Greetings from Recife

We have left the village with much joy in our hearts. We apologize for the late blogging: flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. Our new term.

Yesterday we felt and watched God show His Amazing face and Amazing grace! Since we received our bags we were able to bless the people of the village with much fun, examples of Christ`s love for them. Each woman was able to decorate a journal with decopage, the place a heart at the center, Hands and Feet, and then cut outs for each of their children. They were encouraged to use the journal to pray for their families:husbands, children and others specifically and their homes and life in the village. We saw women actually begin to journal after they had finised all of their activities.

Many of the volunteers sat on bended knee washing and rubbing the feet of these beautiful people.

Marianna and Molly led them in creating their own necklace, that was specifically designed to reflect their beautiful tranformed heart with the cross in the middle. They proudly wore them at the final service that evening. Pastor Josue and the mission provided lunch for all the women, their children and of course all the volunteers. Then Waka and Kiera shared their truly amazing testimonies. Waska is the music leader with a beautiful spirit for Christ and the people. Kiera led all the womens services and has a passion that truly gave me what I call "spirit chills". The children came and shared a song that put joy in our hearts and then the children and leaders of the mission shared a drama. The heart they put into these dramas is moving.

We held our small groups and shared the Evangecube with the women. They talked about how they are loved or not loved and if they knew God or not. Many did not know him and many did not feel love. Jenni`s group and a few others had women make decisions for Christ. We also had many on the fence, afraid because of the abuse of their husbands. Megan shared of a womans home she went to and later we had her in our group, she had bruise all down her arm, scratches on her back, black eyes and her earrings had all been ripped form her hears. Her husband was a crazy man when he was drunk. Pray heavily for these people.

Finally, we rushed back to the hotel for literally a 30 minutes freshen up and eat and then we returned for their normal church service and our final goodbye. When we arrived the chairs were filled and they were still coming. It was a beautiful sight. They had to go find more chairs to fit them in. The music rocked the house and the village I imagine, as we praised God.

Sonya spoke of her journey to Christ and the amazing transformation of Gods love upon her. Her tender spirit and sweet voice carried with the wind to the ears of the people. The house was moving folks, the Spirit was truly encompassing the mission. Prior to our testimonies I had 5 different women come and personally pray for me. I had prayed for the nervousness to go away and for me to truly share the love of Christ and the importance of being new. I can only say that God spoke the words form my mouth and the song in portuguese from my lips and it was amazing. I was not nervous and according to my translators the pronunciation was perfect too. God is truly an Awesome God. Pastor Josue gave an altar call and we had many, many make decisions for Christ.

Saying goodbye was difficult. Our love for each woman and their families was heart felt. must get off more later.

Blessings,

Susanne and team.