Bernie, Sheila, Hilary and Phil are back from their trip to Brazil and had an amazing time.

If you want to hear some stories of their time then come along to 62c on Sunday 4th Dec at 7pm.

Photos, food, drink – it will be a great time – see you are there.

Bernie is still in Brazil…

Wednesday

This was a holiday in Brazil when the Catholics, amongst others, visit the graves of dead relatives to give offerings & pray for them. So some of the church go to the cemetery to talk to people and pray for them.

I met a guy who helps lead a church and is interested in KK, so it turned into a meeting about that.

Thursday

We went to the bank in Belo Horizonte but the traffic was terrible and it took forever to get there. Then it was a frustrating experience, as banking seems to be in Brazil.

Then we went on a buying trip. If I ever build a house in Brazil I want Elias to come with me to buy all the materials as he has friends everywhere in every kind of business!

The rest of the day I taught English and watched a spelling competition – the head teacher asked Elias to pray for the competition! After that we went to buy fish for dinner, which turned out to be a shop with 2 huge tanks containing large fish.

Sleeping in this area is a challenge at times. All night long there is music blaring, dogs barking, people shouting, roosters crowing, motorbikes, cats, fireworks and the occasional gunshot.

Friday

Visited a computer business early in the morning to meet a guy who is helping Elias and supporting the project. He gave me his newly published book to read on prayer! Then we visited 2 schools. The first school was for 7-14yrs and I saw a lot of kids from Washington Pires.

Next we went to the school I visited in April in Washington Pires, for kids aged 11-16yrs. I was greeted by the headteacher like I was a long lost friend! I really like this woman and what she is doing for the community. Her heart is huge, she is well respected and she looks to Elias for support with the kids. They work well together for the community.

When we came out of the school there was a young girl of 14 waiting to talk to Elias. It turned out she was 4 months pregnant by one of the traffickers and was desperate for help. She had been abandoned by the father of the baby and lived with her Grandma. They had no food and she’d had no medical care. Elias took her address and promised to help. She looked really upset and I didn’t know what to do so just hugged her. She really cried as I just prayed for her, feeling useless. Seeing things like that young girl just re-emphasizes the need for the project to help in real times of crisis. That girl had seen Elias go into the school and waited over an hour for him to come out.

After lunch I taught a class of English; I love doing this and see it as a way to help prevent some of the other kids getting into trouble with drugs or the Police.

Friday & Saturday

Spent a few days at Ed & Gio´s which is a nice rest and time with the family. Gio is not very happy with me for being more at Washington Pires than her house so I have some amends to make! Went to the supermarket on the Friday which meant walking there and going home by combi van. Spent the rest of the day washing clothes, playing with the kids, relaxing and speaking to Amy & Simon on Skype.

On Saturday Karen, Gio & I went out shopping. This meant a very evil bus ride, literally every bone in your body rattles as you are thrown around and lifted off your seat. Then we looked around an outdoor market and drank fresh coconut juice, yum. Followed by Pastel a very traditional kind of light pastry filled with meat or cheese, followed by ice-cream… by now you are getting the idea of what a Shopping trip is! Couldn´t find a coffee shop though :o(

Then around 5pm when we were at home it started raining. This turned into the worst storm they have seen since Gio was a child. It went from blazing sun to hail the size of golf balls. The road outside her house was literally a flowing river over the deep pavements, a garage wall collapsed onto the car 3 doors away. Then we noticed water was running down the upstairs walls inside so we had to shut the electric off, move all the furniture into the middle and mop up with towels. very scary! It went on for over an hour and people were clearing up outside for hours afterwards. Ed went out with a jug collecting ice for Ciaparinas ha ha. We were due to go to a church service and celebration dinner for a 50th wedding anniversary so continued to get ready for that. We were late arriving but that´s not a problem in Brazil!

Sunday

Again spent the day relaxing with Gio´s extended family, also helped Ed with an English class he was doing. Spoke to Graham & Jess on Skype :o) so it was a good day. I returned to Washington Pires in time for church in the evening and to settle in Elias & Milene´s house. Church was a bit strange without the team there and no other English speakers, but everyone was very friendly. Ricardo took the service as Elias had to take Milene to the hospital. I got a bit scared when Ricardo called me to the front but it was only to pray for the church. Phew, I managed half in English & half in Portuguese :o)

Monday

Spent the morning at the project preparing English classes for the week. I´m really grateful for Amy´s material which has been very helpful and also decided to extend the food topic as it´s such a passion for Brazilians ;o) Also some of the older kids came after school & before lunch for me to help them with their English homework. Next time I would love to do Homework clubs here, they would work really well.

In the afternoon I spent time with Milene at the house as she is still unwell. She is 3 months pregnant and has some problems so prayer for her would be good. From what I can gather her pregnancy with Nicole was difficult as well, and I´ve already met several women here who have had stillbirths or lost children within days of birth. They also have a good friend who is a pharmacist so that´s been very helpful as well.

In the evening we all just chilled watching a kind of X factor only 20 times cheesier! This was a great evening for me as it´s the first time I´ve really seen Elias relax with his family. Already this week I am seeing more of a normal routine and it´s good to experience.

