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