This is the video that I said I would upload of the Catholic mass that I sat in on for a little bit. It is definitely a lot different than Catholicism in the United States!

Sunday (The Lord's Day)

     I absolutely love everything about Sunday! I love getting together and having fellowship with God's people, I love playing the piano, I love singing praises to my God, I love hearing the Word of God, and I love seeing the Word of God work in my heart and in other's hearts!

     This past Sunday was no different! We had an awesome Sunday School continuing our lessons on "Super heroes" in the Bible (A study of different men and women in the Bible that are good examples for Christians). Of course it is always fun singing the choruses and kid's songs in the opening :-) Then Sunday afternoon we enjoyed some fellowship around the table and some time to relax and study.

     Sunday night was an absolutely amazing service! There was a group of people that walked in at the last moment, six couples with their wives, and one child! Come to find out Adilson had invited some of the police officers that work at the jail with him, and they came and heard an excellent message from God's Word!

     There was also another lady who has been coming to church for three weeks, and she came forward and accepted the Lord as her Saviour! Pastor Duarte and Mrs. Duarte both prayed for her in front of the church, and we all rejoiced along with her in this very important decision!

     God is still very much alive and is still able to work in the heart's of people! God saving grace is abundant and free, and offered TO EVERYONE! Amen!! We closed the service out by singing, "Because He Lives."

     God is good and is working here in Cuiaba. We would appreciate your continued prayers, and look forward to seeing the continuing work of God!

Camp!!

     Well, camp is already over! This was the week I have been "worried" about since Icame down to Brazil. I had a blast, and hope that the kids did too :-) There were apporx. 150 people at the camp in total (This number includes adults and staff). It was my job to plan and run the games for the kids. Be sure to check out the slide show in the side column, Facebook, or Picasa to see the pictures of camp!!

     My lack of Portuguese is why I was so worried about this task. How am I supposed to get a group of 100 kids to understand a game that I have planned, and I can only speak English!?!? However, Chico was my designated translator and we had a blast running the games! We played capture the flag, steal the bacon, over & under, shoe race, etc. The kids favorite game was capture the flag, even though it was probably the most unsuccessful  Since there were three teams, every game had to be adapted in order to work. With capture the flag there were kids complaining and arguing, so we decided to end it early. However, after that every kid came up to me and asked if we could play it again! lol! I am so thankful that God helped me and worked through me this week.

     It was great to see many decisions made throughout the week. I have heard of several boys who received assurance of their salvation! Praise the Lord! I know that summer camp played a vital role in my life growing up. There are many decisions that I made that can be directed back to a message I heard at camp. It was a blessing to be able to be part of a camp as a worker and be able to impact other children's lives for the glory of God!

     I must say when it was time to come home to Pedra 90 I was not ready. I could have stayed at the camp for another few days!

     Winter has finally started to show itself here in Cuiaba. Last night after church everyone went running for their coats, and I even got my extra quilt out to try and keep warm through this cold spell. I was so cold last night that I got up and looked at the thermometer and it said it was 70 F!! I knew it must be broken, but it was correct! It is amazing how fast you can become acclimated to the warm weather! Hope you have an awesome evening service at your church tonight, and I will write again very soon!

Bachelor's Night

     Josh and I had an awesome time Saturday night here in Pedra 90. While all the couples were stressing out about getting all dressed up and ready to go eat Josh and I were relaxing preparing for our night of fun! As soon as everybody left Josh and I broke out the cookies and milk. Then we decided we were hungry so we walked down the street and grabbed some food and a liter of Coke :-) Sadly the coke was only for those who were 2 years of age and above upon Jessica's request. I thought about giving Josh some, but Jessica threatened that if I did Josh would be staying in my room! So we just got orange juice for supper and I drank the Coke later :-)

     Monday was a good day spent doing laundry. I cut my foot on a piece of glass, but it is not too bad. No stitches needed :-) After prayer Alex, Jessica, Joshua and I went out and grabbed a bite to eat a couple of bairros over. It was delicious!

     Well camp is this week. .  . so today I spent a lot of time preparing things for the games. I have been put in charge of the afternoon activity time, so I have been trying to find games to have a lot of fun!

     Hopefully you are having a great week! Take care and may God bless!

A New Adventure

     Today was a great day! This morning I was able to talk to my mom and we had a great conversation. I am very thankful for my family and how much of an encouragement they are to me! After I finished talking with her I put on my work outfit and headed outside to find that we were going to begin painting the wall today! It looks awesome! I love painting so this was fun for me. We finished painting the main section of the wall and now only have the garage left. Then we will paint a lot of the other parts that already had stucco on them. As you can tell by the picture I am not sure if I got more paint on me or on the wall!?!? lol o well. I had fun!

