Youth Meeting!

The teen and preteen meetings are at the same time on Friday nights, so we ended up going to the teen meeting this Friday!

Thilie was able to come this week to the youth meeting, along with the Bible Study leader and 3 others! It was so good to see her! And she's excited about seeing everyone once they get here!

The meeting finally started, a little late. First we watch "Yes Man" in Portuguese, but they were nice enough to turn on the English subtitles...it was interesting to watch Jim Carrey, but it not be his voice at all!

Then the Bible Study leader led the kids through Matthew 7. There were only three Bibles written in Portuguese that I saw, so Marcos ended up reading a lot from the Bible! It was good to see him again.

After the Bible Study we hung out with some of the teens as they ran around and kicked a soccer ball, threw each other to the ground (Joice - 1 point and Jordan - 5 points) or beat the back of each others hands up! I have some new bruises! Its painful, but I enjoy it!

It feels late...good night!

Jokes on the Court!

So for the first part of the 2nd preteen group...we played basketball and talked about forgiving others!

We then ended playing a Brasilian version of basketball with pushing, double dribbling and some crazy stuff that would never be legal ANYWHERE else! I was ran into a few times when I had the ball, nearly knocking me over. Kids were running from one side to the other while carrying the ball...very interesting!

As people were getting tired of playing basketball, they ended up sitting down on one side of the court, where Laisa started telling jokes. I now have some awesome video of some jokes and stories being told when one person is behind the other acting as the arms...both in English and Portuguese. You'll have to ask me if you want to see them, they are too big to put on here...but I did get some pictures too!

FRIDAY!!!

So many things happen on Fridays!! Why is that?

We had our meeting with the Preteens at 7:30...Danced to "Marvelous Light," "Beautiful One," "Every Move I Make," and "Cotton Eyed Joe" twice. We were SO tired afterward!!!

The lesson was on forgiving others because Christ has forgiven us! Why should Jesus forgive us if we aren't willing to forgive someone else. We put Jesus on a cross, I haven't had a friend do that! So FORGIVE!!!!



The court was dry today so we got to get out the Basketballs and enjoy our time playing knockout.



After the Preteens, we let the teens come and play basketball for a bit. But next week, we will see who sticks around. Many of the youth have been distant and only wanting to come to the "fun stuff" and also skipping things that they should be at to have fun! So next week once we meet with the different groups (we will be more direct on who can come at certain times) the teens will be getting a lot of Bible study and less "fun stuff" to see who sticks around!

Thiago and Valeska have left the Moore's house and are headed back to live with their Grandmother, who they had been with before. It was a tearful goodbye, but I am going to do my best to see Valeska as much as I can...it may only be a couple more times, but that little girl deserves so much!

Mr. Moore left today as well (We should have noticed his long sleeved traveling shirt, but didn't). Bill and Erika have left to take him to the airport leaving, Laisa, Amanda, Jordan, Laura (who's sleeping), Sula, Patrick, Douglas and I in the house by ourselves. So far everyone is still alive! But its only 13:30...so who knows what will happen!!

Oh...we are also learning a whole bunch of "Chick Jokes" from Laisa, supposedly that's the jokes they like to tell! Some of the jokes are pretty good...but some are kinda strange! "Which joke is that..." Don't worry about it!

We still have the 2nd preteen group although a couple of them have been showing up in the morning (so we might not have it), teen Bible Study, preteen Bible Study and possibly youth hangout time! We are going to be TIRED tonight!!

Hopefully I won't be too tired to post later! Peace!

Duck Duck Goose!

Jordan and I were up early today...not earlier than usual, but it was weird because no one else was out of their rooms. There was some music going on and we later figured out that it was Bill's phone (also alarm clock) ringing on the dresser OUTSIDE of his room. Jordan was dancing to it while we tried to figure out how to unlock the lock on the gate that was on the front door. You can't open the screen door when its locked...but we later figured that the screen could be moved to unlock it! An later we saw Erika prove us correct! We were pretty Excited!

Today the kid were acting a little weird! They seemed very quiet...I think its because of the weather...hopefully they'll be back to normal soon!

The kids are getting pretty good at the song we are teaching them, although when we turned on "Cotton Eyed Joe," they thought we were crazy! They said it was way too hard, but some of their dances are even harder!

After our lesson on God's Forgiveness, we decided we needed a break from Dodge Ball!

