Serving, Dating, and Packing

Dress up time. David and Tucker were having a blast dancing around to get psyched up for when the Infantil, our PreK through Kindergarteners, and the Primeiro Anos, our First Graders, arrive for dress up time. The littles love this so much. I think these two do too. I’ll spare y’all the video of them dancing. Ha!

Oficia Reforço Escolar, or school reinforcement workshops, happen every week. We have a great group of volunteers and local teachers, who come by to help the kids with school work. Some kids receive more one on one attention, as needed.

Meredith, David, and my boys helped with the littles during this time. They had game time. This day Meredith had them playing musical chairs. Look at that sweet face.

I love these little stinkers. You will probably see this cutie patootie a lot. If you remember, she’s my mom’s sponsor child.

The kiddos love free time. A lot of the older boys stay on the soccer field but many of the girls and younger boys love fooseball. Since there is only one fooseball table, four to eight kids play at a time and they rotate so everyone gets to play. The older boys usually play during snack.

We don’t just deal with kids, we wrangle animals too. Sometimes the kids’ dogs will follow them to Vinde. We chased this dog for a while before we were able to catch him. The lizard, however, we did not chase. We let him do his thing. I know the picture is kind of grainy because I was standing on the bank when I saw this big fella crawl across the field. He was so big. We had to keep the little kids away. They wanted to play with him. There’s never a dull moment.

The kids had chocolate pudim with chocolate sprinkles for dessert today. It’s kind of like a bread pudding, soaked cake, flan type thing. The kids enjoy it. My mind can’t decide what I’m eating. When you first put it in your mouth, it has this cake type taste but its so wet and jelly-like (like cake that is so soak in liquid that its pure mush) that I feel like its more pudding. Like I said, my brain, can’t decide if it likes it or not. The non-chocolate version is definitely flan with doce de leite on top.

Devotional responsibilities rotate weekly among staff, interns, and this semester, us. Liando was actually filling in for Sarah this day, who was out at the neighboring Vinde location.

Mason usually helps with the older kids’ devotional time. Tuck, on the other hand, usually finds himself with Eduardo and the other teens. And, no, he’s not a teen yet, but, yes, he doesn’t care. The Word of Life seminary students come over once a week to have one on one mentorship with the teens. Tuck plops himself down with them while they’re having group time then he heads over to the soccer field.

Trevor has been busy helping plan our upcoming trip and walking with our neighbor, Pastor John, who has made it his mission to teach Trevor more Portuguese. Mr. John is such a nice man and we are thankful for such a good neighbor.

Teaching English was a disaster on Tuesday and delightful on Thursday. Thursday we started teaching the kids a Christmas song for the Christmas party. Language is crazy. I am struggling with pronouncing my vowels in Portuguese and have been pretty flustered about it and then I try to teach the kids how to say the words THE and WORLD in English and I realize how hard it is for them too. Portuguese doesn’t have the TH sound so it sounds more like GEE when they say it. And, oh my word, to hear them try to pronounce WORLD, had me in stitches. But we have time to get it right before the party. No worries.

At snack time, Mason is usually in charge of dispensing the juice. I am in charge of keeping them from touching every last piece of bread before they decide if the want bread with butter or jelly (butter is majority winner every time). Trevor is in the kitchen preparing to wash 80 cups and the last of the day’s dishes. And Tucker, well, he’s usually talking with the kids until it’s time to wipe down the tables once most of the kids have been picked up. The picture, above right, is of my lunch buddies. The girl in the foreground, asks me every day to sit with her at lunch. She usually moves from where she’s sitting to sit beside me once I’m done serving lunch. Trevor had his phone out so she swapped sides for him to take her picture. The other girl is her buddy and they are normally found beside each other.

I love this young lady. She has been at Vinde since she was about five or six. I have written about her before about her getting baptized this year. I walked up and this little fella was crying at first and she was talking with him. I wasn’t sure of everything she was saying but I did pick up on the fact that she was quoting the Bible. After he had calmed down and was ready to join the rest of the kids, I asked her about the situation. She explained and when I asked her about the Bible verse she quoted, (she speaks fairly decent English), she showed me her phone. She has been making a list of Bible verses that have spoken to her during different situations, and she has categorized them accordingly, as a quick reference to share with herself and others. I love this; to see her grow in her walk with the Lord, even just since we met her back in September, and to see her help this little fella by pointing him to God’s Word. I LOVE THIS! No one asked her, no one helped her. (Well, we know it was the Holy Spirit, but no one on staff asked her to talk with him). She just saw a hurting heart that needed comfort and what better comfort than God’s Word.

Sometimes, when supporting a ministry, people want to see immediate results, and those can and do happen, but it’s also about planting seeds. This young lady’s journey has occurred over years. Someone’s spiritual journey can be hard to show in a picture because it develops over time and takes discipleship. So don’t be discouraged, you have to trust the process. You have to have faith.

After a busy week, we were ready for the weekend. Tuck had tennis but there was no wiffle ball game on Thursday. The boys did have game night at Kevin’s on Friday though, so Trev and I took the opportunity to hang out with Liandro, Chris, and their kids playing a little tennis and having a little playground time. They are such a sweet couple and their oldest, is hilarious. He is learning Portuguese and English and switches between the two mid-sentence.

After working up an appetite playing tennis, it was time for date night. Trev and I went out to our favorite date night spot, 7Ervas, for dinner. The place was pretty empty when we got there, as Brazilians typically eat dinner later than we do, but it was busy by the time dessert arrived. It’s so different here. There’s no tipping, and they don’t care how long you sit at your table. Your food takes a while to get to your table, as they value relationship over quick service. You never feel rushed, which is nice. Although, sometimes, when I’m ready for the check, I’m ready to go. So you have to request the bill early if you’re in a hurry.

Weather-wise we have continued in the heatwave until yesterday. The cooler temps rolled in along with a few hours of rain. Last night, the cold weather warnings started again and we had rain almost all day long day. But never fear, it will be blazing hot and dry again by the end of the week, For now, the extra blankets get put back on the bed.

I didn’t mind too much because I was inside packing for our next trip. We will be visiting two new countries. And although, we won’t be spending a lot of time exploring these countries, we do have a few adventures planned. We can’t wait to share it with you.