Easter Letter, 1972

Rural Preaching Point in Parana, Brazil, 1970's

Maringa, Parana

 April 11, 1972

Dear friends and brothers in Christ:

Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost greetings to you all!  I'd meant to get off a Christmas letter, but it just woudn't "jell".  So this letter will have a little "hash" flavor to it, a mixture of different things.

First, the gist of what was to be the Christmas letter:

Theme thought:  "They grew him old too soon, and when they turned again to look on him they beheld...  a babe still lying in a manger; God's mystery still intact."

They look on him, these people with their "hip-pocket god".

They have all the answers, they know all the truth, and so 

HURRY BABY, GROW.

There's a crisis on, you know.

There's a nation to be built, a world to be saved.  My house isn't paid for, and men are enslaved.

So they grab the baby and grow him up fast,

Flesh out his muscles with their Positive Thought,

Stand him on boxes so He towers over all.

And fill out his education with a transplant to His head:  

The latest in tape-recorders with the best that's been said.

NOW, DO YOUR THING, GOD--- we're waiting.

Well, wait.

Wait til the Babe grows up in his own good time,

Wait til He bends his finger-- and shatters our universe.

Wait til He grows tall-- so tall we see Him from our knees.

Wait til He speaks, and our words are stopped midcourse in wretched shame.

Wait, -- and look again at a God no man can hurry, no man can shape.

NOW, DO YOUR THING MAN---  God is waiting.

Worship.

News of the parish and of the church:

We had a rather intensive schedule during the Lenten season, but it was rewarding, too.  It began witha youth retreat in Cianorte during the weekend of Carnaval that ends Ash Wednesday.  Even though it rained cloudbursts every day, we had a blessed retreat.  A total of 75 young people participated.

Special services were held every night in different points of the parish.  Our theme may sound rather blatant to some ears, "Enemies that War Against our Soul (life with God)".  The enemies considered were Insubordination, Sensuality, Avarice, Vices, Satan, False Religion.  Did somebody groan?

Of the approximately 600 people who make up our parish, 225 communed on or about Good Friday.  On or about, because we have eight meeting places in the parish, the most distant being a 3-hour drive away.

 A rural German Lutheran family in Parana, Brazil, 1970's

I think where I felt the greatest joy was at a small rural community where the men had a long tradition of never communing.  Not too long ago we had a long talk about that and they became obedient to the Word of Christ.  However, we separated the communion from the worship service and have the communion just before the coffee and cake that always comes about the middle of the afternoon.  (Church is at 12:00 in the home of a member).  All who are confirmed gather around the table.  We have the service and then pass first the plate and then the chalice form person to person at the appropriate moment.

An old German lives there, sharp of mind, fingers gnarled and stiff like old iron hooks; he has been many things, including a communist.  Twice he's given me essays he wrote, one on what's wrong with Einstein's concept of space and the other on what's wrong with Einstein's concept of time.  Before, when we've had Communion, he's stayed home;  this time he came.  However, when we were ready to begin the Supper, he disappeared.

"Whup!  Wait a minute!  Where's Uncle August?" asks one of his nephews (who is already a grandfather).

"I think I saw him down under the orange trees."

"Well, we better get him, too."

Afterward, they are talking very freely during coffee about it (there are no whispered conversations in Keller.)

"Yes,"  allows Uncle August, "it's the first time I've taken Communion."  So, he hadn't finished confirmation in Germany.  Then he chuckles and says about the Supper, "but, I guess it didn't do any harm."  And, he seems somehow very satisfied with that summation.

Afterward, he slipped me one more essay he'd written:  this time on the "soul" and the "spirit".

Next weekend there will be a District Conference of the Church at which time our district will be subdivided into North and South.  The North, of which we are a part of, will have ten of the smallest and largest parishes of the church: smallest numerically, largest geographically.  All receive some kind of subsidy from the church and are multiple point parishes.

Significant and basic decisions will soon be made about the type of ministry which will be carried out here; whether it will be traditional, "worker-priest", self-serving, missionary or whatever.  Pray for us.

