Raphah

What a crazy awesome week! This week I have called the blog "Raphah" which is the hebrew word for "be still used in Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God". It's really what God had been speaking to me this week, about resting in his presence in the midst of the all things. The biggest to the smallest he is still God over it all!

This week all the public schools in Brazil were on strike from tuesday to Thursday. This meant that none of the schools were going to be having lessons this week. So, we decided to take a little holiday! We got up early Tuesday morning and took a bus to a place called Pipa. It's a beautiful little town on the coast with beautiful beaches, good food and it's cheap. So it was a done deal. We arrived and were met by a lady called Rose. She said that she had a youth hostel that was in the middle of the town and had everything we would need and it was cheap. Again a done deal. A really pretty little house that fitted us real well with a little patio with hammocks, cushions and shelter if it rained. We went to the beaches, had adventures in "tree caves" and ate really good food on the tuesday and on the wednesday just chilled until going back for our cell group. A gorgeous little place and I know I will definately go back there someday!

Holiday snaps!

The "praia do amor" (beach of love) so named because it's in the shape of a heart. Had a really cool trek to get there and weather was awesome for swimming and relaxing and drink Coconut water!










Praia dos golfinhos (beach of the dolphins) so named because at high tide sometimes dolphins will come into the bay. Really calm waters and because of the slightly y difficult trek to get there, there was no one on the beach at all! We spent hours in the water just playing with a football and swimming about. 

 

       Little video of Rose's youth hostel. 

Then when got back on the wednesday night I spoke in the cell group. I was speaking on Joshua 5 where Joshua meets the leader of the lord's armies. I really enjoyed it because I felt it was the first time I really felt like I got my point across and communicated it well. I was just speaking again on the idea of knowing who God is and coming into his presence and realising no we can't defeat our enemies at all, it is God in and through us that does the work. So rest in his presence and let him take care of it. 

Thursday was a nice long day. We started with planning in the church and then went to the park to hang out with the kids again as they had a day off. Was great to just hang out with kids playing frisbee and other games. Loving them and showing them the value that maybe other don't show them as much. That night we had another practice for the big fundraiser event that's coming up. Please lift up some prayers for it as it terms of the worship group and the food that we will be selling and everything, it would be great to have God's power over it all. 

Friday morning was great. We were teaching our classes again in Floca teaching on guilt and how in Jesus there is no place for guilt and condemnation. It was really cool to see some people receive really well from and it and I got to lead an imagination time were they picture giving this guilt to Jesus! Apart from that fact that I mixed the words back and tickles it went pretty well. That afternoon we didn't have any lessons to teach so we just got 5 hours or so of hanging out with kids. Some really cool stuff is happening in the lives of people in that school I love that fact that God lets us be apart of it!

As I said it would be great if you could lift up prayer for the fundraiser this week. It's fundraising for Pais here in Brazil which is really needed and we're really going to need God's strength and energy in all we're doing. I'm going to be leading a full worship set for the first time so please pray for that. 

Thanks again so much for reading guys 
Love you all
Mark



















  

"Ranan"

So we arrived at the school on Tuesday morning and figured that we were going to have a little bit of a different week this week. It turned out that Tuesday, Wednesday and thursday both Maia Neto and Ferreira would be doing tests so we wouldn't be able to come in and "do our thing".  This week we still had the pleasure to spend some more time with the global Pais guy Paul green. He was still getting some footage of us and with some of the students and stuff  but also him and Jared were working on translating the whole of the Pais project website into Portuguese.

view of the neighbourhood from the bridge that crosses the  motorway

On Tuesday morning we were still able to do the kids story with the little kids at Maia Neto which was awesome. Emily was doing it for the first time and she was really great, doing it a little differently and she even used a puppet, teaching on the first part of Moses. We just spent the rest of that day waiting around really because there wasn't any lessons to really plan for this week and we were going back into the school to do one lesson with the older kids. The older kids in Maia Neto is probably the ministry that I struggle with the most. When  I say old they're all no older than like 15 so sometimes trying to get a series conversation from them can be a little difficult. But I do believe that they're receiving  and that God is really moving in the hearts of some of the kids.  That night was really good fun. We decided that Paul couldn't come to Brazil and not play a game of football. So we remember friend of friends that we had played with once a long time ago play football every tuesday night so we asked if we could tag along. I'm really pretty bad at football but was good fun and ended up scoring a goal!

