Why We Are Here

The life and times of the spouse of Shaun

Well, first of all, Brenda asked if I could explain to our audience the reason for coming to Brazil. But now that I am behind the keyboard, can you imagine being my spouse. Here we are in Brazil, away from family and friends, speaking a foreign language knowing nothing (or very little) about anything. Nothing is really the same for us. Something is always changing, and this is another chapter or change in our life. I am thankful for how we came to this position in our lives. Not too many people have this opportunity knock at their doors, and for this we are thankful and very blessed.

Back to Brenda for one minute, she has been doing quite well in Brazil if I may say so myself. She is picking up on the language very quickly, drives the car around town, to other cities, on the highway and even taking it out of its parking spot (which is a time consuming activity). She hasn’t complained too much about the fact that you put your toilet paper in the garbage after you....well you know. The fact that our showers are extremely cold, we have to get up at 5 or so, because that is when the sun rises and the kids get out of bed (although sometimes we manage to sleep in our beds till 7.) Then again, you can’t complain too much when the beach is a 2 minute walk away, there is much sun here (and AC in our bedroom), very good food and a welcoming communion of saints.

But what brought us here? Well that in itself is a long story which I will save you all from, but I will give a short run down of how we got here. Several years ago, my dad went to Brazil to take a look at Recicasco, a Coconut plant that produced Coco Peat and Coco Fibre. The business was in need of some consulting as it was not performing as it should’ve. Since then the business has ceased to produce anything and we then decided perhaps we should see if there is something here worth getting going. We had long desired to help out in Brazil, as a mission aid worker, or something. This opportunity has risen up and I have been doing a lot of work on this for the past year, establishing contacts and information regarding the Coconut business.

The coconut business is a fascinating business that is growing a lot. The Coco Peat is a much more renewable product then Peat Moss for the Horticulture industry; it is even suggested to be a more arable product and drains a lot better. The Coco Fibre is in itself a new industry. New products are being produced by it all the time. It has incredible strength, and can be used to make rope, potting plants, erosion control nets and many more things.

Why are we doing this? How great it would be if we could help the unemployed work, teach others how to start and create businesses, and teach them to be “self-sufficient.” We want to help the church community out here in Brazil. There is much unemployment, much poverty, and I believe the best way to help out a community is by teaching them hands on, how to do things - like the saying goes “give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats forever.” Once the community is able to help itself, they then can do the same to others, and you will see a domino effect where the community will in itself grow and become a nicer, cleaner and safer place to live. I realize that these are big dreams, but we are all servants in His kingdom all serving Him for the furthering of His Kingdom and this is just our piece of this work.