The Bible Institute in Londrinda now has 32 students doing the Bible Course while continuing with their secular studies.  

In Christ,

the Biels  (Clifford)

Family is well.

Letter to Marian and Frank, January 20th, 1971

Dear Marian and Frank,

I can't get my pen to work, so will peck away.  You will be happy to know that we got your books on Charles's birthday on the 15th.  Everyone was delighted and Charles found his two cats in the lovely cat book.  We saw the movie, "Doctor DoLittle" a long time ago.  It is an interesting book.  I started the book by Catherine Marshall and am enjoying it.  We have read only one of the condensed Reader's Digest- about the Maya family.  I have been busy reading books but also make Rachel read some to Helen.  A special thank you from all of us.

Mary wrote that Louie and Rosie have a boy born on my birthday.  Happy to hear the news and must write to congratulate them.

Thanks for the pictures.  It is the first time that we have seen Erik.  He has curly hair like Lisa had.  Marian and Lisa look very nice in the pictures.

You asked what we did on Christmas Day.  We went to a home where four families that are related got together.  It was a pot-luck dinner and very good.  It turned out to be a hot day.  We were pleased with the plays for the program that was held on Christmas Eve.   At 10:30 a visitor arrived at our home and stayed overnight.  She missed a bus to go to Cianorte.  We didn't know her before and found her to be very pleasant.  She was here this week on her way back to her home in Porto Alegre. 

Off and on, a lady who is 69 years old comes to our house, has slept here two nights and has had several meals.  She isn't quite right in her mind and none of her relatives in our country church want her for when they have tried to help she got the police to believe that they took money of hers and then the relatives had to pay.  she has been at an old folks' home in the capital of this state, but managed to get away.  She didn't have but one dress so I gave her one of mine in order to wash her dress.  The relatives know that she is staying at a home for transient people and that she comes here often but no one has done anything about it.  The lady never married and has only nieces and nephews close by.  Very sad but she talks a lot and I only understand half as he sometimes puts German in with her Portuguese. 

Mary wrote that they might get a humidifier instead of a drier.  No one has said how much we should send or did someone pay for us?

While we were in Londrina for our spiritual retreat we took the children to see the "Love Bug" about a car called Herbie.  It was cute- showing how he could win races but when his owner didn't pay attention to him, he would have temper tantrums.  "Ben, the Bear" is here this week.  We saw it in the States almost four years ago and they don't remember it. 

I heard Minnesota got a lot of snow this month.  We have had a lot of rain causing flood over the main highway to our capital, so barges have had to take people and small cars across.  Today was one of our hottest days- about 100- right now the children are swimming in the rain, or rather, downpour.

We have a seminary student coming for part of the time when we will be gone.  Now Joey is busy with Vacation Bible School in two churches.  Two girls from the Bible Institute are helping.  Also, Joey has to go to Cianorte (1 hour drive) often as he is on   commission for our mission public school.  Next month is a five day Bible camp right before Lent starts.  Starting next month I will visit women that seldom or never come to Women's Bible meetings which start again in March when summer vacation is over.  Rachel and Charles have off from school until February 9th.  I try to take them swimming several times a week.  Rachel knows how to swim, Charles will dive from the shallow side and can swim a short distance and Helen likes the water, but won't put her head under.

I have asked my Dad to get three second hand sleeping bags or air mattresses.  We won't be staying at any mission home as those are for one year furloughs.  They would give us money to rent a furnished apartment but we hope that won't be necessary as we hope to stay with our brothers, sisters, and parents.  I think the only deputation will be visiting churches in Brooklyn and Columbus, Ohio on the way to Minnesota and then later we will go to Havre, Montana, perhaps by train as the latter pays for half of our support.

We just heard that we will be having physicals at the Mayo Clinic when we are on furlough.  Apparently, the clinic was happy to have the opportunity to study those that live in tropical or semi-tropical climates.  There are many types of worms here that they have never heard of in Minnesota.  Charles just had a blood test, an X-ray and gets hysterical whenever anything is done.  He had a sore muscle in his leg and the doctor ordered tests, but everything was normal.  I don't know how it started, but he is the worst when it comes to shots.  Three people have to hold him down.

