Praise the Lord for
warmth today!! We woke up to slightly warmer temps and by the afternoon were
able to shed a few layers!! The sun came out and dried up all the rain, and the
itsy bitsy spider…. :-)
Friday found our
team enjoying sleeping in a bit before beginning prep work for the weekend
English camp. This years camp is
considerably smaller than last year, topping out at around 30 campers. At first the drop in numbers was
disappointing, but there have been several benefits to having smaller
numbers. First, the ability to connect
with more campers on a personal level has been awesome! Many of the campers actually speak English
very well, or at least understand quite a bit of English but are intimidated
and sometime embarrassed. Having a
smaller group eases a bit of this embarrassment. We are loving having the ability to have more
one-on-one conversations with them.
We have shared more
of the dramas, music, and Bible lessons this weekend, in addition to leading
English conversation groups. This has
been my personal favorite of the weekend, as it has been for several other team
members as well! Conversation groups go
a bit like this….we take a simple, well-known Bible story (one of today's was
the Parable of the Prodigal Son) and read the passage in English, making sure
the campers understand all the words in English. Then we break down the passage using
well thought out questions, aimed at
making sure the campers understand the passage as well as encouraging them to
dig deeper into God's Word. These have
gone amazingly well this week. The
campers have been very engaged, and have seemed to enjoy if not at least
appreciate going deeper in God's Word.
Friday nights
activities included Dinner, lots of games and activities, of which the
highlight was the 'Telephone' game. If
you are not familiar with the Telephone game, you should be! It's quite funny
to watch people's reactions at the game progresses. The basic idea is that everyone sits in a
circle, and the first person begins the game with a simple sentence. Last night we used several, ending with
"I like Pay Days." In the U.S.
this sentence wouldn't be a big deal, however in Brazil the word Peidar means
'to fart.' You can now see why this game
would be funny! We ended the game with
passing out PayDay candy bars we brought.
The part of English
camp that the campers have come to expect and appreciate is the American Food
part of the weekend. We kicked off
Saturday morning with Pancakes, Homemade Maple Syrup, Scrambled Eggs mixed with
cheese and bacon chunks, orange juice, and American-style coffee. We've mentioned before on the blog that the
typical Brazilian coffee you find here is super, super SUPER sweet, very strong
and served without milk in tiny cups.
The heavy coffee drinkers on our team were thrilled to have a
traditional (well, as traditional as an improvised cup can be) of American
brewed coffee, WITH milk.
Today's 'American
Activities' included teaching the campers to play Baseball. Some Brazilians do actually play baseball,
but as Leandro described to me, only a few do, and when they do it is expensive
both to play and to purchase the equipment, so it is not a game that kids grow
up knowing how to play. It was a blast to watch them try for the first time to
hit the ball with a bat and just get a grasp on the rules and strategy of the
game! We played for well over an hour,
and they would have played longer had the time permitted. Both girls and guys enjoyed participating in
this game. (BTW, we thought teaching the
game using a whiffle bat and plastic ball would probably be more safe &
fun….although explaining in Portuguese what a 'whiffle ball is was
challenging!!)
Following a
traditional Brazilian meal, Fejoada (FAYJ-WA-DA), which is black beans with
chunks of pig….parts?, rice, steamed
collard greens, and a vinegrette served only with Fejoada. Today's Fejoada was the 'clean' version they
say, because they did not include the hair, the ears, nose or other weird
random parts of a pig…for which we were VERY grateful!! Typical Fejoada that
you would purchase in a restaurant would include this.
The heavy Brazilian
lunch provided enough stamina for the campers and staff to do another hike up
the mountain, muddying several but injuring none! The hike consumed a few hours
of the afternoon, spilling into dinner time, which was another American meal,
of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, hotdogs, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, Coke
and Homemade Apple Crisp for dessert! Let’s just say the plates were licked
clean, as were the serving dishes!! The Apple Crisp was a sweet taste of home! (and was again served with American coffee)
Currently the
campers are beginning a game of Glow-stick tag, and Glow-stick Capture the
Flag. Tomorrow will end the English
Camp, after another time of worship, testimonies, skits and conversation
groups. This weekend is one of the main
'ministry' things we do while we are here in Brazil. It can be very effective in cultivating new
relationships, and a great introduction into the church in Mogi for many of
these campers.
Prayer Request:
Please continue to
pray for the health of our team, with the crazy cold weather, rain and now the
occasional spike of warm weather, several of us are starting to feel it.
Continued ability of
our team to communicate with the campers and Brazilian Staff.
That the campers
would continue to be spiritually stimulated and their desire for a deeper
relationship with God would be stirred.