So we played Duck Duck Goose!! Even the older kids were really enjoying it! I am not the Duck Duck Goose type of person...but watching and video taping them was a lot of fun...although I always seem to be taking pictures instead of video taping when something exciting happened...Douglas taking out a little girl...Henerque running into the door... But over all no injuries!



After lunch was quite interesting too...while watching the Brasil vs. Republic of South Africa playing soccer, we had some 3 on 1 wrestling. James, Douglas and Sula vs. Jordan! I got it on video! I missed the part where she was picked up in the air, but being tricked by James and hitting the ground a few times was entertaining.




We had Children's worship tonight and we got to dance to "Marvelous Light" and line Dance to "Beautiful One" twice! The kids are really enjoying it!


The ladies in the House (all over 16) also went to the ladies prayer meeting tonight. It was held in a ladies house who has been sick for the past week and seems to be getting sicker. She told us that she had a dream about talking with her sister and other loved ones. We talked to her about asking God to forgive her, but she wasn't willing, right now she can't let go of the pain that she's been feeling. We are hoping that she will be able to talk to her sister in person soon so that they can forgive each other and be at peace both with each other and with God.

Please pray for this dear lady!

No More Mango Juice!!!

It is a GOOD thing that Wednesdays are our Relax Days!

We had our preteen meeting and talked about the excuses we give to try to cover up sin, we used an illustration with Hang Man that worked SO well!

We used hang man to "review" what we had talked about so far, "praise," "prayer," and "sin" and then after each word we had a question that we asked them. Our last word was Jesus! And we made the kids give us the letters, although they shouted it our right away! At one point we had it spelled "Jasuse" and the kids were going CRAZY. We ignored it, then pretended it was ok, told them it was how we wanted to spell it, then spelled it "Jasus," which still did NOT make them happy! So we just covered up the A. We asked them if that was good enough, but they were still frustrated that we didn't spell it right. So we asked them what we should do...One kid got up and said "Change it to an E." So we gave him the marker...he erased it and changed it for us!

It was an awesome illustration on how we treat sin in our lives, sometimes we ignore it, sometimes we say its ok for me, or we try to hide it. But we need Jesus to erase our sin for us! Any only He can do that!!! At least the kids know now that we aren't ignorant Americans that don't know how to spell Jesus!

We also had them write a sin in the sand and ask God to forgive them, and then wipe the sin out of the sand! It was a neat symbolism!

We played Dodge Ball today in the Building, the court was WAY to wet to play Basketball again today :(

After lunch and a couple of glasses of Mango juice, I took a nap...and I don't think I ever woke up from that nap...although I did go to Laias' house, to the mall, ate dinner and the bumpy car rides back and forth. I am actually writing this Thursday...So I know that the sleep from 13:00 on Wednesday - 6:30 the next morning was VERY helpful! I'm just going to have to lay off the mango juice...Mr. Moore says it makes you sleepy...it's all his now!

RAIN!!!

We thought the RAINY Season would be over by now...But it keeps coming down!

After our Bible lesson today (BTW, Liais is an AWESOME translator), we ended up playing a CRAZY game of dodge ball inside!

Seriously, someone is going to get hurt! Thiago (although we now call him James) got smacked in the face pretty hard, although it was hilarious!

I feel sorry for some of these younger kids playing with the older kids...but when its raining, its hard to have playground time too! The sand would turn to mud! (NOT FUN!)

I think they are trying to go easy on them more. I am enjoying being one of the first ones out! Then you get to stand behind the opposing team and throw the ball at them! They have to run back and forth...its quite hilarious to watch!

The Nightly Bible Lesson was led by Mr. Moore tonight! He talked about how the church needs to work as a whole, just as his body has to work together to get things done! He is very energetic when he speaks!

We ate some AWESOME jumbo tonight! I could eat it EVERY night!

Hopefully there won't be too much rain so that we can play basketball tomorrow! The kids keep asking!

What is Hiding in Your Shadow?

We started our Shadow Questions today!

We talked about what sin is and how sin separates us from God!

It was a good lesson!

We played basketball today. We have a couple of 2-on-2 games! It was crazy and tiring! We were playing a full court game, on a half court...it was fun!

Thiago vs. Jordan was a fun game to watch! Especially since Jordan has been playing basketball her whole life and Thiago has never played a real in his whole life! There were a few times we had to stop the game because of a foul, traveling, or double dribbling...so he was learning as he went. Overall he did really well!

We are also teaching Liais how to play...she has gotten better! She's going to be a pro by the end of the week!

We worked on the lessons for the rest of the week! It looks like it is going to be a good one!