Joey is teaching Charles how to play chess.  The cards you sent we played once showing how they had to follow suit and the highest card takes the trick.  But, we didn't explain about hearts yet.  While in Londrina we got a memory game consisting of pairs.  Most are animals, fruits, and different designs.  Usually, we play with about 40 pairs at once- all are turned over and mixed up.  So far, Charles has been the winner.  I remember in what area one was turned up that I want, but I don't do well.  Even Helen does as well as I do much of the time and she doesn't even pay attention to the cards that are turned up.  They are calling me to play a game now.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Sorry but this typewriter jumps and we haven't been able to get it fixed.

Letter to Marian, December 6, 1963

 Christmas Card 1963, Loanda, Brazil

Dear Marian,

Greetings from the hot interior of Brazil.  We have been having a terrific hot spell.  Rachel has a lot of heat rash.  We bought a fan which we appreciate very much even though the electricity goes off at 11 p.m.

My ankles have been swollen which sometimes makes it hard to walk.  I had an x-ray which ruled out twins.  The baby hasn't been as active as Rachel was so Cliff says we will probably have a boy.  If our baby is born here and not in Londrina during the conference, we will have to take our buggy to the hospital for they don't have a nursery.  We also have to supply sheets, diapers, blankets, etc.  for the baby which is probably just as well for we will know the things will be clean.

We were very shocked when we heard of Jack Kennedy's death.  When our neighbors told us I asked if he died of a heart attack.  We heard the details from Voice of America.  One of our neighbors said that 99% of the people want Brazil's president out of office and they wouldn't be surprised if he were assassinated.

We are going to spend Thanksgiving with the Olsen's in Cianorte, a four hour drive on poor roads, but since it rained for six days before, the roads were unfit for driving.  This last week we visited Jack Aamot in Paranavai, a two hour drive from here.  When we were there we bought toys for Christmas for Rachel.  I gave her some of them now.  She especially enjoys the buggy for her doll.

 Rachel with Doll, Loanda, Parana, Brazil.  1963

A Baptist couple from England will be moving here in March.  they were our back door neighbors for three months in Campinas but we didn't get to know them very well.  The lady is very quiet and was sick with morning sickness, thus I hardly got to know her.  As of now, we are the only foreigners here.  We have visited with a German couple in a neighboring town, Santa Isabel.  The wife speaks English quite well but her husband doesn't know any English and since we don't know German, we converse with him in Portuguese.  This German couple is strongly Catholic.

We had to buy water for a few days.  I was happy to see it was for only a few days for I figured that it would cost $12 a month for our small family.  Some of the people in this town have been buying water for months.

Rachel is starting to say words that include two words such as horseshoe, sun suit, watermelon, butterfly, etc.  She has learned some new Portuguese words but most are English for she seldom plays with other children.  Rachel gave me a scare one day when she fell from the top of the sofa-chair and hit her head hard.  When I picked her up, she couldn't breath.  I gave her mouth to mouth respiration and she was running around within 5 minutes.  I thought she was dying but she probably was unconscious for a few seconds.

 "Bye, Bobby..."  Rachel in the car.

Andy Olsen's from Cianorte visited us one weekend in November.  It was good to see them for we got to know them well when we were in language school together.  When they were here, our dog, Bobby, jumped the gate and followed the car about half ways to the neighboring town.  We didn't stop for we had just enough time to get to  church and I thought he would find his way home but we haven't seen him for three weeks.  Rachel still talks about him.  We are going to get another dog after conference in January.

Rachel Biel with dog, Bobby, in Loanda, Parana, Brazil

1963

My small women's group in church will be making sacks of goodies for the Christmas program.  Many poor children will come.  My group of women think Cliff and I should go around and ask stores to give donations and other people such as some Germans who supposedly are Lutherans.  We don't agree with their idea and are going to keep it as work done by the church.

