baby brother go, and who is this man who stands in his place?

Christmas pictures of Christmas past

We love the zoo.

I love Carter.

Love.

He is an athlete.

I fully believe most of his success in football and wrestling is because of all those years where he and I would fight and wrestle. While it normally started as fun and games, it always turned in to an intense battle. Someone always walked away either crying or spitting mad. I think a lot of his baseball success is in result of the many wiffle ball games we played in our front yard. We played with such competitive spirits; it was like we were in Warner Robins playing for the Little League championship. If he didn’t have all the prior experience, I don’t think he could have done as well on the field or mat. His coaches would have had a lot more work on their hands 

if I hadn’t paved the way.

Number 19, four years running. 

Wrestling was my favorite to watch.

He is a fisher.

I can’t say I had much of a direct influence in this area of his life. However, he is the only brother of three girls. I think Bailey, Ansley and I have inadvertently taught Carter a little about patience over the years. You must have patience when you’re surrounded by girls. When it was just Carter and I, we could fight and scream then it’d be over. When The Girls came along, Carter was older and couldn’t use his old tactics to solve problems. I know for a fact there were times when he wished he could bang all three of our heads together and settle the matter. He didn’t. He drew from his deep well of patience. All of his fishing pictures on social media are a round about result of living in the land of chaos, ruled by sisters. Waiting for the right bite can sometimes feel like you’re waiting for your sisters to stop bickering. Patience.

Photo by Angelina Bellebuono

Waffle House Christmas Eve 2012

Photo by Angelina Bellebuono

Photo by Angelina Bellebuono

Waffle House Christmas Eve 2013

He is intelligent.

Carter isn’t just smart. Smart is too simple of a word to describe his brain. He is intelligent. This is definitely not because of my doing. It’s only made me work harder over the years. It lights a fire under your rump when your younger brother comes home with better grades than you. His vocabulary never ceases to amaze me. Where he learns these words, I have no clue. His writing skills are ones that I envy. My senior year of high school, I was in my second year of psychology with Coach Head. Carter was taking a lower level psychology, also with Coach Head. One day, Coach Head told me that my brother was a marvel to him. Just that morning he had to get onto Carter because he was sleeping in class. Carter then proceeded to tell Coach Head everything he’d talked about in class. Of course I was proud of Carter after I heard that. Then, Coach Head had to ruin the moment and say “You two are nothing alike, are you?” Thanks, Coach Head. Thanks.

Sleeping in the car has always come easy for the Shultz kids.

We loved Caine.

G and Dad never know what they'll get when they
have dinner with just the oldest two. 

He is in tune with nature.

As cheesy as that line is, it’s true. Since he was little, Carter has always managed to find some creature to play with. Over the years, he’s caught numerous lizards, snakes, frogs, turtles and rodents. He always finds a way to talk G into letting him keep it. As a kid, he would stay outside for hours upon hours. Playing in the dirt, frying caterpillars with magnifying glasses, climbing trees. I’ll never forget when we found out Ansley was going to be a girl. Carter was so disappointed he wasn’t getting a baby brother. He burst into tears and asked my dad “Can we at least get a boy dog?” A “boy dog” would make up for the fact that he didn’t get his brother. Now that Carter’s older, he still stops to catch the lizards, snakes, frogs, turtles and rodents. Especially when there are little kids around, and Carter knows they’d enjoy playing with the creature. Carter would be the one to outlast us all if we ever had to survive in the wilderness.

He stopped fishing to catch a snake for his cousins.

Always bringing snakes home in pillow cases.

The little kids weren't the only ones to enjoy the snake. 

He helps his father.

Sometimes I think Carter has the raw end of the deal. He is always the one to work with Dad in the yard or at the farm. However, he makes it work. Very rarely will you catch Carter complaining about the hot, nasty, labor-intensive work he has to do. He takes some pride in how dirty he can get his work shorts before washing them. He doesn’t balk or question when Dad comes to him with an out of the box task to do. He works hard to get the job done, and get the job done correctly. He works hard so he can enjoy his time playing. When the thought crosses that Carter has the short end of the stick, I imagine what it would be like if it were Carter’s job to take care of the household chores. I laugh then think things are perfect how they are.

Photo by Angelina Bellebuono

He loves his mother.

