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.
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