Sunday, March 21, 2010

Poured Out




Friday morning began the final stretch of our time in Brazil. After breakfast and a great time of worship in song, Brandon encouraged us all to finish strong and leave every once of energy behind at Kid's Place. We boarded the bus and headed over to spend the day with our new friends.
At Kid's Place Friday's begin with singing and a short time of sharing. Singing with the children is an awesome experience. The children sing with full expression emotionally and physically. Dancing and praising at the top of their voices the children taught us songs like the crooked man who became straight. All of our gang enjoyed the worship and the exercise!
We all then went to our classrooms to have our final round of American Curiosity time with the children. After serving the children lunch we all said goodbye to children. Their were tears on both American and Brazilian faces. These children will own a piece of our hearts for eternity.
When the children had gone we sat down for lunch with our translators, pastors and Brazilian team members. We presented the translators with gifts and words of appreciation. These friends were a gift from the Father. Our frail words were reproduce in beautiful Portuguese to children and their families all week. We learned so many lessons of God's love in their service and friendship to us.
After lunch we began to prepare for hosting a special dinner for all of the couples we had whom we had visited in the Favelas during week. We cooked, cleaned, set up and sweated in the unusually hot Brazilian summer. We hosted a Texas style meal with potato salad, black-eyed peas, pico de gallo and grilled meats. Our new friends arrived. Their bright eyes and loving hearts make us feel like old friends. We sang together and worshiped the Father. Some of the new friends are also new members of God's family this week. We ate and then had a fun time making ice cream using two zip lock bags, rock salt, ice and the inner bag full of ice cream mix. This takes about five minutes of exuberant shaking(aka dancing) which was lots of fun for our Brazilian friends. As with anything, they participated with gusto.
Our late night finished with goodbyes and hope to meet again someday soon, but promises to see each other in heaven.
Our team returned to the hotel, packed and crashed for a few hours of sleep before a morning wake up to catch our flight. Our long travel day yesterday was full of sharing with other the memories of our trip. The day was uneventful until we arrived at DFW at 11:30pm and had to wait over an hour for our bags to be offloaded.
What a shock to us to leave a 90 degree Brazilian morning and arrive to 29 degrees and snowing in Texas.
Thanks to each fo you for praying for us as we served. Your prayers and support were foundational to our time in Brazil.
We love you-