Not that he doesn’t love his father… There is just a special bond between a mother and her only son. When we were growing up, I often found myself jealous of the relationship Carter and G had. He went through phases of different ways to get out of trouble. For a while, when G was getting onto him, he could just turn his head a certain way and make her laugh. Lecture over. There was a phase where he could start to sing “It’s Too Late To Apologize” in the middle of Mom’s sentence. Try as she might, she couldn’t keep from laughing. Lecture over. I would always stand back with a wee little bit of envy in my heart and the look of amazement on my face. If I did that while I were getting in trouble… As he’s gotten older, it’s been so sweet to watch their relationship grow and evolve. He finds little things to do that make her day. He’s found new ways to get in trouble. However, he still finds ways to get out of said trouble. Their deep aversion to taking pictures only strengthens their connection.

Football picture day sophomore year.

He has a huge heart.

Carter finds his own way to show someone he cares. Whether it’s making time in his busy schedule to support his sisters at their events, helping paint a gift for a family member or something he comes up with on his own. His senior year of high school, there was a Pink Out at one of the football games in support of breast cancer. The week before the game, Carter decided he was going to buy new cleats for the game. Pink cleats. Mom, Dad and Carter searched all over to find him pink cleats, but they could never find ones in his size. On the Thursday before the Pink Out, Mom called Carter and told him there were pink cleats in a size too small for him, but there were pink “boot covers” that he could put over the cleats he already had. He told her, “No, Mama, I have to have cleats. Get the too small ones.” The next evening, Carter played an entire football game in pink cleats that were a size too small and brand new. Not because he wanted to show out in his pink cleats, but because he wanted to honor our Gran. Our grandmother fought and defeated breast cancer before we were born. After the game, when Carter came out of the field house, carrying his pink cleats, he walked straight to Gran and handed her his cleats, saying, “These are for you.” There was not a dry eye in the small crowd that had gathered around. Carter found his own way to show he loved and honored Gran for her victory.

Making time to see Beast's play.

Instead of buying a gift, Carter brought Bay home
two snakes for her birthday one year.

I love Carter.

I cannot believe this is the day that starts his last year as a teenager. My prayer for him is that this next year, he will seek the Lord and His will for his life. Seek where God will have him go and what He wants him to do. I wish I could celebrate with him and the rest of the family, but there are about five thousand miles in my way.

One of my favorite pictures. 

Prom 2011

Happiest of happy birthdays, Bou! I love you and hope your day is filled with all the things you treasure. We’ll celebrate together in July.

God, thank You for Carter. Thank You for the many memories I have of and with him. I pray You guide his path. I pray he seeks You this next year and all the years to follow. Love on him today; send him all the big fish.

Proud sister,

Taylor Lea

Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.

Isaiah 55:6

Show & Tell Day

I wish I could fully describe these pictures without boring ya'll to tears. As hard as I try to take pictures, there are so many memories and moments that aren't captured. The beauty of this country is only half way reflected in pictures. Despite that, I hope you enjoy, and I hope it helps you paint a clearer image of what my life is like here in Brasil!

Crepes on campus.

Chris is really good about taking pictures when we make new friends.

With Ruth, the director of Unilinguas, Unisinos' language department.

 GMoney has done a really good job with surprising me with different people over Skype. I love talking to my family, don't get me wrong. I just was so excited to see these three beautiful faces. 

My first time talking to sweet baby Kamryn.

My favorite boys in the whole world.

The traditional Gaucho drink, chimarrão.

Our weekly team meeting at Chris and Melody's house.

This whale replica on Unisinos' campus.

Ulbra is a different university. The first time the Hannah's and I went to explore the campus, we walked away with many, many, many memories.  

One of the most beautiful chapels the Hannah's and
I found while exploring Ulbra.

The walls were stain glass.

The picture does no justice to how large the organ was.

Hannah West touching things she probably shouldn't have.

The ceiling. 

We had a mini photo shoot.

 There are no words to describe the moment captured in the next five pictures. This was after a loooonnnggggg bus ride on the wrong bus, trying to get from Ulbra to the train station. We learned that "choo choo" is universal for "train." We learned not to get on the green bus. We were hot. We were giddy. On the train ride back to Sao Leopoldo, we couldn't stop laughing.

Trying to look uninterested. 

One of many faces from Hannah West.

Daniel, Stewart, Hannah Morrison, me and Hannah West.

Where there is food, there you will also find this group of Hands On.

