Gooooll!!

hellooo. = )
well, this week was a pretty busy one, especially the later half of it, which means this is gonna be a long post. Let's see here...
Monday marked the first day of the last week of regular classes before we start final testing for the semester! We didnt have any homework for the week, which meant our time with the tutor was spent doing some hard core studying for the tests. The girls actually came to play this week! one of the games we played Joyce, Josefa, Fatinha, and me against Gessica, Cleonicia, Lais, Jamile, and Leninha. Yep, 4 on 5! haha. it was a fun game though and lasted for like 20 minutes! Who won, do you ask? Well, i dont mean to brag, but we four got it done! ; D Robert and i finished off the night with a sweet acoustic worship session and hit our knees for some always needed prayer. He's such an encouragement, iron sharpens iron, and i love serving with him!
Tuesday after we got home from school and ate lunch, Robert, Erika, and i rode bikes to Pastor Eudes house. Erika, Manhia, and Pastor had their meeting about the church while Robert and i watched the World Cup pregame. (we may or may not have also seen part of Justin Beiber's "Baby" music video...) Once the meeting was over, we hurried home and planted ourselves on the couch to watch the Brasil V.S. North Korea game, and let me tell you, you havent watched Brasil play until you've watched Brasil play with Erika Moore! She gets rather...enthusiastic. For example, whenever Brasil scores a goal, Erika jumps up and down, screams, blows a whistle, (occaisionally slaps Rob in the face with a pillow), and throws out chocolate for everyone! Unfortunately, Brasil played shamefully and only scored two goals against possibly the worst team in the World Cup, but we had a good time reguardless. After the game, we had a couple hours to relax and Rob and i went over our notes for the Bible Study we were to lead that night. Then the time to head over to the church came, so we spent some time outside talking with the teens and whatnot. The service started with a couple worship songs and then Rob and I, with the help of Erika as our translator, had the floor. We introduced to everyone the theme we'll be working with for all of our lessons: The Rebel. (we came up with this idea from the devotions that Tina Gerke wrote and gave to me before i came down here. Great, God-inspired Truth!) Tuesdays lesson was mostly and introduction to the theme and we talked about what a ture, Biblical Rebel is and gave some examples from the Bible like Daniel, Rack, Shack, and Benny (i dont know how to spell their names, but you know, the firey furnace guys?), and then the greatest example of a Rebel that ever lived: Jesus Christ! After 20-30 minutes of talking about how and what to rebel from and learning that God has called us all to be Rebels for His glory (Rom. 12:2), we had the kids make a list of different things we can all rebel from daily. Then we gave them the opportunity to sign that paper and make a commitment to rebel against the things of this world and, glory to God, we had 13 people sign their name and commit! Now, of course, it will still be a struggle for every single one of those people to rebel, i struggle every day! But, it was a blessing to see how God is changing lives and shaping hearts!
Wednesday, on the way home from school, Erika was so excited that her "BFA" (Best Friend Always, aka Bill) was getting home that night. Soooo, Patrick and i managed to convince her that, since she would be picking Billiam up from the airport at 9 at night, they should just have a night to themselves and stay in the city and not bother to come back right away in the morning to take us to school! haha. we're smooth like that! We spent the afternoon just hanging out and rob and i played "H-O-R-S-E" with different portuguese words. Im not to proud to admit that i havent beaten him in a single game as of yet.. = ( At nightime we had our normal service and then time to hang out afterwards, and then we spent the rest of the night playing FIFA Street (soccer) on PlayStation. (well, i was watching, the boys were playing. im worthless when it comes to those kind of video games.)
Thursday morning greeted me around 740. I got ready and ate breakfast, then Patrick, Douglas, Robert, and i went over to the prayer meeting at the church. Before it started, Manhia pulled me aside and told me about something discouraging that was going on with a couple of the teen girls. Its a long story, but i just ask that you pray for God to use His power to overcome the different tools that Satan is trying to use to cause these teens to stumble, and i'll praying along with you, cuz honestly, its making me sick. But God's Love is strong, and He is always good, and that's what was on my mind during that prayer meeting. Afterwards, the teen guys that were at the meeting came in to hang out and have their time of fellowship that they have every day with rob. (im not sure if ive mentioned it, and sorry if i havent, but every morning for a few hours Robert meets with the teen guys. They spend time playing sports, guitar, and Rob also leads a short devo.) I got to join them, since we didnt have school ; D, so we played basketball and i watched them play soccer for a while until 1030 rolled around and it was time for them to leave. Bill and Erika got home around lunch time so we all got to eat as one big family. Welcome home, Billiam! We hung out the rest of the day doing...well i dont really remember what we were doing, but we had a good day, then before we knew it it was time for Children's Worship. As was expected, we had a fun time dancing and playing with the little kids, then spent the night with another round of FIFA Street, and concluding with another time of praise and worship and prayer.
Friday, oh how i love fridays, instead of meeting with the guys, Rob rode with us to town and got to see where ive been spending way too much of my time the past 6 months, aka my school. (im just kidding, school has been more of a ministry opportunity than i expected.) After school we went out to eat and watched the USA v.s. Slovania game, woot woot! We hung out for a while and then Rob and i went over our lesson notes with Douglas so he would know what we were talking about when he translated for the teen meeting that night. At 4 we went to soccer and playground and then right to Children's Worship for the preteens. When it was time for the teen meeting, the teens gave their devos and Rob and i kicked our lesson off with a game of Simon Says. The lesson was on submitting to authority, get how the game ties in? Everyone seemed to be paying attention the whole time and several of them took notes in the journals we gave them which was encouraging! All and all, it was a great night, and as usual, one of the verymost highlights of my week!
Saturday, although we didnt have to go to the Vestibular Simulado, we still had to get up and get things around the campus ready for the party we were hosting for some volunteers from IBC. They arrived around 9:00 and Elo, one of the translators from last year, came with her family. Rob and i spent most of the afteroon talking with her and also playing a little 2 on 4 basketball against Thiago, Evair, Douglas, and Pastor Eudes. Dont worry, the americanos represented and won 10-2! Once the party was over an we cleaned everything up, we had to clean ourselves up and get ready for the wedding! Everyone who went looked really great, and the ceremony was pretty much the same as an american wedding, with the sweetest bridal march of prolly any wedding ive ever been to! We hung around for part of the reception afterwards and then headed home to the 13th birthday party of Lais, one of the preteens. We were all pretty tired after that, and i went to bed not too long after we got home.
Sunday was a family day. We slept in and Rob and i played basketball before it got too hot out. (In addition to our basketball workout, we also played "B-A-K-E-D B-E-A-N-S". all you readers out there who go to highschool HangOut can appreciate that! haha!) We had a cookout for lunch and watched the game on a small tv outside and then swam for a little while before we settled in to watch Brasil play once again! This game was even better than the first, and on more that a few occasions Rob found himself appologizing to Erika for saying any comment that could even slightly be taken as a comment in favor of any team other than Brasil! haha. After the victory, we had a little bit of down time and then went out on the street to talk and hang out before the church service started. Pastor talked about the relationship between teens and parents and added in the fact that, although children are to honor their parents, that if your parents are telling you to do something that is contrary to God's Word, we are to obey God, and that is huge with some of the teens here.
I loved this week, i love my life, i love that God has placed me here to be a testimony and ambassador and wittness of His power in every single moment! This next week is going to be tough because it's the last week of testing of my Brasilian highschool career, but im His, and im going to try my best and keep striving to make Him famous!
Please, dont stop praying for God to move! Keep crying out for His will to be done, there are some GREAT things that He is preparing for His people! Amen?!
Until Next Time,
Jo