Curitiba Worship

Saturday night young adult worship service was incredible. Everyone made sure they introduced themselves, and one thing thats harder than memorizing peoples names is learning a new language at the same time, and their names as well.

David gave the message last night and the music was incredible. Not to mention we are in the downtown area and the night views from the fifth floor during worship were spectacular.

Many of them took us to a pizza place similar to cici's pizza, but the servers bring the pizza to you. After telling stories and learning more language, we retired for the night and rose early for this mornings worship traditional service, followed by Sunday School, and then a BBQ for the young adults at the house we rested at Saturday. We ate, shared stories, made connections, played just dance with xbox 360 kinect and had an awesome time. We then headed back to the church for the night service followed by tea reception, and nachos for dinner back at the house again.

The day went by quickly, and another short sleeping rest before we start Monday's project.

Its raining here since Saturday afternoon, and colder to 8 degrees c. (46 deg F) But our spirits are alive and warm!

Everyone is still alive.

Praise the Lord for this fulfilling Sunday!

Worship, worship, more worship!

From Kristin... I really should be in bed, since it is 12:37 am, but I cannot help but write a post to mention our current life here in Brazil. We are in Curitiba, being hosted by the young adults of Central Methodist Church (thats right, Central Methodist.) I am staying with a young couple, Larissa and Jocemar, who have been so gracious to share their apartment with me and look after everything I could possibly need or want. You have not experienced real Christian hospitality if you have not been in a country like this. Everyone goes out of their way to give us the best experience possible, the best food, the best living arrangement, the best church experience.
I think in the last 24 hours, we have spent at least 7-8 in church, either in worship or Sunday School. We attended 3 worship services, all of which are different, and all of which are VERY different than many of our churches at home. The young people go to the Saturday night service, where there is a fantastic praise band. The older people attend on Sunday morning, which is the most "traditional" service. They actually did play an organ once, but the same praise band led most of the music, though it was not quite as rocking as the night before. There are no hymnals here, everything is projected, in every church we have attended, even the smallest. Tonight, the worship service was a completely different crowd than the other two, and the people described it to us as "more pentecostal."
In between all of the worship services, we spent good quality time with the young adults of the church. There is a wonderful group of young adults, and many of them spent the entire day with us. One of the young women offered to have a "churrasco" which is traditional Brazilian barbecue so the entire group of young people came over to her house after the morning services. We spent the entire day at her house, playing xbox dance games, eating, and talking. Then after the evening service, we went BACK to her house for dinner (nachos!) and we just got in at midnight.
We are having such a wonderful experience that it is hard to tear ourselves away for rest. We dont want to miss even one minute! Spending time with these young adults who are leaders in their church, who are passionate about their faith and are excited to share their lives with us...this feels like the kingdom of God.

International Patience

If you have not figured out, we cannot explain our schedule!!!
Check this out: Thursday we traveled to Curtibia. Friday we spent the day at a Methodist Drug Rehabilitation "camp" with 6 hours travel north of the city. Saturday we left our host families and start the 3rd part of our week by completing a scavenger hunt, with Brazil young adults, with a language barrier and clues written in portiguise...oh yea, it was timed!
Are you asking where the 3 came from? OK, we are too.
HAHA... Our mottow is one hour, one day at a time!

Brazil is extremely flexible and plans are changing as we adjust to an unexpected and unknown itinerary. But other people we meet are full of gracefulness, hospitality, and open hearts. We are eternally grateful.

Our current schedule is Youth service tonight, service in the morning, followed by a BBQ at a host house, relaxing in the botanical gardens for the afternoon, and then young adult service Sunday night.
Monday we will be working with children in the morning and afternoon, and that is subject to change. For those returning, they leave Wednesday afternoon...plans TBD.

Thank you for your prayers, they are needed and useful! We love you all!
Have to prepare for youth service and shuffle luggage...

Week Ones End

Can you believe we left a week ago?

We cannot! We don't even know what day it is, or status of current events, but the kids try and tell us! Like US Women's Soccer?...

Tuesday's prayer service ended our day followed by our devotions.

Wednesday we were in Poton, a smaller fishing village to the south, next to the brand new port of Itapoa. The day went by faster I think because we did not wind up the kids before like at the project across town at Samambaial. This is the first time we had visited this project with kids. We saw the fish leather project on Monday, but not the children.

We played football and volleyball in the morning, followed by singing, story time of Jacobs Dream, and ladders to remind the kids who is close in Their lives.

