Sunday/Monday

Hello to all, live from Brasil!!
The last two days have been great! Sunday was pretty slow, as usual. Church at IBC in the morning, relaxing and journaling (and cleaning the refrigerator..dont worry about it.), then Grupo CEO church at night. Carlyn and Laura and I all spoke at the Grupo CEO church and it went really well. Our topics tied together really well: Laura with "taking up your cross" and following Christ, me with overcoming temptation, and Carlyn with your body being a temple for Christ. I used one of coach Kruse's illustrations and had NeNe sit at the front the whole time with candy in his hand that he could hold, smell, and touch, but couldnt eat, (you know, how coach kruse brought all those doghnuts for us that one time..yum) Pretty tempting if you ask me, but he didnt eat it until i told him he could! way to be NeNe!
After the service we were outside messing around with Leinhia and Josefa and Joyce and Alane when Bill called the three americans inside the Grupo CEO building. Roberto was in there (one of the teens who we knew wasnt a chirstian and who didnt write a testimony the day we did that). Bill said that Roberto decided he wanted to accept Christ, and wanted us there with him because it was what we talked about that night that made him want to give his life to the Lord. Praise God and Gloria A Deus!! God gave us the words He wanted us to speak on that specific night, to those specific people, and, because we were sensative to the Holy Spirit, His kingdom is growing more and more! Woohoo!
Laura lead Roberto in a sinner's prayer (through Bill) and right there he became a child of God and our Brother in Christ, and yours too! Isnt it cool that, even though most of you reading this will never come to Brasil and meet these kids, you will see them and know them all someday in heaven!?! how awesome!
After celebrating Roberto's salvation with a few smiles and hugs, all the Americans went home. We ate dinner and then did some dishes and Sulafied the kitchen. The three of us stayed up for a little while talking and then finally got some sleep. God blessed us with another great day and a fantastic opportunity to see some of the fruits of our labor!

Today was exciting! We got up, got our smoothies and our bread, and enjoyed a little morning discussion. Then we headed over to the GCB (Grupo CEO Building), and we were actually on time! The kids didnt show up right away, so Carlyn and i took the liberty of laying out on the floor until 8 when the kids were supposed to come. Lucas was the first to arrive and he came right in and jumped on top of me, joining us on the floor. Once more kids showed up, we rolled out the balls as usual, and then had our lesson. The question for this week is "Are you afraid of your shadow's future?". We talked about Jonah and how he was afraid of what God had planned for him. This one girl, Victoria, is really smart and very mature for her age. (she's Luana and Yohhana's sister). She always knows the stories we talk about and is really tuned in while we're teaching. And she's super cute! As Carlyn and i would say "she gets it!" (that really doesnt hold a lot of importance, i just wanted to brag about her!)
We killed time until the pre-teen session was supposed to start and talked with the kids outside the GCB. Thiago (pre-teen thiago) keeps saying that, because there are so many kids that always run up to me and hug me, they are all my kids. He says i have 14 of them, but he denies that he's one of them. lol hes a so cute too!
Just before it was time to start, the cars pulled up. the rest of our team has arrived! i have my best guys a hug and they got introduced to all the kids. They danced with us for a while and did the electric slide. Then afterwards we had the lesson and went to play some basketball!
We tried to play a real game, but not so much. Then it was knockout for the rest of the time. After they left, we hung around for a while and then ate some lunch. (there are a lot of people to feed in this house!) Carlyn and Sula and I did dishes (for what seemed like forever, but we made it fun.) and then we had a debreifing until Teen time.
We played Signs to start (ask Rob about his sign of choice), and then when it was time to start the lesson , they got quiet as church mice again. Its getting frustrating! They practiced their skit afterwards, but didnt take it seriously. Then we went over to the court and played 3-on-3 king of the court style. They had a lot of fun with it. Rob, Nate, and i jumped on the court at one point and played a few rounds. We bombed once, but all-in-all, we defended the U.S. pretty well.
Then it was time for soccer, and we did play this time. Rob messed up his toe pretty bad though! = ( It was a fun time overall though and went without further injury. After getting schooled again, we went home and ate dinner (in shifts cuz of all the people!), and had a quiet rest of the night. I am so happy to have the rest of our team here and i am very excited for the new things that God will do through us!
This week, we will start splitting up the boys and the girls during the teaching time so that we can really hammer down all the purity stuff thats so important to cover in this culture! Thanks for bein such faithful readers! i miss you guys!
Until next time,
Jo