February - Slowly getting back into the routine

February marks the end of the holiday's and start up of new activities for the year. Schools are back in session, and both Projects ran light schedules as the kids came trickling back in. I spent time doing lesson planning, cleaning and organizing rooms, and review lessons with the few kids that I had classes with. I had a little test and game to review the days and months, then I prepared calendars (in English) for them to color which had the 10 Commandments plus two from Luke 10:27. I have a Portuguese-English Bible, so I had the students read the verses in the Bible, and explained the meaning of each commandment as we went through the calendar. Some of my students didn't know a lot about the commandments, but I had boy at the Lar who knew them plus quoted Luke by heart - which was encouraging! They were excited to take their calendars home and put them up.

LAR Project

Vila Andrade

VBS Wrap-up Presentation

While we finished the lessons for the Cosmic City VBS in January, the kids spent the next two weeks practicing the songs and creating murals to make a presentation during the service on February 14. Groups of children spoke about what they learned each week as well as said the memory verses. I made a Powerpoint presentation with pictures from the five weeks, which the kids (and adults) enjoyed seeing.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The rain has lessened some, now it only rains every other day! I happened to catch a rainbow outside my window one afternoon - the first one I've seen in Brazil!

January 2010

Greetings from soggy Sao Paulo! The month of January was filled with rain, a continuing trend since November. Sao Paulo has received rain almost every day this month, which in turn has caused major flooding as the rain comes down too fast for the sewers to keep up, and sadly trash not being disposed of properly also clogs the paths where the rain needs to drain. On one day alone, there were 54 places in the city that were flooded. Roads are impassable, houses are flooded, and worse, the rain has caused mudslides, mostly in the poorer slum areas. People that barely had anything in the first place are now left with nothing. There have been close to 80 deaths since December due to flooding and mudslides. Thankfully the two neighborhoods I work in have not seen major damage, just small amounts of water in homes. Since I wasn't travelling much for work (as schools are closed this month) I wasn't affected by being in transit, though ironically I was out of water in my apartment one day, but other people were without water even longer.

This month I spent each Sunday working in Junior Church, where we held a Vacation Bible School during the entire service for the kids ages 4 - 9. This is the first year Calvary has done this, and everyone had a blast! The VBS theme was "Cosmic City", and the kids learned how awesome God is.

Each week the 'space voyagers' blasted off to "Theatre of the Galaxies" where they learned about God's creation, how God provided for the Israelites in the desert, how Jesus healed a lame man and how he walked on water, and best of all, how Jesus died and rose again! They also got to make cool things at the "SuperNova Craft Center", learn science experiments at "Wonder U Lab" and my favorite, play fun games at "Asteroid Alley" (I was the Games Director). The other two tour directors and I are tired, but it was well worth the effort. Our only concern is the kids might not want to return to the regular Jr Church programming next month!

I had a special visit from Pastor Eby of the Brazilian Church of Hope in Minneapolis, who was in Sao Paulo on a 10 hour layover, and arranged to meet me at a Starbucks of all places! We had a good visit, and I also got to meet another couple who had worked at Restoration Ministries, and are now interested in doing other work in the interior of Brazil. It was fun to catch up and hear how things are going at the growing church in Minneapolis as well as to share in person about my minstries here.

Celebrating Christmas and New Year's in São Paulo

I celebrated the holiday's with friends this year here in Brazil, with invitations and celebrations coming together at the last minute. Christmas eve included a beautiful candlelight service at church, followed by friends coming over to my apartment later in the evening to bring in Christmas and watch fireworks being shot off in the neighborhood. Christmas day was a lovely event at the home of my Pastor with his family and other church family, great food, singing Christmas carols and playing games. What a blessing they were to me, as I was rather sad at being away from family this year. They made me feel apart of their family!

New Year's Eve was spent reading aloud the book of Revelation at church, which is a yearly custom. Later I went to a friends for barbeque and more fireworks! Happy 2010!

Christmas Eve at my apartment

Christmas Day

Ringing in the New Year!

Year-end Student Photos - Merry CHRISTmas!

Merry Christmas! Feliz Natal!

Christmas is a time for celebrating Jesus and remembering that friends and family are part of His greatest blessings. Thanking Him for you, your prayers, support and interest in this ministry work in Brazil. We wish you a joyful Christmas!

Vila Andrade

LAR Batista

Ceremonies for Certificates of Completion

This year I had two 'formal' ceremonies to hand out certificates to students for participating in English class this year. At Vila Andrade, this happened during a Sunday evening church service, and many parents of mine and the art class came. The students each entered as their name was called, followed by a time of singing and message by the Pastor. Then the art teacher spoke and had one of his students talk about class, and I followed with a Powerpoint presentation of this year's English students, which they all liked, and then called on six of my students to come and tell why they wanted to learn English. Some answers were, "wanting to travel to the US" or to "help when I grow up with a job" to "wanting to be a pediatrician." Two of my students recited a Bible passage and a poem in English, which was great.

At the Lar site, certificates were handed out on the last day of classes during each of the morning and afternoon sessions for English, hairdressing, baking, and art classes. I again had a Powerpoint presentation and for both here and Vila Andrade, I gave a speech in Portuguese, which was my first time doing such a thing. My Portuguese teacher helped me greatly, which I very much appreciated!

Vila Andrade

The kids dressed up quite a bit here - boys with ties and girls in beautiful dresses - what a sight!

LAR Batista

Students getting their certificates.

Parties, Presents, Ice Cream, Singing and a Ballet - oh my!

This December has been busy with lots of activities. I had Christmas parties for my students at each site; I presented the Christmas story and we made Christmas crafts and ate Christmas cookies. The kids also received gifts from their sponsors, got treated to ice cream, had a dinner for families, sang for staff at Morumbi, and presented 'The Nutcracker' ballet - the first major production in three years, and it was beautiful.

LAR Batista

Presents! The kids got to pick their gift from a pile of toys (who wouldn't like to do that?!) but we did have to convince the twins below to pick two different toys rather than the same one!

Vila Andrade

Christmas activities

Cantata -The kids sang Christmas songs for the staff at Morumbi church and handed out homemade wreaths.

Ice Cream!

The Nutcracker Ballet - presented by students from both the Lar and Vila Andrade