We visited the fish leather project and bought items from the ladies for thier very first sale. They even had taken special orders...and we bought those items as well!

We then walked up the street a kilometer to a new lunch buffet and ate, again! We returned to the project and sat on the bay shore until the kids returned at 1:30. The afternoon we recapped what happened in the mornings And then told the lost sheep story. The older kids made the knot bracelets to bring back to the US and we gave them a bracelet made by the kids in some of our home churches.

We cleaned up the community center and said our "see you soon" to the kids and helpers, and Jezellea took us to the groves on the beach and we had a information session. This is diminishing and it was nice to see a little groves and habitat of ocean shore in SC, Brazil.

We headed home changed for devotions at the Samambaial project and went to dinner at a house on the ocean. With doors and windows open, you can feel the breeze, hear the waves and the food and fellowship was nothing less than perfect. Emotions have changed because we are parting soon...

We went to the Project for devotions and testimonies lead by Matt and Charlie, singing, special prayers and departing/thank you presentations.

There is so much love it hurts!

We then went to Sara and Juniors house for a cooking lesson of fried banana and ice cream! We played wii and shared fellowship and returned for a short nap before we have to start packing and cleaning in the morning...

We got 5-6 hours of sleep and are aching from restlessness and everything we are accomplishing.

Can we please extend our stay?

Will post this ASAP In Curtibia

CG

Week 2, day 1.

Curtiba is different from Itapoa...

We arrived at 11:45 at the project and toured a home in the property region. Dirt floors with little space. Less square footage than most American household bathrooms. The Government is stepping in, but progress is slow, and Pastor Audir has a large heart! Great things Will happen in this place! One disciple at a time.

We headed to the Igreja Methodista do Bacacheri and were greeted with open doors, open minds, and open hearts as the love and welcome is beyond what I can comprehend! I know you are reading this and have no idea what we are experiencing. My lack of words typing these updates on my iPhone while driving with crazy drivers... Interesting roads, and carrying on conversations in poor Portuguese and bad English are not helping my thought process!

As you can see it's hard to explain, what I'm trying to explain, in a way you will understand, how I wish for you to understand...

Lunch was amazing again, and the food gets better and better with no meals bad. Everything is delicious. We then prepared for money exchange so we can get the best rate for today. It went up! R1.57 = $1

We played soccer with a few youth in the church alley, met with host families and parted ways to get settled in. The six of us are split up into 3 homes and the families are excited to say the least and extremely loving, no gauge can measure.

We met back at the church in an hour for tea, coffee, bolo or cake, desserts, and snacks! FOOD???!!!! I don't think I'll like this word as much as I used to!

We headed upstairs for a discussion of Cell Groups where the church has 95 groups with 1000 people in the comminuity. These groups are similar to those churches with circles within the UMW. But for everyone. Leaders have 1 hour every week to share lessons, prayers, blessings, and singing. Men and women are separate. So are families...sisters are not in the same groups, families are not in the same group, and so forth.

We toured the chuch quickly (GPS:25.400276 S, 49.241242 W) and then returned to the fellowship hall for supper. The food is so good, My stomach is saying no more, but My mind is like yes. Eat more!

We then headed and joined a cell group to see an example and the lesson was 1. Do not doubt and have Faith, 2. Be humble and accept Jesus. 3. Trust in Jesus

We then departed for our host families and drove through the city to our destinations. We were welcomed and at least Matt and I were asked to have dinner with the family at 11:30 PM. The love is so great, the family waited until we got back to have supper! At 11:30 at night? Find me a family that would wait together in the US to do that! A fresh cake made just for us, and the family was so excited they forgot to put eggs into the cake! But you could have never guessed until it was mentioned. We talked with the family and shifted thought and concerns until the morning was young. We are about to retire and I'm not sure who else will be posting but will try and get everyone to share since we are split up.

Details are limited at this point as plans are being changed around.

You are in our prayers and we love and miss you all!
CG

Part 2

Followers... We are safely in Curtiba and are settling in. We had lunch at the church and met our host families and have a few moments before we reunite for snacks, snacks, and supper!

You are all going to see 2 things when we return:
We are bigger in areas than when we left.
We are going to be extremely hungry at many times of the day.

Most meals are buffet and if you don't eat more, it gets served to you!

Will post later today! So many words, no steady writing or Internet posting time...

Carl on behalf of all 6.