A New and Better Way

The weekend away was absolutely lovely. A total gift from God. The hide-a-bed left a lot to be desired but other then that it was great. I went with my friend Palmyra and everything we needed was in walking distance, so perfect. There were some lovely moments with Jesus and just being by the ocean was such a balm. I love His creation. The sad part was seeing how poorly we have treated his handiwork as there were several plastic bags floating in the water. The breeze, the palm trees, the sand all of it was such a boon though and I thank-you for your prayers for rest and refreshment. Both Palmyra and I were blessed by our time in Santos. I continue to wrestle with the thought of leaving and yet part of me can hardly wait to be home again. I have learned so many things about myself and have noticed a new confidence in my relationship with Pastor Marcelo. God is teaching me to live out of who I am and not out of who others hope and expect me to be. Of course this is a life long learning pr...

I come home in 30 days. I can feel myself mentally and emotionally disengaging at times. I want to guard my heart. Its already going to be so hard to leave. Please pray that I won't hold myself back just because of this. Speaking of guarding my heart....Yesterday I found out that one of the girls I am mentoring is pregnant. She turns 16 on Sunday. Now she will have to step down from her ministry position and may be forced to marry the baby's father which I believe will only lead to more problems. She is really hurting right now. And then this morning one of the preteens that always hangs around the church and follows me around was verbally and physically attacked by her mother. Her mom threw a large stick at her right in front of the church and called her all sorts of names. Thankfully she missed but it was a close call. Myself and another person witnessed the whole thing. I wish I could have intervened sooner. Afterwards I just held her as she cried. It certainly is a privileg...

In my moments of quiet time I am coming to several realizations. There is a driveness about me. A fear, if you will, that somehow there won´t be enough time or that time is something that I can bend to my will. I must be in control. When I walk into Vila Andrade I am sometimes able to catch a glimpse of how absurd this thinking is. At 10 a.m. I see children carrying brown bags full of bread to their homes for breakfast. At that point I have already been awake for several hours but here time does not matter as much. When I simply greet the children or people I recognize instead of stopping to talk with them, not taking the time to be with them because I am already almost late. It is like there is a rebuke in my spirit. What is the greater thing? These people or being on time? All my reflexes fight such thinking "what will my boss say if I am late.....but I am helping by working at the church" and the list goes on. Someone wise once said that hurry and busyness are the enemies ...

Tomorrow is the last day of VBS. Of course we had several adventures yet again. Today the lady who hands out the snack was sick so I had to find someone to fill in at the last minute. The person didn't have the keys to the kitchen where the snack was....And as per usual some volunteers came and others didn't but it all worked out again. There were also some instances when I would make a decision and then the pastor would change the plans. That was a bit frustrating. We replaced the worship leader with myself and Aline. The kids were fairly well behaved. Yesterday and today´s numbers were lower than Wednesday but that was a blessing since it made things more managable. Tomorrow is the big wrap up. We are doing a treasure hunt, giving out prizes and having an extended worship time. My friend Palmyra will be helping out and my roomate´s sister Monica will also be there. Monica has actually been helping all week by doing the sound. Here are some pics! Thank-you so much for all your...

I wish I had pictures folks but lots of other people have taken photos and so I'll borrow from them. Day 2 is over now. We had over a hundred kids though some counted 89. Not sure who is right but it seemed to lean more to the 100 number. One of my volunteers has a cold, one was totally discouraged and another group leader didn't show. Thankfully there were others to take his place. Please pray that my volunteers will keep coming and not lose heart. Some of them aren't sleeping well so that could use prayer too. With the increased number of kids its harder for them to be in control and in charge at all times (and some aren't super mature which doesn't help). The kids themselves are having a great time and overall it continues to be a lot of fun so I praise God for that. Again during story time the Gospel was shared so the kids are also hearing about Jesus which is what matters most. The smaller ones are kind of too little to get much out of it so I'm hoping to f...

Good news! Good news! Everyone has survived the first day of VBS! The power point was down 20 min. before we started, the sink in the girl's bathroom started leaking half-way through and we had to do some improvisation in the programing but in the end everything worked out and it was even FUN! My volunteers were awesome ( even if half of them showed up late and 20 kids showed up early)! There were 60 kids in total and every day the number will increase as each kid tells their friends. I just don't know what I'll do Friday and Saturday when Marisa (the pastor's wife) isn't around to lead the worship. She did a fantastic job and threw in a bunch of games that involved one team competing against the other. Pray that someone will step up for that. While I love children what most thrilled me was seeing the young people of the church stepping up and serving. Many of them have leadership gifts and so it was really neat to see that coming out. I just wish they'd stretch...

