Last day in Brazil

So here we are on our last full day in Brazil. The time has positively flown by! We have had the most amazing time though.

Here is a short run through of the things we have been up to since my last entry:

We have now performed the 'Everything' skit twice. Once to the kids at 'Projecto Pescar' and once at the youth service at the main church. The drama just blew me away with how much those 6 minutes can impact people. Each time there were people who were in tears with really cool testimonies of who God was doing in their heats. For the kids at 'Projecto Pescar', a few of us gave testimonies of how our lives related to the drama, then we gave an alter call to ask if any of them wanted to give their life to Jesus. Almost all the class put up their hands, and from what their teacher said, it was the first time for a number of them. I was in tears by this point and I wasn't the only one. We then taught the skit so that they could show it to other people after we left. They picked it up really quickly! And we all loved the fact that each group changed little bits, they added their own take on how to do things. So we added a few of those into ours the next time we performed it!

One of our biggest ministries has been to make friends. So we have done a lot of hanging out with people and just loving them, showing them that with our time and effort. We have hung out with the youth, the 'Projecto Pescar' kids. We have also joined the church's community missions group on a couple of trips. We have visited a government run orphanage for kids who have been taken away from their parents for various reasons. Some of them were abused, some had parents who just couldn't cope, and things like that. It was only a small one and the had recently had a number of kids move on so there were only 8 children. That didn't matter to us though, you can get a good game of football going when you have 11 extra people there to join in! The second trip we did was to a village about 10/15 minutes from the church. It was a poor village, though not one of the shanty villages which are apparently much poorer. The houses were mostly made of wood and looked much like my garden shed with a tin roof, some of the houses not being much bigger than a shed (though some were bigger). In the village our focus was once again the children. There were about 40 kids with whom we just sang songs and played games (which of course included football).

We were working with the tiny little church that was in the village and it was to the church that we gave the big suitcase of clothes that we had brought from Canada. As everyone was packing for outreach, we asked the SoM students for any spare clothes that they weren't taking with them. We then shoved those in a case and brought them with us. They were so appreciative of them- it really blessed them. The last thing at the village was lunch. The church had cooked up a huge pot of food. The kids then all came with bowls and Tupperware and pots and were each given a big dollop of spaghetti bolognase. We got to walk the smallest children home afterwards. For both these trips we only got to have a few hours with th kids, but they left a big impression in our hearts, and I think we also made a big impression.

We as a team have got a lot closer, with funny socials where we dressed up as each other, film nights, multiple trips to the park, card games, dying each others hair, shopping, caring for each other as we all got sick (about half the team have been ill enough to miss things at various points), cooking meals, having late night chats and getting manicures (ok so that's mainly the girls), eating way too much good food and just hanging out. We had the amazing opportunity to go up the nearby mountain at dusk and watch the sunset from the top of the mountain. It was so beautiful, and loads of fun. I think we also broke the Guinness world record for the most group photos taken in a short period of time! Despite being scared half to death that people were going to fall of the edge of the cliff because they were getting so close to the edge, it was an amazing time. So we managed sunrise over the sea and sunset over the mountains!

Since being in Brazil every single member of the team (bar the leaders) have given a testimony and preached. We have preached in a number of different churches in the surrounding area, each up to 35/40 minutes drive away. Sometimes we were split into two teams and sometime we got the pleasure of being all together. God totally took over the meetings and the ministry times. We had some fantastic ministry times where we saw people getting touched by God, healed emotionally, healed physically, people being set free from things, and a lot of tears. It has been a privilege being able to come in a minister to the people here. They have all been so friendly and welcoming and people have been incredibly open to receiving what we have to tell them. We have also had a lot of opportunity to speak into people's lives through prophecy. We have prophesied over the leaders, pastors, ministry team, the 'Projecto Pescar' kids, and various other people. We have also had the chance to lead worship which was amazing fun (if a little stressful in the planning). We had Livia (a past student and one of our translators) singing with us and we did English songs for which there was an existing Portuguese translation and we sang each song in a mixture of the two languages. It sounded hard when we started, but actually when it came to it, it was really easy to worship and we just had a fun time playing.

