June 2010

June brought World Cup fever and visitors from a Christian school in the US to Brazil. The Lar Project had a talent show, which showcased some of the talented kids here. Both projects are wrapping up for the winter break, and classes will restart again in August.

Visitors from New York Christian School presented music, skits, and testimonies, plus spent time with my English students.

One of the Lar students presenting karate during the talent show.

Celebrating World Cup madness, on the street with students at Vila Andrade and with students at the Lar.

May 2010

May brought Mother's Day activities with card making and music programs. The students who participate in the music project through the Morumbi church gave a special concert for their mom's, which was really neat. My students at Vila Andrade made cards for their mom's, and the Lar had their annual Mother's Day program, but I missed it because I was sick that weekend - I was sad!

Special concert for mom's

Lar students learning greetings with puppets and word walls

I enjoyed some cultural outings with two of my best friends here this month - a tour of downtown Sao Paulo and a visit to the theatre for the musical "The King and I" (in portuguese, of course, but I understood most of it!). It was my first visit to both places, which was fun.

April

This blog is brought to you by the letter "M"! This month I introduced phonics into my curriculam, and we had lessons focused on things that started with the letter "M" as well as reading. I also did a math day, to not only reinforce mathematics but to help the students learn how to say numbers better in English (because numbers are difficult for me in portuguese!)

Lar students looking up words that start with "M" in the dictionaries.

Students reading the new books we just received from the missions team from Colorado Springs.

Doing some math exercises.

The new text books I have this year included games CD's, which reinforce the lesson just learned. Here, students at the Lar are trying them out for the first time.

This month included our first semester Rewards Day, and these young ladies were sitting pretty waiting for their prizes!

Children's Church

I taught in Children's church this month, and we were studying about Mary Slessor, a missionary to Nigeria in the late 1800's. The children learned to trust in God, even when they are afraid, just like Mary did with the fierce natives. Here are some drawings they did of times they are afraid (first pic shows a girl yelling for dad because there is a barata - a cockroach - in her room!)

Guest Speaking at Seminary

Some of my WorldVenture colleagues teach at a local seminary, and myself and two others from Vila Andrade were invited to speak one night about evangelizing through wholistic/social outreach programs like what takes place at Vila Andrade. One of the guest speakers didn't make it, but Pastor Marcelo made up for that by taking most of the speaking time, and I had a little time at the end to talk about my ministry work and how I got into missions. The students were very receptive and had some great questions afterwards.

WorldVenture Field Get-together

The S. Brazil field had a chili lunch one Saturday afternoon, and we had a nice time of fellowship, catching up and relaxing together.

Easter

Easter was a busy but fun time giving the Easter story and parties at each site, plus working in children's church on Easter Sunday. My students enjoyed the annual egg hunt for the 'Resurrection Eggs' and learning about what is inside, reading an Easter story, and making crafts. Of course the sugar cookies and treat bags are always a hit. But most importantly, they learned "He is Risen!"

Lar Project

Vila Andrade Project

Children's Church Easter Party

One of the other teachers prepares real confetti eggs for the kids to crack on each others heads and see the confetti come out. They had fun, and we only had one child who cried!

Celebrating Easter dinner with a few friends!