Do have anything you need to confess to God??

Good night!

She Stole My Heart!

Today was a really difficult day. Erika woke me up before 6:00 to let me know she was heading to Thiago's house because his mom (who had been sick in the hospital for a few weeks)had passed away. I was put in charge of making sure everyone had eaten breakfast and was ready for church.

About 30 minutes before it was time to go, Erika, the boys, and Thiago showed back up to the house for church. He was pretty quiet.

After church we headed to Thiago's grandmother's house where they were having the funeral. It was a small house, and the "kids" (Patrick, Douglas, Amanda, Jordan, Laura and I) stayed outside. Not too long later, Bill brought Thiago's 8 year old sister out for me to hold. The second my arms were around her, I burst into tears. She was so sweet and so innocent. It took me back to when I had gone to funerals, but I had family surrounding me and right now some stranger that can't even talk to her was holding her. My heart broke thinking about how I would have felt.

But we bonded in that moment. Valeska and Thiago are staying with us for a few days. She asked specifically if she could stay in the same room right next to me. I was honored!

During church I held her. She had a rough day, so I let her sleep on my shoulder.

She was crying in her hammock after dinner, I held her then too! Pray for this family!



We set up her Hammock in our room (there are now 5 people in here).

Today is also the day that Laisa (this week's translator) showed up! We have been having a lot of fun...which has helped take Valeska's mind off of things.



Oh and Bill's Father - Mr. Moore showed up too...so we will have a WHOLE house full for a while! It shall be fun!

Three Stikes!

We are also now on a Three Strike system...

Strike 1 - You did/said something dumb
Strike 2 - WOW - are you kidding me?
Strike 3 - You put both feet in your mouth!!!

Laura's
20/06/09
1~ It's because you have low rise socks on...that's why you keep getting socks in your shoes.
2~ It's like you have a black eye on your hand
3~ Erika "Laura, would you like rice and beans, or would you like to wait for the pizza?" Laura "You mean like, delivery pizza?"
21/06/09
1~ "You've itched your arm so much, its turning white" "No, that would be mud"

Laisa's
27/06/09
1&2~ Tupac is dead?
3~ Look at the street in the holes

Bill's
27/06/09
1~ While preparing to make our smoothies, he forgot to turn the microwave on after putting the frozen milk in there!

14 Miles Later...

We are back from VQ. It was a long, yet amazing experience.

We left Grupo CEO about 13:00 with "Gringos" (as Bill put it, including himself) in one car and the Brasilians in the other. On the way, Amanda and I slept, preparing ourselves for the long trek ahead.

At one point we stopped at a ladies house, for a break and some cake. When we got there they were sitting in their chairs watching a Brasilian "soap opera." We were all hanging out enjoying our seats, when all of a sudden, Sula makes Etulo move in a certain way so that his head would not be in the way of the TV. But that wasn't good enough for her, so she took off her flip flops and sat on them right in front of the TV. The "gringos" were cracking up! We nearly had to pull her away from the TV when the cake was ready and when it was time to go. Sula will never live it down!

We parked the cars at a house near the road and began our trek not even 100 yards down the road, Bill was off his bike, yelling at Etulo to come help him. The rest of us got there and they were picking up the 200 or so crayons that had fallen on the path out of Bill's kiddie trailer carrying all the supplies! It was hilarious...Sula ended up with the box in her backpack the rest of the way.



Not too much further, Sula jumped in the waterfall and never did dry off. At one point Erika told me we were half way there...but I was somewhat afraid to believe her. The last time a Brasilian told me we were half way there on a hike (Jire last year on the mountain), it took at least another 3 hours!!! The trek was about 4 miles with our backpacks full of our hammocks, top sheets, sun screen, toothbrush, toothpaste, cameras, and 2 liter water bottles, but we made it there around 16:00.



The people of VQ lost all of their crops in the rains that came during their rainy season, with the river rising at least 10 feet over what the oldest person in the community had seen in her life. So along with our supplies for the 1 1/2 days we were there...we had the back of the cars filled with 500 pounds of food each...making it an interesting ride there...but luckily some of the locals brought the food bags from the car to the house.



Once we arrived at the house we would be doing most of our activities at, we had to figure out how we were going to play the music...we didn't bring all the connections that we needed. Once the music started, Jordan, Laura and I began line dancing, hoping they would join us, but even the kids we brought with us (Etulo, Fatema, and Amanda) weren't having it...but it was fun for us!