Our church "refuge of grace"

As I said we didn't have any lessons to give on wednesday so we met team after lunch to do some lesson planning for Friday as we have a good lot of lessons that we need to give there now. But me and Gina met up with a friend from the church called David Costa who is going to give us singing lessons for free! We have a big event coming up to fundraise for Pais and i will leading worship for it and he is being and huge  huge help us. We then used the time after lunch to to do some lesson planning for Friday as we have a good lot of lessons that we need to give there now. Then we had our cell group that night which was awesome because we had 4 students come who had never been before. We took the opportunity to pray for each individually and the next day we heard that two of the girls choose to accept Jesus into their lives that night. It's absolutely awesome because one of the girls has been connected with us from the start and we has seen her grow so much up to this point to finally make the decision. God is good!



Thursday we met after lunch again because there was no schools that afternoon and did a little bit of final planning then got to hang out in the Plaza near the church with the kids from Ferreira which was great fun. It's been so cool to see how our relationships there are growing so quickly! Me and Gina then returned to the church because we were going to someone's house to practice with all the vocalists who are going to be singing for our big event.

were doing a fundraising service in the church on the 4th of May (thats the big event)

Friday was an early morning back in Floca. We had planned to recap the lessons from "because you're loved" from the week before and show them that they can this sort of challenge in their wholes lives. We end each lesson telling them that if they wanted they could come with us at the break time and we would do a litter pick in the school. When it came down to it about 4 kids turned up to helps us so off went into the school showing them love in action. What was really cool was when we started cleaning loads of kids started joining in and about 20 kids ended up helping us out. There was a lot to clean up and we were able to make a real physical difference in the school which awesome. That afternoon we came back just to teach our lesson which we have decided will just be a conversation English class. We taught them their ABCs and then some basic stuff after that. Apparently in the next month (since last friday) every Friday they are going to have a band of students playing in the patio area of the school. So obviously they asked me to play for them. It was a rather surreal experience if I'm honest. The screams could be compared to some sort one direction concert to give context. Needless to say it was actually rather fun and I was able to play some worship music  in front of them all which was awesome!

me playin my "big gig" 

That night we went to a restaurant to say goodbye to Paul Green. It was a real blessing having him here with us and I quote he said "I've seen a lot of Pais teams in my day but you guys are up there with the best!". That was a bit of encouragement.

Paul Green making good use of the Paradox lense

I was a little frustrated this week as I have lost my notebook in which I have written everything I have learnt with me and God in the last 3-4 months. I have looked everywhere for it and if you're offering up a little prayer for me I would appreciate it if you could pray that I could find  it.

רָנַן

ranan

This week's Blog is called Ranan. This is the hebrew word for "being joyful, rejoicing out load, being overcome or overcoming". God is so good and even when I have a week were I don't focus on him he still wants to lavish his blessings on me and "overcome" me. 

Hope you are blessed by reading what's happening in Brazil with us on Pais Brazil. If you're heading to St john's tonight for the worship night I hear theres going to be a preach from some really cool guy there tonight! watch out for that.

God bless

Mark

"Perissos"

This has been an absolutely amazing and busy week. We have a guy called Paul green with us from Global Pais recording a documentary about what we're doing here on Pais Brazil so he has been recording with us in all the things that we're doing. Not only that but we started in a new school this Thursday and started giving classes in the afternoon in floca for the first time.

                               περισσός

I've called this week "Perissos" which is the greek word in John 10:10 used for abundance. God is doing so many amazing things here and it is in the limitless abundance of his holy spirit that he is blessing us. In the midst of his presence there are no limits!


Last Monday was when our week started as we had to go to the new school as a team to talk over some details with the directors of the new school "Ferriera". after the meeting we were ready for the classes on Thursday and were more aware of what they as a school wanted from us. We had the rest of the day off so I went to teach my guitar lesson.

