Last days in Brazil

We went to an Amazon Indian store this morning.   There were baskets, blow darts, bow and arrows, and jewelry made from seeds.  It was very cool.  We got lots of souvenirs.  We also went to the largest mall in South America for lunch.  This afternoon we toured La Feliz, a home for children who have been taken from or abandoned by their parents.  It's run by a Christian man and his wife.  They have 5 different houses for children, a multi-purpose room and a farm.  It's an amazing set up for the kids.   He has some awesome stories about how God has provided for them.  They have a farm that the kids like to go to.  They can walk there and play with donkeys, horses, sheep, chickens, doves, and an ostrich.  The ostrich's name is Adam, and he dances when you dance.   Tonight we went to a churrascuria, Brazilian bbq, and had meat brought on Skewers to our table.  Some of us even ate some ostrich.  So we danced with an ostrich, then ate one.  Tomorrow we will be going to Sao Paulo to do some shopping before we take off at 9:30.  Cia Brazil!

Differences

Every morning, Greg has started out day with a question.  "What differences do you see between Brazil and the United States?"  We thought it would be fun to share some of those with everyone.

• Toilet Paper:  must be thrown in the trash, not down the toilet
• lettuce must be washed with vinegar water because there is an insect that will bore into your brain
• the moon is a smiley face instead of being a crescent
• the roads are spaghetti, there is no direct route to anywhere
• VW owns the road!  There are so many old slug bugs
• Speed bumps are everywhere
• Street Sweepers are humans
• Trash people run down the road and grab trash out of a basket everyday
• people are very friendly and welcoming!  They will hug you when you first meet them and every greeting includes a hug or an air kiss!
• Traffic cones are shaped like tiered cakes
• Guarrana!!  (soday)
• Full Service Pizzaria
• Full service gas stations
• "r" is pronounced like an "h"
• tiny coffee
• No one eats or drinks on the go
• Very few automatic cars
• hammocks everywhere, most houses have built in hammock hooks
• gates everywhere
• no screens
• everything is open, dining outside
• better orange juice
• Meat all the time
• French fries, rice and beans at every meal
• Fresh meat and bread everyday
• The coolest automobile ever, AKA:  The Kombi!!  (by VW)
• warm weather all the time
• 70 degrees is cold
• things are more expensive, but manual labor is cheap
• People are more important than being on time (time is not important)
• Hot Dogs!!  They have mashed potatoes, corn, salsa, and more!
• Big lunch, small dinner
• There are no driving laws if there are no cameras around (police don't pull you over)

This morning we went to the hippie fair.    It's like a giant craft and shopping fair.    Lots of good food and shopping.  We had our last day of VBS in Gleba.  It went really well!  It was a great way to end!  The kids were excited to make their wordless book bracelets.  We played with bubbles and did face painting.  The kids loved the bubbles so much, they brought bottles back to take the mixture home.  It's amazing to see the things God will use to teach them a lesson.  Jorge was able to make Rebecca's car drivable this morning, but it was hit again.  Just a small scratch, but it's become a little funny.  Again, no one was hurt, just a nice scratch.  This person did not stop, but they got the license number.  We ate at a pizzeria tonight.   Not your average pizza place.  They have about 80 different pizzas, and they bring them to your table.  You just choose what you want and they put it on your plate.  Sort of a buffet, but they serve you.  Many people branched out and had shrimp pizza, anchovies, salmon and more.  Then they started the dessert pizza.  Caramel apple, chocolate and strawberries, bananas and cinnamon and sugar, doce de leite (delicious Brazil dessert), and more!  Everyone ate themselves into a food coma.  Tomorrow we have church and another churrasco (bbq).  We are very thankful for all of the experiences God has given us.  We have all been taken out of our comfort zones and pushed to face personal challenges.  We have seen so much of God's power these last 2 weeks. 

Well, God seems to have a different plan than we do.  Last night, Rebecca's car was hit.   No one was in the car, they were having dinner in a restaurant before the last night of EE training, so everyone is ok!  However, the car is not driveable, and they spent a majority of the night dealing with it, so EE was postponed.  This means that they will not be coming to Gleba today to go out and practice evangelizing, but will have their last class instead.  Our movie night for adults brought in more kids and only about 4-5 adults, we watched the Jesus Film in Portuguese.   One of our big goals in Gleba was to help start an adult church, since it only has a kids service right now.  It seems as if all of our outreaches are switching directions or not going the way we planned.  Please pray that we can continue in the path that God has planned.  Pray that He will show us what we need to do in our last few days here.  We're getting so much work done improving the church, God definitely has a plan for that building.  Everything seems to fall into place while we're working on it.  Pray that we would be patient to wait for God's plan to be revealed.  Pray for Greg and Rebecca as they deal with their car before they have to come back to the States in a few weeks. 

