Finally!

Hello to all, Live from Brasil!!
Today was long again, but good! It started of like normal. The little kids were less shy today and participated really well. The lesson was about the wind and the waves and how Jesus was in control the storm. Then we had them draw pictures of things they're afraid of and they had fun with that. They left for the playground and the pre-teens arrived. We played Ai! for a while and then did the songs and dancing. The lesson was the same but instead of drawing pictures, we had them write in their journals about the things they're afraid and give it to God. They really like writing in those things.
After snack we went and played knockout again and i sat with Ne Ne and Fatima reading the Bible in Portuguese and playing a little keep away with the ball. When they left, we again had a little down time before and after lunch until the teens came.
We actually had a lot of them today. We broke them into groups and had them give five examples of God being in control, whether in the Bible or in their own lives. It took them a while to start participating, but eventualy most of them gave an example. Again, we gave them the example of Creation, but none of them new the story! So we went through it and had a person doing a gesture for each day so they would remember it. i was surprised they actually did it, but they did and i think they had a little fun with it too. We talked about forgiveness too and they all said they agreed with their mouths, but i got the idea that all of their hearts werent quite in the same place. So i asked them to be honest and raise their hand if they didnt really believe what we were saying. At first, no one did, but then this girl Ingrid started saying something.
It turns out that theres this one girl who she got in a fight with once (not shouting match, fist fight) and she said she couldnt ever forgive her for what happened between them. So we went back and forth between Elo (our translator) and she said that she didnt want to forgive cuz then she would be admitting that the other girl was right and others would make fun of her if she apologized. I tried to make her understand that that isnt what forgiveness is and if that's her reasoning, then she is being selfish. the three of us sat down alone went back and forth again for about half an hour while the others played basketball. I showed her Ephesians 4:32 which says, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." She said the girl didnt deserve forgiveness and i brought up the fact that she didnt deserve God's forgiveness, but God forgave her. She kept making excuses for why she couldnt forgive the girl and finaly i said that with all those excuses, she was saying that that verse didnt belong in the Bible and i grabbed the page and ripped it right out of my Bible. She was pretty surprised at that and eventually, after a few more minutes of talking, she decided that she did want to forgive the girl and that she was going to pray for God to give her a forgiving heart. We prayed there and asked the Lord to give her the compassion and kindess in her heart that she needs to let go of her hostility towards the girl. Then i asked her if i could put the verse back in and if it really belonged in the Bible and she laughed and said that it does. Please pray that she follows through with the forgiveness and is freed from that hold that her condemnation has on her.
I was so happy that we got to have that talk and finally have one of those "Aha!" moments. The Holy Spirit was definately visibly working today! Praise the Lord!
After our talk we went and played basketball for a while and then, when it was time to pray at the end, we actually had volutneers!! Then, we ventured over to the soccer field knowing we were about to be creamed But Carlyn and i got lucky, we were on the same team as James and Michael! We played kind of king of the field style and our team was on for like a solid 20 minutes, and i even scored a couple goals! It was a lot of fun.
We went from the field back to the house and got cleaned off, then ate dinner. Bill is still at the hospital with Erika so Sula is in charge tonight. Scarey thought! Welp, i got a ton of journaling to do once again, so ttfn!

Until next time,
Jo