BRAZIL!!!!!

Dear Church Family and Friends,


I know that my plans for Brazil have been a little up in the air up to this point, and that at one point i wasn't sure i was going to be going, but after talking to my friends in Brazil and my Parents and praying about it I have decided to fly down mid January and stay for 6 months to begin with and i would like to serve long term there in Brazil.

I would appreciate your prayers as i prepare to leave, specifically that my truck would sell quickly and without any hang-ups, I posted it on Craigs list and have a few people interested I'm just praying that there serious and want to buy it. also that the visa process would go smoothly and there wouldn't be any hang-ups.

While i am gone i will be updating my blog weekly (hopefully) and you can follow me at http://peterdanaher.blogspot.com/ I will also be sending out e-mail updates every other week (again, hopefully) if you would like to receive these e-mails just let me know and i can add you to my mailing list. Lord willing i will be at church the next 3 weeks and would love to talk to any of you more about this. My Plan right now is to leave on the 12th of january, please pray for diligence and clarity of mind as i plan this trip and get all my affairs in order.

While i am down there i will be working with a ministry called Global Equip Ministries. GEM helps to equip pastors and church leaders in Brazil through video bible classes, it also seeks to serve Missionaries serving in Brazil by providing them a place they can come to take a short furlough from the work there and be refreshed in the word. Part of my Job while i'm there is going to be maintaining and expanding the "ranch" there, (you can take a look at the ranch via google maps at this lonk- http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=brazil&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.396866,78.837891&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Brazil&ll=-20.182729,-43.993882&spn=0.002487,0.004812&t=h&z=18) I will also be assisting Paul the founder and President of GEM in Brazil in his various ministries that he is a part of as well as freeing him up to expand the work with the pastors there. One thing paul does is drills wells for villages along the amazon river who don't have running water. I really look forward to working with Paul and Ashley in Brazil, please pray for me as i embark on this exciting new phase of my life.

I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday :)

Peter

Life on Mars

Why is life so complicated?? I keep watching those bank commercials where they have the green line showing you where to go, to “keep you on track”, every time I see that commercial I’m like “Man why cant real life be like that??”. But its not, at every turn there is a choice, a crossroad that requires a decision.

Today, or really the last 2 weeks, its has been, should I stay or should I go? My plan since arriving home from Ukraine has been to go to Brazil, at first it it was to go in the beginning of November shortly after returning home, but I quickly realized that that wasn’t going to work, I lacked the ability to prepare myself and the finances to make a trip that soon.

So I postponed the trip till January thinking that by then I should be more than able to earn the finances, buuuuut with the way things are in the economy and such and the fact that it hasn’t stopped raining since I got home it doesn’t seem like that will be possible either.

Coinciding with all this is the possibility of a business opportunity here next spring, I got a call from a friend telling me that he had passed my info and phone number on to man who golfs at the golf course he works at on weekends who owns lawn care business and is looking for someone to take it over. Being that I own/owned a lawn care business my friend passed on my info. Now this guy hasn’t called me yet but my friend told me he was pretty interested and looking for someone to take it over next spring. This could potentially be a very lucrative opportunity for me, if I’m here.

I still really want to go to Brazil and serve there, to be honest that’s my hearts desire, but I don’t really see God blessing that right now, while there are several service work and other opportunities available to me if I’m here over the next year. I was praying over all these things a couple Sundays ago and I began to wonder if the purpose for the past year, or really year and a half, was to change my heart toward to be passionate about the things God is. During my time in Ukraine God worked and changed my heart and passions, and I as think about this a cant but wonder if that was the purpose for it all, not for me to serve long term on the missions field, but to become passionate about the things God is.

So I feel like I’ve come to the point of this journey where I need to make a decision, there are to paths, each equally rewarding, each equally desirable, and both involving service and Christ. But nevertheless I need to make a decision, I feel like I’m spinning tires in the gravel or trying to ride 2 different rails, I have to make a decision, I cant keep going on doing nothing. So pray for me that I would make the right decision this holiday season.

whats been going on in my life

I realized that I haven’t really said much on here since I’ve been home, so I’m gonna try to do my best to Update you guys on whats going on in my lfie ☺.

Since I’ve been home-
I got home the first week October and since then I’ve spent most of my time catching up with friends here that I’ve missed. I’ve had allot of fun Helping a Ben Cartwright build and open Coffee With A Cause (CWAC) which is a new coffee shop on Route 20 in Locust Grove. Its called CWAC b/c it’s a non profit coffee shop with proceeds going to help run a orphanage and start a church in the Philippians, its pretty cool check it out if you get the chance, its got awesome coffee ☺.

I also watched a friends mom get married and sadly watched that family move to NC but the cool thing is that with the 2 families now joined there’s 16 kids!!! I cant wait to go visit them.

I’ve also been able to deepen my friendships here through informal ministry. Every Sunday night there’s a small group of guys (well the group is growing now, we’ll see who comes this week) that come to my house and hang out with my family and I and we always have really good discussions about the bible and Christ and our role as Christians. There’s also a group of us that have started fasting every other Friday and then meeting up to pray and break our fast afterwards. Each time has been really really good.

Recent adventures ☺-
Have been hiking White Oak Canyon and climbing a roughly 100-125 foot waterfall that was all wet, it was pretty intense, everyone said I couldn’t do it so I set out to prove them wrong ☺.