Be flexible!

Today we learned a lesson in being flexible.  Plans changed about 20 times.   For various reasons, we decided not to do evangelistic dinners.  The girls stayed at the church and the boys went out this evening and gave food to a family in need.  The goal for the church is to have the walls, windows, ceiling, floor and outside painted before we leave.  Today we finished the inside walls and windows.  Greg was not feeling well last night, so he went to the doctor today.  This made getting home interesting and stressful for Rebecca.  We are in 2 different places at night, some of us in Gleba and Pastor Jon and Bart are doing evangelism training at another church. 

Please pray for Greg and Rebecca.  They are both not feeling well and have a lot of added stress with 11 extra people to take care of.  Rebecca has been organizing everything, and if one thing gets messed up, it can throw everything off.

Pray for our dinner and movie outreach tomorrow night in Gleba.  We decided to invite some adults to the church, serve dinner, and possibly show the Jesus film in Portuguese.  Pray that we have a good turn out and can share the gospel.  The pastor thinks if we can get 10 people, that would be amazing! 

Gleba Day 2

We hit some traffic this morning, so we didn't get much painting done this morning.   We got the church ready for VBS this afternoon.  That was a little different than VBS in Lindoia.  We have 4 days instead of 2, so we can spread some things out, but many of the kids in Gleba aren't used to sitting still for a long time, so you have to keep them moving.  It went well, but it was tiring!  The kids loved our songs!  So excited we got to learn those from our Lindoia friends and translators!  We are taking the night off from evangelistic dinners.  The local pastor has to be at another church tonight, and we can't go without his direction.  So, we get to have Brazilian hot dogs and ice cream!  Continue the prayers!  We've been very blessed so far, pray that it continues.  Pray for rest on our evening off.  Pray for VBS in Gleba this week.  Pray that kids continue to come and we can reach some lost people.  We will be back to evangelistic dinners tomorrow, so continue to pray for that!  Obrigada!!  (Thank you!!)

Gleba Day 1

Gleba is a different experience.  It is a favela, which is a very poor neighborhood.  People make their houses out of whatever material they can find.  We saw some made of bricks and plaster, some made of plywood and sheets, the sewage flows down the dirt road in a small crevice.  The church in the area has been used as a children's church in the past.  The pastor would like to reach out and make it a church for adults as well as children.  That's one of our missions here this week.  We painted the inside of the church and will be painting the beams on the ceiling and windows as well as the outside later this week.  Jon Leeder had an incident with some of the acid used to clean the iron beams.  A drop fell in his eye while he was working.  It was washed out immediately, and he seems to be doing fine.  Jorge read the bottle, and it said to just wash the eye out really well, which we did.  Jon has been able to see fine, and is not in any pain, but we are keeping a close eye on it.  Keep him in your prayers.  We also did evangalistic dinners in Gleba last night.  It was interesting because there were not scheduled ahead of time.  The pastor asked some people, but they were unsure of letting strangers into their homes.  He thought they would let us in if we just showed up with food, so he took us to some houses that he knew, and sure enough, they let us come in.  We all had different experiences, but we feel like they all went well.  I was in a house with Monica (local), who was 19.  She explained a little about her life, and it has been rough.  She felt like we were angels coming to help her, she prayed with us, and we're hoping to see her at the church today!  One of the other groups had an interesting experience.  I'll let them explain it when we get home.  Pray for our evangalistic dinners.  It's a different community, many of them need to hear the gospel and get connected with a church!  We are taking precautions, so don't be worried, but do pray for our safety.  It's always a concern when you are in a different country.  We also need prayers for restful sleep and attitudes.  We are starting to feel the long days, and Gleba takes a little more out of you.  Also, if you want to see pictures, Greg has a website that he updates everyday with his photos.  He has an easier time getting them up than we do on the blog.  Go to http://www.servantsinbrazil.org/ and click on the photo that says "Click here to see Overland Hills Church".  We continue to be amazed and thankful that God is showing us so much!  We are definitely learning to rely on Him!!