Tuesday morning we were back in Maia Neto to teach our bible class with the kids there. We've been able to teach the bible in order this term so this week we were teaching on Abraham. It was really cool because afterwards one of the kids came up with a picture about all the little things in the story. After the story we had our last music class with the 5th years and i got to teach them how to sing a song that they had sung for us last week, correcting their posture and things like that. We had a little bit of planning and stuff for the week to do after that so we went back to the church to prepare for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday lessons. After we had prepared a little bit we were supposed to go back to Maia Neto to teach one of the classes that we had missed the week before. When we arrived they had already let them go so we decided to go for a prayer walk round the neighbourhood. It's really cool because Maia Neto and Ferreira are actually in the same Neighbourhood so after a little bit of walking we saw some kids playing uno in the plaza so we went over and got to make some relationships with some students before we had even entered the school.

Kids doing the actions at Maia Neto

Wednesday we were back in Maia Neto again with our afternoon classes teaching the "Sex and relationships". I got to share with my groups of boys about what I think a real man is and what it means to have real lasting relationships with people. As usual some aren't really that attentive but others were really listening. With one group that has been a little behind I was teaching about friendship. Three of the guys started to cry because each one of them has had a friend close to them that had pasted away. I was able to just tell them of their value and their ability to affect lives like their friends had affected theirs.
After the lessons we headed back to the church to get ready for the cell group.
It was really fun this week. I just got to lead in worship while everyone prayed for people, and then got to lead people in a time of imagination were they just close their eyes and imagine Jesus talking to them about how much he loves them and accepts them. Wednesday night have got to be my favourite times of the week. Just coming into God's presence and feel and hearing his love and how much he cares for us. It's amazing.

Thursday were in the church early to try and figure out some little admin things and then headed out to Ferriera for the first time. We just did our introduction class talking about our country and culture and ourselves. Had about 3 classes and they all seemed to really enjoy it. Then we just got to hang out with the students and make friendships in their break time. That afternoon me and Ramin got to hang out as we were waiting for Capoeira which was a really good time of chat for me which was needed. Got some time to record a video that I needed to make (those at home might get to see it soon!) and then we went for  dinner and capoeira. It was really good to talk with Ramin about what's going tot happen with them next year staying here on Brazil and what's going to happen with me at home too. For those who don't know I've applied for Physics at queens for next year. Right now I'm really not to sure about it so I would really appreciate some prayer in that.

Friday was a massively full day. Up at 5am to get to the church for 7 then we started our lessons. This week we're doing a project called "Because you're loved" were the students accept the challenge and then take part in different challenges every day. today is the first day for example and they will encouraging someone they know in anyway they can. We were just teaching them in the class about how they're loved and that means they can love. We were interrupted by the federal Police halfway through who had come into the school to teach about drug awareness and stuff like that. They actually were being filmed so we appeared on tv like 2 hours later. It was a really good lesson and a lot of the kids signed up to be notified through facebook so hopefully some of them are going to take the challenge as their own.
That afternoon we were back in Floca for lessons for the first time in the afternoon. We did our intro class again as most of those kids didnt know us. It was great to get to know some kids who never even knew we were they and tell them why we're here in brazil, because we love them!

Saturday we got to go back to the same Favela as last week doing the same sort of thing with Paul recording some footage of us with the kids and stuff. I got to go into a few house and pray for people but just spent most of the time hanging out with one kids. Showing him love because he was sitting on his own. Love going into that place and showing those people some of what Jesus is all about.

Acts 5:12 "And through the hands of the apostles many
signs and wonders were done among the people."

This Sunday we all went to beach as a team to hang out and get some beach footage for the documentary which was really fun (although I am very burnt today!). Was good to just be able to have fun together after a really long week and chill on the beach and stuff.

As you can see it has been a really long week but as I said amazing. It's been a real blessing to have Paul Green here with us and it makes me really excited about how recruiting and stuff like that will work on Pais Brazil in the future.

Our friend Paul Green with us at the Favela 

Thanks so much for reading guys
God bless
mark

"Cether"

What a week. These days I really enjoy writing these blogs every week. Looking back at what God had done every week is really such an encouragement. 

