Porto de Galhinas

Today has been fantastic! Saturday, of course, is our free day so Jarrod and I went with Danny, Lee, and Mara to Pro-Crescer. Today the kids were learning about holidays. They are so cute! Afterwards, Adriana and Eneias wanted to take us to Porto de Galinhas (Chicken Port) for the day. It was BEAUTIFUL! It's a little beach town about an hour from Recife. In the mornings, the tide is low allowing people to walk on the reefs and swim in the holes created. We will be able to see that in a couple of weeks. A group of about 20 to 30 Americans will be here with Torch Missions, and they will be visiting Porto also. We have been lucky enough to be invited to go with them!

Chickens everywhere!

This is me with my pet fish. He was made out of Palm tree leaves!

William, Me, Jarrod on ICECREAM SATURDAY!!! We decided we would treat ourselves after a long hard week. It's not really hard though, cause we LOVE what we do!

Danny, Lee and Adriana

Eneias

On the way back to Recife

Our First Party

I'm not sure that I have listed all of my readers, so I will do so now. Ligia, Luciano, Misael, Marilia, Marcelo, Little Marcelo, Paulo, Everton, Daniele, Oswaldo, Maria, Carlos, Monica, David, Thalles, Daniel, Mario, Christiani, Tassia, Marcos, and Salita. For those of you who are keeping up, please say a special prayer for Vinny who has stopped coming to his sessions. He is the non-believer who was asking a lot of intense questions about the Holy Spirit. I really hope he decides to come back. Everyone else has been more than enthusiastic, and I am very excited about the rest of the sessions while we are here.

Last night was our first party and it was Elvis themed, since we are all from Memphis. A few readers came early to help us decorate and make peanut butter and banana sandwiches! It was a lot of fun and definitely a learning experience. We are even more excited about next week's party now that we have seen what and who to expect. William was Elvis!

Wilson won round 1 of musical chairs!

Everton won round 2!

Monica, Me, Maria

Deyanna, Pietro, Gilmar, and Everton helping with decorations before the party

We played a few games, including musical chairs to Elvis music. We weren't sure how it would go over, but everyone seemed to love it! It's difficult to know which games to play, because explaining anything complicated in English would be a challenge. After the party, we cleaned up and went to a really neat Mexican restaurant with Kathy, Danny, Lee, and Maciel. It was a really big tent, and the food was great!

William is back!

William is back! He feels much better, so thank you for all of your prayers. Yesterday I had a new reader whose name is Marcelo. This is my second Marcelo, but I will call him Little Marcelo because he is 13. I am amazed at how well he speaks English. I am also amazed at how much 13 year old Brazilian boys are just like 13 year old American boys. They are VERY cool ;) Last night, we had our Wed night worship service at the School of the Bible. We also had the opportunity to learn about all of the programs and work that Randy and Kathy have done in their 20 years here. Although it was a brief overview, it was amazing to see how busy they are and have been! They have done so many wonderful things! Afterwards we rushed back to Christina's to see "Dios Rostos" (Two Faces) a soap opera Christina was very excited to show us because this week's segments were filmed in Recife. We had no idea what was going on but it was fun to watch the drama unfold with a lot of music and long stares. Miguel was scared last night because Sport (the Recife soccer team) was playing. That means that it was very loud outside. The whole town chants and cheers. Below is a picture of Jarrod trying to figure out what is in the candy, since all of the words are in Portuguese.

Amoebas and Parasites

We found out that William is sick from somehow getting water in his system. Apparently, you don't have to actually drink the water to get sick from it. It is also possible to get sick from eating a fruit or vegetable that has been washed with water, or brushing teeth with water. He has taken the right medicines, and is starting to feel better. He might be able to come in and meet with a few readers this afternoon.
Last night, I had a new reader named Carlos. His English is very good because he practices by himself a lot. He said that he watches movies, listens to music and reads books all in English to learn more. He told me that God answered his prayers by sending LST to Brazil because he has been praying so much for God to let him meet a native English speaker that he can practice with. It is great to hear how God works in so many wonderful ways to help everyone. Eeryday that I am here I get more excited about this opportunity! I can't imagine feeling even happier tommorrow!