I went to the doctor to get my left ear irrigated for i couldn't hear in that ear due to excess ear wax.  We have been feeling fine and hope the same is true with you.

Donna ends here, Joey starts here.

I suppose that you'd like to hear a word about our work, too.  Right now it doesn't amount to much more than study (language and sermons and preparing Bible studies).  Naturally, I have plans for the future which include a lot of visitation and open-air meetings.  Right now I feel that preparation is of great importance.  This isn't to say that I've done nothing "evangelistic".  However, my contacts outside of the already organized work have been limited.

The coming conference in Londrina should be a highly decisive one. The main topic of conversation will probably be about our relationship with the German Lutheran Church of Brasil.  They have a critical shortage of pastors and are hampered by the usual diseases of the State Church and of the tensions of a transplanted culture.  In this case, they have little regard for reaching the Brazilians, and they try to maintain the German language and customs.  The young people, however are rebelling.  Doesn't all of this sound just a little familiar, to us in the United States?  Watch for developments.

Guess that's it for now.  I feel a little like the hypothetical man who was always promising to write more later, and on his dying day called for paper and pencil and scratched, "Sorry I didn't write much before, but MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

Another note from Donna:

We sent slides to our sponsoring church and put Saetersdal on the list so maybe you can see them.  We are sending a tape to you folks and hope it gets there for Christmas.  One side is mostly of Rachel.

We wrote and asked your parents if they would like to invite a Brazilian girl to their home for a weekend.  She is living with missionaries on furlough in Northfield.  We know the girl and thought some weekend you could pick her up on your way home.  This girl speaks English well and is going to high school in Northfield.

Did you contact the Peterson's at the Seminary?  The Landvik's in Northfield said they will bring anything for us when they come in July.

Love,

Donna, Joey, and Rachel

Letter to Marian and Frank, September 22, 1968

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered chronologically.  The best way to sort through them is to use the index on the sidebar and view them by year.

Dear Marian and Frank,

We just got a letter from Mary informing us on the birth of your son.  Our heartiest congratulations!  We haven't heard the weight but she said that you might call him Eric Tomas.  He must have been born the day after you sent your last letter.  What does Lisa think of him?  Two little ones should keep you quite busy.  Now we are anxiously awaiting for Julia's news.

It certainly was something about Mike's sudden case of pneumonia.  Helen had several colds when we were home but all of us have been well since we came back.

We recently got a letter that Rosie sent in July.  It must have come by regular mail.  The snapshot she sent of Rachel is very good.  Rachel was very happy to get it.

It seems like time flies now that I'm teaching Rachel first grade by correspondence course.  It takes 1.5 to 2 hours every day and this is done when Helen naps.  There are 160 lessons to do and four covered readers with lovely books on the four seasons, arithmetic, writing, stories to read and a teacher's manual for me.  The last lesson was on two different sounds in "th" such as in "this" and "thank" and several words like this.  I pleaded with Joey to do this part of the lesson as I never learned to read by the phonetic system.  Rachel likes to study but I don't know how it will be now that the hot weather is arriving.

This last week the weather was very variable.  On Monday, it was cool- 58 in the morning and in the house.  By Thursday afternoon it was hot and stuffy, 90 in the house and outside, then it rained and back to 56 again in the morning and 75 in the afternoon.  Actually, I prefer the cooler weather as hot weather makes me tired.  Next month we go on daylight savings time.

We have two boys staying with us for another two or three weeks until houseparents come from the States for the hostel.  They are gone most of the day.  The seven year old enjoys playing with Rachel and Charles and the 11 year old likes to read books.

Rachel and Charles go to nursery school in the morning until the summer vacation comes in December.  Now Charles can speak Portuguese much better and always is playing with someone while I teach Rachel.  Helen plays many mornings with a four year old girl from our church.  Helen has learned a lot of Portuguese, too.  I'm amazed at all of the things that she can say.  When people come for church, Helen shakes hands with them and says, "Good morning" in Portuguese.  As yet, I haven't gotten her toilet trained but now with warmer weather I hope to have it done soon but she loves to play outside all day long.