I love this picture.

We had a two hour drive up the "mountain" with this as our view the entire way.

"How do the sorority girls do it?"

"No, not like that." 

Nothing says "I'm not from here" like stopping on
the side of the road to take pictures.

Hail Southern.
All the way from Brasil.

After everyone completed the maze. 

Storm clouds on the walk to campus. 

During Carnival, my host family took me to the beach and Gramado. The beach was nicknamed "Big Chocolate," and Gramado 

is the home of chocolate. 

Marcos, the boys and I rode paddle boats while Fabi took our pictures. 

The view from one of Gramado's highways.

We ate lunch at this family owned cafe before hiking to see the water falls. 

Tales and Denis.
My Brasilian brothers.

Right before going into Mundo do Gelo in Gramado. 

An ice Cristo Redentor.

A bed of ice.

Facetiming on the way to school. 

Helping paint banners on campus. 

Futebol. Brasil revolves around it. Here in Rio Grande do Sul, we revolve around two teams. Internacional and Grêmio. A long lasting rivalry between Red and Blue. The "way" it works is many years ago, your great, great, great, great grandfather picked a team, and since then, that's who your family has cheered for. My host family is in Inter family. 

We went to a second string game one, hot, Sunday afternoon. Seeing a real futebol game is still one of my most memorable moments in Brasil. There's no way to describe the energy or devotion found at this type of event.

Trying to find shade under our flag.

VIVO INTER!!!

The Thursday after my Internacional game, I was invited to go to a Grêmio game. I was so scared to tell my host mom and dad that I was going. 

Inter fans don't go to Grêmio games.

They never stop. This goes on for two hours. One word: ENERGY

Blue and only blue. 

My favorite part of any game.
The players walking out of the tunnel and their national anthems.

When I got home from the game, it was one in the morning, and everyone in my house was asleep. I was quietly making my way through the dark. I go to walk in my room, but my door was shut. This was weird because I never shut my door when I leave. When I turn on my flash light, 

I see this and bust out laughing. 

I was contaminated after going to that "other team's" arena and watching them play. 

Sunsets here in Brasil are no joke.

 You probably won't find the following picture funny. It's okay, you had to be there. One night, I was hanging out with friends. I got home after everyone was already asleep. I let myself in the gate with one key, and into the house with another. But that's as far as I got. We have a door from our laundry room to the rest of the house that somehow got locked. So... I was locked out of my house, only I was inside my house. After the initial shock, I had to figure out how to get in. Both parent's phones were down stairs; I could see them ringing right in front of me. I either had to get creative or sleep outside with the dogs. So... I wormed my way through a window that was too small to worm my way through. When I was half way through the window, I caught a fit of the giggles and almost busted my face. I couldn't help but think of what would happen if I made too much noise and my parents came down stairs to see me stuck in a window. The next morning, Fabi said sorry for not answering my call and asked if everything was alright. When I told her and Marcos what happened, we all cracked up. Over all, this was one of the funniest things to ever happen to me in Brasil. I only wish that someone would have been with me so we could laugh together. 

It was extremely difficult to worm through that middle window.

Hannah got a little overwhelmed in our Portuguese class. 

Selfies in Happy Station, our favorite snack place on campus.

My Brasilian grandmothers busy finding me a Gaucho husband.

I SAW CIRQUE DU SOLEIL!!! This is the only picture I took before the show because
I wasn't going to risk getting thrown out for breaking the rules I didn't understand. 

Brasilian Bus Besties.

Morrison wanted a picture of Stew's arm hair. 

So happy I got to Skype with Granny Dot and Grandpa.
Even though he tortured me with the "offer" of Chick-fil-A. 

Kamryn slept through her first volleyball tournament.

My favorite rat.
She didn't look this old when I left.

BayBay, the defense specialist with a baller's braid. 

Selfies before pasta! 

I got to see my Brasilian mom swim (and win) at her tournament yesterday.

Denis did his own swimming.

 I've never had a Show & Tell quite like this before. 

Stained glass chapels, night time breaking and entering through a window, futebol, German food, train ride giggles. 

And probably never will again.

Thank You, God, for the ever changing, ever surprising 

life I live here in Brasil.

Click, click, click

Taylor Lea

And he said to the people of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in times to come, 'What do these stones mean?' then you shall let your children know, 'Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.'

Joshua 4:21-22