Ryan & Carol Lantis

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About Us

Everyone has a calling, a dream, an aspiration, or an idea of something great. So do we; and we would like to make you acquainted with what that is. Our mission is to reach out to the youth of America and to help them find their dream and realize what they have been put in this Earth to be and do. We desire to use the gifts we have been given to inspire them to live creatively and to use their gifts and talents to bring about change in their generation.

How are we going to do this? Our vision is to establish a coffee shop venue locally, in the next few years, as a base for a youth outreach. But it does not stop there. We also plan on establishing other small businesses around it to taylor to the different aspects of the creative youth community in our region; such as a music venue and recording studio, a graphic arts and media studio and a clothing marketing and design business. All these will have the same core purpose, which is to impact the youth of this generation and beyond through the most powerful weapon in the world of today: the media and the arts.

To accomplish this, our present goal is to become further trained so we do not go into this massive endeavor blindly or unprepared. For this purpose, we have been given an opportunity to spend some time in the heart of Brazil, where Carol is originally from, and where we will be participating in some intensive training beginning in February 2008. There, Carol will be going back to school full-time for a Graphic Arts course, and Ryan will be working full-time at a recording studio which belongs to her brother Gustavo. This studio is known as one of the best of the Christian Music Industry in Brazil; recording music from all over the nation and also providing overdub services to major American Christian TV programs, such as Benny Hynn’s and Joyce Myer’s. We will also have the opportunity to travel with Gustavo and his wife Nivea, as they lead Christian events around the Country. It will be a pretty intense schedule, and it will last from 1 to 2 years. Furthermore, in order for Ryan to be able to stay in Brazil for this extended period of time, we are hiring the services of a lawyer to help us with all the paperwork Ryan needs. He will be applying for a Permanent Visa once he is there and that will enable him to freely travel to and from Brazil and to stay there for as long as he needs.

Now we would like to ask you if you would consider being a part of this journey with us. Whether by prayer or financial support, we would love for you to be involved in what we are doing and to let us know that we are not alone in this. We appreciate all your prayer and support and pray that God will bless you 100 fold.

Updates

April 3rd, 2008 - Rocky Road, and I Don't Mean the Ice Cream

Well, nothing much has changed since the last update except that we've been getting more and more busy. Ryan and I have been able to travel with my brother and sister-in-law's ministry a couple more times. (Soon we'll post more pictures of those trips and some videos as well.) It's been such an awesome experience. It's funny because I don't think we realized how much my sister-in-law was a rock star over here until we saw her being tackled by a massive conglomerate of people flashing their cameras every which way and screaming like savages. It's wild. It's kind of scary. And it's very humbling because those same people afterwards come to you asking for pictures and and autographs and are in such awe of you. And I keep wondering, what the heck? Do we look like extra terrestrials or something? We're so common place people, scared of our own shadow, our hearts are as dirty as mud and these people are almost worshipping us! It's sad.. You realize how much you need the fear of God to not fall in the same mistake as they, idolizing those we admire, and also not to get proud and always keep ourselves in perspective knowing what a poop we are.

Anyway, I (Carol) have been pretty busy with school as well. It seems like every week I have either multiple tests, presentations, or a combination of both; plus I'm still doing some graphic design and illustration work on the side. It's actually been quite hard because it seems like life all of the sudden swallows you up and you can't find time for things that should truly be your priority, like Jesus and your spouse, and even the rest of your family. So, that part pretty much sucks; I'm still trying to sort it out. Well, just so you can see some of what I'm doing at school, here's a sample.

Now I just wanted to post a prayer request. Today we went to the Federal Police to apply for Ryan's permanent visa (we had to wait a month on that because we found out that we had to take our marriage certificate to be recognized by the Brazilian registries, which took a whole month). That didn't go very well, because they told us that we needed to take Ryan's background check document to the Brazilian Consulate in Miami to have them certify it or something, and then we needed to have it translated by a government translator. So, that means that we have to find some other way of doing this because this document has an expiration date, and it is the 24th of this month. Plus, we're here, not there, so we can't just hop over to Miami and have the Consulate certify it. And also, if this is not done and the document expires, it will be impossible to get another one made, because Ryan has to be present at a Police Department in NC to get his fingerprints taken and sent to Raleigh. Our lawyer is going to try different ways of bypassing this whole thing somehow, because here in Brazil the law is very "flexible", if you know what I mean; which could work for good or for bad. So I just wanted you to please pray for us with urgency because this is very important. It's an emergency. Ryan can only be here for 3 months on a tourist visa (which is what he has) and can extend that for 3 more months. And those 6 months is all they give a foreigner during 1 whole year on a tourist visa. After that it's over. So, Ryan must get this permanent visa if we want to stay here this whole year. And for that we need to have a ton of favor so we can solve this problem with his criminal background check. Our lawyer is going to call the Federal Police tomorrow morning and try to persuade them into dropping this requirement or at least into accepting the document as it is. So please pray for us for favor and that all doors would be open because we know it is God's will for us to be here right now.

