The kids have thoroughly enjoyed catching lizards that live around our house. They spend hours enjoying the little critters they catch. Although they wanted to keep one captive, it wasn't until today that I agreed. The difference was this little guy was found IN our house! It was quite an event chasing him around the living room. Finally he was caught, but not before he dropped his tail. We had read in books that they use their "dropped tails" to trick their prey. Seeing the little tail still squirming did leave us a little squirmish!
So now we have a new member of our family. Since HE decided to come in, he can stay a little while. His name is Twitchy Tail and we are trying to make him as comfortable as possible. Crickets are abundant and so are other creepy crawlies so we should have no problems keeping him well fed. My only worry is that we keep him well-captured!
I'm sure you have taken notice of the photo of our next unwanted guest. I (Heather) met him Sunday night while walking past our front entry way. I accidentally bumped into his web and was 
bitten by him. Evan retraced the broken web to find this guy and took photos. Our local "bug guy" friend told us he is a member of the "Banana Spider" family and is capable of making a victim quite ill. Fortunately he seems to have given me a good scare and nothing more. When a fever and chills hit me on Monday evening I wasn't so sure. Good thing Noah was also ill. That made me feel better!
As for news with ITEC- Steve is back from his trip to Brazil. While there he met with Christian tribal leaders from 49 tribes in the Brazilian Amazon and found that many had heard of the dental training program and IMED. It is incredible to think that tribal people in the Amazon know of ITEC and the programs being developed. The Brazilian Amazon region is closed to all outsiders (even national Brazilians) and can only be reached by other tribal people. These tribal leaders want tools (such as medicine, dentistry, and optometry) to care for the felt needs of these people groups they are trying to reach. Imagine 700,000 people in the Amazon region who are unable to access medical and dental care because the government says it will change their culture. Even when these groups themselves are asking for the care. The only solution (save changing the minds of the government) is to train other tribal people to care for these needs. What a great opportunity to care for these needs with door-opening tools that allow them to share Jesus' love in a culturally appropriate way. The challenge for us is making this tool appropriate for these leaders.
Other news- It looks like we will be extending our time in Florida. Initially we had hoped to spend 8 weeks in Florida working on the I-Med program. Now that we are here and see the size and complexity of the project, we realize that more time spent here would be beneficial. We are uncertain of our exact date of departure at this point and will update the blog with that information when we know more. Please continue to pray for us as we seek the Lord about the implementation phase. In November Evan and I will be traveling to Ecuador with Steve to look at possiblities in that region. We appreciate your prayers.
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