Reaching Brazil's Children at Risk

Thursday, February 23, 2012

February 2012 – Preparing for a change in scenery

This month I have been preparing to go on my home leave (starting March 2012) so have been cleaning, packing, and getting numerous items arranged for my time away from Brazil.

One great blessing was finding a person to rent my apartment while I am gone. I had been considering giving it up, but through a mutual friend, found a wonderful Christian girl from India who is in Sao Paulo working for six months-the same amount of time of my leave-and was desperately looking for a furnished place to live. It’s so great to see how God worked that out for both of us! Please pray for Lisha as she adjusts to life in Sao Paulo and being away from her family and things familiar. At the Lar, my students were all quite sad when I told them classes would not be starting up right away. However I have arranged for one class to have English during my leave. I have asked two of my top students to be ‘student teachers’ to the younger class I had been giving classes to last year. Since this class learns very basic items such as numbers, letters, colors, and greetings, I knew these were subjects that my students could teach. I have been busy getting all the materials prepared, copied, and organized into a folder for them to use with the class teacher during my absence. We even put up English posters in the room, which the teacher was very excited about. Please pray for Meuriam and Jessica Kelly as they become ‘student teachers’ this year – they are both very nervous, but I know they will do a great job!

Above, Professora Neia, myself and Meuriam. Below Jessica Kelly

The Lar had a visit from Ronald McDonald this month as well, who presented some lively skits, songs, and other entertainment. Some of the kids thought I brought him from the US (he’s American, right?) No – I didn’t! My room is ready for a long absence – everything is covered to keep the dust off! Bye bye room! See you in September!

My desk is under there somewhere!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

January 2012 – Reading Week during the holidays

This month I returned to the other project I had worked at last July, Casa Esperança (House of Hope) in the Buraco Quente favela to help with the reading week they held. It was nice to see some of the kids from the previous reading week, and they remembered me too!

At the end of the week, they were eligible for prizes based on how many points they had earned by how many books they had read.

What a little reading can lead to . . .

This day (January 28) in World Evangelism History

On this day in 1906, Oswald J. Smith, who would become a powerful missions advocate and spokesman, was converted at an R.A. Torrey crusade in Toronto, Canada.

A sickly teenager, the doctors did not think that Smith would live to manhood. He didn’t do much physical work and walk only short distances. Because Smith didn’t do much outside, he learned to read, a lot. And he grew to love it, especially reading the newspaper. As he read, he continually saw articles about Torrey and his crusades. The fact that so many went to hear the man intrigued the young teen. When he found out that a crusade was being held only ninety miles from his house, he knew he had to go find out what this man said that everyone found so important. So he set out on a train with his brother to hear this famous preacher.

At the meeting, Torrey preached out of Isaiah 53:5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” The words pierced the heart of young Smith and he struggled within himself. But he record what happened next:

“Then suddenly, it happened. I cannot explain it even today. I just bowed my head, put my face between my hands and in a moment tears gushed through my fingers, and fell upon the chair, and there stole into my boyish heart a realization of the fact that the great change had taken place. Christ had entered and I was a new creature. I had been born again. There was no excitement, no unusual feeling, but I knew that something had happened, and that ever after all life would be different. That was January 28th, 1906, when I was 16 years of age, and it has lasted to this day. Yes, and it is going to last, praise God, throughout the countless ages of eternity.”

Oswald J. Smith never got over what Jesus did for him that day! And this amazement at his salvation would drive Smith to become one of the greatest missionary advocates and supporters of his day. Over the next eighty years, he preached more than 12,000 sermons in 80 countries, wrote thirty-five books (with translations into 128 languages), as well as 1,200 poems, of which 100 have been set to music. He raised over $14 million dollars for missionary work. He founded the Peoples Church in Toronto. He was the major advocate for the faith promise offering, sharing the idea in hundreds of churches. And all of this grew out of what God did in the heart of a sixteen year old boy at a crowded conference hall. In a testimonial song he wrote, Smith says:

Saved! Saved! Saved! Oh, joy beyond compare!

Christ my life, and I His constant care;

Yielding all and trusting Him alone,

Living now each moment as his own.

Source:

Believer’s Web

Oswald J. Smith

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Lar Project Year End Fun

This year at the Lar project we got a little more brave in doing our year-end presentation – the students did a skit of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, a spelling bee, and a dance presentation. My younger class sang the A-B-C song and all were presented with certificates of completion for this year of English. It’s always a lot of work getting ready, the students are tired and nervous about their roles, but in end it was all a success! After the presentation, I had a Christmas party planned for them, and in my craziness, decided to have the students make their own sugar cookies. This proved to be a bigger hit than I had suspected – they all loved it! I had three mom’s visit also, and it was fun showing them how to make the cut out cookies as well.

Preparation for Goldilocks

In the weeks before our presentation, my students listened to the Goldilocks story on CD, read the book, watched videos, and did various worksheets and projects to learn about the characters and house items in English. I was going to try and make porridge, but decided against it!

Finished products

The Presentation

Both morning and afternoon students presented, and we had four students be the main characters, with the rest of the students wearing a placard indicating which story part they were: a bowl, a chair, or a bed!

Above, the morning class bears finding baby bear’s chair broken (girl on floor), below, the afternoon class bears and Goldilocks

Above right, Vinicius wrote and told a story of seeing Goldilocks running through the woods after fleeing the three bears house!

The Spelling Bee

Sheer terror struck my students at the thought of spelling words in front of Everyone at the Lar, and spelling in English was even more terrifying, but in the end they took this task seriously, studied, and did a good job! Mayara won the morning session, and Paula and Natalia Sabrina won the afternoon, which had two spelling bees broken down by age.

A-B-C Song

My younger classes each sang the A-B-C song for their presentation and received certificates of participation.

Certificates

Christmas Party

I had a Brazilian friend come help me in the morning session, and she had recently visited the United States, so I had her speak to my students about her trip and the importance of learning English.

I also read the Christmas story, and the kids made crafts, did word searches and played Christmas bingo.

Cookies! Cookies and More Cookies!

Since my students ask me every year for the recipe to make the sugar cookies, I thought it would be fun to show them how to make them. There was flour and sugar sprinkles everywhere, but they had a blast!