   






 
      This afternoon Mr. Duarte and I rode the bus downtown to run some errands. This was my first time on a bus here. What an adventure! On the way downtown the bus was pretty empty which made it very nice. We walked around downtown laughed at some guys on stilts, saw a couple of mimes, and even got some free pop-corn! Then we both got tapioca. This is not pudding like you are probably thinking. . . it is mantioch flower fried with a filling in it. We got tapioca dolce (Sweet tapioca) which had pineapple/sweet & condensed milk in it! MMMM! It was delicious! On the way back the bus was a little fuller, but not as full as some of the other buses I saw. There were some buses where people were hanging out the doors it was so full!

Joshua playing in a ball pit :-)

      Tonight I went out with Jessica, Alex, and Joshua. Joshua is so cute. He can say my name now! Well. . . kinda of he says "Danbo" but that is good enough for me! Tonight in the car I was singing the B-I-B-L-E song to him and after I finished he started trying to spell Bible! He got some letters mixed up and added a few in, but he was trying! It is amazing how fast kids pick up on things. We went to the Three Americas mall and ate at a Subway! It was just like a Subway in the USA but not as many choices of subs. I got a club sub and boy was it tasty! Of course I had to get a nice cold coke to wash it down! So concludes my exciting day. Looking forward to another great day tomorrow if the Lord wills! Thanks for reading!

   
     O yeah. . . . Found out one of my good friends got engaged today! Congratulations Donny McMenamin and Mollie Mann! So happy for you guys!

A Tiring Day

     Wow, it is the end of the day and I am ready for bed! This afternoon Mr. Duarte and I went out and worked on putting stucco on the front of the garage. After that the Lockhart and Schrock kids came over so that the parents could go out and have a date night. Of course being good men, we conveniently had to go and run an errand. We went to the chacara to check on the bee hives. After we got back the kids were still there so we went out again to get some food supper. Finally we came home and played with the kids. We rolled on the floor, laughed, and had a great time! They did a pretty good job of wearing us out.

     All in all today was a great day and I should sleep great tonight! Thanks for reading my post and praying for me! Have a very happy Friday!

     It has been an awesome week so far here in sunny Brasil. We have been working on the wall, raking leaves, washing clothes, and cleaning house. I have also been working a lot on one of my secret projects and also started a new secret project!! You want to know what they are?? Well I will announce them both on the same day within the next two months :-) Sorry you will have to wait a little bit! I will also be posting pics of my projects on Facebook. Needless to say I am always trying to stay busy with something whether working outside or working on my counseling project inside.

     Today is the Schrock's 5 year wedding anniversary! Congratulations to Omar and Tracey on this mile marker in their lives! It is so good to see couples who are in love with each other and also in love with their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

     Tonight Mrs. Duarte and Jessica will be babysitting the Lockhart kids and also the Schrock kids. Should be lots of fun around here tonight with six kids! :-) I will write again tonight with more things that have happened this week! Thanks for reading and may the Lord bless you today!

A Week of Silence

     It is hard to believe that it has been a little over a week since my last blog update. I am sorry for the silence on here. Been doing a lot lately and blogging got put on the back burner.

     Last Sunday was pastor appreciation Sunday here in Brasil, so the ladies of the church prepared a delicious meal! Alex was the griller of the day making sure all the churrasco was perfect! It was all so delicious! I will miss churrasco when I go back to the USA.

     Started out the week like any other week doing laundry. No snakes or anything like that so a pretty uneventful day. We also had prayer meeting Monday night.

     Tuesday was a day of rest/ inside work. I spent a good bit of time working on my counseling project for school next semester, and did some Greek reading. I also found time to fit in some Portuguese practice. In the midst of all of this I made some secret plans. . . (some which I will tell you in this post and others you will have to wait and see!!). All in all it was a great day and I got a lot accomplished.

     On Thursday we went out to the camp in Varzea Grande (Just the other side of the Rio Cuiaba) which Peter Doolittle runs. Next week I will be working there with him, and I am in charge of the games in the afternoon. Mrs. Doolittle fixed an awesome meal, and we enjoyed good fellowship. I got a tour of the camp so I could get an idea of where the games will be and how I need to plan. They have an awesome piece of property right outside of town. It was amazing how quiet it was at the camp compared to Pedra 90.

     Friday Pastor Duarte had some car problems which prevented us from working on the wall. However, I was able to video Skype Kelly's 4 y/o class and talk to them about missions and living in a foreign country. We need to be training the young one's now because they are our future leaders in the ministry. In the afternoon we went downtown to the Pantanal Shopping Mall. It is the more expensive mall here in Cuiaba. The first thing I saw when I walked in was a purse for $3,000 R. or approx. $1,900.00 USD!!! No thank you! It was very nice though (As long as you were just walking around and not buying anything). :0 They are even building a Burger King in the mall (The first one to come to Cuiaba).