 http://www.servantsinbrazil.org/

2 Days of Rest??

Sunday was an awesome day of fellowship!  We started off getting up early to prepare pancakes for the community of Lindoia.  Rebecca has jobs for each of us, making juice, pancakes, getting silverware, plates, etc.  Many of the people had never had pancakes, so it was fun sharing that with them.  We joined their church service and Pastor Jon gave a sermon.  The most amazing part of the day happened after church.  Some of us were standing around outside with our new friends, and we were coming up with worship songs that we knew in both English and Portuguese.  We started singing "Mighty to Save."  It was amazing to hear English and Portuguese praising God at the same time!  After church we went to a local member's house (Angie, she is from the states and her whole family speaks both English and Portuguese) for a churrasco.  You could say it's like a BBQ, but that doesn't really come close!  There was so much delicious meat, veggie kabobs, salad...Delicious!!  We had a talent show, with some very funny talents displayed and just hung out together.  Samuel, Angie's husband, took us to a coffee plantation, where we had a tour and bought some amazing coffee!  Brazilians usually have their church service Sunday nights, so we attended church again, Pastor Jon gave another sermon, and we sang worship songs in English and Portuguese with the entire church.  It was a little sad because we had to say goodbye to all of our new friends.  This was the last night we spent in Lindoia.  Monday was a travel day.  We had to leave Lindoia and head to Campinas.  It's about a 2 and 1/2 hour drive.  Some of us chose to go to an adventure park, which wasn't too far from Lindoia.  We went on a high ropes course in the trees, did a 1 KM zip line, 2 shorter zip lines, rapelled down about 25 meters, and did a superman zip line, where you lay in a harness.  It was an amazing day!  A good time to be tourists for a while.  Those that didn't want to participate, took a van back to Greg and Rebecca's house for some relaxing time.  Today we head out to Glebba(SP?).  We will be painting the church there and doing some Evangalistic dinners.  Pray that we continue to see God work and He uses us to spread the gospel throughout Glebba!

Day 2 and 3

Wow!  These last 2 days have been so amazing and so busy, there has been no time to share about it!  We´ve led another day of VBS, Evangalism dinners, door-to-door evangalism, played baseball, and led an evening "youth" service.  So much to be thankful and give praise for!  Our door-to-door teams have reached at least 7 neighborhoods (and the town isn´t that big), we´ve shared the gospel with well over 20 people.  I might even guess close to 50?  Jorge prayed with a man today for salvation!!  Jon Diaz and Anna also shared the gospel with a woman who prayed for salvation!  There are many people who are really interested in lisening to the gospel, and Bart and Jon are making sure members of the church are prepared to share it.  Many of the local members have been going with us on our door-to-door excursions, and are soaking up the process.  Andre loves the 5 points of the Evangalism Explosion outline!  (He and his friend Venicios have become our local guides and are sort of joining our group for out time in Lindoia)  It amazes me everyday how much we are seeing God work here.  I´ve seen such an impact on myself as well as the community (For now, I, Rachel, write the posts because there is only 1 computer and very little time).  I am not known for being a morning person.  In fact, many might compare me to a bear before I have a chance for coffee.  Every morning so far, I have woken up with so much excitement, I find myself singing (in Purtuguese!)!  Today we played baseball with the kids, made bubbles, and painted faces.  Many of the kids had never played baseball before, and they had a blast.  We have some naturals here!  This evening we were invited to the church for a youth meeting.  There are only about 4 youth in the church and they are trying to change that.  They wanted Josh to come in and show them some new things, like our youth group.  We had a lot of fun things planned.  We arrived at the church to no youth, and many adult members of the church!  Quick change of plans, we still had a "youthy" service with ice breakers, Jorge shared his story about how helping a man find salvation, Josh shared a devotional about spreading the Gospel and I shared my testimony.  It has been amazing seeing God work in this community!

Prayer Requests:

Jon Diaz sprained his ankle.  He has it wrapped and has medicine on it, but it is still bothering him a little.  It has been difficult for him to walk around, and we are doing a lot of walking.  Please pray for quick healing.

The Baptist church of Lindoia.  They have about 20 members and are trying to grow.  They have some very passionate people when it comes to sharing the gospel.  Pray that our time here has helped them spark a fire that will spread throughout the community and their church.

Pray for our rest.  We have had a lot of long days and short nights.  We are all starting to get tired and we´re not even half way done.

Praise!!  That we have seen God work in so many ways!  We are making some fabulous friendships with people half way around the world!  Language has only been a minor speed bump.  We are learning that language doesn´t matter when God is involved!