Thank you so much. We will update you on this situation shortly. We miss all of you and wish you could all be here with us. It's funny because sometimes I think I see a familiar face in the street, some friend from the US, and I have to remind myself that we are in Brazil and that that would be impossible. Love to all.

March 10th, 2008 - A Rough Start

We arrived in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on the evening of February 19th. Well, actually, it was around 1 in the morning of the following day. After living in the States for 6 years the trip back home was already a wake up call to what life in Brazil used to be, which I (Carol) had already forgotten.

Once we arrived in São Paulo for our layover we were expecting to go through the usual ritual; immigration, pick up bags, customs, check in bags, next flight. But this time, to our surprise, instead of standing in line for immigration procedures we found ourselves immediately standing in line for another security check point, going through x-rays and all that to get into the airport. (As if we could all produce a weapon between the last security check point and the 8 hour plane trip or something.) But anyway, then we found ourselves standing in the airport terminal with no one pointing us where to go, not knowing where our bags went and what in the world happened to immigration procedures! (And my poor husband, not knowing any Portuguese, having the worst time.) But to keep the story short, after walking around for a while and asking several different people, they told us where our next connecting flight is and that all that other "official stuff" would be done in Belo Horizonte. Once we got to the departing gate we were happy to know that our plane was being delayed indefinitely, otherwise we'd have missed it.

Well, we finally get to Belo and are overcome with another great surprise: 3 out of our 4 bags didn't make it to our flight, and possibly all of them were still in Miami! At this point we had already failed the test of patience and had to hang on to our last drop of sanity. On the next day (which seemed like an eternity) one of the bags was delivered to us, but still Ryan had no underwear. The following day, my dad having pulled some strings with someone he knew who knew someone, they "find" our other bags which had been detained at customs. So we had to drive 1 hour back to the airport to do whatever we had to do for them to release the bags. Well, thanks to God, they were really nice and did not charge any fees for anything in the bags and we were able to go home and finally have our first peaceful night of sleep.

Anyway, right now Ryan has been at my brother's studio everyday, learning the tricks of the trade and Nivea's songs so he can play with them at concerts. He actually just got back from a trip with them to a city in the north of Brazil. That was a very good experience for him because he was already able to play with them and get a good taste of how that kind of worship traveling ministry works. He's also been having some headaches accompanied by flashes in his vision lately, and I would like for you to please keep him in prayers so that God would heal him quickly. I used to have the same thing when I was little, which is some kind of strong migraine. There where times that the flashes would be so intense that I would feel as if I were going blind; the flashes of light blocking my view completely. But God healed me and I haven't had those symptoms for years. So I know God can put an end to this.

As for me, I started Graphic Design school a week and a half late, because of the date of our trip. So, I ended up missing the exams they had for those who wanted to eliminate certain classes to graduate early. I know I could have eliminated at least one of the classes I'm taking right now, so now I have to talk to the course coordinators tomorrow to see if there's anything I can do about it. I really want to finish this school as fast as I can, because being still in the middle of greencard paperwork, I can't be coming back here all the time. One other option is to find a Graphic Design School in the US and transfer there later, to finish my degree. So, if any of you know of any Graphic Design schools in the Charlotte, NC area, please tell me.

One more piece of news before I finish this already way too long update: my brother wants to record mine and Ryan's music CDs. So if you want to pray for us, please pray for this as well, that we make the right song choices and manage our time wisely between this project, school, trips and everything else. We don't want to to this just because, we want it to be something done with excellence and relevance to impact whoever will listen to it.

Thank you for all your prayers. We miss all of our dear friends and family in the States. Be blessed.

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Pics

.......... Family and Friends ..........

..... Engenho Farm & Restaurant .....

.......... Worship Conference ..........

Videos

Ministering in São Lourenço (Nivea Soares)

São Lourenço is a small town in our state. There are 9 different types of water that spring up there. Each type of water has different minerals in it and they can be drank as medicine, each helping a different part of your body. Pretty amazing. We tried some of them, most taste nasty.

Gustavo, the Honey Bear

This is Carol's brother being silly at a park in the same town of São Lourenço. They had a store which only sold bee products. It was pretty cool! There were different types of honey that tasted differently because they took bees to places which only had one kind of tree like orange tree, or sugar canes, etc. They also had lotions, soaps, and other stuff made with honey.

Click here to see more videos

Credit

Layout adapted by Carol Lantis from libertie of CreateBlog . Image used with permission from Chloe Mason , and edited by Carol Lantis .

Comments

Music:

Dan Kistler and his band ROCK! :) "Well, here I am again holding this piece of Wood in my hands....." Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Movies:

Pride and Prejudice, Narnia!!!

Books:

C.S.Lewis Stuff