Me talking to Kelly's class about missions.

Kelly's class holding my prayer cards

     Now to let you know my surprise. . . I know you are just dying to know. Well, here in Brasil Sunday is Valentines Day, so in honor of the holiday I had 2 dozen red roses delivered to Kelly at work. She loved them and so did the kids! I am so thankful that God has given me such a wonderful, godly girlfriend! Ok, ok I will stop with the mushy stuff now. lol

The flowers I sent Kelly for Valentines Day

     Saturday in the morning we worked on our wall which is coming along very nice! We are over 3/4 of the way finished with the stucco! After we finish we will paint it, and it will look amazing!

     Today after Sunday School we went over to the Raehl's church on the other side of the city for a fish cook-out. There was fried fish boiled fish, smoked fish. . . . Fish, fish, and more fish! It was delicious!! Then we sang happy birthday to Jessica Lima (Formerly Duarte) and two other people. Today was also Valentines day so of course I let Kelly know how much I love her :-) I was also able to preach tonight in church on the story of Daniel in the lions den (one of my favorites :-) It was a little rougher than last time but God can use us in spite of our deficiencies. I am so thankful God has chosen to use somebody like me (the foolish) to confound the wise.

My Amazing Girlfriend

     I will attempt to keep up with the blog this week. Hope God richly blesses your week!

~ Daniel Bishop

The Harvest Truly is Plenteous

     Today was spent driving around Cuiaba and seeing the different bairros (neighborhoods). Just to give you a vivid picture of how immensly huge the city is. . . there are 250 bairros in the Greater Cuiaba (this includes Varzea Grande) with nearly 1 million people living in these bairros! Yesterday we got the map of Cuiaba out and marked all of the I.F.B. churches (Independent Fundamental Baptist) and there are only 8 churches!

       That is 1 church for every 125,000 people!!!! Think about that!! There are bairros upon bairros that do not have a good gospel preaching church in them. Of course the Catholics are there and the Mormons. There are hundreds of prosperity churches around, all leading people to an eternity in Hell! Surely there is a great need, yet the laborers are few. Would you join me in praying that God would send forth laborers into his harvest!

     Today we also went to the state university's "zoo" which contains only animals natural to this state. It was amazing! There were snakes, cayman, and many beautiful birds! Be Sure to check out the slideshow on the sidebar! Below is a picture of the biggest anaconda that they had (In perspective it really is not big for an anaconda), but I sure would not want to mess with it. It was along the back wall of the exhibit, so we could not get a good picture. However, Mrs. Duarte told me to climb up the back wall of the next exhibit to get a good picture! I told her she was crazy thinking she was kidding, but she started to climb! Well that made me feel bad so I climbed up and snapped this picture! How would you like to wrestle with him in the wild!?!

     Tonight we all went to the feira a few bairros over to do some shopping and see some more of the Brasilian culture. We had an awesome time of fellowship, eating, and walking! I ate some awesome food, but my favorite thing by far was the churro! It is a long pastry fried and then rolled in cinnamon sugar and filled with your choice of chocolate or dolce de leite! It was delicious, and I definitely have to go back and get another one before I leave!

The 15th of May

     Yes, I know it is not May 15, and no this is not a national holiday. However this was the name of the neighborhood that we went to tonight to visit Maranatha Baptist Temple. The building that the church is in actually used to be a bar, until they bought it and transformed it into a church! Praise the Lord! If you are from Lighthosue in Alexandria, you will remember that you guys sent the money down to pay for this property! How exciting to see how God used your faithfulness in giving to start this work in Cuiaba! Pastor Osmar (Pictured below) is doing an awesome job and it was exciting to see many faces there who might not have been reached were it not for the faithfulness of God's people to do God's work!

Pastor Osmar and Templo Batista Maranata

      Tomorrow we will be heading around town to the different bairros (neighborhoods) of Cuiaba just to get an idea of the need of church planting here. Recent estimates suggest that there are around 1 million people here in the Greater Cuiaba area! Check back tomorrow because I will be posting specifics about the need here in Cuiaba! ". . . Then said I here am I send me!"

The Monster Burger!

The Monster Meal! (coke is so much better here in Brasil!)

Ingredients: A regular hamburger on a Sesame seed bun topped with. . . Green pepper sauce, egg, olives, sausage, pepperoni, turkey, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese,  swiss cheese, corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and a tomato salad

The Remains! Mwahahahahaha!