I certainly have enjoyed the navy blue blouse you gave me for Christmas.  I have one skirt I wear it with and hand another skirt made that also goes with it, from a skirt that you gave me.  I had a blue lace dress made to go to a neighbor's 15th birthday part.  Fifteen here is considered the year for debutante.  The party we went to was more elaborate than any wedding I've been to.  We didn't stay for the dance which started at 1 am and finished at 3:30 am.  I plan to use the lace dress for weddings in the church.

 Donna Biel in her blue lace dress.

Joey was gone from Monday until Thursday of this week for a mission meeting.  Gloria Grant stayed with me as she didn't want to stay alone and her five boys are at the hostel in Campinas.  We seldom see Joey on weekends as he has three services on Saturday and three on Sunday.  He has been trying to visit the members plus spent a week three weeks ago in Cianorte at a Bible School teaching the students.  I have learned to drive the church's jeep and use it for taking Rachel and Charles to and from school and for getting groceries.

To raise money for the church, the women are embroidering aprons, pillow cases, dresser tops, tablecloths, etc.  I'm doing a pillow case.  In November they will sell everything and at the same time serve cakes which one can buy.  Another thing to get ready for is the last Sunday in October.  Our women's group will have women from nearby cities here for a day while we have two guest speakers.  One speaker will speak to the older women in German and the other will speak in Portuguese.  We will have to feed the women that day but the speaker suggested making soup with potatoes, macaroni, meat, vegetables so not much time would be needed for preparation.

Women from our church in Maringa, 1970's

If we decide to apply for a three month furlough after three years, we have to apply by March of 1970.  It would be June to September in 1971 so it wouldn't interfere with the children's education.

Greetings to Rosie and Louie, Cynthia and Nels for I have to write to our parents yet.  It seems like Joey doesn't have much time for writing and it is getting harder for me to do it.  Tell Rosie Rachel has worn her dress from the wedding almost every Sunday.

We hope all is going well for you.  I wrote to Mary to get you a present from us so hope you get something you need.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Letter to Marian, December 9, 1968

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered chronologically.  The best way to sort through them is to use the index on the sidebar and view them by year.


Dear Marian and Frank,

Thanksgiving has come and gone and soon Christmas will be here.  This year we celebrated Thanksgiving twice.  We were in Cianorte the day before Thanksgiving and seven families were present.  There were few children as most were in the hostel for school.  We had turkey for the first time since we have been in Brazil.  We didn't have a long visit as it had been raining and started again on our way home.  We almost spent the night on the road as it was terribly slippery.  I took us two hours to go 22 miles until we got to the tarred road.  The other dinner was here in Maringa with about 60 present- 2 Baptist families, 2 Methodist, about 7 from the United Missionary Society and us.  After dinner the school children gave a program.  Both dinners were pot luck.  I made 5 pumpkin pies and salad.

Our church held its annual fund raising drive the 24th of November.  Some of the men came here three days before and made wooden benches, tables and put up canvas on top for shade.  The women had a bazaar of embroidered pillowcases, aprons, tablecloths, and little girls' clothes.  Women made potato salad for dinner and steaks were barbecued by the men.  In the afternoon, cakes were sold.  We ended up throwing some potato salad away and cakes were sold very cheap to get rid of them as the attendance was poor.  It was a lot of work plus very hot in the days of preparation and the day of occasion.  It was a lot of work, but the fun and fellowship- and the profit made it all worthwhile.  One of our missionaries told of his church which prepared 170 chickens and 3 steaks and had 65 chickens left and many steaks.

On the day of our bazaar, Rachel woke me up at 1 a.m. to tell me that Velvet, our dog, was having puppies under her bed.  I thought the gestation period was 3 months instead of 55 days so thought we had premature puppies.  There are 3 male and 1 female.  They are mostly white with a little black on them and have a smooth fur- the mother is part poodle and all black.  The children are delighted to have puppies around.  We have an empty bedroom upstairs where they stay but at times Velvet moves them under Rachel's bed.