All in all it has been an eventful outreach with a lot of 'Outreach stories' (something that Robson informs us is a vital part of outreach!). We have seen God working in the people around us, and in us too. We have made some really good friends, many of whom I am sure we will be in contact with for many years. The whole team is going to be leaving Brazil with fond memories and not just a little sadness.

Prayer points:

• Much though we loved our stay over in Miami last time, we would love a smooth journey back to Toronto

• Amber was really not well on the journey over. We are claiming 100% healing for her from air sickness. We would love you to support us in that.

• Please pray that we don't get separate from our luggage this time.

• The next few weeks are going to be hard as we go back to school and then have to leave everyone again. Some of us know what we are doing next, and some don't. Please hold us in your prayers as we recover from outreach and face the next stage in our lives.

Ho-down & Beach

I can't believe how quickly the time here has flown by. We are now firmly into our second week here and so much has happened.

Saturday evening was one of my favorite times to date. The youth of the church have their own room in the church which has recently been redecorated. Saturday was the official opening of the room, so they decided to have a big party. So the entire party dressed up like... country bumpkins! (hillbillies if you rather). There were a lot of checked shirts, straw hats, patches on jeans and girls with pigtails. It was hilarious. Now we didn't come to Brazil with hillbilly costumes foremost in our minds, so most us just contented ourselves with drawing little freckles over our checks- including the boys. Throughout the evening we played a number of games such as prince, princess and knight. You have a partner, and dance around, away from each other, while the music plays, then when the leader calls out one of the three characters, you have to find your partner and perform the correct action; prince – one partner is down on one knee and the other sits on the free knee; princess – one partner sweeps the other up into their arms; knight – piggyback. Amy and Mettie-Anne were our representatives coming in second. This was a particularly impressive feat considering they were calling the words in Portuguese and the girls couldn't tell which word was prince and which was princess, so were guessing or copying everyone else! The whole room had been decorated with paper chains and streamers and at the back of the room there was a jail set up. While all the games and the dances were going on there were 'policemen' who went around arresting people and putting them in the jail! This was a fund raiser for them, because you paid R$0.50 to put someone in the jail. The person could then either wait 5 minutes, or pay R$1 to get out. It was a hilarious idea and one that we took full advantage of starting off with Cindy and working our way through the team (plus a few of our Brazilian friends). Now the dancing! The dancing was contagious! By the end we had all succumbed and joined in, running around like mad things laughing our heads off and having a wonderful time. I don't think I have ever joined in so readily at a party dance. I was exhausted by the end of the evening!

Sunday was our earliest start since arriving, we had to be up and dressed and ready by 9am! Lol. We were up to join the leadership team having breakfast, then we split into three groups and prophesied over each of them either individually or in couples. It was a privilege to be able to speak into their lives. It's been easier doing prophecy here, I think partly because we know nothing about theses people, so there are no pre-conceptions, also we don't know them so are less afraid to get it wrong and so are just giving everything that we have (in the same was that I found it easier to pray for people). From people's reactions and their feedback our boldness was well placed as the things we were getting were really applicable to them.

Sunday afternoon was a relaxing trip to the park – which has a wooded bit at the back which, when you are walking through, could really make you think you were in the jungle!

Sunday evening was not so much fun though because I wasn't very well. I'd had a bouncing temperature all day, but by the evening I was dizzy, nauseous and very cold. I felt thoroughly sorry for myself so went to bed. The evening wasn't wasted though as I held my own healing service just for me. I felt much better by the end I must say! Yay God!

I was super glad that I was feeling loads better come Monday morning because it was our day off and we were off on an adventure. Robson (pronounced Hobson) is our main contact here and his parents have a summer apartment by the beach. So we hired a minibus and drove 3 hours to the beach! It was a beautiful sunny warm day and you could see the sea shore from the apartment windows. It did not take long for people to get changed and scramble down to the sands. We had a couple of extras on the trip, Sessile – one of the guys from the church, Alana – one of our translators who is going to SoM next school, and Sam Fowler – an ex-students and small group leader (my brother's small group leader in fact!). We spent all day on the beach in the beautiful warm sunshine, with clear skies above, had all you can eat pizza for dinner, and watched 'Bella', all curled up on one rather overcrowded sofa bed. What can I say, it's a hard life being on outreach! I think my favorite bit of the day though was an opportunity I was almost to scared to take. As we were leaving the pizza place there was a homeless lady with a withered hand sat on a shop door step near the van. So stepping out, a small group of us went and prayed for her. She was so open to receiving prayer. When we left she looked much more peaceful, and much happier. Now her hand wasn't healed on the spot, but I believe that God has started working in that hand. The next day I kept looking out for her in case she was there because I want to see this healed hand of hers. Sadly I didn't see her, but it was really cool anyway.