Amazing!

Bi-Lingual fellowship=AMAZING!  Sitting in a room with 10 people who don´t speak a word of your language, 5 that do, and 3 who speak both is the most intimidating feeling.  Everyone is looking at the 3 interpreters to help break the language barrier, and it´s difficult to convey a message.  However, God is still present and everyone can still share the gospel and the Word together!  We went to a local church members´home tonight for supper and fellowship.  We shared stories about what it  is like to live in the states vs. Brazil.  They are amazed at our temperatures and how we stand the cold weather.  There houses are split apart with different rooms, and you walk outside to get there, instead of a hallway.  That can work here, since the temperature is usually so nice and there are very few bugs.  We also shared the gospel and read from God´s Word.  Andre, our local church member, is attending a bible school and he led a fantastic discussion.  He read a verse in Portuguese, then I read it in English.  We went back and forth this way, discussing salvation and faith in Jesus Christ.  We spent so much time talking, we almost forgot to have dinner.  It´s amazing to see God work through a language barrier to bring people together for fellowship.  I can´t convey the amazing relationships that are being built and seeing God work through language barriers!  TuTo bom!

Day 1

What a day it has been!!  First of all, Lindoia was a little colder at night than expected, so we´ve been trying to layer some clothes and blankets.  Nothing like a Nebraska winter, but not the 70 degrees we were expecting.  This morning we went out for some door to door evangalism and to invite people to VBS and bible study.  We had teams of 4 plus a translator and we went into the neighborhoods to talk to people.  It´s a little different than walking around neigborhoods in Nebraska.  First of all, everyone´s front door is behind a gate, so you can´t just knock.  You stand behind the gate and shout, Ói!´, which means hello.  My group (Rachel) had the opportunity to share the gospel with 5 different people.  We were fortunate to have a local member of the church, Andre, come with us.  He took us to his neighborhood, so people were very willing to talk and listen, knowing a member of the group.  Each of us got the opportunity to share the gospel with at least one person!   Everyone that we talked to was catholic.  They seemed to be depending on their works and actions to get to heaven.  We talked with them about faith in Jesus, and many of them were excited that you just have to believe.  Andre is having a service in his house tonight, so we invited them to join him.  I think it´s fantastic that they were open to us and they still have Andre to talk to when they have questions.  Many of them are very excited about the pancakes we´ll be making on Sunday.  We led our first VBS this afternoon.  We only had about 15 kids show up, but it was still a great time.  We learned some new songs in Portuguese and got a chance to share with some kids.  It was tons of fun!  Look forward to us singing about the train to heaven to be with Jesus!  Puiui!  Puiui!!  (peyowee, peyowee)  Jon and Bart led an adult Bible Study for the adults during our VBS.  I haven´t had an opportunity to find out how that went, but they seemed excited.  They had to run off to have dinner before they began their Evangalism training tonight.  The rest of us are taking this opportunity to have some down time, get things ready for tomorrow, before we are going to church members´homes to share dinner and the gospel.  Tomorrow is another fun day for door to door and VBS!  Hopefully we´ll get some pictures up soon.   

We made it!!

We landed in Brazil around 7:30 this morning.  From there we had a 3 hour drive to Lendoia (I could have mispelled that).  Many of us took this opportunity to get in a nap after being cramped in an airplane overnight.  We´ve settled into our hotel, had lunch (Fabulous Brazilian all you can eat with rice and meat!), and now have about 2 hours of down time before we need to get going, preparing all of our supplies for Vacation Bible School and Evangalism Explosion tomorrow!  We will have access to the internet at our hotel, however, it all shows up in Portuguese, so I´m just guessing which buttons to push.  =)  Who knew keyboards were set up differently?  My fingers aren´t hitting the right buttons every time!  There are symbols here that I´ve never used.  We´ve taken plenty of photos so far, so we´ll see if I can figure my way through the Portuguese to upload them!

Made it to Dallas!

Getting some dinner and waiting for our flight!  We depart for Brazil at 7:45!!  Gwen has already had an opportunity to share the gospel with her neighbor on the plane!

Leaving Omaha!

We're getting ready to head through security!  Saying goodbye to Omaha!!   Flight leaves at 4:15, next stop Dallas!

Overland Hills Church has a team of 11 heading to Brazil July 17th through August 1st.  Follow us to keep updated on what's happening and prayer requests.