Well, I told you it would be a busy couple of months, with the last couple of weeks being no exception. The last two weeks of the semester were crazy, as the kids are getting ready to end their school year.
But before the week started we needed to go to São Paulo to buy Christmas presents for each of the Vinde kids. This meant a trip to Rua Vinte e Cinco de Março. This is street is nuts, in my country girl opinion. It is full of shops and street vendors.
I didn’t get many pictures as it’s not the safest area to have your phone out. I snapped these from the van and it was pretty early when we got there, so crazy hadn’t even gotten started yet. I also didn’t get any pictures inside the stores we went in because several of them were so busy you literally could only take a couple steps at a time because there were so many people. Everyone was just nudging each other out of the way. It was bananas. Think, back in the day, before cyber Monday, old school Black Friday at Walmart and then times it by 10!!! It was not worth the savings in my opinion but the selection was pretty good and we were able to get most of the kids the toy they wanted there.
Then we headed over to Liberdade. It is the Japanese neighborhood of the city. It was pretty cool with the Asian inspired street lamps and such. Anime, k-pop, Asian food you name it.
We left at 7am and got home around 9pm. It was a long but successful day.
David got the boys a Christmas present and he couldn’t wait for them to open it. The interns go home over break so he gave it to them early. How thoughtful.
Speaking of gifts, my mom got Raquel a whole bag full of kitchen toys she wanted. I have the sweetest video of her trying to say – “Thank you, Darlene”. What made it even sweeter was I noticed, after I took the pictures and video, that she was wearing one of the shirts mom had gotten for her back in June when she was here.
With the christmas party and the team coming we had lots to do to prepare. The team wanted to give food baskets during the home visits but since every family was getting a food basket at the party, we decided to make a ‘basket’ of christmas goodies and cleaning supplies instead.
After a weekend of bed making and room prep. We treated ourselves to some good old American style hamburgers at an American inspired restaurant called Let’s Eat (which in true Brazilian fashion has a rodízio of either burgers or Mexican- now that’s something we can get behind) and some açaí for dessert.
The best way to start a week is to see three of our kids get baptized! I cried like a baby. All three of these young people have been coming to Vinde since they were about 5 or 6. So precious.
Victoria was one of the first teens we met when we came down in September. She is a ray of sunshine. Her and Trevor have such a sweet connection. She will probably go to work and not return to Vinde next year. My heart will miss her but what a blessing to know that she is saved and was baptized to publicly show it. I pray the best for her.
Giovanna speaks little English but she has the best smile and sweet hug. I’m not sure what her plans are for next year, but I know she has the Lord to walk with her.
Oh Eduardo! This young man has my heart. He serves hard at Vinde and is always smiling. His English is pretty good, so we talk often. When he started to cry while being baptized, I lost it. There had been a big transformation in him this year from hanging out with the wrong crowd and doing things he shouldn’t to loving the Lord and putting that stuff behind him. That’s what happens when you give your life to Christ. He will be back at Vinde helping to mentor the younger kids while he continues to be mentored. I think he would like to go to seminary, if funding permits, and maybe even come on staff at Vinde when done. What a beautiful changed life! God is so good.
And along the lines of being grateful, although we are not Word of Life missionares, we were graciously invited to attend the Word of Life Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is not a Brazilian holiday and (they don’t have turkey) but the seminary was started by Americans and they instituted a Thanksgiving dinner tradition years ago.
The following day we attended our first Friendsgiving. Sarah started this tradition several years ago and Roberto and Anna, graciously offer their house every year for the event.
Like I said, no turkey, but Roberto smoked a ham and Trevor was tasked with carving. Emily did a lot of the cooking. Her happy place is the kitchen. Sarah made the mac and cheese and I even made two pecan pies from scratch, even the crust. Pecans are very expensive here and hard to find so this was a treat. This was the last of the pecans that I had from when the grandparents brought a bag down in June.
Food, family, friends, fellowship make for a fun Friendsgiving. We are so thankful for being invited to be a part of this.
With Thanksgiving over, we focused our attention on the Moyo team that arrived early Monday morning.
What a sweet blessing to see them jump right into kitchen duty and making preparations for the Christmas party.
They did home visits and delivered gifts and they made burgers for the last day of the semester. Kevin even joined in on the clean up. Tucker got up early one morning to help make the team breakfast.
They worked hard to decorate the pavilion for the party and they worked extremely hard cleaning up after the party, staying up late knowing they had an early flight the next morning. We are so thankful when teams come down.
It’s so great when sponsors visit and to get to be part of the ministry. They get to see their sponsor child in person and meet and pray for that family. Jacob nailed it with some Stitch gifts for Felipe.
The staff gave us gifts for volunteering with them this year and I can truly say that working alongside them has been such a blessing.
We were able to help hand out the presents to the kids at the party.
It was so sweet to see their smiling faces.
Presents are nice but nothing compares to the saving grace of Jesus in our lives. We are so grateful to Kevin for being our friend, former pastor, and a preacher of the Word. He has such a passion for the Lord and for missions. We wouldn’t been here in Brazil today without his influence in our lives. Our prayer is that seeds were planned as he spoke God’s words to the families at the party.
The next morning, the team left bright and early, and I say bright because Brazil doesn’t do time change and the sun is streaming in my bedroom window at 4:40 every morning. So thankful for their service and for their safe flight home.
Not all of the team left, Jacob stayed with us for a couple extra days. We went to the Argentine steakhouse, Tango, for lunch, as Jacob spent a gap year in Argentina.
Then the fellas had a guys night at a soccer game. That’s Daniel, Jacob, and Tucker in the red bucket hats. Red Bulls won 5 to 1 so it was a pretty good game. Then they went out for rodizio burgers and Mexican at the Let’s Eat restaurant I mentioned above.
The next morning we were up early again to take Jacob and Daniel to hike up Pedra Grande (Large Stone).
Weather was great and, although the cloud cover obscured the view a little, it was a welcome reprieve from the heat.
Interestingly enough 10 years earlier, we had hiked another large rock together; Stone Mountain in Georgia. In the picture above of Stone Mountain, Jacob was 15 and Mason was 5. This time going hiking Pedra Grande, Jacob is 25 and Mason is 15. How faithful God has been to both our families to see our kids walk with Him.
Well, now I need to go finish organizing all the Christmas decorations from the Festa de Natal. Then we can rest for bit before Christmas.
NoHurryCains 
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