Airplanes, Paint, and Tails...Oh my!

Brazilian mornings are so wonderful! The food and sunrises are enough to make any American want to stay here forever. This morning started with another amazing breakfast with lots of delicious breads and fresh fruit. Although the mornings come rather early (5 a.m. early to be exact), we are always greeted with smiling faces! This morning our two hour ride was off to a wonderful start with one of the most gorgeous sunrises ever. Fo-Fo is our driver and I am always amazed with his driving abilities. It seems like a game in Brazil to get to your location as quickly as possible and by avoiding every pothole possible. Be on the lookout for an iPhone game soon where you drive a car and dodge potholes. It’s an art that takes time and talent to master.

We made it to the church again and our fellow Brazilian teammates were already hard at work. We joined in and prepared for another amazing day of camp. We knew that God was going to show up and make himself known, but we had no idea how smoothly things would run the first day. We had kids coming from everywhere. They would walk in off the streets and come to both the morning and afternoon sessions. We knew that we would have to implement some sort of registration technique to make sure that we had only the campers we were supposed to. Luckily, registration went smoothly. It’s always interesting because we (the 4 people who lead/assist with registration) always teach each other English and Portuguese and laugh histarically when we speak jibberish because we don’t understand each other. We have experienced first hand how God can break all kinds of barriers. Someone mentioned last night in our debrief how Brazilian parents are so different. Instead of asking a million questions and stressing about who is taking care of their kid, they see our smiling faces, kiss their kids, kiss us (definitely no personal bubble in Brazil), and hand them over to us. They trust that we will take excellent care of their kids. It’s so laid back and we all love it!

The number of kids in the morning session was 8 shy of maximum capacity, and the afternoon will probably end up being more than capacity. God is bringing us the harvest, pray that we will be able to reap it for His glory and His Kingdom! Camp today (so far…I’m writing during our lunch break) has gone really well. It began with another skit and dancing. The Brazilian kids today were introduced to the popular line dance – the Cupid Shuffle. Wacky Science made and flew paper airplanes. The kids loved them. They found so much joy out of paper airplanes that they could decorate and fly. And boy did they fly! Haha. As a matter of fact they were flying off the balcony of the sanctuary, back up to the sanctuary, and into other campers. Arts and Crafts today was a messy day. They used a foreign substance known as powder paint. Apparently it’s easier to travel with. What they didn’t know was that they would continually be mixing paint as the kids covered their fish in every color imaginable. Some even made brand new colors (they weren’t always beautiful in our eyes, but the campers adored them). The church balcony was filled with newspaper covered floors, painted fish, painted people, and a million large fish! One of our campers made it to Wacky Science with a full painted beard on his face! Some how he snuck out of Arts and Crafts in his disguise! **Side note, you would be amazed at how many campers have come up and sat beside me while I’m typing this blog. They come and sit, pat me on the shoulder and smile the largest smile ever. We manage to make it through some sentences with broken English and Portuguese, but I am amazed because never once has a camper gotten frustrated with the fact that us counselors have a difficult time communicating. They embrace it and keep bringing people around until the point is finally gotten across. It reminds me of how patient our Heavenly Father is with us.** Sorry, I seem to get off track sometimes. The parachute is almost torn into pieces from game time. The kids lift it up and down, then when a number is called they sprint under the parachute to a vacant spot left by a fellow 1, 2, 3, etc. We pray for no collisions….or at least not any that end in tears. Little ones keep it interesting. Ha. In other news, the campers grew tails!! Okay, that’s not the whole truth, but they did borrow one for a game of tail tag!

The remainder of the camp day was filled with a large group session (groupo grande) where one of our Brazilian team members brought the Bible story about Jesus calming the raging seas. It was fitting for today’s theme, “Where is peace?” We sang songs again in Portuguese and English. Luckily nobody got pulled on stage today to do motions to songs they didn’t know (shout out to Jimmy and Angela). The campers are loving learning English songs and are singing them while walking around camp. Carol Erica has continued to be a trooper by leading the Round-up song. Brazilian kids officially know two words in English if nothing else – Round Up. We’ll have to video it one day to share the craziness with you!

It flooded today at the close of the morning session. I mean, it’s raining sideways kind of rain. However, that gave us a great opportunity to huddle with the campers and families in the vestibule of the church and start funny and great conversations. I think the best part is that when we reach a point where neither party knows what is being said, the campers can say “Translator! Translator!” in English. The rain did lead to another round of the Round Up song (which I’m sure Carol Erica appreciated) and craziness in the sanctuary, but those were indeed precious moments.

Fun fact of the day – We have found that Jesus can break barriers and that High School Musical can break language barriers. Haha! At lunch today, we were all singing the songs from the movies. The Brazilians who sang were much more entertaining, but we all had a blast. We shared so many laughs! Other tables had meaningful conversations over a delicious lunch cooked by the church staff.

Trudy had the chance to talk to a mother today who was picking up her son (who comes to the morning camp) and she asked if he was enjoying camp and she said, “Oh, YES! He gets up early and tries to comb his hair because he’s so excited to come!”

Okay, the computer is running low on battery and we need to wake up the staff that are scattered all over the building napping and prep for round 2 (dois) of the day J

John – Is currently taking a nap on the stage.

Trudy – Loves guava!

Carol Erica – got very excited when we discovered the Brazilian teammates knew about High School Musical.

Lauren – loves getting to know Gon Gon because she is reminded of her Gan Gan

Kristin (Me) – is continuing to make the Brazilians laugh all the time and teaching them the High School Musical dance

Adrianne – spent the entire day knee deep in painted fish!

Savannah – was also covered in paint all day

Melodie – does an AMAZING job teaching the kids “My God is So Big!” They love it and her.

Tiffany – has a case of the cankles!! (along with half of the team)

Keenan – Finally got to talk to Nicole and is really excited about Brazilian popcorn (tastes like corn pops)

Leslie – Was in charge of taking pictures for today and is rocking an awesome hair bow!!

Juliana – was accidentally called Jesuina today on accident

Tricia – laughed so hard at dinner last night that she couldn’t stop! “Lauren showed people how to use guitars for legs!”

Angela R – is officially named Hubinacker!!

Jimmy – is always running around giggling and won’t tell me what he’s giggling about. He says he’s waiting until after this is posted, so you know it’s good!

Thanks so much for your prayers!! We love you all and are so excited about the things God is doing here in everyone’s lives! Tcau!

Love,

The WSCIP International Team 1

Posted in: 2009,Brazil,WSCIP