Tuesday

Spent the day at the project taking an English class in the morning for 10 young kids. I loved it. I just lavished love & praise on them and if they learnt anything I saw it as a bonus ;o) Actually they are really keen and have remembered stuff from the week before and now learnt new stuff. They just lap up the praise and affirmation which is so important for them. Most of these kids are very poor and I´m finding out more about their home situations which are very sad.

In the afternoon I took a class for adults and teenagers. This time more women from the favela came. Again they were very keen to learn and appreciated the praise. They were also keen to know when the next class was. After that I helped bag up fresh food the project had just collected from the food bank to be given away in the morning. As we were doing it several kids came, obviously hungry to try to get some food early. They had probably been sent by their mums. They were given bread and told to return in the morning for more.

If you got to this point…thanks for reading ;o) Appreciate your emails and prayers especially as I´m not too well at the moment. Also prayer for continued growth with the language would be good. I´m studying every spare minute I can as it´s easier here when you´re surrounded with the language, but I´m not convinced how much is staying in my brain ;o) Finally prayer to make the most of the rest of my time here and concentrate on what God wants me to do would be fab.

Tuesday,

Very Busy day. Phil went house building again in the morning. After giving out food to the community, I went to the bank with Elias, whilst Sheila & Hilary started the English class, many thanks to Amy for writing us some lessons! We had 9 children in the first class between 3yrs and 10yrs. I joined in half way through. They were great kids, very keen to learn and seemed to enjoy the way we taught them. We majored on affirmation and self esteem, giving them lots of praise which they just lapped up.

After lunch we went to visit the school where Elias’s primary school teacher works. I’ve mentioned her before as we went to her house for lunch on the Sunday. Over 1,600 kids go there: half in the morning and the rest in the afternoon. Now I’m not sure what you would expect to do on a school visit, maybe learn about the curriculum or the structure of the school, but of course this one was Brazilian style. So we met every person working there and had a good inspection of the kitchen which feeds each child a snack and a meal every day. We were told how important this food is, and that Elias has helped find extra food for them. Lots of children from Washington Pires go to this school and lots of the kids are hungry.

Then we began a tour of most of the classes. The children were first asked where we came from, 99% thought USA! Then they were asked if they wanted to hug & kiss us! So without a word of a lie, we each hugged about 500 kids that day! It was so moving as the kids lined up one by one for a hug. I tried to pray that God would show me who needed that extra little bit of attention and spent a bit of time talking to them and just loving them. Silviana told us these children are starved of love & affection so it is very important that they receive both as much as possible whilst at school! It reminded me so much of what KK (Kidz Klub Leeds)is about. Every class had kids who had parents in prison, parents who had abandoned them, parents who had been murdered, siblings who had been murdered, parents who were drug traffickers, parents on drugs, children from homes of great poverty and we hugged kids with HIV. What a privilege! Everyone on the team was a wreck by the end but all thought it was an amazing visit. This school is an open door for Kidz Klub, please pray for direction for me & Elias as we think this through!

As we were leaving the school Elias got a call that some more kids had turned up for English so we raced back to do a class for about 12 teenagers and adults. The team are learning quickly how to adapt and be in the moment! Then it was straight on to a visit with Elias’s parents, which of course involved food! They were lovely and it was great to honour Elias in this way. I think we were the first ever foreigners they have received in their home. Then another rush back to get ready to present shopping for the team. Elias actually let us roam free around the shopping centre….well, only when he’d given me Milene’s mobile set to speed dial ;o) At the end of this day we were all shattered!

Wednesday,

More building for Phil & English classes for the rest of us, 12 younger children today. These classes have been test classes to see if it will work for the future. I can definitely say it would and would build quickly. We all loved taking the classes and getting to know some of the kids better. Then we went for Lunch to Cicero the politicians house. It was strange to see his secretary was very involved with the making of the lunch for us all! I’d love to see her job description! We had a great time and made to feel very welcome. Afterwards, the team had a chance to have a meeting and talk to Elias through Edmilson. This was a very important time for them as they learnt more from him about the history of the how the work began and his vision. They were also able to express, with a great deal of emotion, their thoughts about the time in Brazil. We ended with praying for Elias again a very emotional time!

Finally, we had church in the evening, Giovanna came along so that the team could say goodbye to the church. I could also thank the church for how they have received the first team. I spoke half in English and for the first time at the front of church, half in portuguese….I wonder what I said ;o) It has really been amazing and we have been blessed much more than we have blessed them, they outdid us every time…..dam ;o)

Thursday

We set off at 9am for a city tour of Belo Horizonte! The reality was a couple of hours sat in traffic and driving in crazy Brazilian traffic before the first stop at the market in Belo. This is a great place full of different foods and traditional items, the team loved it. After lunch there, we drove to a huge church called Lagoinha, www.lagoinha.com. This has 5000+ people and has a huge social project in a nearby Favela. It also does lots to support Pastors like Elias, putting on free conferences and workshops for them. The church also has a school, nursery, restaurant, cafe and shop on site. Then we drove by the new football stadium for the world cup in 2014, I have no idea how the city will cope with the extra people! Then we visited the lake at Pampulha. This lake is 22kms long and is surrounded by grass and huge houses. It’s still in the city but is a real oasis in the middle of chaos. Then to the airport to drop the team off. After safely handing them over to TAM airlines Elias & I said our goodbyes. As soon as I got in the car I got incredibly tired and am very grateful to be going to Ed & Gio’s for a few days. I’m sure Elias could do with a few days without me as well ;o)