I also took a weekend hunting trip in the mountains, alone, without a tent. It was awesome/scary/intense/and cold lol, I’ve been wanting to do this for nearly 4 years and I finally just did it, I’m really glad I did though yet again people said I couldn’t.

I haven’t taken the time to try to kill myself via extreme something or another as seems to be my tradition up till this point, I guess you could call scaling a water fall and camping under the stars in 20 degree weather could count.

Hunting-
So my hunting hasn’t quite been up to par this year, I’ve missed quite a few deer, 6 to be exact, Sarah summed it up pretty well when I was talking to her after missing yet another buck, she looked at me and with astonishment in her voice she said “you never miss”. Which is true, if I miss 2 deer a year somethings wrong, but I’m working on turning that around, I’ve got 2 does so far and am very optimistic for the rest of the season.

Work-
As far as work goes I’m doing a little f everything, working here and there for myself doing landscaping stuff, not really to much. I’m also working for my old boss Chris Peek helping him out every now and then when I don’t have any other work going on. And I’m doing DX runs for my dads work, which is prolly my favorite job right now.

Recent Struggles-
Last week my “adopted” grandfather passed away, he was 78 and battling lung cancer, its been pretty hard on my family so far, the grief kinda comes in waves. My moms dad passed away Shortly after my family moved to Fredericksburg (23 years ago) and my dads dad wasn’t really a good father figure (he passed away when I was about 9) so we “adopted an ederly couple that lived next door to us at the time, or a should say, Sarah and I adopted them.

But they have both ben excellent “third” grandparents for us, and really the whole family, so his passing his a very hard thing for our family.

Brazil-
I’m sure your all curious as to when I intend to go to Brazil, well, join the club lol.
I’m shooting for January some time right now, but I’m not sure that’s going to work due to finances. You can be praying for me as I try to go down and serve there, my heart is definitely ready to go and serve, but I need to be making more money to do so, so if you can pray for jobs that I can save the money that would be awesome.

But I’m still intending to go just as soon as I can, and I’m thinking Gods calling me to go for a few years so its allot to get in order first and I really need clarity in it. if you know any one that would like to support me that would be awesome.

That’s about what I’ve been doing recently, thanks for your prayers, and I miss everyone in Ukraine ☺

Runaway

My favorite song over the last week or so has been "Runaway" by Love and Theft, a relatively new country band that falls more in the genre of "country rock" (which is becoming ever more popular with the likes of Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood) if you want you can listen to the song here

For a while I wasn’t sure why this song meant so much to me, I just new that I liked it on a deeper level than just enjoying the sound. I began to play it all the time, whenever I started the car I started the song along with it, I would play it on my laptop continuously, I new it was speaking to my subconscious but I didn’t know why. I finally put it all together today, its starts with the chorus-

I’m gonna pack my bags and never look back

Run a parallel line with the rail roads tracks

Make my getaway

Put the petal to the metal as the sun goes down

Leave everyone sleeping in this sleepy town tonight

At the break of day

I’ll be a runaway.

I want to runaway from everything that torments me, I just want to pack up and leave, leave everything behind me, all my pain hurt and sorrow, and of course, my sin. The second line of verse really brings it home for me-

And from the rearview I have a clear view

Of who I used to be,

A little bit faster now,

Don’t wanna turn around

I see who I am when I look in my rear view mirror, I don’t like it, when I look inside me I cant hid anything, I’m forced to face myself for who I am. I just want to run, leave myself behind me and become a new person again. Fresh clean, with no history. This is why the song has so much meaning to me.

Peace

Pain

Tonight my grandfather died. I have no more words than that. This isn’t something I do well, emotional pain, my first reaction is to ignore it, when that doesn’t work I try to shift it to physical pain by either denying myself needs or by pushing myself beyond my limits in either work or a workout. This time around I have it easy, I broke my foot a while back and its been acting up lately so I can shift my pain to that.

I know this is the wrong response and that I cant go through life ignoring my pain but that I need to face it through the strength of Christ and move on. This has been a year of emotional pain for me, mostly through circumstances outside of my control yet entirely in the control of Christ. I learned much through these times yet its still hard for me, its not natural, I have to force myself to respond correctly, even as I write this I wonder what responder correctly looks like b/c its so foreign to me.

I’m completely lost, I figure that’s why I’m still up at 2 in the morning, I want to cry but I cant, an ability I lost a few years ago. Why does death have to come? I don’t have any regrets in my relationship with my grandfather, I do wish that I would have had the ability to express my gratefulness to him for all the wisdom he bestowed upon me over the years. I thought I had more time, I wasn’t figuring on this happening till marchish, mom came home tonight and told me she didn’t think he would last the week, I was shocked, Stunned, and then just like that he passed away.

This is just another part of the growing process in my life, a long slow process in my case, but Its something I need to learn, I cant go through me life pushing aside pain I feel, I’m brave, but I hate facing this, I cringe up inside and want to run, but since its inside me I cant run, the farther I run the worse it gets. I have to face it, I just don’t know entirely know how to.

Mr. Sunshine

I decided while i was in Ukraine that i wanted to learn how to do portrait shoots, mostly b/c i believe it will increase my skills as a photographer but also to be able to do portraits for missionaries that come to stay with us in Brazil so that they have good family pictures and also pictures for there support letters.

Sooooo that being said I decided today that I can start with my siblings and move from there, I picked Colin today as its almost his 11th birthday and he was home and he's just cute. let me know what you think :).

we used to call him Mr. Sunshine, and still do at times, its pretty easy to see why :)




Love this one
My favorite "intense" shot...