Tuesday we were heading to Maia neto again for our morning assembly with the kids there again. This week because it was the week after easter we were teaching the kids on the life death and resurrection of Jesus. Jared on of the team members was leading the story this week and it went really really well. We even got them repeating the phrase "with the son of God nothing is impossible". We didnt have the time to do our music lesson with them this week but we sang a few more songs and prayed with all the kids which was awesome. 
That afternoon was just planning for Wednesday classes and then headed to a good challenging night at capoeira. 

Wednesday we were back in Maia Neto again with the afternoon students teaching again on our "life choices" project with them. There was some kids who were a little bit more difficult this week but those who could receive from it did which is great. We then had our dinner and headed straight to our Cell group. This week Ramin was leading it which was fantastic. H made us imagine our lives as if we had the limitless power of God at our side, people cured from disease and hurts, family and friends experiencing the love and touch of God. And then he said "That's possible". We all have the holy spirit in us. He is the limitless, infinite God of the universe. The only limits that we have are the ones that WE put on our lives!

Bible story at Maia Neto 

Thursday we used for a little bit more preparation in terms of Friday lessons and then we went to visit a new school, to talk to the directorship and see if we could minster there in the coming weeks. We had a friend who is involved in the school who we were waiting to arrive so we spent a lot of time outside of the school waiting for him. Then a teacher arrived with some bags she needed help carrying and she said "no come in, come into the staff room, have a chat there's air conditioning and everything". When we went in there we talk to one of the directors a little about what we do and she said "We've heard all about you guys, from the other schools, from some of their students and some of our students (some of the students in question were friends with kids from the other schools and had come to hang out at our days at the park)! We really want you guys and were sort of waiting for you to arrive to be honest. Can you start next week?"  This was an absolute crazy blessing from God. It's just so funny how we expect it to be so difficult getting into these schools and the doors are wide open to receive us. 

This Friday we were back in Floca again. This week we were teaching (in the morning) on the complete sufficiency and abundance of God. As the sort of attention grabber I got to play "Deal or no Deal" wth one of the kids each time which was great fun. Then in the afternoon we came back just to mingle as we do in the court yard. Got to meet a whole bunch of need people and to have good chats with those I already know well which was fun. That night we had surprise birthday party in the house home for my host sister Jullyanne. As usual I'm not a huge party animal, so it wasn't really my thing but it was better than usual because now I can talk to people!

Saturday was amazing. We got to visit a favela with the teens and some of the young adults all day which was awesome. We did a bible story for the kids near the front of the favela and then prayed for the kids and then went to the kids houses and prayed for them there. It is amazing just being able to go into a place like that and love the way Jesus loves. Being able to bless each house and show them that they are valued and cared for is so amazing. 
The rest of that day I slept and watched doctor who so all round a great day!

us teaching the bible story in the favela, 

These last few weeks as well I have started looking into hebrew there are some really cool websites were you can look at the original language of the text in scripture which is really making the word of God come alive to me. 
For example the name of this blog is Cether which means "hiding place or shelter". I feel that that is what we are becoming for some of these kids. A hiding place from the difficult things in life were they can stop and think about Jesus and how much he loves them.  
http://www.blueletterbible.org/

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/


This next week is going to be really busy and jam packed as we have the new schools and we have a guy from global Pais coming to record some footage for a documentary being made about Pais. It's going to be busy so please pray for us as we go about our days that we would just have energy and not forget about the people this week. 

Thank so much for reading 
love 
mark 

a "holy week"

What a week! God is good and here's what happened

So I was teaching the guy from the youth group on our guitar lesson on Monday and he told me a story. Apparently when he was 12 years old a man "prophesied" into his life that one day he would reach people for Jesus with his voice and his music. And I'm the guy teaching him guitar. As my team leader said "it's really cool that God brought someone all the way from Brazil to begin to bring about his call on this guys life". 

It's just so cool for me to watch what God wants to do in our lives. Not just in the spiritual "oh I'll get to heaven some day" but the right now "I want to put your life upside down everyday" kind of way. I've just spent a lot of time this week watching over preachings and teachings about the completed work of the cross. Jesus didn't just buy us eternal life on the cross. He bought us everything we would ever been in need and more. Jesus wants to be part of our lives in the spiritual, the mental and the physical. To prove it here are some video of what Jesus is doing in people's lives today. 