Ligia, Me

Miguel...yeah, I know he looks sweet-but he was just acting that for the camera.

Meet Luciano and Marilia

William had to go to the doctor again because he has not gotten any better and had developed some new symptoms. Hopefully, after more rest he will be able to get back to normal. Pray for him and for Danny who was in a minor auto accident today. I took one of William's readers at a spot I had open. Her name is Joana. She seemed very sweet.

Today's reading sessions have gone well. I decided some pictures of a couple of my readers now that I feel like I know them a little better (and since they have been taking pictures of me too-haha)

This is Luciano, my little ray of sunshine. He is very positive and extremely excited to learn English. He always comes to the reading sessions having prepared ahead of time!

This is Marilia. She is so sweet and so beautiful. She goes to the Boa Viagem church of Christ, so I am also able to see her on Sundays.

15

Well, I found out that Kensey sounds just like "quinze" which means 15 in Portuguese. That is why I have been getting such strange looks when I tell people my name! So, now Jarrod introduces himself as "dezesseis" which means 16! Haha, the Brazilians think it is hilarious. Also, please pray for William. He has a fever and is not feeling well at all. It is very unlikely that he has Dengue because that usually takes about 7 days to show up, and it has only been 6 since we arrived. I am about to go back into some of my older posts and upload pictures, so be sure and check them out! Today's reading sessions have gone really well. It's so great to watch people begin to understand new things. Maria is my last reader of the day, and this will be her first session. I'm not sure that she understands any English at all, so it should be interesting. One of my new readers, Julianna, was not able to make it because she scratched her eye. I don't know all of the details, but please keep her in your prayers as well. Here is a picture of Christina's apartment from Randy and Kathy's balcony.

Just ask Jarrod

From now on, Jarrod is my editor-in-chief of this blog. He loves to correct my mistakes even more than my mother does. So if you see any typos, you should blame him. If they really annoy you, you should post a comment on his blog about it :) Last night in the favelas was absolutely amazing! I really don't know how to put the emotions I felt into words. We had a Bible study in a house that most people could not imagine going into. The people who lived there were some of the happiest people I have ever seen. They were so welcoming and more than glad to host us. One older man, told us how important it was to be joyful to have God in your life. He also told us not to worry about understanding the language during the study, because the Holy Spirit would let us understand. Chris translated that to us. But the amazing thing was that we really COULD understand a lot of what was being said. It helped that we could see the scriptures in our English Bibles, but we understood a lot of the conversation as well. It was very inspiring to see the incredible attitude these people had. It made me feel so spoiled and selfish for expecting the luxuries we all have as Americans. I'm sure you have all heard stories like this. I know I have heard them, and seen the pictures, but I never really understood it until I witnessed it first hand. It was also great to be able to spend the time in the car riding to and from the Bible study with Chris. He is very encouraging. We were able to share all of our thoughts about the experience. He also shared a lot of his experiences of being a missionary here and in Africa.
This morning, Boa Viagem church of Christ had their 10 year anniversary. It was exciting to be able to worship with them. It was really neat to hear songs we recognized sung in Portuguese. This afternoon (after I watched "Mighty Joe Young" in Portuguese) we got to go see the beach and go shopping at a market where vendors come and bring things that they have made! We ate at a "Texas de Brazil" style restaurant (except it is much cheaper here) Even though I don't eat meat, it was a fun experience.

Kathy, Randy, Danny, William, Missy, Me, Jarrod

The beach in Boa Viagem

The street market by the beach

Thank you for praying for Missy. She is feeling much better now. She was able to Skype with her husband and son tonight, and I know that will make her feel even better! We start back to our reading sessions bright and early tomorrow morning. I am anxious to see my previous readers again and get to know the new ones! The sessions really are the best part of being here. That's a good thing, since that is what we spend most of our time doing!