Bon Voyage!

     Today was my day to say goodbye to the wonderful country of Brazil. Right now I am thousands of feet in the air on my way to Sao Paulo. Once I arrive in Sao Paulo I will have to wait for my next plane to take off at 12:00 AM headed to Miami. I enjoyed the plane take off today because it gave me a different view of Cuiaba. I was able to see many landmarks I recognized (Including: The big Catholic church downtown, Pedra 90, and the 3 Americas Mall). From the sky you can see the thousands upon thousands of homes surrounding Cuiaba. Many of the bairros have no Gospel witness at all yet there are thousands of souls living there! Cuiaba is definitely a city in need of the Gospel.

     Last night the people of Igreja Batista Remenescente threw me a surprise going away party. They even made an awesome cake with the Brazilian flag on it! Check out the pictures below. I was in complete shock when Mrs. Duarte told me to go out on the porch and there in the church yard was a big group of the church people! I had several of the church members ask me when I was coming back to be a missionary in Cuiaba, and I said only God knows if and when I will. Then they all assured me they were praying that God would bring me to Cuiaba. I love the people in the church!

Vacation Bible School: Day 5

     Well I will start it out on an exciting note we had 95 kids today in VBS! It was so exciting to see all of them there. Today was the grand finale with prizes being given out for the people who brought the most visitors for the week. The girl who won had brought 19 people and the second place girl brought 18 visitors! The girls who won got a lotion from Bath & Body Works and the two guys got soccer balls.

     Today was the story of the bridegroom and the wedding asking the kids if they were prepared with for the wedding to begin, or were they going to be like the maidens who did missed the wedding. We are hoping that from the VBS we will have several kids that will begin coming to Sunday School and church. We also were able to get most of the kids addresses so that over the next several months the Duartes will be able to visit the families and hopefully be able to reach them with the Gospel of Christ.

     We just finished cleaning the church from VBS and everything is set up ready to go for church tomorrow night. Now I just have to finish packing my things for my flight tomorrow morning. Thank you very much for your prayers this week! We could not have done it without the power of God present!

Vacation Bible School: Day 4

     Day 4 has come to an end we we are all a little tired. However, we had another amazing VBS today with 75 kids in attendance. Only one day of VBS left! Today we learned about the story of Job and how we need to run the race of life with patience. Chico the monkey came and visited today and all the kids loved him! We also had Mr. & Mrs. P. Uppet come and do a quiz game with the kids!

     Even though we are tired tonight we are all looking forward to a great day VBS tomorrow! The theme tomorrow is about finishing the race and the reward of Heaven so be praying as this will be a decision point for kids to come to Christ!

Vacation Bible School: Day #3

     It is hard to believe that we are already over half way done with VBS! 3 days down and 2 to go! It feels like we just started and it is already over! Today we had the most kids that we have had this entire week, which was another answer to prayer. We are praying that even more will come tomorrow.
     Today’s story was about Gideon and his victory with only 300 soldiers. We had a special visitor tonight that sang a special. His name was “Lazy Bones.” He did an excellent job! I just want to take a second to thank all of you who donated money and toys in order to give out prizes to the kids. Today a bunch of kids said verses and were recipients of all sorts of awesome toys from the United States! Check out the pictures below and be sure to check back tomorrow to hear about another exciting day of VBS!

Vacation Bible School: Take 2

     Action! That is what today was! We had another great VBS today! It is so much fun to be with all of the kids. It makes me feel like a little kid all over again. Today was about getting rid of your extra baggage. It is hard to run in a race when you have a huge suitcase or bags full of junk. To illustrate this Mrs. Duarte used one of my huge suitcases I brought down here to Brazil and showed how hard it is to walk with the extra weight let alone run!

     The Bible story was about Lot and the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. I was amazed yet again today as the kids sat their captivated as Mrs. Duarte told the story. We had 68 kids today not including little kids or adults! God has been good and is blessing our VBS. Check out the pictures below, and to see all the pictures click on the link to view the album they are in!

     Continue to pray for our VBS and my final days here in Brazil. On Saturday I will be taking off from Cuiaba at 12:15 in the afternoon and will arrive in Washington exactly 24 hours later and 12:15 PM on Sunday (If everything runs on time). I will definitely miss Brazil and hope that I will be able to come back one day, if not as a missionary, at least to help out the Duartes! God has been good, and we are all looking forward to His continued working this week!