Slide Show of our voyage and our time at CTM

We are back in the U.S.

Well... It's been about 5 days since returning to the United States and I must say it's been bitter sweet. Our Departure from Brazil was very sad. We had to say "See you later" to many great people who we now consider very good friends. We had to leave the mission field where we were learning so much about what God has in store for each one of us and now we have to return to the everyday grind found back at home. But on the flip side of that we were reunited with Family and Great Friends when we returned home. We were able to attend church at "Our Church" and we Thank all of you for the warm reception.

In the last posting I wrote about how the women had given their testimonies in Peruibe. See pictures below.

Later on that night I had the honor of preaching for the first time ever at the same church's Sunday night service.

After the service we were able to pray with many people from the church.

During our stay in Peruibe, Pastor Eduardo, his wife and his church were very hospitable, warm and inviting. We stayed in the church overnight and had dinner, breakfast and lunch at the pastor's house.

A couple more things we did in Peruibe were:

1. Visited the south Atlantic ocean. (Pastor Steve, Debbie, Siara and Beto were also able to visit the beach the week before, only difference was they got sunshine:0)

2. Got our vehicle stuck in the pastor's front yard. (We left some pretty large holes in the yard.)

Thank You very much for all that you did and thank you for being so gracious after we destroyed your front yard.

After returning to the mission school, CTM, we continued with the day and night classes. Both of theses classes were very successful. See pictures below and also check out the videos of their final testimonies.

Our days in Brazil are numbered...

Well, our days in Brazil are dwindling quickly. Since the last update to this blog many events have taken place. Pastor Steve, Debbie, and Siara gave Emerson and Virgina´s daughter a gallon of pink paint for her bedroom. She loved it. Siara and Emerson painted the room.

We went to another couples house for dinner. Carlos and Leila had us over for Brazilian BBQ that was great.

Carlos and Leila´s son, Beto, has been a huge blessing to our team.

Our Mission trip has been one of many facets. Our main mission is Teaching English to the students at the school, but we have had many activities, both ministerial and social in nature, take place which has facilitated the forming of many important relationships for future trips and opportunities.

This week was saddened by the departure of Pastor Steve, Debbie and Siara. All of you in the states are being blessed though. So that´s ok for now. We look forward to our reunion with them.

Dave and Dee went to and spoke at a Church planting seminar on Friday night the 14th. Dave used a couple of skits to demonstrate teamwork and delegation, two very important characteristics for a leader to posess when running a church.

On the 15th we left for Peruibe, Sao Paulo.

We arrived in the morning and the women gave there testimonies to a small church in town. I will continue the update a little later...

Week 2 in Review

After our English class was up and rolling we began to receive invitations to have dinner and fellowship at people´s homes.

On Thursday July 5, 2007...

Marcos and Tania welcomed us into their home for dinner. We enjoyed spending the night with them and their family. Their daughter Stephanie knows english so she was our main interpreter this night. It was a great night of fellowship, testimonies, and incredible food. (and Cafe´)

Below you will see a picture of what happens when you visit a foreign country and eat all they have put in front of you. At the far right is a picture of the team stuck in an elevator after finshing dinner at Marcos and Tania´s. Cramped quarters, No response to emergency phone and it was starting to get hot.

On Sunday July 8, 2007...

We woke up, went to church to teach sunday school, Tiwana gave her testimony to English students and we sung 2 songs in English. We then headed to Sergio´s sisters house in the county side for lunch. Sergio, pictured 3rd from left in first picture, is one of individuals who has been translating and driving our team to and from different events. We enjoyed a fantastic assortment of bbq´d meat and Brazilian dishes. Later on that evening we went to church in downtown Votorantin.

Pastor Steve gave a message in the church that evening, Afonso and Jusarra had baby David dedicated by Pastor Carlos, and the team was invited to sing a worships son in English. Afterward we went to dinner...huh, go figure. More pictures to come.

Week 1 in review continued.

See photo's from week 1 below.

