Youth Encounter was Tremendo (Tremendous)!!!!

Last weekend, I worked the Youth Encounter that I talked about in my previous post. Although very tiring, the weekend was a success and all glory be to Him who sits on the throne! Lately, I have been feeling so completely humbled, honored and blessed to be a part of God's kingdom and His work in Brazil. The count of youth on the retreat was over 200 with about 130 being girls! We had our hands full :). Over the weekend, I did a little bit of everything. On Friday afternoon, before the youth arrived, I helped in the kitchen cutting lots of onions (crying was involved haha) and then later cutting the fat off of huge slabs of beef (gross...all for Jesus, right?). Over the remainder of the weekend, my roles included washing lots and lots of dishes, translating for our awesome ORU Team that was such a huge blessing and prayer & ministry support. I was able to pray with several young girls over the weekend which was a real encouragement for me. I am amazed and saddened by how much people of such a young age have already experienced of bad in this world. Lots of hurts to be ministered to. At the end of the weekend, we had a water baptism for the girls who wanted to be baptized. There were so many girls that several of us workers had to help in baptizing them. I was so excited to get to baptize some of these young girls. One of the girls is a part of the children's cell group that meets where my cell group meets and I was so privileged to be able to baptize her. An exciting part of the weekend is returning for the 7pm service at church on Sunday. Everyone was decked out in the Brazil colors (world cup is coming soon) and we went into the church singing and praising for all the Lord did over the weekend. Since a picture is worth a thousand words...here are some from the weekend...

Washing dishes :)

Girls session

Baptizing Renata

Yay!!!

Me with Tamires, a young girl I was able to pray with and also water baptize.

Arriving at the church!

Renata and me at church

O Encontro é Tremendo! (The Encounter is Tremendous!)

Well, I have to run and get packed. Tomorrow (Saturday), I leave with the team of 7 from ORU to go to Parintins. I will be back May 31st with many stories to tell. Please pray for our safety and for the Lord's work to be done!

Blessings!!!

Ready...Set...GOOO!!!

I feel that my life right now consists of getting ready for the next few months. Here at the mission, each of us have our times that are busier than others and mine is arriving. I am really excited for the next few months because it will involve a lot of hands on ministry (as opposed to behind the scenes stuff), meeting new people from the US and Brazil and seeing what God has in store. The specifics of what I will be involved is not completely decided yet but I hope to keep everyone informed regularly as I believe there will be many praise reports and blessings to report!

For now, we will just talk about what is coming up for me this month. This past week, I have been participating in daily prayer meetings at noon in preparation for an 'Encounter with God' weekend for adolescents. Some of you may remember that I worked one of these in November of 2008. I am so blessed and excited to be able to serve again. The Encounter will be held May 14-16 and I know that it will be an incredible weekend for these young people. Up until the day of The Encounter, my schedule is filled with prayer meetings, planning meetings and preparations. Please be in prayer for the safety and health of all the participants and workers, open hearts for the participants and a servant's attitude for all the workers. More to come when I return...

Next week, we have a team arriving from ORU. I will be involved with this team during The Encounter weekend and also toward the 22nd - 31st of May on a trip to Parintins, an island city along the Amazon. This trip is very exciting for me for a couple of reasons. First, when I came to Brazil as a short termer in May of 2007, I went to Parintins with a team from ORU. Since I was able to speak Portuguese fairly well at the time, I was able to make some great friends in the city. I will be returning exactly 3 years later and am beyond excited to see everyone. Second, this will be the first team and trip I will be leading alone (yikes). This trip is also different because we will not be taking one of our mission boats but will be traveling by line boat. I can't remember how long the trip is but I believe it is about 10-12 hours by boat. We will string our hammocks up and travel up the river. We will be doing a lot of evangelism on this trip. This trip will definitely be a stretch for me, as I will be leading, translating and be the main person responsible for the team. Please be in prayer for this trip that God would open up doors and opportunities for us in the local schools and wherever He leads. Also, as always, pray for protection and health.

Hopefully I can get an update done after The Encounter and before the trip to Parintins so I can keep these entries short and to the point :)

Blessings and please leave a comment below, email me or facebook message me if I can be praying for you about anything! I appreciate so much the prayers and financial support from each one.