Monday night we stayed over at the apartment, which meant that come 6:30 Tuesday morning we were still there, so the girls all got up to watch the sunrise over the sea, we watched the sky change colour, watched the sun peep over the waves and then rises behind some clouds, did a few beach aerobics and then Cindy accidentally stepped on a dead penguin, so we decided to head back to bed for a couple of hours. Once we got up for the second time we went and explored some cliffs nearby. All except Joe that is who was the latest victim to the bug going around. We watched cliff fishermen, clambered up and down the rock, got soggy from some over zealous waves while getting a group picture taken and admired the views. Sadly once we had explored the cliffs though it was time to head back, and prepare for our evening ministry.

The first few days

We have now been in Brazil for 4 days.

Monday was our day off. After a really lazy get up and then the delight of getting our cases back, we had lunch and set off to explore the town. We went to get money exchanged, but the travel agent needed to drive to the next town to get it, so we went to window shopping for a while. Alana, one of the English speaking ladies from the church came with us – she is actually going to the school in September which is cool. Window shopping turned out really fun. We met up with another guy from the church and the whole group of us hung out in the top floor of a shoe shop just chatting. The lady working in the shop let us try some Chimarrão, which is a strange herb drink.

They just stuff the cup with these leaves and then add hot water. Apparently it is a very social thing which is often passed around in groups. I thought it smelled like a mix between liquorish and BBQ chicken, then tasted a bit like meat feast pizza. Wasn't really my kind of thing, but some of the others like it. Dinner was a trip to a local burger joint with couple of the church youth group. Then we collapsed in front of our Monday night film – Minority report! Finally everyone headed to their rooms. The guys to sleep and the girls to chat, a patten that has continued every night since- lol.

Luckily for us, we get most mornings off. So on Tuesday it was a relaxed get up and then for the girls an abrupt wake up with the cold showers. The guys don't have the luxury of morning showers. They are using a different shower which is located in the flat of a couple who live in the church. So they have to wait until after lunch to use the showers – poor smelly boys! Breakfast was at 10, team worship at 11, lunch at 12 and then an hour free before our afternoon activity. In the afternoon we were working with 'Project Pescar', a kind of youth club that they run each afternoon that church. It's more than just a youth club though because the kids are taught skills like wood work and crafts. For our first day though it was a case of getting to know them a bit and just hanging out. So we were playing lots of games like; 'kangaroo, koala, platypus'; 'Splat'; and 'flush the toilet' (which is effectively stuck in the mud- a tag game). Then after thoroughly wearing everyone out we went inside to have a snack and play table tennis and 'sinooker' which is a bit like pool but with a smaller table and rather than using a white ball you use your balls to sink your opponents. All the kids are lovely. They are all very happy to practice their limited English on us and teach us some Portuguese words and phrases. We all had a really good time with them. So we were with them from 1:30 until 5:30. Despite having so much fun, it was really tiring and most of us were quite relieved to be able to go and have a short kip before dinner. Dinner was officially our first meal that was cooked by the team was a beautiful pasta meal cooked by the lovely Mettie-Anne and the equally lovely Joe – it was good!

Wednesday morning the girls woke to find a couple of work men trying to get into their room. It was a little strange lying in bed while these work men were attaching things to our wall, however this 'something' happened to be a heater/air conditioner so we really weren't going to complain. Houses in Brazil don't have heating, so whatever the temperature is outside, that is generally the temperature inside. Sometimes though, the church is actually colder than the outside temperature, just purely because it is so big and can't heat up very quickly. Once they had finished our room became the warmest room in the entire building! Breakfast was again at 10 and team time at 11, this time though we had soaking- yay! Lunches are always provided for us by the church. Each day the food had been so good. We get a selection of the following each day; shredded lettuce, carrot and beetroot, potato, beans, rice, these cute little deep fried rice balls, beef , meat rolled pancakes, cheese and corn rolled pancake. It's generally quite simple, but as I said, so good. Wednesday afternoon was a football (soccer) game with the kids from Project Pescar. Everyone was split into 5 teams and we played each team against the others with matches lasting either 10 minutes or up until one team had scored twice.

