Brazil Day #4

Thank you, Jesus, for Brazilian coffee again this morning! After breakfast Flavia dropped us off at the church and we all gathered in the sanctuary for worship, lesson, and to get things figured out for today. Garrett led the lesson. The lesson was from Ephesians 2:10 and John 14:18. The first verse mad me think of all those kids in the park last night and all the bad things they do to themselves. It made me think about how God created them with the purpose to do good. He created them as His beautiful work of art, and it just breaks my heart to see them so lost in the dark. The first thing that came to mind reading the second verse was my brothers and then the kids we would see later on who are in similar situations to my brother's. I just pray that the kids will find home in God and let that be their strength as they wait for a family. Before lunch we split into three groups. One group painted at the church, on group cleaned on of the children's shelters, and my group did children's ministry at the other shelter. There were about 9 kids at the shelter. They were all very shy except for Catherine Victoria, who was quite the character! =) We started by playing duck duck goose. Then we played blob tag, blew bubbles, and played play dough. There was one little girl who was extra shy and she would sit and just watch everyone. I kept trying to involve her, but she would just walk back to her corner to watch everyone else, so I just brought everything to her. Then Kristen gave them all a book with the salvation story in it and Rodrigo the translator read it to them. Then they all mad a craft with paper of Jesus on the throne of their hearts. They all raised their hands to accept Jesus. I pray that they will seek out a better understanding of God and that they really would love Him and put their faith in Him. When we were done with the craft we just played and colored. The little girl I was with just kept going back to sit by herself, but I kept bringing her back to make bracelets, color, and play with bubbles. I don't know what was going on in her mind and heart, but I believe I was there this morning for that little girl specifically even thought I wasn't even able to talk to her much. I pray that whatever her need God would meet it! When we were done at the shelter we headed back to the church for lunch. I was able to check my e-mail quickly then we had lunch and split up again. I went back to the same shelter we we re earlier, but this time we cleaned and the kids were all somewhere else. We dumped soap and water on the floor, scrub it, rinse off the soap, and my job was to use the squeegee to get the rest of the water to the drain! Once the floors were done the team hung out in the shelter. We played with a bouncy ball, a few people entertained us with their piano skill or lack of, and we also just talked and laughed a lot. When we got back to the church we scrubbed the floor where they had been painting then had time to send a quick message online and head to worship. I love just closing my eyes and hearing the team all worship together. Bert led us in a devotion that focused mostly on the kingdom of heaven. Then we shared some of our stories from teh day, prayed, and went to dinner. Before I had eaten much Rodrigo stopped me and told me I was going to dinner at Vanessa's with her family, Roxanne, Mills, Kristen, Amanda, Brian, and Patrick. Vanessa and her family live in a very nice and very busy part of the city of Sao Paulo. They have a good sized and beautiful apartment. They were so sweet and so welcoming like everyone we have met here! I have laughed more that I have all year while on this trip! For dinner we had pizza! There was cheese, pepperoni, and on that had ham, eggs, onion, olives, and cheese! For dessert they have us this corn like stuff that was white and in milk with sweet crushed peanuts on top. We also had a little cup of sweet condensed milk mixed with chocolate and butter. So yummy! Then we went to Flavia's and on the way stopped by her sister's to pick up her mom, but she wasn't there. We got to meet her dogs and bird anyways! Now I'm showered and dead tired. Goodnight all!

Me and my special friend at the orphanage!

Me and Leah cleaning the orphanage

~Miranda

Brazil Day #3

Painting at the church

6-17-2010

Waking up was even harder today. lol We had breakfast at Flavia's this morning instead of going to the church. We also has some amazing coffee!! Then we met more of the team at the church to get on the bus to go to the mission church. Once the whole team was gathered at the mission church Brian led us in a devotion on leaning on God's understanding. We had individual study and prayer time for a few minutes then I got in a group with Chad and Flavia and we all prayed for each other. When we were done we were set to work painting the church. It's nice to be able to give a little back to the congregation after all they're doing for us! Painting lasted most all the morning and a little after lunch. We painted the two bathrooms, a sunday school room, and the fence in front. When Aunt Kristen and Brian got back to the mission church we had a time of prayer and headed to the park near by to cover it in prayer before we returned that night to do outreach to the teenagers who gather there. We broke of into groups and spread ourselves around the entire park and just started to pray for about ten minutes before coming back together. Then we split off into two groups. One group went back to the church and my group walked to a woman's house who lives in the slums to bring her blankets and things. This woman is one of the first members of the mission church. It's easy to tell that she loves God with all her heart! She has 10 children and two grandchildren living with her and her husband in a tiny dirty house. Her husband is an alcoholic and he's abusive. The church started to help fix up the house, but her husband kicked the workers out, so the church cannot do any more work until he allows them. Then we prayed for her. She was so sweet and so thankful! She said that she doesn't have anything to give God but her heart. I could see her love for God on her face as she praised God! Then we walked back to the mission church for dinner and an evening devotion. We sang worship songs, Tammie shared about the Holy Spirit, and we circled up and prayed for our evening in the park. Then we all buddied up and walked back to the park. By this time it was dark. We started by just gathering in the middle of the park and singing some of our songs. All the kids were pretty curious when they heard our music and at first I was a little scared. Most of the kids were smoking and drinking. They were dressed darkly with lots of piercings, but God reminded me that they are His beautiful workmanship just as much as I am. Then we started to spread out in groups and talk to the teenagers who were standing around. Through a translator Leah and I talked with a few of the boys who came up to us. Leah and I spent most of the rest of the night talking with them about ourselves, music, movies, work, school, and Jesus. Leah and I both gave our testimonies and we prayed for them. We prayed for the guys that said they knew Jesus that they would live for Him, seek Him, and set an example for unbelievers. Then we prayed for the ones without Jesus. After we were done praying with the guys we just were hanging out when a girl came up to us with a translator and told us she wanted to pray with us to ask Jesus into her heart. She said she would come to the church service saturday! Then we walked back to the mission church and Flavia brought us back to her home. Now I need to sleep! God is so good and even if I can't see how I believe God worked in great ways in that park tonight and that it will impact those people forever! Praise Jesus!

