Busy Busy April

March madness led us into a busy April. So busy in fact, that one, I will divide the month into several separate posts and two, May is almost over and I’m just now writing these posts.

It has been a long time since we had a real family photo taken. So when Eli came and took pictures of our family as well as the ministry, I was excited. All the good, clear pics in this post came from him.

English classes are going well. I teach four a week. I teach fourth and fifth grade with Mason at Sede and first through third at Imperial with Tucker. I also teach advanced middle schoolers and a business English for our high schoolers in the new Vinde Criar program. These classes range from silly and fun to real life applications. I love it and getting to do so with my boys makes it even better.

Like I said, Eli came a week before the team arrived in order to take ministry pictures so we were busy preparing for him. This is a drone shot of the main ministry location.

Above are pictures of the Botucatu location. Botucatu is about four hours west from the main (Sede) location.

Roberto, Danny, Jacob, and Eli went for a couple days to visit with the missionaries there and get an in-person update on the ministry. A lot has happened since we came and cleaned out the building and held the first event there.

The program is growing and we have new missionaries in place to lead the program.

Though they meet in the evenings, this location follows the same structure as our other locations so these kids are learning about the Bible, Jesus is being preached, kids are getting help with school and physical activities, and are served a meal.

This is a drone shot of our Imperial location.

The 12 Stone Youth team arrived the following week. They came prepared to serve.

Each day half the team would go to Imperial and the other half stayed at Sede.

So many smiling faces. The kids love it when teens come to serve.

Tuck serves at Imperial. He loves how physical he gets to be while serving the kids. All that physicalness leads to lots of scrapes and bruises. If I knew that I would be a missionary one day I probably would have gotten a degree in nursing, counseling, or education, instead of accounting. So many bandaids and so many tears. But oh so many smiles make it all worth it.

The team played soccer and dodgeball while I scooped rogue balls out of the creek that runs through the property.

The kids love having teams.

All the special Bible lessons, crafts, and games.

The kids loved the invisible ink activity.

All the 12 Stone team members had multiple opportunities to share their testimony.

I don’t have a photo but I have a video of the team doing dishes and cleaning up after dinner while singing their hearts out to the Lord; serving with gladness.

Lots of hugs and love. Mason hasn’t normally been much of a kid person but his time serving at the ministry has really brought him out of his shell. They still drive him crazy when they don’t obey but the kids love him.

The top left picture of Daniel praying is just precious. This is all part of training up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it, like is says in Proverbs 22.

This is what we are helping to do. Getting these kids in the Word so when they face trials they know where their help and strength come from and how to better navigate them.

Our kids go through all kinds of hardships. Macion is shy and has a hard time making friends with the rowdier boys. Macion has a wonderful sponsor but she is from a different church and not on this trip. Sweet Annie noticed how Macion was often by himself or with his much younger cousins, so she befriended him. He craved the attention so much, he found himself in trouble. I walked to the front of the property and found him sitting by himself when he wasn’t supposed to be on property. When I questioned him, he informed my that his dad hadn’t picked him up yet. The story sounded fishy so I went straight to Liandro. Come to find out his sister dropped him off at school after Vinde but instead of staying at school, he walked (a looong ways) back to Vinde so he could hang out with Annie. His parents had been looking for him. No one knew where he was until Liandro contacted his parents. He was allowed to stay the afternoon and ride home with his cousins. He cried not wanting to leave Annie, the sweet girl that was being the hands and feet of Jesus by showing him kindness.

When teams come, our job changes a little. Our focus is on taking care of them so they can minister to the kids. For me that means having rooms ready, preparing meals, scheduling transportation and meals, providing orientation, etc. Mason and Tucker focus on crowd control with the kids and translating for the team.

This is what the lodging for teams look like.

Trevor focuses on cooking breakfast, grilling for dinner when needed, driving the team around, and preparing a scavenger hunt sometimes.

The scavenger hunt was a hoot. The team and staff worked together to complete it and there were Brazilians and Americans running all over the property. Jacob’s team won the coveted Hershey Bar trophy.

The team also hosted a soccer tournament on Saturday and lots of parents stayed for the games. Jeremy presented the gospel midway through allowing us to reach, not just the kids but their parents, and other family they brought along.

The team also served the ministry by helping around property shoveling dirt and painting. This group didn’t complain one bit. They just worked and kept at it.

The team also delivered food baskets to some of our families. These visits allow the team to see how our kids live and pray with and for those families.

It wasn’t all work and no play. The team got out to take a tour of the city of Atibaia and then enjoyed the Brazilian steakhouse, Grill Sul in Bragança, where they ate all you can eat meat.

And just like that, a month of preparation beforehand, led to two weeks that passed quickly.