I am currently sitting in one of the offices at Morumbi waiting for Pastor Marcos to get out of a meeting so we can have our lunch meeting. It is sunny and warm outside but freezing indoors. Yesterday we finally had our planning meeting for next week's VBS. I walked out of there feeling so stressed! Aline (who is 16) and I are the one's in charge and we have no idea how many kids will show up. We will need quite a few volunteers and the curriculum we'll be using is being purchased today (so we haven't even seen it yet!). Nothing like leaving things to the last minute. Unless I manage to let go and leave things entirely in God's hands there is no way I'll get through next week (without a hernia or grey hairs at least). It is at times like these I seriously wish I was a more laid back person. Thankfully I am feeling less anxious today and I know that is definitely a God thing. I am definitely learning how to rely on him at all times. Perhaps you are thinking, its ...

Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day. When I showed up for my mentoring meeting with Pastor Marcelo he had another meeting they had booked at the last minute so we weren´t able to meet. This now means that nothing is planned for the VBS and it is less than a week away. I have a few game ideas and some potential volunteers and that is it. Now I have two choices I can get all stressed or just go with the flow. Guess I´ll just have to change my expectations again. That and a few communication breakdowns have me less then enthused at the moment. Well, my roomate has a cold and now I think I´ve caught it. I feel feeverish and I have a sore throat. Please pray that this blows over before the VBS. It is winter here so I guess its cold season. Today is a holiday and since the bags under my eyes look more like suitcases than carry ons I decided to stay home. Thankfully that allowed me to finish a book report and catch up on e-mails even if it meant being anti-social. Tomorrow is a full day as...

Was talking with my parents on the phone last night. Now that I finally feel more settled in here Edmonton seems very far away. I know I will probably go through major counter culture shock and I´m not looking forward to that. While there are still things I miss about home at the moment I am having a hard time picturing myself back in Edmonton. And to think that I leave next month already! Time has really flown. Speaking of time I feel like I have really grown in this area. While I don´t appreciate all the waiting and lack of punctuality that surrounds me I can honestly say that I get much less frustrated and have learned to simply find something else to do as I wait for the person who shows up half an hour late or who doesn´t show up at all. Standing in lines has also become a norm. I simply day dream or choose to think about things other then the fact that I could be spending my time elswhere. My focus on punctuality hasn´t left me entirely and I still show up way too early to things...

This morning I had to be at the church by 8 a.m. The pre-adolescents were leading the prayer meeting and as one of their leaders I had to be present. I played keyboard for the two worship songs. Only two pre-adolescents came (they have a hard time waking up early). When I left the house it was chilly and foggy. I could see my breath but could hardly see more then 10 feet in front of me because of the fog. Now it´s sunny and clear and has warmed up some. The prayer meeting went well even though only a few people showed up. On the way home I stopped at a padaria (café) and had a sweet roll and some coffee while sitting in the sun. I like Saturdays. The whole city seems to have a different rhythm. There is less traffic and the pace of life seems to slow down, or maybe I am finally learning what it means to enjoy Sabbath. The home visitations yesterday also went well. Thank-you for your prayers. In the afternoon there was no one who could go with me until around 4:30 which was quite frustr...

On Sunday Pastor Marcelo preached about total consecration since that is the topic of the week during the 40 day prayer journey. God has really been speaking to me through the topics and I felt like I need to surrender a few things so I did. Frankly I have felt quite a lot better since then. I´m still not sure what all happened but I do know that it probably also has a lot to do with the prayer time they had for me on Sunday. After I finished singing my solo Pastor Marcelo had me stay on the stage and he shared how this internship has been rather challenging for both of us as we figured out that I am really more Canadian than Brasilian. The whole thing could have been humiliating if he hadn´t shared about his own missionary experience in Monte Videu. He only had 3 days left to complete his internship but he couldn´t stand it anymore so he took a bus and got the heck out of there. Once his story was over he asked if several women of the church would come and pray for me. So I knelt and ...