~Miranda

Brazil Day #2

Me and Jessica with some kids from the school

6-16-2010
Today the day started at 6:45am when we got up to get ready to leave for the church! We had a breakfast of bread of all different kinds and little squares of peanut butter. Then we got things ready for puppets and painting stuff and waited for the bus. The bus ride wasn't very long, We went to the Mission church which is still being worked on and is like a branch off of the church that's hosting us. Once at the church Brian lead us in a short morning devotion. He talked about how the little things we do and the few people we reach is part of the greater things God talked about in John. Then we had some prayer and tried to figure out what we were going to do at the school. Then we headed to the school around 11:30am and performed songs in Portuguese and English, skits, and puppets to a group of 300 kids. The kit I was a part of was the story about when my Aunt Kristen accepted Christ as a little girl. At the end most of the kids raised their hands to accept Christ! Then the kids sang a song to us about Zaccheus and about inviting Jesus to come into their hearts. We had a lot of trouble planning what to do. First the computer broke down then the puppet kits didn't work, but God knew what He wanted for the service and I believe it was done how He wanted it! Then we went back to the mission church for a lunch of pumpkin and meat, beans and rice, salad, and jello. All the meals are provided by the people from this church! Everyone is so hospitable and ready to serve. I feel so thankful and blessed! After lunch we practiced our songs and headed back to the school for children's ministry for another 300 kids! This group was a little rowdier and more chaotic, because they were younger. I pray that with this seed planted kids will seek God out, and that they will always remember the things they saw and heard today! A few of the teachers sang along during the worship songs and that brings me hope that they will be able to answer the kid's questions and help guide them in a relationship with their savior! On leaving the school we went back to the church to have dinner, a meeting, and then attend a Wednesday night service! At the meeting we talked about all the hope we saw throughout the day. The service was done in English and Portuguese. It was wonderful!! Most of their music is a samba style with dancing! It's very fun, joyful, and exciting! They let us sing some songs and they were all very excited to hear us singing in their language. I believe it will be like this in heaven with all nations joining together in worship! Then we had tea and bread and a few of the girls tried to teach Amanda and I how to samba dance! It was so much fun! All the people are so sweet! They all give hugs and kisses on the cheek. One of my friends is Jalile. She is very good and English and is going to New York next week to work with the salvation army! I love my brothers and sisters in Brazil! It will be hard to leave them. I can't wait for heaven where we will all be together worshipping our Lord in the same language!
Love,
Miranda

My team doing music at the school with 300 kids!

Brazil Day #1

Ashley, Flavia, and I at the World Cup party

Hello everyone!!! I've been home since Wednesday the 30th, and now I'm finally updateing this blog! There are a lot of people wanting to hear about my trip, so I thought I would just post my journal enteries from each day I was gone!! So, here's the first one! I'll try to be regular and post one entry a day so I don't overwhelm you all! Bear with me, because most of these entries were written really late at night after a very tiring day plust I'm not a very good writer! =P So, here it goes! Here's day #1:





6-15-2010
This trip was started at 4am on Monday morning. That was yesterday. I left home at 5am, had breakfast at a friend's house near the airport, and then my Mom and her friend Lori took me to the airport. The flight was 2 hours and 15 minutes. I had a window seat in a row with two guys. Once in Houston I got my bags and jumped on a tram to terminal A. I was in Houston at 12pm and the rest of the team got there at 2pm. We had a short and simple flight to Dallas and a long wait for our complicated flight of 15 hours to Sao Paulo. We weren't able to land in Sao Paulo right away becasue of traffic and fog, so we flew to Rio de Janero to get gas, sit on teh runway for forever, and fly back to Sao Paulo. From the airport we took a bus to the church where we were warmly welcomed and fed aesome food. We had a party cheering on Brazil as we watched a World Cup Game projected onto the church wall. They won!! =) Then the pastor spoke and we found out information on our host families. Flavia is hosting me, Amanda, and my Aunt Kristen. After that we played games and got to know the people at this church. Then we had a short meeting and prayed before dinner, hang out, and heading to our host family's homes. I hope we are able to give back some of what these wonderful people are giving to us and that God will bless them! Now to try the Brazilian cheese Flavia wants me to, shower, pack for tomorrow, and sleep! Sleeping on the plane last night was hard. I miss you all, but I'm very glad to be here!

Love,

Miranda

Me and some people in my team with members of the church.  Celebrating Brazil winning a World Cup game.