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!!!