Now that we’ve gotten into the groove of the new semester, it’s time to start work on child sponsorship letters. Chris, Liandro’s wife, helps with all things MOYO child sponsorship on the Brazil side. She explains to the kids how to fill out the letters and why we do them. The kids love to receive letters and gifts from their “padrinho/madrinha” (godfather/godmother) aka their sponsors from America.
I finally remembered to get a picture of Eduardo. I love this young man. He, like Marcella, has been in the program since he was 5 or 6. And he, like many kids, fall away at times and engaged in drugs, drinking, and other ungodly behaviors, but God is faithful. With constant discipleship, this young man turned from those things and has such a love for the Lord. He is now serving at Vinde in the afternoons after school. He is so kind. He wants to come to the USA and make money, then seminary, and possibly serving on staff with Vinde. On the hard days, the thankless days, the “why am I here Lord?” days, I look at him and I am encouraged that in the midst of the ordinary God is doing the extraordinary. I doubt this young man knows what an impact he has had on me but I guarantee you, he knows the impact of serving a risen Savior.
The garden at the Imperial location has been bittersweet. The kids have worked to careful tend to these plants, only to learn the garden would need to be dug up. They quickly got over their disappointment by playing tag freeze tag with Mason.
Chris and Liandro’s youngest turned one and we were invited to celebrate with them. Davi and Daniel have become like surrogate nephews to us. They are such sweet little boys.
Well, with Carnival comes the crowds, parties, parades, costumes, etc. For us, it meant stocking up on groceries and not leaving the house. Everything stops for Carnival. Don’t expect to get anything done because everyone is too busy partying. We, however, had a very restful week.
After Carnival things went back to normal. Tuck helped the kids with their books of the Bible game.
The tent at the Imperial location has held up but with 44 kids, it gets quite full feeling.
The construction crew has been hard at work putting a new roof on the building there. We can’t wait to get moved into this space and get rid of the tent.
The middle of March brought with it our first team of the semester. This group of college kids from Valdosta Georgia were amazing. They had such a wonderful attitude the whole trip. Right off the plane and after lunch we took them on a quick tour of our city.
Afterwards, they wanted to go go-karting. They had a blast.
The next morning they were up early for church, where their pastor preached.
After church, the team went on home visits. Along with delivering food baskets and Carlitos, (the monkeys we take to the local favelas), the team had the opportunity to pray with the families. This is always such a sweet time.
That evening, we headed to another church (not the one pictured above; I just thought this one was cool the way it sat at the top of the road) to give testimonials and preach the evening service.
These young people served whole heartedly all week. From doing dishes and to sweeping…
to peeling potatoes…
to playing games and setting up obstacle courses where the kids have to say their memory Bible verses…
to teaching wrestling moves…
to giving their testimonies, and leading devotionals.
I’m so proud of Mason, he helped the team with translating testimonies and games all week. He is doing so well with the language. Unlike me, who ordered the team’s açaí with “tired” milk instead of condensed milk. Oh well, I’m trying and the lady at the counter was nice about it. She knew what I wanted even though I called it the wrong word. A year and I’m still struggling. I’m so thankful that the boys can speak it at least.
The end of the week, left me and Tuck sick in bed (in Tuck’s case the hammock), to fight off a little fever and cough.
Sick, then the heating coil in our shower died, the fuse that runs the refrigerator outlet had decided to start sparking leaving us without the use of the fridge, microwave, and water cooler. Our pool filter isn’t working right so now we have a green pool. It’s not how I would have chosen to end my month but there it is. But Tuck and I are feeling better, Trev and I replaced the heating coil ourselves, we moved the fridge to the other side of the kitchen to a different outlet, and well, they’re still swimming in our “pond”, so all in all, life is good.
NoHurryCains 
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