Happy Friday! (Prayer Update)

     Thank you so much for your prayers! It has become very evident to me throughout this whole trip (and even in preparation for the trip) that God still answers prayer! A few post back I asked you to pray about the situation with the schools not giving the kids a break which would make having VBS very hard, and to be quite honest with you I thought it was hopeless. The schools had said since the kids had missed so much school with the strikes that they were not giving a break. However, just a few days later, a couple of the schools gave into the pressure from the people to still give the kids a break. Not all the schools have agreed to give a break, but would you believe by coincidence (If you believe in them. . . I know it is the hand of God) that all the schools that the kids in our church go to have decided to give them a break the week we were planning on doing VBS! So, everything is a go for VBS which will start a week from this coming Monday!!

     Needless  to say we have been busy getting things ready for the VBS! Last week we designed and ordered the shirts for the workers, and might I say they look great! I believe they are finished, we just have to go downtown to pick them up! We also worked on making the name card / attendance cards for the kids. Since the theme is “Run the Race of Life” we decided to make numbers for each of the kids to wear like the runners in a race would. On each of these number cards is a place for their name and a place to punch holes in them every day that they come! What an awesome idea! (Wish I could claim it, but I think Mrs. Duarte came up with that one) We got all 216 of those finished on Monday afternoon. After doing those I decided I could never work on an assembly line where you have to do the same thing 8 hours a day every day! lol!

     On Tuesday night we went into town to the big fair! This is a big event for Cuiaba and takes place once a year! There were lots of rides, food, people, and animals! Can I just say, that I have NEVER seen cows so big! There was one cow that was taller than me! Woah! Yeah, so I decided not to mess with him. I did get a picture of him, but a picture does not do justice! We enjoyed seeing all the animals and tractors etc, but when it came time to eat we found out all the food at the fair was expensive! So we decided to get more food for less money and went to Turk’s burgers there in town. It was delicious! By the end of the night we were all worn out and ready for bed!

     Thanks for praying! Please continue to read and pray as I finish out my internship here in Brazil! I will only be here for 15 1/2 more days! That is hard for me to fathom! Have a wonderful Friday!

Why I Love Brazil!

     Well, there is no one answer, but I thought I would write and share some pictures and tell you why I love Brazil! Of course I will not go into a ton of detail since you probably would not want to read a long post
     The first reason would have to be because of all of the fresh fruit! One of my favorite parts about Monday's is going out and picking lemons off of the tree and bringing them inside to make some fresh squeezed lemonade! It is sooo delicious! I also love the oranges and the orange juice! You definitely have to come and try some fresh orange juice! I have never had anything like it! Oh! and as you will be able to tell by the picture below Lemons and Oranges are both green here!

                        

    
     I also love the wildlife here in Brazil! Yesterday I was able to get a picture of a toucan! On Saturday while the guys were digging out the pond at the chacara they killed a baby Anacanda! It was pretty small, but where there is a baby there is always a mom! I don’t think I will be swimming in the pond anytime soon lol!

     

                                   

     The people here in Brazil are also awesome! I have enjoyed living with the Duartes and being a part of their family for a while! I am so thankful for them allowing me to come to work under them for the summer! The people here at the church are so kind! They are so patient with me as I try to understand Portuguese! There are many times when they will repeat themselves several times and talk in slow motion just so that I can hear and understand what they are saying.

     God has been so good while I have been here in Brazil! He has protected me spiritually and physically while I have been here! Not once have I gotten sick from the food or water, which I am very thankful for! I am also thankful for the two souls that have gotten saved since I have been here! God is till in the business of answering prayers, so keep praying!

An Update & A Prayer Request

     Today we have started working on Vacation Bible School with full force. It is hard to believe that it is only a week 1/2 away! Ahhh! So much to do and so little time. Even scarier than that is the fact that in three weeks I will be leaving Brazil! This brings mixed emotions to me. I am excited to see my family, Kelly, and all my church friends back in the USA, but I will very much miss Brazil and the people here :-(

     Our theme for VBS is going to be "Correndo A Corrida da Vida" (Run The Race of Life). Today we went out and bought decorations, materials, and planned for prizes. It is going to be awesome! We will being the VBS twice. One here in Pedra 90 and then we will be going over to 15 de Maio (This is the church that Lighthouse in Alexandria, VA bought the land for :-) for a second VBS. This brings me to a HUGE prayer request! About a week after I arrived here in Cuiaba the teachers in the public schools went on strike. Well just a couple days ago they finally went back to school! They were on strike for over a month! Because of all the school that was missed they are talking about taking away the two weeks of vacation the kids were supposed to have. This would mean some problems for our VBS seeing as we were planning on our VBS around these vacations so that kids could come. If you would pray that the schools would at least give one week of vacations so that we could do both of the Bible schools without any problems! Thank you in advance for your prayers!