Greetings friends and family,

Wow! what a week. We have been going, going, going... The Brazilian people have welcomed us with open arms and continue to do so. Our class is going very well. We have many videos to post to youtube, but it's just finding the time to do so. We have tried to arrange a time each day for me to update the blog, so hopefully, now that we are in more of a routine the updates will be more consistent. Thank you for your continued prayers. So, now that we have been in class about a week we are starting to really see some results. Our class begins at 8:30am and ends at 4:30pm Tuesday through Friday and half day on Saturday. By Popular demand we have started an additional class that meets Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. People in both classes who had no English experience are beginning to have basic English conversations with the teachers. We even had one student, who has had some English experience, act out a skit of bringing someone to salvation in English. We have all of the students giving a very brief testimony. We are planning on uploading all of them to youtube soon. I will have a link on the blog to view them. Outside of the class, God has also been at work creating relationships with many pastors, church leaders, missionaries and ministries. There is a very huge need for missionaries here, short and long term. The people are after Gods heart. As the word of the Lord says, They will know us by our love for eachother, and just like at valley, these people get it. I will try to post pictures within the blogs most of the time, but just know that the pictures in our album are in Chronological order, or at least close, so hopefully they will tell a story too. We have really seen God move during our stay. Our team has continued to grow closer and closer. Opening each day with a morning devotion, testimony, or teaching. We love all of you. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support while we are away. In his Name

Unforseen Events...

Siara falls through roof!

On Saturday Morning as we were being assigned our quarters at the school we learned of a most unfortunate event. Before you begin to worry, know that the injury was serious, but Siara is ok. She had been visiting the upper quarters of the school and saw the view from the window. She decided that she would be able to get a better view if she climbed out of the open window onto the rooftop. As she was walking on the roof it gave way and down she went. She fell approximately 10-12 feet to the cement floor below. She suffered a broken arm and has had surgery to repair it. She stayed in the hospital overnight and was released. All is very well.

Missionary classes.

We held two classes for the missionaries who have graduated the school. As part of their curriculum they are going to Rio de Janeiro to minister to the attendees of the Pan American Games. We were able to answer questions dealing with everything from Ministering to people on the street to family dynamics on the mission field.


Church in Brazil!

We have had the honor of experiencing the way church is done here in Brazil. We attended our first Sunday Night church service in Sorocaba, a city about the size of Colorado Springs, where we were brought forward and introduced. Dave was able to share for a few minutes about his vision of the teams purpose while we are here.

Sao Paulo, Abba Ministries (Street Children)

After about a 2 hour drive we met up with the director of Abba Ministries, which focuses on getting children off of the streets of Sao Paulo. He took us on a tour of Abba's facilites and introduced us to the volunteers and the children living in the homes. We spent several hours with him and had a traditional Brazilian lunch before we parted company. This ministry is definitely in need of short and long-term volunteers.After lunch we walked the city streets of downtown Sao Paulo, the 2nd largest city in the world.Here we witnessed many homeless people and "street" children. It was sad to see some of these children sniffing glue. The children that we saw looked to be about 10 years old. From there our driver, Marcos, who is a Brazilian Military Policeman, took us to a military air base and we were given a tour of the rescue operation facilities.

English Class begins

Finally the time has come to begin teaching the english class. Right now we have 19 students. Some of them have some english experience and others have none(Video's to come). They all LOVE Jesus and are so excited to learn english. We have also been asked to head up a Night time course for those who are unable to attend the day class. This course will be entirely taught out of the Bible.

Hello From Brazil!!!!!

Greetings Friends and Family of VBF!

We have arrived safely in brazil. Pictured to the left is our Mission team, Afonso and Marcelo in front of the Balloon Cafe. Afonso and Marcelo came to pick us up at the airport.

We left Colorado Springs at approx. 9:00 Wednesday morning and arrived at the Sao Paulo Airport at approx. 9:00 Thursday Morning. The first day we visited the Mission School in votorantim, which is where we will be staying for almost all of our trip. We had lunch at the school with the student missioinaries and then went to the hotel. We stayed in a hotel Thursday and Friday night. Thursday during the day we met with Pastor Carlos, and Afonso and Jussara for lunch at a churrascaria. Muito bom!! Later on that night, we returned to the school where we attended this years graduation ceremony. This Morning we checked out of our hotel and set up here at the school. The people here have made us feel very welcome and blessed to be here. Everyone is very hospitable. We have taken many pictures and will get them posted to the site as soon as we can. We want to thank everyone for praying for us and ask that you continue to do so. We look forward the adventures and opportunities that await us on this trip. It has only just begun and we have already seen so much. We love and miss all of you.