This Monday I went to the cinema with all my friends to see the new iron man movie. Very good fun to just chillax and watch a movie with friends.
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| good fun, good film |
This Tuesday we were up relatively early for our Maia Neto kids morning. We arrived at the school and there were no students that. It had rained pretty badly the day before so some of the school had be damaged so they had some people in to try and sort out the problems. We talked a little with the directors and found out that it wasn't the only reason the school was closed. Two of the directors are sisters and they told us that their other sister had a son who just discovered that he might have cancer. Was definitely really difficult for the both of them but what was awesome was that we were able to pray for them both and ask God's healing power into the situation.
The rest of Tuesday we spent during our team bible study and watch the Pais videos that Paul Gibbs (the leader of Pais) makes every week and then we were able to go home for the afternoon. We came back for Capoeira that night and were able to talk to the instructor about getting "Baptised" for our first cords (in capoeira you don't get belts you get like ropes that go around your waist and the "exam" for it is called a baptism). We weren't going to be able to do it with the rest of the group but he said that he will set aside some time for us to do it as a team. It's awesome because I thought I wasn't going to be able to get my cord before I left.
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| really looking forward to getting our cords! |
Wednesday was a Brazil holiday (May day holiday) so we used it to do most of our planning for the week and then had our cell group that night. We had asked the kids this week to each bring one of their friends who could benefit from the stuff that we're doing in our cell and the guys brought a whole bunch of new people. Each one of them got prayed for and really blessed throughout the night. It was awesome.
Thursday was our second full day in Ferreira, our new school. We decided to really work with English in Ferreira as it will be a really huge help for the teens in the schools that are working toward Uni. We did classes from 1-5 so is was long and as I was really doing anything it was longer but it was a fantastic lesson and we got loads of opportunities just to talk to people about God as well in the break time which was awesome! That night I just went home to rest for the floca day and to look over the songs for the event then got to teach my host sister some guitar which was really fun.
Friday we were back in Floca and we had prepared a really cool lesson for this week all about bullying. We started with a "bully chain" drama to show that usually a bully is doing that stuff because they are being hurt themselves ("hurt people, hurt [other] people!"). We talked a lot about taking control of the situation and loving the person or other people in return, break the chain of bullying in their lives. At the end of the lesson we then gave them a little chain link to put on their school bags to say that "I want to break the chain of bullying". It was really cool because in the last class we had students who came up to the front of the class and said that sentence in front of everyone else in the class!
That afternoon we didn't have any classes to teach so we just hung out with all the kids that were in the courtyard area for a good while. The teachers have started taking registers (only now!) so the was less kids hanging about but it was still fun. Two funny stories! One of the girls from the afternoon came to say goodbye to my and my friend when she was leaving and she gave me a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye and then offered her cheek to me for me to kiss, I simply replied "no I'm Northern Irish, we don't do that!". Second story, I went to the staff toilet about half an hour before the end of school, I went to leave the the key for it back in the staff room and when leaving went to turn the light off. Unfortunately instead of turning the light off I rang the school bell, thusly liberating the students 30 minutes before the end of school!
Would really appreciate some prayer for my floca times this week. I've felt a little "powerless" going into floca these past few weeks and would really appreciate some prayer because I really don't have much time left there and want to make the biggest impact I can while im here.
That night we had our first practice for Saturday from 10pm- 12pm. Was a good practice but didn't get home until 1am but got to sleep in the next morning which was awesome.
The next day just spent most of my time sorting out a video for the fundraiser. I'm rather proud of it do even though its in portuguese heres the link
interview with student
Then at about 3:30 it started to kick off in prep for that night. We got some tables set up, and then started our practice and sound check as a band. [So what we were actually doing was taking over the service for that night then serving up some fun at the end for people to pay for and enjoy. I was leading worship, Gina was singing backup, Jared playing drums and MCing, Ramin preaching and Emily dancing (they have dance worship in our church which is pretty cool).] So then people started showing up. To start off with it looked like there was going to be very few people but as we got into worship people started showing up in true brazilian fashion. In the end we had more than 150 people there in support of us as a team, and everything went awesome, including the food! Apparently the worship went so well we were asked to play on Sunday as well!
Just want to thank everyone who was praying for the fundraiser this week, God really blessed us as a team through the experience and Pais Brazil will go a little bit further thanks to the funds.
I'm just starting to think about going home these day as there's only 7 weeks left now. Little bit nervous about going home, leaving this atmosphere but I'm also excited for the next chapter (whatever it turns out to be). Would really appreciate some prayer for that as well.
love you guys soo much
God bless
Mark
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