     On a lighter note I have some pictures below of some sights here in Cuiaba that I saw as we were doing the monthly shopping yesterday. I just wanted to give you an idea of what the different parts of the city are like. As you will tell by the pictures they have some "American" things like McDonald's and Subway, but Brazilians are also proud of their heritage which is shown around the city by art and Statues. I even saw Pepsi at Atacadao for the first time since I came! Now if they could only start making Mtn. Dew. . . lol!

     I have come to love Brazil over the past 50 days of being here. The food, nature, and most importantly the people are amazing! There is such a need for more missionaries to come to Brazil, who will answer the call of God to go out into the harvest. The Harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few! Will you join me and the Duartes in praying that God would send (thrust) forth laborers into the harvest, and also be willing yourself to GO!

Have a great evening and keep the Lord first in everything that you do.

These are the two strawberry pies that I made for the picnic :-)
Everything was made out of scratch! Even the shell!

Cooking hamburgers over an open fire! yummy!

Laundry Day!

This is a Cashew. Yes a cashew is a fruit. What we eat in the US
is actually the little nut that is contained in the pod in the bottom.
Here in Brazil they eat the fruit part! I don't like it but lots of people do!

McDonald's!

A Guitar and a man playing a musical instrument in one of the
round-abouts.

This church is called New Wine Church. Why are there so many
false religions that people will follow but they are so blinded
to the truth!

Happy Independence Day!

     Today we want to take the time to remember our troops who are fighting for us overseas, and here at home. We also want to remember the families of the soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have here in the United States of America! God has truly blessed our nation, and I realize that more and more every day that I spend away from the USA. As you celebrate today with fireworks, food, and fun don't forget the price paid for your freedom!

     Tonight to celebrate we went out to Camp Maranatha and had an American meal as well as shared some good fellowship with some friends from here in Cuiaba. We had an awesome fireworks show (The video is below) we also sang around the campfire! Yes, it was very cold out and the campfire felt amazing!

     That is all I have time to write today. Tomorrow we will be heading out to the chacara to do laundry and get some other work done! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed your day!

You May Now Kiss The Bride!

     Tonight I had the opportunity to go to a Brazilian wedding! It was very different from a wedding in the USA to say the least. Instead of having bridesmaids and groomsmen, they have witnesses, and flower girls. The little girls were so cute in their little "poofy" dresses. They also had a mini bride and groom that walked up the isle :-) Be sure to check out the pictures at the bottom of the post! The wedding did not start until 9:30 PM and we left early (and by early I mean 12:15 AM!) It was a lot of fun to be there and experience the Brazilian culture. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

She got scared coming up the isle :-(

With some help from her sisters she made it to the front :-)

The Bride!

Be sure to check out my Picasa account to see all of the pictures. You can access Picasa by simply clicking on the photo slideshow at the top of the right sidebar! Enjoy!

Dan Dan The Animal Man

     Today we went out into the Pantanal region about 3 hours away from Cuiaba. The Pantanal is a flood plain that is completely covered by water during the rainy season. However, during the dry season, it is a beautiful place filled with all kinds of animals! We basically drove 2 1/2 hours into the middle of nowhere, took a left on a dirt road and drove another 40 min until the end of the road and then we had arrived.

     I started out my day by fishing for Piranha! It was a whole lot of fun! I did not use a fishing pole, instead I used fishing line still on the roll with a hook and sinker on the end. By the end of the day I had caught 6 Piranha. I will be putting the pictures on the bottom of this post as well as on Facebook and Picasa.

     After lunch I decided to head out on my own and do some exploring around the property. So I headed out on my own to search for some alligators and wild birds. I walked and walked, but hadn't found any alligators. I finally spotted a beautiful bird and went to take a picture of it. I was about to take a picture when there were two big splashes 2 feet to my left. I looked just in time to see two alligators jumping into the water! They startled me, which scared the bird, so in the end I didn't get the picture of the bird or the alligators. Oh well! It was amazing to actually be out in the wild though and to think I was 2 feet from alligators! I loved it and wish that I could go back.

     By the end of the day I had seen several alligators, hundreds of birds, and lots of bugs! All in all it was a great day! Be sure to check out the pictures below and the full collection of them on Facebook and Picasa!

Humongous Lilly Pads!

Joshua and Jonathon playing in the dirt

Mahalia in her mosquito net :-) Sooo Cute!

Fishing for Piranha!

Mr. Duarte and I went out to catch some minnow to use as bait for fishing.

My First Piranha :-) We actually kept this one to eat!

These bats were in the tree above us almost all day and we didn't even notice them!

Check out that gator!

A Tuiuiu. (Pronounced two-you-you) This is our state bird

Omar and his first Piranha

This was my fishing line for the day :-)