Rachel and Charles's baner-ha school had a bazaar for which I baked 9 duz. cookies and gave 2 aprons from our bazaar.  Rachel is having graduation on the 19th of this month from kindergarten.  She is over half-way done in first grade Calvert.  Rachel is doing very well in school.  On most tests in this course she has gotten 100.  She loves to read and reads her books to Charles.  We plan to send her to Brazilian first grade in February.  In August we hope the mission school here will have second grade.  Charles didn't get many stars for good behavior at nursery school.  He was the youngest one there and even though he couldn't sit still for long he has learned some songs.  While I teach Rachel Calvert in the afternoon he plays next door with a 4 year old boy and gets along well with him.  Helen is starting the "why" age.  She has several little friends that she plays with and older girls like to take her for a walk.

For Christmas we are expecting the Dahlen family.  They are in our language school.  I helped her shop in early march while our husbands were at a conference.  They have a girl Rachel's age and Charles age- a boy.  She will stay with me while her husband visits other mission homes which can only be reached by dirt roads and she doesn't want to go with due to arrival of a baby in February.

The middle of January we are going to a Bible camp about an 11 hour drive from here.  Other families enjoyed it while we were here on furlough.  All of our missionaries should be there and it will be the only time we get to see several of the families.

Once a month Cliff goes to where we lived before (Loanda) and serves 3 other places, too.  The farthest is a 4 hour drive from here.  When he goes, we won't have church services here.  Due to his traveling or having church services in the morning once a month in our country church, I give Confirmation two or three times out of four in the month.  It is held at the same time as Sunday School.  the youth in our country church and one here are planning to present a play for Christmas.  The Sunday School will have some poems and sing, our adult choir will sing two hymns and the same for the youth.

The end of October we had a one day women's retreat.  Women came from several cities nearby and from our country church.  In all we had 75.  Our women's group made chicken-rice soup for dinner and cakes for coffee in the afternoon.  Dona Ana from Curitiba was our speaker.  We discussed the ecumenical movement and evangelism in our church.  We divided into two groups- one German (led by a pastor's wife who is from Germany) and I led one of the two Portuguese groups.  The points discussed are to be sent to Switzerland in preparation for study of the Lutheran World Federation to be held in Brazil in 1970.  We think the study could have been more profitable had we been able to discuss this in each church before this meeting and leaders would have been better prepared for the discussion groups.

Since there is summer vacation from school now until the middle of February, we are planning to have a week of Vacation Bible School in the city and another in our country church.  VBS was held in July for the first time in these congregations and enjoyed very much by all.

We had some very hot weather- 98 to 100, but now it is cooler at 85 to 88.  We have had very little rain which has been bad for the crops.  Some larger cities have had to ration water but thankfully, we have plenty of water.

Pete and Elna Mathiesen

Karen, Mark, Kristine and Paul

(courtesy Karen Mathiesen)

We continue to have many guests- example this week- the family of the German missionary who lives in a neighboring town, an intern from a seminary in the U.S. who spent 16 months in church in Curitiba, and Mathiason's from Cianorte.  We enjoy the visits for we seldom had them in Loanda.  I have a good helper so the extra company isn't more than we can handle.  The lady who helps me now is married and a sister to the last one I had who left to get married.

We wish you a Blessed Christmas and happiness for the New Year.

Love,

Donna and Joey

 The day Rachel printed her letter to you she was mad at her friend Lillian and wouldn't put her name down.  Charles started coloring the picture.  Each stripe on the shirt is a different color and the girl has purple hair.  I will try to send it later.  How does Lisa like Erik?  Is he as good as she is?  Your son arrived on Brasil's day of Independence and Grandma Biel's birthday.

Letter to Marian and Frank, March 30, 1968

 Biels in 1968

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered chronologically.  The best way to sort through them is to use the index on the sidebar and view them by year.