Todd white - Rise up (street healing)

Bill johnson preaching



So this Tuesday was a pretty slow day altogether. We were supposed to be in Maia Neto in the morning with the kids but they cancelled our lesson last minute. So that morning we got to have some free time to play Capoeira in the church. I am absolutely loving it these days, doing cart wheels and back hang springs and whatever. Its a really fun sport.  We spent most of the day after just hanging around planning lessons and reading the word together because me and 
Gina  had a Portuguese lesson at night. 

a project that we will be running in the coming weeks

Wednesday we were in the school with our project "life choices" again. Was a little bit more difficult this week but God was in it and we had some really good chances to chat and to share with kids. That night we had our cell group again which was amazing. We spent the whole night in worship just praying for each other and hearing what God had to say to us and I received a really specific "word" from Ramin.

Our thursday was spent much the same as our wednesday as again we weren't able to get to one of the schools (we had planned to visit a new one this thrusday). We were got a lot more planning done and were able to again get to play some more. 
I went home early that night as I was preparing a talk for the following day. I'm at weird stage in my growing with the language where i have plenty of confidence speaking to people one on one but when it comes to crowds i get very nervous that I'm saying the wrong thing. So that word took a while to prepare and I used some of Friday morning to sort it out as well. 
The reason I was speaking on Friday was because the guys from the school had another day off (for good friday) so we went to the park with them to hang out. I was speaking on "the completed work of the cross" and how Jesus paid for it all on the cross. The talk was okay but afterwards we got to pray with each one of the guys which was great. 

This saturday morning I was able to start a new project that I'm going to be heading up. I'm looking to get the guys from the youth group together who can play guitar and teach them a little bit more technique as well as teaching them how to lead worhsip. This week only one guy showed up but it was good fun teaching and I'm really excited about seeing those guys lead worship in the future. 

Now off for the weekend (mostly) for easter so going to have a good rest before getting stuck back in next week. Please keep praying for me and all that God is doing. 

Thanks so much for all those who lifted up prayers for my friend Hermes, he's doing a lot better and seems to be getting closer to God ever day. 

God bless
mark

"I want more!"

This has been an unbelievable week. I don't know if you guys have been praying more but it's working! God is doing amazing things in our work in the schools but even more so in me. This week I just felt the holy spirit give me a huge hunger for more of God and despite my lack of free time I was just filled with him in my free time and stuff. It is really exciting me for bigger things not just in Brazil but in all of my life!


Had a really fun Monday teaching guitar, going for a wonder and then watching a rugby match with an amercian team member and then As we have been in the last few weeks we were in Maia Neto on Tuesday this week. We started with the morning as usual were one of our team Gina (a new member from Canada) taught on Cain and Abel. I sang a little for the kids to calm them down and then one of the classes stayed with us for music class. This week we taught like posture and stuff which was awesome and then they sang a really Christian song with us. It's amazing for me to hear kids sing "Jesus I run into your arms." 

teaching the music classes with the Maia Neeto kids

As I said last week we were starting a new project that we've been using in the church,  in the afternoon Maia neto classes. We started this project on Wednesday and God spirit was really there with us (we even saw Doves rest on the school before we went in a dove being an image of the presence of the holy spirit in the bible matt 3:16). This week we were talking about "difficulties in life". I gave a testimony about some difficult times I had as a teenager and then we had small groups. These groups were fantastic! We got to know the names of the kids and then go to know each of the kids better individually. We were asking questions like "what's the most difficult thing that's ever happened to you?" which as you can imagine lends itself to kids opening up. Loads of kids have been through really difficult situations and it was great to tell them that Jesus wants to be with them in those situations. We got the chance to pray with a whole lot of them and to show them just how much Jesus loves them. 
That night we had our normal cell group but like I said there is no normal here in Brazil. We just a really great time of worship (I'm really learning to flow in the holy spirit when leading which I absolutely love) and then heard a word from one of the guys in the group. It was awesome to hear a word about changing the world around us from one of the kids. 

