A sweet naughty boy

Jean was one of my English students during Caleb Mission. He was not supposed to be in my class because of his age, but somehow I could not reject him in my class. I felt like I had to accept him  even though he was older than the rest of the kids. Soon I discovered he was a naughty boy! He also had a look of a little gangster boy lol but somehow he would always come to class. Sometimes his older friends would come and tell him to go out with them, but he never went (I also did not let him lol).

The last day I was there, I sort of had a party with the kids. When Jean came, he just opened the door but did not get into the classroom. I could see in his face that he wanted to get in, but I did not understand why he wouldn't, so I left the kids inside and went to talk to Jean. I asked him to go in but he did not want to. He looked sad, so I asked him what was happening, I told him it was my last day with them and that I wanted him to enjoy the party together with the rest of the kids. Then he said something that almost made me cry. He said that he hates goodbyes because he does not like missing people. I tried to convince him to go in the classroom but he did not want, so we took a picture together. Then he finally accepted to get in, but he just sat there and did not really enjoy the party. I could tell he was really sad. In the end, I had prepared special gifts for the kids who did not miss any class during the 3 weeks, and luckily I had an extra gift, so I gave it to Jean.

Jean showed me that every kid has a sweet side, even the naughtiest of them all. He also made me remember that every single kid is important to God and that we should love them because Jesus loves them.

"And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." 

(Matthew 18:5)

Missao Calebe 5.0

Maraial, Pernambuco, Brazil

I'm finally posting some pictures of Caleb Mission (previous post about it).

The whole month of January was a blessing in Maraial (and I'm sure it was a blessing all around Brasil where the "Calebs" were). I was the first to leave the group (I came back to Recife on Jan 31st); therefore, I did not have any information about the number of baptisms they had. However, to my surprise, Mr. Marcos and Mrs. Sandra (the Mayor or Maraial and his wife, who is adventist) came to Recife yesterday and decided to visit me at the Union. She told me that 16 people were baptized and that her husband is getting baptized this coming Sabbath. It totally made my day, my week, my month!

I left without seeing the fruits of the mission there. All these time, I had only been praying for them, but yesterday the Lord allowed me to hear just a little bit of what He's doing in that town. The Lord is pouring his blessings unto those people and is guiding them to the light. I thank my Lord for allowing me to be part of that story, but most important, for allowing me bring people to Him.

Calebs in action (L to R: Mauricio, Naide, Sendy, Mr. Itai-the evangelist, Rafael,
Wesilany, Cizinha, Jessica, Sister Vade-the cook!, Cristina and Jedson.)

My kids!! I taught them English every evening for three weeks.

Maraial

Inviting the people of Maraial to the community service project and evangelistic meetings

Major updates - Christmas & New Years

Christmas this year was great, though simple. My friend Cherry, a missionary from the Philippines, was on her way to Thailand after working in IAENE for a year, and decided to visit me in Recife :) It was fun! It was great speaking fast/fluent English with her without having to worry about speaking slow or explain some terms lol.

It's was also the 2nd time I spend Christmas in a tropical area, so guess what!? We went to the beach on Sunday :)

With Cherry & Pr. Ivanaldo. He's the one in charge of the AVS in this union.

Christmas program @ the church

The only good picture I have of our Christmas Dinner lol

New Year was indeed great!! Cherry invited me to go with her for a week in Rio de Janeiro. Rio is probably the most famous city of Brazil, and especially during the Reveillon (New Year's), so with the excuse of having to renew my passport, I did not have to think twice when Cherry invited me. Our host family, Pr. Marcio Nascimento, Angelica & Arthur, was extremely kind. They were a true blessing for two missionary girls that wanted to do some sightseeing lol :-)

L-R: Angelica, Arthur, Cherry & I
behind us, the Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain)

We got to stay at one of the nicest (and safest) neighborhoods in Rio > Recreio.

Maracanã Soccer Stadium, one of the biggest and most famous in the world.
*The Stadio Azteca is still bigger though.

Christ the Redeemer. Do I have to explain more? lol :P

With Cherry (left) and the Nascimento family.