Woohoo!!

Hello to all, Live from Brasil!!

Today was absolutely incredible! I dont even know where to start!
We had the little kids at 8 as usual and the lesson today was Laura, Carlyn, and me sharing our testimonies. It was a little over the first group's head.
With the pre-teens, we could go more in depth. They payed attention well and then we gave them a chance to write their own tesimonies in their notebooks. That gave us a chance to find out who was and who wasnt a Christian. Soon we had several kids coming up to our translators and wanting to talk with us about Jesus. I got the chance to lead a little girl named Paulina in asking Christ to be her Savior! And 4 others made the same decision! Woohoo!!
We also spent a long time talking to a girl named Luana (who is a sweetheart and a great example of Christ's love!) about forgiveness for something thats happened in her past and prayed for some problems that shes been having at home. Please pray for the hearts of every single one of these kids who made the decision for Christ today! (Jaisa, Geisiana, Wesley,Elizane, and Paulina)
We were in awe of what God had done for the rest of the afternoon. We took food to a couple local houses and were blessed by Arenice's (a lady that works at Grupo CEO and is a mother 7 of the kids we have in our daily meetings) testimony. She showed us her house and told us that, although it was incredibly small and not at all what we would conider even close to suitable, it was such a blessing when the community helped her make it a home.
We were still praising God through lunch for what He had done and i kept thanking Him for choosing me to work through! Then it was Teen time. We werent sure how it would go or how seriously they would take writing their testimonies, but we were pleasently surprised! At the end of Carlyn's testimony, she talked about how she didnt want to leave Brasil not knowing whether or not she would see some of them again (in heaven) if she never came back, which spoke for both me and laura as well. Then i drew the illustration on the board with God at the top, hell at the bottom, and different people they know in the middle and they had to rank the best person they know, the worst person they know, and themselves (they ended up somewhere in between). I got them all to verbaly agree that they have fallen short of God because of sin, and that the only way to close that gap is through a relationship with Christ.
They broke up and most of them started writing their testimonies, but i noticed that Joyce hadnt started writing. I got Amanda (one of the twins) to translate for me and i asked her why she wasnt writing. She said she didnt want to so i asked if she had a testimony and if she had accepted Christ yet and she said she hadnt. Then we talked about what she believes about Jesus and God and she knew that she was a sinner and needed forgiveness, but she didnt know how to get it. I explained to her that the only way to have a relationship with God, is through believing in the sacrifice that Christ made and asking Him to change her and forgive her for her sins. She said that she wanted that and right then and there we prayed and she became a child of God! I was so excited, and still am! Gloria A Deus!!
Now is when the teaching times are going to transition from evangelism, to more of a discipleship. Please pray for our continued guidance!
Well both the teens and pre-teens spent so much time on their testimonies that there wasnt any time left for basketball, so the teens went straight from teaching to soccer. I managed to stay off the feild this time and sat with Carlyn and Joyce having interesting conversations with leaves....dont worry about it..
Later, at 6 there was a pre-teen meeting. Pastor Eudes wife lead it and did a really great job! then they played some crazy games until it was time for the teens. A good number of them showed up and the young guy from IBC lead a devotion from Matthew. We had some good hang-out time afterwards and Carlyn and i actually kept our Bibles in our possesion for most of the time despite Joyce's futile attempts! We are so blessed with the relationships we have been able to build down here!
We came home and snacked on some bread and had a secret treat that i must keep confidential, and now i am writing to you all about this fabulous, fabulous day! God is so powerful, yet gentle enough to speak to the hearts of each one of these kids! Again, GLORIA A DEUS!!!!!

Until next time,
Jo