I was aware that as a nation Brazil was good at football, and it is so true. Some of these guys were really quite good, especially some of the girls! Not all of them were good of course, but a good number of them. So it was quite an interesting tournament, if a little cold for the spectators.

Wednesday evening was the first meeting that we were taking part in. We had Johnny giving a testimony and Joe was preaching. We also had the lovely Raquel (pronounced Haquel – Rs in Portuguese are pronounced like Hs) as our translator. Those of you who have worked with a translator before we have an idea of how very different it is to talk or preach with a translator. Everything takes more that double as long, and it's much easier to loose your place as your thought patterns are interrupted. This didn't seem to be to much of a problem for our boys though. Although Joe found that his 'introduction' section took up most of his time, it actually worked out really well. They both did fantastically and had really good points that seemed to really touch people. Joe ended his talk with a bit of teaching about healing. He then called out the words of knowledge that we as a team had gotten earlier, tinnitus, a scalp problem, problem with the elbow and a load more. These people he invited up to the front and we as a team prayed for them for healing. Most of the time we didn't know an kind of specifics of what we were praying for, because there weren't enough translators for us all. So the people we were praying for were merely pointing to the general area and we were praying general prayers (unless God gave us something more specific as we were praying). Good thing is though that God knows exactly what was wrong, so it didn't matter that we didn't know- he healed them anyway! God healed a good number of people that night- it was so exciting.

Thursday we had WARM SHOWERS!!!! Apparently by trying to have both showers on, we had blown the fuse! Oops. So once the fuse had been replaced we got lovely warm showers again- a huge relief. After breakfast we had small group and then drama practice in the afternoon. We are performing the 'Everything' skit while we are here and we all had to learn our parts. The Everything skit is a really powerful skit that goes along to the song Everything by Lifehouse. If you have never seen it before you can find it on youtube. It makes me cry every time that I watch it. By the end of the practice we had choreographed the entire thing, basing it on the youtube version and actually managed a reasonably good run through. Thursday evening was another preaching night for us. This time however we were not at the church in Sapiranga. The team was split into two teams and each teams went to another of the local churches, one was about 15 minutes away and the other about 30 minutes. Team A had Roland giving a testimony and Becky preaching on 'Dreams and Destiny'. Team B had Otis giving a testimony and Mettie-Anne preaching on 'Shame to Honour'. Although I am in team B, I went with team A this time (just due to the number of spaces in the cars), so I got the joy of hearing Becky preach :) The service went really well. Becky preached the best she has ever done that sermon (I should know, I was her practice audience) and people were really touched. After the talking we had a ministry time where we were praying for people. It is very strange praying for people when they don't understand what it is that you are saying. In the end though I found it actually really freeing knowing that they don't understand you. It removed all of the possible performance issues of “Am I saying anything wrong?” “Have I head this word of knowledge from God right?” all of that was moot. I'm not the only one who found that we just got something form God and prayed into it without questioning. After the service we prayed for a man who was severely short sighted and saw his eyes improve while we are there. I am excited to see him next week to see how he has improved over the week. Then it was time for food. The church had put on a lovely spread for us. We had hot chocolate made with condensed milk – oh my word it was so sweet, hot dogs in pancake kind of things, cheese bread, chocolate cake and more. It was a real treat to round off the evening.

Prayer points:

• A number of the girls have got colds, so please call in that healing

• The damp weather is also not helping those with Asthma

• We were so excited to see real healings in the first meeting that we held. Please pray for an increase of that anointing, that these miracles will just continue to flow.

• Blessing of Portuguese. We are learning piece by piece, so just pray that God would cement what we have learned in our minds and give us even more understanding.

• Homesickness. Most of us are missing the school and home a bit. So pray for a release from that.