Dear Marian and Frank,

You soon will be getting a form letter from Ohio but I thought I would write you some things that aren't in that letter. 

While Cliff was at the conference in Londrina, the Children and I stayed in Campinas.  I helped two new families- one that came three days before the conference started.  They have a boy Charles's age and a girl Rachel's age, so they enjoyed playing with each other.  I helped enroll the boy in a Brazilian nursery school.  Rachel and Charles went for a week and thought it was fun.  The teacher speaks English as well as Portuguese.  Twice I took Joan Dahlen to an open market to buy fruits and vegetables, to a store to buy food and once downtown by bus to go shopping.  We did a lot of walking and got sunburned. 

Cliff was gone for six days.  When he came back, Helen just looked and looked at him, almost as if she had forgotten him.  The new houseparents, Aarsvolds, from Kassen, Minnesota, were at the conference, too.  We visited with them the evening before we left Campinas.  They are adjusting very well.

We didn't have any difficulty coming through customs.  The day we landed was the biggest day of Carnaval.  None of our suitcases were opened.  We are missing our cartridge tape recorder and Japanese camera that we had in a briefcase on the plane.  We couldn't lock the briefcase and should have taken these things out of it and taken them to our seat.  We wrote to the pastor in Brooklyn, New York, to see if we had left those things at his house and received an answer that we didn't leave them there.

From Campinas we had a two hour bus ride to Sao Paulo where we got a plane to Londrina which was a 3 hr. flight.  In Londrina, Cliff hired a truck to take the things we had stored there.  While in Londrina I visited two missionary families there.  The children and I were in Londrina for two days, then Cliff came back to get us and we went on a two hour bus ride to Maringa where we are living.

We got to our home on the 14th, late in the afternoon.  One day Cliff went to Loanda to get film strips, flannel-graph, and a projector that was there.  It was a three hour trip from here, one way.  We had been here ten days when he took off for Cianorte- two hours from here by jeep to teach for a week at the Bible School.  After the school was over, he went to Campo Mourao, 2 hours from here and will have two services today and two tomorrow before he comes here for an evening service.  He will be serving these other churches once a month for six months while the pastor is in Germany on furlough. 

Last night, I went to a baby shower for a teacher of the United Missioner Society.  There are five families living here from that mission.  A Southern Baptist couple who live four blocks from us and the American wife of a Brazilian doctor were at this party.  I had a nice time getting acquainted with these people.  They have a school for missionary children with about 25 students.  We hope Rachel will go there to first grade in September but we don't know yet if they will have first grade.  There are several first grade age children but they don't live in this city and sometimes parents teach them the first year through Calvert which I may have to do.

Letter ends here.

Letter to Marian and Frank, October 24, 1966

 In our front yard, Loanda, 1966.

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.

Dear Marian and Frank-

Here I thought we were getting news of the arrival of your little one.  It is good to hear tht you have been feeling fine.

It's apparent you didn't get the letter I wrote answering your questions.  I sent it a few days before we got a letter from you saying you had changed your address, but I had hoped it would be forwarded to you.  I wrote that you shouldn't send us anything unless you want to send more candy.  For one thing, custom duty is too high and we will be ready to go on furlough by the time it gets to us.  We don't want to get new clothes until we are in the U.s. for we are limited to certain weight on the plane.  We have given a lot of old clothes away to the poor.  There is a possibility that we may be home before July- we will know at a conference in January.  It is certain that this station will be closed so we could go in February but Joey has to teach 2 weeks in Bible School in Cianorte which starts in March so we may be here until April or July.  The reason I think we may go home early is that next year there will be nine families to go and some will have to go earlier than others to spread out mission expense and not to leave so many churches vacant.  So who knows?  We may see you before you go to Europe.

In the other letter, I wrote that I had read "Bloody Morning" and enjoyed it.  It tells about the Hungarian revolution.  Last night we heard that it was the 10th Anniversary since the revolution started.  We think the embroidered things that you sent are lovely.  Someday I would like to hear of Frank's experiences when he left Hungary.

