We went from Cleveland to Fort Wayne, IN, on Friday afternoon, where Prof. Douglas & Debora Rutt hosted us. Prof. Rutt has been in Brazil several times. They invited for dinner Prof. David Colles, who was professor at the Seminar in São Paulo, SP; and Rev. Isaiah Obare, son of Bishop Obare, who is doing his Master Degree in Theology at the Fort Wayne Concordia Seminar. (In the picture: Lidia, Carlos, Colles, Isaiah, Debora, Douglas). It was a very good evening!
On Saturday, I was not feeling well. Douglas took my blood pressure and it was very high. He took me to the hospital. Read the report I sent to LCMS-WM:
" Last Sunday (19.Oct), I felt a pain in my left leg. I began to take some medicament that my orthopedist in Brazil gave to me to take in case of pain. And that medicament had a bad effect upon my blood pressure. But I felt it only yesterday morning (25 Oct). My blood pressure was 203/ 98. They thoughtt it was a stroke, because my left leg (more on the feet) was numb and tingling. So also my tongue and around the mouth was tingling. I had a MRI of the brain with and without contrast, and they found "nothing in my brain" … But 'the lumbar spine MRI was most significant for an L4-L5 disk herniation causing L5 nerve root compression'. Electrocardiogram was normal and so were the other tests. I was admitted to the hospital yesterday morning, and came back to Dr.Rutt's home this afternoon (Oct 26th). The blood pressure is now normal and I have some medicament to take because of my spine and my left leg.
I was not able to go to Clear Lake Luth. Church this morning, as it was scheduled; but I send a DVD with my presentation through Bill and Kathy Schumann, who came to visit with me at the hospital; and they showed it at the Bible Class. I will not go to the Pastoral Conference in Indianapolis tomorrow to Wednesday, but I will rest at Dr.Rutt's home. The Doctor allows us to go to Springfield, MO, on Thursday. "
My blood pressure is normalized, but my left leg is still a little numb. I cannot carry any weight so our friends are helping with the luggage and the boxes with the brochures and post cards. God be thanks that I’m feeling better day after day. Lidia is fine and is helping me in everything.
While I was in hospital, Lidia went with Prof. Rutt to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne. It was established in 1837—two years before the immigration of Walther and the Perry County folks.
– On Wednesday, (Oct. 29th) we visited Concordia Theological Seminar in Fort Wayne: The nice chapel, and
Luther statue.
We visited with Pres. Dean Wenthe as well.
In the evening we were invited to a dinner at Dr. Christopher C. Barnekov’s home. Bishop Walter Obare, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya, was visiting the USA, and Dr. Barnekov offered a special dinner to some friends in honor of the Bishop.
Pastor Carlos, Bishop Obare, Dr. Barnekov and Rev.Isaiah (Bishop’s son).
– In front of his house, flags of the USA, Sweden, Finland and of Kenya.
– The day after (Oct 30th) Bishop visited a class at the Seminar, invited by Prof. Detlev Schulz, and answered questions. - The same day, in the afternoon, we took the plane to Springfield, MO.
We are traveling through the USA from the 1st of October 2008 to January, 2009. As we are renewing our term in Kenya for two more years, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod -World Mission (LCMS-WM) asked us to do presentations in several congregations about our work and to look for funds to support our budget.
God has blessed us in this journey, as we are meeting so many friend from our Brazilian time and form our Kenyan time, and as we are making many new friends. We are sharing some of the contacts, activities and blessings with you through this BLOG. Sorry if we don’t have pictures of all our contacts or if we missed some of our friends. Remember us in your prayers.
We arrived in St. Louis, MO, on October 2nd. I was invited to lead a devotion at the LCMS International Center (IC) the day after we arrived,
and to do a presentation about our work in Kenya to the LCMS-IC staff.
We had several orientation meetings at the IC, coordinated by Vicki Helling, Development Associate - LCMS World Mission Development Services.
The first one was with Jeff Craig-Meyer, Development Services Director. One by one several people came to talk with us:
Debbie Feenstra, Missionary Support Administrator;
– Bill Lapp, Senior Principal Gifts Officer;
Elizabeth Mowery, Mission Communication Manager;
Kama Bernab, International Mission, Assistant to Dr. Dave Birner;
Stacey Welcenbach, Director, Communication Services;
Ross Stroh, Financial Manager; and others.
During our stay in St. Louis, we were hosted by our good friends Rev. Ellis and Joyce Rottmann, former missionaries in Brazil in the late 1960s.
We met also our friends Rev. Otto and Jill Hintze, former LCMS-WM Secretary for Latin America.
The Rottmanns took us to their church at the weekend, St.Paul- Des Peres, where we spoke at the beginning of each of the four services on Saturday and on Sunday. We did a Power Point Presentation (PPS) at the Bible Class on Sunday morning. – St. Paul – Des Peres – pastors are: Rev. Dr. David S. Smith, Rev. Timothy R. Seban, Rev. Mark D. Femmel and Rev. Paul T.Prange.
This was St.Paul’s annual dinner’s Sunday: Potato Pancake + roast beef. It was a good opportunity to meet several people after the services. On Monday evening we had a meeting with St.Paul’s Board of Mission where we did a PPS presentation and where we shared the challenges we face in Kenya.
– On Monday we visited also Concordia Seminar, with Prof. William Schumacher, who was in Kenya last year teaching at the Seminar in Matongo.
On Tuesday I had a class at the Seminar, talking about the mission challenges in Kenya.
The same day we had a meeting with LCMS President Rev. Dr. Gerald Kieschnick and with Dr. Samuel Nafzger (CTCR), showing them pictures about our work in Kenya. We had also lunch with both. 