Thursday we were spending our day doing admin. We were meeting at 1 officially so instead we met at 10 so we could do capoeira. It was so much fun and great exercise to set us up for the day. We had our admin in the afternoon which was really good, we got a ,a lot prepared for the next week. Had a chance that night to go to the gym and make a video for a friend which great to be able to do. 

Friday morning was  bit of a rush as I woke up at 6:30 when I needed to be there for 7. But got there at like 7:30 and was able to do my part in the class. This week I was leading them in a time of imagination of changing things happening in their lives. I then lead them in hearing what Jesus had to say about it. Let the holy spirit speak to them. Was a really cool experience letting the kids hear and realise the power that is in their hands to change the world around them. A lot of kids really heard God speaking to them about what they have to do in these situations. I had the chance to talk to one guy who had been having problems with his dad and what to do. 

me teaching in floca

That afternoon we had the chance to leas the cell group in floca. Was awesome and really looking forward to see it grow and grow in the next few weeks. I also had a chance to talk to two guys a little bit deeper about who they are and what they think of Jesus. One of the guy, Hermes, is a guy I'm mentoring and he's having a pretty hard time these days. I won't tell you any specifics but I would love if you guys covered him in prayer because he could really need it right now. 

Yesterday I had the chance to go with my host family on another one of their offroad trails. This one was really cool as it was like we were on a mission. This year in the north east of brazil there has been a draught, causing the lives of a lot of the farmers here to be very difficult, with animals and crops dying and we had the chance to bring basic food and water to them. There was 40 cars in the trail all with food and water and it was a huge mission impossible type thing of distributing the food but it was fantastic to be a part of it. Were able to give food and water to like 120 houses blessing like 1000 people in the process. 

the verse that has really been in my head this week is Psalm 25:4-5

"Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
⁵ Lead me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all the day long. "

It's really my prayer for the next few weeks when I am trying to seek God as much as possible. I would really appreciate it if you guys would pray for just more and more of God to be poured out upon us as a Pais team and me individually. I don't ever want to be satisfied with what of got of God, I'm always going to look for more. 

Thanks again for reading 

Love 

Mark

"Normal" week

Was another fantastic week here in Natal. Not a normal one because we barely ever have a "normal" week, but was great fun. 

This Monday I went to the house of one of the guys from youth group to start guitar lessons with him. It was really good fun and really speaking to me about how much I love teaching. What was cool was that he taught the chords that he learnt this week to his little brother and his little brother wrote a song with them about how much he loves Jesus. 

We've started doing the project that we do in the church with the teens in our school Maia Neto, so this week we were watching the movie "how to save a life" with the kids as it is the base for the programme for the next few weeks. Some of the classes really enjoyed it while other were just talking during the movie but either way I think there is a lot of kids who are going to be really open to the project and what we're going to be doing. 

We watched the movie with the schools in thirds (two thirds on tuesday and the last classes on Wednesday) and then we spent the rest of Wednesday doing some admin and doing our youth group. I was speaking on the Wednesday night which I'm still getting the hang of but it was good fun. I was speaking about going into the darkness of the world and being the light and how we can trust in Jesus to do that. 

I used this song as an example, it's my favourite song right now and it speaks of this same thing.
white owls- Josh Garrels

Thursday we had a great really chilled day at the pastors house. Every now and again we meet at the Pastors house just t refresh our vision and to talk to him about how we're doing as a team and as a project. We were just able to open ourselves up about how we've been getting on in the host home and in our positions in the project in general. After we were just able to chill in his house with his family who are really fun to hang out with. Was just a really cool refreshing day to just chill out and have some fun. 

What's really cool in Floca at the minute is that we have found that there is a cell group that meets every break time during their break time. The leader of that group has recently left so they have asked us to lead it for them. It's an amazing opportunity for discipleship and even cooler because we can invite the "none Christians  that we know to join and see what it's like. So on friday when they had a day off we went to a park with them and just had a good day of hanging out with them and had a little bit of worship and a word from Ramin 

us with the cell group at the park worshipping 

God is doing some fantastic stuff here in Natal. I have really felt his move in my life this week, to run the race of the next few months as well as I can. I'm so excited about what God has to do in these next few weeks and months not just through me but in me. 

Thanks for your support and prayers. 
God bless 
mark