In the other letter I had thanked you for the presents you sent.  Charles likes to bang on things with his plastic hammer.  Today Joey was working on his car.  Charles took some of Joey's tools and was banging on his tricycle (my car, he says).  Rachel is forever taking some of Helen's clothes to put on the doll you gave her.  I gave her booties, a cap, and a couple things that are too small for Helen to use.  The necktie you sent is about the only one Joey uses and I use the half slip all the time.

This month has been lonely for Joey has been traveling.  He was gone one week to Umuarama, where special services were held in a tent.  Joey was the technician, so to speak, for he used his motor to show films as the town doesn't have any lights.  The following week he was here and Andy Olsen from Paranavai was special speaker at services held here.  Beautiful films that came from the U.S. in August were shown every night.  Films were shown outside and attendance was good bus, as usual, hardly any new ones come to services that are held regularly.  Last week, Joey and Andy went to a town 2 hours from Paranavai for the same film and service campaign.  It is a German community which Andy serves.  Tomorrow Andy comes here and they go for four days to a town one hour from here.  They both serve this German church but many members are spiritually dead so they are praying for a revival.  All of this has left Joey with slight liver trouple and upset stomach, but after a day of rest he is better.  Charles was so thrilled to see Joey the first week after he was gone that he couldn't say anything but laughed and laughed.

 Loanda, 1966 with Bobby

Our dog had a cut on a a leg that got inflamed with bugs.  Joey put medicine on it twice and that apparently killed the bugs for after a week of hardly eating anything and staying in the hole under our tool shed, Bobby now is barking as usual.

Rachel is super active and always into something.  One day she dumped out my perfume and filled the bottle with water to use in her playhouse.  She and Charles fight from morning until night.  If Helen turns out to be like them, I will be grey soon.  People can't believe Rachel is four because she is the size of three 8 year old girls on this street.  She weighs 46 lbs. and Charles is a chunk, too- weighing 35 lbs.

Helen at 2 months weighed 13 lbs 4 ozs.  Quite a fattie!  Besides breast feeding, she has cereal twice a day and sometimes a banana.  It is quite a chore to make baby food as there isn't anything available except in large cities and then it is only soup or bananas.  She doesn't have a tummy ache much anymore.  Since 3 weeks old she has been smiling and now laughs out loud.  Rachel likes to hold her and Charles gets upset if I let her cry for more than a minute.  He calls her "my baby" and refers to her as "he".

Are you going to breast feed?  It is nice that one can eat a lot and not gain weight.  I am at my normal weight now.  The biggest disadvantage is that whenever I go out for any length of time I have to take her along to feed her but it is nice not to have bottles to wash and prepare.

One hears such sad stories.  A young woman who had eight children (one every year) discovered she was pregnant again.  The baby is 4 months old.  This lady put a stick up inter her uterus to try to have an abortion.  A piece of the stick broke off and lodged there.  She died of tetanus.  Many babies die of tetanus because the mid-wife or whoever delivers the baby don't tie the cord with an antiseptic string.  As yet there aren't any planned parent clinics.  The middle and upper class use pills.

The doctor, who is good and very nice, was with me most of the time I was in the delivery room.  He took fetal heart tones just four times in nine hours before delivery.  The "nurses" here aren't trained to do much but they are good at giving shots.  Blood pressure was never checked nor flow of blood (except right after delivery I was given a shot for hemorrhage) and on the second day when I told the doctor I was passing large clots he took my blood pressure.  Blood flow didn't stop until two months- with Rachel and Charles it was three weeks.

Love, Donna

Notes along the side of the letter:

We are getting excited about going on furlough soon.  Rachel is anxious to go to kindergarten.  The children want to ride on a tractor with Grandpa and think it is great there are many farms to visit.

Louie Biel

We were surprised that Louie has already joined the Catholic church.  If only he could see how corrupt that church is here and pagan like with their processions.  Rarely does one meet a Catholic who reads the Bible or who knows anything about what it in the Bible.