Later Erika gave a short lesson with the kids and we were able to "paint" with them, ate some chocolate cake, and blew up balloons! I don't think the kids knew how to handle us! We were playing some games that completely were off their normal idea of games, but a few of them caught on.

I was also in charge of keep the "killer man eating" frogs away from Amanda and Erika...it was entertaining!



It was really neat to see all the people sitting on this one bench, listening, singing and dancing to the music, listening to Bill speak and watching the kids play with balloons (both blown up and popped). It was hard for them to leave, although we really needed them to head home, one because it was already really dark and two we were ready for dinner and didn't want to sit in front of them and eat our dinner!




We were able to practice our alliteration as well! We had "Baked and Buttered Bread Bought and Brought By Beautiful Bill" and more...

We slept 9 people in two rooms (all but one of us in hammocks.) 7 of us were in the front room of the house, hammocks hanging all over the place and the other 2 were in the room right next to everyone else. Jordan was sleeping below Sula, and every time one of them would move, so would the other. Etulo was sleeping on a couch under my hammock. I was kicked a few times, but I was more worried about my hammock breaking and falling on top of him. But we lasted the night! There were only a few critters crawling around us and on the rafters. Bill and Erika got to see most of them!


Bill "nicely" woke most of us up around 6:15 to go bathe in the river, which none of us planned on! To get there we had to climb over a wooden fence, although it was only a small step for Laura. I didn't bring a change of clothes...But I can now say that I have bathed in a Brasilian river with many rocks EVERYWHERE!! Sula also lost her hair clip in the river...her face was so pitiful, but luckily Jordan had an extra hair tie! It was a lot of fun and VERY refreshing!

We also have now coined the phrase "Pulling a Sula" at the river...Don't worry about it (another phrase for the summer!)

When we got back to the house we had the fun job of figuring out where to put all of our WET clothes...The fence was the perfect spot, but that meant you either had to get your feet muddy, then walk around to the back of the house to clean them off, or use Bill's sandals that were near the door...I made a compromise and just hung them off the window sill/ledge.



For breakfast we ate HotDogs (no joke and yes that is really how Jordan eats her hot dogs!) while waiting for the motorcycles to arrive (they were needed to carry all the bags of food to the people in the community)! Eating hotdogs for breakfast really threw off our since of time too...we were really confused!



Our hand bruising (black eye hand...don't worry about it) games continued into the morning. Sula and Fatema we playing at one point while the rest of us were watching them including one of the boys from the community, Fabreito. Fabreito ended up a little too close and got a slap across the face. We all felt so sorry for him, especially since he was crying (but we couldn't stop laughing either). But he's fine and now it's just another story for the blog!



After breakfast, we headed out to the farthest house in the community, 4.5 miles from the house we slept in! We walked the whole way, with mud all around us too (it rained the night before...but I slept through it). The roads we very rocky and there were some steep hills, but the company that was around made the walk more enjoyable!



The house at the end of the road had some AMAZING coffee! Real milk, almost straight from the cow, and sugary coffee...made for an AWESOME drink after the walk! The caffeine was welcomed too! There we all sat around the front porch, singing songs and pastor Edgewardo gave a message from Romans. After the short rest and feeling the cool breeze, it was time to head to the next house!



We also made a stop at the "Pond" (or lake - don't know what you would call it) for a short swim to refresh our legs and get back on the road.



Some of our Grupo CEO group ended up with rides on the motorcycles to the next house, but Jordan, Sula, Bill and I headed by foot. Once we got near the house, we waved to the house, but kept walking, knowing that we didn't want to be left in the dust. Erika yelled something to Bill in Portuguese and he nearly ran to the house...Jordan and I agreed that it must have been something about food! AND IT WAS!!! Fresh Real Yogurt! I am always up to trying new things...and it wasn't bad, but I wasn't able to eat it all...especially since I knew that we had so much more walking to do. Bill was able to finish his, mine and even more... the cheese was pretty good too! We made Bill and Erika pose a few time for this picture! Of course we ohh-ed and ahhh-ed...



Bill and I made it back by foot the whole way...everyone else took the motorcycle, even though a ride was offered to us a few times. Once we got back to the house, everyone else was in the river, so of course we went and joined them (why not, our clothes were already wet!

Then it was time for lunch! After lunch we headed back down the road to the cars. Little did the "slower" group know...Erica parked one of the cars closer to the house so we didn't have to walk the whole way back, although we did have to get out a walk a few more time in places where the car needed the least amount weight!